“Okayyyyy…” said Tay, drawing out the vowels, and then quirked their head when Guilia brought out a leather-bound notebook from behind her back.
“Here.”
Guilia didn’t explain what the notebook was, but rather just sat and waited for Tay to open it up. On the first page, in large letters was written “Tay’s Little Book of Worth”. They looked up, questioningly, but Guilia just nodded back toward the book.
They turned the page and saw Guilia’s handwriting. Turned another page and saw Mandi’s and kept turning page after page after page.
There was salt on their lips that had nothing to do with goat-cheese ice cream, and they stared at the book, completely thrown. The entire thing was filled with page after page of people telling them what they valued and liked about them.
“I didn’t want to just tell you that you had to believe it,” said Guilia gently. “I know that it doesn’t work like that. If it were that simple, no one would ever need anti-depressants. But I thought that this might help. On the days when you can’t remember why you deserve all of the things, you can flip through these pages and read reasons back to yourself.”
The sob Tay emitted was so loud, it almost made them jump, and then they were burying their face in Guilia’s lap and crying and crying and crying.
Not being in a dynamic had meant that they hadn’t been praised as much as they would usually have liked. And Rawhide Ranch was wonderful, and they definitely felt valued and loved, but there always those days when they couldn’t remember why.
Why were they loved?
Why were they valued?
Why did they deserve to be part of such a wonderful community?
And it was all here, written down in black and white and purple and pink and green, because of course the Littles had used colorful pens. Guilia had even managed to get the kitchen team to write in it—how she’d managed that was very impressive considering how little time they’d spent in the kitchen after trying the ice creams—and Tay felt their heart swell.
“I’m loved,” they whispered, the words coming out in a croak.
“Yes you are,” said Guilia. “You are very very loved. Mi tesore, my treasure.”
They started crying again then, softer this time, so softly that Guilia didn’t seem to realize that they’d resumed crying at first.
“Cara mio, why are you crying?”
“Because I don’t know how to stop,” said Tay. It felt like they’d been bottling everything up for so long, that now when they cried, it was like someone had unstoppered a dam and there was no mopping up the waves.
“It’s okay,” said Guilia. “If you can’t stop crying, it’s probably because you need to cry.” She shifted and pulled Tay onto her lap.
“I’ll squish you!” said Tay in protest.
“If I didn’t squish you when riding your mouth, you won’t squish me by sitting on my lap. Come on, Tay, let me look after you.”
Tay let the book fall from their hands, back onto the couch, and then shuffled around in Guilia’s lap to get comfortable. Their Daddy slipped one arm under their legs and lifted them until they were almost being cradled in her arms. And then she just held Tay.
CHAPTER 34
Guilia
Holding Tay in her arms felt so damn right.
She hated that Tay was crying—of course she did—but the fact that Guilia was the one Tay turned to, that they felt comfortable enough to be vulnerable around… that meant everything.
She held them close and rocked them gently as they cried softly.
When they looked up at her, blinking away the tears that clung to their eyelashes, she couldn’t help but press a kiss to their lips. Not because they looked sexy, but because they clearly wanted comfort and they took comfort in her kisses.
Guilia had spent a long time living and working at Rawhide Ranch, and she’d never considered her Daddy-ing style to be particularly soft before. When she’d thought of what she might want from a dynamic, she’d thought more about the spanks that she might deliver, but with Tay it had been completely different.
Neither of them were as fussed by spanks as they thought they would be. Instead their connections lay in soft indulgences—whether of pleasure or comfort—and Guilia wouldn’t change it for the world.
“Daddy,” said Tay.
