Page 26 of Mariah

This time there was no question in his voice, no hesitation, just a soft-spoken but firm explanation.

“Yes, Daddy,” Mariah answered.

And then his hands were in the waistband of her leggings, pulling them swiftly down her buttocks and over her thighs, and finally down her calves and onto the floor. He did the same with her Pull-up, eliciting a squeak when he pulled it all the way off, something Baze, and even Knox had never done .

Her squeak seemed to give him pause and he rubbed a circle on her lower back with his free hand. “Everything okay, little one?”

“Yes, Daddy,” she breathed, thankful for how tender and careful he was being with her.

“I’m going to begin now. I’ll start with a warm-up, using only my hand.”

“Yes, Daddy.” She wondered what he planned to use after the warm-up, that wasn’t his hand, but she didn’t dare ask. Instead, she drew a deep and fortifying breath and waited.

She didn’t have to wait long. His hand crashed against the fleshiest part of her left bottom cheek with a smack and did the same on the right before she even had a chance to react or draw another breath. His hand was flat, and hard like a paddle, but she could tell he wasn’t using his full strength.

He continued to spank, with his hard flat hand alternating sides and creating a pattern of tenderness all across her bottom from just underneath her tailbone to the tops of her thighs. She could tell he was an experienced spanker. She could also tell he was holding back and building slowly up to a harder spanking. And just when it really started to hurt, he stopped.

“The warm-up is done,” he announced. “The real punishment will begin now.”

“Yes, Sir,” she whispered thickly, waiting for further instruction. She expected him to have her change positions or at least get up for a moment so he could retrieve an implement, but he only shifted slightly. She guessed he meant to continue with his hand. Maybe he didn’t have any implements, or at least, he hadn’t brought any to Utopia with him since he hadn’t expected to end up with a Little of his very own. She suspected he knew how to make his hand hurt though, and had no doubts that by the end of her punishment, she would be very sore and equally sorry, but free of the guilt that had been haunting her for days.

Bracing herself, she stiffened, and quickly realized she’d been very, very right and very, very wrong. She would surely be sore and sorry, but there was no way Chef Graham was using his hand. Shrieking at the sudden and fierce onset of pain, she twisted her body to peer over her shoulder. “What is that?” she squealed.

Graham waved the instrument in the air. Her eyes widened as she realized what she was seeing—his favorite wooden spoon—the one she’d seen him use in the kitchen countless times. She’d never imagined he’d end up using it on her! Well, okay, so she’d imagined it, but she’d never thought it would actually happen. Her eyes met his and she gasped in shock. “A spoon?” she cried, aghast.

He winked. “What else would a chef use?”

Chapter 12

Graham

Okay, so, he’d have to get a brand-new spoon to use in the kitchen now, but his last-minute implement grab had truly been a stroke of genius. What else was a chef Daddy to use on his naughty Little sous chef? And besides, there’d always been something about a Little and a spoon, at least every Little he’d known anyway. Judging from her first reaction, Mariah was no different.

“Owie!” she cried, squirming beneath his grasp. “Why a spoon? Don’t you need it to cook with?”

“I have others.”

“But that one’s your favorite!”

“And I can order a new one. Besides, it’s fitting, don’t you think, sousie?”

“Susie!” Mariah shrieked. “Why are you calling me that?” Wrenching free of his grasp, she jumped off his lap and glared at him.

“Sousie, not Susie. Because you are my little sous chef,” he explained patiently, his eyebrows furrowing in concern. Her reaction seemed disproportionate.

“Oh.” Mariah fell silent, her lips twisting into a thoughtful pout.

“Do you have a problem with the nickname, little one?”

“I guess not… but… Susan is my middle name. It’s on my paperwork. I thought that was why.”

“I see.” He chuckled, amused at the coincidence. “I think it’s the perfect nickname for you then. But do you have an objection to the name? Did it trigger you?”

“No, I guess not. It surprised me, is all. I’ve never had a nickname before.”

“So it’s not something your family called you?” he clarified, gauging her response.

“My family called me Mariah Sue,” she admitted with a heavy sigh.