Total pages in book: 74
Estimated words: 71196 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 356(@200wpm)___ 285(@250wpm)___ 237(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71196 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 356(@200wpm)___ 285(@250wpm)___ 237(@300wpm)
Wednesday night wasn’t exactly prime come over and snuggle time for most dates, but Bishop wasn’t most dates.
Slowly shaking his head, he took a slightly ragged breath and licked his lips. “No.”
It took another second for his brain to come back online, but after giving his head a jerk like he was trying to rattle the errant cells back in place, he swallowed. “But I do need to get a question out before we go back to your place.”
“Alright.” It honestly could’ve been any number of things, so I was patient as he organized his thoughts.
He finally blinked and shrugged helplessly. “What are we? Are we dating? Just some kind of Dom with benefits thing? Are we exclusive? I’m not making demands. I just don’t want to be surprised down the road.”
Good point.
And good questions.
I just needed to figure out where to begin that wouldn’t sound stalkerish or too detached. “I’m going to start by prefacing this with the fact that I’m not dating anyone else and I haven’t got any friends-with-benefits kind of relationships running around.”
Some of the tension in his shoulders faded as his head slowly shifted up and down. “Alright, that’s good to know.”
What else could I tell him?
“That being said, I don’t want to label us something too serious too quickly because I’m not sure what your plans are.” That had him wincing so dramatically I had to laugh. “Yeah, see, I’m not the only one who needs to work on communication.”
Groaning, he nodded. “Okay, my turn, I guess. I’m not sure what I’m going to do, but like I said, I quit my job and I’m just not happy there anymore.”
He waved his hand, making it clear there meant more than just work. His frustration seemed all-encompassing as he took a breath and continued. “I’ve been thinking about staying here more and more.”
When I simply nodded and waited, trying to show him I was listening, not judging, he gave me a faint smile as he kept talking out his thoughts. “I’m just not sure I know what I’m going to do or how things are going to look. What I can say is that I want to get to know you more and my trip here has been extended for a while so I can make some decisions.”
That seemed fair but frustrating to hear…I kept that to myself, though, because it wouldn’t be helpful.
“So we don’t define things strictly yet, but we continue to see each other and have meaningful discussions on the BDSM side of things and time for me to get to know your pup more?” When he nodded, I had a random thought. “What about seeing anyone else and how we’re going to define that?”
Well, that sounded vague.
Trying again, I found myself rambling instead of making it any better. “I mean, I have no plans to see anyone else, but you’ve been hanging out with the Leashes & Lace guys a lot and they’re…friendly? Nakedly friendly?”
Laughing, he nodded. “Okay, yeah, I can see needing a discussion on that side of things. Um…”
As his delight in my awkwardness and just the subject in general faded, he made a cute thinking face and shrugged. “That’s hard. I have no plans on doing shoots or getting randomly overly friendly with someone there like Eli, but I should probably tell you that I have a…a thing with one of the guys from Leashes & Lace on Friday.”
He was radiating confusion, not worry, so I was more curious than jealous about what thing meant. Besides, there were only two of the models that I knew of who were Doms, so the odds of him ending up in a relationship with them were slim. “Okay, what does thing mean?”
That had him going still. “Yeah, that’s not helpful.”
Trying not to laugh, I coughed a few times making him roll his eyes. “He’s out with this, so it’s not like I’m oversharing here, but I’m hanging out with Ian on Friday as…well, I’m stepping in as his Daddy for the night.”
Bishop paused, shrugging. He was probably expecting me to say that was ridiculous, but unfortunately I thought he’d make a very good Daddy. He was playful and had a caretaker vibe that made it feel like that would be a good fit…but it had me questioning several things…like if he was a switch.
“That sounds fun.” Keeping them to myself for now, I nodded and tried to be supportive. “You’d be a good Daddy figure, or however you want to define your role. What can you tell me without breaking his confidence?”
I was aiming for curious and supportive without coming across as nosy and creepy, and when he started talking, I assumed it’d worked. “He’s a little and we had coffee the other day. You should’ve seen his face when we were talking. He was trying to smile and look laid back, but he was…he’s lonely but not in a needing a friend kind of way. Does that make sense?”