Page 48

“ W here are we going?” Immy asked Tobias as he ushered her into her car.

She noticed that she was never allowed to drive anymore. If she wanted to go somewhere, she had to go with Tobias or one of the guys.

And they were all so alpha that they couldn’t stand for a woman to drive them around.

She made a scoffing noise.

Men.

“It’s a surprise,” he told her.

“I don’t like surprises,” she countered with a frown.

“Don’t you?” Tobias glanced over at her and she noticed that she was shifting around on the seat.

Drat!

“Fine. I like surprises. Normally. But not at the moment.” She glanced down at her body, but it didn’t move and she gave a nod of satisfaction.

Good.

“You’ll like this one,” he told her.

“I see Mr. Arrogant is back. Is he joining Mr. Tattletale?”

“Sweetness, he never left. And you need to get over me telling Jenner about Lauren hurting you.”

“I told you not to tell him.”

“She hurt you,” Tobias said in a dark voice. “No one hurts you. It was either tell him or take care of her myself. I figured this option was the better one.”

She swallowed. Maybe so.

“Fine, I forgive you. He’s being so overbearing at the moment. He’s fussing over everything I eat. He hid my candy jar! Thank God he didn’t take my handbag M&Ms.”

He shot her a look. “You have a candy jar?”

“I think the question should be, why don’t you have a candy jar?”

“Immy,” he said warningly. “Why did he take your candy?”

“Apparently, I’m no longer allowed a candy jar because I can’t be trusted not to overindulge.

It happened one time! One. Time. I was trying to get the taste of that icky smoothie out of my mouth with candy.

I just happened to eat a bit too much and got a tummy ache.

What sort of person takes another person’s candy? ” She threw her hands into the air.

“Sounds like he was in the right to me.”

“I knew you’d side with him. It’s a conspiracy!”

“Sweetness, calm down. You’re going to make yourself sick.”

“I’m not weak”

“Look at me. Hey, look at me.”

She turned in her seat as he pulled up in front of a nondescript building.

He faced her after turning off the car. Reaching out, he cupped her chin.

“Jenner cares about you. He might be a bit overprotective and overbearing about it, but it isn’t because he thinks you’re weak. It’s because you’re important.”

Darn it.

Way to eradicate her annoyance.

She huffed out a breath. “That’s annoying.”

“What is?” he asked.

“You being right.”

How was he right so much? And now this would just add to his arrogance.

To her shock, he suddenly threw back his head and laughed.

“That wasn’t supposed to be funny!”

“Sorry,” he told her. Although he didn’t sound like he was actually sorry.

Rude.

“Come on. Let’s go.”

“The guys won’t be happy when they find out I’m not at home.”

“They know you’re with me,” he reassured her. “And you need this. I need it too.”

“You need it?” She turned her head toward him.

“I need to see you smile again.”

“Oh. Okay,” she said. “If you need it.”

He undid his belt and turned to her. “My Immy. Always worrying about everyone else. You need to let me look after you for a while.”

“Everyone always looks after me,” she pointed out.

“Don’t start that,” he warned. “Remember, any self-deprecating remarks will be met with swift punishment.”

She could feel her cheeks growing red. He’d been threatening things like this for a while now.

And she didn’t think he was joking.

Immy waited for him to walk around to her side of the car. He opened the door and helped her out. Then he held her hand as he led her up to the large door.

Opening the door, he stepped inside first and she followed. Where the heck were they?

“What are we doing?” she asked. “What is this?”

“I’ve booked a private session for us,” he said. “So there shouldn’t be anyone else here.”

“But where are we?” she asked as she glanced around.

The inside was far lighter and nicer than the outside. There was a woman behind a desk in front of them. She looked to be in her sixties with white-gray hair that was cut short.

There were four doorways and above each door frame was a sign.

One said ‘Littles’, the next one said ‘Middles.’ Then there was ‘Pets’ and ‘Play.’

What was this place?

She tightened her hands around Tobias’s, uncertain that she really should be here.

“Hello, welcome to Penelope’s Playground. I’m Evelyn,” the woman said warmly. “You have access for the next hour. I really hope you enjoy yourself. I’ll remain here and there’s an intercom system if you need anything.”

She should probably say something in return, but her mouth had gone all dry.

“Remember the rules while in public with me,” Tobias said as he led her through the door that had ‘Littles’ written above it. “We have the place to ourselves, but I still want you to stay with me at all times. I don’t want you to be more than arm’s length away.”

They stepped into a tunnel-like area with glass cases on either side filled with toys.

“I don’t know that I can do this,” she told him, nerves filling her stomach. Was she ready? Could she do this in front of Tobias?

“Look at me. Hey, look at me.”

She sighed and glanced up at him. “You’re very big on having me look at you.”

“That’s because your eyes are so expressive,” he told her. “I know when you’re lying because you do the potty dance. But your eyes can tell me what else is going on in your head.”

“Great, so what you’re saying is that I can’t ever keep anything secret?”

“I’m saying I find it easier to read you when I can see your beautiful eyes. Other people, don’t know.”

Did he really just call her eyes beautiful? Jeez. Why did he have to go and say such nice things to her? If he was a jerk, she could be mad at him for bringing her here without asking her first.

But it was harder to be upset with someone who was telling you how beautiful your eyes were.

Darn it.

“What is it?” he asked, eyeing her suspiciously.

“You really think my eyes are beautiful?”

He shook his head. “Fishing for compliments.”

“I am not!”

Tobias grinned and tapped her nose. “Yeah, you are. You’re cute.”

Beautiful eyes and now cute?

Be still her heart.

Actually, her heart had nothing on the rest of her body which was flooded with warmth.

“I am not fishing for compliments. And I don’t think my eyes are that expressive. You can’t tell what I’m thinking.”

“You’re thinking that you’re not sure whether you want to do this, and that you’re not happy that I sprung this on you without warning.”

Well. Hell.

That wasn’t fair. How could he see all of that?

“My eyes are not that expressive,” she muttered.

“What would you have said if I’d told you where we were going?” he asked.

“No.”

He nodded. “Exactly. Figured get you here and you’d be polite enough to at least give it a try.”

Cupcakes! How did he read her so easily?

She was already feeling bad that she wasn’t fully onboard. She didn’t want to hurt his feelings.

“Right. So I didn’t tell you. And now that you’re here, admit it, you’re curious.”

Oh she was. So curious. But that didn’t mean she could do this or that it was a good idea.

“I don’t know,” she said, chewing her lower lip.

He reached out and released her lip. “What’re you worried about?”

There was so much.

Immy was worried about doing it wrong. About making a fool of herself. About not liking it, or that she’d like it so much that she’d never want to stop being in Little space.

Maybe some of her worries were ridiculous.

But some of them were also legitimate.

“Tell me,” he urged.

She sucked in a breath. “I don’t know how to do this.”

“Bullshit.”

She blinked. Umm. What? “I think you might want to rephrase that.”

“I do?” he asked, looking amused.

Immy leaned into him. “Yeah. You do. Because you’re supposed to reassure me that I do know how to do this and that everything is going to be all right and I have to stop worrying. And I could never make an idiot of myself.”

“Don’t gotta tell you all of that, Cherry. Because you already know it. Just proved that you do.”

She took a deep breath in and let it out. “I still don’t know what I’m doing.”

“You do. You just gotta stop using this.” He tapped her forehead. “And go with this.” He tapped her chest.

“Most of the time, everyone is telling me to use my head. To think. To not react too quickly without thought.”

“That’s the thing about Little headspace, you can stop worrying, stop thinking, you don’t have to be in control. You can let someone else take charge and make the decisions.”

“You?”

He stared down at her intently. “Yep.”

She took in a deep breath and let it out slowly, her stomach in butterflies.

“You think you can trust me to take care of you?” he asked.

She could have been imagining it but there was a strange look on his face. Was this a really important question to him?

Maybe. Maybe not.

But she decided to go with honesty. It wasn’t like she was a good liar, anyway.

“I already do,” she said.

“You trust me to protect and take care of Big Immy,” he said. “You can trust me with Little Immy too. I will take care of her.”

“I hope so,” she whispered.

“You can.” He nodded at her. “There’s no way I’d ever want to abuse your trust. You’re not gonna embarrass yourself. You’re not gonna do anything stupid. I’m not gonna think any differently of you. Well, I will.”

“You will?” She knew it!

He ran a finger down the side of her cheek. “Yeah, I think you’re the bravest fucking Little girl I’ve ever met.”

Her mouth went dry, her heart was racing. Really? Did he have to go saying things like that and making her want to cry?

It was seriously too much.

“Let’s keep going,” she said.

He smiled down at her. “There’s my brave girl.”

She wasn’t sure about what was going to happen, but he was giving her this opportunity. One she might never have again. One she might not want again.

But it seemed stupid to waste it just because she was a bit scared.

Gosh. Look at her growing so brave.

“Let’s go.”