Chapter 21
Chapter Twenty-One
I’m not really experienced.
For a moment he wasn’t certain that he’d heard her correctly.
“What do you mean, not experienced?”
She flinched. Shit.
“Fuck. Let me . . .” He carried her into her bedroom and sat on the chair in the corner of the room. Then he arranged her so she was facing him on his lap.
“Um.” She squirmed on his lap. “I’ve only had sex once when I was eighteen and it wasn’t very good.
I don’t really know what I’m doing. Is that a problem?
I get it if it is. If you were expecting someone experienced, well, I’m not it.
Sure, I’ve read some books and stuff. But I guess that’s no replacement for the real thing.
For the humpity-humpities. For the banging of uglies.
For the carrot going into the hole. For the—”
He placed his hand over her mouth.
“Ohthankgod,” she mumbled.
He took his hand away.
“I thought you were going to let me keep talking,” she said with a sigh of relief.
“Listen to me.” He cupped her face between his hands. Probably so he could stop her from talking again if he needed to.
Smart man.
“I’m listening.”
“I don’t care if you have experience or not. But I want to make sure you’re all right with us having sex if that’s where things go.”
“I’m attracted to you. I want you. So yes, I am. Because I know you will look after me.”
“Always,” he murmured, leaning forward to kiss her lightly as his hands dropped to her hips.
The kiss deepened, his tongue sliding between her lips to play with hers. To tease. She wrapped her hand around the back of his neck, driving her hips forward in an attempt to find some sort of friction.
More.
She wanted more.
“Easy, baby,” he murmured. “We’re not doing anything tonight.”
“Why not?” she grumbled.
“Because I want to know that you’re really sure. Which means taking at least tonight and tomorrow to make certain of this. Then we’ll move forward.”
She pouted, but his face just grew stern.
“For now, you need to know the rules. And we have to talk about your limits.”
Oh. Yeah.
Yikes.
“Why don’t you get ready for bed and I’ll check on Wyatt and close up the house.”
Casey chewed her lip. “Will you tell him? About us?”
“No,” he said sharply.
She veered away from him.
“Sorry.” He ran his hand over his face. “He’s just a kid and I don’t want him to get confused about why you’re here. He might think you’re going to stay or that I’m trying to take you from him or something like that.”
Or that she was trying to replace his mama. Casey nodded. “I think that’s smart.”
“You do?” he asked, sounding surprised. “I thought that might have offended you.”
Casey shook her head. “I don’t want to upset Wyatt. He’s my friend. I don’t want him to think I’m trying to replace Elise.”
Jeb looked relieved as he nodded. Then he set her on her feet. “Be back in a moment.”
For a long while she just stood there. Then she realized that she had to move. She rushed into the attached bathroom to get ready.
When she finished she headed back into the bedroom and climbed onto the large bed.
This room was so cozy and sweet with the quilted bedspread in cheerful green, red, and cream. The big, overstuffed velvet armchair in blue.
And a green-and-cream-colored rug on the floor. It should have been too much together. Yet it all kind of worked.
Should she get Mr. Pickles out? She kept him in the closet during the day. Not that she thought anyone would come in here and see him. And even if they did, they probably wouldn’t say anything.
Feeling nervous, she reached into the nightstand and grabbed a lollipop. A hit of sugar always made her feel better.
She popped a strawberry-flavored one into her mouth and let out a small sigh of pleasure.
“What do you think you are doing?” Jeb demanded as he walked into the room.
Casey jumped in surprise, then drew it out of her mouth. “Nothing. Why?”
“Do you think it’s a good idea to have sugar before bed? After you’ve brushed your teeth?”
Umm.
“Yes?” She put the lollipop back into her mouth.
He raised his eyebrows. “Really? You think it’s smart?”
“Well, obviously you don’t.”
“No, I don’t.” Walking forward, Jeb held out his hand. “Spit it out.”
“But what will you do with it?” she asked. Did he just want it for himself? She had plenty more lollipops. He could have one if he wanted.
“Throw it out.”
Casey gasped in shock. “But that’s a terrible waste of a lollipop!”
“Little girl. Spit it out now. Or you’re going to be given a consequence.”
That was rude.
“A consequence?” she whispered.
“Yes. A punishment.”
“But we haven’t talked about those.”
“What are your limits?” he asked. “What do you absolutely not want me to do? What scares you?”
Yikes.
He had all the hard questions tonight, didn’t he?
“Umm.” She sucked frantically. She told herself it was because she was thinking. But it was likely because she knew he was going to take her sugar.
It really wasn’t fair.
Casey was pretty certain at this stage that she was seventy percent sugar.
“I don’t know.”
“Give me the lollipop and maybe you’ll be able to think easier.”
“I really don’t think that’s true. You can’t take my sugar. Removing it might lead to my eventual ruin and destruction.”
“That does sound dire,” he replied.
She nodded frantically. “Uh-huh. Uh-huh.”
“But I’m ninety-nine percent certain that won’t happen.”
“What about that one percent?”
“Well, it thinks you’ll be fine. But you might go through withdrawals. Which could lead to some crabby behavior and a hot bottom. Actually, now that I think about it there’s probably more of a fifty-fifty chance of that happening.”
She gasped. “I am not getting my bottom heated, Daddy!”
Daddy.
Damn. He liked hearing someone call him that.
He liked having her call him that.
The warmth washed through him and it took him a moment to realize that she looked like she was going to be ill.
“Hey, what’s wrong?” he asked.
“I . . . did I do the wrong thing? Are you mad at me?”
“Little girl, no. Why would I be mad at you? For calling me Daddy? I liked it. What have we been talking about for the last hour?” he asked, confused.
“I know, but we didn’t talk about what I should call you and I thought that maybe I overstepped.”
“You didn’t. I like hearing you call me that. You can call me that anytime. Well, except in front of Wyatt. Maybe just when we’re alone.”
Except that felt wrong. Because he wanted her to call him Daddy all the time. But that couldn’t happen.
“All right.” She gave him a shy look.
Thankfully, she didn’t seem upset by his stipulation.
In fact she seemed quite relieved and he tried not to let that upset him. He should be happy that she was happy.
“Last chance to give me the lollipop before we start getting into consequences,” he warned her.
She took the candy from her mouth and handed it to him. Standing, he walked into the bathroom and threw it in the garbage before returning.
Casey sighed. “I still think that was a waste of a perfectly good piece of candy.”
“I don’t want you to rot your teeth. And it’s not appropriate to eat sugar right before bed.”
“Says who? That’s just the dental association trying to make up stuff against the sugar association. I’m a part of the sugar association. Those dentists have no right to dictate when and how much sugar we can eat. Don’t you agree, Daddy?”
“No,” he replied. “I don’t agree. You’re not going to any protest. And there’s no such thing as a sugar association.”
“Well, if there isn’t then there should be. Maybe I’ll start one. I’ll call it Casey’s Sugar Association. No, that sounds rather stuffy and boring. Casey’s Sugar Crew. Sugar High Casey. Casey’s Sugar Team.”
“You seem to be on a sugar high right now,” he said. “Have you thought of any limits? Are there any punishments you wouldn’t like?”
“Well, I don’t think I’d like you to yell at me. My dad did a lot of yelling. And no throwing things.”
His jaw tightened and it was all he could do not to get up and start pacing. Anger surged through him.
However, he forced his hands to relax because this wasn’t about her father. This was about them.
“I can promise you that I won’t do either of those things. And I’m not into anything hardcore. So no needles, no blood play.”
“Wow. I didn’t even know those things were on the table.”
“I went to a few clubs in my younger days. And we went through all of these different things. But I knew straightaway that I was a Daddy Dom. It really spoke to me. Being in charge of someone else. Taking care of them. Getting them dressed, feeding them, playing with them, spanking them.”
“I like the sound of most of that stuff,” she said.
“Most, huh? Are you all right with spankings as punishment? What about corner time? Lines? Any problems with those?”
“I’ve never been spanked before so I don’t really know whether I’d like it or not. Mind you, I’ve never done something called blood play either and I know I won’t like that. I’m willing to try spankings as long as you don’t use anything other than your hand.”
“I won’t. And I want you to know that these rules and limits are fluid. They can change. You only need to tell me. All right?”
Casey nodded. “And I’ll have a safeword?”
“Always. Would you like to make one up? Or use red?”
“I think I’ll make one up. I’d like to use the word ‘toffee.’”
“Toffee?” he asked. “That’s an interesting word to choose. Why toffee?”
“I like toffee. Every year, my granny would take me to the fair and we’d get toffee apples. And it always made me feel so good. So I reckon if I want you to stop doing something I don’t like, I’ll say a word that I do like and then things will be all better. Does that make sense?”
“I guess it does, little girl. Is there anything else you want to add right now?”
She shook her head. “I can’t think of anything.”
“All right then we need to talk about the rules. First, Wyatt comes first. We don’t talk about any of this in front of him. Agreed?”
“Yep,” she said. “Agreed.”
“No lies. We need to both be honest with each other.”
“Agreed.”