Since the words seemed to indicate that atthe very least he’d dreamed about it and it’d lived up to his expectations, Ismiled and let him finally drift away.
When his limbs were heavy and he was takingslow deep breaths, I moved his hand to the bed and finally stood up. It took mea few moments to move away. There was just something about how innocent helooked that brought back the visual of him kneeling for me at dinner.
It was an image I knew I’d never forget.
Chapter 17
Asa
“How soon is too soon to move in together?”Getting to the end of Dr. Sheppard’s office, I turned and started to go theother direction back toward the desk.
He really needed a longer office.
I could see his lips quirk in a faint smileas he looked over toward his calendar. “Anything before two and a half weeksafter a couple first starts taking their relationship seriously would be toosoon, obviously. But after that should be fine.”
“That’s what I was thinking.” Beaming, Ireached his desk and turned around again. “What do you think Stuart would say?I’m thinking of telling him I want to spend more time with him than just theweekend and then dropping hints about how much better off I would befinancially and health-wise if he watched over me all the time.”
Spinning, I started pacing back toward hisdesk. “Do you think that would work? I thought about seeing how much I couldjust keep staying there and then slowly moving in. I think it would take him awhile before he actually asked what I was doing, but that could work.”
Dr. Sheppard started coughing, but it wasso fake I rolled my eyes. When he caught his breath, he pointed to the chairI’d started off in. “Sit down, Asa.”
Sighing, I did as he asked.
When I was situated, he smiled. “Why don’tyou just tell him how you’re feeling and ask how he feels about livingtogether?”
“You don’t think it’s too soon?” As heshook his head, I felt my shoulders start to lower and it became easier to sitstraight. I hadn’t realized how tense I was until I’d seen his reaction.
“Not for you, no.” Dr. Sheppard relaxedback in his chair, a good reminder that my pacing sometimes made him a tad bitanxious. Not that he’d ever point that out.
He was too polite.
“Do you think it’s too soon for Stuart? Nottoo soon for me implies that it would be too soon for other people.” Thatseemed to be an understatement, so I clarified. “Probably most people. But Idon’t think it would be too much for Stuart.”
Hopefully?
“He likes having me over and he reallylikes controlling me.” Another understatement, but Dr. Sheppard knew that, so Ikept going. “I think he even bought me a collar, or maybe it’s something reallykinky because he was grinning like a kid at Christmas the other day and hewouldn’t tell me why he was so pleased with himself.”
Just remembering it had me wiggling in myseat. “He wouldn’t tell me. He just kept saying that he’d tell me when I wasready.”
My snort made Dr. Sheppard laugh.
“I was ready, and he damned well knew it.He’s just not ready. But does not ready to give me my present mean that he’snot ready for me to move in?” Having a Master was a lot more work than I’dimagined, but it was worth it.
Especially when I got cuddles or I got tobe his cockwarmer at dinner.
Those were the important things to focuson, not timelines and the fact that he was dawdling.
“Possibly. But tell me more about why youthink he might not want you to move in.” Dr. Sheppard’s face was neutral enoughthat I couldn’t tell what he was thinking.
“Well.” I shifted in my seat but stayed putand managed not to wander around. “Technically two weeks isn’t really a longtime in just about any relationship. Even though it feels like forever, andBDSM relationships move faster, it might not be completely reasonable.”
I hated having to say that—but it wastechnically true, so I had to.
“What else?” Dr. Sheppard managed not tolaugh when I sighed.
“He worries about being too controllingeven though we’ve discussed limits.” That made me wince. “He had a lot of exesand even just people from the club give him shit for needing more control thanthey liked.”
Which was just ridiculous.
