“My clawfoot tub is calling my name,” she insists.

Nathan jokes that I need to stay behind with her to make sure she doesn’t hurt herself in the tub.

As I help her get undressed, she reminds me of that.

I give her a completely straight faced look. “And?”

She dissolves into giggles.

“What?”

“Oh, Jacob.”

“I like being protective of you.”

“I know.” She sighs happily. “And I like it, too.”

“Would you rather I let you bathe alone?”

She thinks about it long enough that I know she’s seriously weighing the question. “I mean…probably sometimes? But right now…I like how intense we’re both being. It feels special.”

Which feels like as good an opening as any to bring up the fact that we’ve essentially lied to her family. “This is special. I wish that your family knew the whole context around our relationship. Not tonight, of course, but soon. We should come clean, even if it’s awkward.”

She makes a face. “You’re probably right, but…it is awkward.”

I kiss the tip of her nose. “We’ll figure it out together.”

This time, I stay on the outside of the tub, and I carefully wash every inch of her body. I make her tell me what is sore, and what aches in an aroused way, and what feels good.

And with each shared piece of information, her voice gets huskier, her gaze grows a little more unfocused, and an intimate veil falls over both of us. A cocoon where we’re a Daddy and his special girl, an innocent young slip of a thing who is just learning how to talk about her body.

I don’t think I can get any harder when, as she clings to my forearm, my hand buried between her legs, Sienna looks up at me and says in the littlest voice, “Does this happen to your body too, Daddy?”

“Yes, little one,” I rasp. “Daddy gets so big and hard he drips seed for you.”

“For me?”

“Only for you, my precious girl.”

“What kind of seed?” She sways against the side of the tub, drunk with lust.

“The kind that puts a baby in your tummy.”

“How does it do that, Daddy?”

“I’ll have to show you…”

“Nn-nng.” She slurs the rebuke. “Use your words, Daddy.”