Page 15 of Snuggle Bug

"I’ve never thought about my cummies in that way!"

I can't help but laugh. "Let me tell you something, boy. You don't know how much your submission means to me. Your trust. You have faith in me, yes you do. Lots of boys fail to trust their Daddies. They brat off, give them lip, put their hands on their hips, and give their Daddies a handful. Not you. Whereas others throw temper tantrums to get what they want, until their Daddies have no choice but to spank them, you’ve never once given me reason not to shower you with praise. Most of my Daddy friends can’t believe how perfect and well-behaved you are."

Calloway sniffles. "I’ve been well-behaved because I want you to take the next step with me. If I upset you, you’ll never help me relieve my cummies. Or play with your wee."

"Oh, you can play with my wee anytime you like. And I love playing with yours, baby boy. Let's not trick ourselves—yours is as perfect as they come."

Calloway buries his face in my neck. "You know just what to say to make me feel seen in a way that no one ever has before. Thank you."

"It's my pleasure."

"No one praised me like this growing up. Not my mother, not my father, not my cousins who teased me, who said I was too puny and small to ever please a girl. I never wanted to please a girl. I wanted a protector. One to take care of me. To cut my sandwiches into triangles, help me brush my teeth like you do, and allow me to be my true self."

"Always be your true self around me, precious boy. That's what makes me happy."

"You have to do the same around me."

I smile, then kiss his nose. "Damn right I do. We'll always be honest with each other, and never hide who we are."

Calloway rubs the palm of my hand. "Do you have any more secrets to confess? I told you my biggest ones, for the most part." His voice trails off as if there's still another secret he has to tell me. I decide to let him come to me with it on his own time and not pry.

I mull this, then shake my head. "Not that I recall. The big one is that I’ve wanted to make love to you for a long, long time. Even from that very first picture you sent me of you in the park."

Calloway lifts his head up. A rosy flush blooms on his cheeks, lending him the air of a Venetian villager bending into a body of water to catch a crab, almost like this one Rodin-esque sculpture in the V&A Museum in London just blocks from Hyde Park that I saw the last time I was in the UK for a conference. "You remember the first picture?"

It’s impossible not to smile. "Of course I do. How could I not? It was the first time I saw your perfect face. Your lips, your soft cheeks, your blue eyes that not only contain undiscovered aquatic species, but the secrets of the universe. One glance told me everything I needed to know about my desires, my soul, and myself. I wanted you. I knew I had to have you. It was non-negotiable."

A two-week old baby kitten with the softest fur couldn’t rub its cheek against my collarbone quite like Calloway. I inhale the berry scent of his shampoo, closing my eyes, and push out a breath of gratitude.

I’m grateful.

To whom, I’m not sure.

The gods of the universe.

The ones that allowed Calloway and I to meet here on Earth.

Clearly, we were long-lost lovers in Heaven. Twin flames that have known each other since the dawn of time.

We were given the gift of reconnecting in this world. That’s not a present many humans are given.

I thread a strand of Calloway’s hair over his right ear. "I’m falling for you more with every passing moment."

Calloway’s dewy red lips hover mere inches from mine. They remind me of the apples in the orchard close to where I grew up, that I’d love to grab when the sun came up in the morning. Sometimes, the neighbor boy would run out of his house with his barking dog, and yell at me to quit stealing his fruit. I never paid him any mind. Calloway’s lips are the apples of life itself.

An invisible barrier nearly melts between us. It’d take nothing at all to press my lips to his.

They call out to me. Tempting. A siren’s call. I could graze my lips on his, take his lower lip between mine and nibble it, sucking it as I sucked on the skin of those apples long ago.

Calloway closes his eyes. His dewy, black eyelashes fan out across his cheeks. One tiny eyelash trickles onto his nose, and I almost lift my finger to swipe it away, but my breath pushes it elsewhere.

"I think it’s time for a movie."

Calloway looks disappointed. "Oh. Sure. If you say so."

I squeeze his hand. He has no idea how tempting he is.

I must be positive that this thing we have together won’t ever fade, that I can ensure that nothing will drive us apart. Because after I kiss you, I’ll have no choice but to be entirely yours. Forever.

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