A crazy image flashed through his mind of Sable smiling and carrying a basket of flowers on each hip through the greenhouse, Marigold trailing faithfully behind her. That was so far from reality he shouldn’t even dream of it but the idea had lodged itself in his brain and he doubted very much he could get it to leave.
And the thing was, why couldn’t he hold her forever? He could figure this out, and he suspected it would help if he got toppy with her. Hadn’t Hudson said she submitted like a dream when she wasn’t having a tantrum? She wasn’t having a tantrum now.
She was scared and it might make her feel better to hand all that fear over to someone else who she believed was capable of handling it, and her. He could do that.
“Here’s what’s going to happen. I’m going to stand up, carry you back to the club where it’s warm. We’ll go in the back room where we were before so you can have privacy and Dr. Eric’s going to look you over. And what he says goes. He says hospital, I’m taking you to the ER. He says home, I’m taking you home with me. Tell me you understand.”
“I understand,” came her voice, softer than he’d ever heard it, and not because she was speaking into layers of fabric. She sounded…sweet. Willing. Cooperative.
Good.
To cement the idea that he was in charge in her mind, he squeezed her lightly and dipped his chin so his mouth was only a few inches from her ear.
“You understand what?”
He was expecting her to say Jethro, maybe Sir. But what he got was “I understand, Daddy,” and it felt like a punch to the solar plexus. Yep, he was done for, officially. She was his now and nothing could change that.