Total pages in book: 78
Estimated words: 74803 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 374(@200wpm)___ 299(@250wpm)___ 249(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74803 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 374(@200wpm)___ 299(@250wpm)___ 249(@300wpm)
Yeah, I got a bit of a thrill pointing that out, but I tried not to let it show.
“Asshole.”
So it might’ve shown.
“I’m the asshole who’s going to take the cute sub out on a date before winter break, so fuck off, grumpy.” Levi was wrong and a worrier of epic proportions. This wasn’t rocket science. I just had to show Ruslan that I could take care of him and that I could see him as little and respect him in the morning.
The details about how that would work were a bit hazy, but I was working from an outline, so I knew I’d figure out the details eventually.
“You’re insane, and I don’t know how you’re even passing, much less staying at the top of the class.” Levi didn’t bother to hide his bitterness.
Friends were so great to have.
“Caffeine. Write. Plot.” Then I’d have all winter break to get to know the adorable Ruslan Winslow.
“Asshole. Stalker. Creeper.”
Levi was getting on my last nerve.
“I tried to flirt with him and he was honestly clueless. Even Professor Haslan thought it was ridiculous.” Mike had been the one to say I was going to have to take things up a notch. “It's not being a stalker to watch a neighbor. He lives just down the street.”
He owned his house where we just rented a room in one of the larger old homes on the block, but watching a neighbor walk down a shared sidewalk didn’t make me a stalker.
“I completely deny the creeper accusation.” Sure, it wasn’t the most conventional way to get a date, but I wasn’t doing anything creepy. “Last chance to back off before we have words.”
He’d been getting more and more insane over the last few months and I was done with it. “You don’t want me analyzing your life right now.”
Doing his best to freeze me out, Levi turned and walked toward the house as I went up the block the other way. Caffeine was a must and I was out of everything but coffee and that just didn’t sound good at all.
But the walk to the small convenience store on campus gave me time to decompress and I was in a much better frame of mind when I finally made it back to my house. Of course, I was a dork and couldn’t resist stopping on the front porch so I could look down the street.
I knew Ruslan would’ve opened his present, but I wasn’t sure what he’d thought of them. I’d tried to keep his presents fun and something his little side would like, but I didn’t know much about his little side. Hell, if it weren’t for a bit of fate, I wouldn’t know he was a little to begin with.
It’d been one of those a friend of a friend said something kind of moments and no one had deliberately outed him, but it’d just happened.
I just hoped we had more in common than little time and macaroni and cheese when we finally started talking about more than the club and college in general.
****
“Alright, last round and this is the finals.” Professor Haslan stood up at the front of the meeting, rubbing his hands together like an evil villain in a bad B movie. “We’ve got the winners from the previous rounds and will be judging them based on their current entry. As we’ve said, they’re allowed to tweak their recipe for the finals but not change it completely.”
Looking down the long line of entries, he grinned wickedly. “Let’s see which ones of you broke and changed your recipes in panic and which ones were confident in your success.”
Ethics professors were insane.
They liked playing games and looking at everything from a variety of sides, but it was making Ruslan nervous. Even if I hadn’t known he was a little, I’d still been able to see his sub side coming to the surface as he worried about the contestants.
He hated judging and I hated the way it made him nervous. But I was a bit of an obsessive worrier over any sub I knew, so that might’ve been part of it. I knew my weak spot was a nervous sub, but that was part of what made me a good Daddy and just a good caretaker Dom, in general.
And I’d make sure to brag about myself on that topic when I finally got my first date with Ruslan.
But for the time being, I needed to pay attention because my pizza was up.
Professor “Call me Mike” Haslan made a grand gesture over my pizza mac-n-cheese and grinned. “I won’t point out that this was one of our judge's favorite entries because that wouldn’t be professional at all, but I think the other contestants are in for a tough competition today.”
Ruslan was blushing and looking like he was wishing the floor would swallow him up, and it was sending mixed signals through me. I had to admit to being delighted that Ruslan liked my food, but him getting nervous was making me want to wrap him up and keep him safe from the world.