Page 24 of Controller's Obsession

“No. I won’t leave the room.” Peni wiggled, trying to get free. “I just need you to close your eyes for two minutes.”

“I enjoy looking at you.” Merihem was grinning and probably thought he was teasing, but Peni was close to breaking point.

Reaching up, he grabbed Merihem’s face and squeezed it. Not hard. He’d never hurt his mate, but enough to get his attention.“I want you to do this one thing. Let me up and close your eyes. Please.”

“If you want me to close my eyes, you shouldn’t be sitting on me naked.”

“That wasn’t intentional. I want you to close your eyes so I can get dressed.” Merihem clearly didn’t get it. He probably walked around all day with his cock bouncing from thigh to thigh in his human or his demon form and didn’t care if people looked. Hadn’t that been how they’d met in the first place? The problem was Peni wasn’t like that.

“Properly,” he added as Merihem closed his eyes halfway. “All the way shut.”

“You’re not very trusting for a blissful one,” Merihem grumped, but his eyes finally closed.

Jumping up, Peni grabbed his clothes, thanking the Fates and anyone else he could think of that his goat form was so small. His clothes weren’t ripped, but Peni was all fingers and thumbs trying to get them on. His pants suddenly seemed too tight, and he almost fell over, dancing on one leg, trying to get his other foot through the hole. His shirt was inside out, and Peni had no idea when that happened. That was more time needed, turning it in the right way before tugging it over his head.Shoes. Shoes. I know I had shoes.

Peni saw the edge of one poking out from Merihem’s butt. There was no sign of the other one.He’s probably sitting on it.“I’m dressed,” he said out loud. “You can get up now.”

Merihem stood up with a dancer’s grace. Peni felt something stir in his lower belly, but he squashed it down. His brain was a mass of jellybeans, and none of the colors were sorted.

He darted around his mate and grabbed his shoes, sitting again so he could slide them on. He didn’t want to fall over with Merihem watching. “So, what’s the story with the special taxicab? Is it like Cinderella’s coach and turns into a pumpkin at midnight?”

Chapter Thirteen

Merihem

He couldn’t hold back his chuckle at how adorable his blissful one was.Cinderella.Dakata would choke on his own spit at that type of reference to him. It couldn’t be Silas as it was definitelyDakata who was the one who’d run from Silas, just like the girl in the fairy tale, not the other way around.

“Where Silas and Dakata live, it’s kind of secret,” Merihem explained, not that it was exactly true. Otherwise, how would the rogue demons have kidnapped Wanda, Silas’s sister, mistaking her for Dakata’s blissful one? “There’s a special taxi driver that Silas uses to take folks to the forest,” he continued when Peni didn’t look convinced.

“Then it’s not a secret.”

Back was the adorable, confused look that made Merihem click his fingers to dress to hide his reaction. Using small amounts of his magic couldn’t be bad, could it?

He shook off the worry when it came to being a supportive mate to their little goat, who wasn’t ready for him to be naked and fully aroused. He’d gotten some of Peni’s thoughts, despite how he’d tried to keep them to himself. Scaring him was not the aim, especially when Merihem didn’t miss how relieved Peni looked at him when he had clothes on. Nakedness was not something he ever concerned himself with, in fact, Merihem preferred it. He needed to make sure to remember to wear clothes with Peni—regardless of how restrictive they felt to him—when it made his blissful one happier. Why couldn’t someone come up with a range of clothes that didn’t feel like he had any on?

“Are we going? Or I could—”

His thoughts snapped back into focus at where Peni’s opinions were about to circle back to staying home. “Nope, staying isn’t an option right now.” Despite the fact that he’d dealt with Mrs. Danials, his senses were telling him to be careful. “I’ll ring Scott, and he can call George.”

Peni didn’t look convinced, but he took Merihem’s outstretched hand and followed as Merihem retrieved his phone and called Scott. A minute later, they were waiting at the curb for the taxicab.

“So this forest, is it special?”

Merihem gave Peni a thoughtful look. “Silas is a dryad and so is his sister. They look after the forest, protect it from those silly enough not to treasure the benefits it gives to everyone.”

Peni’s smile was slow in coming, yet when it appeared fully, Merihem couldn’t look away. The sun was bright in the sky, yet it didn’t hold the same warmth as the smile Peni aimed at him. “He sounds like he does a worthwhile job.”

“He does,” Merihem agreed. There weren’t that many dryads left in the world. Humans weren’t all about understanding what evolution did to the planet.

A cab pulled to a stop and Merihem bent to look in the open window, keeping hold of Peni’s hand. “You, George?”

“Yep,” the big guy muttered around a toothpick he had between his lips. “You Merihem?”

“I am. This is my blissful one, Peni,” he announced, liking the way it sounded as he said it.

Peni made a kind of odd squealing-bleating noise as Merihem opened the door of the cab for Peni. His cheeks were a pretty pink as he slid into the cab at Merihem’s gentle nudging.

On their way seconds later, Peni looked out the window, chewing on his lower lip. Merihem focused, and though it took a minute or two, he managed to figure out what was worrying Peni the most. He wasn’t sure prying in his blissful one's thoughts was the done thing. He’d already gotten into enough trouble, so he debated how to approach the subject of what was playing on Peni’s mind.

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