Page 7 of Grace's Daddy

My heart races. I love his bossy side. I wonder if he could really be interested in me. It seems like he likes me, but maybe he’s just being nice. So nice that he puts the straw in my juice box and pushes my chair in a bit closer to the table. “Do you need a bib, sweet girl?”

“I don’t have any.” Darn. Now I’m intrigued by that thought. I’ve never bought any bibs.

After he sits and takes a bite out of a slice of pizza, he chews, swallows, and meets my gaze. “What age is your Little, Grace? Seems like most of your things are geared toward a toddler.”

He’s not judging me. He’s just asking. “I don’t know.” I’m being honest.

“That’s okay. You’ve made a life for yourself in the best way you know how. I’m seriously impressed, Grace.”

I smile at him before I finally take a bite of my pizza. I’m totally out of my body. I can’t believe this is happening. The gorgeous hunk of man I’ve been secretly ogling from across the hall is in my apartment. He’s bought me pizza. And he’s Daddying me.

Chapter Three

It’s hard for me to finish one slice of pizza. My tummy is doing flipflops. There’s a man in my apartment.

Eli manages to eat half the pizza. He’s a big Daddy Dom. He probably eats ten times more than me. I bet he works out two hours a day. Now that I’m so close to him, I can see that he’s even more muscular than I’d thought. His arms are bigger around than my thighs, though that’s not saying much. I’m not a large girl.

“What do you do for work?” I ask when it occurs to me I told him about my job but didn’t ask him a single thing about his.

“I’m a pharmacist.”

“Oh, wow. Where?”

“Half the time I work at a pharmacy here in town. The other half I work at a different location out of town.”

I frown. “That’s weird.” It confirms what I knew. He’s here two weeks and gone two weeks.

He puts our plates in the dishwasher and proceeds to load the rest of my dishes from the sink and counter.

I jump up. “You don’t have to do that.”

“I know I don’t, Little one. But I want to. How about if you color me a picture while I tidy up your kitchen a bit? I need something on my fridge. It’s bare.”

I glance at the table where my art supplies are. “But…” It feels strange letting him load my dishwasher.

“Pretend I’m the make-believe Daddy you had up until tonight,” he teases.

“He was terrible about cleaning up after me,” I respond, feeling proud for holding my own in our funny banter.

“I think you should ditch him for a more tangible Daddy who willactuallyclean your kitchen, cook for you, and spank your bottom if you don’t put your toys away.”

I purse my lips as I clench my butt cheeks together. In my head, my pretend Daddy did sometimes spank me when I didn’t clean up, but no one has ever touched my bottom. Not in my adult life at least.

Eli points toward the table. “Sit back down, sweet girl. You color. When I finish here, I’ll explain where I work when I’m not in town.”

Oh, good. I am confused, and he’s left that odd piece of information hanging.

I return to the table and choose a picture from my coloring book for him. It’s hard to focus, though. The man cleans my entire kitchen and wipes down the counters. I’m going to swoon. I think he should move in.

Silly idea.

I don’t realize until he finishes and comes toward me that I haven’t colored a single thing. I’m still holding the first crayon in my hand.

Eli sits next to me and looks at my blank page before giving me another of his sexy smiles. “That’s so pretty. I’ve never seen anyone use invisible crayons before.”

I laugh. He keeps making me laugh. It feels good. Too good to be true.

“What will I tell my friends when they come over and see that picture hanging on my fridge?”