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“You feel warm on the outside, are you warm enough on the inside too?”
“Yes, thank you.”
“You hungry?”
He’d let her not eat last night but being that cold for that long would burn some calories, he knew that for sure.
“I guess.”
“Then room service it is.”
It wasn’t long until one of the service subs brought by the breakfast he ordered—oatmeal with strawberries and pecans, a spinach and sausage omelet, tea for him and hot cocoa for Nova. She was a little grouchy about eating in bed but didn’t put up too much of a fuss which was good because he knew there would be some upset coming and he wanted her to have something in her belly before they got there.
Once they’d finished breakfast and he’d cleared their dishes to her kitchen for the moment, he sat back down on the side of Nova’s bed. She’d put her pink cat stuffie, Custard, to the side while they ate but now the raggedy thing was back in her arms.
“You and I need to have a chat, little girl.”
The way she kept her face tipped down and only looked up with her eyes said Nova knew this wasn’t about their next snowman-building date.
“You called me Daddy last night, and I liked it. You’re going to keep doing it.”
He wished Nova didn’t look as though she’d just bitten into a lemon. He’d fucking loved it, and he’d really hoped she felt the same, but apparently not. Well, she knew what to say if she really didn’t want to, and he didn’t hear her saying “tater tots” or anything at all so he pressed on.
“Last night you made a choice that was really unsafe. It was April’s fault that I wasn’t there to meet you on time, but you made the decision to go on a walk instead of coming inside.”
“I didn’t want to go to the party,” she said, not meeting his eyes.
Sometimes being a good Daddy was really hard. What he wanted to do was scoop Nova up and hold her. Tell her that no one compared to her and he would’ve rather been with her than anywhere else on earth. But that wasn’t the point. What he needed to do was make sure she knew it was unacceptable to go wandering around in the cold and the dark, especially without telling anyone where she’d gone and then failing to answer her phone. Panic rose in his throat thinking about what could’ve happened if he hadn’t gone out looking for her.
“I understand that. But there are places that are inside that wouldn’t have been the party.”
“I just wanted to see the lights. I—”
Nova clamped her mouth shut. She what?
“They’re going to take them down today and I didn’t get to see all of them,” she mumbled into the top of Custard’s head.
“I’m sorry you didn’t get to see the lights,” he told her. “That must be really disappointing. But sometimes we have to make choices we don’t like to keep ourselves and others safe. I talked to Master Derek last night, and he’s decided you need to be disciplined. He also agreed to let me handle your punishment as long as you were okay with that. Is that all right?”
“Yes, Sir.”
Oh, they were back to Sir. Not for long if he could help it. But he could understand that she wanted the distance of Sir when she was in trouble so he’d leave it for now.
“What do you think your consequences should be for not coming inside when you should have? I know you said you can’t do punishment spankings and I’ll respect that but you do need to be disciplined,” he told her. “How does Master Derek or Nanny J discipline you when you’re naughty?”
“Sometimes I help do dishes in the kitchen. Sometimes I have to help Nanny J clean up in the Nursery or the classrooms, especially if it’s been a glitter day.”
“Are there other ways you’ve been punished?”
“I had a Dom who would punish me by not allowing contact. Please don’t do that.”
Linc’s stomach lurched. He couldn’t imagine punishing a Little that way, especially not Nova. It might be effective in that she’d probably never break those rules again, but he didn’t want to traumatize her.
“I won’t,” he told her. “Ever. That seems really harsh and honestly, like a punishment for me too.”
He could think of a lot of good punishments but most wouldn’t be great for a Little, or they just didn’t fit with the kind of Top he was—or the very limited time he had with Nova.
“Is it any physically painful discipline that’s off the table or just spanking?”
