Page 14 of A Guard and a Gardener

He twisted to look up at me, that grin of his turning wickedly filthy. “Won’t be empty if you-”

I stuffed an almond between his lips. The look of surprise was endearingly hilarious, and then it softened into a frown that was as pretend as my chastisement of him.

He chewed diligently on the tiny nut and I delighted in watching every flicker of his tongue and bob of his throat.

When he finished I had another ready, and I continued to feed him small mouthfuls of food. It became increasingly difficult to keep my hands off him with the cute noises he made as he ate, and how much of his tongue swiped across my fingers when he took each morsel from me.

By the Blessed Five, I was in trouble with this one. Wyatt was so damn perfect, even before he’d rocked my world by calling medaddy, and now that he had? If I had to let him go after this, I was pretty sure I’d die.

“Just a little more,” I said when the boy began to flag, having stolen some odd mouthfuls of food myself while he took his sweet time munching down on the hunk of bread I’d handed to him. It was a point he’d been making wordlessly and deliberately, I knew, for the food he took directly into his mouth from my fingers was consumed much more quickly, and I made a mental note that he enjoyed me feeding him just as much as I did.

Daddy?

Could I really indulge that part of myself?

It wasn’t the first time I’d been referred to as such. Ren and the guards I worked with frequently joked about my caretaking side and how I fussed over my charges’ sleeping and eating when I knew they weren’t getting enough of either.

But with Wyatt, it was...so Blessed different, and not just because he’d used the title without mockery. It was the way he looked at me, adoring and trusting. It was how he was curled into my arms, letting me take charge and ensure he was cared for when he clearly wasn’t handling it himself.

Skipping breakfast.Shit.

And it was the way he felt against me, blazing hot and burning a similar fire through my veins wherever we touched, which was somehoweverywheredespite his small size.

“Are you full, little one?”

Wyatt nodded, trailing a hand down my shirt and twisting his fingers in the laces. “Yes, daddy. Thank you.”

“Anytime,” I breathed into his hair, loving the earthy scent of him. And then, worried he might betoofull but unable to stopmyself, I turned him on my lap so I could take two solid handfuls of that glorious ass that had been tempting me the entire meal.

Wyatt sucked in a delighted breath, the sleepy contentedness that had been drawing across his face as I cradled and fed him instantly sluicing away.

“Is this what you want?” I asked. My doubts swirled heavy and suffocating once more. “I’m much older than you.”

He crinkled his nose, and I leaned in to kiss it. “I’m a year older than King Renato,” he told me. “And we all know what you two get up to.”

I squeezed one of his cheeks in warning, and he batted pale eyelashes at me, smirking.

“Used to get up to,” I reminded him. “His Majesty is now happily married.”

“Good,” Wyatt said with a grin.

Speaking of Ren...

“I’m also a royal guard,” I said quietly. “My duty must always come before my own needs. My own...desires.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t get between you and our king,” he murmured back at me, and then ran his tongue across his teeth in an enticing flicker of wet, pink promise. “Unless you want me to?”

I pressed my mouth to his to kiss away his cheekiness, revelling in how he went limp against me.

“I want you all for myself, Wyatt,” I said.

“That’s what I want too, daddy. Will you kiss me again?”

How could I refuse such a perfect boy?

We were both breathless by the time we pulled apart, our chests heaving. His cheeks were flushed, and his cock was hard and glistening where it strained upright between us.

“And you don’t...” I found it hard to voice the last of my concerns, despite it being so easily uttered in my head. “You don’t find me too...big? Because I’d never hurt you, I promise, but I know my size can be intimid-”

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