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)
Oh yeah.
I was curious about how Bates was going to fix it.
He was always a surprise, though.
He looked at me. “Do you think we need to work on relationship boundaries?”
Oh, was this tattle on myself time?
“I might need to.” I shrugged, not quite sure on that one. “Brady still kind of walks all over me sometimes and I think I might be a little pushy when it comes to you? You don’t seem to mind, so I’m not stressing over it, but if anyone is a bit rough on boundaries it’s me.”
I just never realized I was doing it until I’d already done it.
Bates’s lips turned up at the corners, but he managed not to laugh. “I can see where it might feel that way to you sometimes, but I don’t mind helping more with the Brady boundary situation, and I really like knowing what you want. I promise that if you were shoving my boundaries around too much, I would let you know.”
So I was just wiggling them sometimes?
I could live with that.
“Okay, good.” I looked over at Cash because it seemed to be his turn. “So how do you feel about my wiggling Bates’s boundaries? Oh, do I wiggle yours too?”
Cash shook his head making me feel better, but it took him a second to get his thoughts organized. “No, I like knowing what you want and I like it when you drag me into things. Most of the time it’s stuff I wouldn’t have done on my own.”
So helpful wiggling was good.
Got it.
“Like Bates.” I couldn’t help smiling as his smile got wider. “I think that turned out pretty good.”
But he’d kind of wiggled the boundaries first…not that I was going to throw him under the bus.
“It did.” Whatever Cash was thinking made him blush, but I was glad he hadn’t lost his words that time.
“And this might sound like a dick thing to say, but we really shouldn’t be taking relationship advice from the average college student. They’re kind of stupid and they’re generally sleeping with everything in sight.” They were all on hookup apps and doing dangerous shit that Brady’s mom would’ve killed us for doing.
Cash’s face scrunched up. “I hate it when you make good points.”
Aww.
“Not terribly polite, my curious boy, unfortunately, it’s kind of accurate. But…” Bates let the word trail off as he glanced between us and seemed to have decided that we needed to stay on track. “But it feels like you’re still thinking our boundaries have somehow been pushed around a bit. What specifically are you worried about?”
Oh, that was probably good to know.
Cash’s blush got really bright for some reason, but he seemed to know that Dom Bates had asked that question…just still really nicely…because he wiggled and sighed but eventually got the answer out. “Um, well, Gareth kept talking about our next apartment together and I didn’t stop him and with the way everyone was staring when I was talking about our relationship, it seemed like I should’ve done something.”
Good grief.
“Are you responsible for me being pushy?” I answered before Cash could respond. “No, that’s Bates’s responsibility as my Dom. You’re Dom number two, so you don’t have to worry about that one. The internet said so.”
“That’s ridiculous logic.” Grumbly Cash was back but Bates didn’t seem to mind.
He smiled and shook his head at me. “Questionable logic aside, he had a good point. You are not responsible for Gareth’s desires or his wiggly boundaries.”
No, Bates was.
“I’ll tell him if he’s rushing me and I will do a better job of making it clear that I don’t feel rushed.” Leaning back in his seat, Bates got a very thoughtful look on his face. “I haven’t been going through our relationship like there’s a template we should fit or a plan we should be working through.”
Good, because we weren’t template people, we were BDSM checklists kind of people.
“I never expected it to be…let’s call it traditional.” Bates shrugged like he felt bad for not being able to find a better word. “Between the questions about lifestyle topics and wanting to date both of you, I expected the unexpected.”
Cash finally started to nod and a faint smile peeked out. “Yeah, it’s definitely been unexpected.”
“Did we rush you?” I still wasn’t completely sure what he was actually worried about, and I was afraid I was missing something important.
“No.” Shaking his head, Cash seemed to realize I needed more words. “I think I was worried that I wasn’t worried?”
God, only Cash could manage to worry that much.
Being in his head would be exhausting.
“I’m so glad I don’t think about normal stuff as much as you do.” I was perfectly happy thinking about history and our future and fun stuff like at what point we could plan a vacation together as a family and if a family vacation meant we had to take everyone.