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The corner? That sounded even more boring than writing lines had been. It wasdefinitelymore boring than coloring. “I don’t want to.”
“Your options are to talk to me about whatever you were thinking so hard about just now or stand in the corner until you’re ready to do so. It’s up to you, sweetheart.”
“Those options suck.” Good lord, where had that whiny, petulant tone come from? She’d never even sounded like that as a child, at least not that she could remember.
“I’m sorry you feel that way.”
Uh huh. Sure you are.“I think I’ll just color some more.”
“That wasn’t an option, little girl. Now you get to choose between standing in the corner or standing in the corner with a freshly spanked bottom.”
Those options were even worse. Why the heck had she agreed to this again?
Right. Because her friends both had Daddies and they were two of the happiest people she knew. Because having someone to watch over her and take care of her and keep her safe had sounded positively lovely.
And because she’d really,reallyliked that spanking.
Okay, so, what was she going to do? She’d already distracted him and gotten herself in trouble, so what was a bit more? On the plus side, she’d earn herself another spanking, which she did kind of want.
But if she kept getting in trouble, would he eventually get tired of her and make her leave?
Worse, what if she had to stay because Nate was still on the loose, but Dean decided he didn’t want to be her… whatever he was now? Would he stop letting her experiment with being Little? Would he stop punishing her when she messed up?
The idea of losing this new dynamic they had was far worse than the threat of a few minutes of boredom, so she slowly pushed to her feet and trudged toward the single empty corner in his office.
“Hands on your head, little girl. Five minutes in the corner and then we’re going to have a talk.”
The emphasis he put ontalkhad butterflies exploding in her tummy. Did he mean they were going to sit down and actually talk about things? Or was he using ‘talk’ as a euphemism for spanking? That seemed to be a thing in some of the books she’d read.
And if he meant it the second way, did that mean he was angry?
She hadn’t meant to actually make him mad. How bad was her punishment going to be if he was really mad? Oh, god. She should have just been a good girl and done as he’d asked the first time.
A familiar pressure wrapped around her chest and she squeezed her eyes shut, doing her best to focus on breathing through it. She wasnotgoing to make a fool of herself and risk ruining everything by having a panic attack just because he’d put her in the corner, for fuck’s sake.
“Breathe, sweetheart,” he murmured in her ear, his hand resting gently on the back of her neck. She was so wrapped up in her panic, she hadn’t heard him cross the room. “Deep breath in through the nose. You know how to do this.”
Tears of humiliation stung her eyes, but she forced herself to focus on his words. The deep, soothing cadence of his voice. Dragging in as much oxygen as she could, she held it in her lungs until he instructed her to exhale, slowly.
Inhale, hold, exhale. Inhale, hold, exhale. Inhale, hold, exhale.Over and over until finally the vice around her chest loosened and her heartbeat no longer rivaled the galloping of horses at Pimlico.
“Sorry. I’m sorry,” she blurted out with her final exhale. “I’m such a—”
“No. We aren’t doing that, little girl.” The firmness in his voice should have scared her because it was the same way he’d sounded right before he’d spanked her the first time. But oddly enough, it settled her system even more, enough that she was able to slowly pry her eyes open and look up at him through a sheen of tears.
“I’m really sorry,” she whispered. “I don’t know why I’m like this.”
“Why don’t you come with me and we’ll get some hot cocoa and talk about it.”
“But, aren’t I in trouble?” Naughty girls shouldn’t get rewarded with hot cocoa.
“You still owe me the truth about what you were thinking about so loudly a little while ago, but no, you aren’t in trouble. Come on.”
Sniffling quietly, she slipped her hand into his and followed him out of the office to the cozy kitchen where they’d so far taken all their meals. There was a much larger dining room off to the side, but he didn’t seem inclined to use it.
Maybe it was for fancy parties. Did he throw parties? Was she keeping him from entertaining? She already knew she was keeping him from his work. The last thing she wanted to do was interrupt his entire life.
“You’re doing it again, sweetheart.” Although his tone was gentle and free of any judgment, she couldn’t help the flush of embarrassment his words brought to her cheeks.
