Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 77127 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 386(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 257(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77127 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 386(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 257(@300wpm)
All I got for a few seconds were more fake snores.
“Hmm, I guess you don’t want Daddy to read you a book.” Pretending to be very sad about that, I sighed and pouted. “I wanted to read you a book and give you a bottle.”
The book seemed to be too tempting to ignore because he stopped the fake snoring and opened his eyes as he held up two fingers on his free hand. “Two?”
His mumbled word was clear enough that I knew what he was asking for, though there was no way he would make it through even one. But I had to push back because it was what I was supposed to do. He didn’t want the truth. “Oh, I don’t know. Are you going to be a good boy? Two books are a lot.”
Making exaggerated thinking faces as I waited for him to decide, I wasn’t surprised when he finally nodded and answered around his thumb. “Deal. Good boy.”
Giving him a quick peck, I pointed toward the playroom. “Do you want to go pick them out while I get a bottle?”
His head bobbed up and down again, and he finally bounced off my lap, yawns forgotten as he hurried toward the playroom. Well, almost hurrying. He was going half the speed that he’d gone earlier when he’d raced us from the bathroom to the playroom and I knew that was another clue of how tired he was.
He mumbled something around his thumb, but it wasn’t loud enough or clear enough for me to guess what he’d said. But given his propensity for talking to himself, he might not have meant it for me anyway, so I got up and headed for the kitchen.
A bottle of water felt like the best choice based on how tired he was, so I quickly got that together and followed the nerve-racking silence back to the playroom.
Yep, almost asleep on the floor.
Leaning against the bookshelf with his eyelids half-closed, he had two books in his hands but it looked like that’d taken all his energy. “Good boy. You found your books.”
He jerked, eyes opening again, and he nodded as he looked down at his hands like he was surprised to see them there.
“Alright, uppies. Give me your hands, baby boy.” Because I wasn’t sure he would get off the floor otherwise. “That’s right. Good boy.”
And he was up.
And mostly steady.
And hadn’t freaked out at the bottle.
But that might’ve been because he was blinking at it like he’d never seen one before.
Well, confusion wasn’t a safeword and he wasn’t pitching a fit, so I kept going like it was all perfectly reasonable. “Potty. Teeth. Cuddle. That’s our plan, baby boy.”
No response.
Was he actually awake?
I’d never met a dragon who sleepwalked but I’d heard about regular humans who did.
Fuck.
What did sleepwalking look like?
Frustrated that I didn’t have time to look that up, I quickly grabbed a diaper out of the pretty basket they were hidden in and led him back to the big bedroom. Alick followed, eyes occasionally going down to his books but his thumb was firmly planted in his mouth and nothing else seemed to be registering for him.
Was getting that tired normal for humans?
Just an Alick thing?
“Let’s put the books on the bed so they don’t get wet.” I was prepared for pushback on that but he let me take them out of his hands and set them on the bed, just staring at them like he was still confused. “Good boy.”
Okay, a smile.
So some of what I was saying was registering and he still liked praise even if he was…tired.
Asleep?
A zombie?
“Potty and teeth and then we’ll come back to the books.” Setting his bottle and the diaper down on the books, I took him back to the bathroom in the hallway, which was unfortunately the only one in the house.
Based on how old it was, that made sense, but every time I looked at it, I wondered what he’d say to the idea of a small change to the house.
Would it be rude to suggest that we needed a second bathroom?
How long were mates supposed to wait before suggesting home renovations?
I knew not to rush him into the physical side, but no one ever mentioned old house-related issues. Someone should’ve mentioned that. Hell, no one had talked about anything outside of the emotional and physical side of a mate bond.
More practical advice would’ve been nice.
“There we go.” Aiming him toward the toilet got me nothing.
Fuck.
Okay, when in doubt, fall back on limits lists.
His limits lists had been interestingly laid out and I had to think about it for a moment. The first scene list didn’t seem to apply any longer because we were mates and we hadn’t just met. Since it wasn’t a hook-up and we weren’t strangers any longer, that meant the mates and boyfriends list had to come into play along with the limits on his little side.