I flinched.
He stilled.
But I forced myself to smile. “Sorry, Daddy.”
He leaned forward and hugged me again, and I was stunned at the warm, strong arms that wrapped around me. I huddled there and tried not to ruin the moment. I barely breathed.
“You’re sweet. I won’t make you do that for me.”
Whywouldhe want me the way I would like to have him? He knew my last Daddy wasn’t happy with me. I nodded and tried to keep the tears from falling down my face. I’d heard everything he said, he made a promise to his church, but it felt a lot like I wasn’t good enough. “Okay, Daddy. Whatever you need.”
He leaned back. “It’s all right. It’s fine that you offered. I’m not upset with you.”
“You don’t like me?”
He rubbed his hands along my arms. “There is nothing wrong with you. It’s not you, trust me.” He grinned, and I felt a bit better.
For a moment I was lost in thought as he continued to pleasantly massage my arms, and then I finally nodded. “I can be good and do what you say. I can do anything you ask.”
“I’m sure you can. You mentioned breakfast?”
He stood and dragged me up to my feet with a light grip on my arms. I liked that he was still touching me, but he glanced at his hands with a frown, then gave my arms one last soft squeeze and stepped away.
“Yes, I’ll carry your coffee out, Daddy.” I snagged the mug from the nightstand and gave him a smile.
As he walked, he seemed to wake up more, and finally took the mug back from me. With that smile on his face, I felt as if I could do something ridiculous like skip. I snuck glances at his ass. It was nice and muscled and filled out the back of his pajama pants.
“You want to help me, but guess what?”
I glanced up, caught staring. He smiled and kept looking at me as we entered the kitchen, and I finally understood he expected a response.
“Um, what?”
“I help people. The church where I work is hosting a clothing drive tonight. If you want to be of service, you can help me work on some of the preparations for that today. What do you think?” He scrutinized my face carefully while he stood near the table, and I flushed warm all over.
“O-out of the house? With people?”
“Today there won’t be many people.” He took another sip of his coffee and the happy sigh that followed sent another warm round of tingles racing across my body. “It will be busy this evening, but you could stay in my office while the event is going on. Or even come back here, I don’t mind.”
He watched me carefully, and it occurred to me that maybe he was waiting for acknowledgement he’d spoken. “Okay, Daddy.”
He seemed satisfied with that answer and grinned again. My heart could barely take it. I kept waiting for him to yell at me, and he hadn’t so far. My hands shook and I hid them behind my back.
“We could even find you some clothes there, too. The ones you were wearing have seen better days. Anything we can’t find there I can help you pick up. You don’t.... Do you want to go back to where you were living and get your things?”
“Those were all my things,” I mumbled, and heat boiled in my cheeks again. “I wasn’t very good, so I wasn’t rewarded often....”
Daddy let out an unhappy sound.
Embarrassment had me dropping to the floor on my knees. “I’ll be better here, I promise.”
“It’s okay.” He set his mug on the kitchen table and held out a hand to me. “Come on. I’d love to have your help today. It would be a good thing for me and the community.”
“I won’t know what to do.”
“It’s okay, I promise.” His hand never wavered as he held it steady. I wanted to take it so bad. “When we get to the church, I’ll tell you what to do. It won’t be difficult.”
“You will? Sometimes I get confused.” I rubbed the back of my neck and wanted to crawl under the table.
