Ogre Daddy (Fantastical Daddy Doms Book 2) Read online

  “I appreciate you taking care of me, Grayson, and I know it’s out of loyalty to my parents. But don’t worry, I won’t be here long. I’ll get out of your hair as soon as I can, a week maybe.” He continued to stare in silence, his expression growing more and more bewildered with every word that came out of my mouth. My stomach sank, and the words rushed from my lips. “I mean, maybe it won’t take that long. And while I am here, I… I’ll help you. I’ll do whatever you ask me to. I can cook, and clean… and…”

  I watched in horror as he quickly stood, his expression a dark mask I couldn’t seem to read. My mouth hung open still, but no words escaped. My chest constricted with panic, and my eyes welled with tears, and just when I was about to go into a mental meltdown of epic proportions, he leaned down, and kissed me.

  Grayson kissed me! His lips were full, and slightly chapped, but the kiss was sweet and tender. My mouth closed slightly to match his, my lips parting just the tiniest bit. My brain went into overdrive and I didn’t know what to do with my hands. And then, he pulled back, and gave a low growl deep in his throat. His giant hand clasped the back of my neck, and he pulled me toward him, lowering his lips onto mine once more. This time, the kiss was less tender. It was deep and erotic. He seemed to be claiming me with his mouth and saying what he couldn’t say with words. I still didn’t know what he was saying, but damn it felt good. The kiss lasted a full minute, leaving me breathless in its wake. When he finally let go, he stepped back and searched my face with his eyes. “I don’t want to hear any more of that nonsense, Ariana. You belong here with me. I want you here with me, and you will stay here with me.”

  I opened my mouth to argue, but his glowering scowl stopped me.

  I tried to nod, but I was stunned into stillness. Grayson had no such issue. “Until I say otherwise, Ariana, your only job is to heal and let me take care of you. Eventually, that will change, but for now, if you do not rest and obey, or if I hear any more of this nonsense about leaving… you'll will get a good taste of the difference between abuse and discipline that I spoke of earlier. Do you understand me, little princess?”

  I did. I really did. And yet, I didn’t. I wanted to know more. I wanted him to spell out exactly what he meant by that, and exactly what he expected from me, and exactly what would happen if I didn’t obey. The questions seemed to scream through my brain, louder than the ones before them. I didn’t say any of that. I had to all but scrape my jaw off the floor, before I spoke the only three words that made any sense and quieted the screaming within.

  “Yes, Ogre Daddy.”

  I hadn’t meant to kiss her. And I certainly hadn’t meant to threaten her the way I did. But goddammit, she opened that pretty little mouth and started talking about leaving, and she wouldn’t shut up… and I lost my head.

  For two years I had thought of little else besides freeing Ariana from the queen’s hold, and bringing her here, and I hadn’t thought much beyond that point. I was out of my element, feeling like I was living in some fucked up version of a shitty fairy tale, with no happy ending in sight. Ariana was a princess, and I was still an ogre. Literally. A giant, green, fucking ogre living in a two-bedroom cottage that had seen better days.

  I knew what I wanted, of course. Her. Even with sleep-matted hair, her dress worn and faded and eyes that were red-rimmed and puffy from tears and stress, Ariana was stunningly beautiful. And I wasn’t just saying that because she was the only real life woman I had seen for the better part of two years, either. It really was true. But I shouldn’t have kissed her. She deserved better than me; of this I was certain. I had no idea when the spell that had turned me into an ogre would be broken, or if it ever could. And even if it was, Ariana was a princess, and I a lowly fisherman.

  I told myself that over and over as I made my way into the small room that had served as nothing more than a storage closet for years and began to clean it out, hurling boxes and whatever else blocked my path into the small hallway.

  I caused such a ruckus that within minutes Ariana was by my side, watching me with concern as I tossed aside piles of books and old papers, clearing a pathway to the bed I knew was there under piles of junk. She touched my arm, and I grunted. “Sorry this room is such a disaster. It’s so small, it’s hard for me to do anything in here, so it’s kind of become a catch-all for stuff I didn’t want to deal with.”

  “I can help,” Ariana offered, making her way to the bed, and beginning to clear it off with an ease that I couldn’t.

  Still, I reached out a hand to stop her. “What did I say your job was, little princess?” I tried to soften the growl, but I was an ogre for god’s sake and an upset one at that.

  Ariana wasn’t fazed, frowning at me, and shaking her head. “That’s different, Grayson. You’re doing this for me, and it’s hard for you. I can help.”

  “No. You’ve had a hard week, and a hell of a shock. You’re injured, and you need to rest.”

  Her sigh was long-suffering as she plopped down on the spot she had cleared on the bed and frowned at me. “You’re stubborn, you know that?”

  “Oh, little princess, you have no idea.”

  She smiled then. The corners of her mouth turned up in a smirk, and her eyes lit with mischief. I had to turn away, before my cock tented my shorts, showing the effect she had on me. Maybe kissing her hadn’t been so bad. We were both living a lonely existence, and we only had each other for comfort. And besides that, I needed her to stay here. Needed her to want to stay here. It was a jerky thing to use to justify getting involved with her that way. It was utterly despicable to know I was going to use her like that, but I needed her with me. It wasn’t safe out there. I couldn’t risk her wanting to leave, and I had to give her reasons to stay. Plus, I couldn’t stop thinking about kissing her again.

  “Have you always been that way? Or is that part of the stereotypical ogre persona?” Her soft voice interrupted my musings, leaving me confused and disoriented.

  “Huh?”

  “Stubborn. Have you always been that way?”

  “Oh, I don’t know. Probably only when faced with naughty little girls and women who don’t take care of themselves and don’t obey orders.”

  “Oh, yes, of course. I’m sure that’s the only time you’re stubborn.” Ariana stood then and walked to the closet on the back wall, and flung it open. As she did so, she looked at me with a gleam of challenge in her eyes. It took concentrated effort to keep my mouth from dropping open in shock. The little minx. Was she really bratting? Already?

  Her gaze stayed pinned on me as she stepped inside the closet and began to wrestle a box off the top shelf.

  Like hell. My palm twitched with the urge to flip her over my knee right then and there, but it was too soon. The threat had been just that, and she hadn’t even waited an hour to call my bluff.

  I couldn’t let that stand if I intended to hold any kind of dominance around here, and I certainly did. Abandoning the box I had been sorting, I crossed the room in one giant step and picked her up like she weighed no more than a feather. One minute, she was lifting a box, and clanging hangers to try to get my attention, and the next she was sailing through the air as I grabbed her under each of her armpits and carried her arm’s length in front of me to the living room, where I deposited her on the sofa in the corner of the room.

  “Rest, Princess.”

  “Grayson,” she whined, crossing her arms over her chest. “I just slept for a whole day. I do not need any more sleep.”

  “I didn’t say anything about sleep. I said rest.”

  “That’s boring! What am I supposed to do?”

  “Hell, I don’t know. Figure something out. I have a kitchen full of goodies and a bookshelf full of books. I know you like to read, so… read something.”

  “I can’t read right now. Reading requires me to turn off my brain and get into the story, and my brain is too noisy. I want to help you.”

  Goddamn stubborn princesses. I wanted this, I reminded myself, muttering under my b
reath as I spun on my heel toward the desk.

  “Here.” I pushed a few buttons on my open laptop and shoved it into her lap, with the browser open to several online marketplaces. “I don’t really have any girly stuff. You know, lotions, soaps, bath oils or whatever. Undergarments, clothes, I don’t know. Order whatever you need.”

  Her brows raised, and she shoved the computer away with a horrified expression. “Oh no, Grayson, I don’t need anything. Please don’t spend any money on me. I don’t know when I would be able to pay you back.”

  The princess was a stubborn little bit, I was learning. She had met her match in me, though. Ogres were known for their stubbornness, and I was no exception.

  “Add anything you need to the cart, and I will order it later,” I repeated, pushing the computer toward her again. She opened her mouth, presumably to argue, but I cut her off. “Arguing will get you nowhere, Ariana. You need things, and I am going to buy them for you. It’s the least I can do. Half the reason you’re in this mess is because of me.”

  “But, Grayson.”

  “No arguments.” I growled loudly, going full ogre mode. Apparently my size and looks alone weren’t enough to intimidate the stubborn princess. Growling didn’t work either.

  “I wasn’t going to argue,” she piped up softly. “I was just going to ask how are you making a living? Do you still fish? How do you, um, make deliveries, and stuff?”

  “I gave up commercial fishing,” I admitted. “Not by choice, of course. I fish now for my own pleasure and food. Or maybe out of habit.”

  She frowned, and I could see her about to protest again.

  “It’s for the best, little princess. I make a lot more money these days, I promise.”

  “How’s that?”

  I smiled at the ridiculousness of my answer. When you suddenly find yourself seven feet tall, four hundred pounds, bright green, and mute, you don’t have a lot of occupation choices. I had done the only thing I could. “Bitcoin farming. Order whatever you need. I assure you, I can cover it.”

  The skin on my back burned, slowly waking me from a nap. I didn’t even remember falling asleep. I had browsed online for a bit, throwing the bare minimum of things into Grayson’s shopping cart, and then grabbed a book off the shelf to read. I must have been more tired than I realized. I don’t think I had gotten more than three pages in before I passed out. Pushing the book off my chest, I sat up quickly, and called out for Grayson, but he didn’t answer. The panic I experienced at the thought of being alone in the cabin wasn’t really rational, but nothing about my life was right now. I was living with a bitcoin farming ogre for god’s sake. With my heart in my throat, I jumped up off the sofa and ran to the window. Relief washed through me when I saw him outside working in his vegetable garden. He had a basket next to him full of multicolored vegetables and I smiled at the sight he made. Though the rice soup he’d made earlier had been rather bland, I had no doubt that he was a good cook. After all, he truly was a gifted baker. Just the thought of his sweet treats had my stomach growling. Panic eased, I turned from the window, and looked around the cabin for something to do. My dress stuck to my back and I wanted desperately to take a shower.

  Walking around the tiny cottage, I took the time to explore. The main living area was one open space, with the kitchen taking up the entire back wall. It was bright and cheery, and cluttered with appliances. It was easy to see that Grayson spent a lot of time there. Down a short hallway, there were two bedrooms, one being the one that Grayson had kicked me out of earlier. It had been completely transformed since this morning. The bed was covered in a bright patchwork quilt. The dressers had been cleared off from their piles, and a vase of wildflowers sat atop a small doily on the nightstand. There was still a pile of boxes, but now they were stacked up in one corner instead of strewn about the room. Tears sprung to my eyes at the effort he had gone to to make sure I had a place that was my own. I felt a bit like an interloper, seeing the room before he showed me, so I closed the door and tiptoed down the hall to the next bedroom. This one was also small, with a massive bed dead in the center of it. The frame looked to be made from tree trunks. Grayson’s room. Again, I felt like an intruder in his personal space, so I left and continued my exploration.

  The bathroom was the size of a broom closet. Standing in the center of the room, I turned in a full circle, and wondered how on earth Grayson even managed to use the facilities. I could barely fit in here, and he was ten times my size. Pulling on the rags of my dress, I looked around to see if there was anything I could use to cover myself after a shower. I rummaged through three tiny drawers, and a small rickety cabinet, rewarded for my efforts with only a thin ragged towel. It would have to work. I didn’t want to interrupt Grayson. He had rescued me, tended to my wounds, and even spoon-fed me. I didn’t need him thinking he had to help me bathe too. There was no shampoo to be found in the tiny bathroom, but I did manage to scrounge up a small bar of scented soap. It would have to make do. I stripped off my dress, and hung it carefully on the back of the door so it wouldn't get wet from the spray. It was the only thing I had to wear for now. The shower stall was tiny, but the water was perfectly warm, and refreshing. The soap smelled of peppermint. I worked it into a lather between my hands, and used the bubbles to wash my hair, which had grown stringy from sweat and sleep. I washed and finished my shower quickly, using the thin towel first to dry my body, and then to wrap my hair before putting on the raggedly old dress that I had worn day in and day out for years. I needed new clothing desperately, but I couldn’t ask Grayson to do more for me than he was already doing. I wanted to go into town and look for a job, but I would need a new dress even to do that. My life was in limbo and everything seemed to be one big catch-22 around me. Patience was a virtue I didn’t possess. Dressed again, I ran my fingers through my hair, until it passed as semi-presentable, and hung the towel on the same hook I had used for my dress. I wondered again how Grayson managed to use the bathroom at all, since I was pretty sure he didn’t even fit in this tiny room.

  The entire house could have fit in my bedroom at the castle, yet I liked the cottage so much better. It was homey and personal, whereas the witch’s castle had been cold in its overdone opulence. The cabin walls were bare logs decorated with shelves of books and picture frames. I searched each frame for a photo of Grayson, the Grayson I remembered, but there weren’t any. There was a wedding photo with a smiling younger version of his parents and a photo of his father next to a huge net overflowing with fish.

  “That’s the day my father paid off his fishing boat. From that day until the accident it was all profit.”

  I turned to see Grayson behind me, staring at the photo I was holding. A proud grin covered his face. “I remember him,” I whispered. “He always made deliveries to us at the castle. I hated fish and I told him so, so he brought me lemon drops and told me it would make the fish taste better.”

  Gray chuckled. Taking the frame from my grasp, and holding it close to his face. His eyes never left the picture even as he spoke to me. “Lemon drops with fish, eh? That sounds like him. Is that why you got mad when I started making the deliveries?”

  Nodding, I giggled. I had been merely nine at the time. “You never brought me candy.”

  Grayson peered at me, with a blank stare, giving the impression that he was lost in a sea of memories. Finally, he placed the photo back on the shelf and turned to me. “Why is your hair wet?”

  “I took a shower. I hope that’s okay.” I felt suddenly worried about having done so without asking. I knew it was silly, but it was one of those feelings I couldn’t seem to shake. Ingrained in my psyche after two years of abuse and indoctrination.

  “It’s fine, little princess,” he assured me. “I should have offered earlier, but you have been mostly sleeping since you got here. I’m surprised you were able to even find anything to shower with. It’s been years since I used that bathroom at all.”

  “I found a little bar of soap.” I shrugged. “I made do.
”

  Grayson frowned. “I ordered the stuff you added, plus a bit extra. You came here with only the clothes on your back, Ariana. I can’t expect you to wash your hair with a bar of soap like I do and to wear the same dress day in and day out. It’s okay to need things. I have waited a long time to have you here with me, and you shall want for nothing. Except for maybe, you know, a roommate who isn’t bright green.” As he spoke, he moved toward the small spare room and made a beeline for an oak trunk near the foot of the bed.

  “Let's see if we can’t find you something clean to wear,” he muttered, rummaging through the contents of said trunk.

  “Ah, here we are.” He held up two old dresses. “These were my mother’s favorites. My father refused to get rid of them. We may have to pin them a bit, but they will do until your stuff comes. My mama liked her baked goods and her body was a direct reflection of that.” He winked.

  “I love them.” The dresses were pretty with bright flowers that reminded me of the garden. “The queen never let us wear anything bright. She said it was distracting and took away from her splendor.”

  Grayson’s jaw clenched as it always did when I mentioned her. “Ariana,” he said sternly. “Lamia is no queen. You are the rightful Queen of Venus.”

  “But I’m not! She controls everything and everyone. I will never see the inside of that castle again. I will never see my family again. I will never see Ruthie again.” Bile rose in my throat and I ran for the bathroom, barely making it to the toilet before the heaving began.

  Grayson was behind me in a second, hovering just outside the door, pulling my hair out of the way and rubbing my back from a distance. He had long arms. “You’re okay, sweetie. Everything’s going to be okay. It might not seem like it today, but I promise it will be.”