Sweet little thing offered him her tiny finger and he hooked his around it, giving it a shake. “Okay. But if you break your promise, you’re getting another spanking and you’re not going to like it on your already sore bottom.”
He towed her over to the canopy bed and pulled the pillows from it, putting them in a bin and then turning down the covers.
Saoirse was eyeing the crib full of stuffies covetously and biting her lip but she hadn’t moved an inch.
“Did you want to pick out a stuffie to sleep with, princess?”
“Yes, Daddy,” she replied, bouncing on her toes. “Please, may I?”
“You may. That was very nice asking. And just the one, okay?”
She was off before he’d finished, and picked up an enormous and very squishy unicorn with a rainbow mane, hugging it hard.
How had she lived without this when being little seemed to fit her so well? When she embraced it so easily? Had she had a daddy before? Maybe.
It’s not as though she would’ve told him, just as he wouldn’t have mentioned playing at Hive, though he had been truthful on the few occasions when she’d asked him if he was dating anyone. He’d had a couple of relationships since Renata but nothing that stuck. It was hard to find a combination of someone who you enjoyed both as a little and as their grown-up selves—and after Renata he wouldn’t be with anyone who wasn’t a little—but so far he was quite enamored with everything about Saoirse.
Stuffie still clutched tight to her chest, she brought it back to where he stood. “This one. His name is Ziggy.”
“You picked a really good one. A rainbow unicorn named Ziggy is just right for a princess. Now let’s get you tucked in.”
Saoirse had perhaps forgotten that she’d been so thoroughly spanked because she let out a little “ow” when she dropped onto the mattress, but she didn’t seem upset. No, she just pulled her feet up and took her hair out of the ponytail and lay back on the pillows.
He dragged the covers all the way up to her chin, and tucked them slightly underneath her and the big floppy unicorn she hadn’t let go of. She looked so sweet like that, and for the first time, she let out a big yawn.
Arthur smoothed some stray hair out of her face and then feeling so much tenderness it hurt, bent over her to press a kiss to her forehead and passed a thumb over her pink cheek.
“Sweet dreams, princess. I’ll see you in the morning. And if you need anything, I’ll be right through that door.”