Page 9 of Magic and Mayhem

Strong emotions made sparkles…got it.

“I think you don’t just fix toys, you make beautiful things in general.” That had him nearly bouncing as he nodded.

“Yes, I made my friend Lorne a pretty jewelry box to hold his…well, some of his first sparkly things.” Kenzie tripped over something he thought he wasn’t supposed to tell me, but he just charged right back in, ignoring it. “He’s my friend that you keep having to kind of arrest.”

Kenzie shook his head like somehow Lorne wasn’t at fault. “Those watches. But yes, I think I need to make him a new box to keep those in unless you start taking some of them back.”

His expression was hopeful and I realized I might’ve been handling the watch issue wrong. Aliens and all. Okay, we needed a new plan to tackle the little thief. “Should I explain to Lorne that he can’t keep sparkly things he steals?”

Shrugging, Kenzie made another adorable sigh. “That’s what a Daddy would have to do to help him learn to be good…and to stay away from the store in general.”

Well, that’d taken an interesting turn.

“Would it be inappropriate for me to, well,Daddyyour friend Lorne?” Especially when I wanted to be Kenzie’s Daddy?

I just got a confused look from my new not-quite-human friend. “Why?”

How was I supposed to answer that?

How much did he know about human culture?

God, the questions I’d had to ask myself since moving to the crazy-ass town.

“Well, sometimes things like that might make a little or any sub jealous.” That had understanding starting to bloom in his eyes, so I kept going, pleased we’d made progress. “I’m hoping to get to know you, and I don’t want to do anything to upset you.”

Especially when I didn’t know what an angry alien was capable of.

Human littles might pitch a fit and throw toys at my head—it’d happened more than once, unfortunately—but aliens, yeah, I needed more information before I pissed off the cutie.

“You’re mine, but I don’t mind sharing my toys with my friends.” His curious answer and cute shrug gave me almost no real help in figuring out what to do, but he was adorable. “They just can’t keep you.”

There was a fuck ton of context I was missing.

“So just to make sure I understand what you’re saying, the next time he steals a watch, I need to return it and add a bit of Daddy to the interaction to make sure he knows he was naughty and explain he can’t keep the toy?”

Was liking toys an alien thing?

That didn’t seem right, but I tucked it in the back of my head to look at later.

“Yes.” Kenzie beamed, going sparkly again as he nodded. “He doesn’t have a Daddy yet and his decisions…well, they’re sometimes questionable. So we need to help.”

That was logical enough for me to agree with it.

“But you’ll tell me if I cross a line, right?” His nod happened so quickly, I took it as a genuine response, mostly because he seemed to pause before he lied…or lied by omission…or tripped over calling me human.

“Yes.” Kenzie swung my hand back and forth, still smiling but without the added sparkles. “We started a club to meet other kinky people in the area, but we haven’t found him a Daddy yet.”

They had?

Oh.

“Is it at the VFW on Sundays?” Because last week half the town had asked me if I was going to hang out at the Veterans of Foreign Wars Hall but no one would explain why.

Kenzie’s eyes went wide and he looked like he thought I was psychic. “Yes. The first Sunday of the month.”

That definitely explained a lot.

But how the fuck did the lady at that goddamned diner know I was a Daddy?

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