Page 23 of Culture and Curiosities
More giggles poured from my mate. “Yep, that’s a romance reader for you.”
Romance.
That was unexpected as well but made sense with the information I had at hand.
“I wonder if he wants to go to the used bookstore tomorrow?” Wren smiled when my confusion was obvious. “Our books come in physical forms called paperbacks too. I’m not sure if you’d have seen anyone reading them in the diner, though. Well, anyway, we have stores that just sell used books. Once you read it, if you know you don’t want to read it again then you can trade it in for other books.”
Ah.
“And the best part for Klynn is that it’s run by a human, so no naughty diner men running around.” Wren’s walk gained more excitement as he talked about another shopping hunt. “There are a lot of stores on the other side of town that are run by local humans who pretend that the mages and dragons are perfectly normal.”
His shrug and exaggerated expression made his belief on that obvious. “It’s all pretend, though, because I have to promise that I’m not a local every time I go in one of those stores. It’s funny, but they’re making me wonder what the other dragons and mages have gotten up to.”
Sighing, he shook his head. “Yesterday I had to promise one of the store owners that I wouldn’t talk about sex toys.”
They had met the diner men.
“I have started learning about those as well.” Another curious human influence. “You are my mate, so it is appropriate to discuss those, correct?”
“Yes.” Looking shopping-excited at the idea, Wren performed a bouncy walk I thought was a skip and radiated something like happiness. “We’re not supposed to talk about that kind of stuff in public, no matter what the locals think, but we can talk about anything.”
Feeling relieved, I nodded and tried not to appear afraid of the curious devices. “Do you have a need for anything…painful?”
The men in the diner may have been too helpful.
My Wren’s eyes widened and he actually stopped moving. “No, Daddy. Nothing painful or scary like I think you’re imagining. Fun stuff that you can tie me up with or dress me up in or that will give mild pain. We don’t have to do anything scary and just having you as my Daddy and mate would be enough for me.”
He paused before hurrying back into the topic. “And regular sex. I need that too.”
“It is good that you understand your needs, my mate.” One of us understanding the process should be sufficient. “I am counting on you to articulate all of your needs with regard to mating and what some of the people in the diner called intimacy.”
That word had a variety of meanings as well.
“You can count on me, Daddy.” For some reason, the promise seemed to trigger his youthful side because there was a noticeable change in his…his everything. He stood straighter and looked to be pretending to be grown-up without actually being one. “I can do it. I’ll tell you what I want and we’ll figure out what you like. There’s lots of stuff we can do.”
How did being little go along with our current discussion?
I questioned that issue as he went back to swinging my arm and speaking faster in a manner I thought was chattering.
“I can put my mouth on your penis or you can do it to me. They can be licked or sucked on and you can kiss it too. Everything down there can be pet and licked and kissed as longas you take a shower or clean up in a stream, or oh, you might know a spell.” His level of innocent excitement did not match the topic. “That would be good because then we wouldn’t have to worry about it no matter where we go.”
All I could do was nod because I agreed that being clean was important to intimacy and mating. That was all he needed to keep going even though I wasn’t sure when he’d have to stop and process his thoughts.
“I like going, so making sure we can do all that here, there, and everywhere is important. Then there’s touching all the fun places and licking other places.” Wren looked down at his body like he was picturing all the places where licking could take place, and the thoughts he was inspiring were…curious.
His seemed very practical, however, which may have been because of his change in headspace as the diner men called it.
Having more context for their lectures was incredibly helpful.
“Nipples have lots of good nerve endings too so they like attention and ears too, surprisingly, and once we’ve done lots of licking and kissing then we can start putting stuff in my butt. Like your fingers and your penis and even some cute toys.” Anything that could be played with made him happy, so I understood his bright smile. “I’ve got a toy that goes in my butt and makes it look like I have a tail.”
A tail?
Oh.
The diner men weren’t discussing half-shifted creatures?
I was so grateful for that I struggled to keep focused on the current discussion.
