Page 15 of Daddy's Reckoning
“I told you I wasn’t ready for physical punishment yet.”
His expression shuttered as he regarded me with a cool silence. “How long has it been?” he finally asked.
Shit. I’d boxed myself into a corner with that one. What did I say? Did I keep the ruse going, or admit it? This might be my chance to assure him I planned to do this on my own and didn’t need anything from him. It wasn’t like I could move out of town and hide a child for the rest of my life.
But… no. I didn’t do the thing that made sense. Instead, I lifted my chin and changed direction. “Long enough, I suppose. But that doesn’t matter. If I say no physical punishments, then you don’t get to show up on my doorstep one day and demand I submit to one.”
He nodded slowly. “Fair enough. I’m still of the opinion that you won’t learn your lesson or feel properly chastised from anything but a spanking. But I’ll concede because I would never do anything to compromise your health or well-being. However, if you’ll remember, you said that schoolwork overload was what was keeping you from in-person meetings; it never had anything to do with any medical procedure. So since classes and schoolwork are no longer an issue, I’m well within my rights to be here to administer in-person discipline.” He stepped closer, until our bodies were practically touching.
I sucked in air because it felt like his presence was pulling all of the oxygen from the room. Damnit, I realized, he had me there. But I didn’t back down. Fighting was the only thing keeping me from confessing, and I’d already put my foot in my mouth and talked myself out of the one thing I wanted—his hand on my ass. His lecture floating through the air to my ears, absolving me of the still-lingering guilt I had, and the fear that I wasn’t going to make it.
“I just don’t see what you need to do in person that you couldn’t do over the phone.”
A delicious smile slowly spread across his face, sending a shiver down my spine. “Would you like me to show you?”
It was a rhetorical question, obviously, since he was clearly going to. That was, after all, exactly what he’d come here to do.
He came here to spank you, my inner voice argued. But you won’t let him.
I don’t know if it’s safe!
I’d already said all the wrong things, and backed myself into a corner. I couldn’t backtrack no matter how badly I wanted to, so I let him take my hand and lead me toward the bedroom. The door was locked behind us before I remembered that Theo preferred to administer punishments with me in the nude.
I hadn’t figured out a way to limit that before his hands were on the hem of my shirt, pulling it over my head.
I crossed my arms to cover myself, but he shook his head.
“Don’t hide yourself from Daddy.”
He was acting like nothing had changed, but of course everything had. He just didn’t know that.
I slowly lowered my arms. There was a part of me that hoped he would notice the differences, but if he did, he didn’t say anything.
His chest heaved as his hot gaze flicked over my body. “Damn. I missed your tight little ass.”
“You can’t even see my ass right now!”
He grinned like the Cheshire Cat. “Doesn’t matter. I can see the rest of you, and I know it’s there.”
I rolled my eyes.
He leaned back, crossing his arms over his chest, and pointed to the pajama shorts I was still wearing. “Come on now, those need to go, too. You know the rules.”
I quickly dropped and stepped out of them until all I had on was a tiny little purple thong. He could see basically all of me now, and I wondered if he would notice the little bump above my waistline.
“Go over to the bed.” His voice was gruff with what I thought—or at least wanted to think—was arousal, and as I turned, out of the corner of my eye I caught him adjusting himself.
The sight made me smirk, throwing myself face-down on the bed to hide my smile.
“Did I tell you to lay down on the bed?” His voice was hard and demanding as he came up behind me.
“Uh, no. Sorry. Force of habit.” Grimacing, I flipped over and propped up on my elbows as I stared up at him.
“You know you need a spanking. That’s why you did that.”
“I can neither confirm or deny,” I sassed.
The look he sent me was feral, and I could feel his eyes scrutinizing every inch of my body. Why did I sass him the way I did? Another force of habit, but one I needed to tamp down.