Page 6 of Wilderness Daddy

“Okay! Stop!” she yells, slumping over my leg.

When I pull Akari upright and see she’s still scowling and shooting daggers at me with her eyes, I don’t release her. My hand, still around her upper arm, loosens slightly as I consider whether to draw her across my knee again, but she suddenly catches me off guard, yanking her arm back.

She rips herself from my grasp.

Shit!I lunge, grappling for her with no avail. She squeaks in surprise as she falls and I grimace at the splash. With no more than a second’s pause to prepare myself for the freezing water, I jump in after her.

Between the frigid water and the sound of sputtering and flailing my anger fizzles. I don’t even know if this girl can swim. I don’t know much about her at all.

“Are you okay? Can you swim?” I ask, ignoring the way the water steals my breath, and stroke toward her. With wet, slicked-back hair shining in the light of the moon, she’s too beautiful. Even upset, with teeth chattering, she steals my breath as much as the icy water.

“This is all your fault!” she hollers on a cry. I stop swimming to test the depth. I can stand and the water isn’t even to my waist so I know she can stand too. I release a breath and it billows like smoke in between us. At least I don’t have to worry about her drowning. I offer a hand and she slaps it away, splashing me in the face.

“I hate you.”

“You can get out yourself now, little girl.” I turn, wading through the water until I’m on the rocky beach. She’s still splashing in a tantrum behind me so I walk away as if I’m leaving her. The little tyrant can scream obscenities at my back until her voice goes raw, I won’t leave her there, but she doesn’t need to know that.

“Don’t... leave me... please... My dress... is caught.”

I hear the shiver in her voice. Her appeal, so sad and pathetic with her clacking teeth, stops me in my tracks. But it’s her stubborn teary sniff that has me back in the water despite the needles of icy cold it brings.

“I got you, honey. I got you.”

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