Total pages in book: 85
Estimated words: 82371 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 412(@200wpm)___ 329(@250wpm)___ 275(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 82371 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 412(@200wpm)___ 329(@250wpm)___ 275(@300wpm)
He had a point and Lorne seemed to realize that based on the distracted nod he gave. “Okay, that makes sense. But what if we can’t find enough overlap?”
“Then we didn’t try hard enough.” Carrick’s dismissive tone made Lorne smile for some reason. “If we start with meaningful conversations and a lengthy limits list, we should be fine.”
“That sounds like a lot of homework.” Pouting, Lorne sighed and finally tore himself away from the watch, carefully setting Carrick’s arm down like it was an addiction he was trying to pull himself away from. “Can’t we just ogre and hope for the best?”
Carrick cocked his head and glared at Lorne, getting a giggle from the naughty monkey. “Do you think you could talk your Daddy into that?”
Lorne huffed and his lower lip poked out. “Aww, can’t you talk him into it? Kiss him or something? A blow job bribe? I’m good at those. I can teach you how to do it if you need help.”
Tilting his head down to give Lorne a more dramatic look, Carrick had the expression down so perfectly I knew a teenage Carrick had to have practiced it in the mirror. “That is not appropriate.”
For some reason, that answer got Lorne’s attention and he did an excited little wiggle as he shifted around to straddle Carrick’s lap. “Do you kiss Daddy? What have you done? There’s no top or bottom if you’re just humping each other. There’s no top or bottom if you’re both just humping me either.”
Was he being helpful again or trying to talk Carrick into taking him to bed?
“I haven’t had my date yet.” Carrick’s stuffy response made Lorne smile and he kissed the dramatic mage’s cheek. “That’s not a date.”
“But it makes me look cute and makes you feel important, so it counts.” Looking like he thoroughly believed his answer, Lorne settled closer against Carrick and gave him a sweet and delightfully manipulative smile. “And I need to know how my mates feel about each other so I understand our dynamics. It’s basic mate information, and I promise not to tell anyone, not even Kenzie, until I have permission.”
His confidence that he’d eventually get permission to talk about our sex life was impressive.
And it made Carrick more nervous than I thought Lorne realized.
Our grumpy mage came from a family of even more grumpy and judgmental mages that’d made his life hard growing up. They were one of the original families that had set up the mages are assholes and dragons are lesser beings mentality we were currently living through.
Carrick had done his best to get space from them and I thought it’d been his own mental shift that’d prompted our mating bond finally coming to life, but there was no way for me to prove it. There’d been something between us when we were younger, but it hadn’t been strong like a mating bond. It’d just been sparks and a curiosity about him that I thought he’d felt too.
Maybe we’d needed Lorne to be ready for it to all fall into place?
“I’m glad you’re going to do your best to respect my views on privacy until we can find common ground.” Carrick’s expression tightened as the words seemed to get harder. “I’m not sure how I’d describe my relationship with your Daddy, though.”
That was the politest way he could’ve described our weird almost non-relationship.
Lorne didn’t like the answer, though.
He went still and cocked his head in his cute thinking expression. “What does that mean? Aren’t mates all supposed to be mates? You’re not just sharing me. Right? That’s not how this is supposed to work. Stefan said so.”
Huh?
That caught Carrick’s attention as well. “What did the librarian have to say on mates?”
Lorne didn’t seem to mind the conversational sidetrack. “He’s been reading all the old diaries in the restricted section of the library and he’s trying to talk all of us into keeping diaries too. He said it’s important for history, but I think he’s just expecting our great-grandkids to be as nosy as we are.”
They probably would be.
“But he said that in one of the diaries he was reading there were three mates and they all fucked like rabbits and were all in love even when they did dumb shit.” Lorne perked up at that part. “So see, I have legitimate questions based on the history I’ve been taught.”
That he’d been recently taught…because I could guarantee he hadn’t heard that in high school.
Carrick frowned, but he didn’t let his own reservations stop him from mentally walking through Lorne’s logic and taking the whole situation seriously. “That was what I’ve read as well and what I’ve seen of triad matings, but we’ve been focused on broader concepts, so we haven’t pushed into our own relationship as deeply as you seem to be expecting.”
“No fucking like rabbits, huh?” Lorne wiggled, probably imitating a rabbit as he snuggled closer to Carrick now that the big bad mage wasn’t so scary. “But you’ve been thinking about doing things with Daddy? I don’t want to be the only thing holding you together. I’m sparkly, not sticky.”