“Oh I’m sure Auntie Gray loved that explanation,” Josie says dryly.
Fresh waves of humiliation crash over me. “I didn’t really get to tell her why I snuck out. She just sorta lectured me and then she spanked me and… here we are.”
“There’s my good girls.” Auntie Gray’s voice reaches us a moment before she comes to stand in front of us, approval lighting her dark eyes. “Thank you for staying where you were told to. What do you say we head over to the candy store and then do a little shopping before heading home?”
Josie and Lanie jump up from the bench, practically vibrating with excitement and already talking about what kind of candy they’re going to get. I move more slowly, dragging my feet a bit as I follow my family back down the street to the candy store.
Now the colors seem too bright, almost garish as I watch Lanie and Josie hurry excitedly toward their favorite stations. All I can see when I look at the jellybean wall I was so excited about earlier is how angry Auntie Gray was when she came storming in looking for me.
“Tabby? What’s wrong, honey? Don’t you want any candy?”
Auntie Gray’s questioning has my eyes going wide with surprise. “Oh. Um, I kinda figured I wasn’t allowed to have any. ‘Cuz of how naughty I was.”
“I see. And did Auntie Graysayyou weren’t allowed to have any candy?”
“Well… no.”
“Mmhmm. So do you really think I’d be so mean as to bring you back here and not let you have any candy?”
“I don’t know.”
Sighing, she loops her arm through mine and tugs me toward the jellybean wall. “Here.” Pulling a bag from the dispenser on the wall, she hands it to me. “Fill this up. If there is anything less than a full pound of candy in this bag when we check out, I will take you to the bathroom and paddle your bottom red again before making you fill it up. Am I understood?”
“But… I thought…” Her raised eyebrow cuts me off and I can’t help but smile as I take the bag from her hand. “Yes, Auntie.”
“There’s my good girl. Let’s go get some candy.”
CHAPTER 23
COLT
The sound of tires crunching over gravel distracts me from the dozens of unread emails I’m currently wading through. A moment later, the front door slams open and the sound of happy, excited Little girls fills the house.
I’m just about to go find my own babygirl when my office door opens and Tabby appears, her head bowed and her Auntie Gray standing behind her.
“Your Little girl has something to tell you.” Gray nudges my Little one forward. “Go on, honey. It’s okay.”
Head still down, Tabby shuffles forward, and my Daddy radar goes nuts. If I have ever seen a more guilty-looking Little girl in my life, I don’t remember. “What do you need to tell me, Tabitha Grace?”
She peeks up then, just enough for me to catch the glimmer of tears in her eyes. “I’m sorry,” she whispers, her voice trembling in a way that has both my heart and cock aching.
“What are you sorry for, baby?”
Lifting her head, she glances over her shoulder at my sister, who nods encouragingly. With a soft sigh, she turns back to me,her eyes downcast. “I was naughty. Auntie Gray took us to the bookstore but I got bored and snuck out to the candy shop when she wasn’t looking.”
A dozen scenarios run through my mind, each more horrific than the last. I know, on some logical level, that the odds of my babygirl being kidnapped in broad daylight in downtown Forbidden Pines are so low as to be nonexistent, but knowing that does nothing to quell the fear and fury coursing through my veins.
“That was very naughty, indeed. Did your Auntie Gray spank your bottom for sneaking off like that?”
“Yes, Daddy.”
“Good.” Glancing up, I catch my sister’s eye and she jerks her head toward the hall. Taking her cue, I rise from my chair and point to an empty corner in my office. “I want you to put your nose in that corner, with your skirts up so Daddy can see your diaper. I’m going to go talk to your Auntie and when I get back, I expect to see you in that corner or you will be going to bed tonight with your bottom full of Daddy’s cum.”
With a shocked squeak, she hurries to the corner, gathering her skirts up around her waist. Satisfied she’ll stay where I’ve put her, I step out into the hall with Grayson, closing the door behind us. “What happened today?”
“I don’t know, exactly.” Gray runs a hand over her ponytail, a move that tells me she’s agitated, more so than just a little naughtiness would inspire. “We didn’t get much of a chance to talk about why she snuck off. But when I found her, she was chatting it up with the sheriff. I asked her about their conversation and it sounds like they just talked about jellybeans mostly, but I don’t know what she told Reese when I wasn’t around.”
“I’m sure if it was anything…untoward, Reese wouldn’t have let you out of her sight. You really need to do something about all this animosity you hold toward the good sheriff.”
