Page 36 of Ace

“Good girl,” Ace praised her.

She preened. Absolutely melted. And she hadn’t really done anything good or amazing for him to be praising her for. All she had done was submit to him, and maybe that was enough.

“Take another bite.” He was still holding the sandwich to her lips, and she did as she was told.

“Good. Do you want a bite of soup now?”

Her head bobbed up and down and Ace picked up the spoon, dipped it into the rich, brick-red liquid, and blew on the spoon before holding it to her lips.

She closed her eyes as the homemade soup filled her mouth, the flavors exploding on her tongue. “Yummy,” she whispered.

“It’s good? You want another bite?”

“Mmmhmm.”

He spoon-fed her half the bowl of soup before picking up the sandwich again, and patiently feeding her bite after bite until half the sandwich was gone. He lifted the second half and she shook her head.

“Mmm Mmm. Full.”

“No more sandwich?” he asked and waited for her to nod her head.

“Okay, but you need to have some fruit.” He speared a piece of Chef Graham’s homemade fruit cocktail onto a fork and lifted it to her lips.

With a soft sigh, she accepted the bite, chewing the pear and opening for more. They repeated the process until the fruit cup was gone. “Okay, little one,” Daddy said. “You can be all done now. Can you wait patiently for Daddy to eat his lunch or do you just want to go to bed?”

She wanted to go to bed, desperately, but not without her Daddy. She felt so small and clingy and didn’t want to be apart from him even for a second so she wrapped her arms around his neck and clung. Ace got the message, and somehow managed to eat his lunch with her hanging on to him like her life depended on it.

When he was finished, he looked at her with an expression she couldn’t read like he was thinking hard. “Do you trust me, little one?”

Without a clue as to why he was asking, she nodded without hesitation.

“Okay then.” He stood with her still in his arms and walked over to the small kitchen cupboard. Opening a cabinet, he withdrew a pretty pink bottle, unscrewed the top and filled it with milk before replacing the nipple.

Lizzie watched the entire process with conflicting feelings, but she didn’t voice any of them. She trusted her Daddy. The diaper hadn’t been so bad, aside from the way the scratchy material rubbed against her scorched skin, so surely this wouldn’t be bad either.

When he pressed the rubbery nipple against her lips, she opened and let it in. The sensation was weird, but not unpleasant.

“Suck,” Daddy urged, and instinctively she obeyed. The sucking sensation was soothing, and the milk cool as it filled her mouth, trickling down her esophagus. He shifted her in his arms until she was cradled like a baby, and walked over to the bed, pausing before laying her down.

“Sometimes when it’s time for you to take a nap, Daddy might put you in the crib, but today, we’re going to nap together in Daddy’s bed.”

She took in his words, and tried to imagine napping alone in a crib without her Daddy but she didn’t want to think about that. He carefully laid her down on the mattress before taking off his own jeans and shirt and climbing in beside her, naked except his socks and boxer briefs.

She wanted to feel her skin against his. It wasn’t fair that she had to wear clothes and he didn’t. Besides, napping in her clothes would make her dress all wrinkly.

“Mmmm,” she whined, around the bottle nipple, tugging at the fabric. “Off.”

“You want to take your dress off?” He chuckled. “That’s probably a good idea. We don’t want it to get all yucky and wrinkled while you sleep.” Taking the bottle, he pulled it from her mouth, and turned her so that he could reach the buttons on the back of her dress before pulling it over her head.

Once it was off, she realized that she was now sitting there in nothing but a bra and a diaper and had a moment of panic because Ace putting a diaper on her or knowing she was wearing one was different from him seeing her there sitting in it, but he didn’t seem to mind, so she decided she wouldn’t either.

Ace laid down, and she snuggled in beside him, loving the feeling of his warm skin against hers. When she was settled, he replaced the bottle, and she let the sucking motion lull her into a deep sleep.

Chapter 14

Ace

The ringing woke him from a deep sleep, and he rolled onto his side to turn it off so it wouldn’t wake Lizzie but before he did, his consciousness cleared and he recognized the ringtone as one he used for his BACA families.