For the first time since we had been out here in the mountains, Juliana didn’t come outside when she woke up like she always did. I could hear her moving around in the cabin, but then, silence rang again.
Something was wrong. I could feel it in my gut.
I set the axe aside and walked into the cabin to go check on her. Juliana was lying on the mattress, her eyes closed, the blankets tucked around her. I knelt in front of her and gently brushed her hair back from her face.
“Little girl, look at me,” I gently commanded.
She slowly opened her eyes, obediently locking them on my face. I frowned as I ran the tips of my fingers over her cheek. Her eyes were a bit dull, not at all sparking with the usual warmth she got in them when she looked at me.
She was having a low. Submissives got them every once in a while. Hell, even some doms did. It was a normal part of our lifestyle.
I kicked my boots off and stripped out of my shirt before lying down behind her, pulling her to me. “Daddy’s here, baby,” I soothed, running my hand over her hair. I hated that she was feeling like this, but I would do what I could to get her through it with the limited things I had to use to get her there.
Normally, I would choose to soak in a hot bath with her, and then, I would watch a cheesy, Disney movie with her as we cuddled. I’d feed her sweets, for once letting up on my rules of healthy meals.
But I didn’t have any of those options at hand.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered.
I pressed my lips to the top of her head. “Don’t be, baby girl. I love taking care of you,” I promised. And I did. I hated that I was doing it today because of her low, but I would always take care of her.
We were silent for a while. I just held her. She dozed off a couple of times, but whenever she woke up, she was still extremely quiet, answering me with head nods or head shakes, never verbally. She was regressing, and it made me sick to my stomach. She had been making so much progress.
But I would never force her to speak if she was scared to. Being too assertive right now could do more harm than good to her mental state. I just worked my way through the situation by paying attention to her body language like I did when I first met her.
I fed her lunch and dinner, talking soothingly to her as I did so to get her to cooperate and eat for me. She was acting like a stubborn child, but I understood it, so I kept my patience with her, continuing to be firm yet gentle.
After I got her to eat her dinner – thankfully all of it – I sat on the mattress with her between my legs and read her a book I’d found lying around on one of the shelves. It was some romance book – probably one of Emmaline’s – but it kept Juliana interested, and slowly but surely, the book drew her out of her funk, and she listened attentively, hanging onto my every word, her cheeks flushing a pretty pink color when I got to the sex scenes.
For the entire night, I read to her, never stopping. She didn’t sleep and neither did I, but I was hoping that by morning, she would be mostly okay again.
That was all I wanted. I could deal with the tiredness so long as my baby girl was okay again.
Around daybreak, the book was over. Juliana was passed out in my arms, soft snores leaving her lips. I just continued to hold her, lightly running my hand over her hair over and over. I watched the sun rise, watched the way the sun moved over her beautiful face, making her hair shine and her skin glow.
It gave her an ethereal look that I wished I had a phone to capture, but I knew that the image would forever be etched into my mind. There was no way I could ever forget how fucking stunning she looked in this moment.
This woman of mine was a fucking goddess; she just didn’t know it yet.