“I’m not used to women crying.”
“You aren’t? There’s a shocker,” Razor said dryly. “Way to go, making a sick Little cry.”
“Thanks, that’s just what I needed right now. If that’s all you’ve got to help me—”
“No, wait, listen, with Littles you have to sometimes be indulgent, treat them like the little princesses or princes they are. But you have to temper that with making certain they do as they’re told. Sure, they’re spoiled, but they need to know the boundary. The lines that can’t be crossed without punishment. One of those lines is putting themselves at risk. Obviously, not drinking when you’ve told her that she needs to is a risk to her health. Therefore, it’s a line.”
“But it’s not like we have any rules,” he argued. “She’s not mine. We don’t have any sort of relationship.”
“Right, you’re just doing this out of the goodness of your heart.”
“Fucked if I know why I’m doing this. But it’s either get this into her or call an ambulance.”
“All right, so you might not have set rules for her, but you’re all she’s got right now and you’re only looking out for her. Even if she wasn’t a Little, you’d be trying to do this for her health, right?”
“Yeah, so what are you saying?”
“Littles might complain about rules, but they’re there to make them safe. To make them feel secure. If you can’t convince her to drink, you may have to be stern.”
“I tried. She cried.”
“Were you mean?”
“I don’t fucking know!”
“You were probably mean,” he muttered. “Strict doesn’t require you to get all cold or yelling or swearing.”
“I didn’t fucking yell.” But the other two. . .yeah, maybe.
“Give her a consequence if she doesn’t do the behavior you require of her. Drink the Gatorade or I’m going to. . .”
“What?”
“Well, I don’t know, that’s up to you. What are you comfortable with?”
“She asked me if I was going to spank her earlier,” he muttered.
“She did?” Razor sounded amused.
“Stop fucking laughing at me, you bastard.”
“Sorry. . .sorry, it’s just imagining you, the great, stoic, calm Duke Canton dealing with a Little with an attitude, yeah, it’s fucking funny. You’re never out of your depth yet here is this girl practically making you sweat buckets over getting her to drink.”
“She doesn’t have an attitude.”
Probably not the thing he should have focused on right then. He shook his head. He’d quickly gotten dressed when he’d gone next door so at least he was no longer standing around in his boxers. Boxers that she had tried her best to pull off when they’d been in the shower.
She sure wasn’t shy when she thought she was dreaming. He had to grin at that. She was going to be mortified if she remembered that part.
“Right,” Razor said almost gently. “Sorry. She’s sick and if you don’t know each other well, then likely she’s feeling vulnerable. You seen her Little side before?”
“No.”
“Okay, then maybe her defenses are down. Best you get her to let you help her now before they come back up.”
“So when you say I should get strict, I threaten to spank her?” Discomfort filled him. Not over spanking someone. But they didn’t have a relationship. It felt wrong.
“Will you do it?”