Page 174 of Daddies' Captive

He grinned down at her. Then his smile faded. “Grady cares a lot about you. But he might not always know how to say it. So look for the signs, okay?”

“I can do that. It can be hard to talk about things like this.”

“Yeah? Did you ever try to talk about things with someone and they hurt you? Rejected you? That why you have a tendency to hide?”

She bit her lip.

“Everything all right?” Grady asked, entering the room.

“Yeah,” Steele replied. “I’ve told her I’m a Daddy Dom and that not only do I not have a problem with her calling me Daddy, but I want her to call me that.”

Grady nodded.

“Told her you’re a Dom too. That you’ve played at clubs before. But we haven’t discussed limits or desires.”

Grady came around to lean against the desk. She stared up at him.

“I was just asking our girl whether she’d told anyone about her needs before. She said she’s sort of had a Daddy Dom.”

“Sort of?” Grady raised his eyebrows.

“I, um . . . Joe was a Daddy Dom. He’s the one who helped me realize I was a Little. But he wasn’tmyDaddy Dom, if that makes sense. Still, sometimes, if I needed to go into Little headspace, he’d help me get there.” She shrugged. It was painful to remember if she was honest. Because it was something she’d wanted from him but only partially got.

Steele’s hand came to the back of her neck. “That can’t have been easy, baby.”

“It was good and bad. I had a couple of boyfriends that I tried to ask . . . well, to explain what I wanted. One of them was game to try things, but it just didn’t work. After Joe died, well, I was recovering both physically and mentally. And then with Brooks . . . sometimes it just felt like all my energy went into getting by. And there wasn’t anything left for dating. Plus, I just didn’t feel safe revealing that part of myself to people. Not after being rejected before.”

“Baby,” Steele said soothingly, rocking her back and forth. “You don’t have to worry about being rejected by us. You can tell us anything. Any desires, any needs, you tell us. Understand?”

She nodded, although she was still somewhat unsure.

Grady crouched down and reached out to touch her chin. A shock of surprise and pleasure filled her.

“There might be things we want. Things that you might not have tried before and might be nervous about. This doesn’t just go one way. There’s always give and take. And communication. Something, I’m not always good at, but I’ll try if you will.”

“Yes,” she said quietly. She cleared her throat. “I’ll try.”

“That’s my good girl,” Grady told her huskily. “You definitely need a reward.”

“Even though I ran away and hid?”

“Do you do that often? You used to do that with Joe? Those other idiots?” Steele asked.

“Idiots?” She turned her head to look at Steele. “Why do you call them that?”

“They let you go, didn’t they? Idiots.”

Oh. That was sweet. Even if untrue.

“You didn’t answer the question,” Grady pointed out.

She tugged at her earring.

“Uh-uh. No more of that.” Steele drew her hand away and lightly slapped it.

Okay. Whoa.

“Not really,” she said. “The hiding thing is kind of new.”

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