Page 18 of Law

“Yes, Daddy—sir! Oh god, I meant, yes, sir. I have no idea why I said Daddy. Just forget I ever said it?”

Horror iced her entire body. At his expression, one she couldn’t read, she pressed her hands to her face. Her cheeks were so hot they must be radioactive. “Can you leave now so I can die of embarrassment alone?”

He moved, but in the wrong direction. She backed away as he strode toward her. Pulling her hands from her cheeks, he held them both in one hand and tilted her chin up to look at him with the other. “Calm down, Lovelyn. That was my fault, and you hit the nail on the head. I am a Daddy. I can’t very well be upset with you for recognizing it. But that isn’t a conversation for now. For now, we eat and forget about everything stressful for a few minutes. Deal?”

She searched his eyes. Was he truly not upset with her? You should never call someone Daddy without permission. She really didn’t want him to be mad at her. People said they were okay when they weren’t. She should know. She did it all the time.

With no other choice, she nodded. “Deal. I’ll be in the kitchen in a few minutes.”

He studied her before turning back down the hall, calling over his shoulder, “Five minutes, fairy cat.”

She fell in love with her room at first sight. It felt like stepping into an enchanted glade in the forest. Although the walls were made of glass, Law had planted a climbing vine in the corners of the house outside, which had grown into a canopy of green that loosely wove up the walls and across the ceiling, leaving plenty of space to see the surrounding woods.

But he hadn’t stopped there. He’d also hung twinkling lights through the vines to enhance the mystical atmosphere. It would be even more spectacular at night and illuminate the room just enough that she could still sleep, but not be afraid of the dark.

A plush, moss green comforter covered the bed, settled in one of the corners, covered in dozens of pillows in all shapes and sizes. Outside the window walls, planters hung level with the bed. Though it was too early now, later in the spring and summer the view would be spectacular. Lovie had never had the opportunity to work with flowers, but she’d always wanted to.

Two open arches occupied the same wall as the entrance, one to a walk-in closet system, the other to the bathroom. As soon aspossible, she planned to soak in the garden tub until she wrinkled up like a prune.

Skipping to the bed, she nestled Buzzy and Owlbert into the pillows. Noticing a remote on the desk on the wall opposite the bed, she couldn’t resist trying out the buttons to see what they controlled.

When she pushed the top button, Law’s voice came from a speaker on the desk. “I see you found the remote. Good, I was about to come get you. Your lunch is ready. I have cookies for dessert if you make it to the kitchen be the time I count to ten. No running in the house, though. You have time to walk if you start now.”

The speaker must have been voice-activated once you turned it on. When she said, “I’ll be right there,” he answered with, “Ten, nine.” Squealing, she headed back the way he’d led her when they first arrived.

Somehow, Law had taken a crazy, stressful, emotional day and made it better already. But he’d better be prepared, she was killer at chess.

CHAPTER 7

To distract himself from the desire to eat the enticing Little creature now sharing his space, Law focused on keeping the conversation light as he and Lovelyn ate the sandwiches, cut into four triangular sections as requested. He’d even added baby carrot sticks and trees, aka broccoli, with snow, aka ranch style dressing.

So far, it wasn’t working.

The game he had planned for them wasn’t going to help, either. He knew it, but his brain had never been very successful at outsmarting his instincts.

Logically, he needed to give her space. Instinctively? In his gut, he knew this was exactly what she needed to get out of her head and relieve the pressure already rebuilding inside her.

Like called to like, and he’d wager every dollar in his Daddy bank that she was just like him. He saw it in her eyes. He heard it in her sass. And for once, he knew he could give a Little girl what she needed better than anyone else around.

The question was, could he do that and keep his heart safe? A smart man would protect himself against being hurt again. TheDaddy in him needed to help Lovelyn get past the pain she’d been forced to endure for the past four years. “Can I ask you a personal question about your time with the Warriors, Lovelyn?”

She stiffened, gazing at him with guarded eyes. After a brief pause, she reached her decision. “Sure. There’s not much exciting to tell.”

“Did anyone hurt you? Or force you to do anything you didn’t want to do? Anything… intimate, I mean.” He needed to know if those dickwads had assaulted her. If they did, he’d kill every last one of them. But first, he’d help her get the help she needed to work past the trauma.

Confusion clouded her gaze for a second before she grasped his meaning. Shaking her head, she assured him, “There was nothing like that. I mean, there could have been, I guess. But there was this one guy, Ravage. Someone appointed him as my personal guardian or something, I guess. He wouldn’t let anyone close to me.”

Law made a mental note to have Sawyer look into this Ravage guy. He might be someone they could use.

While dancing a piece of broccoli in her dressing, Lovelyn spoke without looking at him. “You know what the worst part is?”

Law’s gut clenched at the thinness of her tone. “Tell me.”

“The worst part is that there were days, and even weeks sometimes, when I didn’t think about getting away at all. As long as Ravage kept the other men away, it was usually peaceful.”

She lifted her gaze to his, and the guilt and pain in her eyes nearly gutted him where he sat. “I’m a terrible sister. How could I have not tried to escape every second of every day?”

Nope. That wasn’t going to fly. Taking the broccoli from her trembling fingers, he pulled her onto his lap. “Listen to me, babygirl. You are not a horrible sister. It isn’t possible for someone to stay vigilant every second of every day for four years. The brain needs to take breaks. If anyone had shown up at any point during those four years to rescue you, you would have gone withthem in a heartbeat. I know that because you came with me today.”

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