“How’s my sleepy girl? Awake enough to eat?”
Cosy turned toward Ian just as he shook a few drops of formula onto his wrist from a bottle. Her mouth dropped open and she stiffened in his arms.
“It’s okay, Cosy,” Hudson assured her. “This is a formula Doctor Eric prescribed special for you. It has everything a little girl needs to be healthy and strong.”
She blinked up at him, golden eyes wide and wary. “But it’s… It’s in a baby bottle. I’m not a baby.”
“No, you’re not. But you are my little girl, remember? Little girls in this house drink from bottles a lot. Sometimes from sippies and on very special occasions from big girl glasses. Also, Doctor Eric made you an appointment to see a dentist next week because your teeth haven’t been taken care of. I know they hurt when you eat solid food. Taking a bottle is a good way to get nutrition without hurting your teeth, okay? Please try for Daddy and if you really don’t like it we can figure out a different solution.”
Cosy had stopped holding herself so tightly although she still looked skeptical. She eyed the bottle as Ian handed it to him, and he tried not to hold his breath. What was he going to do if she refused? Get a glass, he supposed. He’d sworn he’d respect her wishes and he hadn’t been lying. It was just that he had such high hopes—
“Okay, Daddy. I’ll try it.”
“Such a good girl,” he praised, relief and hope surging in his chest. Yes, she might be the one.
He’d casually suggested it to Ian—definitely hadn’t mentioned it to Ryker—but there was a part of him that was so goddamn certain that it hurt that she wasn’t completely his already.
He cradled Cosy against him with one arm and held the bottle to her mouth with his other hand. As the rubber nipple brushed her lips, she looked up at him as if to ask for confirmation that this was really something he wanted from her. It was.
“Go on, teapot. Be a good girl for Daddy and take your bottle.”
She blinked and took a big breath but then latched on to the nipple and began to nurse. So sweet, so beautiful. Her little hand came up—was she going to push the bottle away? But no, she rested it on top of his, sculpted her fingers around his, and sighed before closing her eyes and continuing to draw on the bottle.
All her muscles relaxed as she continued to suck, and pleasure flooded him, mixed with not a small amount of arousal. Cuddly little diapered princess in his arms making quick work of a bottle? Dream come true.
He was so enamored of his little darling he’d forgotten Ian was still there. But when his friend shifted his weight, he drew Hudson’s attention. Ian was standing with his arms crossed lightly across his chest, staring at him and Cosy.
It was difficult to parse the expression on his face and it took a considerable amount of restraint to not ask what he was thinking. The only reason he didn’t was because Cosy was awake although he suspected that wouldn’t last terribly long—if she made it through this bottle without drifting off, the next one would surely do her in.
And then…then he would talk to Ian and try to gauge what his partner was thinking. They had agreed a long time ago—all three of them—that they were together forever. A family. Brothers, business partners, but more than that. They shared everything, and they wanted to share a woman. It wouldn’t be easy to find someone suited to the lot of them—hell, in nearly twenty years they hadn’t come close even once. But maybe, just maybe…
Cosy hugged her bunny to her chest and petted his hand as she made a sweetly contended noise. It filled his heart to overflowing. Yes, maybe.