Page 50 of Just a Little in Love

Daddy’s laugh shut him up. “But baby, didn’t you know all Doms were mind-readers?” And even Rowan laughed at that.

Martin Shaughnessy didn’t look that much older than Rowan, and he grinned when he saw Daddy’s suspicious gaze. “I promise I have all my secondary teeth.”

Daddy huffed, but after a brief ‘getting to know you’ session, Martin asked him politely to take a seat in the waiting room. Rowan wanted to follow him.

“I don’t bite,” he said with a smile, then glanced to the side as if to make sure no one was listening even though there was just them in the office, and leaned forward, whispering, “I leave that to my Dom.” And he winked, which brought a giggle out of Rowan because it was ridiculous.

“Your partner is very protective of you,” he commented. “Or should I say Dom?”

“Daddy,” Rowan corrected before he thought about it and blushed furiously. What if Daddy didn’t want anyone to know?

Martin, as he’d asked to be called, simply smiled and leaned back. “Shall we chat, or do I need to get out the thumb screws?”

Rowan bit his lip. He was tempted to choose the thumb-screw option rather than talk about…well, anything, really. “What do you need to know?”

“I’m really tempted to answer with whatever you want to tell me but I don’t think that will help. I understand you might be facing some problems with your mom?”

“Mother,” Rowan corrected automatically.

“And was that what she asked to be called?”

Rowan nodded.

“Why?”

Rowan hesitated, then leaned back in astonishment. “I don’t know, but when I tried to call her mommy, she would get all quiet and often pretend she hadn’t heard me.” He’d forgotten that.

“And was that a common reaction to get you to do as she wanted?”

“Yes,” Rowan nodded in surprise, as he’d never thought about it like that. “She never shouted at me. She was just disappointed.” He twisted his fingers together. “Do you think she trained me to be submissive?” That was his biggest fear.

Martin cocked his head as if considering the question and Rowan held his breath. “Did you get pleasure out of agreeing with her?”

Rowan wrinkled his nose. Eww. “No, it was just easier.” Which made him pathetic, whatever Daddy said.

“And now, how do you feel when you submit to your Daddy?”

Rowan thought of their shower, how thrilled he’d been when Daddy had ordered him in that sexy voice to wash him. “Not—not like that.” Rowan shook his head frantically. Definitely not.

Martin smiled. “So, to be clear, you took the path of least resistance with your mother because you were a vulnerable child, and she quickly worked out how to manipulate and control you, but you submit to your Daddy because it brings you both pleasure?”

Rowan gaped at the revelation. They were completely different. “Yes,” he said, his voice cracking on the word. “Yes.” The relief he felt made him tear up. Martin passed him the box of tissues. Rowan was probably going to need them.

But then they talked about easier stuff. Rowan decided that being a submissive wasn’t wrong, even if being a little as well complicated matters. He told Martin about his zoo, and how he had lost himself in it, but had known where he was at the same time. He frowned. “That doesn’t make sense.”

“Tell me what being lost means to you,” Martin asked.

“It means pretend,” Rowan whispered. “It means being somewhere better.”

“It doesn’t mean that you are panicking? That you can’t find your way?”

Rowan shook his head. “Not with Daddy. He keeps me safe.”

“Safe to explore?” Martin asked and Rowan smiled.

Absolutely.

Rowan practically burst out of the room thirty minutes later and ran at his Daddy, uncaring what anyone else thought. Daddy, of course, caught him and wrapped his arms around him, holding him close and safe. He caught Daddy’s suspicious glare at Martin and smiled because he knew Martin was perfectly capable of dealing with Daddies or Doms or whatever.

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