Page 26 of Hiding From Laughter

Micha

“When you give me something to worry about you do a bang-up job.”

Ashton sighed, closing his eyes and reaching for my hand. “Okay, first of all, I’m not going to feel guilty about anything I do in that little headspace. It’s fuzzier than just subspace, so unless I’m throwing shit at someone then I’m in the clear.”

His logic was always amazing.

“I’m going to need more examples of issues that could come up before I go with that level of immunity, but I understand where you’re coming from.”

When he was little, he didn’t want to talk to people and he didn’t really notice what was going on around him. That combination meant we were bound to run into some interesting issues eventually.

But that didn’t mean I was going to give him a free pass no matter what he did.

We’d take it into consideration, but it left me wondering what else he’d been thinking. “What else came to mind?”

Because that hadn’t been where I’d thought he’d start.

Blaming me for letting him sleep with Sawyer’s partner was where I’d thought we’d begin his worries.

Had he not thought about it that way?

How had he thought about it?

“Um, my second thought was that I didn’t think it was a scene.”

Frowning, he cocked his head and scrunched up his face before shrugging. “No. Not a scene.”

More fascinating logic was right around the corner. “Because?”

He threw up his free hand and finally turned to look at me. “Um, littles don’t do scenes they’re just little. Duh. Pups are the same way. They pup. I threw the ball. He fetched the ball. I gave him cookies. He humped his Master’s leg. That was not a scene. The bathroom was a scene. Stuff that seemed to be going on in the back of the building was definitely a scene.”

I managed not to laugh but it was close. Based on some of the sounds we’d heard, I thought I knew what it was and it hadn’t been his kind of scene. “There were demonstrations going on tonight, but you’re right, I think we’d count those as scenes.”

There’d been several reasons I’d known not to take him to the stage area on the other side of the club. Just because he hadn’t read the newsletter didn’t mean I hadn’t. Someone needed to make sure we stayed within his limits and that seemed to be my job.

“So we’re in agreement.”

Ashton nodded like we’d made a good decision and charged off in another direction as his fingers absentmindedly stroked mine. “When you said something about wanting meat was that a dick joke or did you want a hamburger? I know you’d prefer steak but I don’t have the ability to sit down in a restaurant right now for a variety of reasons.”

He’d drive everyone bananas and then fall asleep in his chair.

“Agreed.”

I wasn’t going to torture any of us like that. “Drive-thru alright with you?”

Wait.

“Don’t change the subject.”

I was as easily distractable as he was tonight. “You don’t consider little time or pup time to be scenes?”

“No.”

He was doing his best not to look at me like I was a moron, but he needed to work on his expressions. “You’re not doing anything to me and his Master wasn’t doing anything to him. Well, I was feeding him cookies, but that can’t be what makes a scene, otherwise dinner would be kinky.”

God.

No. I wasn’t even going to go down that mental rabbit hole.

“Well—”

“No.”

I wasn’t going to let him go down that rabbit hole either. “We’re staying on point so I don’t give myself an ulcer.”

“Okay.”

Ashton leaned over and kissed my cheek. “I think you need food, though.”

“It’s not my blood sugar. I’m trying to make sure I didn’t fuck something up when I let you nap with Sawyer’s partner.”

He just blinked at me. “What? Why are you just staring at me?”

The brat reached up and stroked my head before going back to holding my hand. “Maybe I should drive. You’re confused.”

For fuck’s sake.

I was not confused or as fragile as he seemed to think.

“Why am I confused?”

Relaxing back in the seat, I decided worrying was not helping and to just do my best to sort through how he saw the situation.

His way was much easier and my stomach thought that was a good idea.

“Because I didn’t nap with Sawyer’s partner.”

Ashton clearly thought that was ridiculous. “Little me napped with the pup. I’m really sure someone said he was tired. I was helping.”

Of course he was.

“So you get a reward for that later, huh?”

His nod was expected and yet still insane. “Okay, I’ll remember that, but we’ll probably do good boy rewards tomorrow. I think we’re both too tired for that tonight.”

Whatever it ended up looking like.

“That sounds like a good plan.”

He looked down at his lap and frowned. “My dick is still worn out and even a dry orgasm doesn’t sound like fun.”

Chuckling, I forced the last of my half-baked worries out of my head. “That would probably be a punishment, not a reward.”

The shudder that raced through him as he frowned said he agreed with me. “Yeah, and I was a good boy. I shared and I was helpful and I played with the pup. I get rewards.”

“Deal.”

We still had a few things we needed to go over, though, before he could distract me and decided for God only knew what reason that he shouldn’t have to talk. “Tomorrow afternoon we’re going to sit down and hammer out what we think scenes are and we’re going to talk about how our views on that other person thing have changed.”

Now he was the one frowning at me. “What do you mean?”

We clearly didn’t overthink about the same things.

But explaining what I was overthinking about wouldn’t help the situation, so we needed an example. A kinky example where someone else would end up in a scene with us. My imagination was not good enough for our current discussion.

“What if…what if…Conner had needed to help with a scene?”

Ashton had liked him so he felt like a safe option, and the way Ashton just absentmindedly nodded said I’d picked right. “Say…say we needed him to pretend to be a villain or some kind of dirty lawyer. Would him poking your dick or threatening to sell you to me as a sex slave be including another sub in a scene?”

Or Dom or switch or whatever he was.

“I don’t want him to pee on me.”

Ashton’s mind had taken an interesting new direction but it was technically relevant. Still, I was glad when he didn’t stop there. “But if he was the evil lawyer and needed to poke my dick or punish me while you decided if you were going to buy me, he would just be being helpful. So no. That wouldn’t count.”

Sometimes I wasn’t sure we were living on the same planet.

Was helpful the deciding factor in who could join a scene and who couldn’t?

What book had he gotten that logic from?

It was definitely some squirrely author’s definition to justify book shenanigans, but there was no way to understand it without seeing the original conversational context.

And how dirty the book had gotten.

“What were you picturing when we made that rule then? Or what are you picturing now?”

Because it wasn’t what I’d been picturing.

I really needed to figure out which book it’d come from.

“Um…that’s a good question. How would I define that?”

Leaning back in his seat, he frowned thoughtfully like he was getting ready to explain a work problem that he couldn’t figure out. “Fucking someone. But that’s obvious. Um. Either of us. Still obvious. You definitely shouldn’t be giving anyone else a bottle. I mean. Fucking hell. That would just be. No. We’re not doing that.”

We were going to need a new limits list.

Maybe several.

“We’re definitely going to sit down when we’re both thinking better and walk through several examples of scenes so I can get a handle on how you see this.”

Because it still wasn’t clear and him talking more wasn’t going to help. “We’re going to go through a new limits list just for this subject as soon as I can find the right one.”

He started to grumble, but I cut that off with a quick shake of my head as I squeezed his hand. “No.”

Just no.

“You don’t get to put bottles and fucking into the same list and expect me not to have some questions.”

There was no sorting method where those two things should’ve ended up in the same categories…and over the past few years, I’d done more lessons on sorting than I could count. I was an expert. “I have questions. I want to put good scenes together for you and I don’t understand the limits currently. We’re going to talk it through.”

Whether he wanted to or not.

“Fine.”

Letting out a deep exhale, he frowned like I was being a pain in the ass just to make him nuts. “We’re still getting you food, though, because you’re more confused than you should be. Ugh. Neither of us should be driving.”

“I’m confused about your logic, not confused about life in general.”

We definitely needed food and some sleep, though. “But I’m very pleased with how our night went and how the scene went and I liked hanging out with Sawyer and his partners.” When I was done, I waited and raised one eyebrow.

My drama queen slumped and pouted but didn’t drag it out too long. “I need to tell you what I liked too, right? Or you’ll find something else to worry about.”

He just had to tap dance on my patience sometimes.

“Yes.”

I was the best Dom ever for not strangling him when he sighed again.

“Okay. Let me think.”

Closing his eyes again, he released my hand and started counting on his fingers as his brain began processing the question. “I liked the biker kind of theme you had going at the beginning. You fuck my throat really well. Good job.”

Lord.

“Thank you.”

Still wasn’t helping my desire to strangle him, though.

“I liked how the bathroom was decorated and not having to worry about cleaning up the mess. Even though you did a good job with the spray thing and I liked losing control. That’s two. No, that’s three.”

The way he shifted his fingers around said he had been counting. “Wait. Had that been four?”

Shaking his head as he mumbled something about the bathroom compliment, he decided to figure it out later and kept going on his curious list.

“I liked the way you saved me even though it turns out Cooper doesn’t bite. That was nice and you were really brave.”

His definition of bravery was highly flexible. “He’s got big teeth.”

Cooper did not have big teeth.

“That’s five. At least five.”

Lifting his head, he turned back to me. “Five is enough to make you feel better, right?”

Deep breath in.

Slow exhale out.

“Okay, maybe you need more.”

Ashton frowned, probably because thinking on his feet when he was tired never worked well. “I liked the cookies you brought. I liked the alpha marking his mate thing.”

Head cocking to the other side, he frowned. “Doing that on the fly was probably a good idea. I might’ve overthought that one if we’d actually planned it out. You made good points, though. Authors have really gone vanilla when it comes to shifter sex and alpha omega sex.”

“That omegaverse stuff?”

Fuck it. “No. You’re not distracting me with knots and slick.”

The stuff he made me say.

“Not my fault. It’s a logical topic for the discussion.”

Shrugging, Ashton didn’t look sorry at all. “You brought up the alphas too. But you seem like you need one more…um…I liked the way you took care of me.”

Leaning over again, he kissed my cheek, aiming to look sweet and talk me down off the ledge he thought I was on. “You always take good care of me. I know it’s because you love me. But I’m kind of a pain in the ass and you still take good care of me. So thank you.”

I would never be able to understand how he made me want to strangle him one second and lap him so I could tell him how much I loved him the next. “I do love you. I even love you when you’re nuts. It makes life fun.”

As he scoffed, I took his lips in a long, slow kiss. Something about the whole thing made him giggle and he pulled back, resting his forehead on mine. “You’re so ridiculous. That’s one of the reasons that I love you. It makes life fun.”

“I’m glad. Because you make me ridiculous.”

As he snickered, I stole another kiss. “You also take good care of me. How about you treat me to the drive-thru and get me two big burgers? I’ll treat you to chicken nuggets and a big fry.”

He gave me a teasing glare. “I’m not little.”

“You have the palate of a toddler no matter what headspace you’re in.”

As he laughed and nodded, he snuggled close and rested his head on my shoulder. “You’re also snuggly when you’re big or little.”

“I’m snuggly now.”

Yawning, he pressed his face against my neck, nuzzling and kissing me softly. “But I get my rewards tomorrow. I was really good. A good helper. A good player. A good…I was good.”

And not as big as he’d claimed to be.

“Deal.”

Letting him relax against me, I slowly stroked his back and mentally debated if he’d last even five minutes before he fell asleep. “We’ll do rewards tomorrow and have a relaxing date somewhere.”

“The zoo.”

His yawned-out answer was so ridiculous I couldn’t even roll my eyes. “That’s relaxing. I like the…I like the monkeys.”

If he made it out of bed before ten I’d consider it. “I like the zoo.”

But I wasn’t making any promises.

“You…you’d like the steak place…it’s fancy…Conner was fancy…I love you, Micha.”

I’d been wrong…he hadn’t even lasted a minute.

“I love you too, baby.”

I loved everything about him. Every fantasy. Every fear he’d tried to hide. Every rambling explanation. Every declaration that he didn’t have to talk because it was in his contract. “Crazy logic and all.”

Because that was the best kind…it was in his contract too.