20. Kane

Kane paced his bedroom while Haylee was in the bathtub. He might have pushed her too far or totally creeped her out. He didn't care if she decided to wear the pull-ups or not; he had just been trying to think of different things to help her feel more secure. He'd had Littles who wore diapers and pull-ups before and who enjoyed it. It wasn't something he needed in a relationship like Luke did. Kane needed his woman to be a Little, but how Little she wanted to regress was completely up to her.

He knew some Littles had varying ages they ranged between depending on how they were feeling, and he was fine with that too. Because sometimes, he preferred to be the Daddy who takes care of everything for his baby girl, and sometimes, he preferred to be the Daddy who plays with his Little. No matter what, he would always be Daddy, and she would be his special girl.

He just didn't want Haylee to run for the hills. He'd told her he was a Daddy, and she didn't seem as though she was disgusted or freaked-out. The way she had responded to him since the first time he talked to her made it clear that she had Little tendencies, and she was definitely submissive. He hadn't seen much defiance in her, but Kane knew that usually didn't come out until they were completely comfortable in their role and with their partner.

The bathroom door opened, and he heard her small feet padding across the hall to her bedroom. After getting the flavored liquid Tylenol and ear thermometer from his bathroom, he headed toward her room. He would prefer to use the rectal thermometer he had, but he guessed she really wouldn't appreciate that. One day, though.

"Ready for bed?"

Haylee looked up from where she was sitting under the covers on the bed. Her cheeks were flushed a shade of rosy pink, matching the nightshirt she wore that had a big heart on the front and said Love Bug across the heart. She smiled up at him and nodded. Kane measured out the appropriate amount of medicine and held it up to her lips. She swallowed it obediently and sat still while he took her temperature.

"Your temp is good. Are you feeling okay? Did the bath help with your soreness?"

"I feel good. I think the bath helped. Thank you for running my bath for me. No one has ever done that before."

"You're welcome, baby girl. I will run a bath for you anytime. In fact, I think nightly baths are going to happen from now on until you're feeling better. Sound good?"

Her lips slowly turned into a soft smile. "I'd like that."

"Okay. Good. I'd like that too."

She looked thoughtful for a moment. "Do you think Ally could come over tomorrow? I'm so bored just laying around."

Kane frowned and furrowed his brow as best he could. "Are you saying I'm bad company?"

A small giggle escaped her lips as her eyes met his.

"I wouldn't say you're bad company. But you are terrible at girl talk."

Putting his hand on his heart, he pretended to be heartbroken.

"Well, you never told me you wanted to have girl talk. How was I supposed to know? What do you want to talk about? Should we paint our nails while we talk? Put cucumbers on our eyes and goop on our faces?"

Haylee laughed hysterically, smacking his arm softly. "Stop! You're making my tummy hurt from laughing!"

He grinned and leaned over until his face was near hers, and he could almost taste her sweet vanilla scent. Her laughing quieted, turning into shallow breaths until his mouth met hers, giving her a gentle kiss. He wanted to kiss her deeply and taste every bit of her mouth, but he held himself back, not wanting to hurt her injured lip. When he pulled back, she let out a small whimper, and it took an enormous amount of self-restraint not to crush her lips with his.

"Easy, baby. I want to kiss you long and hard, but I won't risk hurting you. We have plenty of time."

"Okay," she whispered.

She reached up and ran her fingertips along his jawline, feeling the scratchiness of his beard. Her touch melted him completely. They sat for several minutes, forehead to forehead, with her hand gently caressing his face while he rubbed the back of her other hand with his thumb.

"You need to get some sleep, baby alligator. I will get ahold of Luke and see about having them come over tomorrow. Do you need anything before I leave?"

"I thought we were painting each other's nails?" she asked, grinning.

He couldn't help but laugh. She was too cute.

"Maybe tomorrow. For now, you need your sleep."

He stood from the bed and pulled her covers up to her chin, tucking them gently around her.

"See ya later, alligator."

Her eyes were already fluttering shut when he walked toward the door.

"In a while, crocodile," she whispered before he left the room.

Returning to his office with a warm feeling inside him, Kane called Luke to check in and ask if they would come over the next day. His warm mood went cold when Luke told him there was still no sign of Tim. It gave him the uneasy feeling that the asshole was heading up to Oregon and that they needed to be ready. Not that he wasn't ready. He was completely ready to squash the guy like a bug and then put his body up in the mountains close by so when an avalanche happened, he would never be found again. Yeah, he probably shouldn't be thinking that way. It sounded too premeditated.

Luke agreed to bring Ally over the next day. Of course, as soon as Luke agreed to that, Kane could hear Ally squealing in the background.

When he headed back upstairs to go to bed, he couldn't resist peeking in on Haylee to make sure she was asleep. He had left the door slightly ajar when he left her room earlier, so it wasn't like he was just opening her door and looking in. The dim glow of the star lamp allowed enough light for him to see her curled up under the blankets, clutching the stuffed alligator to her chest with her thumb in her mouth.

Huh… If that doesn't scream Little, I don't know what does.

You can't just assume, idiot.

But she didn't deny it when you told her you thought she was a Little.

Stepping back from her bedroom, he went into his room and got in the shower. It didn't take long in the shower before he found himself stroking himself as thoughts of Haylee ran through his mind. He wanted to run his hands all over her body and bury his face into her sweet mound. He pictured himself doing just that as he came, letting out a deep groan of satisfaction. Not the kind of satisfaction that he would actually get from touching her and being inside her, but enough so he could fall asleep without the pain of an aching cock.

The next day was quiet. Haylee decided to stay in her room and rest. She was feeling extra tired, which worried him. He took meals up to her and used his stern look to strongly encourage her to eat. She wasn't much into eating, but he couldn't allow her to get away with skipping meals or barely picking at her food. She needed to gain weight, and if he had to, he would… well… he didn't know what he would do. He couldn't exactly spank her into eating. At least not yet. She wasn't his and hadn't agreed to that. But he would figure out something. Even if he had to blend her food up and put it in a baby bottle to get it into her, he would.

It was a little after three in the afternoon when Luke and Ally knocked on the door.

"Hi, Kane! Where's Haylee?" Ally asked excitedly.

Luke chuckled and shook his head, "Someone is excited to see her bestie."

Ally smiled up adoringly at Luke before sticking her tongue out at him. Kane laughed, even though he probably shouldn't have. He was glad he wasn't the only one who got the wrath of "the stuck-out tongue." Luke raised his eyebrows down at her, and she gave him the biggest, cheesiest smile Kane had ever seen.

"You are so lucky you're cute, little girl, otherwise you'd be finding yourself over my lap getting a spanking right in front of Kane."

Ally blushed so red that both men chuckled. Luke reached out and tilted her chin up to look at him, giving her a kiss on the forehead.

"Haylee is upstairs in the spare room if you want to go see her. She's tired today, so she's been resting. I think she's watching a movie in there."

Ally clapped her hands and took the bag that Luke held.

"Goody! I brought coloring books so we could color. That's easy to do while you're tired."

She took the bag and disappeared up the stairs. Luke watched her go and then turned his attention to Kane.

"Soooo… How's it going over here?" he asked as casually as he could.

Kane rolled his eyes and walked to the kitchen, pouring them both a cup of coffee.

"It's going fine. I think. I'm trying to give her time and space to heal. I don't want to be overbearing and scare her. It's damn hard, though."

"Maybe find one thing to be strict about and see how she reacts. I mean, from what you've told me, she seems to obey you when you get more firm with her. She seems pretty compliant in general, though. But that will probably change as she gets more comfortable with you. Do you think she likes you as more than just a friend?"

Kane thought about that.

"We kissed. A couple of times. She seemed to enjoy it. She also doesn't resist or pull away whenever I pull her onto my lap. But she hasn't outright said anything to me."

Luke looked at him as though he'd grown a third eye.

"Do you honestly think she would come out and say something about liking you? You took her in from an abusive relationship, and you wrestle alligators, according to her and Ally, and you're intimidating and pretty intense at times. You're going to have to take the lead in this one. Obviously, you wouldn't do anything without her consent, but do what you do best and run the show."

Kane chuckled. "Haylee told her about me wrestling alligators, huh?"

"Yep, and now Ally calls you Alligator Man whenever she talks about you."

Letting out a low whistle, Kane shook his head with a smile.

"I don't know how you were lucky enough to find that Little brat, but don't ever let her go. She is a doll."

"I don't ever plan to let her go. She's mine," Luke said with pride.

"Haylee said she wanted Ally to come over so they could have a girl talk. You think she wants to talk to her about me?"

Luke grinned. "Are you worried about what the Little girls might say about big bad Kane?"

Yes.

"No. But whatever Ally tells you about their conversation, I expect you to report back."

Luke let out a bark of laughter. "Are you kidding me? It's like girl code to never speak of their conversations to anyone else. I wouldn't be able to crack it out of Ally if I tried."

"Maybe you should spank it out of her," Kane answered with a wink.