Page 12 of Learning Little Lizzie

“What?”

“He’s a fucking Daddy.” Infuriated all over again, Eliza threw a pair of white stilettos into the box hard enough to make the entire thing shake and nearly tip off the side of the bed. “Like a bona fide, put you in diapers and make you sleep in a crib Daddy from the sound of it.”

Sympathy filled Kylie’s face. “Oh, honey. Did you tell him that’s a hard limit for you?”

“It’s not a limit,” Eliza snarled. “I don’t have limits.”

Kylie’s sigh was one of pure frustration. “You know that’s not how this works. Everyone has hard limits, Eliza.”

“Well, not me. And certainly not for something as silly as being some dickhead’s baby. I just don’t like it, that’s all.”

“All right. But you can’t cry foul when he pushes you to do something you truly hate if you haven’t been honest about your limits.”

It was an argument they’d had dozens of times over the past two years. And if Eliza was being honest, it was the only reason she’d even added the few limits she had to her list. Just to get Kylie off her back.

And maybe a little because the thought of touching someone else’s excrement made her want to crawl out of her skin.

But it definitely wasn’t a hard limit. She could do it if she had to. It was just… a preference.

The door to their dorm room swung open again and Samuel stepped in, carrying more boxes. “How’s the packing going, Eliza?”

“Fine. This box is done.” She shoved the box she’d just finished at him, ignoring his raised brow.

“Professor Eaton, are you sure Eliza can’t stay?” Kylie, who had a way of winning over even the strictest of Doms, widened her eyes slightly and pushed out her bottom lip in what Eliza thought of as her “Please, Daddy” face. Because while Eliza was very adamantly not a Little, Kylie couldn’t say the same. Though she kept that information to herself. Nobody other than Master Derek and a few of their closest friends knew. Her Little snuck out on occasion, like when she was playing video games with their friend Dan or when she wanted something really, really badly.

Like right now. Eliza sent up a silent prayer that Kylie’s big brown eyes would stir something in Samuel she obviously hadn’t been able to stir herself.

For once, however, the recipient of that expression seemed immune to it. Samuel simply smiled and picked up the packing tape to close up the box Eliza had just finished packing. “I’m afraid not. But if you’d like, you can come visit Eliza at our apartment. Eliza will just need to ask permission, first.”

“Seriously?” Eliza groaned. “I need your permission to hang out with my friends?”

“Yes.”

That was it. No explanation, no negotiation, just “Yes, you belong to me now and I’m going to control every aspect of your life”.

Fucking great.

It took six boxes and a suitcase to pack up Eliza’s part of the dorm, which was more than she’d originally come to the Ranch with. She hadn’t realized how much she’d accumulated during her time here. Gifts from her friends, splurges from the gift shop. A testament to the life she’d built here, a million little reasons she couldn’t find the courage to tell Master Derek where he could shove this whole “guardianship” idea.

There were plenty of tears as she hugged Kylie goodbye, on both sides, which surprised Eliza somewhat. She’d never considered herself an overly sentimental sort, and she hadn’t even cried when she’d left home.

Then again, that had been as much of a relief as anything else. Getting away from her parents’ constant disappointment had felt like a new lease on life.

Right up until she’d proven them right. Again and again. First by failing out of two separate colleges, and then by not being able to keep a job for more than a few months at a time.

Was it any wonder they’d basically told her “Absolutely not” when she’d called them asking if she could stay with them for a couple of months, just until she got back on her feet?

“Are you okay, little one?”

They were back in the golf cart, on their way to the employee apartments. Swiping at the tears she’d only now noticed were streaming down her cheeks again, Eliza shrugged. “I’m fine.”

“It’s perfectly normal to be sad when you have a big change forced on you. Especially a change that requires you to leave people you love.”

“I said I’m fine.”

“All right. But I’m here if you decide you want to talk.”

That was never going to happen. But it was nice of him to offer, she supposed.

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