Page 271 of Daddy's Pride
I swallowed hard, trying to think of something, anything else. Oh, shoot. Hannah. Hopefully she wouldn’t feel bad if she ever found out?
North’s lips twitched. “Something on your mind, baby boy?”
“My ex-girlfriend,” I admitted.
“Ah, okay,” he said, running his fingers through his head as he lost that little hint of a smile. Then he sighed and sat down on the bed next to me. “I wanted to…” His voice trailed off, and for the first time since I’d first seen him in person, he looked a little unsure. Then he shook his head and smiled at me. “I’m sorry. You should get your sleep.”
“No!” I blurted, twisting the edge of the pillow between my fingers. “Tell me. Please? I can do whatever it is that you wanted, I promise.”
He laughed, so that was good? Then he gave me a fond smile that made me feel all kinds of warm inside.
“I just… didn’t like how we left things. When I saw you were awake, I wanted to make them right, but I’ll be honest, I’m not sure what that would look like.”
“You didn’t do anything wrong,” I said quickly. Then wondered if I’d misunderstood. “Um, did I?”
“No,” he said, cupping my face. “Not ever. If you were my boy?—”
My breath hitched, my heart starting to race, and he must have noticed, because he stopped talking, cocking his head to the side as he gave me a long, deep look, like he was trying to see right down to my soul.
“If you were my boy,” he repeated after a moment, speaking kind of slowly and carefully as he watched me. “I think I’d make a rule about talking things out and being honest with each other, because when you left the kitchen, you said you were fine, but that didn’t feel true.”
Embarrassment burns through me like wildfire. He knew? That I was jealous of those kink-club boys he’d been planning on spending tonight with?
“But I don’t feel like it’s my place to set those kinds of rules for you,” he went on, still watching me so intently that it felt like I couldn’t move.
No, like I didn’t want to.
I wanted him to see me. To know me. To be wide open to him and… and have him be happy with what he found once he looked inside.
“Um, but you do set rules for me?” I reminded him, trying to focus on what he’d actually said instead of all the big feelings rushing through my heart. “I don’t mind. I mean, I like it, Da?—”
I blushed, closing my mouth quickly, before I said it again.
He frowned. “You don’t want to call me Daddy anymore?”
I did. I so did.
“Is, um, is that a new rule? The thing about talking things out and being honest with each other?”
He hesitated for a minute, but finally nodded, and relief rushed through me. Not that I wasn’t still embarrassed to admit what I was feeling, but at the same time, everything was easier, everything was better, when he gave me rules like that.
It was like they lifted a weight off me and opened me up inside, too. So there was more room to breathe, and less pressure to worry about anything. The right thing to do was crystal clear, just follow the rules, and all I had to do was… do it.
“I do like calling you Daddy.” I looked down at the dog so I didn’t have to watch him watch me confess these things. “I like how you came when I needed you, and the way you take care of me, and, um, and…”
Oh God. I sniffled.
“And I like it when you call me things,” I said quickly, hoping he hadn’t heard the sniffle. “Baby and sweetheart and all that. But I, um, I don’t really like knowing that you call the other boys all those things, too. The real boys. At your club.” I peeked up at him, then got caught by his eyes again as I whispered the last, most selfish part, “And I don’t think I can keep calling you Daddy now that I know it’s not just for me.”
North’s eyes really were magic, because I couldn’t look away even though I could feel how hot my cheeks were and a part of me couldn’t hardly believe I’d said all that out loud.
Except… I could believe it, because even when my heart ached, it also knew that I could always, always trust him with its secrets. Even if he never lov—um, felt like I did, I knew it because he’d proven it, bit by bit, every day.
“It is just for you,” he said, giving me a soft smile and cupping my cheek. “I figured that out tonight before you messaged me. I did go to the club because I wanted something, uh, physical… something I couldn’t have with you, but then realized I didn’t?—”
He paused and cleared his throat, blinking fast.
“You didn’t, um, want sex?”