Page 6 of Sadie's Little Christmas

Opening his home to Littles had come as naturally to him as breathing. It catered to that part of him that deeply, passionately needed to provide for and protect those who most desperatelyneeded it. He took that self-appointed job seriously. The submissives in his home weren’t here to cater to his base desires. He kept that—the beast beneath his carefully cultivated veneer—locked up tight inside. Never would he ever have allowed himself to subject the Littles in his care to the depth and degrees to which his inner demon liked to play. Most, he was sure, would never be able to handle it. But Sadie… from the moment he’d laid eyes on her, something triggered in him an intense attraction that spiked his nervousness just one degree higher.

Had he made the right decision, letting her come here? Hell, after hearing what had happened, how could he have turned her away?

Was it the right decision to put her in this wing, in a dorm, all by herself? He hadn’t known when he’d agreed to Jared’s request that she was a Little, but he’d bet money on it now. She was tripping too many of his ‘little Little lost’ triggers. But even if she wasn’t, he could hardly let her run unsupervised through the resort where a steady flow of guests came and went, most of who were Doms either vacationing to relax, take a few of the classes the Ranch offered, or meet one of the Littles Derek deemed ‘ready’ to venture back out into the world. No, he really couldn’t let her run wild out there, not marked up the way she was.

Hell, even if she wasn’t bruised from her beating, he didn’t dare give her unfettered run of his resort. She was too young. He knew Jared and trusted the man. If Jared said she was eighteen—and she had to be at least that to be allowed into the dungeon where the lawyer liked to play—Derek knew she had to be legal. However, as soon as he got her settled in her room, he planned to check her ID for himself. Eighteen was still a teenager, and barely legal submissives were highly sought after by a lot of so-called Doms. Just looking at her, he could tell in the right clothes, with her hair done up in pigtails and ribbons, Sadie could easily pass for sixteen. The thought of her being eyed byany of the other Doms here, all of whom couldn’t help but realize the same damn thing the second they saw her… now thatreallymade him nervous.

No.

No, putting her in her own room in the Littles’ wing was the safest thing he could do for her. There weren’t a lot of people who could handle being lumped in with six or ten excited, exuberant, mischievous, sometimes bratty but always flying right on the cuff of whatever emotion currently gripped them Littles. Not for an hour, much less twenty-four/seven. Not knowing Sadie’s personality, he wasn’t entirely sure he wanted to trap his Littles with someone who might not be gentle with them, either.

There was no help for it. Dorm Room Four was her new home, and she would be stuck in it by herself for as long as he deemed necessary. There was simply no other place to put her.

Unless she was a Little.

And his brain went back around to that. The way she’d stopped, frozen in her tracks the moment she saw the nursery, spoke volumes. Then her reaction to the spanking had thrown him. As he stood watching her, he could have sworn—from the tiny gasps she breathed, the rise and fall of her perfect breasts, the slight flush of pink that kissed her cheeks before spreading its telltale color down her neck onto her chest—he would have sworn she’d been aroused.

Right up until she panicked.

He’d misread the situation. He had to have.

Usually, he was very good at reading people, but not this time. The problem here was the longer he thought about it, the harder his gut tried to convince him he was right—shehadbeen aroused. She wasn’t just a submissive, she washiskind of submissive—a Little in at least some part of her and a pain slutwho might be the perfect counter to the beast he didn’t dare expose to any of his baby girls.

That right there was what made him the most nervous. He’d just met this woman. Was he reading the situation right? Or was this just wishful thinking on the part of his inner Daddy Dom, the half that looked at her and was infuriated anyone could or would so badly mistreat another human being? Or was it the demon in him, attracted to the marks some other beast had left on her body, aching for the chance to play with her himself?

Perhaps, even, leave a few marks of his own?

He glanced up briefly when the bell rang over the intercom, signaling the start of the next brief break between classes. Sitting up that much straighter as bouncing, laughing Little boys and girls came bounding out of the classrooms into the hall, Derek set his jaw and his will. This was his home, and he had worked all his adult life to make it a safe place for the most precious of all submissives. Whatever else Sadie was, she was in his care now, and he would protect her.

Even if the one he had to protect her from the most was himself.

Rooted to the floor and still in the corner where Derek had pinned her, Sadie watched Nanny J escort Derek out the door. Shutting it behind him, after a brief pause, she then locked it. Sadie felt the sharpness of that soft click all the way to the bottom of her trembling stomach.

Although not as tall as Derek, Nanny J towered over her by a good five inches when she came back to stand directly in front of Sadie. She wasn’t smiling, but her eyes were neither angry norstern. If anything, as her silent stare moved over Sadie’s marred face, they grew sad.

Sadie wasn’t a hugger. She never had been, didn’t particularly want to be, had never seen a point in just bounding up to people and invading their personal bubble to embrace them, but when Nanny J opened her arms and pulled Sadie to her chest, all but forcing her to rest her head on the other woman’s shoulder, Sadie didn’t struggle. She swallowed hard, her eyes stinging with tears she hadn’t realized were threatening and now refused to be blinked back.

“I’m so very sorry this happened to you,” Nanny J said, not just holding her tight but rocking her.

Damn it, here came the next stinging wave. It took everything Sadie had to swallow them back.

“I’m okay,” she replied. Slightly muffled against Nanny J’s soft white shirt, her voice quavered.

“I promise you, my dear, no one will ever hurt you like this again. Not here. Not if I can help it. And you’d better believe Master Derek won’t let it happen, either. He’s very protective of the Littles under his care.”

“I’m not a Little,” Sadie said, the words coming out too soft and stifled by the shirt to be worth hearing.

Drawing back, Nanny J held her at arms’ length, her hands warm on Sadie’s shoulders as she looked her over again.

“It doesn’t really matter. Whatever you are, however you identify, I promise, if you’re here, you’re under his care, and he takes that responsibility very seriously.” Straightening with a sharp breath, the other woman took her by the hand and led her to a nearby desk. Sitting in it, Sadie felt all of twelve years old again, and Nanny J could easily have been any one of her teachers when she sat on top of the desk, folded her arms across her chest and briskly said, “Tell me, what was it about what you saw that frightened you?”

Sadie’s stomach plummeted all over again.

“Nothing,” she hedged, but it was the truth. Nothing about what she saw hadfrightenedher; it was what she’d felt. Folding her arms tight over her stomach, she hugged herself for comfort.

“It’s okay to say you don’t want to talk about something,” Nanny J said, her sharp eyes noting it, “but please don’t lie to me. Lies between friends only hurt the relationship.”

Friends? She’d only just met this woman. Sadie would have pointed that out, but the words wouldn’t come when she opened her mouth.

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