Page 46 of Pretty ’n Peak

Jamie suddenly squealed with laughter. “Nooooo! Oh my God, baby!” There were more shrieks and indigent giggles, before he sprung off Neil’s lap and settled into a chair of his own.

It seemed that Neil had his own form of retaliation, in the form of tickles. That wasn’t as sexy, but it was just as cute. What the two of them, well, the three of them, had, was something special.

“OK, OK,” Jamie relented. “I yield. Let’s talk about Austin’s love life instead.”

Damn, that boy just went non-stop, pushing buttons and practically begging to be reeled in. “I don’t have a love life.” He put on his Dom voice. “And I recall that your Daddy said you weren’t supposed to bother the guests about things like that unless you wanted a spanking.”

“Exactly,” Jamie crowed triumphantly. “And you can use that voice on me any time. Gives me shivers. Let’s look at Mateo’s Cuffd Communicator profile.”

Austin rolled his eyes. “I don’t need to read his profile.” Though he was really, really curious. He knew Mateo had filled it out this morning before coming down to breakfast. They’d talked about a few of the terms he hadn’t been sure about.

He knew a bit of it already. But a profile was something so intimate, like a look into someone’s innermost soul. All of their most closely held desires on display.

“Because you’ve already read it, haven’t you? When you did a scene last night.”

Austin wasn’t falling for that one. Not to mention that doing one scene had nothing to do with reading a checklist to consider a different one. He completely ignored the second part of the statement. “I haven’t read it. In fact, I can’t read it on my phone—they don’t set up their checklists to be voice compatible.” There. That should get Jamie off track. He was zealous about accessibility.

“Seriously? What do you mean?”

Mission accomplished. “There are a few ways to set up checklists in an app. Most of them just read every single element in the list, whether it’s checked or not. If you want it to be voice-accessible, you have to code it differently so that only the selections are read.”

“Did you tell anyone about this?”

“Uh… I think I might have sent in a request a few years ago.”

“No. I mean did you tell Saul?” He was the owner of the Cuffd app, and used to be a friend before Austin had gone AWOL. “Or Levi? That’s pretty much the same thing.” That was Saul’s boyfriend and submissive. “Or hell, practically anybody. Christy? Nikhil? Cindy? Jae-won?” As an aside to Neil, he explained, “Cuffd is based in Portland, so most of the employees are in the local scene.”

“I know, babe. We met Levi and Saul last winter.”

“Oh, right. At any rate, you should tell them.”

“If I bump into one of them.”

“Well, I’ll tell them.”

“Thank you.”

“Now, back to important things. Let’s see what sweet little Mateo’s got in his naughty little head.”

Austin murmured another protest, but it was faint. He knew that if he truly set a limit that Jamie would respect it without question. But with Jamie attacking the topic like a rabid wolf, it was easy to pretend that he was just going along with it.

“Ooh! Your baby boy wants to try everything.”

“Really?” Damn. Now he sounded too eager.

Neil was looking over Jamie’s shoulder. “Yeah. Better to ask what’s not checked. He’s marked willing to try about pretty much everything except watersports, scat play, and diapering. Hmm, there’s also a no on asphyxiation and humiliation.”

“Baby,” Jamie cooed, clearly addressing Neil. “You didn’t even stumble when you said that. I think Daddy needs to give you a special reward tonight.”

Neil chuckled. “Love, I don’t think it’s possible to have any embarrassment left around you.”

“And yet, you’re blushing anyway. God, I love you so much.”

Austin heard the soft press of lips, a gentle sigh.

He looked away. He knew it was just another moment in their daily lives, but it seemed too intimate to share.

It occurred to him that he hadn’t kissed Mateo last night. Well, he’d kissed his neck, tasted the salt of his skin just behind his ear.