Total pages in book: 28
Estimated words: 25958 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 130(@200wpm)___ 104(@250wpm)___ 87(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 25958 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 130(@200wpm)___ 104(@250wpm)___ 87(@300wpm)
I looked back at Ace, hoping he’d give me an explanation. “I can touch you,” Ace breathed, looking at me in wonder.
I didn’t understand what was happening. “Yes?” I cautiously asked.
Ace shook his head, his brows furrowing. “It’s hard for me to touch others. Gunner—my husband, also my Papa—was the first person I could touch without getting the urge to claw my skin from my bones. And now, I can touch you, and I don’t even know you.”
Jax and Rico came back into view from behind the van, and both of them paused at the sight of Ace holding my arm.
“Ace?” Jax cautiously asked.
Ace looked at him, his smile bright enough to blind someone. And damn, it was beautiful. “I can touch him,” Ace breathed. “Jax, I can touch him.”
Jax hummed, his lips twitching with an aborted smile. Ace turned to look at me. “Do you have a phone? I want to hang out sometime. Please tell me you’d like to hang out with me.” His gaze was so damn pleading, I couldn’t tell him no. And when I checked in with myself, I found I didn’t want to.
I wanted to get to know Ace. He made me feel… fuzzy inside.
My chest warmed. I’d never had a friend, and it seemed like Ace wanted to be mine. And that did funny things to my insides.
Nodding, I pulled my phone from my pocket and typed in my passcode before handing the device to him. Ace quickly found my contacts list and added himself before he pulled up a new text thread and typed out a message to himself. When he handed my phone back to me, he was positively glowing. “I’ll text you,” he said, moving away from me. “It was really nice to meet you, Anurak.”
Rico moved toward me, a soft smile tilting his lips. “He’s a lot,” Rico said as I watched Ace walk away with Jax, “but you’ll get used to him. And I think he’ll be good for you.” He pressed a kiss to my forehead. “You ready to head home, perrito?”
I nodded. “Can we get ice cream on the way?”
Rico chuckled as he opened my door. “Yes, we can definitely get ice cream.”
Once we were on the highway, I pulled my phone out of my pocket and headed to Google, typing into the search bar: What does it mean to have a papa?
My eyes widened at the search results, and I quickly clicked on something from Reddit, reading through the comments, a blush staining my cheeks and quickly growing darker with each comment I read.
I glanced at Rico, sinking my teeth into my bottom lip. I didn’t know if I liked the idea of calling Rico Papa, but Daddy… well, that had a little ring to it that I liked. And from what I was reading, Rico was definitely Daddy material.
Would Rico let me call him Daddy? And why did I want that so badly?
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Anurak
I’d gone down a rabbit hole.
When we got home, Rico had immediately been sucked into some kind of crisis with his company and had escaped to his office. I’d settled into the living room to do research on Daddies and Littles in peace. It wasn’t that I cared if Rico caught me or not. I just wanted to figure out if this was something I might be interested in on my own.
And as it turned out, it was. After an hour of reading through forums on Google, I was now texting back and forth with Ace since he was knowledgeable and had his own Daddy—or well, Papa. He had a Papa, which was the same thing if I was understanding correctly.
Ace: Is the little bunny curious?
A flush worked its way onto my cheeks, and I pulled my feet up onto the couch so my knees were bent before texting him back. He’d taken to calling me “little bunny”. I didn’t know why, but I really liked it. And I liked having his attention, too.
Anurak: I think so, yes.
Ace: Daddies are caregivers, in a way. They take care of us and carry the weight of the world on their shoulders so we don’t have to. Gunner protects me with extreme prejudice, and he goes above and beyond to make me comfortable. I can turn to him and give him my problems, and he will solve them for me without batting an eye.
I thought he was done typing, but the little bubble with three dots appeared, showing he was typing another message, so I waited as patiently as I could, which was a little hard.
I was just so eager to learn.
Ace: I came from some pretty fucked up shit. I was raped and beaten. Starved. Tossed foster home to foster home. My brothers all abandoned me—except for Jax. Granted, we’re all together now. But we didn’t always used to be. But Gunner… he never gave up on me. Even on my worst days, he’s right there, being whatever I need him to be. A Daddy loves unconditionally. I know without a shred of doubt that I could be the worst fucking person in this world, and my Papa would still come through for me.