She raced out of the living room, down the passage and into her bedroom. She started pacing. She was barely aware of the door opening and Bain stepping inside.
“Angel, what’s going on?”
“I’m so sorry. Did I embarrass you? I didn’t mean to. It just slipped out. It won’t happen again, I promise. Please don’t leave.” Tears dripped down her cheeks. She wiped at them, forcing herself to stare at him.
“Whoa, okay, angel. You seem to have jumped to some rash conclusions.” He studied her, carefully moving forward as though he thought she might bolt.
“Angel, I’m going to pull you into my arms, all right? Shh. It’s all right. Everything is fine.” He tugged her close and she buried her face into his chest.
“Sorry. Sorry.”
“Angel, you have nothing to be sorry about.”
“I called you Daddy in front of Dominic,” she wailed. Hadn’t he heard?
But he didn’t pull away from her, he simply kept rubbing her back with slow, firm strokes.
“Angel, calm down. Calm down so Daddy can talk to you. Good girl. Let’s get Patches, I bet she’ll make you feel better.”
He settled her on his lap on the bed and picked up Patches. She held the dog tight and buried herself back into his arms.
“Tell me what just happened.”
“I embarrassed you.”
“You did? How?”
Why did they even have to talk about this? “You were there.”
“I was. Want you to explain why you think I’m embarrassed. Sure as shit don’t feel embarrassed.”
“You. . .you don’t?”
“Nope.”
“You don’t care that I called you Daddy in front of someone else? Does Dominic. . .does he know?”
“Haven’t told you about Sanctuary Ranch, have I?”
What did that have to do with anything?
“No.”
“You said Caleb is a Daddy Dom, right?”
“Yes,” she whispered. “He, uh, he told me that your boss was one and that a lot of the men that worked for him were too. Does that mean Dominic is?”
“He is. Many of the men who live on Sanctuary Ranch are Daddy Doms. All of the men believe in protecting and treasuring the women who live there.”
She breathed a sigh of relief.
“Just so we’re clear, even if he wasn’t, I wouldn’t have cared that you called me Daddy in front of him. Call me Daddy in front of whoever you like.”
“I. . .I can?”
“Yeah, baby. Nothing you could ever do would embarrass me.”
“You don’t know that,” she whispered.