Page 7 of Learning to Run

Gareth snickered as Bates moaned. “I really shouldn’t letyou distract me from what’s clearly a good story, but I guess formac-and-cheese and maybe some special time with the best cocksucker ever, Icould be bribed away from good gossip.”

They were both insane.

“I’ll do that and tell you the story because you’re a veryspecial Dom and a great boyfriend and you saved me from being held hostage.”Gareth was smiling wide and somehow sounded very sincere, so I couldn’t tellwhat was him being honest and what was him fucking with everyone.

Bates looked thrilled. “Wonderful bribes and a good story. Ihave the best boys ever.”

His best boys both got kisses before he settled back againstthe car again, not looking like he was going anywhere until the story had beentold.

Smart man.

Gareth was excited to make him happy and didn’t mind makingus look stupid, so he started right in on it. “Brady only calls her Mom. His dadcalls her sweetheart and stuff like that. The rest of the family isn’t anybetter about real names because Brady calls one of his brothers-in-law dickheadand everyone just knows who that is.”

Gareth shrugged because we hadn’t decided if it was mean tocall him that or just accurate because the guy was a dickhead.

“So we only heard her name once the first time we went over.”Gareth frowned, sighing as he explained the problem. “But they had the wholefamily over and it was like fifty people and a madhouse and we’d never seenanything like it and now we can’t remember if it was Karen or Kathy or Katy orsomething that just sounded like a K and is really another letter and callingher Karen would be rude if she’s not actually a Karen so she’s just Brady’smom.”

I couldn’t tell if the way he explained it made us soundless insane or more.

“Our families are small.” Now I was the one frowning andshrugging and trying to justify our stupidity. “We don’t even have cousins, soit was like walking into the zoo where every animal was running around free.They’re loud and everywhere.”

Bates somehow managed to look sympathetic and like he wantedto giggle. But after a deep breath, he ended up going for understanding. “Thatwould’ve been frustrating for you two and I bet Brady just thought it was somekind of idiosyncrasy that he was supposed to ignore so he wouldn’t be rude oraccuse you of being rude.”

Oh.

“Huh, that’s something I hadn’t thought of.” Gareth frownedat Bates. “I think we need to tell him it’s okay to be rude sometimes. It seemslike that would’ve made things a lot easier over the years.”

Gareth was probably right, but I wasn’t sure telling Bradyit was okay to be rude was the smartest thing we could do.

He’d probably take that entirely too literally.

“We’ll have to think about all the ways that could go wrongfirst.” Bates’s curious expression made me nervous. “I’ll have to make a list.”

Gareth sighed. “Does that one need to get figured out beforeI get my spanking?”

Pulling us both closer as he laughed, Bates hugged us tightand gave us more quick kisses. “No, my curious boy. No more lists for you.”

But did that mean Gareth would get his spanking?

The vibrations running through Gareth said he thought it didbut I wasn’t sure. Bates had originally wanted to make sure he knew Gareth’slimits and he wanted us to realize we’d already been a couple for a while.

Yep, we weren’t the brightest bulbs.

But I had a feeling Bates had also been using the “we’ll goslow” stuff to tease Gareth and to draw it out so he was excited and slightlydemanding, not nervous and worried.

Bates was smart enough to have figured out that logic rightoff the bat…but now what?

Gareth looked like he was trying to be patient but thatdidn’t work. He lasted about ten seconds before the silence got to be too much.“What does that mean? Is it no more lists but lots of questions? Do you knowwhat you want to do? Do you think I’m ready? Am I supposed to tell you that I’mready and not just be pushy?”

Huh, that might actually have been a good question.

Bates laughed, loving the insanity and dragging it out evenmore by giving Gareth another kiss and patting his ass. “I would never call youpushy.”

He was such a brat.

Just as Gareth was ready to explode and probably be so loudthe whole building would know our plan, Bates put him out of his misery. “Ithink my curious boy is ready for his spanking, and I’m going to spend the restof the day figuring out how to give you the best spanking ever.”

Gareth’s entire face scrunched up. “Am I supposed to thankyou for being considerate or pout because you’re dragging this out again?”

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