Page 28 of Hunter's Baby Girl

Chapter 14

Ihad to get some fresh air. I needed to figure out what I was feeling. I shut off everything in the kitchen, grabbed my coat and walked out the front door.

Things weren’t supposed to turn out this way. We were only having fun together. I was sure Hunter saw me as a friend and a playmate. Nothing more. Meanwhile, I’d gone and caught feelings somewhere along the way.

When had it happened? Maybe that first day, when he ran the bath for me. Or when he had rubbed the lotion on my butt after my spanking. Maybe it was when he sat with me and helped me through my migraine. And he had never really asked anything from me, other than playing along when we were Daddy and Little Girl. That was it. He hadn’t even gotten off.

It didn’t hurt that he was ridiculously handsome and smart. I could just as easily talk with him about current events and classic film as I could pretend to be the naughty schoolgirl. He supported me and gave great advice. He believed in me, even though I didn’t.

I had started craving him when he wasn’t around. I found myself coming up with reasons for a spanking or a punishment, just so I could feel his hands on me and then have him care for me afterward. He was good to me, and I knew he would never take advantage of our relationship.

But I had no idea if he wanted me to want him this way. I was starting to want him to be my Daddy all the time. Not just when we played a few times a week. Every day. I wanted him to come home to me every night and wake up with me every morning. I wanted so much more than what we currently had together. And there he was, still hurting after his wife’s passing. What if he didn’t want to open himself up like that again?

I had walked blindly down the street, not paying much attention to where I was headed. Before long, I had reached the park. How many times had I come here when I was a kid? Especially after Dad died.

I walked over to the old castle, still standing there after all these years. I ran my hand over the smooth wood and remembered all the times I had climbed up the ladder and sat inside, sometimes for hours. Then I would slide down and walk home, always disappointed. I was waiting to be rescued. I didn’t know at the time there’s no such thing.

I was much too big a girl to fit inside now, of course. I settled for sitting on the slide instead. I knew by now he would have arrived at the house, and seeing me gone would raise a red flag. Maybe he would just go back to his own home and forget about me. Maybe that was for the best anyway. I didn’t think I could stand it if I asked him for more than what we currently had and he rejected me.

I don’t know how long I sat there; it started to get dark by the time I saw a car pull up across the street from the park. He had found me. As he approached, I saw concern on his face; I wasn’t sure if this was Daddy or Hunter I was looking at.

“You found me,” I said weakly and tried to laugh it off.

“Have you been here this whole time? I was worried sick!” he said. I looked up at him and did see a lot of concern on his face. But that didn’t tell me anything real. Was he concerned because he was playing his Daddy role and wanted to stay in character? Or was it because he, himself, was really concerned over me?

I decided to cut to the chase. “Am I talking to Daddy or Hunter right now? Because I really just want to talk to Hunter,” I said.

His brow furrowed as he frowned. “You’re talking to Hunter,” he said. “And I really was worried. No note, no message. You didn’t even lock the front door behind you. I know you don’t know this about me, but I tend to go into a worry spiral when somebody I care about isn’t where they said they were going to be and I don’t know why.”

The car accident. I felt like such a jerk. “I’m sorry,” I told him. “Obviously, I didn’t think about that.”

“What’s going on?” he asked, and I could hear a lot of emotion in his voice. I felt sick to my stomach. I wanted so much to tell him how I was feeling, but I was afraid. The safe thing to do would be to keep things status quo. We could continue playing, as Daddy and Little Girl. I could keep him in my life.

But I couldn’t deny that I wanted more. I would never be able to enjoy our relationship if I couldn’t accept it for what it was. And there was no way this would do for much longer. I would always be wishing for more, wanting more. And I would start hating him for not being able to give it to me.

Being honest might not be the safest route, but it made the most sense. I just didn’t know where to begin.

“I don’t know how to say this . . .,” I started. My voice was shaking, and I felt myself tremble all over.

“You want us to end this, don’t you?” he asked. My eyes shot up from where I’d been staring at his shoes, and I saw fear and dread on his face.

“No,” I said. “That’s not at all what I’m trying to say,” I told him. He looked relieved. That reaction gave me hope, and the idea of honesty wasn’t so scary anymore. Maybe he did care about me as more than just somebody he spanked a few times a week?

“In fact,” I continued, “I was thinking just the opposite.”

“The opposite?” he asked. He sat cross-legged on the ground in front of me.

“Yeah. The opposite of ending it. Of continuing what we have instead. I mean, I don’t know when it happened, but you’ve become a part of my life,” I said. “And it scares the hell out of me, honestly.”

He laughed a little. “Why is that scary?”

“Because this was just supposed to be fun. Right? We weren’t supposed to take it any further than just a few nights a week, playing. That’s it. Isn’t that what we originally talked about?”

He shrugged. “It is, I guess. But . . . life happens. Things happen. Sometimes an arrangement turns out different from what we expected. I never considered things set in stone. I mean, we’re in a relationship. It’s unconventional, but it is a kind of relationship. Things change in a relationship.”

“I never thought . . .,” I said.

“Never thought what?”