Page 7

Pierce

“What do you say if you change your mind about something or if you need to stop because you’ve decided you want to go back to your place?” Clarifying questions were important, but when he crossed his arms and huffed as we stood outside my motel room, I decided I might’ve pushed him too far.

“I use my safewords.” Merritt seemed to be willing to humor me at least one more time, however. “We’re using stoplight colors and even if we’re mates, we stop whenever we need to or want to.”

I wasn’t going to prompt him for more, honestly, but he seemed like he wasn’t going to take any chances because he kept going. “I know those are two different things. I also know that you can safeword too and you’ll eat anyone who tries to walk of shame me, so I don’t need to worry about staying over.”

I didn’t mind crunchy food.

I had dental floss.

“You are amazingly patient with your slightly worried Daddy and mate.” That was so obvious, denying it would’ve made me look like a moron. “I’ve never had a mate before.”

He tried to stay frustrated with me but that had his lips fighting to pull up. “Don’t look cute when you’re driving me insane. That’s cheating. And it makes it very hard for me to be worried if you pull that card first.”

Oh?

Did it?

“I don’t know if I should apologize for that or just promise not to drive you insane about those particular topics again?” He’d more than demonstrated a willingness to call me out on bullshit and to remember his safewords.

Rolling his eyes, he sighed. “I’m paying enough attention right now that I realized there wasn’t any kind of apology in there and you basically just said you’re planning on driving me crazy about other things tonight.”

“I’m self-aware enough that I know I’ll end up driving you crazy about an interesting variety of things in our life together.” That had him biting his lip to hold back laughter but I was serious, which was probably why it was so funny. “I am also making a list of ways to make it up to you that would work best.”

I was a thorough notetaker and already had a page for him in my favorite app.

He stopped laughing but that was because he rolled his eyes. “You’ve seriously got a list.”

That was what I’d said.

“Daddy?” Focusing back on me, Merritt inched closer and seemed to be doing his best to look cute.

It worked.

“Yes?” He wasn’t little, but he was, however, adorable when he manipulated me.

“I want cuddles and I’m done talking.” Suddenly, he was pressed against my chest with his head on my shoulder. “You know my limits for tonight. You’re my Daddy. You’re my mate. I want cuddles and for you to touch my butt. Your hand always stops at my waist when you’re stroking me.”

Because I wasn’t going to make assumptions and it wasn’t terribly polite to just ask someone, mate or not, if you could touch their butt.

Especially on the first date.

“I think all of those are doable and will be very enjoyable.” Kissing his head, I wrapped my arms around him and made sure he knew I didn’t want him to move away. “But we’re going inside before I touch your butt because the woman who lives across the street is hanging out her front window. I think she’s going to fall if we startle her too much.”

I knew I should’ve found a place farther away but Wren had talked me into someplace entirely too local…probably because he’d heard about the local shenanigans and wanted to be close to the chaos.

“If she gets hurt, I’ll have to go see if she’s okay. So that’s probably a good plan.” Taking a deep breath and relaxing against me, Merritt didn’t seem to be in any hurry to move. “She likes getting the best gossip, but I heard that she nearly cracked her head open a few months ago. That might be how she did it.”

Clearly, she wasn’t good at learning lessons.

“Inside then.” Giving him one more kiss, I relaxed my hold on him to fish my key out of my pocket. “Cuddles and touches and kisses. Then we’ll see where we go from there.”

“You like planning things.” There was a hint of a smile in his voice but it was mostly just a statement of fact, and since he was right, there was no reason to get offended.

“Yes.” Kissing his head again, I opened the door and herded him inside so we wouldn’t end up with an ER visit because of a nosy…dragon. “It makes me happy and it makes sure we’re both on the same page. Some people like surprises but I’ve found with most subs it’s best not to surprise them.”

He was quiet for a moment before pulling away as I shut the door. “I guess you’re right. I mean, I don’t mind the idea of surprises but they’re not the best way to get me to relax enough to submit.”

As I made sure the curtains were closed completely and turned on the lamp by the bed, I tapped on the wall and nodded as Wren tapped back. His giggles coming through the wall were suspicious as fuck, but I wasn’t going to ask what he was doing.

He was a grown-up most of the time and legally an adult all of the time, so his questionable decisions were his choice.

And I was going to remind his mother about the adult part when she cornered me at the next family party.

“Wren?” Merritt smiled when I nodded, but it didn’t distract him as he went over to the large bed in the corner of the room and sat down on the edge. “I like surprises like new toys and taking me out to dinner somewhere new. That kind of thing.”

“Do you like them in the sense that you want me to incorporate those into our relationship or do you like them in a they’re okay kind of way?” Those were very different things and I couldn’t predict his answer based on how he’d explained it.

He didn’t seem to be able to either.

Cocking his head, he frowned and then flopped back dramatically on the bed. “I don’t know. I’ve never thought about that.”

“Okay.” With everything as relaxing as I could make it, I toed off my shoes and stretched out beside him on the bed. “You can tell me the answer once you’ve thought about it more.”

Looking up at me, his frown faded to almost a smile. “You’re going to be an interesting mate.”

My shrug got an even bigger smile from him. “At least I’m not as weird as the locals.”

Snickering, he pushed up and then flopped me onto my back before straddling my lap. Once he had me in position, he crossed his arms and did his best to frown at me. “Is that a nice way to talk about our hosts?”

My snort had him trying not to laugh but I raised one eyebrow. “Everyone keeps asking about my kink preferences and I got a lecture this morning at the bakery about how I need to be nicer and share. It’s evidently not good manners to keep hiding gossip material from everyone.”

I was making their lives harder, evidently.

Merritt nearly cracked up but he managed to hold it back as he shook his head. “See? You’re just not being nice. They’ve been working very hard to include us in their customs.”

If I rolled my eyes any harder, they were going to break.

“I will never concede that the nonsense around here is any kind of custom. Not dragon ones. Not mage ones. Not even normal human ones.” No. “And I think you must’ve been taken over like a pod person to think that’s reasonable.”

Before he could guess what I’d meant, I rolled us over again until he was under me and I had his arms pinned above him on the bed. Dragon strength came in handy sometimes and I loved the startled inhale that radiated desire. “My sweet mate would never accuse me of something that ridiculous. You’ve been spelled or possessed or abducted and returned wrong.”

I ran out of horror movie themes, so I moved on to the next step as he clamped his lips shut to hold back his laughter. “I’ll find out what happened.”

Because I was a stubborn planner and we were the best at solving mysteries.

Every TV show proved that.

“First, I’ll have to check for scars from where they tortured you or altered you.” I needed to watch a few more alien movies, but it worked for the time being. “Don’t worry. I’ll be thorough.”

Because while he wanted to keep the BDSM side of things light, he’d said we’d just go with the flow on the sexual side. We both knew that once the bond started kicking into high gear, logic about orgasms and skin-to-skin contact would be iffy.

Kissing along his jaw gave him a clue about what I was going to do, but all I got was a sexy moan and waves of desire I didn’t think were completely mine.

And neither of those was a safeword.

Making my way slowly toward his ear, I paid attention to the way his body changed as I licked and nibbled, and I catalogued every patch of skin that seemed more sensitive. There were definitely parts that liked attention more than others, but his funny bone was a big one.

“Oh.” Getting to a freckle under his ear, I sighed before giving it a kiss. “This one. It might be the scar from your implantation.”

It was utterly ridiculous, but Merritt’s giggles spilled out even as he tried to roll his eyes. “You’re so…”

He was doing his best to act like I was too silly for words, but his little side thought it was hilarious. I was pretty sure his big side did too, but that seemed to be harder for him to admit. Had he been told adults were serious one too many times?

“Thorough.” Finally getting down to his shoulder, I eased his shirt to the side and pretended to study him. “I think I see another. This will have to come off so I can double-check. I can’t have an alien pretending to be my mate.”

Considering we were there because of a portal to another world, his giggles were understandable.

“I’ve become very partial to my mate already, and I won’t let anything happen to him.” Stretching up to give his lips a quick peck, I rested my forehead against his as his giggles faded to a sweet but serious smile. “Anything.”

Aliens or nosy old ladies or weird diner men.

Or that fucking portal.

“Anything.” Softly repeating the word, he gave me a kiss and wrapped his legs around me to give me a hug. “I always hoped I’d have a Daddy for a mate, but you’re more than I ever imagined.”

Kissing his nose, I rolled us over again until he was stretched out down the length of me and I had my arms wrapped around his chest. The shift got another laugh from him but he snuggled against me and rested his head in his hands. “You’re going to be a handful, aren’t you?”

Most definitely.

“Me?” Aiming for innocent and slightly confused, I frowned at him. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

That had him sighing and shaking his head. “That would be very convincing if not for that one little tell.”

What tell?

“I don’t have a tell.” His snickers said he thought otherwise. “I don’t.”

I was very good and had never even lost at Monopoly because of anything ridiculous like a tell. “What tell?”

Because I didn’t have one.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Merritt would’ve been able to copy me better if he’d been able to stop snickering. “A tell?”

I had a mate with a giggle problem, so I did the only thing that would work under the circumstances.

I pouted.

Flopping my arms wide, I frowned and sighed. “I’m offended.”

That did not help his giggles but it did get him in the mind that apologizing would be fun. “Oh, Daddy. I’m sorry.”

Sorry came with smiles and cheek kisses, and for just a moment I wondered if my little mage mate was going to come out to play instead of my grown-up one. Merritt pushed him back, though, and my next kiss was on the lips and felt very adult.

Though he aimed for innocent as he pulled back, he radiated desire. “I’ll show you how I say sorry, Daddy.”

I completely approved of whatever his devious mind had in store for me, but I ran my hand over his head and nodded slowly. “But only if you think that’s the right thing to do.”

Whatever he wanted was okay with me as long as it was what he was ready for. But as I watched his face and focused on any feelings the bond might be sharing, all I saw from him was a wicked happiness and a naughty boy who wanted to show Daddy how cute he was.

“I do.” Pouting, he kissed my cheek. “I was naughty. But I can be sorry.”

He was going to be very enthusiastic at being sorry if I was reading the scene right. “Thank you, baby.”

“You’re welcome.” Kissing my other cheek, he slowly slid off me as he gave me his wide-eyed expression. “Will you move higher on the bed, Daddy? I need more room to say sorry.”

So he wouldn’t fall off the bed…it was a good plan.

“Of course.” Turning so my head was on the pillows, I shifted higher and centered myself on the bed to make sure he had plenty of room. “How is this?”

He sighed.

“Fun.”

Adorable.

But I didn’t like the way he immediately caught himself and a real frown peeked out. “Good. Thank you.”

No.

That wasn’t going to work at all.

It was time to pull out the big guns again.