Page 48 of Wishes and Research

Daddy snickered. “And now you’re hungry again.”

“I am.” Lots of exercise. “Um, and then I got my massage, but we…I was tired and telling you about something.”

What had I said?

Being tired fried my brain.

“Oh, the man at the bakery.” He’d been weird. “He said stuff and I told you about it.”

Nodding slowly, Daddy waited quietly.

“Um, we talked a bit about my beetles.” I was pretty sure I’d told him they disappeared. “Then there was something about me deciding if I was a mage or a dragon?”

That was where the other random details got fuzzy, but the important blanks were starting to be filled in. “You…you didn’t tell me I sounded nuts and I don’t think it was just Daddy silliness.”

My beetles kept disappearing.

Poof.

I had it on camera.

The locals were weird.

Like, not normal kind of weird.

They’d talked about me being mated, not married, and everyone thought Daddy was going to keep me.

“Um, there are a lot of my beetles here.” That was curious in itself. “I didn’t expect to find so many.”

Daddy nodded slowly and spoke very carefully. “We have some very interesting local flora and fauna.”

That was an understatement.

“Um, do you know why things are so interesting around here?” Wait. “Is it why the trails are so weird?”

Daddy couldn’t seem to decide if he wanted to laugh or not, but he nodded. “Yes, it’s all connected.”

Nothing made sense but it was starting to make sense.

“Should…should you be explaining this to me?” Was he allowed to? “Do I want you to explain this to me?”

Daddy finally laughed but he shrugged. “Oh, those are very good questions. Yes, I can explain it to you, but I’m not sure if you want me to or not.”

Well, that was a frustratingly Daddy answer.

“What happens if I tell you that I don’t want to know yet?” Were there rules? “Do I have to know? I mean, I might want to know, but I need to know the…”

Ugh.

Daddy managed not to laugh but it looked hard. “I think you’re very curious and that you want to know. You can decide that we should just shelve the conversation for now, though, but it will have to come up again as we get closer.”

“Because you’re keeping me.” I was starting to think that hadn’t just been me thinking that he was happy to have a little or a sub.

“Yep.” Daddy grinned and kissed my nose. “We don’t have to live here if you don’t want to, though. I know you have a career and mine is probably more mobile.”

Wait.

“What do you do besides lead hikes? You said you did it part-time but then I got distracted. Everything around here is so distracting, Daddy.” His snicker said he agreed.

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