Total pages in book: 71
Estimated words: 64929 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 325(@200wpm)___ 260(@250wpm)___ 216(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 64929 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 325(@200wpm)___ 260(@250wpm)___ 216(@300wpm)
It was a fitting punishment. It was also going to make me fail my human sexuality class if I couldn’t get a handle on it. I hadn’t been able to touch the toys in days, and when I’d tried to do more online research, I’d just found myself watching the blog videos of the master and his pup over and over.
The master’s face was never in the videos, but when he spoke, I could almost pretend that Owen had sounded the same way. It was just too hard and too confusing. If I was going to do a good enough job on the project to get a decent grade, I was going to have to move forward, but I wasn’t sure how.
I was no closer to getting the tail… where it was supposed to go, and every time I looked at the collar and leash, I could hear Owen calling me a good boy. It was all getting tangled up in my head, and I wasn’t sure how to fix it. There had to be a way.
The knock on my door scared me so badly my heart stopped for a moment. The sound of Owen’s voice didn’t help any either.
“Hey, you up? I know it’s early for a Saturday, but I made coffee so we could get started.” The tone in his voice was still calmer and more understanding. He knew how hard this was going to be, so maybe it was that. Was he just trying not to make it worse so we could get it done?
“Um, yeah, sorry. I… I’ll be down in a minute. Um, thanks.”
There was a short pause, then a quiet, “Welcome.”
If I didn’t count the half-naked, wet interaction, and I was trying not to, it was the longest conversation we’d had in days. Maybe hiding all week hadn’t been the best idea because spending the morning with him was feeling a bit like I was planning to climb Mt. Everest.
Only mountains couldn’t laugh at you when they learned your deepest secret.
**** Stumbling downstairs was harder than I’d imagined. I’d been up so long that my body was ready to go back to bed, or at least take a nap. I was hoping coffee would help, but I’d bought the cheap stuff at the store last time I’d gone shopping. It wasn’t nearly as strong or as good as the name brands, so I wasn’t feeling confident in its ability to wake me up.
“What do you like in your coffee?” Owen asked without looking at me, and for a moment, it felt almost like a rejection. But he had two chipped coffee mugs out, and he was stirring sugar into one of them already. “I wasn’t sure what kind you liked, so…” He glanced at me, expression unreadable. “Medium roast, unflavored.” He lifted a shoulder in a slight shrug.
This was somehow every bit as shocking as the fact that Owen hadn’t been tormenting me lately. He’d gone out of his way to buy coffee? He’d thought about what I might want?
Of course, neither of us knew what the other liked. Not what kind of coffee, or what we liked in it, or anything that might’ve seemed easy. “Um, thanks.” This was almost as startling as finding the leash on the table had been. “Um, just sugar. Milk’s good too, but we never buy that so…” I was rambling, and Owen must have realized it too.
He looked over at me and cocked one eyebrow but didn’t say anything. I watched as he put sugar in what I was assuming to be my cup.
He glanced up at me again. “More?”
“Please.”
It felt awkward, like we were strangers standing together at the Starbucks counter, but at least we were talking. Most people wouldn’t have thought it was much, but it was incredible to me.
I mumbled a quiet, “Thanks,” as he brought me my mug. Taking it, I went over to the table and sat down. When he was being that nice, running back to hide in my room seemed… mean. I fought for something to say. “Um, did you have a plan on how to start?” Hopefully he did, because I sure didn’t.
Owen took a sip of his coffee and nodded, walking over to the table. “Yeah, I thought we’d set aside the stuff we know is important first, then we can start going through the clothes we just want to donate.”
I nodded. It sounded like a reasonable plan. “And we just start setting aside things that might be worth some money as we find it?”
“That'll work.” It was a short answer but politer than I was used to, so I wasn’t sure what to say back. “Did you eat yet?” He kept weirder hours than I did so I wasn’t sure how long he’d been up. He shook his head. “Not really hungry yet. I figured I’d make something after we were done. There’s enough eggs in there to make a real breakfast if that sounds good to you.”