Total pages in book: 133
Estimated words: 134598 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 673(@200wpm)___ 538(@250wpm)___ 449(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 134598 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 673(@200wpm)___ 538(@250wpm)___ 449(@300wpm)
Glancing over at Ethan, she shook her head. “I . . . I can’t.”
He stared down at her, then he put the tray of food on the nightstand.
A plate with dividers sat on the tray. One section had scrambled eggs, another had bacon. And the third held pieces of toast with butter.
Oh. That actually looked good. But she usually ate a bagel.
“Hey, what’s wrong?”
What’s wrong? Everything was out of sorts.
“I . . . I . . .” She could feel her breathing quicken.
No! She wasn’t doing this. This had been happening too much. If this kept going, she would give herself a heart attack.
“I slept in!”
“You needed the sleep, baby. You were exhausted.” He kneeled in front of her.
Cate shook her head. “You don’t understand. I have a routine.”
“Ahh. And you’ve been out of that routine awhile, but I’m guessing coming here is throwing you.”
“I love it here. But I need to set up my spaces. My work. My . . . safe space.”
“I understand.”
“I have to stick to my routine.”
“Which means long hours of work? Not stopping for breaks? No fun stuff?”
Oh.
She hadn’t thought of it like that. But she had always worked a lot.
Because you never had someone else in your life.
Now you have Ethan.
He deserves your time and attention. Even if he will leave eventually.
“I’m not very good at this relationship stuff, am I?”
“Who said that?” he demanded.
“Routines are boring. I’m not very spontaneous. And I keep getting upset. Are you sure you’re not tired of this? Of me?”
He cupped her face between his hands. “I will never grow tired of you, Cate.”
“You don’t look at my broken parts and think that I’m too much work? That you’ll never fix me? You . . . you . . .”
“Fix you? Why would I want to fix you? I look at those parts and I think they’re beautiful. You’re not broken, my baby. Every piece of you is precious and special. You are amazing just how you are.”
God, this man. He was amazing. And she wished she had the words to tell him that. “You’re special too, you know.”
He smiled. “Thank you. Also, I’ve seen you be spontaneous. Mostly when you decide you want to suck my cock.”
Cate could feel her cheeks heating. She guessed that she was a bit spontaneous, then.
“You have a delicious cock,” she told him.
“Thank you, baby. I like to get good feedback.” He grinned.
Ahh. She guessed she was being cute again.
“But, seriously, routines are not boring. But what I’m asking is that you work a bit less. I think that we can both agree you work too much.”
“How much is too much?”
“How about no more than forty hours a week?”
Her eyes widened. “I would do that easily in four days.”
“You can do it across five and have proper breaks.”
Was he serious? He looked serious.
“And your boss said to take some time off. You don’t need to work today.”
“I have some things to do . . .” But only a few of them needed to be done today.
He took her hand in his, and she glanced down to see that she’d been tapping her fingers against her wrist.
“I do not want to stress you out. I know you’ve had enough of that lately and getting back into a routine will help. But how about if we tweak the routine and build in some Daddy and Catie-pie time. And some Ethan and Cate time too. Because it is well past the time that I got to taste you.”
Cate sucked in a breath. “You really do want to do that?” She hadn’t been entirely sure. She’d thought he might just want to reciprocate because she enjoyed sucking on him.
“I am dying to do it.”
“It . . . will you like it?” That was kind of a silly question. How would he know if he liked it?
“I’m going to love it.” There was something in his gaze. It felt like heat and possession.
She hoped she was reading him right.
“So we can work on a new routine?”
“I think that would be acceptable. Especially while we are here. But I’m afraid it won’t include breakfast in bed. Think about the crumbs in the sheets.”
“Fair enough, baby.”
Ethan studied her new routine.
She’d managed to print off two sheets after typing it up on her laptop. With images.
One for him. And one for her.
The schedule was mostly for the weekdays. Wake up. Eat breakfast. Shower. Work for four hours. Lunch break. Work for three hours. Daddy and Catie-pie time until dinner.
Then Ethan and Cate time.
But she’d agreed to take this afternoon and the weekend off.
So he was setting things up. He had her safe space set up for her in the smallest bedroom. She’d given him permission to put everything in there, but he knew she would likely want to move things.
He wished he had a whole room of stuff to fill it with. But he had unpacked the onesies and other bits of clothing he’d bought for Catie-pie. And he’d put in her big cushion, blanket, headband, and pacifier.