Exposed Exposed (Dom Nation #1) - E. Davies Page 0,103

openmouthed and heavy.

My cock grew thick under all my layers—satin thong, latex briefs, jeans. I was panting for breath by the time I remembered that I wasn’t allowed to do this. Not yet, anyway. There was still too much to talk about.

Slate gave me a hazy, wide-eyed stare as I pulled away. “Yes, Daddy?” His voice was hoarse, but he smiled like he knew just what he was doing to me.

Oh, you insatiable boy. My insatiable boy. I smiled at him and shook my head, trying to clear it. “I can’t wait to rescue you from the tragic coffee maker situation next,” I teased him right back.

Slate nodded once, searching my face. “I hope you aren’t beating yourself up about tonight.”

I winced. “Damn it. How can you read me so well?” I complained. I prided myself on being inscrutable. Master X was going to need a downgrade to Master Open Book at this rate.

Slate chuckled quietly. “Don’t worry. I think it’s just my talent,” he murmured. “One of my two.” His eyes glinted with amusement.

I desperately wanted to ask about the other, but I resisted. “I… I am, a bit,” I admitted. “It was my job to protect you and keep you safe, and I failed at that. Maybe you weren’t ready for baring yourself to the room—to Isaac, too.”

“I was ready,” Slate told me, shaking his head. “And it wasn’t to the room. It was just to you. Then he came along…” Slate trailed off before resuming. “You can’t read my mind. I said green.”

I still should have known. Guilt was a steady drumbeat in my chest, and like he sensed it, Slate rocked into me, swaying back and forth.

“Green’s supposed to mean yes,” he carried on stubbornly. “Even when my no doesn’t always mean no. I wanted you to hurt me, Rex,” he said slowly, emphasizing each word.

I nodded, trying to get myself to accept his forgiveness. “And… did you get what you needed?”

It was easy to tell in the constraints of a scene—carefully planned beforehand and measured afterward. But a relationship? That was messy and organic and full of risks. It was hard work digging into the soft parts of Slate, knowing which ones were ready to be prodded and which might never be.

“Yes,” Slate nodded. “It was fine until I saw Isaac. And then suddenly I felt…” He cleared his throat and looked at me like he wasn’t sure he was allowed to mention that name again.

I nodded slightly, encouraging him. “You can tell me anything in the world, my boy.”

Slate relaxed and breathed out quietly, nodding once. “I felt ashamed again. Dirty and used and discarded. And I kind of like feeling like that… but not the same way anymore. Not now that I know there’s better. You make me feel all the best parts of those feelings, and then you make me feel loved. It was hard to accept at first that I could get all of that at once.”

I blinked back the heat in the corners of my eyes, gratitude thick in my chest. “Good,” I whispered. Slate deserved to feel like the king of my heart, because he was. Forever.

“I had to calm down and remember that you do mean it—that you’re not just trying to get into my pants and then fuck off again after you blow your load.” Slate swallowed hard. “I trust you. So I’m going to trust the people you trust, too.”

That was it. That was what I needed to hear—the glue that would turn into cement. How could I be his Daddy if he was forever second-guessing me? But now… he understood what I needed and what I wanted to give him.

“Oh, Slate. I’m so proud of you,” I whispered, hugging him so hard that he squeaked. All I wanted was to hold him night after night and remind him of how much he deserved a happy life.

There and then, I promised myself that I would make Slate’s every dream come true. No less.

“You’re surprisingly strong,” Slate mumbled when I let go, his smile shaky as he looked out the door like he was planning a trip to Dom Nation right now. “So, should we… when can we tell Brighton?”

“Not tonight.” I reached out of our little blanket cocoon to grip the tea and offered him a sip. Then I took one before setting it down again. “We’re going to rest tonight and go to bed. In the morning, we’ll report him.” And then it would all