Total pages in book: 78
Estimated words: 75143 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 376(@200wpm)___ 301(@250wpm)___ 250(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75143 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 376(@200wpm)___ 301(@250wpm)___ 250(@300wpm)
That actually made a lot of sense to me, and I found myself nodding. “I can understand that. You know us more and your fantasies are going to involve us.”
“Yes.” Giving a little wiggle, he sat straighter and must’ve clenched his cheeks based on how Tate groaned. “They involve you guys.”
Just us, probably.
“The idea of you showing me off is fun.” Joel gave a happy dance that had Tate nearly rolling his eyes. “I might be an exhibitionist where you’re concerned, but you don’t have to worry about me wandering off to get attention somewhere else.”
Because that was way too hard for him.
A tiny part of me pointed out how that’d come across but I knew what he’d meant. It really was too difficult for him to date other people and be happy. At the beginning of the relationship, everyone went faster than he did. There was never the warmup time that he needed before he could get to the good parts.
But he didn’t have to worry about that with us.
“I…I really don’t need to safeword about the showing you off part.” I wasn’t sure I was the one who could lead us into the scene or shenanigans or whatever we were going to call it, but I wouldn’t call a halt to it unless it went way too far. “And I will make sure I’m clear about where my boundaries turn out to be.”
That earned me a beaming smile from Joel. “Communication is so important, but you have to promise to be just as open when we pick out board games.”
And I was back to being confused.
I wasn’t even sure where to begin but he bounced up from Tate’s lap before I could find a starting point. “I’m going to get a shower. We need to be clean before we can buy games and sex toys. No dirty penises in the fun stores.”
Did that mean he’d have let us go out with cum-covered dicks to other places?
What were the limits on that?
How was I even supposed to figure out the questions for that?
Joel was cute but he was exhausting sometimes.
****
How was he so exhausting?
And confusing.
It was board games, not personality quizzes or premarital counseling.
“Are you sure you’re comfortable with that? It’s got a lot of pieces.” Joel was looking at me with a serious concerned expression as he slowly asked the confusing question.
I thought that meant I should slide the magic game back on the shelf, but as I carefully did that, he sighed.
For fuck’s sake.
Even the old lady who’d been looking at the Trivial Pursuit game for the last five minutes just to be able to eavesdrop better seemed confused with the new turn.
I didn’t blame her for watching the circus, though…I’d have probably done the same thing if the situation was reversed.
Taking a deep breath and ignoring the way Joel was shaking his head like our conversation had taken a turn for the worst, I looked over at Tate. “I don’t understand what’s going on and I’m getting overwhelmed.”
Our nosy neighbor started nodding, which made me feel better in a weird sort of way. “I’m communicating that, though.”
Yes, communication was important.
“That means I’m doing a good job of something because half the sentences Joel says have the word communication in them.” His mother must’ve said that a lot growing up. “So I’m claiming good status even though I’m going to go wander around and look at TVs we can’t afford for a few minutes.”
Or maybe video games?
Hell, they had a book section…I could wander around there and look at stupid stuff I didn’t want to read.
Tate’s gaze was jumping between us and I almost felt bad for leaving him with Joel, but I was tired of being questioned like we were in a therapist’s office and I was doing everything wrong. “I can see why you’re frustrated.”
I hoped so, but I didn’t care at that point. We’d been trying to find a game for nearly twenty minutes and Joel’s questions were just getting more and more confusing.
“I think that’s a good idea.” Tate definitely seemed to understand dealing with Joel in situations like this was his job as the Dom in the household because he didn’t question the need to take over. “You go walk around and come back in just a couple of minutes. Okay?”
Nodding, I took another deep breath. “I think…I think this is a yellow for me.”
My new nosy friend paused and then started nodding again too, so I had a feeling her reading material was more interesting than I’d expected. “I’ll be right back.”
Joel looked confused but not angry as I turned and wandered away…not ran, just wandered. “Um, did he…was he…we can really safeword for relationship stuff and not just things like spankings?”
“Yes, dear.” Our watcher seemed to take that as the cue to step in. “Safewords are for anything in a special relationship like the one you have with your…your friends.”