Chapter 13

Chapter Thirteen

Cooking while his Little girl sat in her highchair coloring him a picture was one of the most difficult things he’d ever done. She was a distraction. She would always be a distraction, but he assumed his rigidly hard cock would eventually simmer down once it got the attention it craved.

Likewise, so would her pussy. Not after consummation, of course. It would take much more than that, but this urgency he felt would diminish in the coming days. Right?

Elias shuddered at the thought he could be wrong. They would be eating cold sandwiches for the rest of their lives if he couldn’t keep his hands off her long enough to cook meals.

It was difficult to focus. He kept glancing at Leah every few seconds. Half of him thought he might suddenly find that highchair empty and realize today had never happened. Maybe he was still sleeping last night, and this had all been a dream.

The dream was so vivid and so much better than he’d anticipated reality to be that he worried it was all an apparition. But she was still there. She was concentrating on her picture. Every bit of her was adorable in this moment. Her legs were swinging. She had on dainty gold sandals that matched the gold lace of her dress.

Heavens, but he wanted to get her out of that dress. After dinner he would. If she wasn’t ready for him to enter her body, he wouldn’t rush her, but he would definitely unveil her, spread her legs and use his mouth to ensure she understood how good her life was going to be from this day forward.

At one point, he paused for a while to watch how focused she was, the way she held her pencil, the way she bit the corner of her bottom lip in concentration, and her sweet little tongue when it snaked out to wet her lips.

Somehow Elias managed to finish the pasta and get it on the table. He even added a salad. She wasn’t watching closely as he added a pink sippy cup filled with juice and dished up a serving of pasta and salad onto a matching pink plastic plate.

Elias learned something important about his mate while he cut up her spaghetti into bite-sized pieces—when she focused on something, she went into her head as if she were no longer on this planet. His girl had no idea he was sitting next to her or that dinner was ready.

Since it appeared she was almost done with her picture, he let her finish, watching with rapt interest as she turned the paper around to different angles and swapped out pencils without much of a glance as if she’d memorized the order the colors were in along the side of her tray.

Finally she set the last pencil down, sat up taller, and lifted her head. She looked startled as she met his gaze. A moment later, she glanced at the plates of food on the table.

She winced. “I’m sorry. I get lost when I’m doing art.”

He smiled. “Noted. I’ll remember that.”

“Did you try to talk to me?”

“No, Baby girl. I let you finish your picture.” He nodded toward it. “It’s stunning, by the way. I’m going to hang it on the refrigerator.”

She giggled. Damn, he loved that sound. “My parents stopped hanging up my art when I was about five.”

Elias frowned. “Well, Daddy is going to hang your art all over the house, starting with the fridge.” He rose, carefully lifting the picture, and carried it over to the refrigerator where he stuck it to the side with a small magnet. It was a simple coloring page, but it looked like a professional had done it.

She was beaming when he returned to her. “You really like it? Or are you just saying that because you have to?”

“I love it, Leah. I’m impressed. Looks like I should order more than just painting supplies tomorrow. You’ll have to help me pick some things out. I certainly don’t want to be accused of squelching your talent.” He leaned over and kissed her forehead before taking his seat next to her.

When he set her plate on her tray, followed by a chubby rubber-handled spork and her sippy cup, she giggled again. That was about the best reaction he could have hoped for. At least she hadn’t lifted the plate up and thrown it on the floor. That possibility had lingered in the edges of his mind.

“You take this babying thing very seriously,” she said.

He smiled. “I take caring for you very seriously.” While she was still mulling over the dishes she’d been given, Elias slid a large bib over her head and smoothed it down in front of her.

Leah glanced down, stared for a moment, and then rolled her eyes as she lifted her head.

“Be careful, Little one. You’re almost giving Daddy attitude.”

She sighed and picked up her spork. “You are so very over the top. The thing is that I’m really hungry, and this smells so good. Thank you for cooking for me. I’m not sure how I feel about the way you’re feeding me or the fact that you cut up my pasta and put a bib on me, but I’ll mull it over for a bit.”

He chuckled. “And then what, Little firecracker?”

She shrugged nonchalantly. “And then I’ll decide if I want to negotiate for you to give me credit for the fact that I’m twenty, not five.”

He scooted closer to the table and picked up his own fork. “I’ll warn you, Little one, there won’t be much negotiating. I’ll cut you some slack as you adjust to life in your new environment, but in the long run, what Daddy says goes.”

She grumbled as she took a bite, and then switched to moaning.

His dick jumped back to full attention. She had no idea how her noises affected him. Or maybe she did, because as she chewed, she lifted her gaze with a wicked grin and slowly inhaled.

The naughty Little imp could scent his arousal, too. It surely wasn’t as potent as hers, but she had still managed to pick it up.

He narrowed his gaze at her. “And another thing, naughty girl. I’m beyond aware of your age. When I coddle you and Daddy you, it has nothing to do with how old you are. It’s just my way of dominating you. You will eventually submit to me in every way because you won’t be able to help yourself. You’ll do so to please me. You’ll do it because the rewards will outweigh your trepidation.”

“You keep mentioning rewards,” she muttered as she set her fork down and picked up her cup, grabbing the handle on one side of the cup.

Elias reached out to steady the cup with his fingers. “Two hands, Baby girl.”

Her breath hitched as she slowly lifted her other hand to use both to bring the cup to her lips. Her pulse picked up at his command.

“Good girl,” he praised.

That earned him another sharp inhale, but more importantly, she was incapable of hiding her arousal once again.

He knew in her rational mind, she was arguing with herself, fighting her instincts. It was expected. It happened to all new mates. Tossing out everything she’d expected in a relationship with her mate took time. She had to reset her expectations and gradually accept that her life would not look like the life she’d painted for herself in her head.

Her life would be ten times better. Elias would ensure it was. Hell, it would be ten times better than he’d believed also. The pheromones filling the inside of his home were so thick in the air it was hard to breathe.

Elias tapped her plate. “Eat your dinner, Little one.”

“Okay, but you gave me too much.”

“Eat what you can, Leah. Would you rather Daddy feed you?” He reached for her spork.

She jerked it to the side. “I can do it.”

“I can do it, Daddy ,” he supplied. He really wanted to hear her call him Daddy. She’d used the word flippantly earlier, but she had yet to directly call him by that endearment.

Like everything else that had rocked his world today, he was surprised he cared what she called him. When he’d heard his brother’s mate call him Daddy, it had done nothing for Elias. He’d simply grown used to hearing that word from Suzette’s mouth.

But Elias had a strong desire to hear Leah call him Daddy. It felt like it would be a milestone. A breakthrough. The air in the room would shift as soon as she accepted the endearment and incorporated it.

Elias set his much larger hand over hers, keeping her from taking another bite. Maybe it was a mistake to touch her, but he couldn’t resist, and he wanted to press this issue.

He didn’t need to repeat himself. He simply lifted a brow when she met his gaze.

Leah licked her lips and said, “I can do it, Daddy.”

Fuck me . Sweetest word he’d ever heard from the prettiest, sweetest Little girl he’d ever met. He lifted her hand, brought it to his lips, and kissed her knuckles.

Releasing her might have been the most difficult thing he’d encountered today also. He was done keeping his distance. His libido was done waiting. But they needed to eat, so he forced himself to set her hand back on her tray, and commanded, “Eat, Little girl.”

“Yes, Daddy,” she whispered.

Yeah, his balls were going to turn blue any second.