A Daddy for Benito by Joe Satoria

10. HARRY

It felt like I’d known Benito for years, the way he was around me. It felt natural, and extremely comfortable with the way he showed himself. He also didn’t care much for anything else but getting attention.

Laid on his stomach, his ass up on the bed. His legs spread. He looked briefly behind me, as I stood in the doorway of the bedroom. He was on his phone.

“What are you doing?” I asked. “I thought you were getting in bed to cuddle.”

“I was going to,” he said into a sigh, “but then I decided that you didn’t want to cuddle, or you would’ve stopped whatever you were doing and come straight away.”

I had to finish cleaning, once I started, I couldn’t go ahead and do something else completely. “Well,” I began, my eyes unable to be torn away from the way his arse was in the air, the pert buttocks all juicy and ready to be slapped and pinched. “I’m ready now.”

Benito turned over, covering his cock with a hand. His phone clutched to his chest with the other hand. “Alexi messaged me back.”

“Oh, what did he say? Don’t tell him about us, I want to tell Warren first.”

“Don’t worry,” I said, “I’ve not said your name, yet.” Squinting at him. I wanted to know what he angle was. I couldn’t have Alexi telling Warren. He’d been my friend for years, best friends even. I knew everything about him, and if he heard I was seeing Benito, let alone housing him, I don’t think he’d appreciate that.

“We’re meeting tomorrow,” he said. “I think we’re meeting at the cat café. Oh. Maybe I can get a job. But, like you said, I don’t look like I’d do well with manual labour.”

“I already told you, you don’t have to get a job,” I told him. “I will bankroll you for a few months while you get on your feet. While you get to grips with everything happening around here. Especially with what’s going on between us.”

“I thought you were supposed to be some Dom, but you’re acting like a soft sap.”

My teeth immediately biting into my lip. “Fine,” I said, trying not to show my smile. “I’ll be the Dom you crave, fine. So, you can’t tell Warren about us, he can’t know. He has to hear it from me. If he finds out before then, you’ll be punished.”

“Punished?” he smirked. “You can’t say that. What if that’s what I want?”

Maybe there was no winning this. “I’ll tell him Friday,” I said. “So, are you going to let me spoon you for a couple of hours, or do we have to play hard?”

“You’re too easy to play hard,” he said. And he was right. I thought I started off strong, but it turned out, I was far from that position right now. I nodded to him.

I climbed onto the bed. “We’re spooning,” I said, hooking my arm around him.

Benito turned in the bed with his back to my chest. He snuggled closer. “Thank you.”

He was playing me. There was really no winning him. I was out of practice, rusty, and he was a regular brat, getting what he wanted. “So, when we were eating dinner, you said you translated documents?”

In my arm, I felt him wriggle closer. “English to Spanish, Spanish to English. Why? Would you like me to call you papi?” He spoke with a softer voice, picturing him with a pouty lip.

“Just wondering if it was too soon to be planning holidays together,” I said.

“Holiday?”

“I have holiday time I need to take off before the end of the year.”

He shuffled around, turning in my arms. “With like a beach and stuff?” He was face-to-face with me, in the light from the curtains, I could see his smiling face. “I’ve never been on a holiday holiday.”

And like that, I had the power again. “So—”

“That doesn’t mean you win,” he said.

“Win what?”

“This, you want control, and I like to be demanding,” he said. “So, you want to win? But I think you’re really just giving in to me.”

I wanted to. I wanted to give him everything. This was technically our first night together, and I woke in the middle of the night so I could clean away what I thought was going to be a spot on the floor from where he’d came. It wasn’t, but there was no debating with my mind when it had already decided on something like that.

“I see that’s what you think,” I said, squeezing him tight in my arms. “I know you love being a brat, but I don’t hate it. This isn’t a competition. But if it were a competition, oh, I would absolutely win.” It was a bluff, I don’t know if I would, but either way, it sounded like something fun.

Cuddled up with him in my arms, I held him close.

“Everything feels right,” Benito said.

“Are you saying that to try and make me feel like you’re being a good boy?” I asked.

He chuckled to himself. “If you think everything I do or say has an alternative meaning, then you might just drive yourself crazy.”

“Is that what you’ve done in the past?”

He went silent for a moment. We hadn’t really spoken about our previous partners. We knew we had a mutual ground with Warren, being my best friend and Benito’s ex-boyfriend, but outside of that, we hadn’t yet even come across the topic about partners.

“It’s been a day, and you want to talk about exes?” he finally asked.

It had only been a day, but in that day, I’d enjoyed every single moment of it. Even when I was stirred from sleep by intrusive thoughts of needing to make sure the spot where he’d came earlier was actually clean.

Hugging him tighter. “We don’t have to,” I said.

“The last time I had sex was like three months ago.”

“With me?” I sounded shocked; my voice pitched abnormally.

Benito chuckled. “But don’t get a big head about it—or a big head about it, because I could have had my pick of all the guys, and instead, I was waiting for someone who understood me.”

I wasn’t even sure if I understood him. “Maybe this would have been different if you’d have called me instead of waiting three months for me to find you on some website.”

“Stalking me,” he said.

Somewhat. I couldn’t disagree. “I didn’t find anything interesting,” I said. “You know, this is what I do at work. I have all this data, and I go through it to see what’s doing well, what’s not doing well, and—”

“You make pros and cons lists at work?”

“No, I—”

“I could make pros and cons lists.”

I chuckled. It was definitely a bit different to making a pros and cons list. “You have to be good at reading numbers and knowing the industry of the company. It’s boring. I sit on my ass every single day. And I get a lot of free time, so, my mind always wondered about you.”

“To be honest, I tried to forget about you,” he said. “Because I’d had guys like you. You want to come over. You leave while I’m sleeping. You’ll give me a fake number, and then—” He looked away. I could see him, slightly pained in his expression.

I pulled him in tighter. “That’s not at all what I would do with you,” I said. “And if you kept that little card, you’d know, I still have the same number.”

“That’s in the past now,” he said, softly. “We’re moving forward, right?” in the dim light, he looked at me, his glossy eyes unblinking as they caught the light.

“So, exes are a no-go topic,” I said.

He nodded, cuddled in my arms. I could tell he hadn’t had the best experience with relationships, and I knew he liked to play difficult, he liked to play teen and have all that giddy energy. Probably regressing and listening to Paramore and Panic! At The Disco in angst.

“When we wake up,” I let out in a yawn. “We should spend the entire day on the sofa, and we can watch whatever you want, and eat junk food.”

His fingers played through my chest hair, gently tugging. He was watching for my reaction. “Well, you definitely need to break the sofa in. So yeah.”

I was exhausted, mentally, after being forced away by my thoughts, telling me something was wrong with his cleaning. I didn’t want to lie to him, I would have to come clean about my cleaning. About the order and organisation. I thought this was going to be a case of me welcoming him and he’d adapt to me, but instead, I was already making provisions for him, telling him we could break the schedule of my usual Sunday where I’d visit my mother. I couldn’t do it this week. I couldn’t do yet. At thirty-two, and my mother still scared me. I was gay, but she didn’t approve. She never said she didn’t approve, but you always knew when someone didn’t approve of you. I was choosing Benito over my mother tomorrow, and I could sleep easy knowing I wouldn’t be facing her.