She’s barely dressed, and I wonder if her camisole, knickers and socks combination is deliberate. She couldn’t look more innocent little girl if she tried. It shouldn’t feel as good as it does, this thing we’ve got. It shouldn’t feel as though my life meant nothing before she was here, but it does.
“What is it?” she asks, and she’s smiling.
“Sorry?”
She laughs, and it’s intoxicating. “You’re staring so hard it burns. Have I done something?”
“You’ve done plenty, young lady,” I tell her in my sternest voice.
“I have?”
“Oh yes.” I continue chopping, then put the tomatoes in the pan before I smile. “All of it good.”
She sighs and feigns a heart attack. “I’m glad it’s all good,” she says. “You’ve done plenty too, Daddy Nick.”
“I have, have I?”
She nods, and there’s no laughter there, just a hushed little whisper. “I was nobody before you found me.”
It hits me in the gut. Two different people, two very different worlds. Both empty.
She taps the pen I gave her against her notepad. “I never had a family before, but now I have. We’re a family, right, a little one, me and you?”
“Yes, Laine. Yes we are.”
Her smile is bright enough to light the world. I know I’ll never grow tired of looking at her, never tire of taking care of her, or holding her tight. Or loving her.
“Thanks,” she says. “You’ve given me everything.”
“And I’ll take you.” I tell her. “Soon.”
“Soon?”
I nod. “Soon, Laine.”
“But not today?”
“Not today.”
She shrugs. “Ok, Daddy. Whenever you’re ready.”
Her coy little grin makes me smile all the while I strain the pasta.I run her a bath full of bubbles, and she’s so dainty as she dips a toe in.
“Too hot?”
She shakes her head. “Just right.”
She holds my arm for balance, even though she doesn’t need it, and I hold her as she lowers herself, her tight little body making my cock strain as she disappears under the suds.
I uncuff my shirt as she watches, roll up my sleeves before I dip the jug in the water between her legs. She sits up instinctively, tipping her head back ready for me to wet her hair.
“Mum used to do this,” she tells me. “Only sometimes, when I was little. We didn’t have a shower.” She closes her eyes as I tip the jug. “That feels really nice.”
“Our new routine, sweetheart,” I say. “Bath and bedtime.” The thought thrills me.
I squeeze the shampoo onto her hair, darker now it’s wet, and it feels so soft against my fingers as I lather.
“That feels better than nice,” she tells me. “It feels amazing.”
I massage her scalp, and tickle her neck, twist her golden tresses around my fingers as she sighs.
She lowers herself under the water to rinse it off, and her knees bob up. I resist the urge to slip my hand between her legs, and she surfaces none the wiser of the hard on pulsing in my trousers. I smooth through the conditioner as she sighs.
“Did you do this… for Jane?”
“Yes, I did.”
“That’s nice,” she says.
“Like riding a bike,” I tell her, making sure I’ve conditioned the fine little wisps at her temples. “Once you know how to wash hair, you never forget.”
“You’re good at it. You’re good at everything.”
“Not everything.”
She twists her head to meet my eyes. “Yes so. You’re amazing.”
She can say it all she likes, but the two people I loved so much are still in the ground because I didn’t take good enough care of them. She must notice the sadness, because she twists further, and her sweet little nipples greet me through the bubbles.
“I really mean it. You’re amazing, Daddy. So kind and thoughtful and strong.”
“Not strong enough, Laine. Not in the past. Not enough to enforce the discipline I should’ve enforced.”
Her eyes are wide, lashes wet. “But you are now.”
“Yes,” I tell her. “I am now.”
She twists back as I continue with her hair. “How will you… discipline me…”
I don’t hesitate. “I’ll spank you, Laine. Hard. Until you learn whatever lesson needs learning.”
The water gives her away, a slop against the sides as she squeezes her legs together. “You’ll spank me?”
“Hard.” I tug her hair back until her eyes are staring up at mine. “My father used a belt on me. It’s in my study, which still has the same desk he used to punish me over.”
She swallows. “It must’ve hurt.”
“Very much.” I let go of her hair. “But he taught me well. Taught me how to be smart, and dedicated, and driven.”
“Will you… use a belt on me?”
“If you deserve it.” I twist her hair into a pony then pile it on top of her head and grab the soap. “Be a good girl and there’ll be no need. Arms up.”
She raises her arms and I soap her, from her dainty fingers to her elbows, then up to her armpits as she giggles. “That tickles.”