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“Good girl,” Courick said automatically and saw a shiver go through her. Inwardly, he frowned. He’d noticed a similar reaction when he had called her a “good girl” before—did those words hold special significance to her?
If they did, Addison didn’t say anything. She just looked at him with uncertainty in her wide green eyes.
“Well…I should probably get going.” Courick sighed regretfully. He didn’t want to leave her, but he knew he couldn’t stay.
Clearly Addison didn’t want him to leave either.
“Oh…do youhaveto go?” she asked in a small voice.
Courick gave her a stern look.
“Addison, if I stayed the night with you, I would be in very great danger of breaking my vow—which I donotintend to do,” he told her. “You’re far too tempting for your own good.”
“I…I am?” she asked softly.
“Youknowyou are.” Courick cupped her cheek. “You’rebeautiful,little one,” he murmured, looking into her eyes. “And any male would be blessed by the Goddess to have you.”
“Any male butyou, you mean,” she said sadly.
Courick sighed.
“I’ve already told you all the reasons we can’t be together. The reasons I can’t Bond you to me.”
“I know.” She looked down at her hands again. “I’m sorry. It’s just…you seem like you would be the perfect Daddy Dom.”
“Nobody’s perfect,” Courick told her, though he couldn’t help being secretly pleased that she saw him as the kind of male who would be patient and protective. “In time you’ll find a human male who’ll be willing to give you what you need,” he added. Though he found he didn’t like the idea of the curvy little redhead with another male—notat all.
Mine—she should be mine!whispered a little voice in the back of his head. But Courick shoved it away. Addison could never be his, he reminded himself. There were so many barriers standing between them—not least of which was the vow he had made to the Goddess.
“I need to go,” he said again. “But before I do, would you like me to, er, tuck you into bed?”
Addison’s eyes shone.
“You’d do that for me?”
“Of course. Why not?” Courick rose with her in his arms and crossed the small bed chamber in two strides. Leaning down, he deposited her in the canopy bed with its coverlet of fanciful creatures. He pulled it and the sheets back and then brought them up to her chin.
Addison looked up at him with wide eyes.
“Would…would you check under the bed for monsters?” she asked in a small voice that sounded younger than her age.
Courick thought he should have felt ridiculous doing such a thing. After all, they were both adults and both of them knew there were no such things as monsters under the bed.
But the only emotion he felt when he looked down at Addison, with the covers drawn up to her cute little chin, was a surge of affection and tenderness. She looked so tiny and vulnerable, curled up in the little girl’s canopy bed. Suddenly all he wanted to do was protect her and reassure her that everything was all right.
“Of course I’ll look,” he said and made a show of kneeling down to look under the bed. Of course there was nothing there but shadows and he smiled reassuringly at Addison as he came back up. “Nothing there,” he told her. “No monsters at all.”
“Do you promise?” she asked, sounding so young and vulnerable again that it twisted his heart.
“Ipromise. No monsters, little one.” Impulsively, Courick leaned over her. Brushing her long hair aside, he placed a soft kiss on her forehead before drawing back. “Good night,” he told her. “I’ll lock the door on my way out. You have sweet dreams, all right?”
Addison’s eyes were shining as she looked up at him.
“Okay, Da…I mean, Sir,” she said. “Thank you—for everything,” she added, in her normal tone.
“You’re welcome.” Courick brushed the back of his fingers gently along her flushed cheek. She looked so tiny and beautiful lying there in bed. He wished suddenly and fiercely that he could crawl in beside her and hold her the rest of the night. He wanted to protect her and care for her and keep her safe…the way he hadn’t been able to keep his mate, Yasha, safe so many years ago.
Only knowing that he wouldn’t fit in the little bed beside her and remembering his vow, kept him from holding her. Instead he rose reluctantly and left, closing her door behind him.
