Total pages in book: 84
Estimated words: 79941 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 400(@200wpm)___ 320(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79941 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 400(@200wpm)___ 320(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
Gods! He had to stop thinking about it, he told himself. He’d already had to use her fresher once to jerk off and ease the sexual tension he felt—he couldn’t do it again. He needed to at least wait until he got back to his own domicile.
“I see,” he murmured, trying to keep his tone neutral. “Thank you for explaining all that to me.”
“Well, you asked.” She shrugged and then bit her lip. “Look, I’m sorry if you feel like I was…was trying to manipulate you at the office. I know I shouldn’t have been, uh, projecting my Daddy fantasies onto you. It’s just…you’re so big and strong and stern most of the time. You just…you have a really strong Daddy Dom Energy around you.”
Courick was amused.
“Daddy Dom Energy?” he rumbled, trying to suppress a laugh.
“Yes—you do!” Addison insisted. “I mean, the way you’re always so masterful and the way you look in your dress uniform—so strict and precise and…and…” She trailed off, her face going red. “Anyway, I’m sorry,” she said again, sounding embarrassed. “I promise to be more professional from now on.”
It was on the tip of Courick’s tongue to say he didn’t want her to be more professional…but he stopped himself. What was wrong with him tonight? There was no way he ought to be encouraging his assistant’s feelings for him. He had a vow to keep, after all.
“All right,” he said instead. “You’re forgiven. I know you’ll do better in the future.”
“Yes, Sir.” Addison nodded earnestly. “I’ll be good—I promise.”
“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 you have to 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 do not intend to do,” he told her. “You’re far too tempting for your own good.”
“I…I am?” she asked softly.
“You know you are.” Courick cupped her cheek. “You’re beautiful, little one,” he murmured, looking into her eyes. “And any male would be blessed by the Goddess to have you.”
“Any male but you, 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—not at 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.”