Page 5

Chapter Four

Collin

I really should’ve asked more questions.

What did good behavior look like at a BDSM club?

As I mulled over that question and tried to ignore how turned on I was, we got closer to happy sounds and laughter coming from one of the upstairs rooms.

I’d run out of time.

Shoot.

“What does being good mean, Austin?” Even whispering it didn’t make it sound more reasonable but he made me ask crazy questions sometimes.

What does BDSM mean?

Why are we investigating that senator who keeps talking about omegas like we’re on a weird pedestal?

Why did you have someone else run a background check on my date?

Why did you buy that weird little country?

Before I could start down the strange mental rabbit hole conversations with him always ended up going, he sighed. “Okay, another good question. I really hate that.”

Mostly because he liked being the smartest person in the room but his brain didn’t work like anyone else’s.

He stopped moving, though, and I was pretty sure the question bought me a few more seconds at the very least. “We’re going to see the Littles and Middles and a few pups.

So upstairs, being good means low voices, no naughty words, penises should be covered but that one is flexible, and if you have a treat you have to share. ”

Huffing, Austin shook his head. “You can’t walk in with chocolate and make it out with it. Once you cross the playroom threshold it’s fair game and they’re cute little assholes.”

Huh?

Morris and I had mostly stayed in what had turned out to be the more mainstream side of BDSM but I knew there were other branches of that fascinating tree. The pups had tails and barked and played fetch. Someone had uploaded a very carefully done video online to share what it meant.

It was impossible to figure out who they were, and I knew that because Austin had done his best to find the guy, but it was informative.

But Littles?

Oh.

Leaning closer to Morris, I dropped my voice lower as Austin started mumbling about fucking thieves with cute pouts.

He’d clearly been scammed but I could commiserate with him on that later.

“Sir, is that the people who are young when they find… their headspace?” Was it still subspace if they were pretending to be younger?

Was it pretending?

I was going to offend someone if I wasn’t careful.

Morris started nodding as Austin perked up and charged into a lecture on the merits of coloring and cookies. I was pretty sure at least some of that was bullshit, but in a roundabout way it actually answered my questions. “So we’re just going to say hi and see what you think.”

Wait.

What?

Shoot. We were moving again.

Morris’s eyes got wider as he realized something was up too, but I wasn’t sure we were worrying about the same things.

And there wasn’t time to ask.

I’d have definitely asked because Morris liked it when I had questions about BDSM and what he was thinking. It’d been slightly confusing to figure out at first, but I’d tested it a dozen times since we’d started dating and he lit up and smiled every time.

Maybe it wasn’t going to be scary?

There were a couple of extra-large alphas that were clearly in charge, but aside from watching Austin closely like they knew about the chaos he could cause, they didn’t do anything stressful. The biggest one nodded but he couldn’t move because he had several littles piled on his lap.

In fact, his head was the only thing that was clearly visible, but his general shape and his deep voice said how big he’d be standing up. “Hello, did you bring us new friends?”

I’d never heard an alpha or a Dom talk that gently.

Wait.

They weren’t Doms.

Littles had… they had Daddies.

He was a Daddy.

Oh. Was he a Daddy to someone I knew?

One head was very familiar, even from behind.

“This is Master Morris and his sub, Collin. They’re still figuring things out but I think he’s going to fit in perfectly next door.” Austin’s answer sounded vague to me but the Dom nodded like it made perfect sense. “They’ve got some video game mat out and they’re jumping on squares that light up.”

Oh, I liked that game.

“I’m good at that.” Was I allowed to play in the club? Well, play like that? “But I think…”

My voice trailed off as I realized I had no idea what I was thinking, just that I wasn’t sure it was what I was supposed to be doing. “Never mind.”

Morris tightened his grip on my neck and gave me his serious look like I was a pain-in-the-ass guest at his hotel and he’d reached his limit. “You like games.”

Well, yeah.

I was still figuring out how to respond when one of the other Daddies spoke up. “There’s no reason you can’t do both, play the jumping video game and then go downstairs and… do more grown-up things.”

That had snickers racing around the room and I couldn’t resist giggling along with them. I wasn’t sure why but it was funny. Even Morris rolled his eyes as he tried not to smile. “Austin said we needed to be on our best behavior and mentioning grown-up things was strictly forbidden.”

The naughty Daddy shrugged. “Oops.”

More laughter from the littles had Austin spinning in a circle to whirl his dress around. That got more happy sounds from everyone too. “I have a new dress I have to show you guys. It’s perfect for you.”

His dress was perfect for the Littles?

It seemed like a dangerous question and the Daddies’ raised eyebrows said they’d realized that too.

Daddies seemed very smart as a general rule.

“I got the idea from… well… I’m not going to tell.

” Smirking, Austin was thoroughly enjoying teasing everyone and causing chaos.

But before the Littles could do more than glance around and giggle, he turned back to me.

“Let’s go see the jumping game, which is actually a dancing game.

But you seem like that will be more fun than coloring. ”

Yes.

And I didn’t like the cartoons they were watching.

Cartoons needed superheroes, not colorful dogs lecturing everyone about being nice.

I could already be nice… I wanted to learn to fly and blow-up buildings. Austin said I had to wait to be a superhero until he could find a safe scientific experiment to join. He said he wasn’t going to let me join one willy-nilly.

Morris’s chuckle pulled me back to reality, but it was the fact that everyone was watching me and smiling that made me squirm and I inched closer to Morris.

He kissed my head and squeezed the back of my neck to bring back the happy sparks that always washed through me when he held me tight.

“Let’s go see who’s playing. If we want to meet them then we’ll hang out for a while. ”

I opened my mouth but Austin jumped in. “You’ll have time to be spanked and flogged and tortured later.”

Half the Littles giggled and the other half frowned at the Daddies.

I wasn’t sure what the frowns meant, but Austin decided it was time to go. “Let’s go see what the big boys are doing.”

The big boys?

Everything felt off-kilter as we followed Austin, well, as Morris followed Austin and steered me along with him. I didn’t mind, though, because it gave my brain more space to turn the questions over and over.

Maybe I shouldn’t have told Austin I didn’t want to talk about BDSM with him?

In my defense, I’d been working at the time and he was being a pain in the ass.

Talking about that stuff in a work sense was fine but he’d been poking at me …

and that hadn’t been fine at the time. Mostly because I’d just gotten out of a terrible relationship and I hadn’t mentally had the space to poke at the new things he’d found.

I should’ve found the space sooner.

He was definitely punishing me for not being more curious earlier.

“Do I need to make it an order to play or are you going to remember that you like games? Video games. Phone games. Board games.” Morris’s tone said he could’ve kept listing but my sigh and Austin’s snicker cut him off. “I think I made my point.”

The Daddy in the Little playroom made it very clear wanting to do the dance game would be fine, but I really wasn’t so sure about that. We were at a BDSM club. Weren’t we supposed to be doing BDSM things?

“There’s no right or wrong way to have fun or submit.” Austin gave me a stern look, daring me to argue with him. “If you want to play games for a while and then get flogged, then that’s what we’ll do.”

He made that combination sound so reasonable.

“The only reason you couldn’t do it is if your Dom had a specific plan in mind or if you were naughty and your punishment is no playtime with the fun people.” Frowning, Austin huffed. “If you’re naughty you might just have to watch everyone get spanked and not get to color or get cookies.”

Was he Little or just obsessive about joining everything?

He liked learning new skills and I could see him learning to be Little just to make sure he knew how to do it better than anyone else.

“I do not have a specific plan, but I would love to see Collin playing the dance game.” Morris shrugged and gave a cute half-smile when I looked at him confused. “I’ve never seen you jumping around like that.”

It wasn’t until his gaze dropped to my shorts that I realized why he was going to thoroughly enjoy himself.

I’d forgotten the cage.

But just thinking about it brought it to the front of my mind again and that just made it tight again and that made me wiggle again.

And that made both buttheads laugh again.

“I can’t wait to be caged.” Austin was nearly dancing as he led us away from the stairs. “I might have to see who I can bribe to cry.”

Huh?

Nope.

I wasn’t going to ask.

Morris sighed, deciding not to ask either. “Is there anything we need to know about the…video game Littles? What did you call them? Middles?”

He was much better at catching the fine print from Austin’s ramblings than I was.

It only made sense to me when it was work related and I got to make him repeat himself several times.

He was one of those people I wished would walk around with subtitles over their heads, but since a lot of what he said was probably illegal, it wouldn’t be a good idea.

“Yes. I’m not sure who coined the term but that’s what’s been running around in some of the specialized forums.” Austin shrugged. “Most of them were just playing games online and didn’t realize being… let’s call it young at heart could be part of the BDSM world.”

How?

I wasn’t going to ask, so I inched closer to Morris and bumped into him. He wanted to laugh but he was good at taking my nonsense seriously.

Oh.

“They’re older than the Littles but not full adult when they’re playing. The boys like superhero cartoons and anime and lots of different kinds of games, but when they’re in that playful headspace they want a Daddy or a Mommy to take charge.”

Austin ignored the thousand questions running through my head and pretended not to be psychic. “Just in different ways than the Littles. They don’t do the diapers and bottles thing but they still like cookies and chicken nuggets. That seems to be something everyone loves.”

Because they were really good.

Oh.

Morris only ate chicken nuggets when I wanted them and he really only played the arcade games at that pub place because he knew I liked them. All signs pointed to him being the regular adult between us, but if he was the real grown-up in our relationship, what did that make me?

“So the reason this is part of the BDSM community is because of the role-playing aspect and the caretaking?” Morris always asked good clarifying questions so I never felt stupid with real-life stuff.

I had my strong suits but staying tuned in and following along wasn’t always one of them.

“And they call their caretakers Daddy even though they’re… that side of them is older?”

“Yep.” Austin seemed to think they were all reasonable questions, which made me think we weren’t the only ones who hadn’t realized middles were a thing.

“And some people even use the title without being Little at all. It’s kind of a kink or catch-all caretaker title.

I think Silas would make a very good Daddy. ”

Interesting.

To Austin, though?

He always left me with so many questions I could never answer.