“Sam can be a little silly,” Rene mumbled from behind his hand. “I always thought I’d just stick with stoplight colors if I ever needed to have one, because… because that seems easier? Green for go and red for stop and… and yellow if I ever needed things to slow down? But Sam said that’s boring.”
I pulled his hand away from his mouth, pressing a kiss to the center of his palm, then holding it in both of mine as I smiled down at him. “You can use stoplight colors if you want, baby. They’re not boring, they’re clear. And Sam is a lot silly, but he’s a good friend to you, so I like him, too.”
“Oh,” Rene said, a soft exclamation of surprise. “You do? That’s… I mean, he is. And that’s really nice of you, especially when he, um…”
“Thinks I’m the bastard love child of Scrooge McDuck and a soulless corporate raider?”
Rene laughed again, then bit his lip like he wanted to hold it in, grinning up at me as he nodded. “Yes? Sorry.”
“You have nothing to be sorry about with me, sweetheart. Not ever,” I reminded him. “But when I was teasing you earlier about me making decisions for you, I obviously got something wrong. If you still want me to be in charge—”
“I do,” he said quickly.
I smiled. “I want that, too. I just need to know what exactly that means to you, and I think the stoplight colors will be useful in case I get it wrong again.”
“You didn’t,” Rene said, looking up at me so trustingly that something inside me ached. “Youcouldn’t.”
That wasn’t true, but I wouldn’t. His trust alone guaranteed that.
For a split second my rage from earlier in the day—the idea that he’d almost ended up with a “Daddy” who would never have deserved that trust, who would never have cherished him, who might have mistaken the gift of being given control for the right to disregard Rene’s true needs—coursed through me. But that wasn’t going to happen now, Rene hadme, so I pushed the thought away to focus on what was important.
Which was, which would always be, Rene.
“I need you to tell me clearly how much you want me to be in charge of, sweetheart.”
Rene’s eyes went wide again. “Um, whatever you… whatever you want? Just what you have time for, I mean. I’m not greedy.”
God, he was sweet to his core.
“Of course you’re not, baby,” I said, my heart feeling tender. “I’mthe greedy one here, because if I had my way, I’d be happy to be in charge of—”
“Everything,” he blurted, plucking the truth right out of my soul and—when I nodded, honestly feeling a little dumbfounded—trembling, ever so slightly, as he added, “Yes, please. Do that? Would you? If you really don’t mind? I don’t want to be a burden.”
He held his breath.
“Christ,” I said on an explosive breath, my cock suddenly throbbing. “No, baby. I don’t mind. Being in charge of you is a gift, never a burden. But youwilltell me if I overstep, do you understand? You will use those stoplight colors, or say ‘platypus’ if you need to.”
“I won’t need to,” he said, swaying toward me as his eyes brightened.
His eagerness slayed me. It was far too easy to picture him not just lying in my arms, but gasping and moaning there… which should feel more momentous, more earth-shattering to picture with a man who wasn’t Blair, for the first time in twenty years.
But instead, it just felt… right.
Just like taking the control he’d just offered me did.
“I wasn’t asking you, Rene,” I said firmly. “I’m telling you. Youwilluse your safeword if you need it. Do you understand?”
He flushed, but didn’t look away. “Yes… Daddy.”
He whispered the last word, a little shudder going through his body and a panting breath escaping him after he’d gotten it out. And damn if hearing him give me that title didn’t affect me, too.
“That’s right, beautiful,” I said, my voice like gravel. “You’re going to be so good for Daddy, aren’t you? Letting me take care of you the way you deserve, letting me sleep in the bed with you and Teddy, letting me pull you into my arms tonight, and—” I hesitated, just for a moment, searching his eyes, “—and letting me touch you the way I know you need—”
He nodded.
“—whenever I decide you need it—”
Another nod, his eyes locked onto mine with a desperate intensity that rocked my soul.
