Page 17 of Daddy’s Rules

“I bet I taste delicious too,” I giggled.

“So, is that a yes on going back to my place?” he said. “And you won’t have to wake up at the crack of dawn because it’s the weekend.”

I full-body shivered beneath him. “I like the sound of that a lot.” I’d spent a night or two at his place, and since both of us lived busy lives, we kept a similar schedule. “But I’d like to—” I paused, my stomach rumbling under him.

“And I best feed you as well,” he said. “So, my place, I’ll order takeout, and we can go crazy, decorating with stickers. I want them everywhere.”

From beneath him, I slipped my hands up his back, getting under his shirt. I couldn’t do the same soft drawing he did on me, but I tried. It felt like I was fingerpainting with the way I dragged my fingers across his back, drawing a landscape in my mind with rolling hills and one large spiraling sun.

“Can I ask one thing, before we go anywhere?” I began, staring into his eyes as he looked down at me all soft.

“Anything,” he said. “Remember, I’ve got my rules on communication.”

I nodded. “You’re right. So, are we dating?” It was the question I’d swallowed and kept in my throat for days. The first time we spent together was right here in this bed, but we’d been together again and again, and now, here we were again, and he was offering me space at his place to dot glittery star stickers, basically the little’s equivalent of an animal scenting their area.

“Yes,” he said, kissing me with our noses together. “I consider this dating. Are you asking for a key to my place?”

“No, no, we should give it a few more weeks before you confess your heart to me, and give me your keys,” I snickered.

“Why wait?” he asked.

“What?”

Daddy slipped off the side. “Why wait?” he repeated himself. “For those two weeks you didn’t call, I thought I’d done something wrong. I spent way too long analyzing it. I knew we had a good time, but it kinda collapsed my brain on itself thinking about it. And in all those thoughts, I came to the same conclusion each time. You’ve made me care about you,” he said, his soft hands doing their calming motions on the back of my palms. “So, I would give you my heart. You’ve already consumed my mind, so why not my heart?”

A tear trickled down my cheek. I placed a hand, guided by his hand, on his chest. “For the first time, I feel like I’m the lucky one. I—I feel like you’re my reward.” His heart thumped under my fingers.

“You are the reward.”

I sobbed, immediately pressing my lips together to not make a sound. “But I think you’re the reward, everything you’ve given me.”

“That’s because you’re giving me something back in return.”

My forehead scrunched, trying to think about what I was giving him. Immediately switching back into adult mode, I hoped this wasn’t something to do with my work, and perhaps it was something I’d actually already done for him. I wasn’t exactly a lawyer, if that’s what he’d wanted.

“Relax,” he said, laughing. “You’ve given me you, your attention, your space. Your little space, that is. You’ve opened it up for me to take care of you in. And that has given me new purpose, which I’d been searching for.”

I tilted my head. “You’ve got so much going on, what do you mean?”

“Well, I think they say matters of the heart are entirely different,” he said, now placing his hand to my chest, feeling just how quickly my heartbeat was going. “I’ve never had luck with them, but you’re different.”

“Maybe because you never approached a loner before.”

“God. I regret calling you that,” he laughed. “But you were alone. And of course, I know you have friends. And maybe if he had come with you, I’d have stayed in my booth, drinking my vodka soda, watching and waiting for guys to approach me.”

“I guess that was different too. You approached me, I didn’t—”

“See, my heart knew something even then,” he said as my heart was racing in my ears, thundering almost, as if we were about to confess we were each other’s greatest love. I hoped not, at least not yet. “So, I’ll get you a key. It’s quiet and feels light in the day, if you need somewhere to go and study.”

I’d seen daylight in his apartment, but I’d ever only visited in the night, and left as the sun was rising. I wasn’t going to complain, the bed was incredible, and I didn’t have to hear two other people in the apartment—or the neighbors upstairs

“Thank you,” I said. “It’ll be helpful, and I think I’m ready to take my LSATs. I just need to pick a date and sign up.” I nodded with my words; it had stressed me. “Can we—get back to playful talk? I wanna play.”

“Here? Or at home?”

My heart.

I knew he was referring to his apartment, but he called it home, like we shared it.