Christmas wishes do you have for Santa, darlin’?”
“One,” she said proudly. Reaching into the pocket of her dress, she pulled out a thin stack of letters, tied neatly together with a length of red ribbon. She had no delusions Daddy wouldn’t be happy to hear what she had to say and in her opinion, bad news could never be completely terrible when it was wrapped in a pretty red ribbon.
“What is that?” he asked, taking the envelopes from her.
“My wish,” she said. “And my exchange of letters.”
He flipped the envelopes over to read the name and address on the top most one. She felt him stiffen and no trace of smile could be glimpsed beneath his fake beard when he cleared his throat and very carefully said, “Detective Forrester contacted you?”
“I contacted him,” she confessed, stubbornly maintaining her cheerfulness. “And my Christmas wish is for you to let him come to the Ranch for one weekend.”
“After what he said to you?” Derek countered in his best ‘have you lost your mind’ tone.
“It’s because of what he said to me, I’ve invited him to come.”
“You…” He caught himself and quickly lowered his voice. “Sadie Marie, young lady, did you just tell me you already invited the man? Before talking to me about it?”
“It’s important, Daddy. I just can’t stop thinking about in the hospital when he asked me what I thought was going to happen at the dungeon play party, then again at the trial when he said he didn’t understand why I would go there in the first place.”
He stared at her, storm clouds growing in his eyes.
“I love you, honey, and I love that your first instinct is show him what he’s missing, but sometimes an asshat is exactly that, regardless of how he phrases his personal intolerance.”
Running her fingers through his beard, Sadie shrugged one shoulder.
“And sometimes, what we might see as asshattery is just a guy who’s seen a lot of bad things and needs help to realize this isn’t another one of those.” She shrugged both shoulders. “That’s it. That’s my Christmas wish, and you have to give it to me because you’re Santa Claus, and that’s your job.”
“You, little girl, need one hell of a spanking.”
She grinned. “Sounds like fun.”
“Not the way I’m going to do it.”
“Please?” She fluttered her eyelashes at him. “I’ll be good all year.”
He snorted, not fooled for a second. When she stuck her lip out in a plaintive pout, he snorted, shook his head, then gave in.
“Fine. I’ll think about it.” He tucked the letters into his Santa coat. “You’re absolutely getting spanked for this when we get home, though. Don’t think for a second you’re not.”
That was then, and this was now, and there were a lot of ways a girl could get out of trouble in the meantime. She threw her arms around his neck in another tight hug.
“Thank you, Daddy! Now,”—she bent over the side of the chair to grab at his sack—“what did you get me?”
He just as quickly grabbed the sack away from her.
“I don’t know, this might be too good a present for a little girl who drops bombs like that one in Daddy’s lap.”
She grinned, once more batting her eyelashes.
“Would it help to know I have a present for you, too? And not a cheap, skimpy one like macaroni and glitter pictures or handprints in clay.”
“I happen to like your macaroni and glitter pictures,” he said, relaxing into another smile for the first time since The Bomb. “All right, sassy pants. Who gets to give who their present first?”
She brightened. “You, of course. I don’t like to wait.”
He laughed. “How did I know you were going to say that? Close your eyes.”
Perching on his knees, with her hands eagerly clasped in her lap, she shut her eyes tight, determined not to peek this time.
“Hold out your hands.”
“Is it M&Ms?” she guessed. “Oooh, I love M&Ms.”
The box he set in her palm was too small and light for chocolate candies. She opened her eyes to find a little white box with a festive red ribbon, just like the one she’d used.
“You even used red,” she teased, briefly hugging the box to her chest.
His mouth curled. “Yes, I did.”
It was almost too pretty to open. Almost.
Tugging the ribbon, she plucked the lid off the box and very nearly dropped everything when she saw the ring-sized jewelry box nestled in a bed of pink crepe paper.
“O-Okay,” she hedged, her throat tightening with the sharpness of both her shock and sudden, almost overwhelming happiness. “This is either a piece of jewelry or the world’s smallest butt plug.”
“I do not,” he said, trying not to laugh, “believe in small butt plugs, and you know it.”
“Oh my God…” she breathed, her hands beginning to shake.
The smile under Santa’s snowy white beard softened. “Sadie Marie, I need to ask you a question.”
Dropping the ring box in his lap, she clapped both hands over her dancing heart, then just as quickly clapped them over his mouth.
“Wait, wait, wait! I need a minute.”
Someone laughed behind them, and the brightness of camera flashes began popping in the air around them.
Settling back in his seat, Daddy watched her from behind laughing blue eyes and licked her fingers.
“Ew!” She snatched her hands back, disgusted but proud to death of him for doing that. He’d learned that from her. “That’s the grossest feeling in the world.”
“Yeah,” he drawled. “So, I’ve discovered. What am I waiting for, babygirl?”
She watched him pick up the box and had to clap her hands over her stomach all over again.
“I-I have to give you my present first. It won’t mean as much if I give it to you after!”
His eyebrows quirked. “Baby, any gift you give me will mean just as much no matter when I get it.”
“Not this one,” she insisted, and he relented.
“All right,” he said cheerfully, tucking the box into his hand and settling back to be thoroughly presented. “Go ahead, gift me.”
Suddenly shy, Sadie looked once around the room, then stood. She turned her back to them, letting the old ‘if she couldn’t see them, they weren’t really there’ reign in her head. Climbing back onto his lap, she straddled his thighs.
“I guarantee this kind of present will always mean as much,” he teased as she got as close as she could. “But we should probably wait until we’re alone.”
Sliding her arms around his neck, she sidled in until they were cheek to bristly cheek. He’d been telling her for months, but she’d never said it. In her world, the ‘L’ word had always been an uncomfortable, painful, more four-letter curse than anything else. Her father had loved them; he’d left. Her mother had loved her; she’d drank herself to death. It had taken eighteen years and a Daddy Dom who’d gently persisted until she had no choice but to recognize her Little side before she finally realized just what love really was.
And how vastly different the ‘L’ word could be when the right person was involved.
“I love you, Daddy, with all my heart.” she whispered for his ears alone
His arms around her tightened.
“I love you too, darlin’, and will for all the rest of my life.”
Battling back her tears with a grin, she sat up and presented him with her ring finger.
“Yes,” she told him proudly. “I will wear your tiny butt plug.”
He swatted the side of her bottom, but he was laughing and shaking his head even as he slipped his engagement ring on her finger.
“Sassy pants,” he said fondly as the room erupted into cheers and applause.
“Yeah,” she agreed, and cuddled up against his chest to admire the way the white-gold ring looked on her finger. “You wouldn’t have me any other way.”
Neither would she, for that matter. For the first time in her life, she was content with who and what she was.
She wouldn’t change a thing.
The End