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Something about the softness, intermingled with the confidence in his tone, had me bobbing my head like one of those bobblehead toys I pretended not to like.

Something about it also snapped whatever reserves might have been holding me back.

In an almost out-of-body experience, I raised my arms toward him. I didn’t think my voice would work to ask for what I wanted, but Tony was scarily receptive to it. He helped wrap my arms around his neck and bent his knees enough to lift me by the thighs.

“Do you remember where my room is?”

Tony sighed in response. It was confusing. I thought it was a valid question.

Whatever.

I wonderedhow much longer I could pretend to be asleep. Pawing at his shirt until he’d gotten the message and strippedhad been my best idea to date. Maybe I could tell him waking up on top of him—while naked—was another need.

Well. A want. I wasn’t going to abuse the terminology for bratty endeavors.

Not that much, at least.

“Feeling better?”

Shit.

I glanced up at him while wiggling my hips. He only had the thinnest coating of body hair. I loved the almost smooth feel as I stretched all over him.

“Yes, Sir.”

See? I could behave.

Tony wrapped an arm around my lower back and pressed me closer to his body. I was not about to complain. I’d lost all my clothes too, bar my boxers—because boxers were comfy and I didn’t give a fuck—but that meant I was well aware of his cock jabbing against my abdomen.

Hmm. Was I awake enough to suck him off?

“When was the last time you slept more than, say, four hours at a time?”

I could not come up with a date. So I snaked forward and licked his cheek instead. I was nothing if not resourceful.

“Pup.”

Ignoring a warning was also a trait of resourceful pups. Everyone knew this.

“Playtime?”

Tony thrust his hips up the tiniest bit. He wasn’t trying to throw me off, was he? Not that he was going to manage with a weak attempt like that. I wasresourceful, dammit.

“Not yet.” He looked up as if he needed the extra help to push the words out. He was being incredibly unfair, so I was glad it wasn’t easy on him. “Cece knocked on the door earlier. She looked like she needed to talk.”

Huh?

I blinked.

Cece had said Tony could stay, and we hadn’t made any noise—on behalf of the fact that I barely remembered getting under the covers. I sat up, though, using my fisted hands to rub the sleep from my eyes.

“I’ll go check.”

Things were still tense, at times. I scrunched up my nose. Tense wasn’t the right word. Cece was still my kink sibling, and my best friend, and I loved them to bits. These past few weeks, especially, I’d spent three times the time I usually spent with them. But I still didn’t know what was going on with them. It frustrated me, but it also meant I couldn’t just ignore it when theylooked like they wanted to talk. What if today was finally the day they opened up to me?

A sense of dread filled me. My gut roiled. I wanted them to tell me. I wanted to know what was going on so that I could actually do something—even if that something was just showing support or holding them tight.

That didn’t mean I was looking forward to it. Maybe I was more of a coward than I liked to think, but whatever it was? I knew it was bad, and it would involve lots of feelings and emotions, and I wasn’t sure I knew how to be there for someone without ending up bawling my eyes out or feeling incredibly out of place.