Page 88 of Saving Sophia

“She called you Daddy?”

I weighed the words I was about to say. “It was a game to her. A way to manipulate. To get what she wanted. I don’t want that. I want real. I want it all.”

She tensed, letting go of me. Maybe that was a good thing—it made it easier to focus.

“I don’t know how to do that,” she said, her eyes closing in frustration. “I just dressed up because Callie thought it?—”

“Look at me, Sophie.” I kissed her scrunched up eyelids and whispered, “Open your eyes.”

She pulled back, her eyes open again. “Your goatee tickles,” she said with the barest hint of a smile.

I stroked her cheek with one finger, hoping to ease the worry away.

She moved her head to kiss my fingertip, then sighed. “I don’t know what I’m doing.”

I pushed up onto my elbow, easing her onto her back and tucking the blanket around us against the chilled ocean air. “You let me brush your hair and give you a bath and fix you dinner. You talk to your dolls and wear Eeyore pajamas and curl into me and hide your eyes in my shirt when you’re scared. You have this hiccuppy little laugh that you do when you’re happy, and you got so excited when I showed you a herd of elk that you jumped into my lap and kissed me for all you were worth. There’s nothing you have to do. It’s you. It’s who you are. And I want it. That’s all that means.”

She leaned up to kiss and nuzzle my chest. “I don’t want to manipulate you.”

“I know. That’s what makes you so perfect for me. You just are who you are, and that’s exactly what I want.”

Her hand found me again and squeezed and I couldn’t stop a groan from escaping.

I cupped her ass and pulled her up tighter. “And for the record, I want to do it really bad right now too, but this is not sex-frenzy talk.”

She let out that hiccuppy laugh I adored. My fingers found her sweet little pussy, wet and ready for me, and her laugh turned into a breathless little squeak.

“I … want that too, Daddy,” she whispered into my mouth as I kissed her. “I want you for real.”

My heart gave a tight, happy squeeze that had more to do with what she said than with what her hand was doing to me, although that was also fantastic.

“My little Sophie,” I murmured, slipping my fingers inside her and kissing down to her perfectly peaked nipple. “You make me so happy.”

I moved my thumb in quick, relentless circles against her clit till she was moaning and writhing and ready to come.

“That’s so good,” she gasped.

“You’re such a good girl,” I said around her nipple before sucking it back in.

She let out a desperate little grunt, and I sped up my thumb, ready to relish in her orgasm.

“That’s it, baby girl, let it go and come for me,” I encouraged her.

She tossed back her head and squealed, lost in sensation.

“Oh Daddy, I love you!”

My eyes widened in surprise, followed by worry for how she was going to handle this. Her face remained blissful, still lost in the moment until her brain must have kicked back on. Her eyes flew open, horrified.

She slapped her hand across her mouth so hard it echoed off the sides of the boat. “I’m sorry,” she said through her fingers. “It wasn’t … I was … too soon … I don’t …”

“Shh,” I pried her fingers off her mouth and checked to see if she had made a mark. Her cheek was pink, but it would fade.

Her eyes were full of misery. I traced the edge of her jaw. I couldn’t let her spin out over this, not when we’d come so far. I held her hands against my chest like I had when she kissed me the first time. “Feel my heart?”

“It’s going fast,” she whispered.

“That’s right,” I said. “I’m right here with you.” I hadn’t planned to have this conversation quite yet, but I was okay with it.

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