Page 25 of Viking Ink

“That goes without saying, but that’s not what I meant. You’re doing a good thing for him. Anybody can see that. But I saw how you looked at him, how you kept checking on him.”

“And?”

“You look at him like he hung the moon. You’ve not looked at anyone like that since—”

“Don’t,” I gritted out. “I—just don’t.” I noticed Cal and Rez had made themselves conspicuously absent, the traitorous bastards.

“Don’t get all grumpy. I’m only pointing out that even I can see that he’s special.”

Fuck, I hated it when Mitch got reasonable. “He is,” I ground out. “And I won’t take advantage of him.”

“One,” Mitch held up a finger. “He’s twenty, not a kid. And two? It’s not taking advantage if the attraction is mutual.”

I really wanted to punch him in the face right now for being so damn perceptive. Instead, I made a rude noise, hating how what Mitch said made sense. The only argument I could find rose to the surface. “He knows nothing of the stuff I’m into. If he knew about the Daddy stuff, he’d run for the hills.”

Mitch let out a rude snort of laughter. “Dude, you’ve already been Daddying the fuck out of him, and he likes it. Shit, I’d say maybe Rhys is a little and doesn’t know it.”

“You can’t just assume shit like that, Mitch,” I said, conveniently ignoring the fact that I’d had the same thoughts.

“I’m not assuming anything, brother. And I think Rhys is a lot more open minded than you give him credit for,” Mitch answered firmly.

“I’m done talking about this. Please just keep your theories to yourself. I don’t want to risk alienating Rhys.” I knew I was lying to myself and my brother. Yeah, I was already falling for Rhys, but I wasn’t going to risk pushing him away and taking away a safe home just because I couldn’t control my desires.

Chapter 8

RHYS

It had been two weeks since Simon had found me, and I couldn’t believe how much my life had changed already. Simon had helped me get my birth certificate and other ID without any risk of my dad finding out. I finally felt like I was living my life.

Working for Doc was both challenging and fun, but I decided Doc was like a mix of my favourite Muppets. If things weren’t going his way, he became a little like Animal—lots of growling and arm flailing—but it was mostly him being dramatic, and I couldn’t help but find it funny. The quickest way to appease the Doc was a tray of chocolate biscuits and a strong cup of tea—the Cookie Monster side coming out. I’d never met anyone who enjoyed chocolate biccies quite as much as Doc Cullen did.

When I wasn’t working at the surgery, I was spending a lot of my time at Viking Ink. Their computer system was a mess, but it had only taken a few afternoons to sort out. They now had a proper booking app, and I’d even managed to sort out their accounts system. Simon had said very solemnly that their accountant may praise my name to Jesus and send me flowers for that.

When I wasn’t working, Simon had kept his promise and filled a folder with pages of tattoo flash for me to colour. Some evenings I would sit and colour at the small kitchen table with Mr Ted and Mr Huff, the bear Simon had given me. It was funny how Simon never batted an eye as I coloured and talked to my bears. It was almost as if he enjoyed it, and he encouraged me to spend time doing it. I wasn’t complaining. It had become my favourite time of day—although if I was honest, any time I spent with Simon was fast becoming my favourite time of day.

That where I was now, carefully colouring in a giant fish. Simon called it a koi. I just said it was a gigantic goldfish, which made him laugh. I really liked the sound of Simon’s laugh.

My brain always felt fuzzy when I was drawing or playing with my teds, but it wasn’t a bad feeling. I’d been embarrassed and self-conscious the first time Simon found me playing with my bears, but he hadn’t acted like it was strange. He’d asked if I had a drink, and even brought me snacks, and since then I hadn’t felt as embarrassed to seek my happy place around him.

Today I had finished later than normal at the surgery. The day had been stressful, with cranky patients and Doc in a less than stellar mood. I had just wanted to go home—and yes, that was how I was now thinking of Simon’s small flat with its mismatched furniture and pretty view of the bay, but most importantly to me, it was where Simon was. He filled the space with warmth and humour, which was how I’d always imagined a home should feel.

I threw my jacket and bear beanie on the hook Simon had put by the door with my name written under it in bright letters. Beneath it, he’d put another square cubby like the one he already had, this one so I could put my bag on top and shoes neatly inside.

Running to my room, I threw off my constrictive work clothes until they sat in a pile on my floor. Searching my bedroom, I found the track pants and sweater Simon had originally lent me. They smelt still of Simon, even though they’d been washed since he’d lent them to me. Pulling the jumper to my nose, I inhaled deeply. I already felt lighter, my limbs looser. I grabbed Mr Ted and Mr Huff and made my way out to the living room. My pencil box and paper were on the sideboard along with a couple of new colouring books Simon had found for me.

I sighed and dropped the teds onto the sofa. “Been sitting at a desk all day. Don’t want to sit at the table and draw.” I stuck out my bottom lip, then looked at the soft rug that lay near the gas heater. Pencil box and books in hand, I flopped on the rug. This would be perfect. Hmm. Wait. I reached up and grabbed Ted’s down, wanting them close. That way I could talk to them about how sucky today was.

I was engrossed in making sure I kept the colour in the lines. The new pencils Mitch had helped me pick out were perfect. I liked hanging out with Mitch. He was becoming my second closest friend, apart from Simon. I liked that Mitch was easy to talk to, and that he got that sometimes my head went into my fuzzy space. He said he sometimes got like that, but not so much these days. He said his ex, who was a wanker—I snorted back a laugh at the bad word—hadn’t liked it when Mitch had slipped into little space. That was what Mitch called the fuzzy place, and I liked the name, because it suited how I felt—small, young and carefree.

It felt so good to not feel alone in this, or ashamed. There was still a lot I didn’t understand, but Mitch had showed me some groups online where they talked about being little. I’d barely scratched the surface of any of this when Dad had caught me looking at it. There was a lot of information and I’d gotten overwhelmed quickly, especially when they talked about their Daddies and things they did. So now I took my time, reading the blogs a little at a time, finding out more about the lifestyle. It seemed that Daddies and Littles were under the umbrella of kink, and a search on different kinks had me shutting the laptop I’d borrowed from Mitch in a hurry—only to blush furiously and start reading again.

What the hell was figging? Oh, no. That was not for me.

The information left me with a lot of questions, which I’d told Mitch when we’d gotten together for what was becoming a regular cake and coffee time on Tuesday afternoons, when I didn’t work and Mitch didn’t have clients. Mitch had suggested talking to Simon, but God, no. That would be all kinds of embarrassing. What if he thought I was weird? Mitch just shook his head and assured me that Simon wouldn’t. During our coffee date, which we usually had in Callum’s cottage, Mitch had admitted he was like me, just learning about his little side, and he hadn’t had much of a chance to explore it.

With Mitch, I finally had a friend close to my own age who I could talk to about anything and everything. He helped calm my nerves, and tried to convince me that my kinks, as he called them, were nothing to be ashamed of or embarrassed about.

I still hadn’t been brave enough to speak to Simon, and honestly, part of the problem was that while I was reading the blogs about the things the Daddies and littles did, I started to imagine that it was Simon and I—the result being, I had spent quite a bit of time this last week having cold showers.

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