Total pages in book: 78
Estimated words: 74916 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 375(@200wpm)___ 300(@250wpm)___ 250(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74916 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 375(@200wpm)___ 300(@250wpm)___ 250(@300wpm)
Brady’s mom.
She’d liked Bates and that’d been obvious to everyone.
Chuckling, I nodded and thought about my phone. “And hopefully by all the weird text messages I got from Brady, he’s finally stopped worrying and has moved on to the inappropriately curious phase.”
Bates cocked his head. “I’m not sure if I should wish you luck on that or not.”
“Ugh. I’m going to need more than luck. I have no idea how I’m going to answer his questions.” Or even what was appropriate to answer. “And…I’m going to need to know your Brady limits.”
When all I got was confusion from Bates, I sighed. “You know…the what can I tell Brady and what do I just tell him to mind his own business on?”
“Ah.” Bates scrunched up his face. “I hadn’t thought of that.”
He should have.
“Definitely a strategic error.” Mostly seeming to be talking to himself, I just waited while he made thinking sounds and shifted in his seat again. “Okay, I don’t think I know enough to have good limits on this. So I’m going to use yours and let you know if that changes. If you don’t want to talk about it, then tell him that.”
This could get interesting.
“You’re sure? I don’t know exactly what he’s curious about but this is Brady.” An unsupervised Brady. “He’s probably been looking shit up online.”
I wasn’t going to downplay the chaos I could be walking into.
Bates sat straighter and looked like a soldier going into battle. “No, I’m brave. I can handle it.”
He was such a drama queen.
“Alright, but you were warned.” Now it was my turn to lean back and study him. “And I think there’s something you should be warning me about. Gareth said you have a surprise for him and I had to look like I knew what he was talking about.”
Bates laughed, not looking apologetic in the slightest. “I’m sorry. The rest of the puppy gear came in yesterday and I was teasing him about it. I meant to tell you, but I got distracted planning our date.”
Alright, I could forgive that because they’d planned a wonderful day for us.
“You want to do his first scene as a pup tonight?” We were tucked away in the corner by a window with a beautiful water view, so I wasn’t worried about being overheard.
“Is that alright with you?” Bates seemed to be questioning something, but I wasn’t sure what he was worrying about. “I probably shouldn’t have made the decision without you.”
Oh.
Because I was going to be the puppy Dom.
Handler.
Yes, Handler.
“I’m not offended or anything, if that’s what you’re thinking.” It must’ve been because just that simple statement had him looking more relaxed. “I honestly expected you to be the one to make that call, so it never occurred to me to talk to you about it.”
And that had the confused face coming back.
“Um, I kind of see you as the higher Dom and me as the lower one. Dom 2.0?” How was I supposed to say that?
As he started snickering, I glared at him. “I don’t even know how to look that up online. What do I call myself? I have no desire to be the primary Dom and Gareth doesn’t expect it. You’re the head Dom.”
He managed to stop laughing but the effort had him shaking and he had to bite his lips to keep the giggles from escaping. After a few moments, he managed to take a breath, but it was a lot of work. “That sounds like we’re in some kind of dirty version of Harry Potter. Head Dom.”
And the giggles came back.
He was ridiculous.
And kind of adorable when he was a dork.
“When you’re done.” Waving my hand, I just let him shake and giggle for a few more seconds. “Still waiting.”
For some reason that just made his control even more precarious and the quiet laughter continued.
Utterly ridiculous…and also one of the reasons that he fit in with us so well.
“Sorry.” He didn’t look apologetic, but I pretended to believe him. “You’re just so perfect when you get all huffy and Dommy. I love it.”
Ugh.
That did not help my glare go away and it brought his giggles back.
He was lucky he’d taken me out on a fabulous date and had let me read everything I’d wanted. The karma points he’d built up would get him through at least one more round of giggles, but at some point, he had to behave so we could figure out the plan for later.
Because I might be the Handler but Bates needed to realize he was the one pulling the strings for the first scene. This wasn’t something I was going to fuck up so Dom One needed to give Dom Two some instructions.
Ugh.
Now we sounded like something from Doctor Seuss.
It was going to be a long afternoon.
Chapter 9
Bates
“You’re back.” Gareth was nearly bouncing as Cashel walked into their apartment, but he didn’t throw himself at us like I could see he wanted to. “Is your date over? Brady said I shouldn’t kiss you guys until your date is over so I wouldn’t interfere.”