Page 76 of Coiled Tight
“Daddy.” He breathed out the word. The word that felt like the most comforting cup of tea in preparation for a full day out in the sun. The word that had me losing some of the weight on my shoulders before I could question why it had been there in the first place. “What list?”
Right.
The list.
The half-assed plan I’d come up with on the spot because I refused to have that reaction be the norm, to find myself realizing I was not giving him what he needed.
“I want you to write down what you want from Daddy in the next couple of months. It can be anything from kink to mundane stuff to harder stuff. I don’t care. And I want you to add, from zero to ten, how much you think you deserve it.”
“Zero means I don’t deserve any of it?”
I hummed, nipping his bottom lip before I answered. “Exactly.”
Cam squirmed. “And that will mean you won’t do it?”
“No.” I huffed. “Doing it or not will be up to Daddy.”
“But…”
“I’m not asking you to write limits, Cam.” I had a feeling he understood, but I’d rather talk him through it before there would be any misunderstandings. “I’m asking only for the things youwant. I would never ignore a limit or a boundary. This is different.”
I expected more of a fight, but it was telling that it only took Cam a few seconds of chewing on his lip before he nodded and slumped down against my shoulder.
“More of this first.”
Who was I to deny him?
twenty-seven
cam
Imight have been out of the scene for longer than I cared to admit, but some things were hard to forget. They never changed, either.
One, a quiet Dom was a bad omen. It meant he was plotting. Thinking about things I’d pay for.
Two, Doms were very pleased when one did self-care stuff. They were extra pleased when one did the difficult stuff that they could feel proud of later on.
Three, the life of a sub was one of suffering. And complaining.
A lot of complaining.
It was justified, though.
First, even though it had taken me the entire road trip to finish the list Daddy had asked, when I sent it to him, I’d only gotten a forehead kiss and agood boy. Both those things felt amazing, don’t get me wrong, and I’d forgotten all about why I wasn’t supposed to accept that kind of thing for a few blessed minutes.
But.
But then, we had arrived back at the sanctuary, and I’dgotten sidetracked with the pups and Golden because she looked so healthy already, even though it had only been two weeks, and the pups took a bit to remember me, but they’d grown so fast, too. And then I was spilling my guts to Sofía about everything that had gone on in the trip, from my fumbling my way with the donors to a safe-for-work version of the developments with her brother. I only felt marginally better because I’d warned him I was bad at keeping my mouth shut about important shit.
Sofía had been supportive, but she had also been excited to the point of bordering on inappropriate. It was a bit uncomfortable, if I was honest. It didn’t help that she said Saúl’s parents would be worse. I had barely survived her, and I didn’t know his parents half as well. They had visited often enough since I’d started, but I didn’t know that I excelled at small talk.
And now I was heading toward Dwight, who was on surveillance duty because he’d fucked up his back fixing something while we were away. I didn’t get the details, but I’d heard more than one of the volunteers talk about him. One said he was a grumpy bastard. The other two who had mentioned him said he was stupidly flirty and got all flustered.
I didn’t know which version of him I preferred.
“Um.” Was I ever going to stop hesitating before I opened my mouth? “Hi. Do you have a minute?”
Dwight spun on his chair to face me. Not even the screens behind him made him look like anything other than what he was. Whenever I’d read someone described as sun-kissed, I thought it was an exaggeration. A hyperbole of some sort. There was no looking at Dwight and doubting he spent twenty-four-seven outside, though. It was in his tanned skin and his naturally streaked hair, but also the light in his eyes and the freckles spread around his nose.
