“What time is this breakfast, Sam?” I asked once I’d caught my breath enough to do it, resting a hand on Rene’s shoulder again.
“It starts at Right-Now O’Clock,” Sam said, crossing his arms and arching a brow at me in challenge. But then he looked at Rene and grinned. “But it will probably go on for half the day. It’s more like a brunch? So we can really show up whenever. You don’t evenhaveto get dressed, not really. Like, some of the Littles might show up in onesies just because they can?”
Rene darted a nervous glance my way, but I just shrugged. I still wasn’t entirely sure what “Little” meant in this context, but it sounded a lot like people role-playing and, while I’d never been kinky myself, I certainly wasn’t one to kink shame.
Still, Rene hesitated.
Hehadcome here for this though, so I assumed participating was what he wanted… but he’d also admitted that his interest was all theoretical so far. What he needed, obviously, was for me to take charge and make sure he got what he wasn’t comfortable asking for yet.
And taking charge? That was something I was always going to be happy to do.
“We’ll be down for breakfast in half an hour, Sam,” I said firmly. “Rene still needs a little time to get himself ready, so go on ahead and we’ll meet you there.”
“Wewill?” Rene asked, spinning to look up at me.
“You’renot invited, Mr. G,” Sam said at the same time. He threw up a hand to stop me from replying. “And don’t say you get to come just because you own the hotel, because that doesn’t matter. You’re not registered through Cuffd, and the breakfast room is going to be a safe space for Daddies and Littles to be themselves and not be judged by… by someone likeyou.”
“He won’t judge them,” Rene said quickly. “I mean, us? The Littles.” He looked back and forth between me and Sam nervously. Then, to me, “You wouldn’t, right? Because you… you didn’t mind about Teddy.”
“Of course I won’t, sweetheart,” I said, still not sure exactly what I was agreeing to or what his stuffed bear had to do with our breakfast plans, but more than willing to promise him whatever he needed. “And if you want me there, I’ll register for whatever you need me to. I told you last night. Anything you need, Rene.”
“Stop looking swoony, Rene!” Sam said fiercely, hands back on his hips. “Don’t fall for this Daddylicious act of his. Bradley and Dennis told me what kind of person hereallyis—he wants to sell off the Plum just to make money!—and when he called to steal your room, he washorrible.”
I… probably had been. Although Sam was wrong about one thing. I didn’t give two shits about the money.
Still, “I’m sorry about that, Sam. I shouldn’t have treated you that way. If itwasyou that I spoke to when I called in?”
He harrumphed without answering me, but I strongly suspected it was.
“Everyone has bad days, Sam,” Rene said, which was gracious of him, given that it had been a bad five years in my case, “but Edward isn’t trying to trick me. Iknowhe’s not. And just because he’s not on Cuffd, that doesn’t mean it’s an act. He’s—” He gave me a shy look that did things to my heart I might never recover from, “—he’s really good at taking care of people,” he finished softly. “Even if he doesn’t want to be an actual Daddy.”
I wanted to be whatever he needed.
I pulled him close again, and he melted against me like he knew he belonged there.
Sam wasn’t entirely wrong about me, though. I’d been abrupt and downright rude to plenty of people under the guise of just doing business over the last five years, but that armor was already cracking, ill-fitting now that the boy in my arms was here to remind me of who I’d once been… and who I wanted to be again.
“Oh my God,” Sam said, shaking his head and throwing up his hands. “Okay,fine. Bring him then. You’ve obviously already drunk the Kool-Aid, but maybe getting around some real Daddies will snap you out of it.”
Before I could react—because I had no idea what the hell a “real” Daddy was, but whatever they had to offer him, they were damn well going to have to understand that I was here first—Sam jabbed a finger at me.
“Wait, no. What about your meeting?”
“I’ll reschedule it.”
Sam’s eyes narrowed.
“I know,” I said preemptively before he could go into attack mode again. “I was the hardass who insisted it happen first thing this morning, and now, after no doubt inconveniencing your management team and The Plazerra’s staff by requiring them to make time for it when you were all busy preparing for this kink weekend, I’m going to put it off, and probably disrupt their schedules even more. But Sam?”
“What?” he said waspishly.
I fixed him with a hard stare. “Idoown the place, and that’s my prerogative. One I’m exercising now because, while I do regret being so inflexible about it when I first called, none of that matters to me as much as Rene does.”
“Oh,” Rene said softly, his eyes going as bright as a summer sky.
Even Sam’s eyes finally softened. “But… you just met him,” he said in a weak echo of his former outrage. Then his eyes widened as he whirled on Rene. “I mean, not that youshouldn’tmatter the most, Rene. Of course you should! I just…him? Really? Are yousureit’s not Stockholm Syndrome?”
“Isn’t that a kidnapping thing?” Rene asked, a single wrinkle appearing between his eyebrows.
