Total pages in book: 79
Estimated words: 77249 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 386(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 257(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77249 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 386(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 257(@300wpm)
Oh.
Yeah.
“You’re not…” He wasn’t like that Dom I’d dated. He was Cyrus. “That’s not something you need to worry about.”
Shaking his head, Cyrus tried to look serious. “So what? I’m not a Dom?”
“You’re not like one of those Doms.” That should’ve been obvious. “You’re you.”
He was my Cyrus.
Did I have to spell that out?
I wasn’t sure how I’d begin to do it, so I took the chicken way out and stretched up to kiss him.
“Oh wow. Are you guys out now?” The voice coming from the doorway made me question if we’d shut that at any point. “I mean, I know you’re both out but are you telling everyone you’re dating now?”
Fuck.
Recovering faster than I did, Cyrus straightened. “Yeah, we’re telling everyone now. But you’ve got me curious. When do you think we started dating?”
That was probably a very good question.
Bouncy -ick guy frowned and took it seriously. “Well, you guys went through that weird we’re in an open relationship kind of phase—not that there’s anything wrong with it—but that stopped about a year ago…so…yeah, I’m going to go with a year.”
A year?
Before I could even begin to figure out what that meant, he leaned his head back out the doorway into the main space. “Hey, they’re out now. We don’t have to ignore it anymore.”
Anymore?
Cyrus was doing his best not to laugh as he dropped his voice to a whisper. “Guess I can’t have you take a shower next to me now.”
No, they’d definitely know something was up.
A year?
“Yep. That’s what he said.”
Clearly I hadn’t just thought that, so I clamped my lips together and did my best to make my brain tune back into reality.
Cyrus looked like he wanted to laugh but he had himself mostly under control by the time -ick turned back to us. “Patrick? You off for the day?”
Ick.
Patrick.
“Yeah.” He was even bouncier than he’d been when I’d walked in, so I hoped a workout would help him relax. “I’m gonna get a workout in before I head out.”
“Great.” I tuned out as they went over some work stuff but then back in when I heard my name. “Weston. Yeah, we’re heading out too. Gonna go find some dinner.”
“A date. That’s great.” He really was one deep breath away from actually bouncing around the room. “Have fun, man, and I’m glad y’all are finally out. That open thing didn’t seem to make you guys happy.”
They’d thought we were dating the whole time?
An open relationship.
“We’re figuring everything out, but yeah, we’re happiest just the two of us.” Cyrus seemed to have a better handle on how to respond to everything, so I did my best to nod appropriately and look like I knew what they were talking about.
“That’s great.” Giving us a wave, the oversized handful headed back to the main room before I had to figure out a verbal response to anything.
When he was finally gone, I let out a groan and grabbed the first thoughts that flashed by. “Is he a pup? A year? An open relationship? What did we do a year ago?”
Cyrus snorted. “We’re taking our time sorting through all that. I have no idea what we did last year. I’m still stuck on not being able to shower with you.”
“Um…I think we’d need consent conversations to do that now.” Before, we could’ve looked boring and normal and they’d have pretended we were only friends. That was out the window now. “They thought we were hiding our relationship?”
“An open relationship at first.” Cyrus went back to shaking his head. “I need to process this. Come on. Quick boring behavior and then we’re going to dinner.”
Agreed.
But.
“Um, but we can come back after hours sometime and reenact that locker room idea? Or the workout one we talked about?” I wasn’t willing to let that one go completely. “I can pretend we have an audience for that locker room one.”
Cyrus smiled but it looked positively wicked. “We both know you’d like an audience.”
Oh.
Well, yeah.
Um.
Think.
I had to think.
“Consent and this is your business. I’m not going to forget that because my dick likes your fantasies.” They were both going to get us in trouble if one of us wasn’t careful. How was I the voice of reason? “You’re becoming a bad influence.”
He laughed and nodded. “Yep, but one question for you…who told me about the club?”
Who’d told him about the club?
Oh.
Fuck.
Nico.
“That’s not important.” How did I end up with a Dom who was such a bad influence? “Where do you want to go for dinner?”
If he didn’t stop grinning, they were all going to know something was up.
A year?
****
“So…have you figured out what we were doing a year ago?” Cyrus couldn’t stop poking at the weird comment, but my brain was stuck on the knowing grins everyone in the building had flashed us when we’d carefully gone to get cleaned up separately.