Clearly, flirting to get a bigger coffeefor free was not a skill I’d ever needed to learn.
Sighing, he shrugged. “It won’t shock youto know I couldn’t.”
No, that did not surprise me.
“I think I prefer straightforward andhonest, personally.” Reaching over, I ran my hand through his hair and smiledas he fidgeted. “But thank you for talking with Landon and helping him earn hisspanking. I trust that it wasn’t too painful?”
Cocking his head, Asa took my questionseriously. “Not painful, but he was polite and honest so that made it moretolerable.”
Encouraging his drama was definitely thewrong answer, so I managed to keep my amusement off my face as I focused on thecar and got ready to drive home. “I’m glad it worked out so well.”
I wasn’t going to bullshit and say Ithought they’d make good friends. Honestly, I wasn’t sure Asa had ever managedthat in his entire life, but if Landon thought he was interesting enough totalk to when we all got together, that would be perfect.
We’d ease Asa into the idea of makingfriends.
Deciding that talking about it with Milesmight be a good idea, I switched topics as I pulled out of the parking lot.“How did your therapy session go?”
Dead silence filled the car, so I glancedover to see him fidgeting with the seat belt again. He looked surprisinglyguilty for someone who’d gone from therapy to a restaurant. Had he pulled overto jerk off?
That didn’t seem to be right, but I wasn’tsure what else it could be. “Did you work through your session time?”
I hadn’t exactly been happy about hisschedule for today, but when we’d been coordinating with everyone, he’d beeninsistent that he could make it work.
My question had him snapping out of hisguilt-induced funk, at the very least, because he straightened and gave me acute look that said he was offended. “Of course not. I stayed on schedule andtexted you at all the appropriate times.”
Focusing back on the road, I managed not tolaugh and tried again. “I would like to hear about your session. I won’t makeit an order. Yet.”
He squirmed but wasn’t exactly forthcoming,so I smiled. “You know, I have a notebook at home that’s just calling yourname. I think moving from writing lines to essays might be educational for you.A few thousand words after every session might be good for you.”
“Fuck. That would suck.” His face squishedup like I’d asked him to eat something slimy.
“Are you supposed to be cursing?” It hadn’ttaken long to figure out that while he looked very proper, he had a colorfulvocabulary when he thought no one was paying attention to him.
“No, Master.” Tugging on his shirt andsmoothing out the wrinkles in his pants gave him a moment to think. “My sessionwent well, but there’s something I’m supposed to talk to you about.”
Asa made it sound very dramatic, but I knewfrom past experience it could be anything from something serious to trying totell me he didn’t like green beans at dinner. “Is this something you talkedabout with Miles?”
“Yes.” Being able to answer my question waseasier than volunteering, so he looked more relaxed as his hands came to reston his lap.
The change in posture made me think that ithad to be something related to his submission. “Did he tell you to talk to meor was this your idea?”
He sighed, letting his inner brat out toplay. “I was just going to work around it a bit, but Dr. Sheppard seemed tothink that wouldn’t be the best way to handle it.”
“What were you going to do, brat?” Now hehad me curious.
With anyone else I’d have thought they weregetting ready to break up with me, but that wasn’t Asa’s MO. There would havebeen more pacing and derisive comments first. This wiggly boy was up tosomething else entirely.
“I was going to slowly move in and just seehow long it took you to realize I was at your house more and more.”
Okay, not what I’d been expecting, but ashe glanced over and gave me a searching look, I kept my expression neutral andlet him finish his thought.
“But he didn’t seem to think that was ahealthy way to handle my desire for more from our relationship.” There was a slightpause before more words tumbled out. “Not that a desire for more indicates anydissatisfaction with our current relationship. I am very happy with ourrelationship and even Dr. Sheppard agrees with me that you’re very good for mealong with the emotional aspects. So you have nothing to worry about.”
Traffic was fairly light, so I reached overand stroked his head before moving my hand down to cup his neck. “Close youreyes and take a long, deep breath.”
He’d looked very calm, but under my touch,I could feel him vibrating with energy. Since hurting my feelings seemed to behis primary worry, I addressed that first. “I am not upset that you want more.”
We’d talked a bit about that before, butreminding him of that would come later. “I know my pace has been making youfrustrated, but I wanted to give you time to talk through your feelings withMiles and to have time to digest what you were feeling.”
