Junie squeezed her eyes shut and buried her face against his back. She had never been so mortified in her life. And yet her body was reacting in ways that made her want to squirm.
A door clicked open and Tanner carried her inside a room and kicked the door shut behind them. The slam echoed in the sudden quiet.
Scents of leather, vanilla, and cedar filled the room.Warm golden light came from more lanterns and strands of lights strung along the thick wooden beams overhead. The walls still showed the original barn wood in places, softened by cream paint and soft sage accents.
A large sturdy spanking bench sat in the center of the room, padded in deep burgundy leather. A king-sized bed with crisp white linens waited against one wall. In the corner stood a heavy wooden armchair that looked built for serious discussions—or serious spankings. A tall cabinet in the corner held neatly arranged implements behind its glass doors, and a small table nearby was stocked with aftercare supplies: blankets, lotion, water bottles, and a small basket of stuffed animals.
Tanner carried her straight to the middle of the room and set her down on her feet. His hands stayed on her hips for a moment, steadying her when her knees wobbled. Then he let go and stepped back.
“Corner,” he ordered. “Now.”
Junie’s stomach flipped. This was just like in one of the books she secretly kept on her e-reader.
Her feet started moving on their own, carrying her to the corner he pointed at. She pressed her nose to the wall, hands clasped behind her back, and tried to breathe. Behind her, she could hear him pacing slowly, boots heavy on the wooden floor. He was breathing hard. She could feel the anger and frustration rolling off him in waves.
Oh no.
This was so bad.
This was so exciting!
Her thoughts were a jumbled mess.
He was really angry, but he’d also said he was her Daddy, at least for the night. He hadn’t asked for consent. She needed to learn the rules. Had she implicitly consented by not protesting? The better question was, why hadn’t she?
Oh yeah, because she’d wanted to have Tanner as her Daddy for as long as she’d known what Daddies were.
In for a penny, in for a pound, she thought. She was ontosomething. A more philosophical approach to the whole thing was called for. Philosophically, she wanted whatever was about to happen, right?
So why was she scared out of her mind?
Her bottom already felt warm from the way he’d grabbed her earlier. Her heart was pounding so hard that he must be able to hear it. She shifted her weight from one foot to the other, the ache between her thighs growing despite the nervousness twisting in her stomach.
Tanner stopped pacing. The silence stretched until it felt like it might snap.
“Turn around, little girl.”
His command hit her like a warm hand between her shoulder blades. She turned slowly, keeping her hands behind her back. Tanner stood a few feet away, arms crossed over his chest, jaw tight. His storm-blue eyes were dark and intense.
“For tonight,” he said, voice dropping into that gravelly tone that always made her knees weak, “I’m your Daddy. Do you understand what that means right now?”
Junie swallowed. Her voice came out small and shaky. “Yes… Daddy.”
God! Had she really just called Tanner Daddy?
Something fierce flashed in his eyes at the word. He stepped closer, cupping her chin so she had to look up at him.
“Good girl. Then you’re going to listen very carefully. You came into this club. You filled out that questionnaire and checked green on almost everything. Did you even know what half of the things on that list were?”
She straightened her back. “I read, you know. I know a lot more about these things than you might think.”
His eyes narrowed. “Oh, really. You do, huh? Then tell me, naughty girl, what is sounding, and what is it you like about it?”
Sounding? Had that been on the list? What the heck was it? She couldn’t very well ask, so she took her best guess. “Sounding… is… um, when you talk about how deep you are, or how far you want to go into Little space. That may not be it exactly, but it’s close.”
Tanner’s jaw flexed. “You’re not on a submarine, Cupcake. You’re in a fucking kink club. And you just gave your play partner free rein to shove things in your pee hole.”
Holy catfish whiskers. “So…not about Little play.” She didn’t like the way he began to rub his hand over his thigh. “Okay, so that was just a one-off. I knew what the rest were.”
