Chapter 14

Tate

"Have you figured out anything else we need to ask him?" After the flowers fiasco, I was a little nervous about bringing anything up to Joel, so I didn't mention it again until he was off at class and I had Dean to myself.

A very antsy Dean who kept wandering around the apartment doing random shit like he couldn't turn his brain off. I wasn't sure what was on his mind, but he'd spent a suspiciously long amount of time in the bathroom. If he'd been Joel, I'd have known what to guess, but with Dean, I was just hoping he hadn't gotten food poisoning or something.

The most logical option was that he was worried about how the dinner would go since Joel's mother was definitely going to ask about our sex life. I'd already assured him a half-dozen times that I'd take care of that part, though, so I wasn't sure what he was thinking. He was a Grade A worrier, though, so he'd probably found something new and fun to focus on.

The one thing he didn't seem nervous about was the what to bring part, and I was very lucky that my worrier wasn't quite as scarred as I was and had taken the lead on that part of dinner planning. For some reason, that was one of the only conversational topics with Joel that didn't seem to worry him. "Um, I've established that dessert is not intimate or special in any way, so Sunday afternoon I'm going to make brownies before we go over."

Well, that was one thing we could check off the worry-about list.

"Anything else?" At first, the whole situation had been funny, but I was at the waiting for the land mines to explode part. It was more stressful than I'd anticipated. "No flowers and no asking for board games. But everything else…"

Having dinner with a boyfriend's parents shouldn't be so stressful.

I'd done it several times since I'd figured out dating and I'd done a damned good job of it. Parents liked me. I had manners but wasn't fake. I could find something funny to talk about with almost anyone. I ate nearly everything and could even stomach my first boyfriend Nick's mother's weird meatloaf that'd been really dry and had hardboiled eggs in it.

But Joel…

"No." Shaking his head, Dean plopped down beside me on the couch and crashed into my shoulder as his energy finally wound down. "The rest of the manners stuff seems to be very conventional. No surprises when it comes to food. She's making this bacon pasta that sounds really good. Oh, and regular clothes are fine. No modesty issues."

Shit.

"I hadn't even thought about that." Letting out a deep breath, I leaned my head against Dean's and tried not to sound as dramatic as he did. "Thank you for asking about it."

Joel kept saying he hadn't grown up religious but nothing he said about relationships went with that statement…and nothing mainstream worked with all the strange pieces, so it couldn't be one of those.

I just couldn't figure out what had replaced religion in his life that he didn't realize was actually some kind of religion.

Did those weird multi-level marketing cults have issues with board games and flowers?

"Did you ask anything else about his upbringing?" We were at the point where I couldn't ask him about God any longer without it being weird, but Dean hadn't pushed it as far as I had.

"Yeah, but he just kept looking at me strangely and asking me if I wanted to know what grocery stores he'd gone to as a kid." Dean seemed to realize how weird that was but he shrugged and kept going. "Um, don't tell him you grew up going to something like a Dollar Store or one of those last remaining Kmart's that took forever to die, but any place else seems to be fine."

"Is that why he won't let us go to Aldi?" I just rolled my eyes when Dean nodded. "I'm not going to ask. I don't care."

Dean made a noncommittal hum. "Yeah, I couldn't figure that one out either, so I just moved on from it since it's not some kind of trigger or limit for me."

There was probably something that tied into his preference for Target over Walmart too, but we'd figure that out later. We had enough on our plates just mentally getting ready to talk about our sex life with his mother.

Honestly, that should've been the part I was more stressed about, but it was looking like the easiest.

"Probably the best decision." Because we wouldn't understand the answer anyway. "I don't want to know if going to Target is the equivalent of some kind of religious experience."

Dean barked out a laugh and felt happier as he snuggled tighter against me. "Then my meltdown in the board game aisle was probably blasphemous."

That would not have surprised me.

"You didn't have a meltdown." Turning, I kissed his head and pulled him closer. "You explained when you reached your limit and told us that you needed space. You did a good job. I was proud of you."

It could've gone all kinds of fucked, but we'd all remembered the communication rules we'd set up and he'd done the right thing.

"Sometimes it feels like…I guess, like I should be able to control my frustration more." Dean sighed, sounding disappointed in himself.

"That's not how I see it at all." I thought he'd done great with how stressful it'd been. "First of all, we're in college and most of our relationships have been fairly casual or on the easy side of things. Cute dates in high school and no-stakes drama kind of stuff. This is grown-up even if it's not just a vanilla relationship."

Somehow we'd ended up in a serious relationship.

I wasn't sure how we'd gotten there but I wasn't going to bury my head in the sand about it…and that was why I'd spent an insane amount of time thinking about it over the past week.

"We're board game and Olive Garden serious, dude." When Dean started to snicker, I couldn't help fucking with him. "But if that ends up meaning we're engaged or something, who's going to explain the real world to his parents?"

Groaning, Dean hid his face against my neck. "As long as you take the sex part, I'll take the accidentally ending up engaged part."

I couldn't decide if I wanted to laugh or groan along with him. "I'm pretty sure you were supposed to tell me that I was insane."

He scoffed. "Okay, but that would've probably been lying."

Dean might've had a point.

"We're too young to get married in our cultures and…and we're not allowed to get engaged until we can provide for a partner." Making sure he had a list of reasonable outs made me feel better even though it should've made me feel ridiculous. "And we need to make sure we've learned enough to make him happy in the long run."

Dean sucked in a breath like he'd just been hit over the head in a cartoon. "I can't tell his mother that we can't get serious until you've learned how to…apply pain properly."

He was insane, but that was my favorite part about him, so I nodded. "Deal. I will handle that part if it becomes necessary, but it's a line of last defense."

Dean's heart might not make it if we actually had to pull that one out. But I was fairly confident the conversation would make Joel feel special…so that was the upside.

Sighing so big it felt like he was deflating, he buried his face against my shoulder. "She's going to ask about it either way. I just know it. Otherwise, she wouldn't have mentioned it in that phone call."

That phone call was now infamous and would only be referred to as "that phone call" going forward.

"I'm prepared for that if it comes down to it." I wasn't sure how likely that was but I also hadn't expected the flower catastrophe, so I wasn't going to guess. "Do you want to be prepared in advance so you're not surprised or do you want to ignore it for now?"

They both seemed like bad options to me but the best thing seemed to be to let him pick which bad option he hated least.

"Both. I want to ignore it and not be surprised. I don't want her to see me as some kind of nutty worrier who can't handle his kinks." Dean huffed and wiggled until he was nearly on my lap. "I'm a very good Daddy to him but that's just not me."

Understatement of the year.

"You are a wonderful Daddy to him and you've always been very supportive when he needed you to be and when we were fucking him." Just because Dean wasn't comfortable with it didn't mean he hadn't been trying.

"You've done a great job of trying to understand his needs." Joel just had so many we had to divide them out. "I like that part of his desires, so I will handle talking to his mother about anything in that conversational category."

No matter how weird they were.

"Ugh." Dean was obviously back to not knowing what he wanted, so I just gave him a hug and waited for the sound effects to fade. "Okay, tell me. I want to look like a good partner when you have to explain it to her. Because let's face it, she's going to ask."

She was…and judging by Joel's personality, she wasn't going to understand why it made Dean squirm.

"She understands the concept of safewords, so if it comes down to it, we're going to use them." And I wasn't going to feel bad about it at all. "Just remember that she seems to like us, though. That will go a long way."

"I'll try." Dean sounded a bit too dejected over the whole thing, so I knew we needed a new way to approach the conversation.

"Good." Shifting subtly wasn't really an option because I was going drastic, but I knew he'd adapt. Mostly because I was pretty sure he needed his Dom at the moment and not his boyfriend person. "Kneel for me. I'm going to tell you how I'm going to meet that part of Joel's needs."

Dean went still for a split second before nodding slowly and easing back from me. "You like that."

It wasn't a question but I nodded anyway. "I do. I think you look sexy like that and it settles something in me. I don't know if I have the right vocabulary to explain it, though. Not enough dirty reading on the internet probably."

Barely managing to hide his smile as he grabbed his pillow and knelt down between my legs, he tried to look serious as he bobbed his head. "Joel's done plenty of research. He can help you figure out the words."

Barking out a laugh as I brought my hands to Dean's face, I couldn't help imagining that as I stroked his cheeks. "Oh yeah, he's probably got some kind of dirty thesaurus to help me too."

Nearly giggling, Dean nuzzled into my hand as he settled into place. "Yeah, but he'd be very happy to help."

"Then he'd tell me exactly how I could reward him for being so helpful." My teasing comeback was so right on the money that Dean laughed again. "But you, on the other hand, don't tell me when you want to be rewarded."

Dean's gaze dropped to my chest as a sheepish expression took over his face. "I'm not unhappy and I'm very well taken care of by my partners."

That was the weirdest way to describe what he was feeling ever.

"But you wouldn't mind if I wanted you to submit to me more?" Taking a slightly more assumptive route through the conversation, I knew I was on the right track when he went still again. "You've been growing more confident in how to be Joel's Daddy, but we haven't spent as much time focusing on our relationship."

His shrug was deceptively casual but didn't seem like he was trying to tell me I'd been a dick partner. "How would you want to do that?"

He seemed happy with that idea, so I started stroking my thumb on one cheek and massaging his shoulder with my other hand. "I don't know yet. We need to work that out together, but my first thoughts were about going on a date just the two of us and carving out some time in the week where it's just the two of us exploring things."

Dean swallowed and licked his lips, either thinking or just needing a moment for his brain to recover. After a few seconds, his head jerked back and forth. "Joel wouldn't mind and we could pick times like now when he's busy."

We were all taking way too many classes but he'd also shoved in volunteering to be a professor's minion for something extra to put on his resume. We probably all should've had more common sense, but our schedules made sure there were weird pockets that only overlapped with two of us.

"I think that's a great idea and we'll make sure you two get good together time too." Dean's soft smile pulled me in and made me kiss him. It was barely brushing my lips against his, but it got a needy sigh from him as I pulled back. "Daddy and boy time where you could play or give him a bubble bath. Maybe get him fast food that comes with a toy."

Their favorite things were definitely caretaker-type activities, so I knew they'd have fun playing together or just goofing off.

Dean's grin said he loved that idea, but it quickly shifted into something slightly more worried as he nuzzled my hand. "But when he has time with you…you'll…that's when…"

As his question trailed off, I took over. "Yes, that's when I thought he and I would do more of the intensive discussions and research to begin with."

That answer had his stress fading like it was a visible balloon that was deflating, so I knew he appreciated the response at the very least.

"He and I need to work on a reasonable and detailed list of what he's liked so far, what he wants us to learn to do safely, and what we're going to come back to later." We'd accidentally stumbled into it, but his desire to explore pain was obvious even to Dean.

"He likes what you've done so far and he really liked it when I spanked him." Dean still seemed confused by it but he didn't hide from it.

"I like it too." Just in case there was any question about that aspect, I wanted to clear it up right away. "I like seeing his ass red and I like seeing him shake and fight his orgasm."

A smile peeked out and I knew he wanted to shake his head, but he was more focused on our conversation than how funny he thought I was. "Then after you have your conversations?"

He was amazing for not backing down.

"Then I'm going to talk to one of the local Doms about finding someone to mentor us." And according to our Olive Garden waiter, it wouldn't be hard to get an introduction. "That's not something I want to learn from the internet, no matter how reputable a site looks."

Dean blinked a few times as he processed the answer, but after a few moments, he let out a breath and a hint of a smile peeked out. "I know some people are going to question why we're together like this…all three of us, I mean…but there's no way just one of us would've been perfect for him."

I rolled my eyes and huffed. "There isn't a Dom on the planet that could handle all his desires and his family and his interesting responses. He was made for two people, not one."

He'd drive one Dom nuts.

"But it works for us, though." Dean seemed happy saying that and I couldn't see any worries about there being three of us in the relationship running around in his head. "I like it, honestly, but I also like seeing him happy even if it's not something that I'm drawn to."

Something being the stronger pain we both knew Joel wanted to explore.

And it looked like Daddy Dean approved of the plan I'd come up with so far.

I knew he might have other opinions on it later after he'd taken the time to sort through how he felt, but he was at the point where asking an expert for help made him feel better. Eventually he'd worry when he realized that meant someone else like one of our professors would see Joel naked, but we could tackle that panic attack when we got to it.

"I can understand that and I know Joel does too. He likes making us happy even though he's not always sure why we're happy." I think we confused him as much as he confused us. "But he's good at explaining what he wants and what will make him feel special."

Thank fuck for that.

Dean grinned. "Can you imagine trying to be his Dom if he didn't talk about what he wanted?"

"His pushiness and the fact that we've known him so long are the only reasons this will work." Short or long term. "That's one of the main reasons I haven't even thought about correcting his behavior when he's manipulating us."

Rolling his eyes, Dean scoffed. "You think it's cute. Don't hide behind logic."

Maybe.

"Is that the way you should be talking to your Dom?" Not responding to his accusation was the only way to handle it without lying.

And the upside to it was that it made Dean's eyes go wide.

Fun.

After a few seconds, he licked his lips and shifted side to side. "Would…is…I mean…"

It wasn't technically enough words to be a question or even considered helpful, but I knew what he was trying to ask about.

Punishments.

"Yes, if I thought you needed to have your behavior corrected or I thought that you were doing something ridiculous like questioning how important you are to me." I shrugged, trying to sound relaxed but still slightly threatening. "Not a spanking, though. I don't think that'd be the right option, but I'm going to spend some time coming up with some ideas."

That blew his brains.

"I…" Blink. "You'd…"

He went still again, and after a few seconds, a shiver raced through him.

Interesting.

"I would." If it was the only way to get through to him about something. Hell, even just making him write lines would fuck with his head enough for it to be considered a punishment. He liked being good just as much as Joel did. It was just a subtler version of it.

Joel never did anything half-assed.

"I'm also going to think about ways we can help you enjoy your submission more." It was quieter than Joel's but that wasn't a surprise. "You like this as much as I do."

Gesturing between us, I was glad when he didn't have a problem nodding. "What if we found a few minutes each day for you to kneel for me and we'll talk?"

I could see the answer sparking in his eyes before he managed to even nod. "Yes."

"Let's try something." Shifting my hold on him, I brought my hands around his back and eased him forward. "Scoot closer if you need to, but lean over and put your head here."

When his cheek was resting high on my thigh, I made sure he was nestled right against my dick. "Wrap your arms around my legs. Yes. Now, take a deep breath and then relax as many muscles as you can."

I could feel the heat from his breath through my pants and couldn't resist letting a small sound out. Dean blushed but I could see him trying to hide a faint smile too.

He liked turning me on.

"Good boy." Petting his head, I didn't even bother trying to make my dick behave. "We're going to see how long you can comfortably stay like this and I'm going to get some reading done. All you have to do is close your eyes and think about how just submitting to me like this is making me hard, and then you're going to tell me once you start to ache."

Dean's entire body seemed to clench before he let out a soft moan and fought to follow my orders. When his eyes closed and his head barely moved, rubbing his cheek against my erection, he whimpered softly before he could catch it. "I…I can think about that, Sir."

"Good boy." Petting his head again, I grabbed my phone and pulled up the stupid chapter I'd been putting off reading. "And your breath and just feeling you between my legs will keep me hard enough that we won't have to worry about rushing through our test here."

Then we could talk about what he wanted as a reward for being so fucking sexy and submissive.