Everyone looked at Lane but no one said it.
He’d kind of stalked his boyfriend before they’d become official.
“Going to coffee shops where interesting people might show up is not stalking.” I’d looked up the definition of that just to be sure. “And I think that weird thing is debatable.”
I was curious and awkward but they were all another level of strange.
“We’re happy. We’ve got good jobs. We’ve got loving Masters, Handlers, and Owners.” Emerson frowned, which looked kind ofodd on him because he was usually smiling. “One Owner. Just mine so far.”
“So far?” Kenton did a wiggle in his seat and looked a bit like a puppy, making me wonder when the last time he’d gotten to run around and play was.
Last Tuesday during the photo shoot?
He needed more exercise than that.
“Owner has the most interesting friends.” Emerson’s excitement made me nervous. “Most are online but a few are in town.”
Oh.
“They’re just having a hard time finding dolls to care for because the marketing around it is terrible.” He was shaking his head like it was sad, but I was pretty sure he was talking about living out some kind of old Criminal Minds episode…no that Las Vegas show that was so weird.
The reruns of that were insane.
And not always very nice to kinky people…okay…none of them were nice to kinky people. Maybe he wasn’t going to end up stuffed or having fake tea parties where he was drugged?
“We need to work on how they present it.” Lane settled back in his chair like it was a reasonable discussion. “It can’t be that hard to show it off in a better light. You’ve got a man who wants to take care of you and dress you up and play with you until you orgasm. This isn’t weird. It’s cute.”
Well, when he put it that way.
“I know.” Emerson shrugged. “But I’m working on ways to fix that.”
He was?
Was that supposed to sound scary or had that been accidental?
“Playing dress-up is the best and more people need to understand that.” Shaking his head, Emerson seemed to think the whole conversation was perfectly normal. “One day I can be a fairy princess who’s getting ravished by an evil prince and the next, I can be Beauty getting punished by the Beast. She needs to learn boundaries.”
She did?
Maybe I needed to go back and watch that again?
I’d only done the Disney classics once…had that not been enough?
“Oh…we need to watch that at the next sleepover.” Ian’s eyes got wide and even I could see his little side peeking out. “Let’s do that next weekend.”
Was I supposed to respond to that?
I wasn’t going to get drunk and naked with them no matter how normal they made it sound.
“Yes. We’ll plan out my next scenes with Owner.” Emerson somehow made that word seem reasonable to use even though it had several other customers around us blinking in confusion. “We can decide how he’s going to punish his Beauty.”
He made that sound reasonable too.
“Do all Owners play with their dolls that way?” I hadn’t been able to find anything sensible online…just weird people complaining about confusing things and those stupid TV episodes that couldn’t be what Emerson was talking about.
Even he wasn’tthatweird.
“Every Owner is different just like every doll is different.” Settling into what looked like a studious professor kind of mode, Emerson didn’t think my question was out of place. Which was actually nice because I got told to shut up and stop being weird on a regular basis. “My Owner makes costumes and pretty outfits for me because that’s the way he shows his creative side and his love. But other Owners would do different things to show their dolls how much they’re loved and appreciated.”
