CHAPTER 3
SCARLETT
Imove my body, groaning as it protests. Why is my body hurting so much? Why am I lying in a soft, warm bed with a fuzzy blanket?
Fuzzy blanket.
Soft, warm bed.
This isn’t my bed.
My eyes shoot open as I gasp, scanning the room but trying not to move too much. The ceiling is made of dark wood with a light fixture in the center.
I move my eyes to the right, only to see a deer’s head mounted on the wall. Flinching, I let out a groan as my body protests.
“Easy,” a deep voice says.
My head moves to the left, only to see a huge, burly man sitting next to the bed I’m in.
My mouth falls open as I look at him.
“W-what?” I whisper.
“Easy, Little One. You’re okay,” he gently says. “I know you must have a lot of questions, and I’ll answer all of them.”
I blink several times searching him, assessing him. There’s a bundle in his arms, and my eyes go wide.
“I’ve got Juniper here. Don’t worry, she is safe.” He dips his body, showing me that Juniper is asleep.
“Let me put her down, and I’ll help you sit up before I give her to you,” he offers.
I watch his every step, making sure he doesn’t do anything to hurt Juniper. Not that I would be able to do much since my body is aching really badly.
He walks over to a little crib and places Juniper in it before walking over to me.
“Easy,” he gently says as he helps get resituated. “Aiden says you’re going to be a bit sore for a couple of days.”
“A-Aiden?” I stutter.
“He is a retired doctor and works here. I’m Thorin, by the way, if you can’t remember me.”
My eyes go round as I stare at him. Thorin.
The man I spoke to on the phone several times.
The man who wasn’t happy when he found out I was driving and holding the phone.
The man I collapsed on.
“Oh my goodness,” I exhale.
“Remembering everything?” he asks.
“I passed out.”
He nods as he sets some pillows behind my back, propping me up.
“You did, from the pain, blood loss, and shock your body was in,” he gently explains. “You’ll need to stay in bed for a couple of days, only getting out if you need to use the bathroom. I’ll be carrying you into the bathroom, or we can have my sister come in and help you use a bedpan.”
I blink several times, not knowing how to respond to him.
“Aiden didn’t have the equipment to put a catheter in. He doesn’t want to if he doesn’t have to,” Thorin informs me as he walks back over to the crib. “While he wants you to rest, he says moving a little might help you some, but he wants you to take it easy.”
I nod, trying to process everything he is saying to me. Thorin picks up Juniper, cradling her in his arms as he makes his way toward me. He looks natural, holding her so gently, like he’s done it a thousand times before. Like he’s already a dad.
It looks good on him.
“My sister has several kids and I’ve helped her take care of them from when they were babies,” he tells me, walking over to my side of the bed. “I have something to tell you before I hand Juniper over. I want you to keep an open mind. Can you do that?”
Worry bubbles inside my stomach as I stare at him. What could he possibly want to talk to me about? It has to be something important for him not to hand over Juniper to me. What does he think I’m going to do? I would never harm my baby.
“You’ve been out for several hours. We called my sister to come and help out.
Don’t worry, she lives on the lodge property, so she walked over here,” he says, getting closer to me.
“It was my idea, and my sister was the only one in here. But you can imagine that you being unconscious for several hours and Juniper—”
“Just spit it out, please,” I beg, interrupting him. “Sorry, but just tell me. I need to know.”
“My sister helped you breastfeed Juniper while you were out. We don’t have formula here, and my sister doesn’t either.
Her children are over two years old. So the only logical solution was feeding from you, so she held Juniper as she fed.
Or well, I don’t know exactly what she did since I wasn’t in the room. But I wanted to let you know.”
I open and close my mouth, trying to come up with something to say.
“I know that’d a lot to take in, but I don’t want any secrets between us, not in the beginning, or any time, really. I want to be honest with you,” he calmly says.
“Um, thank you?” I don’t know how to respond.
I love that Thorin is being honest; it’s something that he didn’t do with me before I left. The constant lies and manipulation to get me to do what he wanted.
“Here’s sweet, precious Juniper.” He hands me my baby.
I look down at Juniper, a smile forming on my face. She is so precious, sleeping in my arms.
“What time is—?” I ask, looking up at Thorin, but I stop when I see how he is gazing at us.
Love.
I want to chuckle but refrain. There is no way he is looking at Juniper and me with love.
He doesn’t know us. Sure, we talked a couple of times on the phone when I made the reservation, told him I was going to be late, and when he called, but that was it.
He knows nothing about me. I don’t even know if he was aware I was pregnant when I first called him.
Love isn’t an option.
But then what else could it be? I don’t know, but the look in his eyes says differently.
“What?” he asks. “Why are you looking at me like that?”
I blink several times. He’s asking me why I was looking at him when he was literally looking at me with love in his eyes?
“How was I looking at you?” I ask.
“Like you were trying to figure something out.”
Does he know?
“Wha-what time is it?” I softly ask, my mind still trying to process with what I just saw.
“It’s midnight.”
My mouth falls open. He says midnight like it’s two in the afternoon, not a big deal. I’ve always had a hard time staying up late. Maybe it’s because he always wanted to be up early and serve him breakfast, so staying up wasn’t an option.
“Oh, I’m sorry for keeping you up. If you could just place the crib closer, I’ll be fine.” I point to the end of the bed.
“It’s okay, you aren’t keeping me up.” He smiles.
But I feel like I am. Does he really stay up this late every night? He is the property owner, he probably has so much to do and I’m keeping him from it.
“Really, you aren’t. Some nights I don’t get to bed until one or two in the morning. And before you say anything, I wasn’t going to do anything tonight, so you aren’t keeping me from something, I promise, Little One.”
My stomach flips as he calls me Little One again. I have only been called Little One twice before, by my first Daddy, the only Daddy I’ve ever had. It was so many years ago, but I cherished the time I had with him.
It would have been perfect if we could have stayed together, but we weren’t right for each other. He wanted someone a little older when they went into Little Space, and I was younger. I have no ill feelings toward him.
I’ve secretly been wanting another Daddy, but with my luck, it would be an evil man who would hurt me. Maybe I’m destined to be alone for the rest of my life. That is better than being abused.
Thankfully, once I became pregnant, he stopped hitting me, but it just meant the verbal abuse got worse. He threatened me several times while I was pregnant, and I just knew, no matter if I had a boy or girl, I needed to leave.
Having him raise a son to become like him or selling my daughter to the highest bidder wasn’t on my list of things I wanted. How had I not understood he was this evil when I first got with him?
He was amazing at keeping his mask up in the beginning. Luring me into moving in with him and to depend on him until I had nothing left. When I couldn’t do anything for myself, he decided to show his true self.
“Are you hungry? Do you want something to drink?” Thorin asks, bringing me out of my thoughts. “My kitchen is just a couple of feet away from my room.”
My breath catches in my throat.
“Y-your room?” I squeak.
“Yes, my room. This is my room.”
And just like that, my worst fear has come true. Okay, maybe not my worst fear, but I shouldn’t be in here. He has to have an extra room. But it is a cabin, and it could be a one-bedroom cabin.
“Oh my goodness. I need to leave so you can have your room back. You could have put me in a different cabin,” I rush out. “I am so sorry about this.”
“I could have put you in my guest room or the Little room,” he adds on. “But I didn’t. I wanted you in my room.”
“Wh-what?” I whisper in disbelief.
Did he just say Little room? He said he wanted to put me in his room. Nothing is making sense. He couldn’t mean what I thought he meant. My mind has to be playing tricks on me, it just has to be. I did not hear him say Little room.
“What to which part?” he asks.
“Everything?” I ask, becoming overwhelmed once again.
I hope and pray that I misheard him and he just meant extra room. It has to be that. I know I couldn’t have heard what he just said. Nope. Totally didn’t just hear him say Little room. My mind must be playing tricks on me because he can’t know.
Thorin sits next to me and reaches over to the dresser.
“Little room. I’m stepping out on a limb here and guessing that you’re a Little from this guy.” He holds Mr. Frizzy up.
My face goes red, and I shake my head. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“So you wouldn’t mind if I kept him for myself?”
“No!”
I look down to see Juniper, still sleeping in my arms.
“No, you can’t keep Mr. Frizzy.” I look back at him. “You can’t. He’s been mine for years.”
“Shhh,” he gently says, reaching forward and wiping away a tear from my face. “I’m not going to take him. That wasn’t very nice of me to say that when you’re in a fragile state. Daddy’s sorry.”
My mouth hangs open. He just called himself Daddy.
“I’m a Daddy Dom,” he states.