“I’ll just look like a snack instead,” he said, swishing his hips and turning around like he was on display. A true snack. I would’ve devoured him if I didn’t have to get this cleaning done before I could rest.
Once cleaning was done and pizza was ordered, Leo helped me prep for the morning in the kitchen. I knew once I was off my feet, there was no way I was getting back up. The labor-intensive, being-on-your-feet part of running a bakery hadn’t been something I’d anticipated. I was used to an office job, and today my legs felt like they did that one time I ran the Chicago Marathon.
We spent the evening on the sofa, devouring the pizza and watching more episodes ofMurder, She Wrote, with Leo guessing the culprit every single time. It wasn’t that difficult, considering he’d seen most of them before, but it was fun to see him get animated, creating these elaborate plans and ideas.
Then dessert. We went down to the bakery kitchen and Leo pulled out the chocolate slabs from the fridge. “S’mores,” he said, raising the chocolate in the air. “I want them super melty this time.”
“As you wish, little one.” The marshmallows and graham crackers were here just for s’mores. I didn’t use them in any of my bakes, except for a graham-cracker-base cheesecake, which I was still perfecting the recipe of.
Cooking up a messy chocolate storm, neither of us wore aprons, and we lived to regret it, making big messes on both of our T-shirts. We might’ve made more mess than what I’d cleaned up earlier, but all of it was on Leo’s face, and I would happily spend the rest of the evening cleaning it away with my tongue. In fact, it was my preferred method of cleaning. Pulling him in close, our lips mushed together for a moment until I held him in place and licked the chocolate away. It was a secondhand s’more.
“Feel like a baby animal being cleaned,” he said with a giggle. It wasn’t the worst way to put it. I was absolutely taking care of him like a baby animal, but without the mouthful of fur. This was much more ideal.
“This doesn’t get you out of taking a shower with me,” I told him.
“I can’t believe you think I’d ever want to get out of that.”
He’d been bringing things over every time he stayed. Some of them were rubber duckies and bathroom toys that suctioned to the walls... all very innocently. He had a lot of stuff at his place, and I doubt he even noticed how much of it was now filling up my place.
From the bedroom, I could hear Leo preparing the bathroom for a little playtime before bed. I would’ve watched how he liked things set up, but in that moment, I’d lain back on the bed, my body not wanting to get up. My legs practically refused to function, even to haul my ass up into a seated position.
“Where did you put my clothes?” he called out. “I had some underwear and a T-shirt in a little bag in here.” He walked out of the bathroom in his crop top and a pair of tight briefs—the only thing my body responded to, springing upright. “Got your attention.” He turned around and pulled the fabric of his briefs between his cheeks like a thong, shaking his booty. “Are you hypnotized?”
In this tired state, I could easily have been hypnotized by his ass, begging for a kiss. “Your clothes,” I said. “They’re in a drawer.” I’d made the decision without asking him. I didn’t want him keeping his things in tote bags just lying around. “The top one of the dresser.”
“You gave me a drawer?”
“I gave you a full drawer,” I said, my body dropping back onto the bed, slipping into the center.
Leo grabbed my hand. “You’re not going to sleep yet,” he said. “You still have to shower, remember?”
“Do I smell that bad?” I asked, lifting my head and nestling it into a pit. “Ooh, yeah, I’m not fresh at all.”
He jumped onto the bed and stuck his face into my pit. “Mhmm, musky,” he said. “My favorite Daddy scent.”
With a little energy, I pushed his nose into my pit. “Now it’s all on you too.”
“So I am your little animal. You lick me and now you’re rubbing your scent all over me,” he said. “I mean, I could go missing amongst all these boxes up here, and that would be a good way for you to find out where I’ve gone.”
“See, one step ahead,” I said, taking his arm and encouraging him on top of me. “I’m so tired, little one. You’re gonna have to pull me with all your strength to get up.”
“I can’t do that if I’m on you,” he giggled, clenching his thighs around my waist and bearing down. “But since I’m such a good boy, I’ll give it my best shot.”
Eventually, we took a shower together. He played with his toys as I sat under the showerhead, making sure his lower half was washed clean. I didn’t know how long we’d spent under the water. I was wrinkled by the time we got out, and after a minimal rub down with a towel, I dropped into bed. I would usually have been instantly asleep, but we hadn’t read a bedtime story.
Even I was used to the habit now. I was part of our lives. And it was probably the most fiction I’d read in a while. It was nice, doing the voices, adding additional bits of story from the pictures we saw in the books. This lifestyle was freeing and defined my new comfort zone.
My new comfort zone with Leo. My little one.
11. LEO
There was a strange ease to being with Henry, and it was growing easier by the day. We’d started some lifestyle protocols, making sure I showered every evening. With him was a bonus. I had to eat my veggies, which I would request were blended into soups, and now smoothies. There was just something that pulled my face funny about a smoothie—a.k.a. cold soup—that I could not enjoy.
Scheduling good habits was also part of those protocols—brushing my teeth, drinking water, and making sure that we saw each other once per day, assuming I wasn’t staying at his place. Pineberry was so small that we saw each other several times a day anyway, but that was more to do with me being a customer and needing my coffee fix. He hadn’t charged me for a single coffee yet, even though I slipped the bills onto the counter—and eventually the tip jar.
Our new relationship was the talk of the town ... for a solid second. The town preferred gossip and rumors, which were hidden around the tables where the older folks ate lunch and drank their teas. As soon as something stopped being a rumor and was true, it faded from conversation.
At the town hall, I sat in Oliver’s office with him as we unboxed Sublime teddies. We had the door closed so people wouldn’t come barging through. This could’ve been official town business, and I did have a folder with a chart and graph made up with the stall plans for the end of summer festival. But first, the unboxing of these cute and sometimes ugly teddies.
