Well, I'll jump in and say that I don't love the word cute in this context. In fact, I don't really love the word cute at all, applied to a human over the age of say, eighteen months. Part of being in any relationship, even D/s, is accepting love graciously - and, accepting your own needs within the relationship. If your sub protects and defends you, why belittle that by calling it cute?

After you hear from a few more subs parsing every word in your post, you'll wish you hadn't brought this up at all. Sorry!