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“That’s my good baby, letting Daddy use this thick thermometer in your tight little bottom to take your temperature.”
Her sigh when he praised her sounded like one of contentment and not exasperation. So sweet and compliant. Well, sometimes, but he wouldn’t want her any other way. Luckily she was relatively compliant for the rest of her procedures if squirmy.
At last when he’d gotten her to use her diaper, given her breakfast and her bottles, administered her enema, and bundled her up in a fresh diaper and some cozy clothes, he led her over to her crib where they laid down and he drew her in so he could hold her tight in his arms.
“I’m so happy to be home with you, babygirl. I missed you so much while I was away.”
“I missed you too, Daddy,” she told him with a big grin.
Goodness, her smile could light up dark Alaskan winter.
“Now that we’ve been able to catch up, there’s something we need to talk about.”
She blinked at him, and a small frown stole across her sweet features. “What, Daddy? I was so good! Didn’t Uncle Linc tell you? I was the bestest behaved girl.”
“I know. That’s exactly what he told me. He said you were sad because you missed me, but that you were on your best behavior and he didn’t have to discipline you even once. Which I think might’ve disappointed him,” he told her with a wink that brought a blush to her cheeks.
“That was maybe one of the reasons I was so good. I was still sore from my last punishment. Plus I don’t want anyone to discipline me but you.”
“I understand. But if you had been naughty, I hope you would have submitted to Uncle Linc’s discipline like a good girl.”
“I would have,” she grumbled, and he chuckled. “So since I wasn’t naughty, what do we need to talk about?”
“You weren’t naughty for Uncle Linc,” he said, cocking a brow. “But you have been breaking a rule. A big one.”
The pretty pink that had washed over her cheeks when he teased her turned to a dark, embarrassed red. “Um, which one?”
“Have you broken so many you don’t know what I’m talking about?”
Cricket looked so mortified she might implode. “I-I don’t think so, but I don’t know what you’re talking about, and now my brain is all wobbly.”
“You know you’re supposed to tell me anything that I need to know to help me care for you the best I can. That means you tell me when you’re not feeling well, you tell me if you fall down and scrape your knee, you tell me if you have any allergies or old injuries. And that doesn’t just mean physical.”
Poor thing looked like she was lost out on the tundra in flat light, when a person couldn’t distinguish between the snowy ground and the sky. Well, at the very least she hadn’t been willfully keeping this from him. His little love bug still needed to be taught a lesson about not telling Daddy everything he needed to know.
“Last night I was at a bar near Covert and I ran into Mitch Collins.”
Cricket’s face was a flip book of emotions. First she looked as though he’d slapped her, then pained from an old wound that had been ripped open, followed by a clarity of understanding, and finally settling on guilty as hell.
“Oh,” she said softly, looking down.
“Yeah. Oh.”
His love bug flinched and he sighed.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Was I supposed to give you a list of every guy I’ve been with?” she shot back, eyes flaring with anger.
Which was fair, but he needed to neutralize this conversation. It wouldn’t do them any good to both be defensive and accusatory, or for Cricket to have a tantrum.
“No. It doesn’t matter to me how many people you’ve been with or for how long. I’m not one of those ‘body count’ guys, and I think you know that.”
Cricket had the good grace to look abashed. “Yes, Daddy.”
“Good. What I do want to know is if any of them hurt you in ways that left scars either physical or emotional so I can treat you with care and be gentle with your soft spots.”
He paused for a moment to pull her in as close as possible and love on her a bit, stroking her hair, nuzzling her neck, and giving her sweet, soft kisses. Not to turn her on, but to tell her in another way how loved she was.
