Waving over her shoulder, she strides across the street, leaving me alone with my Little girl in my arms, knowing that she’s dead wrong. There is no danger of my becoming wrapped around Natalie’s little finger.
Because I’m already there.
Chapter Fifteen
Natalie
The one good thing about being tortured all day is it makes for agreatnight of sleep. So much so that I don’t even have time to think about sneaking out of bed to do more snooping, which is probably for the best, all things considered.
Luckily, the following day isn’t all that bad. Daddy wakes me up and, as expected, forces me to use my diaper before changing me and getting me dressed. We spend most of the day in the library, with me lounging on a window seat, soaking in the sunlight as I read and nap the day away.
A girl could get used to this life, even with all the baby stuff.
It isn’t until well into the afternoon that I start to suspect my easy, breezy day is about to come to a rather dramatic end. Setting his book aside, Daddy rises from his armchair, the one he dragged over to the window so he could “keep an eye on me” as he put it, though the romantic inside me secretly hopes it’s just because he wanted to be closer to me.
“Come on, kitten. Papa has run you a bath.”
Without looking up from my book, I shake my head. “I don’t need a bath. We didn’t do anything today.”
“We’re having company for dinner, so yes, you do need a bath.”
My book disappears from my hands and I pout up at him. “I was reading that!”
“And it will be right here for you to finish tomorrow.” Bending down, he scoops me up in his arms in that effortless way he has, and my heart flutters wildly in my chest. “Tonight is about family.”
“You mean the uncles and Auntie Cat.” Already, my mind is going a mile a minute, trying to figure out what they might have planned for me.
“Yes. And their Little ones, Victoria, Juliet, and Isabella.”
“Like a playdate?”
A smile tugs at his lips. “Not tonight, but we’ll be sure to have them over soon, I promise.”
“Oh. Then what’s going on?”
One eyebrow raising, he looks down at me as he carries me up the stairs to my nursery. “Your curiosity is going to get you in trouble one of these days.”
“Yeah, I might get held hostage on an island with a bunch of kinky billionaires and turned into some mob boss’s baby. Oh, wait.”
His laughter rings out in the bathroom as he sets me on my feet. “Your sarcasm isdefinitelygoing to get you in trouble, especially with your uncles.”
“You like my sarcasm.”
Reaching between my legs, he unsnaps the onesie he insisted I wear today, and pulls it over my head. “I do. But keep in mind I won’t always be around. There will be times you’ll be with just one of your uncles or your Auntie Cat. And if they decide you stepped over the line into disrespect, they will spank thatadorable bottom. And if that happens, I’ll be forced to spank you again when you get home.”
“Well, that hardly seems fair. If it’s okay with you it should be okay with them.”
He pins me with a stern expression as he pulls my diaper from me, leaving me completely bare in front of him. “That isn’t how it works, kitten. When you’re with another adult, you follow their rules or you’ll be punished.”
“I don’t think I should be punished just because my uncles all had their sense of humor surgically removed.”
“Perhaps not. But that’s the way it is, so if you want to avoid a double punishment all you have to do is behave.”
Once again picking me up as though I weigh nothing, he places me in the warm water. The bubbles are blue today, and they make me smile for a moment before I remember I’m supposed to be arguing with him. “But it’s not fair.”
“Those are the rules, kitten, and arguing with me about them isn’t going to change anything.”
“Stupid rules,” I mutter, sliding deeper into the fragrant water.
