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When he pulled the door shut, she flashed him a bright smile. “Hi, Daddy.”
“Eavesdropping, Lottie-bug?”
“Umm…”
“Bathroom. Now.”
Scrambling to her feet, she hurried down the hall to the half bath, her stomach exploding with butterflies as she waited for him to join her. “I just wanted to know if you were telling him about us!”
“I was going to, but it didn’t seem like the right time.” There was an odd flatness to Braden’s tone that had the hairs on the back of her neck standing up. “He said he was working.”
“Really?” Joy and hope lit up inside her, so bright it was nearly painful. “That’s great!”
“Yes.” Braden’s smile didn’t quite reach his eyes, but she was so excited by the prospect of her dad getting back to work she deliberately ignored it. “But we still have the issue of you eavesdropping to discuss.”
“Okay, I know I shouldn’t have, but you shouldn’t have made the decision to tell him about us without talking to me first.”
To her surprise, he paused as if considering her statement. “You’re right. I shouldn’t have. Are you all right with me telling him?”
Nerves churned in her stomach, making her feel vaguely nauseous. “I told you from the beginning I didn’t want him to know about us. And you agreed.”
“That was when it was a one-time thing. We can’t keep sneaking around behind his back. It’s not fair to him, and it’s not fair to whatever this is between us.”
“What if we tell him and then we break up? What’s the point of putting him through all that stress and worry, potentially ruining your friendship, if it all amounts to nothing in the end?”
Braden’s eyes darkened as he lifted his hands to cup her face. “Charlotte. Even if you decided tomorrow you don’t want to be my little girl anymore, I can promise you even the short time I’ve had with you wouldn’t amount to ‘nothing’. This, what we have, matters to me. Too much to keep it a secret from a man who matters to both of us.”
Jesus. How was she supposed to argue that? “I just don’t want to hurt him.”
“I know, little one. I can’t guarantee it won’t, but hopefully if we’re honest with him upfront instead of sneaking around behind his back, it will help mitigate that hurt.”
Meeting his piercing gaze, she let out a shaky breath. As much as she hated to admit it, Braden had a point. “All right. We can tell him.”
“Good girl. We’re having dinner together Tuesday night, the three of us. I was thinking we could tell him then, but if you’d rather I tell him beforehand, I will.”
Her heart swelled with gratitude at being included instead of being told how it would go. “No, I think it’s best if we tell him together. He’s less likely to murder you if I’m there. I think.”
“Fair enough,” he said with a chuckle before sobering again. “I am sorry I didn’t talk to you first.”
“It’s okay. I figure it cancels out the whole eavesdropping thing.” But her stomach sank when he raised an eyebrow. “Doesn’t it?”
“That’s not how this relationship works, little one. You’re still going to be punished for eavesdropping. Turn around and face the sink.”
“But Daddy! That’s not fair!”
“I never claimed to be fair. Turn around.” When she didn’t move, everything about him, even his voice, seemed to harden. “Now, Charlotte.”
Huffing out a breath, she turned and braced her hands on the vanity.
“Eyes on me.”
She lifted her gaze to meet his in the mirror, and the intensity in his eyes knocked the breath clear from her lungs.
“Fortunately for you, we need to keep this quiet. Unfortunately for you, I am very practiced at giving naughty little girls the discipline they need, wherever and whenever the situation calls for it.”
Sliding his fingers into the waistband of her leggings, Braden slowly pulled them down over her hips and her ass, exposing all of her most intimate parts to him. When she was bare to the tops of her thighs, he slipped a hand around her waist, down to where she was already embarrassingly wet for him.
Without breaking eye contact, he pressed a finger inside her, and Lottie had to fight back a whimper as need coiled in her belly.
