Page 31 of R for Rough

He nodded his approval. “Great thinking. Are you gonna wear a head lamp? Some of the brats were talking about that in the server.”

“Oh no, I’ll wait for my eyes to adjust,” I said. “Those guys are gonna be so easy to track down.”

We were already going to wear trackers that showed up on a screen and revealed our locationsomewhat. Not who was where, just thatsomeonewas in that area. For safety reasons, but also to give the Predators a clue. It was a big, big chunk of forest.

“I reckon it brings comfort,” he said. “Some are afraid of the dark—or get more scared when they’re on their own.”

And they had a point. I would undoubtedly be scared too. But… “I wanna get scared,” I admitted with a shrug.

He picked a new paring knife for his next task and slid me a quick glance. “You’re a little too perfect, boy. Can we discuss your flaws?”

Aw, shucks!

I blew him a kiss. “You’ll discover plenty, I’m sure.”

I felt like I was high.

“We’ll see, I guess,” he muttered. “Anyway. Madigan messaged me this morning about this interrogation play a few of the boys wanted to explore—Abel and the East Coast brat included.” He definitely had my attention. “We can put that back on the table if we remove the risks of you regressing.”

Oh! I hadn’t considered what that might be. I chewed on my lip as I dumped lime wedges into a container for the bar.

What could push me into a Little mind-set in the middle of a dark forest?

Certainly not the darkness or the forest itself. Pain didn’t do it either, except…

“Hmm.” I leaned over and washed my hands in the sink that separated our workstations. “I think it might be up to you in the end. How you behave around me—because you draw out the Little in me like you were born to do it.”

With my limited experience of regression, I could only say it was a mind-set I allowed myself to sink into when I was home alone. And the few occasions I’d played with a Daddy Dom, but even then…I’d been so careful. With Griffin, on the other hand… He had that magnetic pull. He made me wanna be little all the time.

If last night had revealed anything, it was that we had off-the-charts chemistry.

“Gimme a second to shoot that ego boost right up my veins,” he said, moving on to the seasoning for his blackened shrimp. I smirked and found him very adorable. I just loved how much he’d opened up. He was so honest with me. “Tomorrow, I won’t be a Daddy, sweetheart.” He paused and looked over at me. “You know what I mean, I hope. If you call out for Daddy, I’ll be there in an instant to make sure you’re all right, but I’m letting the primal Sadist take the wheel tomorrow, if that makes sense.”

It made perfect sense, and I appreciated his reassurance about, like, if I called out for him.

“I get it, totally.” I nodded.

He nodded once too. “So what about sex? Last night, you let go of your filters when I came at you harder.”

Crap. He had a point there. If he caught me and started fucking me in the middle of the forest, there was definitely a chance I might revert into a more vulnerable place mentally.

But, ohhhh! A takedown without Daddy fucking me? Come on!

“I can read your fuckin’ mind right now,” he laughed. “It’s written all over your face.”

I huffed and stuck out my tongue.

He just smirked. “I’m not saying we scrap sex, squirt. We couldwait. Till after the interrogation.”

I pursed my lips. “Wouldn’t we lose some of the excitement?”

He found that funny, and he gave me a look I could only describe as “ye of little faith.”

“You leave that to me,” he replied. “But to play it safe, I wanna add a safeword. If you, at any point, feel vulnerable and need me to be Daddy—once I hunt you down, you say blue.”

“Blue,” I repeated. Yes, that was a good plan. “Okay, I’ll do that.IfI feel the need.”

“Good boy. Then we can—” He stopped when the back door opened, and we both saw Taylor coming in. He looked very surprised—and no wonder! We’d finished all the prep.

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