Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 77812 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 389(@200wpm)___ 311(@250wpm)___ 259(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77812 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 389(@200wpm)___ 311(@250wpm)___ 259(@300wpm)
“Yes.” Daddy gave me another head kiss and as he slowly increased the bond, I could feel him smiling inside. “Better?”
“Much.” Yes. Strangely so. “I don’t think I like it all the way down.”
Something about it hadn’t felt right at all and worries kept creeping in no matter what I’d tried to do to keep them out.
Daddy nodded as he studied my face and probably what was going through my head. “I think it made you…anxious?”
“That’s the right word.” It was my turn to kiss him, so I pecked his cheek and smiled. We had lots of words for worried and emotional but he was doing great. “The only time you don’t sound like a native speaker is when you think about your words. But even then, it’s subtle. You’re amazing.”
Magic might’ve helped but he’d done a great job working his way through a frustrating language.
“Thank you.” Daddy swung my hand and I pictured the cartoons we’d watched before we’d gone to breakfast. “I think I know what we should do this evening.”
Cartoons, my mate.
“D—” That was close. “That’s what’s known as cheating.”
Daddy shrugged, not looking or feeling contrite in the slightest. “The diner men said that Daddies can’t cheat because they make the rules. They read it in a book possibly.”
“That logic is questionable…even for them.” They’d definitely got that from a book or one of the other Daddies in town.
Daddy Manny actually smiled. “It seems logical to me.”
Naughty Daddy.
“Come.” Tugging on my hand, he moved us away from the window and toward the door. “We…we’re going to look and see what kind of costume you would like. Then we will have dinner and enjoy your youthful headspace as you find additional ways to tease Pierce.”
Daddy was so cute…that was fun, though.
Wait.
Was I supposed to narrow it down to just one costume?
He was going to make us both naughty talking about teasing and costumes.
“Oh…” Don’t say Daddy. Don’t say Daddy. “Look…”
They had rabbit ones and doggies and kitties and pirates and even a lion. The store was filled with costumes and fun things like silly hats on one side and toys and books on the other. Even the chime over the door played a song that sounded like the ice cream man.
“We’re not naughty like the diner men, Daddy.” I was quiet-quiet but I heard a giggle from somewhere in the store. “Oops. Toman. Um. Yes.”
Daddy’s laughter bubbled through the bond making me frown at him. “Don’t laugh. I’m trying to be good.”
Oops again.
“I didn’t.” Daddy’s face looked serious and boring but his mind was filled with snickers and he was strutting around. “Are you feeling well, baby?”
That sounded weird and made him laugh more.
Ugh.
“You’re going to get me in trouble.” He was enjoying being naughty and it seemed like the giggly person was having fun too.
“As long as you don’t make me talk to you for thirty minutes to figure out what being Team Pony means, you’re fine.” The happy voice finally came around the corner and it was attached to a human-looking man who might’ve actually been human?
Or he might’ve been cosplaying one?
The locals were all weird but I pretended he was human as Daddy sent questioning feelings through the bond.
He didn’t think the guy was really human either.
Had weird mages come through the portal early enough to set up business already?
Chapter 12
Toman
Our people on Earth kept insisting that humans were only human…I had serious doubts about that fact.
Hmm.
“My mate? What is the word? I have serious doubts about that…”
It was not a word he normally used but I’d heard it from one of the dominant-acting mages.
“Oh, um, assertion?”
As an image of a book page came up with the word and definition, I knew that was correct.
“Thank you, my mate.”
He was proud of himself for being able to help, but his response was cut off as the man we were pretending was human smiled at us. “I don’t remember seeing you around town, but I don’t have anything for Team Pony members. You don’t seem to have enough of them around the area no matter how disappointed that made those old…men.”
He clearly didn’t think the other locals were human.
It was curious.
“Human-plus? I think that’s a good name for them.”
“Are most humans plus?”
That sentence was troubling but I didn’t have a better one without thinking too long.
“Not from where I’m from.” My mate sent what seemed to be a shrug through the bond without moving his body, which was a wonderful feat. “They were all just regular variety humans.”
“Then what are the locals?”
Social rules seemed to dictate I could not ask that question but I didn’t have another way of discovering the information.
“That’s a very good question, Daddy.”
He was quiet for a moment as he smiled at the store man. “I’m Team Binkie as long as that’s not oversharing? I’m not from around here. I’m from Texas and just visiting for a while.”