Page 45 of Teaching His Babygirl

“Are you sure?”

“Yes. I don’t want to be alone yet.”

“Okay, babygirl.” He reaches to cup my cheek, and I flinch away, not wanting him to touch me where Levi did. His arm drops, and a look of hurt crosses his features before he shutters it. Not thinking, I grab his other hand and hold it to my opposite, unsullied cheek. Realization dawns on him, and he gently touches the clean side of my face.

When he steps away, I carefully undress, dumping my clothes on the floor. I will never wear those again. In fact, I may just burn them. Colt watches me in a clinical way, making sure that I’m steady on my feet, not with any of the lust he normally would have. I’m thankful for that.

The first thing I do in the shower is scrub my face. Again, and again. I hiss when I wash my arms, I look at my elbows, seeing where the brick abraded them. Colt is instantly there, lifting my arm and looking at the angry red skin.

“Baby, why didn’t you tell me you were hurt?”

“I didn’t realize…” I sniffle.

“It’s okay. Finish your shower. I’ll get some cream for that.”

I do as requested and finish washing. I wash every inch of my body more than once and still don’t feel completely clean. I wash my hair twice, then my face again. Colt hands me one of my oversized towels. I dry off and wrap it around my body. Tears prick my eyes as Colt carefully towel dries my hair for me just like a daddy dom would for his babygirl. Only… he’s not my daddy anymore because I ruined that.

He then carefully puts some antibacterial ointment on my scrapes and leads me to my bedroom, where he’s laid out a set of comfy pajamas. He goes to the door to give me privacy to dress, and I whimper at the thought of him leaving me. I don’t know why I’m feeling clingy. It’s not fair to him. Not when I broke things off.

Even though I don’t want him to be out of my sight, I let him leave without protest. I dress quickly and follow him out of the room. Only I don’t find him in the living room. He’s in my studio looking at my most recent project.

I chew on my lip, wondering what he thinks of the painting. It’s us… well, a representation of us done in a more abstract style than my typical realism. It hurt too much to paint us as we are—were. I clear my throat so he knows I’m here and he turns, looking at me with curious eyes.

“Is this us?”

I could easily say no, but I’m not a liar. “Yes…”

“It’s beautiful.”

My cheeks heat with a blush knowing that he likes my painting. Thoughts of Levi are long gone as I watch Colt look at my painting with awe. This room is my escape from the world at large so it’s easy to forget everything that has happened today.

“I’ve missed you.” The words escape my mouth before I can stop them. It’s not fair of me. Not when I’m the one who broke us to begin with. Sure, Levi was the catalyst, but I’m the one that made the choice to end things instead of telling Colt about the threats against him. “Sorry, I shouldn’t have said that.”

He turns to me and gives me a knowing look. “You didn’t break things off with me because of rumors, did you?”

Shock jolts through me at his assessment of the situation. He’s completely right about it, but how does he know? “I…”

He crosses the room to me and hugs me. “It’s okay, baby, you can tell me.”

Now it’s decision time. Do I stick to the lie, or do I confess? “Levi threatened you. He promised to hurt you if I didn’t break things off. I couldn’t risk you… I lo-” I barely stop myself before I profess my love for him. “I care about you too much for that.”

“Darlene… You should have told me. I knew about the threats. He had dozens of pictures of me with my face burned or slashed through on his walls. It was pretty apparent that he didn’t like us together.”

Shock reverberates inside me. Of course. I remember seeing the pictures from his house. The shrine to me and the threatening pictures where he’d ruined or ripped Colt out of them. Why didn’t I remember that at the time?

Because I was panicked. Scared because it all became so real. Bad excuses, but that’s the only reason I can think that would have made me forget the fact that Colt was already in danger because of me.

“I’m… I didn’t…” I shake my head at a loss for words.

“It’s okay. I know you had my best interests at heart. Just… next time talk to me, okay?”

“Next time?” I ask, hopefully. “Will there be a next time?”

“Well, not the stalker part, I hope,” he says, trying to insert a little humor into the situation. “I want to be with you, Darlene. That’s all I’ve ever wanted.”

I look at him with equal parts shock and happiness. “But-”

“There are no buts, babygirl. You’re everything I’ve ever wanted. We’re perfect together. You’re my other half,” he proudly professes. “Unless that’s not what you want.”

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