Bear whispered, “Oh….”
“You’re not stupid. Naïve, sure, but never stupid. Neither was the girl Allen found a new Dom for last year.”
I could practically feel how he thought everything through in a silent, intense way.
My phone beeped. The text was from Lila.
“Saturday at eleven at mine. Will get some littles for yours to play with.”
I smiled, then rolled my eyes fondly. Bear wasn’tmylittle. I was no Daddy Dom.
I sensed him looking at me, even though he lowered his gaze as soon as I glanced up.
“A Domme friend of mine is holding a Munch on Saturday. Will you come with me?”
Again, Bear’s eyes widened. He swallowed hard, appearing so much younger than his actual age.
“Uh….”
“Okay, let’s start from another subject,” I said, raising my hand. “Do you have anywhere else to go or would you like to stay here?” Before he could misunderstand, I added, “Even if you had another place, but felt better here with me for now, that’s completely fine. I have the space and I’d rather have you safe and comfortable, Bear.”
He let out a weary sigh. “I don’t have an apartment right now. While I was at Master Carl’s, my roommate moved his girlfriend in and apparently, they’re having a baby so that’s who the extra room will be for in like four or five months.” Bear made eye contact as if searching mine to see if I was being genuine with my offer, then smiled shyly. “I’d like to stay.”
“That’s set, then. You’re welcome to stay for as long as you want.”
“But I’ll pay rent.” His tone was firm, the kind that told me this was about his pride more than anything.
“Of course.” He wasn’t my submissive after all. Which brought us to the next subject. “So, since I’m a Dom and you’re a sub, I think we need some ground rules so our relationship won’t get muddled.”
He frowned. “What do you mean by that?”
“I mean that we’re living together as friends and are not in a D/s relationship.”
He mulled my words over and seemed a bit sad for a fleeting moment, then he said, “Okay, rules. Do you have a notepad?”
Bear
The negotiation of the house rules was very different from when I was talking through the contract with Carl. For one, this wasn’t a contract. It was an agreement between roommates and I’d better keep that in mind. And for two, none of the rules were about anything sexual. Because again, this wasn’t a contract like that.
We wrote down things like how much rent I’d pay, what my roommately responsibilities would be—cooking and cleaning but only if I wanted to, Luke was very clear about not wanting a slave. Which… I didn’t know what to do with that. If he’d wanted one, even a nonsexual one, I would’ve been at his feet in an instant.
Not only was the man kind and gorgeous, he had this sort of… don’t fuck with me aura that made me feel safe.
“What do you like?” I blurted out in the middle of our negotiations. “I mean, BDSM-wise?”
He looked at me and grinned ever so slightly. “I’m a very basic kind of Dom. I like bratty subs who enjoy being on their knees for me. Some impact play, some ropework, that sort of thing.” Then a shadow crossed his face as he dropped the eye contact. “I don’t even want a 24/7 relationship anymore.”
Something about his tone told me not to ask what “anymore” meant. There had been someone, clearly? Why wasn’t there anyone right now?
I changed the subject. “So, what kind of work hours do you keep?”
On Thursday, we had the whole day together, although Luke sketched some and I figured out my own work situation. I wasn’t behind on any of my freelancing stuff, because I’d used up so much of my free time at Carl’s by working.
Whenever he sent me out of sight, I kept working. Well, unless he explicitly told me to take a nap or something. Which he rarely did. I should’ve seen it before, the lack of care Master Carl had toward me. I’d been around Luke—Sir, I wanted to call him that so bad—for less than twenty-four hours and I felt like he cared about how I felt more than Master Carl ever had.
Luke and I made dinner together, and then we watched someLove, Death and Robotsepisodes. I insisted, and then hid my face during some of the short episodes because they were scary. But I loved the different styles of animation and storytelling a lot.
Luke hadn’t seen the show before and was fascinated from the start. The episode “Night of the Mini Dead” made him cackle, which I found endearing.
