Page 14 of Daddy's Heart

She swallowed back the scream crawling from her chest. She’d been in her nightgown. Her hair, the pop, the popcorn—the coloring book. Sinking down in her chair, she couldn’t move her gaze from the pile of scrambled eggs on her plate.

“Samantha.” He reached across the table and laid his hand over hers. “I carried you to bed, put the blanket on you, and left. Nothing happened.”

She shook her head.

Something had happened.

He’d seen her.

He’d heard her.

He knew.

“I shouldn’t have said that…what I said—when you—” She chanced a quick glance, but went right back to her breakfast. “I shouldn’t have said that. It slipped.”

“It’s okay.” He patted her hand and dove into his own breakfast.

“It’s weird, and I’m sorry.”

His brow furrowed. “Weird?”

“I don’t even know you. Other than you have an incredible apartment, which you keep very clean, and you’re a carpenter, and you volunteer at George’s club,” she rambled, but it took the stress off thinking about what he’d seen. How repulsed he had to be by her now.

“Samantha, it didn’t bother me.” He took another bite and chewed slow. “In fact, it’s been a while since I had someone call me that,” he said after swallowing.

Her gaze crashed to his. “What?”

“I said it’s been—”

“I heard you. I mean, you’re a…or were?”

“A Daddy?” He grinned, showing off his dimple again. “Yeah. To the right girl, yes. Not every girl I dated or play with was okay with that, though.”

“Oh.” She nodded like she fully understood, but her mind was still trying to absorb his reaction. “I sort of had you pegged for a—well, a hard nose Dom.”

“I am.” He put his fork down. “I mean, with the right girl, yeah, I’m all about the Daddy Dom thing, but if she gets out of line, hell yeah, I’m hard ass with her. And I kinda play hard, so she’d have to be into some pain.”

She watched him pick up his plate and take it to the sink. Pain.

“Like impact stuff?”

“Yeah. Among other stuff. Sensation play can be amazing.” He moved to the stove to gather the frying pan and spatula. “You need to eat, Samantha. I’m not sure popcorn really constitutes dinner, and since I didn’t see any dishes or anything else, I’ll assume that’s all you had last night.”

She lowered her gaze. She’d had some gummy bears too, but she doubted he would think that counted either.

Slowly, she made her way through the eggs and took several small bites of the toast.

“What do you have planned today?” he asked, wiping his hands on a towel and leaning back against the counter.

That was it? He dropped a bombshell he was a Daddy Dom, told her what sort of kinky play he enjoyed, and then just normal conversation? If she could untie her tongue, it would make conversing a lot easier.

“Uh, Printers Row.” She found her voice again. “It’s down by the library.”

“Yeah, I’ve seen it before. It’s supposed to be nice day, the humidity broke.” He crossed his arms over his chest, watching her push the last few bites of her food around the plate.

“What about you? What do you have planned?

He shrugged. “Nothing really. Just relaxing today. The job I’m starting this week is going to have some long days.”

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