Exposed Exposed (Dom Nation #1) - E. Davies Page 0,11
I could fix that. Given an evening with him, I could help him give himself permission to feel good.
Even without making him cry so I can get off on it, I thought while swallowing a sigh. Call it an act of altruism. I should be written down as a hero.
“Whether I get any customers or not, I’m getting lucky tonight.” I winked instead, thrumming with pleasure when he smiled. I took a step back toward the doorway, and Tony, and my shop, and held out a hand to him.
“Come, boy,” I said softly. But this wasn’t a command—it was an offer.
Well, I’ll be damned.
He took my hand. He fucking took my hand.
“Yes, Daddy.”
And the vulnerability in his voice broke me to pieces. I was supposed to be the strong one, but the shards of me pulsed with something soft and scared and… thrilled.
Overjoyed. Ecstatic. Correct. Like it was meant to be.
I’d heard other men—plenty of other men—call me that. None had ever had this effect on me.
Surely I was misremembering. Surely they had, and I’d forgotten. I needed the open air, now, or I was going to do something dumb like pull him into me and kiss the words from his lips, or…
I led him outside and tipped my face up to the dark sky and breathed for dear life. I could do this—I must, and I would.
But what I couldn’t do in those short few steps between the darkened, pulsing, thumping kink club and my bright, shiny new shop was turn to look at him.
Suddenly, the fear was hot and irrational and heavy in my chest that the moment I did, he’d vanish. All of this would be gone.
He’d disappear, turn tail and run, or worse yet melt away like a figment of my overactive hero fantasies. I’d be back to leaning on the counter, daydreaming and bored and excited and afraid that I’d made a terrible mistake opening this shop anyway.
But the boy’s fingers were warm. His broad palm trembled in mine but never pulled away. I pushed open the shop door and finally looked over my shoulder, and Slate was still there.
For the first time, he smiled—and the warmth in his eyes, the dimples in his cheeks, the white flash of his teeth made the careening world find its balance once more.
But I never stopped falling.
3
Slate
“I’ve never held so many dicks at once.” I bounced the plastic bag of tiny penis-shaped candies up and down in one hand. “The small ones are the cutest.”
Rex was quick to laugh, his eyes shining with real appreciation for my childish joke. Like I wasn’t a burden to have around, but a pleasure.
Thank God I was out of that dreamy, foggy world now. I was a little sheepish about how much of a helpless little thing I’d acted. A man my age shouldn’t need to be coddled by a man his age. I was ashamed, a little bit, of having been rescued by a Daddy.
Of letting myself be saved when I didn’t deserve it.
Regardless of the guilt at the naughty treat, I’d bought a cupcake from him as soon as we got back here, and another cup of green tea. He’d tried to give them to me for free, but I’d insisted.
That had helped. I felt more like a person again, less of a flame waiting for its match—pure unrealized potential, purer for its theoretical state. Schrodinger’s danger.
I leaned on the wrong side of the counter. Like I knew anything about running the till. It was a tight space back here, with a batch of cupcakes currently baking in the oven just below the steel countertop. Jars of decorating supplies were arranged along a shelf above my head, and the display cabinet had a list of flavors taped to the back.
Rex stood on the customers’ side, a hand on the counter as he watched me exploring the space. His head tilted this way and that as he looked around the shop.
He didn’t even seem to notice the way his long fingers stroked the counter—like he was proud. Or possessive.
Like yearning for a motherland I’d never set foot upon, I ached to be the one under his hand, his touch dragging every ounce of shame from my skin.
Filling me with purpose, and perhaps more.
“Larger dicks are available,” Rex said.
“Plural?” I teased, looking him up and down like he was the one on show.
A sly little grin appeared on Rex’s face. “If required. Mechanical or otherwise.”