Page 10 of Daddy's Rule

By the time she joined me in the kitchen twenty minutes later, hair wet and hanging down her back soaking the T-shirt she had thrown on with a pair of yoga pants, I had made ham and cheese omelets with toast, and brewed her a fresh mug of coffee in the Keurig.

She flopped down at the kitchen table across from me and immediately downed the second cup of coffee. "I feel much better now, thank you."

"You're welcome. Eat your eggs."

She blanched at the mention of food and pushed her plate away like a stubborn child who didn't want to eat their vegetables. I pushed it back. "You need to get some food in your system. I'll spoon feed you every bite if I have to, but you are gonna eat. And now that you’ve had your coffee and you're more awake, you need to hydrate."

I stood and retrieved a bottle of water from the fridge, unscrewing the top as I carried it over to her. She drank it but didn't make a move to touch her eggs. I picked up her fork and raised my eyebrows.

"Ugh!" She grabbed the fork out of my hands and shoveled a bite of omelet into her mouth, wrinkling her nose as she chewed and swallowed. "Seriously, Bas, when did you get so bossy?"

I stifled a laugh. "It's not new."

"Yeah, I know. It's just been a while." She took another bite of her eggs and chewed before finishing. "We need to get you your first client for your Rent-A-Daddy thing so you can point your bossiness in another direction." She took one more bite of eggs before shoving the plate away once more.

"I'm not convinced I haven't already found her," I said quietly. "My first client, I mean. Turns out I didn't have to look very far to find someone in dire need of a daddy."

"Stop it," she whispered, but the lack of conviction in her voice gave her away. She wasn't fine, and she knew she needed what I was offering.

"Nyla… it's okay to admit you need help."

"I don't," she lied, "and besides, I can't even afford it. Did you miss the part where my husband ran off with all my money?"

"Did you miss the part where we said we needed a testimonial?"

She rolled her eyes. "So, say I say I'll do it, then what? I let one of you daddy me for a day and then I write a glowing review?"

"A day?" I scoffed. "Nyla, honey, even I can see you need more than a day's worth of daddying. If you can't see that, then you're fooling yourself."

She scowled. She wasn't going to give in easily and admit she needed help, but she wasn't fooling me, either. She wanted it as badly as she needed it.

"So, a week, then, or whatever. I say yes, one of you becomes my temporary daddy, and what, spanks me? Makes me eat my eggs? Tells me how dumb I am for letting myself be fooled?"

"How about supports you as you get your life back together? Disciplines you as needed? Helps you stop beating yourself up for something that isn't even your fault? I'm not going to spell it all out for you, Nyla. I'm not going to sit here and designate rules and consequences and fill you in on every last dirty detail. Either you trust us and admit that this is something you need, or you don't. Either way, you have my love and support. Always. But if you want more, all you have to do is say yes."

Her eyes met mine and I could tell that she was terrified. Nyla wasn't one to give up control that easily. And she hated the unknown. She wanted to have every detail of every possible angle before making any sort of decision, but life didn't always work that way, and this wouldn't work if she wasn't willing to trust.

"Yes," she finally answered, her body trembling as she stepped into my arms. "But I have one non-negotiable stipulation. It has to be you."

"Oh honey, it was always gonna be me. Always."

Chapter Five

Bas

"So how does this work?" As soon as Nyla had agreed to let me be her temporary daddy, she sat back down and ate every bite of her eggs and toast without any goading on my part, further proving that she really did need this.

"Well, we should do it by the book. So I'll have to run down to the club and get you one of the contracts Archer wrote up, and then there's a questionnaire about needs and limits. We can go over that together."

"Okay." Nyla buried her face in her hands. "God, I can’t believe I'm doing this. How pathetic."

I knelt in front of her, taking her hands and prying them away from her face. "It's not pathetic, Nyla. It's strong. It takes a strong person to accept help and an even stronger person to admit that they need it. You are strong. One of the strongest people I know, if I'm being honest."

She groaned. "Can you just go get the paperwork so we can get it over with? I think talking about it is the hardest part. I'd rather just do it. Sitting here torturing myself with what-ifs and unknowns sucks."

Two hours later we sat there with all our i’s dotted and our t’s crossed. The contract was two weeks, live-in, and Nyla had come up with a list of goals and given all control up to me as her daddy. Her limits were set and they were no surprise, as we had played together before on multiple occasions. Sex was off the table, even though we had done that before, also.

"So that's it, then," Nyla said with a sigh, leaning against me. "You're my daddy."

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