Chapter 8
REGGIE
“So,” I said, tucking my phone against my shoulder and looking at my tablet. “Just how late did you guys stay up last night?”
“Not terribly late,” Marc said, but his tone said different. Now I knew he could be a good liar; that just came with his previous work, but he wasn’t that good. Well, that or I was just better at reading him than most people and knew when he was lying.
“Mmm, well, I have things to do today that don’t involve putting tasks off because I’m waiting for your son to wake up,” I said with a huff, and then glanced around the cafeteria to make sure I wasn’t overheard.
“We agreed we wouldn’t announce who he was,” Marc grumbled in my ear.
“My apologies,” I said, meaning it, and then pivoting because I wasn’t going to pass up a golden opportunity.
“Then again, if someone wasn’t frustratingly lying to my face, sort of, then I would have remembered that detail.
You know how hard it is for me to keep track of things when I’m frustrated. ”
He gave an aggrieved sigh. “We stayed up until around two, and probably would have stayed up later, but he was falling asleep, so I took him to his room, gave him the quickest overview, and let him go to bed. I assume he lasted less than five minutes, if that, before falling asleep.”
I checked the time. “Eight hours sleep should be enough. Or should have been.”
“Not everyone sleeps odd schedules like we do,” he reminded me. “He probably forgot to set an alarm and is tired enough that his body has forgotten it’s supposed to be three hours ahead of us.”
“So…wake him?”
“I…as you said last night, you’re taking over today. I leave that in your capable hands.”
“Wow, you said that like you were only in a little pain. I’m impressed.”
“Because I’m not thrilled about being hands-off, even though I know it’s the better option. Not because I don’t believe your hands are capable.”
“I love when clarify, it gets me all tingly.”
“Reggie.”
I blinked, and he snorted. “The best part? I didn’t even mean it like that. But since you took it in that direction—”
“Absolutely not,” he said, but he couldn’t hide the fact that he was trying to hide a smile; I could hear it in his voice. “Please, at least attempt to behave while you’re in public. We haven’t even…just behave.”
“Love it when you get all bossy.”
“Oh, now you do?”
“Hmm, the response I have isn’t fit for public consumption, so I’ll text you,” I said, closing the tablet. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a favor to do for you.”
“Just…keep me updated. I’m not sure he will.”
“Can and will do.”
We ended the call, and I flipped my phone in my hand before opening our text thread.
Was gonna say I didn’t love it much when you were all bossy, but that was before you barely held back from skull fucking me last night :)
Knowing that would knock him for a loop for a little while, I got up from the table and snagged coffee as I went.
I’d had a rare night of decent sleep before waking up at my normal time, so I wasn’t as twitchy as usual.
Then again, I’d been treated to an impressive orgasm as well, so that definitely helped me sleep.
That it had been from Marc of all people was…
well, that was more of a mixed bag, and I still hadn’t decided if it was a good bag or not.
Still, a good blowjob followed by good sleep meant I was feeling pretty good today, and I whistled as I walked out of the cafeteria and into the dormitory space.
Most of the men were up already, though like Jude, there were a few who stayed up late and slept into the day.
That was perfectly fine, and if that’s what Jude wanted to do, then he could…
after today, that was. Today we had to get through the introductions to Arete, and then he would be given the freedom everyone else was given.
Standing outside his door, I set my coffee cup on the arm of a nearby chair and pulled out my tablet. Quickly pulling up my admin access to the dormitory section, my eyes flicked over the few rooms that were in Do Not Disturb mode.
Jude’s room, however, was not lit up, so either Marc hadn’t told him about it or Jude hadn’t bothered to set it last night.
Not that it mattered, I tapped away and stood there as I waited until the clock ticked to the next minute.
The rooms being soundproof meant I couldn’t hear the wake-up alarm going off, but I knew it was.
Smirking, I closed the tablet and, grabbing my coffee, used my pass to let myself in. At the sprawling mess of blankets on the floor, I let out a laugh. “Well, good morning, sleep well?”
Jude was…mostly Marc, the serious face, the scowl that could have been copy and pasted from his father, but he had his mother’s pointed chin and hazel eyes. And well, Marc had never looked quite this pissed at me before, but I supposed there was always time.
“That was you?” he demanded, pushing at the blankets, stopping short of removing himself from the tangled mess and turning pink.
“Sleep in the buff, do ya?” I asked lightly, turning to the coffee machine to brew him a cup. “Don’t worry, I won’t look. Jailbait isn’t my type.”
“I’m an adult,” he huffed.
“Oh,” I said, moving as if I was going to turn around. “I’ll get an eyeful then.”
“Stop!” he said, panic in his voice. “Just…let me get pants.”
“Sure,” I said lightly as I stuck a cup under the machine, which gurgled. “Decent?”
“Yeah,” he said sullenly. “Ass.”
I laughed as I turned around, watching as he tugged a shirt over his lanky frame. “Have a good night?”
He looked me over and nodded. “It was nice. I mean, I talk to Dad a lot, most days, but…it’s a lot better to sit and talk to him, to see his face, you know?”
“It’s a pretty decent face,” I said, quickly measuring that against what I would normally say to him and finding that yes, that was something I would say.
Great, so apparently second-guessing how I talked about Marc in front of people was officially going to be a thing. And for what? A good blowjob? A nice dick?
A really nice dick at that…hmmm.
“He was trying not to be mad that I didn’t get ahold of him, but my phone died while the plane was landing, and I didn’t want to wait around to charge it completely. I got enough power in it to get the Uber and the damn thing died again,” he said with a shake of his head.
“There are power banks,” I pointed out as the coffee stopped and I set in front of the seat across from me. “Just in case you didn’t know.”
“Well, of course I do,” he said with a huff and sat down, cradling the cup. “But…I kind of grabbed the wrong one when I was packing, and it was completely dead too.”
“I’m sure Marc got over it pretty quick. I won’t ask what you guys talked about, but did he cover much about your stay here?”
“He kind of explained how the place works, guests, Guides, that I was going to be in the ‘Relax’ category so there wasn’t going to be a whole lot of attention from the staff…and he thought it was best that I don’t announce whose kid I am, and that you’ll basically be my Guide.”
I nodded. “It made sense; otherwise, we would have to pull one of our actual Guides away from their job. I like you, kid, but I don’t want to stretch our Guides that far.
That and I don’t need to explain to anyone that they need to keep their mouth shut if I’m your Guide…
but, since you are a guest here, there’s something important to ask. ”
“What’s that?” he asked, taking a drink of his coffee and nodding his approval; his mood already improving.
“How do you feel about me being your Guide?”
He looked surprised, as if his feelings on the subject weren’t something he expected to be consulted on.
“Oh…well, I mean, what you just said makes sense. Plus, Dad said you used to be a Guide here, so if I needed, like…actual guidance, you had the experience and wouldn’t just be filling the role to fill the role. ”
“Ever the pragmatist, that one,” I said with a sigh and a shake of my head. “Now, what else? Is that okay?”
“I mean, sure.”
“Alright, so clearly, getting you to talk about your feelings and your wants and needs is as much a struggle with you as it is with your dad,” I said with a roll of my eyes. “We came up with this plan to make things simpler, but I will make adjustments if that would make you more comfortable.”
“No, it’s fine. I just…it’s different, so I’m kind of trying to go with things,” he said, ducking his head and shrugging.
“I don’t…most of the time, I know exactly what I’m doing with my day, hell, my whole month.
Mom always made sure of it and then made sure I was staying on top of it.
The chance to just…exist without doing…sounds weird but kinda great too? ”
“Well, you’ll be delighted to know that not only is that allowed here, but it’s encouraged for someone in our Relax category,” I said with a chuckle. “So, if that’s what you want to do, then by all means, take the opportunity.”
“And I mean with you…yeah, that’s great actually,” he said with a shy smile.
“I mean, I know you and I text, and we talk sometimes when you can remember to pick your head up and breathe from all the work you do, but I haven’t spent time with you in a while.
I know you’re still going to be busy, but if you’re my official buddy or babysitter or whatever… that counts as hanging out, right?”
“I’m not your babysitter. No Guide is a babysitter,” I told him quickly. “Buddy is…closer to what we try to achieve. It gets more complicated in our more at-risk categories, but even then, we make sure the guests know they aren’t beholden to their Guides; they aren’t subservient.”
Jude nodded. “And…Dad said you had a few things you wanted to talk to me about?”