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“If you’re looking to get your bottom spanked tonight, you’re well on your way, Charlotte Ann.”
Pushing herself back up in her chair, she glared at him. “I didn’t even do anything!”
“You’re being a tease, and you know it. Now, if I let go of your foot, are you going to be a good girl?”
“Yes, Daddy.”
“That’s my girl.” With one more squeeze of her foot, he released her just as her dad returned to the dining room.
“So, Braden,” he said as he settled back into the seat beside Lottie. “Have you been seeing anyone lately?”
Lottie had to bite the inside of her cheek from laughing when Braden, who had the bad luck of taking a sip of water at exactly the same time Emmett asked that question, inhaled too sharply and nearly choked on his drink.
“Ah…” Braden cleared his throat and set his glass down, where it wouldn’t be a threat to his wellbeing. “You know who I haven’t talked to in ages? Mandy Andersen. After Victor went missing she stopped coming around as much. I tried to get her to join the club a while back, but she wouldn’t come without Victor. I think she’s still convinced he’s coming home.”
Dammit. Was he really going to chicken out on her, after he’d given her that lecture about not sneaking around her dad’s back?
Annoyed by that possibility, she sent him a dark look that he pointedly ignored. Which only made her even more irritated as she drained what was left in her wine glass and poured another. Now it was her turn to ignore his disapproving frown as she filled her glass up almost to the rim.
To Lottie’s left, her dad shook his head somberly. “Poor thing. It’s almost worse, I think, not knowing. At least with Nat we had some sense of closure.”
Danger, danger, danger! If her dad got to talking about her mom, the whole evening was destined to go downhill. And after watching him come alive over the past hour, she was damned if she’d let him withdraw into himself again.
She needed something, anything to divert his attention. Even better if it forced Braden to come clean about their relationship like he’d been so fucking gung-ho about doing just a few days ago. Racking her brain, she took another bite of beef wellington and glanced around the table, desperate for inspiration.
And inspiration she found.
“Daddy,” she said sweetly, making sure her desperation didn’t come through in her tone. “Will you pass the salt, please?”
“Of course, honey.”
“Sure thing, Lottie-bug.”
As she’d hoped, both men reached for the salt shaker in the middle of the table at exactly the same time. And froze with their fingers less than an inch apart.
The look of sheer terror on Braden’s face had her slapping a hand over her mouth to smother the laugh that threatened to escape. If she laughed at him now, she had no doubt she’d be in for the spanking of a lifetime. But the alcohol and the sheer absurdity of the situation was making it increasingly difficult to hold back her mirth.
“Ah… my mistake.” Braden’s smile was distinctly forced, and if she wasn’t mistaken, he was looking a little green around the gills as he pulled his hand back. “I’m just so used to having Aria around…”
“That makes sense.” Though her father’s voice was completely calm, there was a tone to it that had the hair on the back of Lottie’s neck standing on end. “Other than the fact that you clearly said my daughter’s name.”
Braden’s face paled even further as he held his hands up in a time-honored gesture of surrender. “Look, Emmett, I can explain?—”
Her dad’s chair toppled over as he leapt to his feet, startling a shriek out of Lottie. “Explain what, Braden? That you put your filthy hands on my sweet little Lottie?” A vein in his neck popped out as he leaned over the table, invading Braden’s space. “How long have you been waiting? Watching?”
All of a sudden, the color drained from her dad’s face as he spun around to face her. “Oh, god. Lottie. Did he… How old were you…?”
“No, no, no, it wasn’t like that, Dad, I swear.” Desperate to ease her fears, she laid her hands on his arm and squeezed reassuringly. “It wasn’t even Braden’s fault.”
Wrong thing to say, judging by how the color came rushing violently back into her father’s cheeks. “Not his fault? That’s exactly what abusers want you to think!”
“Emmett, please sit down so we can talk about this.” In contrast to her father’s increasingly shrill voice, Braden’s was calm, soothing, and Lottie found herself wanting to crawl into his lap to let him cuddle her.
But she was legitimately worried doing so might give her father a coronary.
This was not the fun little prank she’d hoped it would be.
“I will not sit down. I can’t even fucking look at you, Braden. How could you? She is my child. My everything.”
