Chapter 57
57
Rule Ten: You need Daddy, you call him
“Eat your breakfast, baby,” Reuben told her firmly.
Faith stared down at the toast and scrambled eggs on her plate. She didn’t feel like eating.
She was in a grouchy mood. And she didn’t want to do anything but grumble and groan.
“I don’t want to.”
“Do you want something else to eat?” he asked, setting a coffee down in front of her.
She took it, sipping it with a sigh of relief. “No. This is all I need.”
“You can’t just have coffee for breakfast.” He placed some painkillers by her plate, and she took them gratefully.
“There’s nothing wrong with coffee for breakfast. It has dairy and caffeine. That’s two major food groups.”
“Caffeine is not a food group.”
“It darn well should be.” God, she felt like crap. She was tired, and her head was thumping.
Why did she drink that tequila? Why?
And then there had been her nightmare. She’d thought she’d drunk enough that she wouldn’t dream.
Unfortunately, she’d been wrong.
“Would you like me to feed you?” he asked.
“No.”
“Would you like a spanking?” he asked.
“What? Noo! That’s so mean. You can’t spank me when I don’t feel well.”
“You’re hung over,” he pointed out.
“It’s the same thing.”
Reuben snorted and sat down to cut up her food. “You need to eat something. Then I’ll put you back to bed.”
“I can’t go back to bed.”
“You need more sleep.”
“I’ve got to go to work,” she told him.
He eyed her for a long moment. “I don’t think so. You’re not up to work today.”
Okay, now she felt terrible. Getting up, she plonked herself down in his lap and wrapped her arms around his neck. “Sorry, Daddy. I don’t mean to be a grumpy-bum. Just give me time to drink another coffee and I’ll be all good to go to work.”
He kissed her cheek. “Thank you for the apology, baby. But you’re not going to work today. You’re going to eat your breakfast and drink your water and coffee, then back to bed.”
“But you need me!”
“I’ll be fine. I’m going to work from home today to keep an eye on you. I just want you to rest. If you get tired of being in bed, you can move to the sofa.”
“All right.” That was kind of a relief, if she was honest. She felt exhausted.
“I have a couple of things for you. Stay here a moment.”
Getting up, he set her down on her chair. When he returned, he was holding two boxes. One was a cell phone box. The other was a velvet jewelry box.
“New phone.” He handed that one to her first.
“You can’t buy me a new phone!” she protested.
“Baby, your one is on its last legs. You need it. And I’m not taking no for an answer.”
He wasn’t wrong.
“What is this?” she asked as he kneeled in front of her and held out the velvet box.
Her heart started racing as he opened the box to reveal a gorgeous gold bracelet with blue sapphires and diamonds interlaid along it.
“This is for you.”
What the heck?
It was gorgeous. When had he gotten this?
“Hold out your hand.”
He put it around her wrist. “It has a very good clasp, so it shouldn’t fall off. I want you to wear it all the time.”
“All the time? What about in the shower? Or bath? Or bed?”
“All the time,” he told her sternly. “Listen to me. It has a GPS tracker in it.”
“A GPS tracker?” Her eyes grew wide as she stared at him.
“Yes. I want you to wear it all the time, so I know where you are.”
“Do you really think that’s necessary?” she asked. “I mean, I’m not in any danger. Eric won’t come after me, right?”
“He definitely won’t. But it’s not just about you being in danger. I need it for my peace of mind. Understand? I need to know where you are. And I can’t compromise on this. Or argue about it. It needs to happen.”
She swallowed heavily. “All right. I’ll wear it. For you.”
“Thank you, baby.” He leaned forward and kissed her.
Faith groaned and rolled over to grab her phone.
She stared down at it blurrily.
She was never drinking again. Why did people do this on a regular basis? It sucked.
She expected to see Reuben’s name. At some stage he’d gotten into her phone and changed his name from SOS to Little Blossom’s Sexy Daddy.
The man was crazy.
And gorgeous and caring and protective.
Hopefully understanding because she’d now missed two days of work. Something she was feeling really guilty about now.
You definitely deserve a spanking.
Reuben planned to work from home for the entire day, but he’d had to go deal with something for a couple of hours.
He’d been reluctant to leave her, and she’d had to promise to stay in the apartment, answer every text he sent, and to drink her water and eat her lunch.
So to her surprise, it wasn’t Reuben checking in to make sure that she’d drunk some water.
Crap. She hadn’t.
It was Cat.
Cat: How is your head this morning?
Faith: It feels like someone is playing ten-pin bowling and my head is the ball.
Cat: Ouch.
Faith: Yeah. I couldn’t even make it in to work today. I feel so guilty.
Cat: Well, you know what removes guilt . . .
Faith: A spanking?
Cat: I was gonna say ice cream.
Faith: *snorts*
Faith: You’re terrible.
Cat: Thank you, I try. Is Reuby-Reubs mad at you?
Faith: Reuby-Reubs?
Cat: Trying out some nicknames. Not everything comes as easily as your nickname.
Faith: True. He was surprisingly understanding.
Cat: Lucky. I probably won’t be sitting comfortably tomorrow. Papi is not impressed about me stealing the tequila or about the fact that I wouldn’t let Rafael cut us off. Such a snitch.
Faith: Sorry.
Cat: Why? Not your fault. When you play hard, you get punished hard.
Faith: Is that your life motto?
Cat: One of them.
Faith: I’m getting a spanking for not telling Reuben that I was living in a moldy basement.
Cat: Yeah. You deserve that.
Faith: Hey, what happened to Littles sticking together?
Cat: Oh! I mean bad Reuben! So mean to spank you for keeping important things from him. Want me to make him some no-bake bars?
Faith: No!
Cat: Sheesh. No need to be rude about it.
Faith: Sorry.
Cat: Joking. So, you know how I asked Nighthawk to check into Charlie?
Faith: Yes?
Cat: Came back all clear. Squeaky clean. So, you can tell the Rubes-man that if he objects to you meeting him.
Rubes-man?
Dear Lord.
Faith: Thanks. I need to, um, lie down again.
Cat: Don’t worry, next time we’ll take it easier.
Next time? No, no, no. Faith put her phone down and shot for the bathroom, vomiting up everything in her stomach.
There wouldn’t be a next time.
Reuben stepped into the apartment, carrying a bunch of camellias. He hadn’t liked leaving his girl for as long as he had.
Not while she was sick. Self-inflicted or not.
He moved through the apartment quietly in case she was sleeping. Heading into the kitchen, he put the flowers in a vase. When he opened the fridge, he sighed as he saw that she hadn’t eaten her lunch.
That was going to earn her a warm bottom.
Half the water he’d allocated her was still there too.
Yep. Someone was in trouble. Once they were feeling better.
He wasn’t a monster.
He grabbed a bottle of water and some sliced up fruit and searched the apartment. To his surprise, he found her in the playroom.
She was in the crib. All but one of the sides were up and she was still wearing his T-shirt. Lying on her stomach, she had one leg bent up and the T-shirt had risen to reveal a pair of panties with bright pink flowers on them. Colin was held in one arm, and she had her pacifier in her mouth.
She looked sweet and vulnerable.
Setting the flowers, water, and food down, he lightly patted her bottom.
“Little Blossom? Wake up now.”
She let out a grumble as he removed her pacifier. “No! Go away!”
It amused him how cranky she was when she first woke up. It was so unlike her normally sweet and sunny personality.
“Time to wake up. You need some food and water.”
She thumped her legs against the bed. “No!”
Oh, someone was in a mood.
“Little Blossom, Daddy doesn’t like this attitude much.”
“Daddy can go spank himself.”
“It’s not Daddy that needs the spanking,” he said firmly. “But you’re very close to getting one.” He tapped her ass firmly.
She sat up with a gasp, staring at him in shock. Then she smiled. “Daddy! You’re home!”
“It’s like Jekyll and Hyde,” he muttered as he picked her up.
“Huh? Daddy, what are you talking about?”
“Nothing. Give Daddy a cuddle. I’ve missed you.”
“Aww. I missed you too.”
He sat in the rocking chair with her curled around him. “Did you want Daddy? Is that why you’re in here?”
She nodded and shyly buried her face in his chest.
“Hey, no hiding. Talk to Daddy.” He drew her head back, tilting her face up. “If you need me, you only have to ask. You should have called me.”
“But you were busy.”
“Baby, I am never too busy for you.”
She practically melted in his arms. But it was the truth. Fuck. Why did he leave her today? Sure, he’d only been gone a few hours. But she’d needed him.
“I already messed up your day enough. Heck, your week. And I was fine.”
“New rule.”
She groaned.
He slapped her ass. “Stop that. If you didn’t have rules, I hate to think of the trouble you’d get into. Rule ten is that if you need me, then you call me. Say, yes, Daddy.”
“Yes, Daddy.”
“Good girl. Now, we need to talk about the fact that not only didn’t you call me. But you haven’t eaten your lunch or drunk all your water.”
“I was going to eat after I had a sleep,” she told him.
“Well, now that Daddy is home, he can make sure you eat. And drink. And I think it’s also time for a bath.”
“Are you saying that I stink, Daddy?”
“Daddy would never say that.”
With a gasp, she pointed to the camellias he’d put on the nightstand. “Daddy, are those for me?”
“Well, I’d heard they were your love language. And I wanted to cheer you up.”
“Daddy, you are the bestest.”