It doesn’t take long for her to stop shivering and her breath to even out. Once we’ve built up enough warmth under the blankets, I ease up my grip on her, and she rolls out of my arms and curls up on her other side, her back to me now.

Dark hair spills across my pillow.

I tuck the blankets in around her and climb out of bed, ignoring the way my dick has chubbed up from having her in my arms. Now that she’s warm again, I need to put on some clothes. And get her a glass of water and an assortment of medicine.

When I return, I discover she’s thrown off the covers.

“Stop that,” I growl at her. Because I can, because she’s asleep, and she can’t hear me being my true, mean self. I tug the blanket back up her now splayed legs. I cover her cotton-covered mound—white with blue snowflakes; that’s going in the spank bank, and I’m going to hell—and tuck the blanket securely around her torso again.

I go to stroke her damp hair off her forehead, jerking my hand back when I realize she’s burning up.

“Neely,” I snap. “Wake up.”

That does nothing.

“Sweetheart, you need some medicine.” I shake two Tylenol into one hand, then gently rub the corner of her mouth with my other thumb, encouraging her to open her lips for me. “Wake up, little one. I know it’s hard.”

Groaning, she grabs my wrist.

But instead of pushing my hand away, she tugs it closer, pulling my thumb into her mouth.

My cock roars to attention, thick and full, as she pulls on my flesh, her mouth hot and wet.

I groan. It’s a feral noise, one of need. My vision darkens at the edges, and I know I could give in to this. Shove down my sweat pants and jerk off as she suckles my thumb.

But I would be the worst kind of monster if I did that.

With another strangled sound, I wrench away from her. The pills can wait.

I’m at the bedroom door when she moans behind me.

“Daddy, don’t go.” It’s a breathy plea that stops me in my tracks.

I turn, and that’s my undoing. She’s rucked her dress up her torso, the strobing light outside casting a moving spotlight on the curves of her lower body.

“I need you,” she whispers. It’s coherent enough that I swear she’s awake, but her face is still flushed, and her eyes are squeezed shut.

Those perfectly swollen strawberry-pink lips part again.

She’s the most beautiful vision I’ve ever seen in my life, and I don’t deserve to have her in my bed. I press myself back against the door to stop myself from going to her—she needs me—and squeeze my cock savagely through my sweatpants.