“Y-yes, Daddy,” I say, swallowing my questions. I have no doubt I’ll find out soon enough what he means by punishing the inside of my bottom and I’m honestly in no rush to get there.
“Good girl. This is your warmup and then you can have your paddling.”
Daddy’s hard hand connects with my bare skin, knocking the air from my lungs. Over the past few weeks, he’s spanked me plenty hard, but never this hard.
Or fast. It feels like I don’t even have time to think or breathe between swats, and it’s all too soon before it feels as though the pain is going to consume me whole.
Right before it hits that point, however, Daddy stops, his heavy hand coming to rest on my aching bottom. “You are so very loved, my little firecracker. And now our family is going to show you exactly how much. Stand up.”
CHAPTER 28
TABITHA
Wiping at my already streaming eyes, I let Daddy help me to my feet. “I don’t wanna get paddled,” I whine, dancing from foot to foot in a desperate but ultimately useless attempt to ease the burn in my bottom.
“Tabitha.” Daddy’s voice is hard, unforgiving, and it makes me feel about two inches tall. “If you want to argue, I can have your uncles and your auntie double the count.”
Ten swats from each of them?
No, thank you.
When I shake my head, Daddy points to the arm of the couch. “Bend over the arm there and hold on tight to your dino. If you move your hands out of position, whoever is paddling you will start over. Am I understood?”
“Yes, D-Daddy.”
I move myself into position, trying to not think too hard about how much of me this position exposes. Especially since all I’m wearing is one of Daddy’s t-shirts. It doesn’t seem to matter that they all watched Daddy change my diaper right on this very couch earlier, my brain is still screaming about how humiliating it is to be bent over like this with my bare butt in the air.
“All right, Ax. You’re up.”
Something cool and hard taps against my bottom and I have to swallow a whimper as Uncle Axel begins his lecture.
“We love you, Tabitha. And we will always love you, no matter how naughty you are. But if you ever worry us like that again, I can promise you’ll be getting a lot more than just five swats with a paddle from each of us.”
With that, he slams the paddle into my unprotected bottom. For a moment, all my brain registers is the loudcrackof wood meeting skin.
But then the pain erupts, a hundred thousand tiny little bees stinging all over, and I can’t help but kick my feet up as a howl rips from my throat.
“I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I’ll never do it again, I promise!”
“For your sake, little girl, I hope you can keep that promise.”
The second swat brings even more tears to my eyes. “Please, Uncle Axel! I’m sorry!”
“Daddy, stop!” Lanie’s voice is thick with tears, too. “She said she’s sorry!”
Uncle Axel sighs. “And you know as well as anyone that Little girls don’t get to decide when their punishments are over, little runaway. Now, go stand with Auntie Gray before I decide you need a session with this paddle, too.”
There’s a loud, annoyed-sounding huff, but luckily Lanie doesn’t argue any further. I’m not sure I could handle the guilt of my cousins getting in trouble on my behalf after I worried everyone so much.
Once Lanie is out of the way, Uncle Axel swats me with the paddle a third time. And even though it feels like my entire bottom is on fire, I force myself not to cry out so I don’t upset Lanie any more than she already is.
I manage to hold it in through the fourth swat as well, but the fifth shocks a loud cry from me when it lands solidly along the tops of my thighs and my sit-spots.
“You took your paddling so well,” Uncle Axel praises, his tone full of pride. “Uncle Axel is so proud of you, little one.”
Some of the heaviness in my chest begins to break up at his words. “Thank you, Uncle Axel.”
He drops a kiss on my head before turning to the next person in line. “You’re up, Bram.”
