“And she doesn’t want to do this at the Ranch?”
“Maybe eventually. This is her first step toward learning how to trust.”
“Does she want me to vet people she decides to date or play with first?”
“I think that’s part of it, yeah. Again, not that she doesn’t trust Master Derek or any of the others at the Ranch?—”
“But she trustsyou, knows what you and I have, and trustsus, not just me.”
“Yes, Daddy. Like me, she wants…” I tried to think about how to phrase it. “The goofy, child-like play part when she needs it, but with the adult sexy stuff being separate. Except she doesn’t want the sexy stuff with you or with anyone else right now. Her inner child is way more damaged than mine was. She basically wants permission to not feel self-conscious, I guess? Does that make sense? She never got to have a ‘daddy’ who loved and protected her, and she’s looking for that to help heal her inner child, but she’s not looking to be a Little.”
“Yeah.” He chuckled, and I loved the way it rumbled through his chest and through me. “Chop my own dick off first, huh?”
I snickered. “Where’s the lie?”
He kissed the top of my head. “She’s not wrong, baby. Except I kind of figured she’d be the first one to chop my dick off.”
I looked up into his eyes.
“I took things slow between us because I wanted to make sure we were both happy. I never want to get divorced again. And yes, obviously Lilah will keep living with us as long as she wants or needs to. I accepted that from the start. I don’t care that you two aren’t biological sisters—you adopted each other and you need each other. You’re family.Weare family, the threeof us. If she eventually meets someone she wants to be with forever, they’ll become part of this family, too.”
I couldn’t have loved this man any more in this moment if I’d tried. “Thank you, Daddy.”
He patted my ass. “Let me grab my stuff. I need a shower and dinner before we have this discussion.”
“Yes, Sir.”
Lilah had planned to cook tonight but I opted to make my meatloaf. Fast, easy, and wouldn’t poison any of us. I’d planned to wait to wake her up until just before it was ready, but she beat me to it and joined us in the kitchen, where Jack and I were putting the final touches on the side dishes before the meatloaf was ready.
Jack
If Emmy had asked me to guess what she’d wanted to talk to me about, this situation never would have come to mind.
Having a couple of hours to think about it, I was inclined to agree, depending on how this talk with Lilah went.
Lilah walked over to Emmy, who wrapped her in her arms in a hug. It didn’t hurt in this case that I felt zero sexual attraction for Lilah. Not that she wasn’t beautiful, but she had become my sister, too.
“Emmy talked to me when I got home,” I started, deciding to jump in and get it over with. “That you want me to be your Daddy, too.”
She nodded against Emmy’s shoulder. “Yes, Sir.”
Okay, that was a first from her.
“What rules do you want me to have for you?” I asked.
She shrugged, almost looking like a little kid. “I don’t want anything sexual, Sir. When we go to the Ranch, I want to be able to tell people who ask that you’re my Daddy, so I don’t have to deal with them.”
“We can do that. Do you want to limit our dynamic to you telling me, or otherwise indicating to me when you need that from me?”
That seemed to surprise her. “We can do it like that?”
Emmy snorted. “Sis, he’s the Daddy—he can do it however he wants.”
That finally drew a smile from her. “Yes, Sir.”
“How about this,” I said. “If you want to call me Sir or Daddy, you’re free to do so. If you specifically need something from me, something formal, you can ask me or ask Emmy for that. I’m not going to require you to do anything right now except be as safe as you can be when you’re not home. I will feel my way around this, and I might talk to you in ways I speak to Emmy—such as asking if you ate, things like that. Informally. If you absolutely don’t want me in Daddy mode for that, safeword. Otherwise, I won’t expect you to do anything than what you already do around here, but I’ll address you more as my girl than as Lilah. Does that make sense?”
She nodded. “Yeah.”
