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I must’ve looked like a startled squirrel because he let out a great big belly laugh. “You didn’t know. God, Ruslan. How could you not have noticed how into you I was from the first time we met?”
“Just special, I guess?” Ugh, I was an idiot. “In my defense, I don’t notice that kind of stuff a lot.”
Another professor had told me it was probably a defense mechanism to protect myself against all the ridiculousness on campus, but that sounded a bit insane.
“I’ve tried to keep work and little stuff very separate, so that’s probably why I tried to ignore it?” I was worried he’d get offended at some point, but he just kept grinning and shaking his head.
“Well, I think we can both agree on the fact that you’ve finally noticed?” He waited, clearly not going to budge until I’d answered.
Daddies were so frustrating sometimes.
“Yes, I noticed.” But now what? “Thank you for playing with me?”
That seemed like a logical next step in the conversation but it made him smile even wider. “You’re welcome and thank you for letting me come over to play.”
I was stuck on what to say next, but Dante didn’t seem to have that problem.
“Are you in the right frame of mind for me to ask you out on a grown-up date? I can’t decide if asking now would make you too uncomfortable and you’d say no out of panic, or if you’d say yes just to make me go away.” Dante was studying me but he didn’t look worried about the answer.
I wasn’t sure if that made it harder or easier to respond.
He was weird.
“Um, honestly, I’m not sure I’ll be in the right frame of mind until we’ve been dating a month?” God, didn’t that send mixed signals. Dante’s smirk said he’d realized that too. “But I’m not really a panic and agree person. I’m kind of the hide under the table and call someone to rescue me type.”
Instead of laughing, he nodded. “So if I made you uncomfortable and you couldn’t use your words to explain that, then I can be confident you’d call someone like Jack or Malcolm to come to the rescue?”
“Yes, they’re very good in all kinds of panic, no matter if it’swhat do I have for dinnerorhelp I got voluntold to be on a committee at the university.” That finally got a laugh out of him. “It’s very traumatic sometimes.”
“I bet.” Pushing away from the counter, he slowly started making his way over to the table. “We’re both going to take a moment and remember that we discussed safewords.”
Oh.
My heart skipped a beat, but I nodded. “We both use stoplight colors.”
“Good boy.” Somehow it didn’t sound condescending coming from him even though he was younger than me. In fact, I was having a very hard time remembering why asking to kneel for him would be a bad idea.
Because it would…right?
Stuff like that always went pear-shaped at the very best of times…but this was Dante.
When he finally made it over to the table, he stood right in front of me, making me look up at him. “You like being praised.”
He hadn’t actually asked a question, but I nodded anyway. “Yes.”
He was so…
When he started shaking his head, I completely lost track of what I’d been thinking. “How do you say it?”
I must’ve looked confused or stupid because he tried again. “When you respond, how do you answer me? Tell me what options would be polite.”
My brain went blank for about five seconds until reality popped into place again.
“Sir. I could have said Sir.” Swallowing as he nodded, I tried to make my brain work. “I could’ve called you Daddy.”
I liked both of those.
Oh, I probably needed to tell him that.
