Page 200 of Papa's Bébé
“Careful, Bébé. I don’t mind a bit of sassy. But you don’t want to go over the line . . . I know just what to do to little girls that push too far. And it involves a consequence.”
There we go. He saw a crack. He knew he was pushing her and it might be a bit of a bastard thing to do when she was obviously feeling lost and vulnerable and was just doing her best to protect herself.
However, he couldn’t help but want her to turn to him for protection.
Shit.
This was what he’d stayed up most of last night thinking about. About whether he could do this.
But in the end, he couldn’t walk away. It wasn’t an option because she already had a part of him.
And he could never be whole again without her.
He was still scared of losing her. Of fully losing himself. But he would keep her safe.
Which he intended to do anyway.
Matthieu was going to finally have a home.
It was terrifying and at the same time, it felt so fucking right.
“I’m not breaking a rule.”
“The rules are changing, Little girl. And there’s a new boss for you. Me.”
More of that shield cracked.
“You can’t just announce yourself the boss of me,” she informed him. “That’s not the way things work.”
“Actually, it is.”
“You’re delusional,” she informed him coolly.
So she had the courage to look him in the eyes now? Yeah, she was firmly behind that mask. But he was determined to completely crack it. At least around him. Around anyone else, she was free to put it up to keep herself safe.
It was going to mean a huge change for him. Maya had ties. She wasn’t going to be happy traveling around the country.
Maya needed stability and a home more than anyone he’d ever met and somehow he had to give that to her.
But one step at a time. First he had to convince her that he could be her safe space.
That she could trust him to look after her.
“You took it because of the puppies, didn’t you?” He couldn’t understand it at first. Why she put up with David the way she did. She didn’t tend to hold her tongue with anyone else, so he hadn’t been sure why she put up with David’s shit without exploding.
Then last night, it had suddenly made sense. It was the puppies.
“I took the job because I needed it,” she said. “I stayed because of the puppies.”
“You saw them and you knew they weren’t being taken care of properly.”
“Sometimes they looked so scared and confused,” she told him. “But I was always teaching back-to-back classes when puppy yoga was on. So I couldn’t find a way to follow David to where they were coming from. And I was concerned he would see me. So when Millie and Livvy offered to help . . .” She shrugged.
“You realize how dangerous that was. These people running the puppy farm could have discovered what the three of you were doing . . . they could have harmed you.”
“I wasn’t in any real danger,” she protested. Then a guilty look crossed her face. “I shouldn’t have let Millie follow them.”
“You should have told me what was going on,” he corrected.
