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The corners of his lips turned up, but the smile didn’t quite reach his eyes. “Always.”
“I did pull away. And there were days when submitting to you was harder than it’s ever been, and I probably pushed you away. I own that, and I know that’s on me, even though that’s not what I ever meant to do. But youletme push you away. You never talked to me about it or asked me why. You just let me go, and it broke my heart.”
Silence filled the room, and she swore she could feel the physical weight of it. Did he feel it too? Did it sit on his chest, making each breath a chore like it did for her?
“You’re right,” he said after what felt like a lifetime of waiting, his voice filled with grief.
Shock had her mouth falling open. “What?”
“You’re right. I thought you wanted me to back off, and instead of sitting down and talking it out, maybe renegotiating our dynamic, I pulled away from you. I’m sorry, Livvy. I let you down, both as your husband and your Daddy.”
The knots in her stomach began to loosen, and for the first time in months, she honestly felt like they might make it through this rough patch. “We’re both to blame. I wasn’t honest with you about how I was feeling, and I should have talked to you instead of being a brat.”
“Well, let’s not get carried away.” Now the smile did reach his eyes, lighting up the pale blue. “You know I love it when you’re a little bratty.”
“I do.”
Cupping her face with one hand, he ran the pad of his thumb over her cheekbone and she sighed at the simple, sweet touch. “How about we give ourselves a fresh start? Wipe the slate clean and hit the reset button tonight.”
She smiled, love for him filling all the empty places she hadn’t realized were there. “Okay, Daddy.”
Chapter3
The vise around James’s heart loosened at his wife’s simple response.Okay, Daddy.When was the last time he’d heard those words from her lips? When was the last time she’d called him Daddy at all?
He’d thought she was over being his little girl. And though it had broken his heart, every day, he’d kept his mouth shut. All he’d ever wanted was for her to be happy, and he’d thought she was satisfied being nothing more than his wife and business partner.
But that afternoon, he’d gotten a glimpse beneath the tough exterior. When he’d walked in her office, she hadn’t been quick enough to hide the glimmer of tears in her eyes. So, he’d pushed his luck. And when he’d leaned over her desk to lay down the law, it hadn’t just been tears shimmering in her eyes.
There had been pure, raw need. A kind he hadn’t seen in her or felt in himself for months.
And when she’d walked out of her bathroom, her hair in the high ponytail he adored, wearing nothing but a plain pink tank top and pair of pajama bottoms with tiny hippos frolicking on a field of blue? His heart had stopped.
But he’d needed more. Needed to hear it from her lips before he felt like he could let his guard down. The relief he’d felt when she’d finally blurted out that she wanted her Daddy back had nearly made him weep with joy.
And now, with her kneeling at his feet, watching him expectantly, he had some decisions to make. They needed a fresh start, and if he knew his girl, there was only one way to go about it.
“Stand up, Olivia.”
Her eyes went wide, and there was just a little flicker of fear in the brown depths. But she pushed to her feet and stood in front of him, her fingers picking at the fabric of her pajama bottoms.
“I’m going to ask you a question, and I want an honest answer. Okay?”
The corners of her mouth turned down in a small frown, and she hesitated for several seconds, but eventually he got a nod out of her.
“Have you been acting out at work to see if Daddy would punish you?”
Another hesitation followed by a much smaller, slower nod.
He’d wondered. Months ago, when the distance between them had begun to grow, her behavior at work and at home had changed. More and more he’d overheard her swearing in the office or being rude to MaryAnn. He’d thought it was simply her exercising her newfound independence. Hindsight being 20/20, he could now see the behavior for what it was: a cry for help.
Well, his little girl was about to get all the help she needed.
Hardening his heart against the urge to simply pull her onto his lap and cuddle hell out of her, he put all the ‘Daddy’ he could muster into his words as he laid out his plans for the evening. “I thought that might be the case. So, here’s what is going to happen. You’re going to go over my knee for a long, hard spanking on your bare bottom. Then you’re going to sit at your desk and write lines while I go make us some dinner. After we eat, we’re going to have another discussion. How the rest of the night goes depends on our talk.”
“What kind of ‘talk’?” she asked, suspicion coloring her tone. Not that he could blame her, since his actions over the past few months hadn’t exactly been predictable.
“Just a talk, little one. We’re going to discuss where we went wrong and how we can make sure things don’t go so far off the rails going forward.”
