Fixing Little Red Read online

  Once I reached Red’s room, I stopped, clutched the small stuffed moose in my hands, and questioned whether the moose was too much. It was cute with soft, fuzzy horns and a little plaid scarf. Red was going to love it… if he was a little and liked that kind of thing. Never one to second-guess myself, I raised a hand and cleared my throat as I shook the fabric enclosing his room.

  “Come in,” Red’s voice said from the other side of the curtain.

  Stepping inside the room, I smiled at Red then faltered a bit when I noticed Danny was sitting in the chair beside his bed. The notion they were just friends was seeming less and less likely by the minute. Choosing to ignore Danny for the moment, I focused on Red.

  “Nate! You’re here!”

  “I’m surprised you’re still here. Most of the time, they’d slap a cast on you and send you home,” I said, ignoring his obvious delight at seeing me again.

  Red smiled and I knew he was definitely on some kind of painkiller, a rather strong one if I had to guess. “I have to stay the night. The ortha—orthodedic—orthathe—the bone doctor said I have to have surgery, maybe tomorrow if the swelling goes down enough,” he said with a pout, making what Dave said about him easier to see. “But after, I’m going to be a cyborg!”

  I glanced over at Danny to see how he was taking Red’s words and saw him looking away, his hand covering his mouth as he smothered his laughter. “You’re going to get a metal plate and screws in your arm,” Danny said after composing himself and turning back to Red.

  “That’s what I said,” Red replied with a roll of his eyes. “A cyborg—half-man, half-machine. A crime-fighting machine.” He lifted his hand and made a series of karate chops in the air as if he was fighting off imaginary bad guys.

  Red frowned at Danny as he continued to laugh before turning back to me, his eyes laser focusing on the moose in my hands. “What’s that?” he asked, lifting his good hand and pointing at the stuffed animal.

  “This?” I asked, lifting the moose and watching how his eyes hungrily followed it. “It’s a moose.”

  Danny snickered in the corner.

  “Why do you have a moose?” Red tilted his head in the same way I’d seen hundreds of children do—and maybe one little—making the idea not sound as farfetched as it once had.

  “It’s a present,” I said, teasing him just a bit.

  “For who?”

  “For you.”

  “For me?”

  “For you.”

  Red looked up at me with tears in his eyes and his lip trembled. I was worried I’d done something wrong and was about to apologize when Red turned to Danny.

  “Danny,” Red said in a whisper that wasn’t really a whisper. “He got me a moose.”

  Danny gave me a considering look. “I see that.”

  “What do I do?”

  “Do you like it?”

  Red nodded his head frantically. “It’s cute and I want it.”

  “Then you should tell him thank you.”

  Red nodded at Danny then turned back to me as if I hadn’t heard any of their words. “Thank you for the moose. Can I have it please?” He lifted his hand and reached out for it.

  “Of course,” I said, passing it over.

  Red instantly cuddled the moose to his chest and buried his face in it. My throat closed a little at the sight. No one had ever been so happy to receive such a small gift like that from me before. I finally understood what Dave had meant when he’d said interacting with littles was sweet and caring.

  “Well,” I said with a smile while Red still hugged his gift for dear life. “I’ve got to go, but I’ll stop by sometime tomorrow to check up on you.”

  Red lifted his hand and waved, the same wave he’d give when he nurses at the hospital had taken him from me. “Bye, Nate. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  “Goodnight, Red.” I turned and gave Danny a nod while he just gave me that same considering face. If I was stepping on his toes with Red, he needed to tell me fast because, after our moment over the moose, there was no way I was letting him go if there was the slightest chance they were actually just friends.

  I pulled the curtain closed and paused a few feet away from Red’s room. I felt like my whole world had shifted and I needed a moment to catch my balance. I ignored the small part of me that didn’t want to get too far from Red—I couldn’t take care of him if I wasn’t there. Fuck, I was even starting to sound like some kind of possessive Daddy.

  I didn’t mean to snoop, honestly, but after a minute of standing there, I heard Danny’s voice through the curtain.

  “I think someone likes you,” he said in a singsong pattern.

  “Who?” Red asked, sounding completely oblivious.

  “Nate, that’s who. You know, the sexy paramedic that came to your rescue.”

  Well, that answered that. Danny really was just a friend, a friend in the know it seemed.

  “What? Really? How do you know?” Red sounded excited and terrified at the same time.

  “Are you kidding me? He was eating you up with his eyes. He couldn’t wait to get a taste of little ol’ Red.”

  “He was?” Now he sounded just plain excited which was much better in my book.

  “And he gave you a moose, definitely into you.”

  “I’m going to name him Lake.”

  “You’re going to name a moose Lake?”

  “Yes, it rhymes with Nate.”

  “No, it doesn’t.”

  “Yes, it does. Nate. Lake. Nate. Lake. See? It rhymes.”

  “Does this mean you like Nate, too?”

  I leaned in waiting for Red’s reply.

  He must have made some visual sign because Danny started singing. “Red and Nate, sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G. First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes the baby in the baby’s carriage.”

  Even I heard the subtle inflection he placed on the word baby.

  “Danny!” Red hissed. “Stop it! Someone will hear you!”

  “You want Nate to hear me, don’t you? You want him to come in here and kiss you goodnight after tucking you in.”

  “Danny,” he whined and I could imagine the pout on his face. “It’s not funny.”

  When I heard his first sniffled, I was ready to rush back inside and comfort him.

  “He isn’t like that and you know it. If he was a Daddy or even a Dom that knew about littles, he would have known just looking around my house. He would have said something when he was helping me. It’s not fair to me for you to talk like that when I know nothing will ever come of it. He was just being nice and got me Lake because he saw all the stuffed animals I have at my house and figured I would like him.”

  Damn, I was going to have to buy Dave lunch for being right on pretty much every point. Red was indeed a lonely little looking for a Daddy to take care of him.

  Danny’s voice was much softer when he replied, “I’m sorry, Red. I’ll stop.”

  “Thank you.”

  Not wanting to hear anymore, I forced myself to walk away. I might not have been a Daddy when I first met him, but I sure as hell was going to figure out how to be his.

  I thought about it as I made my way towards the staff area to change out of my uniform. The internet was going to be my best source of information. I could have asked Dave and he would’ve known, but he was getting information second hand from his sister who was getting it from romance novels. While they were probably informative, they most likely wouldn’t be the best source of actual information. What I was going to do was ask Dave to get a list of books from his sister to read. Before I asked Red out on an official date, I needed to read something to test the waters as it were. A good romance between a little and his Daddy sounded like the perfect thing.

  I rinsed off in the shower, changed into my regular clothes, and hit the vending machine for a late-night snack. Seeing the fruit snacks, I impulsively snagged a bag and turned towards Red’s room. Wandering the hallways, I reached for my phone and texted Dave asking his si
ster for some recommendations. Within seconds, I had ten messages from Sarah with links to different books with her own personal reviews. Scrolling through them, I had the feeling Dave had already talked to Sarah and she had only been waiting for the right moment to spring her favorite books on me.

  Clicking on a few, I noticed most of them were from one particular author—Robin Prescott. Scrolling through the other gay romance books on the site, I was surprised to see almost all of the authors were women and most of the people leaving reviews were women as well.

  Huh?

  I wondered if it was like the opposite of the men-like-lesbians stereotype but a women-like-gays kind of thing.

  I’d never read a heterosexual romance, but thinking of some of the straight porn I’d seen, I couldn’t help empathizing. Most of the time, it was nothing more than some dude going to pound town on some poor girl—which the camera invariably focused on—and maybe you’d see a little bit of the man’s thigh and cock.

  It only made sense that if women wanted to feel and read about men falling in love and romance from their perspective, they would gravitate to the one place where all the love interests were male, all of the action was male.

  In the strange recesses of my mind, I wondered what men would think if porn suddenly flipped and focused on men’s bodies while the only part of the woman they could see was her whoo-ha.

  Pushing that thought into the part of my brain that housed my better-left-unsaid thoughts, I continued towards Red’s room with his fruit snacks in hand while reading the synopses of the books Sarah had suggested.

  I stopped on the one that had some really good reviews and a high rating.

  Living with Little Benji by Robin Prescott.

  It was about Benjamin Adams, a little who was strapped for cash and decided to sublet a room in his house and Samuel Owens, a no-nonsense construction worker who was new to the city and needed a place to stay. After moving into Ben’s house, Sam started noticing strange things about his cute new landlord, things he liked.

  I smiled reading the small excerpt included on the site, imagining Red in Ben’s place. Reaching the end, I purchased the book and downloaded it to my phone. Returning to the place I’d left off, I was so engrossed in the story that I almost passed Red’s room.

  I checked the time and noticed it was a lot later than I’d thought. The chance Red was already asleep was high, but I couldn’t help wanting one last peek at him before I had to go home.

  Shaking the curtains, I waited for Red’s voice but heard nothing. Damn it, he was asleep and I certainly didn’t want to wake him up. Eyeing the bag of fruit snacks, I decided to place them on the table by Red’s bed so he could have them in the morning.

  Was it creepy sneaking into Red’s room while he was sleeping to leave him snacks? Was I going to do it anyway? Yep, my inner voice said as I pulled back the curtain and slipped inside.

  It was brighter inside than I’d expected. Peering around Red’s bed, I smiled at the white, moon nightlight throwing a warm light around the room. Turning to look at Red, my breath froze in my chest.

  His face was turned toward the light, his thick lashes throwing deep shadows across his round face. He had a pacifier in his mouth—navy blue with a little rocket on the end—a space quilt that depicted the entire solar system covering his upper body since it wasn’t quite long enough to cover his feet, and Lake the moose cuddled in his arms. He looked so peaceful, even with his brow furrowed in pain.

  Lifting my hand, I gently brushed back his hair from his face. He shifted in his sleep and yawned, causing his pacifier to slip out of his mouth. I thought about picking it up and putting it back in his mouth but stopped myself. If Red hadn’t woken up by my touch, he certainly would if I put his pacifier back in, so I played it safe and placed it back on the bed beside him so he could find it easily if he wanted it.

  Unable to resist, I leaned down and brushed a kiss across his forehead and whispered softly, “Goodnight, Red.”

  Red moaned and turned his face back towards me. “Night night, Daddy.”

  His words were barely more than a whisper, but I heard them loud and clear in the silence of the room. I backed out quickly before I could do something drastic, left the hospital, and drove home in a daze.

  Red had called me Daddy and I didn’t hate it. I’d briefly wondered if the whole Daddy/little thing was more interesting in thought than actually doing it, but hearing Red call me Daddy, even mistakenly, had been amazing. I’d instantly wanted more. I’d wanted to wake him up and make him say it again.

  I grabbed a beer from the refrigerator and then collapsed on my couch, Red still taking over my thoughts. Seeing him like that, all cuddled up and safe had made it more real to me. In the back of my mind, there had still been a small seed that had been skeptical of the whole thing.

  Remembering my book, I took another drink and pulled my phone out of my pocket. Lying down, I opened it and was immediately sucked back in. By the time Sam came home early after an accident at work had shut down their site only to find Ben sitting at the coffee table in the living room with nothing on but a diaper and a pacifier clipped to a short shirt that left little to the imagination, I knew it was all for me.

  Ben reached out and picked up one of the sandwich triangles with no crust sitting on his divided plate along with a pile of grapes, and some baby carrots. A sippy cup of apple juice was by his side as he colored in his book, his cartoons playing in the background.

  I once again imagined me and Red in Ben and Sam’s place. And holy hell, I liked it a lot!

  Heart pounding and cock hard in my pants, I reached down and absently rubbed myself as Sam stood in the doorway watching little Benji wiggle in his diaper and singing along to the songs from the show he was watching.

  My hand stopped briefly reading Ben’s mortified reaction when he discovered Sam was watching him, but Sam’s caring response and quick work wooing his boy set me back on track. When Ben came in his diaper from Sam’s hand and my own release filled my pants, I knew there was nothing that could stop me from asking Red out on that date.

  Chapter Three

  Red

  I woke to the alarm Danny had set for me the night before. He’d set it late enough that I’d get plenty of sleep and early enough that I could pack all my little stuff away before the nurses made their first rounds. I knew it was risky, but I couldn’t sleep in a strange place with pain still radiating in my arm without a few of my comforts.

  Still groggy, I used my hand to slap at my phone to turn off the alarm. It took a few tries, but I finally managed it. Blessed silence. I hated that alarm tone.

  Awake, I reached for the bag Danny had left within arm’s reach and quickly stuffed my blankie and pacifier inside before anyone could come to investigate the sound of the alarm. I couldn’t reach my nightlight that Danny had plugged into the wall socket. I wasn’t too worried that someone would notice it though, because it was one of those fancy automatic nightlights that turned off when it sensed the room had enough light.

  I looked at Lake, the very best moose ever, and decided he wasn’t going in the bag either. He was a gift from Nate and gifts were to be displayed and used, not hidden away. Yeah, that was why and not the fact that I loved him and didn’t want him far from me. I gave the moose a quick snuggle before tucking him into bed next to me.

  Lying back in my bed, I couldn’t help thinking about what Danny had said before he’d been kicked out for the night.

  “Red, how do you know he isn’t a Daddy just waiting for someone to show him the way? Before I met you, I had no idea the things I was feeling inside meant I was submissive. After watching that man give you a stuffed animal and his response to you, I wouldn’t be surprised if he has some Daddy tendencies that he’s never been given the chance to explore.”

  I looked down at the moose and lifted my hand to play with his soft antlers. He had given me a stuffed animal and he had been very caring when helping me, but none of that meant he was a secret Dadd
y. If anything, it just said he was a nice person and good at his job.

  But Danny’s words wouldn’t leave me alone. Could he be a Daddy? Would he like it if only someone would show him how?

  No, it was too fantastical. If anything, it sounded like one of the crazy plots I made up for my books that never happened in real life. Littles did not just meet their Daddies in the regular world.

  Yeah, my inner little pouted, well, you haven’t met your Daddy at the club either.

  “Well,” I said to Lake, smarting from my own thoughts. “That wasn’t very nice.” Even if it was true.

  I’d started going to munches and BDSM clubs years ago, before finally finding my home at The Church. The Church was not only exclusive, so exclusive you practically needed a referral to get in the door, they also had the best playroom I’d ever seen. It didn’t hurt that one of the owners was a Daddy Dom and watched out for all the littles. It would have been so much easier if me and Carson had had any kind of chemistry together. He was hot, doting, and fiercely protective. It was too bad we’d only ever thought of each other as friends. That wasn’t to say he wouldn’t take me over his knee if he thought I was getting too out of hand. I hadn’t been able to look at a cupcake the same after Carson had blistered my backside after I’d made myself sick eating them at the last club birthday party. Which was saying something because I loved getting spanked.

  I didn’t really like pickup play either. Age play was a very vulnerable dynamic for me and I didn’t feel comfortable engaging in that way with some random stranger for a couple of hours, never to see them again. With the few Daddies I had dated, we’d either meshed in the playroom or in real life or vice versa, never really both and I hadn’t been secure enough in myself and my role to participate fully.

  But Nate was a different story. I would kill to call him Daddy—everywhere. Maybe, if Nate did like me like Danny had said, I could get to know him and slowly introduce him to the things I liked and my littleness. Just a little here and there until he was too hooked on me to let me go because I liked to eat my food cut up on divided plates or wanted to play on the playscape I’d been building in my backyard.