Chapter 12

Grady

"Pets?" Alick seemed to be getting littler the deeper we got into the house but that might've been because he thought his Daddy was nuts.

"No, I promise. I won't get distracted again." He didn't look like he believed me, but he didn't point that out verbally.

No, he just took my hand and kept me moving away from the shelves in the living room.

If those didn't count as pretty, what would his playroom look like?

Shit.

No more petting the house.

"Daddy likes your house, baby boy." I shrugged as he giggled. "Sorry."

Giving me an adorably understanding nod, he squeezed my hand. "Pretty."

Yep, his house was pretty and he was smart because he didn't let me stop to admire the molding on the wall. "Grandma."

Well, I hadn't been able to follow the family tree earlier, but someone's grandma had clearly had a hand in the plasterwork. "It's beautiful."

And gone in a flash.

"Hungry, Daddy." Alick gave me a slightly skeptical look like he wasn't sure he could trust me not to wander off and forget the plan…and he was probably smart.

"I'm sorry, baby boy." How long had I spent looking at the grain in the wood? Oh, maybe it was the nails that I'd gotten distracted by. "No more petting. I promise."

He sighed.

"Okay, no more petting until after our tour and after you get food." How had I forgotten that he was hungry?

That got a giggle out of him, so I must've sounded more believable that time.

"You said it'd been renovated. You didn't prepare me for your house." I shrugged as he tried to hide his snickers as he brought me into his playroom. "It's not my fault."

Oh wow.

More laughter pointed out that I'd started to reach for the walls.

Oops.

Hands in pockets.

No touching the pretty woodwork.

But there were flowers and leaves and was that—

No. I had self-restraint.

I could control myself.

Hands were going to stay in my pockets.

"You have a very pretty playroom, baby boy." Pulling my gaze away from the incredible woodwork of his shelves, I ignored the intricate vines and flowers that were climbing all over the front of the bookcase and studied the rest of the room. "You've got lots of plants."

There were plastic ones and real ones and a fake dancing one with sunglasses and it all came together to be a perfect description of my mate. While the rest of the house had little pots of flowers on every surface, in his playroom they were about fun and silliness.

"I bet that one needs lots of sunlight to grow." Sounding very serious as I pointed toward the dancing one, I got a giggle from him. "I've heard they're very delicate."

And probably went through a lot of batteries based on how he laughed and waved his arms to show me how we were supposed to play with it. "Yep, very special and delicate."

"Dancing, Daddy." He bounced over and wiggled in front of the toy, waving his arms to make the flower dance.

I laughed and came up behind him, waving my arms too as I kissed his head. "We're great dancers."

That got more happy sounds coming from my cutie and he leaned back into me, just watching the toy wiggle and sing in front of us. "You like…"

For some reason he had to fight to stay big enough to talk, unlike earlier. So he took a breath and tried again as the flower danced. "You like my house, Daddy?"

There was more to that question than met the eye, but I wasn't sure what he was really looking for. Therefore, I just stuck with the facts and tried to give as much detail as I could. "Yes, I really like your house, and I think it's wonderful that it's been in your family for generations."

But he was going to draw that family tree at some point…it needed visual aids to make sense.

"I like my house." Pulling back from whatever younger headspace he'd been sliding into, he picked up one of my hands and started using it to point around the room. "I like my shelves and my room and my garden."

Yep, he'd been looking for something and I hadn't given it to him.

"I do too. I always imagined having a yard to draw and work on my projects in and this is perfect. You even have trails for me to walk around when I need a break." Kissing his head, I gave him a hug with my free arm. "And you have lots of privacy. It's perfect."

He made a happy, almost agreeing sound and wiggled against me, completely unaware of what his ass was doing to me. "And I have friends and work and family and fun…but you don't have family."

It seemed like we were making progress, so I tried to answer better that time. "Well, your family will become mine as we get to know each other and they see what a wonderful mate you have."

That got giggles from my happy boy, so I hoped that meant I was doing better answering him. "And I'm going to make friends here once I get to know everyone and find people who aren't crazy."

His snickers said that was going to be harder than I'd hoped.

"I'm going to ignore your Disney villain laugh and focus on all the friends I'm going to make." He was trying to stop giggling but couldn't manage it. "And I'm going to think about all the fun places there are to paint and draw and sculpt and…well…all the pretty places to explore."

Kissing his head again, I rubbed his chest and wiggled us so the flower started up again. "And I'm going to make sure my family comes to visit on a regular basis and then I'm going to bring you back to my old town so you can see that part of Canada. We can also go up to Montana for a visit. I have lots of family there too. And we've got the trailer, so there's lots of places we can explore here. We're going to have to make a list of everywhere we want to go."

And I was going to have to ask more questions about how much vacation time he usually took a year.

"I like lists, Daddy." Going back to wiggling happily, he seemed content with my answer that time. "Dance?"

"Hmm." Making thinking sounds as I wiggled behind him and ignored how his body was moving against mine, I finally gave him another hug. "How about snack time?"

I had a feeling he could've played dancing flower for a long time, but his tummy was back to making noises, and if we didn't feed him soon, it'd be dinnertime and he'd probably be cranky.

"Snack." He twirled in my arms, beaming. "Snack time."

Yep, he wasn't nearly as big as he'd been before and it left me wondering how little he would go. I couldn't see diapers or anything that screamed young little right away, but there were lots of cute storage containers as well as a large closet on the far end of the room I hadn't poked around in yet.

"What would you like?" Loving the way he took my hand in his, I let him lead me back through the house to the kitchen. "Is Daddy getting snack time ready or is that an Alick job?"

He'd set up his routines on his own, so I was going to do my best not to immediately charge in and take over, even though that was what the dragon and the Daddy inside me wanted to do.

"Hmm?" Making exaggerated thinking sounds that might've been meant to imitate me, he looked a bit like a muscular Winnie the Pooh as he took the question very seriously. "I'm the cooker. Daddy gets to help."

This was going to be interesting.

****

"No, getting out gummy snacks and applesauce does not make anyone a chef or a cooker, and I'm not sure either of those count as a fruit." Shaking my head, I watched Alick try not to laugh from on the floor where he was glaring up at me.

"They do. The gummy snacks are made from juice and that's made from fruit, and applesauce is just peeled and cooked-down apples. You can make it in a crockpot. That means it's healthy." He was so confident he was right that it was adorable.

"Crockpots do not make things healthy." I was not going to agree to that being the defining line. "You can make desserts in those."

He gave me an I don't make the rules shrug. "It's cooking from scratch and you're not cooking it in the oven, killing the nutrients. That makes it healthy."

"There's no logic in that." I was right but he just shrugged again.

"Yes, there is." Waving his arms to the side, he shifted and climbed off the floor to sit on the other end of the couch. "There's lots of weird food rules. Just because you don't know them doesn't make them wrong."

Bullshit.

"How long have you been practicing this argument with your friends?" Yep, he blushed. "I knew it. This is Kenzie logic, not my sweet mate's ridiculousness."

He managed not to laugh but his eyes sparkled with delight. "I don't know what you're talking about."

Alick had gone from being little at snack time to gradually getting bigger as we'd watched cartoons and played a bit, and I had to admit I was glad that he was back to being a grown-up so I could get to know this side of him more.

"That's not believable either." Deciding to test the waters since he'd been unreasonably stubborn about the silly fruit debate, I leaned to the side and turned to shift closer. "Do you want to see things from my point of view?"

Blinking, he swallowed and shook his head, my tiny show of dominance getting a reaction from him. "No…no, I think…I think I'm right."

Oh, someone wasn't thinking as clearly anymore.

Not enough blood in his head, possibly?

Leaning forward, I stretched and braced one hand on the armrest he was hiding against. "Well, I think we either need to continue to debate this so I can show you I'm right, or you're going to need to distract your mate. What do you think is the best option?"

He couldn't seem to decide if he wanted to smile or moan and pressed his lips together for a few seconds to hold back both. It didn't take long for him to make a decision, though. "I should probably distract you since I want to win."

Thought so.

Alick's gaze darted down to my lips and then back up to my face as I inched closer. "Kissing…kissing seems like a good way to distract my mate."

Since he seemed to want to talk through his options, I trapped him against the couch and nodded slowly as I kept my lips a few inches from his. "Yes, your mate likes kissing distractions."

"Does…" As he swallowed back a needy sound, his entire body seemed to clench like he was struggling to keep himself still. "Does my mate like being the aggressor when he kisses?"

Oh, interesting.

Talking about kissing was a good distraction too since we didn't know each other very well yet. But I wasn't sure if he was doing it deliberately or not.

"Your mate would love being the aggressor and wrestling his strong sub into submission, but he'd also love to have his mate stretched out down his body so they can cuddle and kiss and just snuggle." There were no wrong options and I wanted to do my best to make sure he knew that.

Something had a tiny shiver racing through Alick but he tried to hide it. So I had to poke at it since that was what Doms were supposed to do.

Even Kenzie would have to agree with that logic.

"What were you thinking?" Barely inching forward, I turned my head and blew on his ear before easing back. He wasn't immediately forthcoming, so I tried again. "A good boy might get to ask for a reward after I take him to dinner."

Somewhere nice and romantic…and private.

Alick swallowed hard and licked his lips, pushing himself, but I wasn't sure why it was so hard. "I…I liked the wrestling idea. Not yet but…but soon. I like feeling helpless sometimes."

Oh, there were wonderful fantasies we could play with if he liked feeling trapped and forced to submit.

"I know we'd have limits to discuss first, but I like the idea of wrestling you into submission. Would that be where it stopped…kisses?" The needy look in his eyes said he wanted more, so I pushed forward with the fantasy. "Or would your Master keep going and take whatever he wanted from his captive?"

"That's…" Alick paused for a few long moments, but he didn't move away or make me think he was panicking. "Some Masters do that."

Okay.

"That's right. There are a lot of different ways they can do that." Where was he trying to steer the conversation? "Just like I think being little is the sweetest, most submissive way a sub can be taken care of, something like primal play can be the other side of it."

Blink.

Blink.

It wasn't a no, so I kept poking at the idea.

"On one side you might want to give up all control and let your Daddy take care of you, and on the other side, you might want to be chased by the monster who'll demand your submission." The barest moan said he approved. "They're all just different ways of playing pretend, and just like the age play, the primal play has rules and limits too."

Licking his lips again, Alick looked like his brain was working faster. "You're a dragon."

Yep.

Nodding, I tried to grasp at what he meant. "So I'd make a very good predator but I'm smart enough not to go too far. Well, not to go farther than we agreed on."

That got a faint smile from my needy boy. "Limits. Yes."

"We'd both want to make sure we understood what would be fun and what wouldn't be." I wasn't completely sure what might go wrong but I didn't want either of us to walk away feeling overwhelmed or emotional.

"Yes…but…but you're strong enough that you could really move me around and trap me." Something flashed in his eyes and I thought I was finally getting it.

"Firstly, I'm your mate and so your safety comes before anything else, but yes, I'm strong enough to pick you up and to trap you and to ravish you after chasing you through the woods." There was no way he could hide the shiver that went through him, but he managed to keep his moan quiet. "I'm also strong enough to carry my baby boy if I need to or I could trap him against a tree after he ran through the woods and do wicked things to him."

Everything from his breathing to his hard-on said he approved of all my ideas so far. But it was the faint echo of desire I thought I was feeling from the mate bond that said I'd hit the nail on the head.

"And I'm very, very glad my boy is strong enough that I don't have to be too careful." Yep, that flash again. "If you were a tiny human, I might not have ever suggested it, but you're strong and sexy and you could take your mate, couldn't you?"

Shifting to put my weight on the back of the couch, I released the armrest and moved my hand to stroke lightly over his chest. I was still feeding into the trapped sensations running through him, but I'd taken it up a notch and I was finally getting to touch him.

His T-shirt was molded to his shoulders and biceps, which were too tempting to ignore. "You'd be able to fight back, and I'd be hard and ready to take you by the time I finally had you trapped."

Barely moving closer, I let the anticipation build. "And at some point, I'm going to explore all those sexy muscles with my lips and tongue, but for now, I want your mouth."

And I was going to show him just how much I wanted his sexy mouth…and his submission.