Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 77887 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 389(@200wpm)___ 312(@250wpm)___ 260(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77887 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 389(@200wpm)___ 312(@250wpm)___ 260(@300wpm)
Hmm, should I have just said not straight and not mentioned gay? He might be bi or pan or any number of fun things. I shouldn’t assume, but before I could decide if I should apologize, he got very thinky.
Letting out a slow breath, he studied me as he carefully wiped a drip of water off my face. Owner took very good care of his possessions. “Roman didn’t say anything? I assumed you asked about me.”
“I did.” Leaning into his touch, I nodded and made myself stay focused. “I asked about your photography skills and your employees and how long you’d been doing corsets and why he didn’t do the photos and what you’d think about me getting hard and what you’d say if I couldn’t get hard.”
Shrugging, I closed my eyes and leaned into his chest as he rubbed the end of the towel over my shoulders. “Lots of important questions, see?”
“Just not about if I was straight?” There was a smile in his voice that made me roll my eyes.
“I knew you weren’t straight. I just didn’t know if you did.” There was a big difference.
Luca chuckled and petted my head, encouraging his doll to look into his face. “How did you know?”
That was just silly.
“The models in your concept art had real-looking penises.” All different shapes and sizes. “The straight male artists I’ve known haven’t seen enough of them to realize they all look different. For some reason, they just draw the one or two they’ve actually studied over and over.”
I shrugged again as Luca’s lips twitched. “You’d at least looked enough.”
“Your mind is a frightening place, pretty one.”
Aww. I had the best Owner ever.
Now I just had to make sure he knew I belonged to him and wasn’t just on loan like some kind of library book.
Chapter 8
Luca
What was I supposed to say to that?
Ignoring his fascinating conclusion about penises, even if it wasn’t wrong, I worked on drying him off more. “We need to get you dressed.”
He looked up at me confusion painted over his face. “Why? It’s warm in here and your couch looks soft and comfy.”
That would be more temptation than I could handle.
“Because pretty dolls need to be dressed up before they have tea parties.” If he could give me ridiculous logic, then I didn’t see any reason not to give it back.
He smiled and his whole demeanor perked up. “Oh, a tea party?”
Then just as fast as he’d beamed, he frowned sweetly…and probably completely manipulatively too. “But I don’t have anything pretty enough to wear to a tea party.”
Hmm.
I wasn’t sure if it was a real problem or just one he was using to be able to look sad and cute. However, asking that seemed like I would be setting myself up for another round of manipulation, so I took it very seriously. “I can fix that. Now go finish taking care of my doll and get dry so you don’t slip. Walk carefully.”
I wasn’t sure how he’d managed to run through the house dripping wet without killing himself already.
“We’re going to have dinner here so I’ll bring you something pretty.” The one good thing about always having a dozen half-finished projects lying around was that pretty clothing would not be hard to come up with…and that didn’t even count the number of odd things from Leashes & Lace that had managed to find their way over to my studio.
Eli spread like some kind of fungus.
“Yay.” He did a twirl as I stepped away and danced back through the house. “I’ll be waiting, Owner.”
That title would be the first thing we talked about…once I figured out if he was serious or just fucking with me.
I still wasn’t sure.
Heading back into the studio, I pushed the weird half-baked worries to the back of my head and focused on the important parts. “I need to know if he’s serious about wanting something with me. I need to know how he felt about the shoot and the scene. I need to make sure he knows I’m not some kind of lunatic who’s going to end up on a Law and Order episode.”
Hmm, would that be SVU instead?
Fuck.
Nope, that was definitely an Emerson thought and I was not going to wander down that path. He was contagious.
“Alright, what does a pretty doll wear to a tea party?” The more I got to know Emerson, the more I realized that it could be nearly anything or nothing. “Okay, new question. What do I want him to wear to the tea party?”
I was Owner.
That meant I got to pick, and at the moment, I needed him somewhat clothed so we could have a conversation without him being too distracting.
“That’s a good plan. I’m in charge. I get to say he doesn’t run around naked and I get to decide that his ass has to be covered when he sits on the couch.” That rule couldn’t be too unreasonable.