Chapter 9
CHAPTER 9
S uzi glanced at her watch and smiled. Deke had been her Daddy for an hour and a half. So far, it was the best ninety minutes of her life. She needed to be careful. Sure, he said he cared for her, and she knew he did. And not like a sister, either.
You didn’t kiss someone you thought of as a sister like he’d kissed her. Her lips still tingled, and her panties were downright uncomfortable. She had never been kissed like that before. Nothing had prepared her for the scalding heat that seared its way through her at his touch. And the pressure of his thick cock pressing against her seemed to indicate she wasn’t the only one affected.
But she couldn’t let her heart get carried away. It would be so easy to believe all the rules he was making for her and the fact that he was willing to help her learn about her Little meant he wanted to be her Daddy forever. And he might even think he meant it. He might still believe forever was a real thing.
She knew forever was a fairy tale. At least when it came to people and relationships. People thought mothers and fathers were forever, or at least a really long time. She knew better. Her father had left when she was a toddler. Not on purpose, but he was still gone. Terri had been there physically after her father left, but her mother had disappeared. No one loved her forever.
She was good for temporary things, such as the length of a project or a one-time event. Sure, everyone wanted her around when there was a deadline to meet or a cause that needed support.
But just to be with her because she was more important to them than anything else in the world? No. That happened to the Georgia’s and Winnie’s and Breezy’s of the world. That didn’t happen to her.
If she had learned one thing in her twenty-five years on this planet, it was to live in the moment but remember that was all it was. A moment. In Deke’s case, an incredibly sexy, life-changingly amazing moment, but still, not something that would last forever.
“Isn’t that right, Rosebud?” Deke asked.
Suzi snapped to attention. Oh, for the love of dandelion dreams! What had he just said? She had no idea, but it didn’t matter. If she disagreed, he might change his mind about being her Daddy, so she nodded. She added, “Of course,” just to make sure he understood what a nodding head meant.
Good lord, somebody stop her.
“Good,” he said. “Let’s give that last one a try. Jump.”
Jump? What was that supposed to mean? Was it some crazy version of that board game? What was it called? Password? With nothing else coming to mind, she smiled and said, “Ship.”
He laughed.
Okay. Not what she was expecting, but if he was happy, she was happy, so she laughed, too.
After a minute of confusing joviality, she asked between giggles, “Why are we laughing?”
“You weren’t listening to a word I said, were you?”
She gasped at his audacity. “I was too,” she said. “I heard every word you said.”
“Uh-huh. So, your nodding when I said, ‘if I say jump, you say how high,’ was intentional?”
Wait, when did he say that?
“I’m not quite… I don’t think?—”
“You don’t think you were listening after all?” he filled in.
She hadn’t been, but there were extenuating circumstances. And even if there weren’t, she knew better than to admit it. “I was listening. But you’ve been talking forever. Nobody could listen to every word for that long.”
He grinned. “I take your point. For the record, I think ship was a better answer anyway. But since you are going to now be held accountable for these rules, I need you to listen while I go over them.”
“I have an hour and a half’s worth of rules? On the first day?”
“I’ll see if I can bullet-point it for you. How’s that?”
His grin was infectious. God, he was handsome. She really wanted to grab his beard and pull him down for another kiss. Was that something Littles did?
She needed to ask for a meeting of the Musketiaras. Since so many of them now had Daddies, they’d be able to tell her what was and was not acceptable.
“Okay. Here we go. No putting your health and safety at risk. No lying or disrespect. We’ll be discussing the lying part in a more hands-on way soon. No defiance or disobedience. How’s that?”
“Those are pretty big rules.”
“Yep. I don’t believe in fifty thousand individual rules. I believe in principles to live by. We can talk about them more later. First, do you agree with Daddy’s family principles?”
His question robbed her of the ability to speak. One word in his question, to be specific, and that word was family. Speaking required breathing, and she could no longer do that. Did he want to be a family? With her?
He must mean something else by family. Family didn’t say temporary. Family said forever. At least, it was supposed to.
But he couldn’t promise forever from the start. He didn’t even know her. Not really. What if she was a slob, and he was a neat freak? She was an early riser. What if he was a night owl? She rooted for the SEC. What if he pulled for the Big 12?
“I can see you’re feeling panicky, Rosebud. Do we need to talk about the rules again later? I don’t want you to feel rushed or pressured. It’s okay if you want to talk about it some more. In smaller pieces this time. We are taking this at your pace. I want you to feel comfortable with your decisions.”
And just like that, her reservations disappeared. Deke wouldn’t try to take advantage of her. Not ever. He had always been honest and done what he thought was best for her. Even when they disagreed, he listened to her, and they found a way to work through it.
Besides, he hadn’t said family meant forever to him. That was her reading into it. She needed to take it one day at a time. No plans or dependence on tomorrow. Just enjoy and live in the day. She could do that. She had to be able to do that.
“I don’t need to think. Those are great principles. I agree with them. I’ll do my best to follow them.”
The smile her words earned stole her breath again. Deke smiled with his whole face. Hip lips, his cheeks, his eyes, everything. It warmed her like walking from the shadows into the sunshine on a chilly morning. You just knew everything was going to be fine when someone smiled like that. Especially if that someone was your Daddy.
Her Little squealed and clapped inside her. It was all Suzi could do to stand there without jumping and dancing around. It was the best feeling in the whole world.
Deke had done that. Then the truth hit her. How had she not seen it before? Her Daddy was a wizard, just like Dumbledore and Gandolf. He had to be. She needed to get her hands on his beard. If it was real, that was all the proof she’d need.
“What is it, babygirl?” he asked.
“My Little, or at least I think it’s my Little,” she told him. “I felt her. Inside me. She’s really, really happy.”
He beamed at her. “That’s wonderful, Rosebud. I hope to make her happy every day. This is the perfect time to show you what I got for you.”
He reached for a bag she hadn’t noticed before and pulled out the last thing she’d expected. It was a stuffie. A creamy, fluffy bunny stuffie with the biggest feet ever. His soft brown eyes glimmered in the light. He was perfect.
Her Daddy held him out to her–because she knew without a doubt it was a him–and she took him in her arms, hugging him to her chest. His fuzzy ears tickled her nose, and he was just as soft as she always dreamed a stuffie would be. He was perfect.
“I love him, Daddy! Thank you!”
She dove off the desk into his arms and he caught her, just like he knew she would.
“I’m glad you like him, Rosebud.”
“His name is Digger because he has big feet perfect for digging.”
“I love it. You’re right. Digger is perfect for him and perfect for you. You’re my Little newsie, always digging for a story.”
That was funny. She hadn’t even thought about it that way.
“And since we’re on the subject of digging for stories, we have something else to discuss.”
Uh oh, that didn’t sound good. “Something like what, Daddy?” she asked, but she had a feeling she already knew.
“Something like the files Rick Everett emailed you. Let me remind you, before you answer, of our newly established no lying rule. I’d hate for you to get in trouble within the first couple of hours of having rules. It’s up to you, though.”
Grr! Daddies were sneaky. She couldn’t think of a single way of avoiding his question without stretching the truth at least a little. He’d probably still call that lying. Best to counter with a question of her own.
“If I did have some material of interest, and I’m not saying I do, but if I did, what would you plan to do with it?” she asked.
The way he studied her made her pulse speed up. She felt like a lab mouse trying to avoid a trap. “If you had emails like that, I would take them and give them to Sawyer to go through. Then, we would use them to confront Boucher and force him to let our friend Jaxon Ruick out of prison. You remember Jaxon, don’t you? Even though he’s older than you, his arrest and trial made all the papers. He’s been in prison six years for something he didn’t do.”
She did remember that. It was one of the few times her mother had called her at college when it wasn’t her birthday or a holiday. She’d been so excited to hear from her— right up until the moment her mother asked her to spy on her friends and try to dig up dirt on Jaxon. She only wanted to use her as a source so Terri could write a hit piece on the man.
Suzi had never sent her mother a word.
Not that Terri had needed her. She’d obviously called other people as well. She gathered enough information to keep the story in the papers and on the news channels for weeks.
Deke’s disappointment shadowed his expression. That stung, but she kept the smile on her face. She didn’t want him to think she was thin-skinned.
He pressed on. “If we add the information we gather from those files to what we already know, we might have enough to force the DA’s office to let him out of prison. The General is the one who put him there by falsifying records and lying in court. But now, Dax Montgomery, Gage’s little brother, works in the DA’s office. He’s been keeping his ears and eyes open for years. With Boucher in the wind and under suspicion for conspiracy and so much more, Dax is in a position to help us get Jaxon out.”
She knew about Dax working in the DA’s office. She hadn’t known any of the other things Deke had said. How could she not have known? She’d been investigating DA Boucher and his office for months, and Jaxon Ruick’s name had never appeared anywhere.
Her heart hurt for Jaxon. She couldn’t imagine being in jail for that long, especially for a crime he didn’t commit. She had to do everything possible to gain his release as soon as possible.
“I want to do all I can—” she started, but Deke cut her off.
“That’s my Rosebud. I knew there was no way you’d leave an innocent man in prison just so you could write an article for your paper. No matter what it might do for your career.”
He didn’t get it. Well, he did. She was glad he didn’t think she was so shallow and driven. “It won’t work,” she said.
“What do you mean it won’t work?”
“District Attorney General Boucher has already skipped town. At least, I think he has. I tried to get him yesterday afternoon once I had listened to enough of the recordings to convince him I had them. They told me he wasn’t in the office. I got the same message each of the five times I called.”
“They were probably covering for him,” Deke said.
She nodded. “I thought of that. So, I drove to his office to see him. His car wasn’t in his parking space, and when I went in, his door was open and he wasn’t there. And before you say it, I know he might have been out of sight of the doorway. That’s why I walked around and looked in his office window. He wasn’t there.”
“Did you check his home?”
“I do have a degree in this kind of thing so, of course, I did. I talked to Sidney Boucher, and she said she had no idea where he was. When she got home from shopping yesterday, his room was a mess and most of his clothes were gone, along with his suitcases. For the record, her comment was, ‘Good riddance to bad rubbish’.”
Deke scowled, and she was glad it wasn’t because of her. “Shit,” he said, taking out his phone. “Sabre’s been looking for him, too. We thought he’d skipped town, but last I heard we hadn’t gotten confirmation. Sawyer’s scanning the web and the dark web to try to pick up a trace of him, but so far, he’s come up empty.”
“Does that mean you’ll have to go get him and bring him back?”
He looked at her like she was crazy. “I’m not leaving you while the Warriors are still around. They can send Connor to track him down. I swear he’s part bloodhound. If anyone can find him, it’ll be ConMan.”
While she was thrilled her Daddy wanted to stay to protect her, she worried. If he stayed in town because of her, he might eventually resent her. She couldn’t have that.
“You don’t have to stay,” she told him. “I can take care of myself. Besides, Lawson can take care of me.”
The angry flash of his eyes told her that was the wrong thing to say. “No one is taking care of my Little girl but me. Connor will be fine, and if he needs help, Lawson can go with him. My job is protecting you.”
“But, Daddy, I don’t want to hold you back.”
“Who said anything about you holding me back, Rosebud? When I’m with you, I’m exactly where I want to be. Now, I’ll just need those files, Rosebud,” he said as he thumbed his phone for Sawyer’s number.
She was afraid it would come to this, “No,” she said.
“Excuse me?”
She sighed, wishing she were a normal Little who could reach for Little space and fall right in. But she and Deke, if they could make this relationship work, weren’t going to have the same kind of relationship his brothers had with their Littles. Not at first, anyway. Suzi knew absolutely nothing about how to be Little. She’d never had the opportunity to experience it.
She’d been living as an adult practically since birth. Did he understand how difficult it might be to reach her Little? Or would he get discouraged the first time it proved difficult and walk away?
No, she couldn’t think like that or they might as well not try. Deke would be there to help her discover her Little side. He said he knew her Little was there. In her heart, she knew they both wanted her to find it.
“I said… um, no?” He didn’t answer, just continued to stare at her. Waiting for her explanation.
His lips twitched. That was a good sign, right? She wasn’t sure.
“Are you asking me, Rosebud, or telling me?”
“I don’t have to ask. He sent them to me, so they’re mine.” A voice she almost didn’t recognize spoke through her. She didn’t want to share. Those files made her special. At that moment, she didn’t want anyone else to look at them.
Was that her Little peeking out? Wow, Deke might be right. Her Little might be a brat, but she didn’t think so.
Deke’s brows shot up. “I didn’t say they weren’t, but we are in a hurry. Sawyer has contacts on the dark web who can help him connect the dots so we can locate the General. Do you have any contacts like that?”
She shook her head.
Darn it. She knew she should have been scouting out the dark web. She’d tried, but to be honest, it was kind of scary over there. The people who hung out on the dark web were very intense people, as a general rule. Besides, the one time she’d told Deke about getting on the dark web, the big vein on the side of his head started throbbing, and his face had gotten tomato red, so she’d changed the conversation to dark chocolate instead.
Deke kept talking. “We have to come up with a way for you to get what you need from the files without winding up a target.”
“Sometimes reporters have to do dangerous things.”
“Not you. You are going to figure out a way to be successful without getting into the dangerous side of the news.”
She held his gaze for a long time. There was a lot in those deep brown eyes of his, but she couldn’t read it. She knew he was trying to look out for her. She wasn’t going to convince him of anything in this conversation, so she broke the gaze and nodded.
“I can forward him a copy. I changed the name of the file and hid it in the recipe section of my private files. That way, we’ll both have a copy. Is that good enough?” She directed that statement to her feet before lifting her eyes to his again. “That’s good enough, right?”
He stared deep into her eyes for a long time. She had no idea what he saw there, but his lips tipped into a grin that deepened into a smile that stole her breath. He was so beautiful.
And for the moment, she had absolute confidence in him and in them as a couple. She was absolutely Little. And one day soon, he would help her find Rosebud, and then he would be all hers.