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Standing outside her bedroom, he listened to her muffled sobs through the door. Poor baby sounded like her heart was breaking.
And maybe it was. He never should have agreed to any of this in the first place. But he had, and now he’d given her a taste of something he’d never fully be able to give her, right before ripping the rug out from under her.
Every cell in his body was urging him forward. Pushing him to walk through the door, to gather her up into his arms, and tell her everything was going to be alright before making love to her until they both couldn’t see straight.
But she deserved better than whatever half-assed relationship he could give her, so instead he turned away and headed back down the stairs to his office.
Sitting at his computer, he stared at the screen, trying to work up the energy to pick up where he’d left off. Though if he was being honest with himself, he didn’t really need to be working. His stores were all in excellent hands with his managers, the paperwork as caught up as it had ever been since he’d been home for the past few days. Even the few security guys he had deployed watching the Monroes and Shannon didn’t really need any supervision. Mostly he’d just been working to stay busy.
To give him something else to do other than play Daddy. Because despite how he’d reacted when she’d actually used that title, he wanted nothing more than to sit and color with her, or let her wipe the floor with him in any given board game, or curl up on the couch and listen to her giggle her way through another Disney movie.
MaryAnn wasn’t the only one who needed to talk some shit out.
A few clicks of his mouse pulled up a connection far more secure than the video chat application MaryAnn had been using, and another pinpointed James’s location, letting him know he was indeed home. Thank god.
“Dean.” James answered his burner phone on the first ring, worry coloring his tone. “Everything okay?”
“Yeah. Have you talked to Livvy?”
“I just walked in the door a few minutes ago. Why? Is there something I should know?”
“It’s nothing major. I left my computer up in my office and MaryAnn snuck on to call Livvy. They weren’t on the call very long and Livvy was at home, so I doubt there’s anything to worry about, but I wanted to let you know. And I wanted to check in, make sure everyone is still taking the necessary precautions.”
“As much as we can without being on complete lockdown. Between your guys and the cops, I can’t imagine we could be much safer. But I’m open to suggestions if you think there’s anything else we need to be doing.”
“No. We can’t very well move all of you to safehouses.” Not that he hadn’t been tempted.
“If I thought the girls would go without a fight…” James sighed. “Anyway, I appreciate the heads up. I’ll remind Livvy and Shannon not to accept calls from MaryAnn’s number, or yours for that matter.”
“Good. That’s good.” Silence fell between them, stretching on for several long seconds as Dean struggled with how to broach the topic of what had happened with MaryAnn.
“Something else on your mind?” Now that his worry had apparently been eased, amusement had crept into James’s voice.
Well, he couldn’t have asked for a better opening than that. “I spanked her.”
“Who? MaryAnn? You spankedMaryAnn?”
“Yeah.”
“Is it safe to assume she consented to this?”
Dean couldn’t help but bristle at the ice in his friend’s tone. “Of course, she did. I’m not an asshole. Well, I am, actually, which is why I’m calling. But not that kind of asshole.”
“I think maybe you should start at the beginning.”
Since it was probably the only way for either of them to make any sense out of what had happened, that was what he did. Starting with getting her to the house and laying down the rules, to her curiosity around being spanked, to the very first spanking he’d given her, and ending with his agreement to let her experiment with being Little and that final punishment that had ended in disaster.
“That’s a lot for such a short time period.”
“I know. It’s too fast and I’m an asshole.”
“I didn’t say that. What’s too fast for someone else may be just the right pace for the two of you. Especially being forced into such close proximity for an extended period of time. It’s only natural things would progress more quickly.”
“Right.”
James’s voice softened. “It’s also natural that you might have some pretty strong feelings about being someone’s Daddy for the first time since Annie.”
“That’s putting it mildly. I still miss her, James. Every fucking day.”
