Breathless (The Game 3)

He rose from his seat and extended a hand. “Come on, little fighter. I think we all need some rewards and cuddles.”

Really? I couldn’t help but perk up at that. “I deserve a reward?”

“Of-fucking-course you do.” He gathered me close and ushered me out of the room. “We’ve put you through a minor hell, and you never stopped being the wonderful little maso boy you are.”

“Oh.” I smiled to myself and slipped my hand into his as we descended the stairs. “Even though we didn’t finish the scene.” I had to make sure.

He stopped me on the landing and cradled my face in his hands. “Intense scenes like these have only one purpose—to expose the masochist. To see what’s left when we get rid of all the filters and push you into a place where you’re left vulnerable and open. And that’s what we did.” He dipped down and kissed me softly, lingering, and spoke against my lips. “We can safely assume there’s a Little in you.”

I mustered a little smirk. “Nuh-uh.”

“Yuh-huh.” He chuckled and inched back. “We can discuss your skewed definition of what makes a Little after you’ve rested. We’ll be doing so much talking tomorrow.” He tapped my nose when I pretended to scowl. “We’ll also have fun exploring where the line goes before the masochist gives way to a defenseless Little.”

A yawn cut me off from childishly arguing that I wasn’t a Little, but at this point, I didn’t know why I bothered. I liked calling him Daddy; he felt so safe and protective, and I didn’t have to have all the answers around him.

“You need sleep.” He threaded our fingers together and moved toward the next set of stairs. “We’ll have all the time in the world for everything else later.”

“All the time in the world,” I snickered tiredly. I did like the sound of that—it made my insides feel all warm and shit—but it was just a figure of speech.

“You’ll see.” He pressed a kiss to the side of my head. “River and I think we should try to keep you. Besides, if we don’t explore a dynamic for just the three of us, we can’t lose the condoms and Daddy can’t breed his little boy properly.”

Fucking gulp.NineReese Tenley“Can we stay here all day?” Shay mumbled sleepily.

“Hmmm.” I kissed the top of his head and stretched out my legs. “I don’t have plans to move anytime soon, but I think you’ll be bored in a couple hours.”

Not only had we gone to bed early last night, we had slept late and only gotten out of bed to eat breakfast and then crash in our lounger next to the pool. River was dozing on and off on one side of me, Shay on the other, and fuck if I knew the last time I’d felt this peaceful.

Weather was nice too. Not too humid. The umbrella shielded us from the sunrays yet kept us warm enough to skip clothes and blankets. It wasn’t often I could convince my brother to lose the underwear, but he’d reasoned with himself, saying the sunbed would essentially be our place to nap till lunch, meaning he could sleep naked like he did in the cabin.

Sometimes he was funny.

Regardless, I was soaking it up. Skin-on-skin—there was nothing better.

I didn’t have to worry about Shay pretending he wanted to leave either. He’d agreed to stay until Thursday morning, partly so River and I could monitor him in case he experienced a drop. The scene had been…intense, to put it mildly. To a lesser degree, it was still affecting him today.

His defenses were down.

He groaned as he stretched out and hiked a leg over mine. At the same time, River yawned and shifted closer to press a kiss to my neck. Given the snarl I heard from his stomach, I had a feeling we would save poolside sex till later.

“Hungry?” I murmured.

“Mm.” He dragged himself up to a seated position and scrubbed his hands over his face. “I could go for a burger and a shake.”

Shay immediately perked up and lifted his head from my chest. “I like both those things.”

I smiled at him and wove my fingers through his hair. The boy drove me crazy already. Over breakfast, I’d told him about Littles and Middles and how it never had to be a constant thing. His only comparison seemed to be Kit, and Shay had admitted he’d never hung out with Littles before joining our community. And yeah, sure, Kit was more of a clear-cut case. In fact, they were each other’s opposites in the way that Kit was a Little exploring his masochistic tendencies, and Shay the other way around.

River leaned over me and met Shay in a sleepy kiss. “I suggest we actually leave the house for a bit.” Not a bad idea at all. “There’s a good place in Mclean, or if you wanna go to Silver Diner at Tysons Corner.”