Page 66 of Awakening His Daddy

“Thank you, Daddy.” He looks at me with such admiration, and darn it, I want to be worthy of it. His lips twitch, and he presses up on his toes to meet my mouth. The kiss is short and warm.

I’m about to tell him he shouldn’t kiss me when my arms wrap around him and pull him in close.

“Thank you, baby. That was very sweet of you.”

“You’re welcome.” His hands move up my sides and over my chest. “I could kiss you again and show you just how sweet I am.”

“How about we eat dinner instead?”

“That isn’t as fun as more kisses, but it smells amazing.”

“I just need to grab some plates, and we can dig in.”

“Can we eat in front of the fire? It’s warm and the house is too cold.”

“Good idea. Then we can actually see what we’re eating, and it won’t be too dark.”

“See? I’m a smart boy.”

“Very.” He follows me into the kitchen and turns on his flashlight, even though we can see just fine.

“Do you know when the power might come back?”

“It depends. I reported it as out, but they will need to wait until the storm has passed.”

“Leo said it should be stopping tonight.”

“Hopefully the plows will get out and then they can fix the power.”

“Yes, that sounds good.”

“Can I ask why you’re so afraid of the dark?”

He shrugs. “Childhood.” I give him a confused look. “I was sometimes trapped in dark places, and now I’m scared of the dark, but I’m okay as long as I have a nightlight.”

“What do you mean by trapped?” I will find and kill his dad if he did anything to hurt my boy.

“Nothing, it isn’t a big deal just, can we move on?”

I nod, but I don’t like it. I want to know who hurt my boy.

“Sure.” I dish up dinner and make sure not to give him any celery. Just as I sit down, the song on the radio changes to “Frosty the Snowman.” My fingers twitch to grab it and rip out the batteries until Izzy starts singing along.

“I love this song, don’t you?”

“It’s not my favorite,” I grit out through clenched teeth, and he giggles.

“I’m going to go clean up the kitchen.” He tries to interrupt, but I continue. “I thought you could play with a box of Leo’s old toys that I found in the closet earlier.”

“Toys?” His eyes crinkle with confusion. So not a Little? Probably.

“Yeah, or there are some puzzles you could do. One of them is five hundred pieces.”

“Five hundred pieces! Will you help me with that one?”

“Sure.” I take his hand and lead him to the kitchen. “After I finish the dishes. You can get started by sorting out all the edge pieces.”

“I can do that. Can you light more candles? I like my flashlight, but the candles are more romantic and give off better light.”

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