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Rae
Big romantic gesture.
Easy, right?
Except what do you get for the guy who wants the one thing you can’t give?
The answer—everything else you can think of and hope it’s enough.
It was clear he wasn’t expecting to see her when he opened the door. She’d been on pins and needles waiting for him, even though Olivia had told her what time he was supposed to be coming in, and she’d never known him to be late to anything. For some reason, even though he hadn’t known she was the reason he’d been invited in, she’d convinced herself he wasn’t going to show.
She hated thinking that he might not have come if he’d known she was the surprise.
“Hi, Papa.” Ew. Nope. Rae wrinkled her nose at the exact same time as Brian. That one wasn’t going to work. Shaking his head, Brian stepped into the room, letting the door close behind him. Well, at least he hadn’t gone running. That was something, right?
“Hi, Papi.”
Nope. Not much better. Maybe a tiny bit better in some ways, but worse in others.
None of these were comfortable.
Brian put his hands on his hips, his expression caught somewhere between exasperation and amusement.
“What are you doing, Rae?”
“Trying to find a compromise, Pop.” She snorted. Nope, that one not only felt weird, but she couldn’t take it seriously with Domi’s voice echoing in her head. Pop Top.
Pointing a stern finger at her, Brian shook his head vehemently.
“Absolutely not that one.”
Which, of course, meant she had to do it.
“What? A Pop Top is basically the same thing as a Daddy Dom.” Well, that was one way to keep him in the room. His jaw dropped at the same time she saw his hand actually twitch.
He wanted to spank her bad.
Thanks, Domi.
Wanting to spank her would probably keep him from running off before she could get her words out. She took a deep breath. Bratting wasn’t what she was supposed to be doing, though she didn’t think it was hurting her case.
“I want to date you.”
Brian frowned.
Okay, that didn’t quite cover it.
That was not a grand gesture. Be vulnerable. Open yourself up. Give him what he needs. Fight for him. Rae took a deep breath.
“I’m falling in love with you.” The words had been so hard to say, yet they felt like such a relief to finally get them out there. And they worked.
Brian froze. The look of astonishment was even better than when he’d walked in the door and saw her standing there, but not quite as satisfying because she didn’t want astonishment—she wanted reassurance. She wanted to hear that he was falling for her, too, but she knew that when it came to their past, he’d put himself out there more than once for her… and she’d walked away every time. It was her turn.
“I think I have been from the very beginning. I kept walking away from it because… because I don’t know how we’re going to make this work. I saw a fight about the whole ‘Daddy’ thing, and it was just easier to avoid it than to face it. But I don’t want to keep avoiding it… I don’t want to keep avoiding you. I want to see if we can find a way to make it… to make us work. If you still want to.”
With her hands twisting in front of her as she spoke and her heart pounding like a stampede of elephants inside her chest, she felt almost like she was going to throw up. But she got the words out. They weren’t as polished as she’d hoped or sound as good as she wanted them to, but she’d gotten them out.
