“I’m not.”
He raised an eyebrow. “You lying to me, little girl? Remember the rules.”
Her eyes widened. “What happens if I break the rules?”
“Then you get punished.”
“H-how?”
“You don’t remember our talk about spankings?” She had been half-asleep at the time.
She just stared up at him, looking shocked. “You’d spank me?”
“Not while you’re ill. But you won’t be sick forever, now, will you?” he said in a low voice.
She bit at her lip.
“Besides, I’m betting I could think of some punishment other than a spanking. Not that you’re up to writing lines or standing in the corner.”
He heard her small gasp. “Those are normal punishments for a Little?”
“Yes. And not just for Littles. Of course, not every daddy/little girl relationship is the same. So, you can’t treat it as a one size fits all, understand?”
“Yes.”
He wanted to insist that she address him as Daddy, but he was well aware she hadn’t agreed to be his temporary little girl.
Yet.
“I wasn’t lying, though,” she said earnestly.
“You shied away from me that first day.”
“God, I can’t believe that was just the day before yesterday. It feels like much longer. I just got a fright. I think that’s normal. But I’m really not scared of you. You’ve taken better care of me than anyone ever has before.”
He ran his hand over his face tiredly. “You really do need a keeper.”
“Why?”
“Because you’re going to get in trouble going around trusting people so easily.”
“But you said I could trust you,” she pointed out.
“Yes…but…” Okay, what was he arguing about? He wanted her trust. He just didn’t want her to trust anyone else. Which was pretty damn selfish of him, wasn’t it?
“Okay, forget about that. I want to make a couple of things clear. No matter what you decide, you don’t owe me anything. You are not paying me.” He scowled at her.
“Maybe I could do something around here to help out then?”
There was no way he wanted her doing chores out of a sense of obligation. He got that she was feeling better and that’s why she was pushing him. But she still needed to take things easy.
“I don’t need you to do anything to pay me back.”
“You really don’t want me to do anything to help out?” She looked slightly anxious about that.
“I don’t. Listen carefully, because this is very important. I am not offering this just for your benefit. Yes, I want to show you what it’s like to have a Daddy Dom because I worry you might be taken advantage of. However, I am not doing this because I’m selfless. The reason I like being a Daddy Dom is because I have a huge desire to be needed. To take care of someone. Caregiver, protector, disciplinarian, monster destroyer.”
She smiled.