Page 25 of Daddy's Little Cupcake

He would know her past relationships and how she was so nervous to be around him.

“I can read your body language and your facial expressions,” Finn said. “You're like an open book sometimes. It helps me because then I know what you could possibly be thinking.”

“Like what?” Charlotte found herself asking.

“Just because you're asking these questions doesn't mean you're not going to answer mine, but I'll answer first, and then you can answer mine,” Finn said, giving Charlotte a wink and a smile.

Charlotte thought her stomach sank when he realized what she was doing. She was hoping that he wouldn't notice, but nothing seemed to get past him. He always seemed to know when she was trying to deflect.

“You have these little ticks, we’ll call them. When you're nervous, you won't make eye contact with me, and you'll start playing with your fingers. Your body goes rigid, and you look uncomfortable. You flinch sometimes when people say something or you're thinking something in your head, and you don't realize it. You wear your emotions on your face sometimes,” Finn said.

Charlotte's mouth hung open the longer he talked. She didn't think that he was observing her that much, but she was obviously wrong. He had obviously spent his time watching her and seeing how she reacted and acted.

“Now, I want to hear your unfiltered thoughts about what I said.” Finn relaxed in his chair.

Charlotte opened her mouth, ready to spill everything she had thought about, but she quickly closed her mouth. Was she really about to do this? Was she really ready to tell him what she thought?

“It's okay. Take your time,” Finn said.

He grabbed her hand that was laying on top of the table and gently rubbed his thumb across the back of her hand. It was soothing, and it calmed her down some. She didn't realize that she had started to get wound up and tight, but he could tell.

He could tell things when she couldn't; he was observant, and she kind of liked that. Sometimes Charlotte could get into her own head and go down a dark path. Not many people realized when she started to do that, but Finn saw it.

Charlotte let out a sigh and looked down at her hands. “I've had a lot of people tell me the exact same thing you are telling me. They never worked out because they were just saying it to say it, but they didn't mean it.”

Charlotte didn't want to tell Finn any of this, but she knew that he wouldn't let this go, and she needed to say something. How was anything going to work if she never talked about her past experiences and moved on from them?

She obviously had been scarred by what the men said and did. She kept telling herself that she wasn't affected by their words, but she was. How could she not be when so many of them said the exact same thing but didn't mean it.

Finn gave a sad smile and Charlotte's hand squeeze. “Well, I do mean it. I know that people work to make a living, and that means that they may not be able to respond always. I can't always respond right away.”

That was another thing that the men would always say. That they understood but then they would get angry when she didn't respond right away. They would say that they understood because they worked too and couldn't always respond right away.

Sometimes those men would not respond for a day or two because they were ‘busy’, but Charlotte never felt like it was because they were busy. She sometimes felt that they would not respond for several days because they realized she couldn't text back right away, so they weren't interested anymore. Or they realized that she wanted to continue to work, and they didn't want that.

“A little communication goes a long way for me. Just a simple I'm busy for the next couple of hours or a text before you go into work saying that you're working until whatever time would be great. I just want to know that you're safe and that you're okay,” Finn said. “We're still in the talking phase, but I want to get to know you better and your little side.”

Charlotte blushed and looked even further down to try and hide it. She had only blushed a handful of times, and most of them had been with him. He just did something to her. Charlotte didn’t know if it was the dominance, the Daddy side, his handsomeness, his genuineness, or just him.

She never had somebody affect her so much, and she didn't know what to do. It was all new to her, and she didn't know how to navigate through it.

“I want you to be comfortable. I want you to not worry that you haven't responded to me in several hours because of work and that I will not be interested in you any more. I can guarantee you that I'm very interested, and you not responding for a couple of hours because you're busy at work won't make me feel any different,” Finn said.

Charlotte's heart melted as Finn continued to speak. He knew exactly what to say, and everything seemed to be genuine. Maybe Charlotte should give him a chance to prove that he wasn’t just saying this to say it like all the other guys did, but that he meant it.

She opened her mouth, ready to tell him that she also wanted to get to know him, but stopped herself. Charlotte needed to think about this because every time a guy had wanted to get to know her, she just jumped right in.

Charlotte needed to take a day or two to see if she was really interested in Finn like that. She already knew the answer, but she needed to do this. Diana would tell her the exact same thing. She was always saying that she needed to think more before doing something, and right now, she was going to do that.

Now Charlotte just needed to tell Finn. How was she going to tell him? She didn't want to hurt his feelings and make it seem like she wasn't interested because she was, but she also didn't want to jump right in.

She didn't want to get her hopes up again.

“How about you think about everything for the next couple days? Then once you have your answer, we can meet up again and talk about it, and if it's positive, then we can get to know each other at the same time,” Finn suggested.

Before Charlotte knew what she was doing, she nodded her head.

“Otay,” Charlotte whispered.

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