Page 73 of Off-Limits Daddy
I nodded. “It felt easier to give pieces of myself to people who didn’t expect anything real. None of them ever called me Daddy.”
He blinked. “No one? For real?”
“Not once. Because I didn’tletthem. That part of me stayed locked up... until you.”
His eyes widened, then softened. “Why me?”
I smiled, brushing my thumb along his cheekbone. “Because with you, I wanted tocare. Not fix. Not possess. Just...care. You made space for that in me without even trying. And when you called me Daddy the first time, I didn’t mind at all. The title fit me perfectly.”
Ari let out a shaky breath. “I didn’t evenknowI was gonna say it. It just... slipped out.”
“Did it feel right?”
He nodded.
I touched his chin, turned his face toward me. “How didyouknow? That you’re a boy?”
He shrugged at first, but I waited. Let him fill the silence.
“I think... I’ve always wanted to beheld. Not just physically, but like someone was wrapping their arms around the messy parts, too. I didn’t have that growing up. And the older I got, the more I thought I had to grow out of it. Be strong.”
He looked down, fiddled with the hem of the blanket.
“I dated men who wanted to be needed, not who wanted tonurture. And I thought maybe that was the best I could get. So I tried to be smaller. Softer. Invisible, even, if it meant someone would stay.”
I knew where that was going. “The ex?”
He nodded. “He wasn’t a Daddy. Just a guy who liked control. Made it feel like love, until it didn’t. I stopped asking for things. Stopped hoping.”
My chest ached.
“You don’t have to hope anymore,” I said softly. “Not with me.”
Ari smiled, eyes wet. “I know.”
I kissed him—slow, lingering, reverent. The way he deserved.
Then I gently pulled back, thumb brushing his cheek. The sunflower crown slipped sideways over my temple, and Ari reached up to straighten it with careful fingers. His touch lingered against my temple, then slid back into my hair like he wasn’t ready to let go.
I wasn’t ready either.
The blanket rustled as I shifted beside him, leaning back on one elbow, my free hand finding the curve of his waist like it belonged there.
“I’d like to talk to Sage on Monday,” I said, watching his eyes.
He blinked.
“It’s time he knows about us,” I continued, voice low. “If you don’t mind.”
His brows pulled together, not in worry—just surprise.
“I don’t want to keep you a secret,” I said, thumbing a bit of sunflower pollen from his cheekbone. “I don’t want to hide how happy you make me. But I won’t do it if you’re not ready. It has to be both of us, or it’s not worth it.”
Ari didn’t answer right away. His throat worked like he was trying to swallow something thick. Eyes shining now, and not from the sun.
“Are you serious?” he asked, voice a little rough.
“Yeah.”
