Page 78 of Guardian Daddy

“Um, are you all right? The tight way you are holding the steering wheel indicates you might be stressed, but I’m not sure why.”

“Just not used to this sort of traffic, sweetheart. I’m fine.”

Great. Now he sounded like her. Saying he was fine when he clearly wasn’t.

“You should have used the service if you don’t like driving.”

“I like driving, just not in the city. And I prefer to be in control.”

“Even though you don’t like driving in the city?” she asked.

“Yes.”

“Sounds logical.”

To his shock, there was a note of humor in her voice. “Are you laughing at me, brat?”

“I am not a brat.”

It was his turn to snort. “I’m not so sure about that. Something tells me that if I had stopped you from having ice cream in the middle of the night, you would have thrown an epic tantrum.”

It was a risk to bring up what happened. It might push her away from him. But he was starting to think that part of the problem was that she didn’t talk about it. To her therapist, sure. However, he’d been here three weeks and she hadn’t seen her therapist or mentioned going either.

What if she felt ashamed of regressing because no one spoke about it? Ethan didn’t want her to think she’d done anything wrong or bad.

“I would not throw a tantrum. I’ve never thrown a tantrum.”

Relief filled him at her reply. “Oh, you would have. I can see that your Little side could absolutely be a brat.”

“I don’t . . . I don’t really like that word.”

Shit.

He snuck a glance over at her. “Hey, Cate. Baby, I’m sorry. I didn’t know that.”

“I wouldn’t expect you to.”

Pulling the car over, he parked.

“This isn’t where my office is.”

“I want to talk to you, and I can’t do that properly while I’m driving.”

“Ahh, yes. Men find multi-tasking difficult, don’t they?”

“Stop being sassy.”

“I was being sassy? I thought I was stating a fact.”

“I’m touching you now.” Reaching over, he put his fingers on her chin, turning her to face him.

20

Cate could feel herself blushing.

That was so strange. She never blushed except around this man.

He was the only person, besides Rhodes and Oliver, who she could stand to be touched by.

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