“Look at me.”
She tilted her face up, her gaze meeting his.
“Right now, all you need to concentrate on is getting better, stressing less, and getting to know us. Our relationship. That’s enough. That’s why we have this time. Because it can be overwhelming.”
“Plus the men here steal the women,” she added. “They likely need the time to convince the women not to murder them in their sleep.”
His lips twitched. “There is that.” He reached for her top then hesitated. “May I?”
She blushed slightly but nodded, helping him get the top off. He put the white T-shirt on, being gentle with her arm.
“But once we convince you that you want to stay here forever, then we have time to think about what you want to do.”
“You mean I’m allowed to have a job?”
He stared down at her. “You thought you wouldn’t be?”
“I wasn’t . . . I don’t know how things work here. What the rules are.”
“And I’m an idiot,” he muttered. “Vivi, of course you can have a job. If you want to continue on with your career, we’ll make it happen. There would need to be some concessions for security reasons. It’s safe here, very safe, but you do live at the palace. But whatever you need, we’ll make it happen. Okay?”
Something inside her unraveled. A tightness, a worry she hadn’t actually realized existed until just then.
“Okay,” she agreed.
He crouched and grabbed her shorts. “Hold onto my shoulders, jelly bean.”
She held on, stepping out of the shorts and into the overalls, which he pulled up over her shoulders. Then he drew out a full-length mirror which had been hidden away in a slot.
She looked at herself in the mirror. She looked so cute.
“Pigtails are needed, I think.”
She nodded. Pigtails would be seriously adorable.
He tweaked her nose.
“Hey!” she protested.
“Got your nose!”
“Give that back.”
“Nope. Think I’ll keep it, it’s such a cute nose.” He pretended to stick her nose in his pocket.
“Daddy, give it back, I needs it.”
“Nope. Finders keepers.”
He picked her up and carried her out of the wardrobe and back out into the playroom. Honestly, he was as bad as Wolfe, carrying her everywhere.
“Not finders’ keepers,” she protested as he sat her down on a chair at the white desk. “You stole it.” Were all these pens here yesterday? She couldn’t remember them. The desk was one where the top lifted up and you could store things inside. She peeked in and spotted some painting supplies.
Ooh, that could be fun.
“All right, stealer’s keepers,” he agreed. “Want to do some painting?”
She nodded her head. “But I need my nose.”
“What for?”
“To smell stuff.” Silly Daddy.
“Living with three guys it might be a Godsend not to be able to smell.”
She turned to gape at him then started to giggle. “Daddy!”
He winked back at her. “Fine, I’ll give you back your nose on one condition.”
“What’s that?” she asked suspiciously, turning to look at him.
“I’m low on sugar. I need some refills.”
“And how do I give you sugar?” she asked.
He gasped. “Don’t you know? By giving kisses, of course. Here.” He pointed to his left cheek.
Shyly, she leaned in and kissed his cheek.
“Here.” He pointed to his right cheek.
She kissed it.
“And here.” He pointed at his lips.
With a small smile, she lightly kissed his lips.
“Better, but I seem to be running out of sugar a lot lately. I’m going to need plenty of those kisses.”
She sighed. “Well, if I have to . . .”
“Cheeky monkey.” He reached over to tickle her lightly.
“Daddy!” she protested. “Stop!”
He reached into his pocket and pretended to pull out her nose, placing it back. “There you are. I might need to take it again if you’re being too cute.”
She rolled her eyes.
“Uh-uh, no eye-rolling.” He waggled a finger at her. “Now, I need to do your hair.”
“Only Wolfie does my hair.”
Caleb sighed. “He’ll have to get over it. I need to have a chat with him about that rule. I think there’s an easel around here you can use to paint. We’ll need a cover-up for your clothes and a stool for you to sit on.”
She shifted around on her chair. “I wanna stand.”
“Nope. Not with your ankle still healing.”
“But my bottom is still healing.”
“Like I told you, that’s part of the punishment.”
Well. That just sucked.
* * *
“It’s a bird.”
“Nuh-uh.”
“Oh, I know. A unicorn. Silly me.”
“It’s not a unicorn, Daddy,” she told him. “It’s so obvious what it is, why can’t you tell? Are you saying I’m not good at painting, Daddy?”
It was very hard to keep a straight face, considering her painting was basically a giant blob of pink and white in the middle surrounded by swirls of blue and green with a bit of black for good measure.
Kind of hard to guess what it was when it wasn’t anything.
But hey, he deserved payback for stealing her nose, right?
“Of course not,” he said, starting to look somewhat panicked. “It’s a beautiful picture.”
She sniffled. “No, it isn’t. It’s terrible. You have no idea what it is.”
He turned his gaze to her, his eyes narrowing. “Are you having—”
The door opened, interrupting him. Which was just as well since she was pretty certain he’d caught on to her ruse.
Whoops.
Wolfe walked in then stopped short, staring at them both. She was sitting on a stool that Caleb had retrieved from the kitchen, in front of the easel, she had a plastic jacket on over her clothes to protect them. Her paints sat alongside her on another stool.
After finishing her hair, Caleb had been doing something on his phone while she worked on her masterpiece. She wasn’t sure if he was working or not. Hopefully, he wasn’t buying her more clothes since it would take her a lifetime to wear out the ones in the wardrobe.
He’d made her stop for some lunch, but then she’d gotten straight back to work on her masterpiece.
“Hi Wolfie. I’m painting a picture. Want to guess what it is?” she said cheerfully.
She ignored the way Caleb shook his head warningly at Wolfe.
He studied her with narrowed eyes. “Who the fuck did your hair?”
“Wolfe, no swearing in the playroom,” Caleb warned.
“Daddy did. Why?” Did it look bad?
Wolfe turned to Caleb. “Her hair is mine.”
“What?” Caleb frowned.
“Mine. Only I do it.”
“Wolfe,” she said uneasily. He had claimed her hair earlier, but she hadn’t thought he was serious. Or that he wouldn’t want anyone else touching it.
“Her hair is yours? Isn’t her hair her own?” Caleb asked. He didn’t sound upset. More curious than anything else.
“Nope. Mine. If she needs something done to it, I do it.”
“Wolfe,” Caleb started to say.
“You can claim something else.”
She expected Caleb to tell Wolfe that he was out of line. Instead, he looked thoughtful. “All right. Maybe I’ll do that.”
Wolfe nodded in satisfaction.
“But if she ever wants to do it herself, you have to let her,” Caleb warned.
Wolfe frowned, obviously not liking that. But then he turned to her. “Fine. I can do that.”
Caleb stood. “Are you okay with Wolfe for a bit, jelly bean?”
Wolfe snorted as she nodded. “Of course, she is. I
have to re-do her hair.” He peered at her painting. “And give her painting lessons.”
“Hey!” she protested. “That’s not very nice, Wolfie.”
“Neither is letting someone else do your hair when I claimed it.”
Caleb kissed her forehead. “Back soon.”
Wolfe tugged at a ponytail. “Please tell me you were just fucking around and that’s not actually a picture of something.”
“Now, Wolfie, would I do something like that?”
* * *
Caleb walked into the gym, knowing that’s where he’d find Aleki. He might be the most easygoing of all of them, but he also had a bad habit of bottling everything up. Usually working out helped him clear his head. But Caleb thought he might need a push.
Music was blasting as he strode in to find Aleki demolishing the punching bag. He was covered in sweat and breathing heavily. Hopefully, he’d tired himself out enough that he would let down his guard.
Moving to the sound system, he turned it down. Aleki kept punching.
“Haven’t got it out of your system, yet?” Caleb asked dryly, moving over towards him. He grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge and a clean towel and handed them over to Aleki, who finally paused to look at him.
“Got what out of my system?”
“Whatever is worrying you.”
“Don’t know what you mean.” Aleki gulped down half the drink then upended the rest over his head.
Caleb sighed. “Don’t be a dick.”
“What?”
“We all know something’s wrong. Well, maybe Wolfe doesn’t. But Vivi does.”
Aleki stiffened and faced Caleb full on. “What do you mean she knows something is wrong?”
“She’s noticed the way you’ve been watching her kind of intently. She’s worried that she hasn’t spent much time with you since we got here. She wants to spend some time with each of us. What’s eating at you?”
Aleki wiped his face with the towel. “I just, I thought I would get over this feeling that she might disappear on me again. Like I failed her.”
“You couldn’t have known about her father. Or anything that was going on. It wasn’t your fault.”
Aleki nodded, blowing out a breath. “So she wants to spend some time alone with each of us?”
“Yeah, I told her we were going to start taking her out on dates.”
“Even Wolfe?”
“Well, I haven’t actually told him that.” He was leaving him to last. You never knew how Wolfe might react to something. He could either completely refuse or plan something so elaborate it made the rest of them look like chumps.
30
Vivi glanced up as Caleb and Aleki entered the playroom. She was sitting on the bean bag, reading a book about age play by CJ Bennett. It was an amazing story about three daddies who lived on a ranch in Texas.
“Hi,” she said a bit shyly.
“Where did Wolfe go, jelly bean?” Caleb asked.
Aleki just watched her and she couldn’t help but wonder what he was thinking.
“He got a phone call and went out to take it.” She pointed at the double doors leading outside.
“Good girl for staying in here,” Caleb told her warmly.
She blushed. “Wolfe told me I had to stay put and that if he had to come searching for me, it was five spanks for every minute he spent searching.”
“What a meanie,” Aleki said, but he was grinning.
She narrowed her eyes at him. “I’m starting to think you like watching me get spanked.”
“I’m starting to think we need to do it more often, brat,” he countered.
“Nuh-uh.” She folded her arms across her chest. “I is a good girl.”
“Course you are.” Caleb smiled at her, running his hand over her head.
Hmm. Somehow, she thought he was humoring her.
“What are you reading?” Aleki asked, plopping down on another beanbag.
“It’s a book by CJ Bennett. About three daddies on a ranch and a Little who comes to work for them.”
“Think this book is one of Wolfe’s favorites,” Caleb told her.
“It is? Wolfe’s favorite?”
Caleb nodded. “Yeah. Think he’s read every one of her books. I think he treats them like a manual on Daddy/Little relationships.”
She giggled.
“Have you finished your painting?” Aleki asked, staring over at the picture.
“Uh-huh, can you guess what it is? Daddy is having trouble.” She sent Caleb a sly look.
“Really? It’s obviously a princess castle with flying unicorns guarding it and a beautiful garden.”
Caleb turned to look at the painting and Aleki winked at her. She had to hold back a giggle.
“That’s right! It is. How comes you couldn’t see that, Daddy?” she asked Caleb with mock-innocence.
Caleb turned and gave them both suspicious looks. “What? Is it really? No, it’s not.”
“It is.” She deliberately widened her eyes. “Daddy, can you really not see it?”
“Maybe he’s not magical enough,” Aleki suggested. “I think you have to have a bit of magic in you to see it.”
Caleb shook his head. “I know you’re messing with me.”
She made her lower lip tremble.
Caleb pointed a finger at her. “Don’t do that. No pouting.”
She sniffled pathetically and turned to Aleki. “What will we do? Daddy doesn’t have any magic.”
Aleki sighed. “It’s a sad state of affairs. Do you know why he doesn’t have any magic?”
“He was on the naughty list and Santa took it away from him?”
“Hey, I was never on the naughty list,” Caleb protested.
She gave him a skeptical look.
Aleki shook his head. “No, he was far too good to be on the naughty list. That’s the problem. He’s always too good. And he’s not a believer.”
“He’s not?”
“Nope. Do you know he doesn’t believe in fairies or unicorns or even mermaids?”
She gave a mock-gasp of horror. “How can he not believe in mermaids?”
Caleb just stared at them both, his hands on his hips.
“What do we do?” she asked Aleki.
“We need to think about how to give him some magic back.” Aleki tapped his finger against his chin. “We might need a magic ceremony.”
“With glitter.”
Aleki shot her a look. “Of course.”
“And magic wands.”
“Couldn’t do the ceremony without them,” Aleki agreed.
“And will he need to wear a tutu?”
“Hmm.” Aleki pretended to ponder that. “Yes. But what color?”
Caleb waggled a finger at them. “You two are trouble. No tutu.”
She pouted.
“Jelly bean, you put that away or I’m going to make you face the corner until it disappears.”
“Well. That seems mean. We’re only trying to help, right, Aleki?”
Aleki stared at her for a long moment then he smiled. “Why don’t you call me Papa, baby girl?”
She took in a sharp breath then smiled. She knew her smile was enormous as she nodded. “Okay, Papa.”
“Good girl.”
Caleb was watching them warmly. Then his phone rang and he drew it from his pocket with a frown. “Excuse me, I’ve got to take this.”
As soon as they were alone, uncertainty filled her. But Aleki smiled and patted his lap. “Come sit with me.”
She threw herself at him and he let out a breath of air. “Whoa, baby. Easy. We don’t want to damage anything important.” He winked as she blushed.
“Sorry.”
He arranged her so she was facing him with her knees bent, her legs on either side of his. “Actually, that’s my line.”
“What?”
He took her hands in his. “I’m sorry if I’ve been acting a bit distant sometimes. Having you here, it feels so fucking right. But sometimes I feel like t
his is a dream and you’re going to disappear on me. When I look at you, I remember how you’ve lived for the past eight years. If only I’d forced you to tell me what was going on back then . . .”
“Aleki, no—”
“I didn’t want to come find you. I wouldn’t have if Caleb hadn’t decided to go looking for you. You would have died, Vivi.”
Oh. Oh no. How had she not realized he was thinking all of this?
“I failed you.”
“No,” she said firmly. She leaned in and kissed him. Aleki seemed the most open of the guys, he’d tell you when he was happy, hungry, horny. But when it came to anything really serious then he bottled it up.
When she drew back, she cupped his face between her hands.
“Vivi—”
“No,” she said fiercely. “Hush. You’ve had your say. It’s my turn.”
She was silent for a long moment until he raised an eyebrow, looking amused. “Well?”
“You . . . I . . . you big nincompoop.”
She closed her eyes in embarrassment. She did not just say that. He shook, making her open her eyes to find him smiling widely. “Nincompoop? Really? I confess my innermost, deepest thoughts and you call me a nincompoop? What even is that?”
“Urgh! I don’t know. It’s you. You . . . I . . . God, Aleki.” Damn it. She was so bad at this. “You have never failed me. Not once. None of this is on you. It’s on them. My father. William. This mystery man. Not you. I didn’t tell you.” She ran her hands through his short black hair. “That’s on me. Not you.”
“You could have fucking died in that alleyway and I was sleeping in a damn hotel bed.”
She cupped her face with his hands. “You didn’t know. How could you have known? We were made for each other. Eight years can’t come between us. My father can’t come between us. I want you. As my man. My Daddy. If that’s what you want too. I’m just learning about all of this and I’m going to make mistakes. We both are. But as long as we’re together, nothing else matters. Are you going to tell me that we’re not meant to be together?”
“Fuck no.”
“Then kiss me, you idiot.”
“Stop calling your Papa names. And stop swearing. God, you’re a brat.”
“You can spank me later. Kiss me now.”
Ruled by her Daddies Page 28