Keeping Kenzie - Pepper North Page 0,14
buy one pet, much less everything in the store. Slumping, she walked back to her car and headed home.
She pulled into a parking spot in front of the burned apartment building. Upset about the animals, Kenzie had automatically driven back to her apartment. Staring at the blackened entrance, she started to cry. Hot tears coursed down her cheeks unchecked. What was she going to do?
A long time later, her tears had evaporated. Kenzie hadn’t moved as her thoughts circled wildly in her head. She’d get some money from her insurance, but that wouldn’t go far to putting a deposit and the first month’s rent on a new apartment. And now, she didn’t have a job.
The buzz of her phone drew her attention. Obeying the call of her phone automatically, Kenzie pressed the green button. “Hello?”
“Baby girl, where are you?”
“Osiris?”
“There better not be anyone calling you Baby girl.”
“I got fired,” she whispered.
“I’m here at the pet store. I brought you lunch when I figured out you wouldn’t have anything to eat.”
“I’m sorry, Osiris. That was nice of you to take time to check on me. Sorry I wasn’t there.” She stumbled over the last line.
“I’m worried about you, Baby girl. Where are you?”
“My car drove home. But it isn’t here anymore,” she answered. Her voice broke with a sob.
“I’m coming to get you.”
She would have argued, but he’d disconnected. Unable to think of a positive strategy for the future, all she could come up with was giving up and going home to her parents. Kenzie didn’t want to do this.
Her parents would welcome her back. It had been so hard to get away from them, to start her amazing job. They didn’t know about the pet store. Now, they’d insist she move back to her former room.
Kenzie dropped her forehead onto the steering wheel. She didn’t want to admit she was a failure—that’s what she’d be doing if she went back. No money, no job, no success. The trifecta of failure.
A knock on her window made her jump. Osiris stood outside, looking concerned. “Come out here, Baby girl. I need to hold you.”
Without a second thought, Kenzie reached for the latch and scrambled from the car, straight into Osiris’ outstretched arms. They closed around her to hold her tight. She pressed her ear to his chest and heard that solid heartbeat. Just as always, it reassured her. Slowly, her shoulders fell back into place as the tension left her body. She didn’t have any answers, but she wasn’t alone.
“Thanks, Osiris,” she whispered.
“Daddy,” he corrected.
“You still want to be my Daddy? I don’t have anything to offer you. I’m unemployed. I don’t have a place to live. I don’t even have enough money in the bank to survive for the month. You should run far away from me,” she confessed.
“Running away is the last thing I’m going to do. What kind of Daddy would do that?” he answered, leaning away so he could look at her face.
“A smart one?” she suggested with a sigh.
Whack! Kenzie jolted forward against his body and looked at him in shock.
“Little girls who dismiss their Daddies’ feeling about them get spanked,” he explained.
“You have feelings for me?”
“I would have never talked to you about being my Little if I wasn’t serious. You have my heart, Baby girl. I may look like a tough guy, but I’ll let you in on a secret: I’m just a big softy.”
“A big softy who spanks!” she pointed out, rubbing the one buttock that received the swat.
“I’m a stickler for following directions and the rules. We’ll make a list of rules for you and for me when we get home,” he advised.
“You still want me in your home?”
“Of course. I always want you with me. We’ll set out rules, and then we’ll make some plans. I’d like to take you to SANCTUM. I’m hoping you’ll decide to stay with me.”
“In SANCTUM?”
“Yes, Baby girl.”
“Forever?”
“Forever.”
“But…”
“We’ll deal with all those buts later. For now, let’s head home and get some lunch. Cupcake was worried about you.”
“Okay, Osi…Daddy.”
She followed him away from the burnt remnants of her current life to the promise of one with a better future. Pulling up in front of Osiris’ home, she put her car in park and opened the door. Things felt lighter already.
Osiris guided her to the kitchen with a hand on her back. She enjoyed the warmth of his touch through her work T-shirt. He was solid and steady. Always calm and self-assured, Osiris gave off vibes of his