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22
“Daddy, will you bathe me?”
He looked up from his phone in surprise. He’d just sent another message to Reuben. Why wasn’t he answering? Maybe he needed to send Elias or Sterling to Boston to check on him.
“Bathe you, Duchess? You mean run you a bath?”
“No, I, umm, mean, will you bathe me?”
Now he really looked at her. His eyebrows rose. “While you’re naked?”
“Of course while I’m naked, Daddy.” She gave him a ‘duh’ look that he didn’t appreciate.
His gaze turned stern and she bit her lip.
“Please, Daddy. I don’t want to keep worrying about it, and I figure if we do it in Little space, then maybe I won’t be so worried about you seeing me. Without clothes. Naked.”
Okay, now the brat was rubbing it in. He thought about it. Last night, before he’d put her to bed, they’d done some kissing and heavy petting, but he hadn’t gotten his hand under her pajamas.
This seemed like quite a leap.
“Are you sure?” he asked.
Her face closed off. Shit. Wrong thing to ask. He stood, but she stepped back.
“You’re right. Silly me. Gotta go potty.” She turned, but obviously didn’t recall that she’d been building a castle with blocks and plowed right into them, landing on her knees.
“My castle!”
“Baby girl.” He hurried to her and picked her up, placing her on a bean bag. “Are you all right?”
“My castle is destroyed. I spent hours on it!”
She’d spent about fifteen minutes on it. She had a short attention span and a bit of a flair for the dramatic.
She was adorable.
“I’ll help you rebuild.”
“It’s no good! It was perfect. It will never be that perfect again.” She let out a small sob.
“Hey.” He cupped her chin, turning her face to his. “It can be perfect again. Just a different sort of perfect.”
She shook her head. “Ruined. Never to be fixed.”
“Juliet,” he warned, knowing they weren’t talking about the castle. “That’s not true. Let me see your knees.”
“They’re fine.”
“You landed hard, they could be bruised.”
She brushed his hands away. “No, Daddy. They’re fine.”
Calmly, he stared up at her. “Duchess, don’t push Daddy’s hands away like that when he’s trying to take care of you.”
She pouted. “You don’t want to bathe me.”
“I never said that. I was worried it would be too much for you. Now, move your hands away.”
