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“Doing what?”
Moving around the kitchen, he pulled the container of hot chocolate from the fridge and scooped some into a pan on the stove. She loved watching him move. There was a controlled grace there, and a hidden sort of power that reminded her of a jungle cat. “You get this look on your face. Not quite panic, but if I had to guess, you’re caught in some kind of anxiety spiral. You’re obsessing over ‘What ifs’ and thinking all kinds of negative thoughts.”
He retrieved the train cars with the toppings still in them from the other day and placed them on the table between them. “How am I doing so far?”
“I don’t think I like you being able to read my mind,” she grumbled, dropping down into a chair and crossing her arms.
“Too bad, sweetheart. Now, is that what happened while you were in the corner? You got caught in a spiral and it triggered a panic attack?”
“Yes,” she whispered, blinking back a fresh wave of tears. God, she was tired of crying. What grown ass woman cried as much as she had in the past few days?
“I’m sorry. I should have anticipated that.” A mug appeared in front of her, steam rising from the frothy brown liquid inside. “Can you tell me what the spiral was about?”
Just then, she couldn’t imagine anything more humiliating. “I don’t want to.”
“Okay. We’ll come back to it. Let’s backtrack a bit. When you were sitting and watching me, what were you thinking about? Was it another spiral?”
“Not really.” She didn’t really want to talk aboutthateither, but something told her he wasn’t going to let her up from the table until he’d gotten his answers. “I was bored.”
His laugh was so unexpected she nearly jumped out of her chair. “Sorry, sweetheart. I didn’t mean to scare you. If you were bored, why didn’t you just tell me? We could have found something else for you to do. Or we could have played a game.”
“You were working. I didn’t want to bother you.”
“I don’t have anything going on right now that I can’t take a break from. And I’m sorry, I should have told you that. It’s… been a long time since I’ve had anyone else in the house to consider.”
Who was she? Where is she now? What happened to her?MaryAnn was too chicken to actually ask any of those questions, so she offered up a small smile instead. “It’s okay. I’m used to entertaining myself.”
“Well, you don’t need to while you’re here. If you want my attention, all you have to do is ask. If I can’t stop what I’m doing immediately, I’ll give you my best guess on how much longer it will be so you don’t have to sit around wondering. Sound good?”
“Yes Da—yes.” She just stopped herself before letting the title loose. If Dean had caught her near slip up, though, he didn’t mention it.
“Perfect. So, you were bored. Were you wanting to ask if we could play a game or something?”
“Umm, not exactly.”
“Then what were you thinking about?”
What the hell. It wasn’t like her time with him could really get any more humiliating than it already had been. She might as well come clean. “Actually, I was thinking about doing something naughty so you would spank me again.”
CHAPTER10
Well, that wasn’t the answer he’d been expecting. He’d dealt with his fair share of brats over the years, but he hadn’t pegged MaryAnn as one. “You wanted another spanking?”
“Sort of? Is that weird? I’m sorry if that’s weird.”
“No, sweetheart, it’s not weird.” Unexpected, but not weird. “Can you explain why you wanted another spanking?”
“I dunno. Just curious, I guess?”
Interesting. “There’s nothing wrong with a little curiosity. I don’t mind if you want to be naughty, as long as you don’t put yourself in danger physically or emotionally. I am going to be especially strict about you not going outside without permission and no outside contact, because those are very much for your protection. Otherwise, feel free to be as much of a brat as you want.”
“Really?” The tears that had been threatening since he’d pulled her out of that panic attack seemed to vanish in front of his eyes. “You won’t be mad?”
“I can’t promise that. What I can promise is that I won’t ever lay a hand on you when I’m angry. If necessary, I’ll send you to your room so I can have time to calm down before your punishment.”
“Oh. That’s nice. I was never really worried about that, though.”
“What were you worried about, then?”
