Chapter 3

Tyson

"Stop threatening me." Once had been enough to make his point. "Even if we don't have chemistry and we can't find a common ground on…my issue…I'll be nice."

After the third threat of bodily harm, I realized the sub in question had at the very least dated a few assholes before Austin had found him.

If I'd been less distracted over my own worries, I'd have realized the problem sooner. But that couldn't be helped, so I was going to have to fix the situation before Silas went from glaring out the window to actually coming to talk to me.

I didn't need a black eye on my first date with Dessie.

If a regular date wouldn't be impressed by it, a little would turn around and run.

"He's worried." Austin didn't like that, judging by the way his glare was getting worse and his tone was even more clipped. "The last Dom he dated decided he was the wrong kind of little and it hurt Dessie's feelings."

Well, at least some of the blanks were being filled in.

"I am going to do my best not to hurt his feelings about any kinks or desires." I couldn't control anything else because most people just didn't like me. "I'm assuming you had a nice long talk with the Dom in question?"

Austin's glare got fiery. "Not until after he'd joined the club. Dessie didn't want to talk about it, so I didn't hear about it until too late. He's being watched when he comes into the club and he's on a short leash with anything that pisses me off, so he's been well-behaved so far."

It was hard to track silence.

"That must be frustrating." Seeing the Dom in question on a regular basis must be driving Austin insane.

"Yes, it is." Austin was nearly rabid about protecting subs, so I didn't underestimate his feelings on the topic. "I've already made provisions to ruin him if it comes to that, but he's been mostly hanging out and not getting to know anyone specific."

That sounded good so far.

"Let me know if there's anything I can do to help." I wasn't going to offer to kill anyone, he already had people for that, but I would gladly help with information gathering. "But before my date arrives, I need you to please explain one more time what being the wrong kind of little means."

None of it made sense.

Austin rolled his eyes, finally not looking lethal. "This isn't rocket science. We already talked about this."

"I know that, but it's stupid." So I had to be missing something important. "You're honestly telling me that people who play pretend in different ways say there is a right and wrong way to play pretend? That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard."

I understood the main points of the activity and I could grasp the whys for the most part. Austin was right. It didn't take a lot of brains to understand that toys were fun and being taken care of was relaxing, but it was the right and wrong way to do it that didn't make any sense.

"There is no right or wrong way to play pretend as long as someone isn't getting hurt." I remembered that much from when I was young.

Austin's groan and the way he scrubbed his hands over his face said he agreed with me. "I know. It's ridiculous. I can't even figure out where the stupid idea came from. But some Doms are dead set on not giving their sub an orgasm when they're in their playful headspace. It's not just a preference. They're kink shaming them."

That was not acceptable…even I knew that.

"I don't have enough information about this lifestyle to understand the specifics people might get judgmental over, but I will not stand by and let anyone in the club be shamed for something like that." Just in case he hadn't realized I'd be a pain in the ass about it, I wanted to make it clear.

"I've already made sure there is no question about what I'll do if something like that happens again." Standing straighter and moving his hands to his sides, he let out a deep breath and must've signaled to Silas because the man stopped growling at the window.

He was just frowning again.

"But Dessie is still dealing with the emotional fallout from that, so you're going to have to be careful." Austin wasn't quite as frustrated but he was still giving me a look I didn't like. "Which brings us to something else he's worried about."

Fuck it all.

"You told me to be here at six and him to be here at six thirty, didn't you?" I was the one growling as Austin nodded, not looking guilty at all. "Damn it, Austin."

He threw up his hands and glared at me. "I had to make sure we were all on the same page."

"Stop manipulating me and just let me meet my fucking date. He's a little and I have to be nice. This isn't that complicated." I was not the one at the club he needed to be giving the lecture to.

I was, however, the only one standing in his backyard not-so-patiently waiting for my date to arrive so we could have a poolside picnic.

"He's worried you're going to be upset if he likes what you think of as an issue." Crossing his arms over his chest, he struck a dramatic pose. "Can you see why I'm a tad bit worked up?"

Possibly.

"No." I wasn't going to admit he might have a point. It would go to his head. "I will not be mean. I will not tell him he's doing it wrong because I don't know how to do it to begin with. I will get to know him and we'll talk. That's what people do on dates."

Even weird ones where they were going to eat dinner in a mutual friend's backyard.

"This is an audition to see if you want to date and you know it. He knows it. I know it." Gesturing wildly around the beautifully decorated yard, he was wide-eyed and looked a bit nuts. "I just don't want you to fuck this up by getting defensive."

I wasn't going to admit he had a point about that either. "You're just making up worries to keep obsessing."

I wasn't going to sabotage myself, though, no matter what he was afraid of…especially now that I realized I might've done that out of self-defense.

Dessie hadn't been the only one to have a few bad apples in his past.

I just had to remember not to be an ass and it would be fine.

"You're an idiot if you think any of that was believable." Huffing, he squared his shoulders and gestured more rationally to the table that had been set out. "You're going to have a nice dinner. You're not going to assume he's thinking something bad. You're not going to get weird just because he wants to do stuff to you that no one else has ever done. You're going to ask questions about what toys he likes to play with when he's little and you might even get to ask him about grown-up stuff if you think the chemistry is moving in that direction."

So far, it wasn't an irrational list.

But then he started losing his marbles again and his hands started swinging. "You're also going to keep your clothes on in my backyard and you're going to make good fucking decisions. If you need privacy, make sure you know his safeword and then lead him to the pool house. Make good fucking decisions."

I shouldn't have.

I really shouldn't have.

But I did.

"What's a safeword?"

Hmm, I hadn't realized his face could go that color purple.

Before I could decide if I'd killed him or not, because he was standing there the color of an eggplant and gaping at me, Silas saved him by charging out of the house.

Or maybe he'd saved me?

It was hard to tell.

"For fuck's sake, I'm not leaving you two alone again." Sweeping Austin up in his arms, Silas threw a frustrated glare in my direction as he headed back into the house. "Don't hurt Dessie."

Oh, Dessie.

He'd been hidden behind Silas and was standing there with his mouth open and just blinking like Austin had.

Oops.

"Um, how much of that did you hear?" I thought it was a reasonable place to start but he jumped ahead.

"Did you really say that just to fuck with him?" Dessie didn't seem like he was going to get past that point anytime soon, so I nodded.

"Yes, but in my defense, he was driving me crazy. I've been here twenty minutes because he lied to me about the time we were supposed to have dinner and he's been lecturing me since I arrived. I was really nice for the first fifteen minutes."

Hmm… more blinks.

"I honestly do know what a safeword is. He was making me insane." Had I already fucked up? "Okay, you have to remember that he's fun to wind up too. He just goes bananas."

Long blinks…did that mean something?

And he took a breath.

Had he been breathing before?

"You are kind of like Silas." He seemed sincere when he uttered the abominable sentence, but once I started to groan and glare, he grinned. "Yep."

"I'm so insulted you're going to have to be nice to me to make it up." I wasn't sure what bribes I could get out of him, but starting off on the he owed me foot seemed like a good idea.

For when I fucked it up later.

Pinching his lips together, he took a second before he nodded. "Yes, I was naughty. I'm sorry."

Oh yes, that was a much better way to take things.

"I'm sure you'll find a way to make it up to me." Yes, kind of sexy but still vague enough that he wouldn't think I had no idea what I was doing.

"I will." His eyes were sparkling and he was barely holding back a laugh. "I'll be good."

That wasn't any more believable than my lies had been but it seemed like one of those white lies all subs told…because I'd heard Austin say it and he was the least good sub I'd ever met.

"I'm looking forward to that." It wasn't exactly referencing something dirty but his blush said he took it that way. "Naughty boy."

For a moment I thought I'd pushed too far but his cheeks just got redder and his gaze dropped as he shifted back and forth. That was not anger or the bad kind of embarrassment, so I let myself off the hook. But I was going to try to be a little more careful.

Try being the operative word.

"But for the time being, I'm going to pretend you're not as naughty as Austin is and we're going to get to know each other." His giggle said he wasn't upset by being compared to the ridiculous omega. "And as part of that getting to know one another, I'm going to need you to tell me if I cross a line or make you uncomfortable."

Nodding slowly, he straightened and met my gaze again. "Yes, I can do that."

"Good." Good boy? Nope, that might be rushing. "I understand the concept of safewords, but outside of a scene, I'm not sure how they'd be used. So for now, if you set a limit or tell me no outside of a scene, that stops whatever we're doing. Alright?"

Dessie went still for a moment before his head slowly bobbed. "Safewords for scenes because you understand that part, but when we're just talking and doing date kind of stuff, no will mean no because that's what you're more comfortable with?"

"Yes." Shit. This wasn't just about me. "Is that something you're comfortable with?"

His lips turned up at the side without going full on into a smile. "You're making very reasonable limits right now and nothing you've said makes me uncomfortable."

Hmm.

"You know, if everyone agreed with me that clearly, the world would be a much easier place to navigate." My response was probably ridiculous—and definitely Austin's fault for getting me wound up—but Dessie smiled wider.

"It would." Nearly bouncing, he shifted back and forth again and shifted from flirty and blushing to excited and adorable. "I work in the governor's office and no one ever says what they mean clearly enough. It's crazy."

Working in government at all was crazy.

"I think that's my favorite part about the BDSM lifestyle that I've learned about so far." Gesturing toward the spread laid out for us, I raised one eyebrow. "Can I get you a drink?"

Austin had everything from hot and cold foods to a full bar, so I knew there'd be something he'd enjoy no matter what.

"Um." Peeking over at the drinks, his brows came together. "Is there lemonade?"

Interesting.

"Let's look." As we both moved toward the table with the drinks, I decided honesty was the only way to move forward. "I'm going to admit that my biggest flaw is being nosy, so please tell me if this isn't polite to ask, but is your drink choice random or a socially acceptable way of being little?"

"Oh." He paused, nearly tripping over his feet before his body started moving again. "Would…would it be okay if it was?"

The asshole had definitely done a number on Dessie.

"Yes." Hmm. Probably not enough information. "I'd technically heard of age play in passing as I researched the club and the BDSM community in general, but it was literally just a vocabulary word I'd picked up before Austin explained the idea in more detail."

I'd actually had to go back and look at the research I'd done all over again, and surprisingly enough, it had been on one of the first lists I'd read.

Dessie's breathing evened out and as I found the lemonade in a fancy carafe nestled in ice—which was so purely Austin I wanted to roll my eyes—I was glad to see he was relaxing again. "That's…that's understandable. It's not something that's talked about online much."

"Agreed." Pouring his drink into a small glass tumbler, I nodded toward the table that had been set up for us. "But for us, that means that I have no preconceived notions about what is right or wrong with this."

Wanting to make sure I was clear, I tried to find some good examples. "If you'd like to have lemonade when we go out because it makes your little side happy, that's perfectly fine with me. If you like to order fancy chicken strips on every menu because your little side likes nuggets, that's fine with me as well."

What else?

As he sat down, I placed the glass in front of him and another example popped into my head. "If you want me to order for you and to make sure you have things like your cup close enough, that's something that would be fine."

His gaze bounced between me and his drink as he carefully wrapped two hands around it. "You're…you're being very open-minded about this."

"No." I wasn't going to let him think I was some kind of amazing guy. "You're just setting the standard for what this lifestyle looks like. I can simply understand the logic behind it and I can connect the dots about why you would like something."

His head cocked and he studied me for a moment. "I think you're downplaying what a good guy you are, but I'm not going to be a brat about it."

"You'll pick your battles, huh?" My cheeky response made him grin.

"Yep, for something good or something I could get a spanking for." The naughty words slipped out before he caught them and then a blush spread over his cheeks.

"Yep, I knew you were naughty." But who could've guessed how interesting that would be.