Page 24 of Sadie's Little Christmas

Sadie had no idea what to do with that green-eyed fantasy. From start to finish, it was utterly ridiculous, but that didn’t make the residual twist of jealousy any easier to swallow.

Still chuckling, he turned back to the living room.

“Come on.”

She caught herself looking at his bed for a heartbeat or two longer than she should have, and when she finally turned away, it was to see him paused halfway down the hallway, watching her. Waiting. She blushed when he glanced over her head, back into his room. She could tell he knew exactly what she’d been staring at by the way his baby blues smoldered and danced.

He held out his hand. Daddy, waiting to lead his reluctant little girl down the hall into whatever he had planned for the rest of their evening. Her stomach was full of butterflies, but she had ants marching through her veins, waking every nerve as she watched her smaller hand engulfed by his.

His palm felt calloused and rough, not at all what she would have expected of the hands of a resort owner. Unless, of course, that owner spent his equal share of time working on his resort. His nails were trimmed short and clean, and his skin was lightly tanned from time spent in the sun. They were very strong, capable hands. Hands that spanked. Hands that were gentle as he led her into his living room.

He made popcorn, lightly sprinkled with M&Ms and malt balls, and they sat down on the couch to watch a movie.

“What would you like to watch?” he asked.

“Aliens,” she tested.

“Nice try,” he said with a smile.

They watched How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and she enjoyed it. It had been a long time since she’d seen the movie. Better than that, he seemed to enjoy it, too. He was so relaxed, and there was nothing weird about it.

It didn’t even feel weird afterward when he put the empty popcorn bowl away in the kitchen and said, “I’ll run you a bath.”

Her heart and her tummy fluttered. Bath time meant bedtime must be closing in. And wasn’t this whole BDSM thing supposed to revolve around sex? Wasn’t it supposed to make everything better, more fun, more exciting?

The longer she spent in Derek’s company, the more she was looking forward to experiencing what he’d do once the lights went out, and he crawled into bed right next to her. Was he going to want her to call him Daddy then?

Her stomach tightened. So did her nipples, but she told herself that reaction was due to her own mounting insecurities.Derek wasnother father. There was no confusing anything he did with the man who had contributed sperm toward her creation, then abandoned her into the care of her alcoholic mother. He wasn’t anything like any in the long line of foster fathers who’d taken over her care after the state took her from her mother. Regardless of what Derek wanted her to call him, she wasn’t the slightest bit confused about who he was—not mentally, physically, and certainly, not sexually.

Even so, she wasn’t sure how she felt about calling him something so… intimate, so… dominant while she was already so vulnerable with him in bed.

Or in the bath, which was where he expected her to get vulnerable with him next. The only problem was, he didn’t seem at all inclined to take the night to the sexy level she kept hoping for. While he did have a jacuzzi tub, there was nothing kinky about it, and he didn’t use it as a prelude to sex.

He ran water in it, stepping back long enough for her to check the temperature. Once it was to her liking, he poured a capful of bubble bath into it, dug out a white net sack of tub toys from under his sink, and poured them into the water. He had everything—floating duckies and boats, a starfish that stuck on the side of the tub and squirted water when she poked its tummy, and crayons she could use to draw on the tiles. His last touches were a washcloth, soap, shampoo, and a soft blue towel, which he set on a chair by the tub. What he didn’t do was make any effort to get into the tub with her. He didn’t even stay to watch.

Kissing her on the forehead, he asked, “Do you want Daddy to help you get undressed?”

Hell, yes! She wanted ‘daddy’ to do a lot of things, yet now that the question was poised and the proverbial ball in her court, she became overwhelmed with shyness. This was ridiculous. He’d already seen her naked. He’d seen her as naked andas vulnerable as any woman could possibly be, never mind a submissive woman.

Tingling in all the wrong and yet oh-so-right places, Sadie shook her head.

“I’ll be right outside,” he told her. “Just call if you need me.”

He left, and there she was, standing in the most spacious bathroom she’d ever been in, every nerve in her body fired for sex, and that hungry place between her legs pulsing and throbbing to be touched.

Like in the dressing room, she could take care of it herself, she supposed, but it wasn’t her touch she ached for. She knew—the minute the door swung mostly closed, she tried. It was a pale echo of the pleasure that had consumed her when Derek had taken command of her body. Masturbation just didn’t begin to compare.

Swallowing back her disappointment, she got undressed.

Chapter 6

Sadie loweredherself into the bottom of the jacuzzi tub, settling in hot water up to her waist with a thick blanket of floating white bubbles so high, they brushed the undersides of her breasts.

She had to feel for the toys. She liked the starfish. She’d have liked it even better if he’d stuck around so she could squirt him with it. She’d keep the starfish hidden under the bubbles until she was ready to attack—he’d never see it coming. She giggled, the sound of it echoing startlingly loud in the otherwise empty bathroom.

Wilting, she laid back and sank down until she was as buried as she could be without breathing in either water or bubbles. The tub was Derek-sized. Her toes barely touched the other end.

Something drifted under her butt. Sitting up, she pulled out a blue water crayon. Swiveling sideways, she looked at the stark white tiles on the wall and wondered how many people had drawn on them before her.

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