“No!” She placed her hands back over her bottom. “My bottom has been spanked enough.”
“I’m certain that’s not true.”
“Daddy!” she protested, stomping her foot. “Take that back.”
“You’re so darn cute.” He tweaked her nose. “But no foot-stomping. Or I’ll think you’re having a tantrum and then you’ll actually go over my knee.”
She pouted a bit. But kept both feet flat on the ground. She reached out for a white T-shirt that had chains of yellow flowers around the arms. It looked like it would be a perfect match for the overalls.
“These still have tags on. We can take them back and get a refund.”
“Why would we do that?” he asked.
“There’s so much here. He bought too much.”
“Hey, I was joking about taking his credit card,” he told her. “We have plenty of money. Wolfe can buy what he likes. I’m the head of our household, not a dictator.”
“I didn’t mean. . .I just . . . I don’t have anything to contribute.” And she felt kind of ashamed. They were doing everything. While she liked being taken care of, she didn’t like being a burden. And she wanted to do things for them too.
“Look at me.”
She tilted her face up, her gaze meeting his.
“Right now, all you need to concentrate on is getting better, stressing less, and getting to know us. Our relationship. That’s enough. That’s why we have this time. Because it can be overwhelming.”
“Plus the men here steal the women,” she added. “They likely need the time to convince the women not to murder them in their sleep.”
His lips twitched. “There is that.” He reached for her top then hesitated. “May I?”
She blushed slightly but nodded, helping him get the top off. He put the white T-shirt on, being gentle with her arm.
“But once we convince you that you want to stay here forever, then we have time to think about what you want to do.”
“You mean I’m allowed to have a job?”
He stared down at her. “You thought you wouldn’t be?”
“I wasn’t . . . I don’t know how things work here. What the rules are.”
“And I’m an idiot,” he muttered. “Vivi, of course you can have a job. If you want to continue on with your career, we’ll make it happen. There would need to be some concessions for security reasons. It’s safe here, very safe, but you do live at the palace. But whatever you need, we’ll make it happen. Okay?”
Something inside her unraveled. A tightness, a worry she hadn’t actually realized existed until just then.
“Okay,” she agreed.
He crouched and grabbed her shorts. “Hold onto my shoulders, jelly bean.”
She held on, stepping out of the shorts and into the overalls, which he pulled up over her shoulders. Then he drew out a full-length mirror which had been hidden away in a slot.
She looked at herself in the mirror. She looked so cute.
“Pigtails are needed, I think.”
She nodded. Pigtails would be seriously adorable.
He tweaked her nose.
“Hey!” she protested.