Aldric
“How was your meeting with Leah?” I ask her on our way home while she’s a captive audience who can’t flee to her room to avoid me.
She’s been hiding from me all week, and I’ve mostly permitted her retreat because I know she has a lot to think about, and I want her to have all the time she needs, but I’m growing impatient. I miss having her around me more often.
“Fine.”
Oh boy. I draw in a breath. “Did she like your website ideas?”
“Yeah. I think so. She seemed excited.” She fidgets in her seat, making me nervous.
I suspect she and Leah discussed far more than the website, and I’m glad, but that doesn’t make me less concerned. Everything concerns me nowadays. Things are about to change between us for better or worse.
We are tiptoeing around each other. I hate it. I want to pull her into my arms. I want to force her to look me in the eye and talk to me. I want her to be on the same page as me, and the thought that she might not be has me in knots.
“How was the dance class?” she asks, glancing at me.
“It was great. I think everyone had fun. That’s what matters. Maybe you can join us next week.”
She looks out the window, not responding.
“I know you don’t like to dance in front of other people, and I respect that, Juliet. You know I do. Have I ever once forced you to do something that made you uncomfortable?” I wince. I’m probably going to make her very uncomfortable in the coming days. It’s unavoidable. “With regard to dancing, I mean,” I say to clarify.
“No, Sir.”
My God. That’s the second time she’s referred to me as Sir today, and my cock gets hard once again too. Being around Leah probably nudged her Little closer to the surface.
“I’m going to teach a variety of classes at the Ridge, honey. Some will be yoga. Some will be Pilates. Modern dance. Ballet. Whatever Leah suggests. It’s unlikely I will ever have a room of ringers, baby girl.” I glance at her. If she’s going to call me Sir, I’m going to call her baby girl.
“I know,” she whispers. “Maybe I’ll join. We’ll see.”
I reach over and take her hand, giving it a squeeze. “Just think about it. That’s all I’m suggesting. The women taking that class will always be Littles. They aren’t aiming to become prima ballerinas. They’re just having fun, and I want you to have fun too.”
She nods. “Okay.”
Headway.
I pull into the garage behind the studio a few minutes later, park, and round the SUV to help Juliet out. As soon as we’re inside the kitchen, I help her remove her coat, gloves, and hat.
She starts to walk away from me, and I’m not interested in another silent treatment, so I reach out and wrap an arm around her middle, pulling her back against my front.
I don’t think I’ve ever held her this close. It feels nice even though she’s stiff in my arms. “We need to talk, baby girl.”
“I know,” she whispers, not fighting me. “I’m not ready. I need more time.”
“Okay,” I say softly. “I don’t want to rush you, but I wish you’d tell me what’s on your mind. Maybe I can help you work through your thoughts if you share them.”
“Or maybe I’ll ruin everything and you’ll leave and I’ll be alone.” She gasps as soon as those words rush out.
“I’m not going to leave you, baby girl,” I promise. And I mean it. There’s a lot I hope for from this relationship, but I will also take what I can get because the thought of not seeing her every single day in whatever capacity she agrees to makes my stomach churn.
“You don’t know that,” she insists.
I kiss the side of her neck. “I do,” I whisper in her ear, watching her reaction to my contact closely. “Tell me what you need that you’re not getting, baby girl, and it’s yours.” I’m pushing her. Hopefully not too far.
“You give me everything. You do everything for me. How could I possibly need more?”
I draw in a slow breath. Fuck. “People can always want more, honey.”
She squirms against me. “Can I go now?”
I sigh and release her, watching as she takes my heart with her to flee the room as fast as possible. I flinch seconds later when her door shuts. Dammit.
I don’t have time to prod her anymore today anyway. I have a class at three that has too many toddlers in it. I’m going to need to hire someone else to help me at least a few times a week for these younger classes.
I glance at the hallway. It would be nice if Juliet would join me, but I won’t ask. If she wanted to teach ballet classes, she would have told me so. I don’t think she’s ever taught a class.
I have a few applications. The spot would be easy to fill. A high school student in one of my advanced classes could easily help with the toddlers. I keep putting it off for some reason.
Because things with Juliet feel rockier than ever, I’m not interested in focusing on hiring help right now. I need to worry about how to approach Juliet about her vision for our future before I can breathe fully.
I head downstairs to turn up the heat and prepare for this afternoon’s classes, leaving Juliet in her room to do work on her computer or read or whatever else she does in there. My heart is weighing heavily, but I need to shrug it off for now and focus on the studio. When tonight’s classes are over, then I’ll permit myself to sulk once more.
It’s what I do. I sulk. I sit in the living room late at night after Juliet has gone to bed and wallow in my self-pity.
Five hours later, as I climb the stairs to the living quarters, I breathe in the scent of food. Food? Juliet never cooks. She almost always waits for me to cook for her after classes are over even though we eat dinner quite late.
Occasionally, if she’s too hungry, she pops a frozen dinner in the microwave.
For this reason, I’m stunned when I step into the kitchen to find her standing at the sink, her back to me, the water running. The table is set and not one but two frozen dinners are sitting on place mats. That’s what I smell.
I can’t help but grin, but when I shift my gaze back to my Little girl who hasn’t noticed my entrance yet, I inhale slowly. Why does she insist on roaming around wearing so little clothing? It’s mind-boggling and it makes my cock ache.
Is she so naïve that she can’t see her beauty and how it affects me? Or does she do it on purpose to goad me? These are the questions I need answered. Our entire future and the path we take hinges on the answer to those questions. They may be two questions, but they only have one answer.
I shuffle toward her. She catches my reflection in the window and smiles. “I made dinner.”
I chuckle as I set my palms on the edge of the counter at her sides, trapping her. “I see that. Were you starving?”
She shakes her head. “No, but I figure I should learn to cook. You do everything around here. I’m a horrible roommate.”
I flinch and purse my lips for a moment before stepping closer. “Have I ever complained?”
“No. But…”
“Is that what we are now? Roommates?” I continue. We are not roommates. I hate that word.
“I don’t know what we are, Aldric,” she murmurs. “I’m trying to figure that out.”
I slide my hands from the counter to her small waist and ease them around her fantastic body to hug her close to me.
She turns off the water and stands very still.
I lean in close so my lips are on her ear. “Why do you wear such provocative clothing all the time, baby girl?” I whisper. This is as blunt as I can get, and her answer will steer this conversation in one direction or another. I can’t stand the tension between us another minute.
“It’s comfortable.”
“It’s winter, Juliet. You have on skin-tight shorts that barely cover your butt cheeks and a thin, tight tank top that leaves nothing to the imagination.” I glance over her shoulder at her breasts. “Your nipples are hard points, baby girl. Tell me why you dress like this,” I urge.
I’m confident I know the answer, but I want her to say it. Before last week, I wouldn’t have questioned her clothing choices. But that was before we entered this new awkward phase. In the past week, I’m certain she’s worn less clothing than ever before. The little imp has been trying to tempt me. I’m suddenly sure of it.
My heart is racing. I badly want that to be true. I’d give anything to believe she flirts mercilessly with me because she wants more.
She’s breathing heavily, and her nipples harden further with every rise and fall of her chest. She’s fucking sexy as hell. Please, God, don’t let me be wrong.
She trembles in my arms. “I don’t know.”
“I think you do. Tell Daddy.”
Her breath hitches. She meets my gaze in the window as if it were a perfect mirror. She stares at me for a long time before whispering, “I want you to see me as more than a Little girl, Daddy.”
My heart seizes. I’m so fucking happy. For one, she called me Daddy. But more importantly, she just said the words I’ve been dying to hear for several years.
I need to be certain I’ve understood correctly. “Are you interested in me romantically, baby girl?”
She swallows hard and nods. Her cheeks grow red.
Time stands still while I look at her pretty face and smile.
She’s not looking at me anymore, however, and she starts to squirm in my arms. “I’m so embarrassed. Please let me go.”
I hold her tighter and kiss her neck. “Never, baby girl. Never.”
She gasps. “Daddy?”
“I’ve waited a long time to hear you say that, Juliet.”
She licks her lips, finding my gaze in the window again. “You have?”
I nod. “You’re my world, Juliet, in every way.”
Her bottom lip trembles. “I thought you maybe only saw me as a Little girl. I was too scared to ask for more.”
“And I worried you only saw me as a Daddy figure. I’ve been too nervous to risk it all by offering more.”
She spins in my embrace and throws her small arms around my neck. “Oh my God. Please tell me I’m not imagining this.”
I chuckle and rub my palms up and down her back. “You’re not imagining anything, baby girl.” I hold her like a man holds a woman for the first time in my life, and it feels like a slice of heaven. For the first time, I let my palms roam up and down her back until I finally cup her sweet bottom and grip her tight muscles.
Jesus. I need to stop touching her before I take this too far too fast. She’s only just told me she wants more five seconds ago. I can’t take it all right here on the kitchen floor.
I release her, take a small step back, and cup her face. Her expression melts me, and I lean my forehead against hers, stroking her cheeks with my thumbs. Her eyes are wide. Her emotions are pouring out of them.
Wonder and excitement and fear and nervousness.
“Take a breath, baby girl.”
She sucks in a deep breath, making me chuckle.
“Good girl. You might want to let it out too.”
She groans as she releases the oxygen. “Don’t make fun of me.”
I shake my head. “Never.” I glance at the table. “What did you ‘cook’ for us?” I need to change the subject, turn us in another direction. I will not maul this woman right now. It will take all my strength to keep from doing so, but I intend to take this new phase slowly. Painstakingly slowly.
I want her to be certain. I need her to know for sure she wants the life I’m going to offer her before she commits to it. Or perhaps I need that for myself. Nevertheless, we have a lot to talk about before we add sex to the equation.
Not just our Dom/sub relationship, but a pile of other things too. Juliet hasn’t opened up to me or anyone else in three years. I can’t allow her to continue to hide from her past and what happened. She needs to face it before she can have a healthy relationship with anyone, especially me.
It will take Herculean strength, but I’ve waited years to make Juliet mine. I will wait as long as it takes to help her heal before I bring her to my bed. I need to know she’s with me for the right reasons. She needs to know it too.
She narrows her gaze. “You are making fun of me.”
I kiss her forehead. “I’m sorry, baby girl. You make it too easy.”
“Maybe you could teach me to cook? Then I could make dinner while you’re teaching classes. You do too much for me.”
I shake my head. If anything, in this new arrangement I intend to do even more for her, not less. Far more.
“Seriously, Aldric. I’ve been thinking about the past three years. I feel like I should apologize for how I’ve behaved. I’ve leaned heavily on you while I’ve hidden from the world. You must be exhausted from dealing with me. I promise I’ll do better. Be someone you can be proud of.”
I narrow my gaze at her. Where is all this coming from? She’s offering me the opposite of what I want. “Juliet, honey, if anyone should be apologizing, it’s me. I’ve enjoyed every single moment of our time together. I had no right to move into your home and take over your life without ever mentioning how I feel about you.”
“I never did either,” she points out. “So, we’re even.”
“We’re not. I was the adult in the room. You were grieving the loss of your parents, your sadness weighing heavily on you.”
She shakes her head rapidly. “I was an adult too, Aldric. I was twenty when my parents died. Not a baby. And if you’ll recall, I was never a child. Not really.”
I nod. That part is true. She’s an old soul in so many ways. I’ve often wondered how she could be so clearly Little and old at the same time. It’s almost as if she was an adult while she was young and now that she’s older, she’s Little. She reversed things.
I draw in a breath. “Juliet, I’ve known how I feel about you for five years. The moment you danced into the studio that day when you didn’t know I was there, my heart became yours.”
She gives me the oddest look, her brows rising in a challenge. “Only five years? I knew I wanted to belong to you the moment you stepped into the studio when I was five.”
I gasp. The breath leaves my lungs. Surely that can’t be true.
“I lived for the times you visited. I counted the days until you came back to see me. I knew if I told anyone they would say I was a silly girl who didn’t know my mind, but I did. I didn’t care that you were seventeen years older than me. I idolized you. I willed it to stop. I willed myself to ignore the feelings, but they never went away.”
Holy shit. Is she serious?
This revelation only means I need to tread more delicately. Her feelings are the most important thing in the world. I don’t want to risk hurting her.
Slow the fuck down, Aldric.
My mind is whirling. My thoughts are all over the place. I’m trying to recall if there were signs I should have seen. Perhaps it’s best I didn’t. It would have been wrong for me to see her as anyone other than my employers’ child. Thank God my infatuation doesn’t go back that far.
I flinch internally as I remind myself I’m not the only one who knew how I felt about Juliet. Her parents knew too. They also suspected how she felt about me. I chose not to let myself believe it, but they were right. It’s still a shock to my system. But that’s another story for another time. I’m not going to share that detail tonight.
Juliet wasn’t always living in this home above the studio, I remind myself. She went away to college for two years. She saw the world. She had experiences I’m not aware of. Experiences that make me irrationally jealous.
“Okay,” I breathe out. “We have a lot to unpack. We can’t do all that tonight. First, we need to sit down and eat.” I release her, spin her around, and angle her toward the table.
She stares at me with wide eyes as I settle her in her chair and push her up to the table. It’s as if she can’t believe I can be so blasé about what we’ve just divulged to each other. And I’m not even close to making light of our feelings deep inside, but externally, I need to get a grip.
I pick up her chicken fettuccine and carry it to the microwave. I’m not sure how long ago she heated it, but it’s cold. I can feel her eyes on me while the food heats, and they are still wide with disbelief as I return to swap out her meal for mine.
After I sit in my spot, my knee bumping against hers, I lift her fork and hold it out to her. “Eat, baby girl.”
She swallows. “I don’t think I can.”
“You can.” I grab her knife and proceed to cut her noodles into more manageable pieces before spearing a chunk of chicken and lifting it to her mouth.
I die a thousand deaths when her lips part and she lets me slide the fork inside. She stares at me as she chews. After she swallows, she reaches for her water to take a drink. “You don’t have to feed me,” she whispers. “I promise I’ll do better at taking care of myself.”
I reach for her hand and give it a squeeze. “Where is this coming from, honey? This notion that you need to do more?” I would like her to do less.
She hesitates, her lips parting, and then she clears her throat. “I think I let you baby me to manipulate you into spending more time with me. I did everything I could to get you closer to me at every opportunity.”
I blink several times, worry creeping into my heart. Unfounded of course. Juliet is naturally Little. She may have thought she let me take care of her so she could spend more time with me, but she craves it too. She just doesn’t fully understand the dynamic.
Tears leak from her eyes to slide down her cheeks, and I shove my chair back, kick the leg of hers to push it away from the table, and reach for her. I’ve seen her cry many times. Hell, I held her and wiped her tears after the death of her parents more times than I can count over the years. But these tears are new and different. These are tears of fear.
“Come here, baby girl.” I grab her hand and encourage her to come to me.
She slides to the floor and steps closer. The moment she’s within reaching distance, I grab her around the waist, lift her off the floor, and settle her on my lap.
How many times have I wished I had the liberty to do this before? A billion.
I clasp her hands in one of mine against her thighs. “You never again have to do anything to get me close to you. From now on, if you crave my touch, take it. Understood? We have a lot to talk about and work through, but you need to know I’m always here for you. Always.”
She nods, but the tears are still falling. I release her hands to wipe the tears from her cheeks with my thumb. My other hand is around her waist, anchoring her to me.
I set my palm over her heart, careful not to touch her too intimately yet. “Being Little is in your blood, baby girl. It’s a part of you. Your heart craves it like you crave water and oxygen.”
She blinks at me.
“There are lots of reasons why adults feel the desire to be nurtured and cared for by a Daddy. Sometimes it’s because they missed out on a piece of their childhood. Sometimes they were abused or neglected. Sometimes there is no rhyme or reason. Age play just runs in their blood.”
“I was never neglected or abused, Aldric.”
“Nope. But you were an old soul. You weren’t really a child. You spent your time reading, surrounded by adults. You had to put yourself to bed at night when your parents were too busy. You had to make your own lunches and pour your own milk and fend for yourself.” I lift a brow, hoping she grasps what I’m telling her.
More tears fall. “My parents loved me to pieces.”
“Yes. They did. So much. You hung the moon for them, baby girl. Never ever doubt that. They loved you so much they let you forge your own path in life when you knew you didn’t like to perform on stage.”
She nods and lifts her hands to swipe at her own tears.
“That doesn’t mean you didn’t crave things you wish you’d had.”
She leans her cheek on my shoulder, breaking eye contact as she reaches for the front of my tight T-shirt to toy with it absentmindedly over my heart.
“We’ve shared a lot tonight, Juliet.” I rub her arm. “So very much. You’re going to need to process it and you’ll have doubts and questions. That’s expected. But let me share something else with you so you can think about it.”
She lifts her gaze, eyes wide again.
“Being your Daddy is in my blood the same as being my Little girl is in yours. It’s been my greatest life pleasure to take care of you for the last several years. You’ll never know the gift you are to me. If you turned me down and walked away from what I’m offering you right now, I would at least know I had three amazing years being your Daddy. I will never regret that. Never. In fact, I feel guilty for all the time I’ve spent nurturing you in the way I crave without pointing it out to you.”
She gasps and shakes her head. “I’ve loved every moment of our time together. I took from you. I intentionally made myself needy so you would stay. I thought I would die if you left me. I’m the one who manipulated things. Not you.”
I smile at her. “Nope. But we can agree to disagree on that for now. The important thing is that our dynamic is going to evolve now as we stop keeping secrets and learn what each other’s needs are.”
She chews on the corner of her upper lip, thinking in that adorable way I love.
“I don’t want you to do more, Juliet. I want you to let me do more.” I pause, letting her absorb my words.
“More…” she bites that lip again. “Like when you put my shoes on for me this morning. And my sweats.”
“Yes.” It’s clicking for her. “We’re going to figure it out together, baby girl. One day at a time.”
She nods. “Okay.”
I adjust her on my lap so she’s at an angle facing the table better, drag her food over, stab into a noodle, and bring it to her lips.
She giggles. “Now you’re going to feed me?” She leans forward and snatches the bite off the fork.
“Yep. Sometimes. Because it pleases me.”
She squirms on my lap. Does she have any idea what that does to me? I know she has a million questions, but I have at least that many myself. I want to know what experiences she had in the two years she was away at school. Did she have close friends? Because she has never once mentioned a single person from her time away. To the best of my knowledge, she never contacted anyone. No one from her university came to the funeral that I’m aware of.
But more importantly, did she have boyfriends? Did she date men? How many people has she slept with?
Those questions bombard me. I need to know eventually so I proceed accordingly. She certainly hasn’t dated anyone since she came home three years ago. She’s barely left the apartment and almost never without me.
Juliet has been a hermit. Hiding from the world and herself. I pray she can come out of her shell now. Not just for me but for herself. Maybe what she needed was to meet and befriend other people like her. Littles.
I’m so damn glad she’s found Leah and Amy and can forge friendships with people who understand her. Had I fully realized how helpful it would be to introduce her to the age-play community, I would have done so a long time ago.
But I wasn’t certain, and I could have done more harm than good. In addition, I didn’t know Blossom Ridge existed. Granted, it didn’t until a few months ago. It feels like a godsend now. A resort strictly for age play just a few miles down the road.
The name is certainly appropriate. My prayer is that Juliet can blossom in that environment.
I continue to feed her, taking bites from my own meal in between hers. I love how she seems to settle a bit, accepting this arrangement, eagerly letting me feed her.
When we’re done, I hug her close one last time and then stand her on her feet. “Go take a bath and get ready for bed. I’ll come tuck you in after I clean up.”
She tips her head back to look at me as I stand. She licks her lips. “You’re going to do those things for me too, aren’t you?” she murmurs.
I tip her chin back and bring my lips to hers, kissing her so softly and gently and briefly, it almost doesn’t really happen. It’s not a real kiss, but it makes her breath hitch as our lips touch for the first time. “Always, baby girl,” I inform her, holding her gaze.
She shudders, and it’s impossible to ignore the way her nipples stiffen as she sways toward me. She grabs my waist. “I want that.”
“Good. But you’re not ready for that yet.” I release her, spin her around, and pat her sexy bottom. “Go. Before I change my mind.”