Page 90 of Hiding From Laughter

The pup.

God.

I wasn’t good enough with names to playthis game.

“Baby, Sawyer’s partner would like to sayhello and I don’t know his name.” Ashton giggled at that and the pup barked,clearly not mad at my lapse in memory.

Still, I glanced back at him and apologizedeven though I wasn’t sure that was the right thing to do. “I’m sorry. We’veonly met once and you were human…and dressed…and I’m just not good with names.”

He barked again.

For fuck’s sake.

Neither of them were helpful in the worddepartment.

I could hear human voices whispering behindhim, but other than a clearly delivered fuck and a hand trying to tug him back,no one else came out.

“He’s going to get in trouble. He’s asstubborn as you.” That got a giggle from Ashton but he wiggled his way aroundme so I was between him and the pup. “He’s not going to bite. He isn’t growlingand doesn’t look rabid either. The other one was an anomaly.”

“A pup tried to bite him?” Sawyer’s headfinally came around the doorway and he looked as confused as he should’ve beenfrom that statement.

“Let’s just say we had some interestingexperiences at munches that pushed us away from exploring for a while.” Ourluck had been so bad Ashton had started researching curses online. “So this isactually the first time he’s come to the club…to play.”

The fact that Ashton was little should’vebeen obvious even if Sawyer was an alien from one of Ashton’s books, but sayingit out loud seemed like it would be pushing it for Ashton.

“And we’re here.” Sighing, he gave uptrying to pull the pup back into the playroom and straightened. “I don’t knowwhat to do and our Master is worried that him coming over here would make itworse for Ashton.”

Somehow, hearing his name had my panickedcutie peeking out from around me. I wasn’t stupid enough to move, and froze inplace to give him time to process. “He’s nonverbal when he plays, so he’s notgoing to be much help in the figuring it out department.”

But considering he was still little, I tookthat to mean that he trusted Sawyer more than he realized. That didn’t help medecide what to do, though. If Ashton had tried to leave or even used his handsto sign no, it would’ve at least given me a clue.

“Um, well, I’m pretty sure he knows thatwe’re…not vanilla.” My expression must’ve spoken too loudly because he laughedand shook his head. “Not because of this. He and I talked about two weeks ago.When you guys were…figuring stuff out?”

Sawyer paused, probably trying to figureout what to say, but Ashton’s silence didn’t help him either. “He’d beenworking too many hours and our boss sent me to be the gay emissary just in caseit was something nonhetero.”

God.

“You know you have the weirdest boss,right?” My question wasn’t relevant to our current situation but it got a laughfrom Sawyer and a giggle from Ashton. “Sorry. That’s rude.”

Maybe?

Sawyer waved off my apology as he tried tostop laughing. “No. He’s weird. Ashton and I both agree on that, but he’smostly well-meaning.”

That had him looking down at the pup andglaring at him. “Like this naughty pup.”

When that didn’t send Ashton hiding again,Sawyer sighed dramatically. “He saw his happy picnic friend and had to come sayhello. He’s a very enthusiastic pup.”

He must’ve hung out with littles or highlyanxious subs before because he was good at playing up how harmless thesituation was, grumbling and pretending to glare at the pup again. “He’s alsonaughty and didn’t come back when he was told.”

Ashton went still before slowly pretendingto spank his bottom and Sawyer understood that clear enough to shake his headand glare at the wiggly pup again. “No. He doesn’t get spanked when he’snaughty. He’d like that too much.”

And the giggles were back.

Sawyer seemed to understand we were movingin the right direction and winked at the pup. “He’s too cute to punish.”

That seemed to be the cue the pup had beenwaiting for because he did a full body wiggle, sending his tail wagging as hebarked. Ashton seemed ready to admit this pup wasn’t going to come after him,but the sight of the pup rolling over onto his back and begging for tummy rubsseemed to be what had him coming out of his shell.

He actually inched out from behind me andpressed himself to my front as he giggled at the pup’s antics. So I slowlyknelt down, making him come with me to keep his human shield in place. “I’mgoing to ask if I can pet the puppy.”

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