“Why do you have clothes that don’t fit?”
“In case I ever lose the extra fifty pounds I’m carting around with me.”
Dropping his hand to the mattress, he caged her in, his lips grazing hers as he chuckled. “I feel like I’m supposed to tell you that I’ll love your body no matter what, but I’d be lying if I said I don’t really fucking love the way you look right now, baby.”
Liar.He had to be, right? No man actuallywanteda woman as overweight as she was. They might tolerate it, find her sexy despite it, but they sure as fuck didn’t enjoy it.
But looking in his eyes, she couldn’t bring herself to call him on his bullshit. Because if he was lying, he was doing a damn good job of hiding his true feelings.
“You don’t have to believe me,” he said, as if he could read her mind. Which she was starting to think he actually might be able to do. “But it’s true. So how about this. You go take a nice long shower, do whatever mystical things women do when they’re ready to spend the night with a man for the first time. I’ll lay out some options I like and you can pick what you like best. Sound good?”
She was still so caught up on him insisting he loved her body exactly as it was that she almost missed the true meaning behind his words. “When you say spend the night…”
“Yeah, baby. I’m going to spend the day spoiling the hell out of you. And when it’s all over, we’re going to go back to our hotel room and Daddy’s finally going to fuck you the way you’ve been silently begging me to all week.”
Dylan
“River puppies!”
Squealing with excitement for the millionth time in the twenty minutes or so they’d been in the aquarium, Sam dropped his hand and raced forward, standing up on her tiptoes and craning her neck to try and see over the crowd gathered in front of the otter exhibit.
God, she was adorable. Even more so than he remembered from their trip to the aquarium in Baltimore. Or maybe it was just because now she washisand everything just hit harder knowing that.
Stepping up behind her, he slid his arms around her waist, holding her close as the people in front of them moved on to the next exhibit, giving them a clear view of the playful otters. “Look, baby, those two are holding hands.”
A soft gasp slipped past her lips as she all but melted in his arms. “Theyare. Oh, they’re so precious. I love them so much.”
“As much as the sharks?” he teased with a low laugh.
“Not even close.”
Thank god. While he’d mostly been teasing her, he’d also needed to assuage his own worry that he’d chosen the right “extracurricular” activity for their visit. If he could, he would have paid for her to do every single encounter available, but not only was that well out of his budget, there wasn’t enough time in the day for everything.
So he’d had to choose, and when she’d sighed over the otters he’d had a moment of panic that he’d chosen wrong.
But no. His babygirl still loved sharks as much as he remembered, and he had no doubt she was going to lose her absolute mind when he revealed his surprise.
Eventually she’d had enough of the otters and they moved on, making their way slowly through the crowd, one exhibit and then the next. The octopus was another favorite, with Sam standing in front of the tank for what seemed like hours just staring up at the graceful crawling of its massive limbs, awe stamped all over her stunning face.
If he hadn’t already known he was in love with her, that moment would have sealed the deal.
Around noon, he started guiding her toward the stairs so they could make their way up to the food court, which took nearly a half-hour because she kept stopping to squeal over some new discovery.
“But I wanna go through the shark exhibit,” she whined as they climbed up to the second floor.
“And we will. After we have lunch.”
“I’m nothungry.”
He hadn’t been a Daddy very long, but every instinct he had was telling him she actually was quite hungry and that was part of why she was whining so much. But those same instincts were also telling him that pointing out such things would only lead to her digging in her heels.
So instead he swung their clasped hands between them, keeping the mood light and teasing. “Well, Iamhungry. You don’t want Daddy to starve to death right here in the aquarium, do you? What if they feed me to the sharks?”
As he’d expected, her eyes went round and she let out a shocked gasp. “They wouldn’t!”
“You don’t know,” he said as somberly as he could manage when everything in him was fighting not to laugh. “They might. I bet it’s in the fine print on your ticket and everything.”
By then they’d reached the line for the food court and she stopped, tilting her head to the side, a calculating gleam in her eye. “Do you think they’d let me watch?”
