Read The Institute: Daddy Issues for Free Online

voice was a little hoarse. “Not true at all.”
    “Umm…” Once more, I didn’t know what to say. “I’m glad you like the out­fit,” I said at last, lamely.
    “No, no!” Stevens ex­claimed, shak­ing his head. “Your Daddy just gave you a com­pli­ment, my dear! He’s show­ing in­terest in you—giv­ing you at­ten­tion you des­per­ately crave. You want more of that—so flirt with him! Play it up!”
    “Flirt?” I looked at him blankly. I’d spent most of my pro­fes­sional life be­ing as non— flirty as pos­sible. People don’t take you ser­i­ously if you’re too flirty and girly—es­pe­cially at the PD. I teased around with Salt on oc­ca­sion but only when we were alone.
    “Just try it,” Stevens urged. “This is your Daddy we’re talk­ing about—you love him and you want to please him more than any­thing else in the world.”
    “Geeze,” I muttered. “Okay, here goes.” I cocked my head to one side and looked up at Salt coquet­tishly from un­der my lashes. “I’m glad you like my out­fit, Papa. I wore it just for you,” I said in a high, breathy voice.
    Stevens nod­ded. “Yes, that’s bet­ter. Now De­tect­ive Salt, you re­spond.”
    “You look beau­ti­ful, my little mishka,” Salt rumbled softly. “So beau­ti­ful it makes your Papa ache to look at you.”
    I felt my breath catch in my throat. I knew we were just play­ing roles but still…
    “Very good.” Stevens nod­ded again. “He’s giv­ing you clear sig­nals, De­tect­ive Sug­ar­baker. So go over and sit in your Daddy’s lap.”
    “What?” I hes­it­ated un­eas­ily. “I thought that kind of thing was if I was play­ing a younger age.”
    “That kind of thing, as you put it, is uni­ver­sal. No mat­ter what age you’re play­ing, a Baby­girl al­ways wants to sit in her Daddy’s lap.”
    “Okay, well…” I was still hes­it­at­ing so Salt pat­ted his knees.
    “Come on, Andi. You know I do not bite.”
    “Fine.” I walked across to Salt and perched gingerly on one of his knees. “There. Sat­is­fied?”
    “No.” Stevens frowned. “Listen, De­tect­ives, I don’t think either one of you is quite grasp­ing the concept here.” He looked at me. “This man is your pro­tector—your guard­ian…your dis­cip­lin­arian…your everything . He will kill or die to pro­tect you and you ad­ore him for that.”
    “I do?” I asked.
    Salt nod­ded. “Makes sense. I would kill or die to pro­tect Andi.”
    “You would?” I turned my head to look at Salt more fully. He met my eyes without hes­it­a­tion.
    “You know I would, Andi,” he said softly. “On this there can be no ques­tion.”
    “Well, you’re already do­ing a good job of act­ing pro­tect­ive, De­tect­ive Salt,” Stevens said. “But you, De­tect­ive Sug­ar­baker, need to ramp up your game.”
    “Okay,” I said, try­ing to hold on to my tem­per. “Tell me how since you’re the kink ex­pert.”
    “You can start by snug­gling into your Daddy’s lap like a real Baby­girl would,” Stevens said, frown­ing. “You want to get a close as pos­sible be­cause in his arms is where you find com­fort, love, pro­tec­tion from the big, bad out­side world. In his arms is where you feel safe.”
    I looked back at Salt who shrugged and opened his arms to me—a si­lent in­vit­a­tion.
    I scooted back on his lap un­til my back was touch­ing his chest but I couldn’t quite al­low my­self to re­lax. It felt strange, be­ing held this way. In fact, the last time I could re­mem­ber sit­ting on someone’s lap was be­fore my own father took off when I was around nine.
    “You’re still too stiff,” Stevens ob­jec­ted. “Re­lax.”
    “I can’t,” I said. “This is just so weird. I’m a grown wo­man—I shouldn’t be sit­ting on any­one’s lap.”
    “Andi…come,” Salt said in my ear. And then I felt his long, mus­cu­lar arms en­fold­ing me, draw­ing me