Total pages in book: 15
Estimated words: 14459 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 72(@200wpm)___ 58(@250wpm)___ 48(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 14459 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 72(@200wpm)___ 58(@250wpm)___ 48(@300wpm)
“That wasn’t happening. You’re in no fit state to drive. I got Larry to come get me.”
“Larry? Oh, God. That must have cost an arm and a leg.”
April had grown up with very little. Money was always a worry for her, no matter how much he reassured her. The only time she didn’t seem to worry about finances was when she was in Little headspace.
“Baby girl, I said don’t worry about the money and I meant it. Understand me?” He made his voice stern.
She nodded. “O-okay.”
“And don’t worry about Ben’s stag weekend. It’s not like I was having a good time. Ben is probably grateful that my grumpy ass is no longer there.”
She gave him a faint smile. “My grumpy badger.”
“Can’t believe that nickname has stuck. I should have spanked you the first time you said it. Definitely should have taken a belt to your ass when you said it in front of my brothers.”
A small giggle escaped her. “Sorry, Daddy.”
“No, you’re not.”
“No. I’m not.”
“Because you’re a brat who still hasn’t told me what she ate today.”
“Shoot. You noticed, huh?”
“I notice everything about you, baby girl.” He brushed her wild hair off her face, taking note of her swollen eyes and pale skin. Fuck. She looked exhausted and traumatized.
Nope. He was never leaving her the house on her own again.
“Well?”
“I had some pop tarts.”
“And . . .”
“An energy drink.”
“And . . .”
“And that was it.”
He shook his head at her. “What am I going to do with you?”
“Love me?”
“I’ll always love you, precious girl. But you need a keeper. You can’t live on sugar and caffeine. Did you get any sleep last night?”
“A bit. I, um, might have fallen asleep at my desk.”
He shook his head. Christ. “You shouldn’t have been driving today. Did you take a nap?”
“I was going to. But that’s when I realized I had to get that package to the post office.”
“So you barely had any sleep last night. And you’ve hardly eaten anything today. Then you were traumatized by that fucking asshole.”
She bit her lip, and he reached up and released it.
“You need close watching, baby.”
“Sorry, Daddy. I thought I would be all right on my own. I thought I could do it. But it was so scary.”
“It’s understandable that today was scary.”
“Well, yeah, there was that. It was terrifying. I thought . . . I thought he was going to kick Jess. He was aiming for her stomach. He could have hurt her baby.”
“What the fuck?” he whispered.
As she went through everything that had happened from the moment that asshole entered the store, his anger grew. He had to fight hard to keep from letting his fury fly free.
That fucking bastard had hurt his girl. He’d terrified her. He’d nearly hurt Jess.
“Did you get checked out?” he asked hoarsely.
“Yes, Max insisted. The paramedics checked us over. I’ve just got some bruising. But Jess’s blood pressure was pretty high, so they took her into the hospital.”
He lifted her off his lap. “Show me.”
“What?”
“Take off your pajamas. Show me.”
She was dressed in her favorite pajamas. The bottoms were red and white checked. While the top was white with a picture of a red stag’s head on the front.
“Daddy, I’m fine.”
He stood. Then he lifted her, placing her on her back on the bed before he reached for the bottom of her pajama pants and tugged them off.
April sighed, but didn’t try to stop him. He removed her top as well until she lay there in just a pair of red panties. Rolling her carefully onto her front, he studied the bruises on her back. They weren’t bad. But he detested seeing them against her pale skin. He ran his finger lightly over them.
“Did they put any cream on them?” he asked.
“No. It’s just a few bruises, Daddy. I’m fine, really.”
She tried to roll back over, but he lightly slapped her ass. “Stay where you are.”
Moving into the attached bathroom, he grabbed some arnica cream. Returning, he sat on the bed next to her and gently rubbed the cream onto her bruises.
“This will help, baby.”
“I’m okay, Daddy.”
“Not yet, you aren’t. But you will be. Daddy will see to that.”
5
Trent got her dressed back into her pajamas. Then he tucked her into bed before going into the bathroom to wash up and get ready for bed.
When he walked out, she was hugging Scruffy Dog and watching him closely. He saw the relief on her face as he returned.
He climbed into bed, lying on his back. She immediately crawled on top of him. It was her favorite position to sleep in when she was feeling unsure or scared.
“I wish I’d stayed home like I’d told you I would. I didn’t even text you that I was leaving.”
“That’s true,” he agreed, running his hand over her back. “But you don’t need to be worrying about any of that stuff right now. You’ve been through enough. We’ll talk about all of that later.”