Total pages in book: 173
Estimated words: 174632 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 873(@200wpm)___ 699(@250wpm)___ 582(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 174632 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 873(@200wpm)___ 699(@250wpm)___ 582(@300wpm)
“Right, enough boring, serious stuff. Wanna see what else we bought you?”
“More?” she asked. “What more could there possibly be?”
33
Lots, apparently.
Turns out, they’d also bought her stickers, coloring books, pens, and glitter glue.
“I don’t know what to play with first!”
“I think Ziggy is cold. He needs some clothes.” Jack held him up. “He looks a bit naked, don’t you, Ziggy?”
“You’re so right. I need to dress him. Quick, let’s get some clothes. Oh my gosh! You even bought him shoes. Ziggy is very pleased.”
“I’m glad Ziggy is pleased,” Ian told her solemnly. “That’s what I was hoping for.”
She glanced up at him to see if he was being sarcastic or making fun of her. But he was simply getting all of Ziggy’s clothes ready and laying them out.
Her tension eased.
Jack leaned into her. “Ian loves nothing more than having a Little to fuss over. He might be a grouchy bastard on the outside, but when he has a Little to care for, he turns all soft.”
“I am sitting right here,” Ian said dryly.
“Ahh, so his hearing is all right. They say that’s the first thing to go in old men,” Jack told her.
She giggled as Ian glared at them both.
She got Ziggy into the cutest pajamas. They were bright red with yellow polka dots.
“Cute outfit,” Jack said, watching her.
“Ziggy is tired of being very monochrome,” she replied. “He wants to be colorful.”
“What about you, Little girl?” Ian asked in a very casual voice. “What do you like to wear in Little headspace?”
“I dunno. I’ve just always worn what I usually did when I went to the club.”
Jack made a low noise. She turned to stare at him in surprise. Was he jealous? Upset that she’d gone to the club?
She frowned. He’d been to clubs, so he had no right to feel that way.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
“I don’t like that you were at a club without us,” he told her. “I don’t like the idea of other men touching you, playing with you, looking at you.”
Yikes.
His possessiveness should be terrifying. And in a way, it was. It was just also . . . wonderful.
Because she couldn’t remember anyone caring about her so much that they hated the idea of something that had happened in the past.
“I won’t go back without you,” she blurted out. Then she winced.
Why had she said that?
Well, it’s not like you will ever go back.
Not now that Slade wasn’t talking to Indie. And she couldn’t afford a membership on her own.
Would Jack think she was a complete idiot for saying that, though? It wasn’t like he’d ever go there with her. But she’d made it sound like this was going somewhere.
Instead, satisfaction filled his face. “Good.”
Good. Right.
“I don’t like it either,” Ian said gruffly. “It’s not safe.”
But it had been the only opportunity for her to let her Little out around other people. To experience what it might be like to have a Big.
Except for now . . .
“Can we watch some TV?” she asked, trying to change the subject.
“Sure, Little girl. What would you like to watch? Cartoons?” Ian turned on a kids TV show.
“Nah, I want to watch Bones or Dexter or Criminal Minds.”
“Now, those are my kind of shows,” Jack said approvingly.
“Also very inappropriate for a Little girl,” Ian said.
Happiness filled her at his words, even as she had to protest.
“Nuh-uh, they’re totally appropriate. I’m a very advanced Little girl.”
“Are you? How old are you?”
“Oh, like ten or twelve,” she lied.
“Uh-uh,” Jack said in a low voice that skated across her nerves.
Warning her that she was in trouble.
“What?” she asked, glancing over at him.
“Lying is quite naughty. So it’s going in your book” Jack told her. “Although . . . perhaps we should punish her now.”
“You . . . you’re going to punish me?”
Jack had said he would, but for some reason, she guessed she’d expected it more from Ian.
Jack was lighter, the fun one.
Although he was upset about you lying to him at the bouncy castle. And he has shown you his much darker side.
She glanced over at Ian, but he just nodded to Jack. “I’m going to go do a check of the house and grounds. After, I’ll look in on William and bring up some snacks.”
Great. So now she was alone with the dark one.
She gave Jack a nervous look. “It wasn’t a big lie, though.”
He tilted his head to the sigh. “There’s a gradient of lies?”
“You know there is. There are big lies and little lies and white lies. Like telling someone they look good in those pants when they make their ass look big.”
“I’d just tell them that their ass looked big.”
He would too.
“I’m sorry. I wasn’t really lying, just fibbing a bit.” She stuck her lower lip out. “I wants to be a big girl.”
“But you’re not, are you? I think you could be even younger than you think.” He cupped the side of her face. “How young do you usually go?”