“Of course. Spend some time with them. I’m sure they’ll appreciate it.”
“Don’t go far.”
“I won’t.” After a quick kiss goodbye, Quin headed for the door and went out into the night.
Rake caught up with him moments later. “I’m coming with you,” he announced, leaving no room for argument.
“All right.”
They strode in silence for a while, ambling down the small driveway and onto the nearest street. There weren’t many nearby houses, given how remote they were, and Quin couldn’t detect any scents that stood out to him as abnormal. They circled around towards the back of the cottage, following the well-trodden path across the grounds. It had stopped raining, the grass giving off that petrichor smell as Quin’s boots squelched in the mud.
“You seem to make Kit happy,” Rake said out of nowhere.
“I’d like to think so.”
“It’s good. He wasn’t happy when I met him.”
“In Brighton,” Quin said.
“We first met in Haywards Heath, but yes. I can’t say that I know Kit well even after all these years, but he and Shaun have a shared experience. I suppose what I’m saying is that I’m protective of him, despite the distance. It’s nice that he has someone.” It was the most that Quin had heard Rake speak in one go, and the sentiment floored him.
“I like knowing that he has you all, too,” Quin said.
Rake shot him a small smile. “He does. We have his back. Now,” he added abruptly, “can I ask you some questions?”
“Sure,” Quin said easily.
“Your dynamic—does it go beyond the bedroom?”
Quin blinked at the sudden turn in conversation. “Okay. I wasn’t expecting that. Um, sometimes, but not really? We’re figuring it out.”
“Would you want it to?”
“If Kit wanted it.” Quin didn’t know if this was a normal topic of discussion for Rake, but he himself rarely spoke about this to anyone. He’d stumbled onto Daddy kink via porn and realised he liked it, but he hadn’t ever been in a truly twenty-four seven dynamic. Quin resolved that once they had a moment to breathe, he’d sit Kit down and have a discussion to ensure he was doing right by his boy in addressing his needs.
Rake had a thoughtful expression on his face. “Do you ever go to kink clubs or play in front of others?”
Maybe Quin should have found it stranger to speak to Rake so openly about this when he barely knew the vampire, but Rake’s straightforward line of questioning had any self-consciousness he held dissipating. “Not so far,” he responded. “We’re not high protocol or anything like that. Less about rules, more about…” he trailed off, struggling to come up with the exact words to describe it.
“A power exchange?” Rake suggested.
“Sort of. He trusts me to give him what he needs, and I get off on showering him with attention. It’s working out for us so far.”
“It seems that way to me, too.” Rake paused, the silence a considering one, before he continued. “The reason I’m asking all this is because I wanted to see if you two would like to watch us have sex?”
“Watch you fuck? The three of you?” Quin’s voice only went a tad higher than his normal register, which he was glad of. His brain briefly went offline as he processed what Rake was suggesting. “Are DJ and Shaun all right with that?” he asked when he could string two thoughts together.
“They’re more than fine with it. Neither of them would shut up about it in the car once I suggested it. And we often do it in front of others,” Rake confirmed. “DJ’s even more of an exhibitionist these days. I wouldn’t have asked otherwise.”
“Of course not,” Quin said weakly. He still wasn’t quite over the initial question.
Rake raised one of his thick, dark eyebrows. “So?”
Quin floundered. “I’ll need to check with Kit,” he said.
“Kit’s…experienced listening in on Shaun and I before,” Rake said.
“Seriously?” Kit hadn’t informed Quin of that nugget of information.
