Page 15 of Daddy’s Rules

5. BENJI

My first time as a member was on the weekend.

I’d told my friend Theo, practically thanking him for standing me up the other week when I met Max. It was all thanks to him I’d looked lost and alone. And why I was here now, fresh from the changing room in my comfy onesie with the back flap and my teddy from home, the lion named Lionel.

It was so much more different than I imagined it being. I’d seen on the tour, all the rooms, all the things on offer, but now I was a member, I was seeing the place completely differently. There was calm, quiet, and people who paid to be here—or were paid to be here and kept to themselves.

Most of the playrooms were empty, since there were two floors filled with them. People had so much choice of space to use. Max took me to his favorite room, which was a room filled with giant overly stuffed teddies. He sat on the leather sofa in the room, sinking into it. He yanked me onto his lap and we sat there together, looking at the largest teddy bear I’d ever seen in my entire life.

“Is it bouncy?” I asked him.

“There’s only one way to find out,” he said, kissing me on the cheek. “But I don’t want you to leave my lap yet.”

“Are you hiding a boner?” I asked, giggling.

“No, maybe.” He winked at me and my entire body shivered with want. “I just like to feel you on me.”

After we’d discussed how we’d both been unable to contact each other, and both thinking we’d done something wrong, we’d been clinging to each other in our spare time—or my spare time, which meant the gym had been replaced with him, working me out in his loft apartment. The type that let light pour in and made me want to wear an oversized white shirt, tube socks, and hold a cup of steamy hot coffee. He made me feel more than just wanted, he made me feel needed in a way that wasn’t work. He needed my touch, tongue, taste. He needed me, and I needed him.

“Have you been studying?” he asked.

“Of course,” I said. “As much as I like spending time with you, I wanna get into law school even more.”

“Good, because I might have a job lined up for you once you graduate,” he said, squeezing a kiss against my face.

“I don’t think I’d want to work for you, but it’s years in the future, a lot could happen before then,” I told him.

He chuckled. “Not for me, well not directly, but I do want you to have the best job possible.”

“Don’t jinx it,” I said, pressing both hands to his mouth.

“I really like you.” His words were muffled behind my hand. “You know that, right?”

My entire face heated up. I knew that, we’d practically been chasing each other around town in our thoughts. Of course he liked me, and I liked him, and together we liked to play. “I know,” I said softly into a giggle. “And it makes it even more special because I know how picky you are.”

He let out a slightly raspy chuckle. “Only from what I’ve told you,” he whispered. “The truth is, I’m more choosy than that, because I believe if the universe wants me to have something, it will bring it to me.” He leaned in and kissed me on the cheek. “And I think the universe wanted me to have you.”

“Or it wanted me to have you.”

Daddy squeezed me, and kissed me on the wrinkle of my nose, then on my lips. “The big bear is yours to jump on, baby,” he said. “I wanna see you throw yourself at it, arms wide.”

My heart raced, and childlike wonder tingled through me as I questioned how soft it was going to be before I could even touch it. I rolled around off Daddy’s lap and slinked from the sofa like a snake, slowly falling mostly, but in a graceful way.

“I wish I could take a picture of it,” I said, standing to my feet. I turned to see my lion teddy sitting in Daddy’s lap. He was cradling it like he had done me, like a baby, his baby.

“Rules are rules,” he said, stroking the teddy lion’s mane. “And without them, everything would be chaos. Plus, why do you need pictures, when you can come here, again and again? You don’t have to live in the memory of photos and videos with me.” He leaned over his lap, gesturing with a finger for me to come closer.

“I don’t,” I let out softly.

“With me, you can have those feelings and memories happen, again and again,” he said. “So of course, savor the moment, baby, but remember, this is all for you. Right now, at least.”

I nodded, leaning in and taking another one of his delicate kisses, the type of delicate that signaled we’d be a little bit more playful tonight.

The teddy bear had been stuffed to the point of bursting with fiberfill and small polystyrene balls like a beanbag. I jumped right on it and they spilled out. I think that was the entire point, to be ready to burst, to let whoever was playing jump around on it and play with all the insides.

I made snow angels with it on the ground and tried to cover myself in it.

Daddy got involved, on his knees, chasing me around in the mess I’d made.