Total pages in book: 184
Estimated words: 188108 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 941(@200wpm)___ 752(@250wpm)___ 627(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 188108 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 941(@200wpm)___ 752(@250wpm)___ 627(@300wpm)
“What happened to your pants?” he asked, spotting the rips in the knee of her pants.
“Drat. I forgot about that.”
He crouched in front of her, alarm filling him. “You’re bleeding.”
“It’s only a little bit,” she argued.
“What happened?”
“I don’t want to tell you,” she muttered.
“Why not?”
“On the grounds that you might use it as evidence against me being able to keep myself safe,” she told him.
He raised his eyebrows. “You did this in the basement?”
“That may or may not be true. But most likely true. I tripped over a box when I, uh, when I went through a cobweb.”
Roman shook his head. “Right. From now on, you do not go into that basement, understand?”
“But it’s so dirty and dusty down there. I thought I could help out by cleaning and rearranging everything. Evette says that she doesn’t go down there.”
“No, she doesn’t. Because none of us would allow that. The only people allowed down there are me, Alexei, and Salem. Understood?”
“Yes.”
“Yes, Dada,” he countered.
They both froze. He rolled that around in his head, waited for the wrongness, the weirdness.
But it never came. Because it felt right.
“I, um, yes, Dada,” she replied.
He noticed that she was wringing her hands together.
Shit. Was he upsetting her?
Well, you did just throw that all at her without giving her any lead up or hint that it was about to happen.
“Is that . . . are you . . . I’m not sure even what I should ask. Are you saying that you . . .”
“That I want to be your Daddy as well,” he said. “Yes. If you’ll have me, that is.”
He wasn’t prepared for her to throw herself at him and he landed heavily on his back with her on top of him. But he didn’t care as she started placing kisses all over his face and neck.
He let out a noise that sounded suspiciously like a giggle. After quickly stifling that embarrassing noise, he rolled her onto her back and leaned up on one elbow next to her so he could stare at her. He ran a finger down her nose and over her lips.
She pretended to nip at his finger.
“Behave yourself,” he told her sternly, but he was smiling so that likely ruined the effect.
“Sorry, Dada.”
Leaning down, he kissed her lightly. “You realize I don’t know what I’m doing, right?”
“Neither do I. I’m just learning as I go and going with what feels right. Sometimes that doesn’t always work out, but Salem and Alexei are patient and good teachers.”
“Good, Kitten. I’m glad they’re taking care of you. I’d like to take care of you too.”
“You already do.”
“Do I?”
“Of course you do. You’re always here for me if I need someone to talk to and I know you’ve always got my best interests at heart. You could calm down a bit on the food thing, though.”
He huffed out a laugh as she grinned up at him. “Hate to tell you, but I’m probably only going to get worse when you’re in Little headspace. Do you think you . . . that your Little could see me as her Daddy?”
“I think she already does, Dada,” she replied, surprising him.
“Yeah?”
“Yeah.”
“That’s good, darling girl. Because Dada needs to reiterate that going into the basement alone again would be breaking the rules. And then I’d have to punish you.”
“You would punish me?” she asked, her eyes wide.
“It is my rule. It’s only right your punishment would come from me. I’m not saying it would be the same as what Salem or Alexei might give you—”
“It’s okay to be your own person, Rome,” she reassured him. “I like you for who you are. Not because I think you should be like someone else.”
He relaxed and nodded. “Good. That’s settled then.” He got to his feet and held out his hand. “Let’s get you cleaned up and check your knee. Then Dada will get you dressed properly for the day. Maybe you’d like to do some playing with your new Lego?”
“Yes! I’ve wanted to open it. Will you play with me, Dada?” she asked, sounding hopeful as she put her hand in his.
He lifted her up and she fell into him. He wrapped an arm around her.
God, she felt so good against him. So right.
“Of course I will, darling girl.”
Tamsyn wasn’t sure what had just happened.
She’d gone from cursing that stupid dark, smelly, dirty basement with its mean spiders, to limping her way upstairs to see Roman holding her bloomers, to calling him Dada and about to be bathed by him.
Yep, that’s right.
Roman was going to give her a bath.
How was this her life? She didn’t know but she wanted to remember every second of it.
She was sitting up on the counter while he ran the bath. He drew his phone out to look up something.
“What’re you looking at, Dada?” she asked.