Page 17 of Learning to Run

Good grief.

I couldn’t decide if his list was sexy or insane, but theway Gareth was staring at Bates like he hung the moon said he thought it’d beenromantic.

His love language was nonsensical praise.

“Thank you, Sir.” Kissing Bates’s cheek, Gareth turned thatsappy smile on me. “I can’t wait to learn with both my Doms.”

Shoot.

My love language seemed to be just as stupid becausesomething about that smile turned me into an idiot.

“That doesn’t work on me.” Glaring, I refused to admit thatit did indeed work on me. “I’m not the one you should be trying to manipulate.”

Bates laughed but played dumb as Gareth just grinned. “Noone is getting manipulated. We’re just going to go cuddle.”

“Naked cuddling?” Gareth batted his eyelashes at Bates andrested his head on our silly Dom’s shoulder. “One of us should be naked and Ivolunteer as tribute.”

Ugh.

Bates nearly giggled. “Oh, you’re so sweet, but should wemake sure Cash doesn’t have a problem seeing your penis?”

I hated both of them.

Gareth nodded, biting his lips to keep from laughing. “Maybenot? He said he wasn’t scared of it, so we’re supposed to take him at his wordunless he safewords.”

He learned lessons at the weirdest times…and at veryconvenient times too.

“That’s very smart.” Bates squeezed my hand as I groaned.“He’s lucky to have both of us.”

I was?

That actually got another romantic sigh from the big lug. “Iknow. And I’m lucky to have both of you.”

I’d fallen into some kind of parallel reality.

That was the only thing that made sense.

The stupid spider at Christmas had bitten me and I was in acoma hallucinating or had developed weird mental powers because it was magic orradioactive.

“I’m lucky to have you both too.” Bates took his time givingGareth a soft kiss before turning to me and tugging me closer.

My kiss was gentle and slow, but as his tongue slippedbetween my lips and he started making love to my mouth, the tenderness took anerotic turn. I was moaning as he pulled away, rocking against him and Gareth.

Of course, Gareth thought the whole thing was romantic andsighed again with that fuzzy-looking smile. “You guys are so sweet.”

He’d clearly lost his mind when the spider had invaded.

“And you’re so sweet too.” Bates managed to keep the kissesto a quick peck that time, but I think Gareth and I would’ve both pouted if hehadn’t stepped back and tugged us toward the bedroom. “Cuddles with my sweetboys.”

“Naked cuddles.” Gareth’s eyes twinkled with excited desireas he gladly followed Bates toward the bedroom.

I had to admit, at least to myself, that part of me washolding my breath and worrying, but I’d mostly worked past the fears that hadkept popping up. Gareth trusted Bates. Bates was a good Dom. He’d protected usfrom Jude’s drama and had even promised to save Gareth from Brady.

Our Dom was patient and thoughtful, and he’d gone throughendless lists with Gareth to make sure he knew what Gareth was curious about.He’d even figured out several ways to test Gareth’s pain tolerance in sexy waysthat showed how much Gareth loved a slow-building kind of painful pleasure.

And he’d made sure I could see the flogging without Garethnoticing. By having Gareth close his eyes and making sure he was right where Icould see him as I peeked around the door, he’d given them privacy and let meunderstand the connection they were building.

If either of them had actually wanted complete privacy theywouldn’t have done it while I was in the kitchen, but the illusion was goodenough for me to test out how I felt about it in general. I hadn’t been jealous,but I’d been just as curious as Gareth usually was.

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