I knew enough that those were not the same thing.
He didn’t appreciate that based on the way his face scrunched up. “Sneaky Daddy.”
Possibly, but I poured the soap into the water and worked on getting everything ready while he thought of the answer. Frommy perspective he’d eaten enough dinner, but with the way I’d needed to watch his family I might’ve missed something.
Once the water was filling and the bubbles were growing, I focused back on Rhodes. “Hands up.”
There’d been plenty of time for him to change his mind and for me to decide I hadn’t changed my mind, so I got his shirt off quickly while his brain was still focused on brownies. Pants distracted him slightly but then he poked his tummy and seemed to be having a mental conversation with it and tuned out that step in getting naked.
For some reason figuring out the answer was timed perfectly with his blue briefs coming off. Part of me wondered if that was to distract me, but I wasn’t going to question it. “Brownie hungry, Daddy.”
“Thank you for thinking about that.” I kissed his head as he stepped out of the undies that had fallen to the floor. “How about we do a small piece after bath and before you brush your teeth?”
Oh, that look.
“Excuse me.” I’d obviously misunderstood the plan based on how wide his eyes had gone, but it wasn’t hard to figure out where things had gone wrong. “Before I brush your teeth.”
His bright smile was adorable and completely designed to manipulate me. “Thank you, Daddy.”
I even got a cheek kiss.
He was good.
“You’re welcome.” Refusing to tackle the manipulation until I knew what to do about it, I focused on the tub and more practical things. “That looks like enough water and you have lots of bubbles and toys.”
They were even neatly piled in plastic baskets around the tub to make sure they could dry easily.
“Mine.” His delightfully greedy grin made him look a bit like that duck that swam through gold in those old cartoons, but I did my best to keep that thought off my face. “Toys.”
Had his brothers taken his stuff when he was a kid?
I was missing something but nodding and accepting it seemed like the best plan for the time being. “That’s right. Take my hand so you can be safe climbing in the tub.”
While I ignored the nakedness in the room.
Something about the whole situation made it easier to ignore than I was expecting, but I’d still never done anything like this before. The closest I’d come was seeing some of the Littles at a BDSM club I used to go to, but nothing compared to having my own adorable con artist.
“Bubbles.” Settling in the foam mountain, he scooped up an armful and showed them to me as I sat down on the closed toilet lid. “See?”
“I do and they smell good.” Leaning over, I sniffed his neck getting another giggle from him. “You smell like hamburgers.”
I was either a lot funnier than I thought or I’d just needed the right audience to appreciate me.
“Play first then clean.” His singsong tone made me smile but my favorite was the greedy smile coming back as he started picking through his baskets. “Animals? Boats?”
He had plenty of options, but picking out what to play with seemed to be even more fun than actually playing. It was almost like he was playing store owner or something like that before he started the regular game.
I was mostly just there for him to have an audience, so I let him play and just nodded seriously when he showed me the perfect fish and a fancy boat. Praise and attention were my primary job, so I did my best to fulfill the role I was given in our current game.
If other Daddies had the ability to turn their brains off, I was going to have to figure out how to do it, but I kept myself occupied by trying to decide what other toys I could get for him as a surprise and debating what to say if he tried to talk me into a sleepover.
The odds seemed to be about fifty-fifty as far as I could tell, so by the time the bubbles were fading and his yawns were back, I’d figured out my plan.
“I saw that yawn.” Shaking his head was automatic, but he paused as I picked up his washcloth. “Time to make you my strawberry boy and not my hamburger cutie.”
Being scrubbed was tempting for some reason but it seemed like it fell on the more caretaking side of things. “All clean?”
Looking around, he frowned at his fading bubbles and probably cooling water. “Oh.”
