“Please,” she whispered against his lips. “I’ve been dreaming of your hands on me all day.”
“You’re going to have to dream a little longer, jellybean. I need to get dinner started.”
“Sadist,” she said with a groan when he stepped away.
“I can be.” He flashed a grin at her as he placed a large pot on the stovetop and turned the burner on. “Maybe I’ll show you later.”
If he kept it up, she was going to leave a wet spot on his counter. “Don’t threaten me with a good time, Chef.”
“Brat,” he teased back, tossing chunks of meat into the pan. “Tell me about your day. How were your classes? How was math?”
Her eye roll earned her another burst of laughter. “It was math. It was gross.” Biting her lip, she thought about the conversation she’d had with Headmaster Jenkins. “But our lifestyle class was interesting.”
“Oh? What did you talk about?”
“Stuff.”
Without even pausing in his stirring of the concoction on the stove, he raised an eyebrow at her. “Interesting stuff?”
“Yeah. I guess.”
“Hayleigh, you can tell me if there’s something you want to try. I can’t promise we’ll definitely do it, but we can at least talk about it. I want to know what kinds of things interest you.”
Despite his reassurances, she still felt the heat rising to her cheeks. “We talked about pet play.”
“Oh.” To her surprise, his face lit with pleasure. “And you want to try it?”
“I don’t know. It seemed… fun. And… I don’t know how to explain it.”
“Freeing?”
She blinked at him. “Yes. Something about the idea of not having any real worries or anything just seems really nice. I know I get that to an extent being in the Littles’ wing but… I don’t know. It just seemed different. Am I weird?”
“Baby, all this time in the lifestyle and you haven’t figured out it takes all kinds of people to make these relationships work?”
“True. I just never considered myself a pet play kind of person.”
“Sometimes things just click for us, even if it didn’t before. What kind of animal do you think you’d like to try?”
“Well, there was this one picture Headmaster Jenkins showed us of this kitty-girl playing with a cat toy and I sort of fell in love with it.”
“I like cats,” he replied easily. “Why don’t you give it a try?”
“Now?” she squeaked, sounding more like a mouse than a kitten.
“Why not?”
“I don’t have the costume or anything.”
“So? Come on.” Holding out a hand, he rubbed his fingers together. “Here, kitty kitty.”
“Fine! Crazy man,” she muttered under her breath as she slid from the counter and lowered herself to her hands and knees on the cool tile. “I feel ridiculous.”
“I have an idea.” Pulling the towel from his shoulder, he dangled it in front of her face. “Hey, kitty. Want the towel?”
“Connor, I’m not going to play with a dish towel.”
“Wow! I need to call the news. I found a talking kitty!” He cocked an eyebrow at her. “A kitty who seems to have forgotten how to talk to her Daddy.”