Total pages in book: 107
Estimated words: 103033 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 515(@200wpm)___ 412(@250wpm)___ 343(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 103033 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 515(@200wpm)___ 412(@250wpm)___ 343(@300wpm)
I glanced over at Joshua and Gael.
“There’s time for that later, Sir,” Macklin reminded me. “Think about it.”
I inclined my head.
“We can talk after the weekend,” I said.
“Sounds good. Have a great date, Sir.”
“You too, troublemaker.” I made my way over to the table and shrugged out of my coat. Just in time for my monitor to send a damn alert to my phone. All right, all right, I was going to eat. I sat down across from them and met Joshua’s pointed look. “We’ll get bread and drinks anytime now. No need to worry.”
I turned off the signal on my phone and checked the food box in the app. There.
When Macklin said the server would be “right with you,” he meant it. We didn’t even have time for small talk before a young woman arrived with a bread basket and a pitcher of ice water.
Halfway through an amazing dinner, Joshua leaned in and whispered something in Gael’s ear. Whatever it was, it made him blush. He nodded once, then pushed out his chair and said he’d be right back.
I lifted my brows at Joshua.
He smirked. “You requested a vibrating egg. I delivered.”
Well, hell. This would be fun. I’d admittedly forgotten about it.
He handed over a small remote control to me. “It has a ten-foot reach and makes all kinds of prostate promises. He doesn’t know you’ll be in charge.”
I chuckled and eyed the remote. “Wonderful.” Four buttons, three for the different intensity levels of the vibrations and one off button. “I think this will be a perfect accessory for our next conversation.”
“Oh yeah?”
I nodded and placed the remote in my pocket, making sure I could feel the buttons from the outside. “I want him to lose my name in the Master title. I’d also like a firm grasp of our boundaries before we set playtime dates with others. I find that I’m unusually possessive of what we’ve just started, and I don’t want anything unsaid.”
The interest and affection lit a spark in Joshua’s eyes. Or, it was the candlelight. “Considering my latest fetish is you being possessive, let’s start right now. What kind of boundaries would you like?”
It would do me no good to speak in permanent terms about what I felt right now, so I phrased myself carefully as I cut another piece of my steak. “I think the one rule I’d like to implement long-term is us staying together for group-play events. Other than that, I understand limits might change over time. I…” I paused and chewed, hesitating momentarily to bring up openness, but in the end—I’d said it myself. Nothing left unsaid. “I’m not sure I will respond well to complete openness. I’m all for events, big or small, where we’re more flexible, but I’ll need time to adjust if you and Gael wish to seek out other partners for relationships.”
The topic caused a knot of unease in my stomach, proving my point. I’d definitely need to mentally prepare myself.
Joshua reached across the table and covered my hand with his. “We’re not interested in that sort of openness, cariño. We want you—the three of us. Nobody else. The rest is for playtime only, and we’re on the same page there too. We’ll stick together.”
No amount of relief could drown out the doubts born from my history. I’d struggled so much with relationships, not to mention attachments, that it was hard to reconcile how I suddenly wanted to close us in. I’d wanted the opposite in the past. I’d always had one foot out the door.
“Gael is very young, though,” I pointed out. “He might change his mind.”
Joshua lifted a shoulder in half a shrug. “Then we’ll deal with that together, no? Neither of us can predict the future.”
Sadly true. But Colt and Lucas seemed to have managed well with Kit. Their boy had wanted to explore just a bit outside their closed triad, and they’d found something they all wanted in an exclusive playtime arrangement with Greer’s poly family. I might have a chat with Greer and Colt, hear what they had to say on the matter. They faced the same issue, for lack of a better word, where their partners were significantly younger. Kit, Corey, and Gael were all around the same age.
I might talk to Lucian as well. He was in a similar situation.
“Fair enough,” I conceded. “Just be patient with me.”
“We’ll all be patient.” He squeezed my hand. “It’s new to us too.”
I’d remind myself of that often.
I did allow myself some relief in knowing we had the same desires, if only for the moment. Group play wouldn’t be forced upon anybody; we all had that kink. And we all seemed to be protective of our new triad as well.
“That Caleb better not mess with what we have,” I said. “I can only imagine Gael thinking his baggage will be too much for us, or something equally stupid.”