Page 145 of Daddy’s Fortitude

“Just don’t do it that often. Haven’t had much to laugh about.”

A sad look filled her face. “I’m sorry there hasn’t been much in your life to laugh about.”

“Life hasn’t been all that bad,” he told her. “Like you, I lost my parents. They died in a helicopter crash.”

“A helicopter crash?” she said.

“Yeah, they weren’t around much before then, anyway. My father was always away on business. My mother would go with him.”

“But who would look after you?” she asked.

“The nanny. I had a few. I wasn’t the easiest to look after, so I went through a lot of them before I got sent to boarding school, that is.”

“Boarding school?” she said. “Oh, no. That doesn’t sound like any fun.”

“Boarding school wasn’t so bad once I got used to it,” he told her. “The only problem was, I wasn’t used to doing what I was told. I was used to getting whatever I wanted, so it took me a bit to settle in. Once I did, though, things got better. After my parents died in a helicopter crash, my uncle took over as my guardian. I’d never met the guy. Didn’t like him when I did meet him. I stayed at boarding school. Then when I graduated, I found out he’d misused most of my trust funds. Got what I could back, enlisted, met Zander, and that’s it.”

“That’s it?”

“Well, yeah. We were in the Navy together for a while. Then we were both bond enforcement agents before he started his crew.”

“Oh,” she said, looking like she wasn’t quite sure what to say about that. There wasn’t really much to say. “I’m so sorry. That doesn’t sound like a very nice childhood.”

“In all honesty, I think I got looked after better at boarding school than I did at home. I barely knew my parents. Not sure it even made much of an impact on my life when they died.”

“It blew my world apart when my parents died,” she said.

“Who looked after you after your parents died?”

He should really stop asking her questions and let her sleep. But this seemed like the perfect time to ask. She was relaxed enough to be honest with him. She wasn’t guarding her words or thinking about what she was saying too hard.

“My grandma and granddad. They were pretty old. My grandma was very set in her ways, very traditional about everything. It’s part of the reason I think I stayed with Charlie as long as I did. Grandma didn’t believe in divorce and she always told me that I had to do whatever my husband wanted. To make his life easier. Basically to put up and shut up. Not that I can blame her entirely. I made the choice to stay with him even when he was hurting me.”

He had wondered about her reasons for not leaving Charlie sooner.

Well, now he was gone. Thank God.

And he didn’t care that he was thanking God for Charlie being dead, because he’d never have met Aimee if Charlie hadn’t died.

“Charlie wasn’t a Daddy Dom, so I couldn’t really talk to him about any of this. He would have made fun of me. So I don’t really know anything about being a Little other than what I’ve read.”

She yawned, and he started rubbing her head gently, massaging her scalp. She let out a sigh of relief, and he moved his hand further down to her neck. Poor thing was very tense.

“Go to sleep, Little girl,” he said.

He’d meant it to sound softer, but it definitely came out like a command.

She opened her eyes as he stood. To his surprise, she reached out and grabbed hold of his wrist. “What’s wrong?

“Don’t go,” she cried. “I don’t want you to go. I don’t want to be here on my own without you.” And then she hastily let him go, cringing back. “Sorry, sorry.”

“Hey, why are you sorry?”

“I don’t know, for being so demanding? Of course you want to go. You don’t want to stay here and wait for me to fall asleep.”

Actually, he very much wanted to do that.

“How about I take the tray of food into the kitchen, then I come back and sit with you?”