Page 10

CHAPTER 9

Phoebe was nervous. She didn’t get nervous much. She’d much rather spend her time thinking about happy things. Like playing with her toys or dancing or pulling funny faces in the mirror. Which was exactly what she was doing right now to try and make herself laugh. She was used to having to cheer herself up.

But nerves kept bouncing around in her tummy. What if Barren spanked her? What if he’d changed his mind and wasn’t coming to get her? Maybe he’d decided that she was too much work. That he wanted someone more mature. Someone who had their life together.

That wasn’t Phoebe.

She couldn’t really focus. She struggled to hide her feelings and emotions. Everything she felt, you knew about, which she knew could be a lot. Her feelings could be big. What if she’d inadvertently upset him?

Had she?

She stuck her tongue out at herself and then crossed her eyes. This wasn’t working. “Oogie boogie woogie,” she said as she stuck her fingers in her ears. Okay, that was a bit funny. A knock on the door startled her and she moved over to the door, opening it.

“Oogie boogie,” she said as Barren gaped down at her.

“Um, are you all right, little girl?” he asked.

“Uh-huh.” Why was he asking her that?

Maybe because you’re pulling a face still. Oh shivers!

She pulled her tongue in and stopped wrinkling her nose up.

“You’re here!” She threw herself at him and he immediately wrapped his arms around her, pulling her up against his chest.

“Hey, what’s this?” he asked. “What’s the matter?”

“I’m just so glad you’re here.”

He carried her into the bedroom, and she wiggled, trying to get down.

“Stay still,” he commanded, slapping her bottom lightly.

“What was that for?” she asked. “I wasn’t naughty! I don’t need a spanking!”

“That wasn’t a spanking,” he informed her. “It was a slap to get your attention.”

“It wasn’t?”

“Oh, my poor girl, no. When you get a spanking, you’ll definitely know.”

“I will?”

“Yes, because you’ll be over my knee, your bottom will be bare, and it will hurt. Unless we’re talking about a fun spanking. That’s something different entirely.”

Yikes.

“Bare bottomed?”

“Only way to give a spanking. Unless we’re in public. I don’t think I would want anyone else seeing your bottom. So I’d likely spank you over your clothes then spank you properly when I had you in private.”

“You’d spank me in public? I don’t think you can do that.”

“Maybe out there in the world, but you’re forgetting where we are. No one would blink twice if I spanked you here.”

Right. Yikes.

He sat on the sofa with her on his lap, facing him. “Is your back all right?”

“I’m going to tell you right now that you better not say you’re too heavy for me to carry. You are not.”

Okay. She wouldn’t suggest that.

“Now, why were you worried that I wouldn’t be here this morning?” he asked, grasping hold of her chin to tilt her head back.

“I was just worried that maybe you’d changed your mind.”

His face softened. “Little girl, I’m not going to change my mind about this.”

“Well, you might once you get to know me.”

“And why would that happen? Is there something awful about you? Something you haven’t told me? Do you turn into a vampire at night?”

“No, silly, if I were a vampire I wouldn’t be able to walk around during the day.”

“Hmm. A werewolf then?”

“Noo! I’m not that hairy!” she protested.

“Good to know. Well, do you kick puppies?”

“What?” She gave him a horrified look. How could he think that? “No! I would never! I love puppies.”

“Whew. That’s good. That would have been a deal breaker. I know, do you steal candy from babies?”

“Hmm, well, I do like candy. I would only steal it if it was Gushers. Babies shouldn’t be eating that candy anyway.”

“Very true. But then, neither should Little girls.” He tapped her nose.

“That’s just mean. Little girls are mostly made of sugar. We need it to keep us going.”

“No, what you need is lots of good nutrition like protein and vegetables and fruit. And a tiny bit of sugar.”

“I’m not sure I like where this is going, Daddy.”

He looked startled, then he smiled. “You called me Daddy.”

“I’m sorry,” she said. “Did you not want me to?”

“No, no. I do. I very much do.”

“Are you sure?” she asked.

“Yes. It felt… amazing. Thank you for trusting me with you.”

“You’re welcome, Daddy.”

“I’m sure you don’t. Have I mentioned lately how much I like you calling me Daddy?”

“Not in the last five seconds, no. Very slack of you if I’m honest.”

“I do apologize. I very much like hearing you call me Daddy.” He leaned forward and kissed her lightly. “Good morning, sweetheart.”

“Good morning,” she replied when he drew back.

“Did you sleep well?” he asked.

“Yep. Like a log. Although I don’t see how logs sleep.”

“Why were you pulling a face when I opened the door?” he asked.

“Sorry about that!” she said quickly. “I wasn’t pulling a face at you.”

“No? Then why?” he asked.

“I pull faces in the mirror sometimes to cheer myself up,” she explained. “I just forgot to stop pulling a face when I opened the door, that’s all.”

Barren cupped her face between his hands. “I’m sorry you were feeling sad, little girl.”

“Not sad, just worried you weren’t going to turn up,” she told him.

“We need to spend time to get to know one another. But there is something you need to know about me right now. If I say I’m going to do something, I do it. I said I was going to be here this morning, so nothing apart from a complete disaster was going to keep me away. And yes, I could decide this relationship isn’t going to work, but so could you once you get to know me.”

She couldn’t see that being very likely. He was her Knight in Pressed Pants.

“That’s not going to happen, you’re perfect.”

“Far from it. Listen to me, Phoebe. Are you listening?” he asked firmly.

“Yes.”

“I really want to get to know you. I like you calling me Daddy, that you trust me enough to let me take that role in your life. But we don’t know each other that well, so at any time you can tell me to slow down, all right?”

“And you’ll do the same?”

“Yes. We just need to communicate with each other. That’s very important. I was in a marriage with someone who kept a lot of secrets and when I discovered how much she had been hiding from me, I felt like an idiot. And like I didn’t know who she was. It felt like everything in my life had been a lie and I didn’t like that feeling. So just be honest with me and I will be honest with you. All right? And asking to slow things down isn’t saying that you want to step away. Or that you don’t like what the other person is doing. I want you to be comfortable with me. Because the last thing I ever want is to get into another relationship with someone who is deceiving me.”

“I don’t ever want to deceive you.”

“Good. Neither do I. And I don’t like the idea of you being worried or upset. Okay? So tell me next time. I’ll make funny faces in the mirror with you.”

She giggled at that idea.

Just as her stomach started to grumble.

“Oh my gosh! Tummy, stop being so rude. Daddy and I are having a conversation.”

“We can have a conversation over breakfast. You’re certain you don’t want to go to preschool this morning?”

“Nope. I want to stay with you. If that’s okay,” she added hastily.

“Better than okay. I was going to make you write your lines before breakfast, but with the way your tummy is rumbling I think we better get some food into it.”

“Lines?” she cried.

“Yes, lines,” he repeated firmly. “As your punishment.”

“But maybe we should just forget about doing those lines altogether. I’m certain I’ve learned my lesson, Daddy. But urgh, did the glitter come out of your clothes, okay? I can pay for dry cleaning.”

“The glitter will come out just fine,” he reassured her. “Let’s go. Where are your shoes?”

She glanced down at her bare feet. “Do I have to wear shoes?”

“Yes, you can’t walk around in bare feet. What if you stand on something? And your feet could get cold.”

“It’s just that my feet don’t feel like being caged today. They want to be free!”

He walked over to her closet and drew out a pair of slippers. “How about these?”

“Perfect!”

Damn. He’d forgotten how nice it was to hold a woman’s hand. To hold a Little’s hand. She skipped alongside him toward the cafe in her cute white slippers with red hearts all over them.

They went with the rest of her outfit perfectly. Today she wore a red pleated skirt with thick white tights underneath that ended at her ankles. Her sweater was white and fluffy with red heart patches on the elbows.

“You look cute today, as usual. You like hearts and the color red?”

“Red and white are my favorite colors and I love hearts. I think that there should be more love in the world, you know? And fluffy sweaters. There should definitely be more fluffy sweaters. Everyone would feel happier and smile more if they wore a fluffy sweater. It’s impossible to frown while you have one on.”

“Good to know.”

They sat at their table, and she took the menu, looking over it. “Are there pancakes?”

“There sure are.”

“Yay! I’ll have them.”

“Haven’t you had breakfast here before?” he asked curiously.

“No. I wake up too late and I barely have time to get ready before someone arrives to take me to the Butterflies room.”

“Are they coming to get you this morning?” he asked.

“Oh no, Erika called me this morning to check if I was going and I told her that you were picking me up.”

“Good.” A server walked up with a smile, and he ordered her pancakes as well as a side of fruit salad.

“Is the fruit salad for you, Daddy?” she asked as she wiggled in her chair.

“No, it’s for you, little girl.”

“But I have pancakes! That’s enough!”

“You need something healthy to eat as well. So you haven’t been eating breakfast?” he asked.

“Nope. That’s okay, though. I don’t usually.”

“That’s going to have to change. Breakfast is very important.”

“So I’ve been told,” she said solemnly.

“Do you drink coffee?” he asked as their server returned with his coffee and her apple juice.

“Nope. I’ve never drunk it. It always tasted funny to me, and my brothers claimed that I didn’t need any more energy.” She shifted around again on her seat.

“Are you all right, little girl?” he asked. “Do you need to go potty?”

She gasped, her cheeks growing red as she glanced around. “Daddy!”

“What? It’s a fact of life that all Littles need to go potty at some stage. And you look like you’re doing a potty dance.”

“I’m not! It’s just that these chairs are kind of uncomfortable.”

She glanced over longingly at a Little boy who was sitting in a high chair at the table with his Daddy. What that would be like?

“Then we might need to change your seat.” Barren held up his hand and then spoke quietly to the server who came over.

What was he asking him?

When the server returned with an adult-sized high chair, she knew that he’d caught her look of longing. She should have known. There wasn’t much he missed. Barren stood and thanked the server before pulling the top tray out and turning to her.

“Let’s get you into this high chair.”

“I’m not a baby,” she warned him. Did he want a baby? Oh no, maybe he did, and he was about to be really disappointed.

“That’s fine with me. But it’s not just babies who use high chairs. Toddlers do too.”

Well, she guessed that was true. Phoebe bit her lip and glanced around but no one was staring at them.

“If you don’t like something, little girl, then all you need to do is tell me.”

“What if I don’t like spankings?” she asked.

“Hmm, I have a good imagination. I can come up with different sorts of punishments.”

“What if I don’t like punishments?” she asked.

“Pretty sure you’re not supposed to like them,” he pointed out.

Darn it. That was far too logical.

“Okay, Daddy. I wanna try.”

“Such a brave girl,” he told her, helping her up into the chair and then putting the tray in place.

“Hmm, I think we’re going to need to get you a bib.”

A bib?

“Yes, we might need to do a bit of shopping.”

“At the shop here?” She wriggled in excitement.

“Have you been to the shop?”

“I haven’t had a chance yet, but I heard it has lots of fun stuff.”

“We’ll do that after breakfast. We also need to get your car.”

“Oh yeah.” Bummer. That meant she’d have to adult.

“Perhaps someone will bring it here for us,” he said, eyeing her as he sat back down in his chair.

It felt a bit strange to be in a high chair, but also a lot of fun. She could swing her feet back and forth and she felt so… free.

“I don’t want to put anyone out. And I have to pay the bill.”

“I’m sure that can be done online.”

Except she needed to pay in cash. Because her cards were all connected to her family. Why didn’t she have her own credit card? Could she transfer the money without it being traced? Maybe. It wasn’t like her brothers were hacking geniuses or anything.

“I suppose.”

“Let me call Zeus and see if he has someone who can help him drop it off.”

“Okie dokie, Daddy.”

Their food arrived and she practically licked her lips in anticipation. But the server put it all on the table and not on her tray.

“Daddy,” she said when they were alone again. “Can you put my food up here, please?”

“What lovely manners, but no.”

“No?” She gasped in horror. “Why not?”

“Because Daddy has to feed his Little girl,” he told her. “You can’t feed yourself.”

She couldn’t? Well, she could. But if he wanted to feed her, she certainly wasn’t going to turn him down.

He held up a piece of strawberry to her. She wrinkled her nose. Not because she didn’t like strawberries, she did. But she wanted some pancake with whipped cream on it.

“Pancake, Daddy?”

“You can have some pancake after you eat the strawberry,” he told her.

“Please?” She gave him puppy eyes and slid her lower lip out.

This look should be irresistible.

“Be a good girl for Daddy,” he told her. “You don’t want to get some extra lines added to your punishment, do you?”

Ahh, no. She did not. She was kind of hoping that he’d forgotten about that. So because she was a good girl, she ate the strawberry. And it was pretty delicious.

“Well done, little girl.”

She soaked up his praise, squirming happily as he gave her some pancake with cream. Yum. Yum. Yum.

“Whoops. You got a bit of cream right here.” He used his finger to wipe it off the corner of her mouth.

Then, to her shock, he sucked it off his finger.

Wow.

Hot.

Then he fed her a piece of banana, which she barely noticed since she was too busy staring at him. His lips quirked. He knew exactly what he was doing to her. The rat.

He fed her some more pancake and she hummed happily.

“Good, little girl?”

“Sooo good, Daddy. Aren’t you going to eat, though?” She stared down at his egg-white and spinach scramble with turkey sausage.

Hmm. Looked far too healthy for her liking.

“I’ll eat once my baby is taken care of,” he told her.

His baby? Wow. She liked the sound of that. But what really made her flush with pleasure was the way he took care of her.

“Okay, Daddy. But don’t let it get cold. It might taste yucky.”

“Daddy will be fine,” he reassured her.

“Good morning.”

Phoebe jumped with a start.

“I’m sorry, little one,” Master Derek said. “I didn’t mean to startle you.”

“It’s okay,” she said cheerfully. “You’re a good sneaker, though.”

“Helps me to keep on top of things around here,” he replied with a smile. “Just wanted to check in and make sure you’re both all right. Erika said you didn’t need an escort to preschool this morning.”

“No, I’m looking after Phoebe today,” Barren said firmly as he fed her another strawberry. “And hopefully every other day she’s here.”

Double wow. She wanted that too. She was only booked in for a couple more days, but it wasn’t like she was in a rush to leave. She didn’t have anywhere she had to be.

“And that’s what you want, Phoebe?” Master Derek asked her.

“Yes, Master Derek. I do.”

“Hmm, I guess it’s good that you two met on that road, then, huh? Almost like fate had something in mind for you both. Just let Erika know if you want to stay longer at Rawhide.”

“Fate?” she asked Barren before he fed her another mouthful of pancake.

“Master Derek seemed to think that fate would send me someone when I was ready. I thought he was talking nonsense, until I found a Little girl stranded on the side of the road.”

“Oh yeah? She must be someone special,” she teased.

“She is. She’s got the sweetest smile and the most gorgeous eyes. Can’t believe she agreed to get to know me better, that she trusts me to be her Daddy while she’s here.”

Only while she was here? She hadn’t realized there was a time limit on this. What kind of an idiot was she? Here she was hearing wedding bells while he thought this was a fling.

Why did she always do that? She threw herself into things without thinking everything through. Every time.

She’d wanted to learn the violin, bought herself one, then realized she hated the sound of the violin. At least when she tried it.

There was the time she’d decided she wanted to make jewelry. She’d gone out and bought all of the equipment before she’d discovered that she had no patience for all the fiddly pieces and that everything just kept falling apart.

Idiot.

“And I’m hoping for longer.”

What?

She blinked, staring at him. “What?”

Reaching out, he took hold of her hand. “At the risk of making you run away from me, I am not a young guy. I don’t want to mess around with umming and aahing. I don’t want to play hard to get or any of that shit. I don’t want to waste either of our time. If I want something or someone, then I intend to have them. I tried to walk away. I thought it was ridiculous to feel an instant connection like we did. And look at me. I’m back here with you in less than a week.”

Her mouth was open as she gaped down at him.

“I get that you’re younger and maybe this is too much too fast. But honesty is important to me. And so is laying out my expectations so there are no misconceptions. I should have said this last night, maybe. However, if you were going to tell me to get lost, I wanted a bit more time with you. My expectation is that if we both enjoy ourselves during this time at Rawhide, if you like having me as your Daddy, if you want me… then our relationship won’t stop when the vacation is over. And we will do what is necessary to keep our relationship going. Which would likely necessitate one or both of us moving. So… have I totally made you want to run away screaming?”

What was he thinking? He’d told himself to wait. To give her more of a chance to get used to him and his pushy ways. But he wanted more.

Jesus.

Why couldn’t he have kept his mouth shut? She was far younger than him. Just because he knew his own mind and didn’t want to waste time because he was getting older with every second that passed didn’t mean that she wanted to move at lightning speed.

Barren opened his mouth to try and take it back or at least make it sound like he wasn’t a complete nut case for wanting to move so fast, for thinking about the future already.

“I like knowing your expectations,” she told him.

“You do? You don’t think it’s too much? That I’m pressuring you?”

“No, I think… I mean, when you said while we were here, I thought you just wanted a… wanted a short-term fling or something and my heart felt like it might break. I know it’s very early to say this, but it doesn’t feel like we just met. It feels like we’ve known each other for years. My brothers would tell me that I’m being an idiot, but how can this be wrong when it feels so right?”

“I’m glad you feel that way, sweetheart. But I do want your promise that if your feelings change, you will tell me. Don’t hide your feelings from me or go behind my back and cheat on me.”

Her eyes widened. “Cheat on you? I would never!”

“I know, sweetheart. Or I wouldn’t want to be with you. My wife cheated on me and it hurt because I thought everything was fine. I never realized she was miserable, that she was turning to someone else behind my back.”

He still felt like a fool. The idiot who hadn’t been aware that his wife no longer loved him. That she was finding affection with another man. God. He felt ill when he thought about the fact that he’d been coming home to her, climbing into bed with her each night, when she’d been with another man. But worse than losing her, was feeling like a fool.

And that’s when he’d realized that he obviously didn’t love her anymore either. But he would never have cheated on her. That was a line that shouldn’t be crossed.

“I’m so sorry,” she told him. “That’s awful. I would never do that to someone. Especially not someone I was supposed to love.”

“I wouldn’t be attracted to you if I thought that you were that sort of person,” he reassured her. “I like how open you are.”

“You don’t know everything about me, though,” she told him, looking concerned.

“And you don’t know everything about me. That’s what this time together is for. And I don’t have to know everything at once. As long as anything you tell me isn’t a lie.”

“I can do that. I don’t like lies either. I don’t see the point of them. Sometimes I can be a bit too open, though. Then it can get annoying. And my brothers say that I have to be careful not to let anyone take advantage of my naivety.”

“Well, I finally agree with them about something. I didn’t think that was going to happen.”