Page 5 of Eddie (Romance & Revolutions #7)

“I was worried at first but that was understandable and didn’t last long.” Shelby shrugged as he went back to swinging our hands, not looking stressed as I led him into the changing rooms. “Once the pictures came down it was easy to see how nice you were.”

Giggling to himself, he flashed me another grin as I reached over to take his bag and set it down on a small bench. “I was wondering if you were real but you are.”

“You worry about imaginary people entirely too often.” Since he was distracted and happy, it seemed like the best time to start taking off his clothes. When his T-shirt came over his head, I frowned at him. “How many other imaginary men are helping you?”

That got a snicker out of him and he shook his head as he rocked back and forth on his feet. “None as far as I know. Unless you tell me you’re not the one managing my grocery orders or organizing my ads online.”

That was entirely too easy to do but it wasn’t my job to fix the world.

“Nope. That’s me.” Kissing his nose got another giggle from him, but reaching for his pants had a shiver racing through him. “My limit is going to be I don’t want anyone else watching you.”

Still pink-cheeked, Shelby smiled bashfully at me. “You’re special and I don’t want anyone else helping me like that either.”

Glad we were on the same page, I nodded toward the bench. “Sit.”

Shelby plopped himself down without a care on his face and looked adorably pleased with the situation as I knelt down to take off his shoes. “You’re going to tie me up.”

I had a feeling his brain would be stuck on that for a while, so I nodded and treated it like a question. “Yes. I’m going to restrain you and then make you come.”

Just imagining it had his entire body clenching and he sighed like it was the most wonderful thing he’d ever heard. “And…and you like how I look tied up, right?”

Hmm.

“I don’t know how to answer that. I don’t think I’m supposed to have an opinion on that because I haven’t seen you tied up in person yet.

” I could just hear Silas losing his marbles over this part of our conversation.

“So I’m going to say that I think I’m going to love it and I’m excited to restrain you. ”

I was hoping that was the right answer but Shelby frowned at me as I took off his socks. “But you’ve seen me. I looked good in those pictures, right?”

Okay, maybe I was starting to see why Silas thought we were so odd.

“If you get mad at me for answering this question honestly, it’s romance all night and making you feel important before we have any kind of scenes.” My threat had him scrunching up his face. “I’m serious. I’ll answer anything you ask but you can’t get pissed at me.”

He didn’t have to like my answer but I wasn’t going to be unreasonably punished for something he’d asked me to confess.

“Alright.” Shifting on the bench and wiggling his toes, Shelby didn’t seem as concerned as part of me thought he should be. “No unreasonable anger if I asked a question to begin with.”

“You don’t have to like my answer but you just can’t go off on me if I didn’t say something infuriating to begin with.

” I’d dated a few guys who liked to ask hypothetical questions and then go absolutely mental when I hadn’t answered them correctly, and I wasn’t built to play that game and keep my sanity.

“Deal.” Shelby went back to studying me as I made him stand up again. “You thought I was cute, right?”

“You were the sexiest thing I’d ever seen.” Brushing my lips gently against his, I answered as honestly as I could. “I loved how much you were enjoying being restrained and thought you looked beautiful.”

I just hadn’t liked that the pictures had ended up online without his consent but that’d been easy to fix.

It’d also been easy to make his ex’s life…difficult…but I’d done that just for fun.

“Good.” Looking relieved, Shelby straightened and radiated confidence. “I was worried about that since you never complimented them.”

“I wasn’t sure I could.” People’s reactions weren’t always easy to predict, so I’d taken a cautious approach when it came to anything like that. “You also never asked or hinted about that, so I didn’t want you to feel uncomfortable.”

“I don’t.” Beaming at me again, Shelby kissed my cheek. “You’re special too but those pictures turned out really good even if the photographer ended up being an asshole.”

That was an understatement.

“You are incredibly photogenic but how about we not tell anyone about this part of our conversation?” For some reason, I could see everyone being okay with the helpful watcher stuff but this was the part I wasn’t sure they’d be okay with.

Shelby scrunched up his face but nodded as I released the button on his pants. “Okay. People are kind of weird, and I want my new friends to like me.”

“They’re going to love you, but I just don’t want any…misunderstandings.” Shelby and I were going to see a lot of things differently than other people, and there was no point in courting drama. “I don’t want you changing anything about your personality, though.”

Sliding his pants down, I lowered myself to the floor again so I could trail my fingers down his thighs. “You’re sweet and funny and wonderfully open-minded. We’re going to meet a lot of people who are going to love you.”

And if they were mean to him, I’d just delete their entire online presence.