Skidding to a stop in front of the large bookcase, I press my lips together, trying desperately to smother the gasping sound of my own breathing as I scan the books in front of me.
When my gaze lands on the large, leather-bound copy ofWuthering Heights, I nearly sob with relief. Grabbing the top of the spine, I give it a yank and a door to my right swings open.
But just as I’m about to make a dash for my sanctuary, an arm wraps around my waist, lifting me into the air.
“Naughty, naughty little kitten.”
Something inside me snaps at the furious growl of his voice. If he wants a kitten, I’ll give him a fucking hellcat.
Kicking, fighting with everything I have in me, I dig my nails into his forearm, dragging them down his flesh. Blood glistens in the pale moonlight streaming through the windows and triumph pounds in my chest at his roar of pain.
“You aresogoing to regret that, little girl.”
“Let me go!”
“So you can run off again and send that email? Not a fucking chance.”
“I won’t send it.” Fighting hasn’t worked, so maybe begging will. I’m too terrified to be embarrassed by it anymore. “Please, I swear I won’t send it. Just let me go, send me back to New York, and you’ll never hear another word from me ever again.”
“This again?” With a rather impressive snarl that would have given the Beast a run for his money, he stalks over to a chair and sits, flipping me over his knee all in the same move. “What is it going to take to get you to understand that you aremine, Natalie? And I am never fucking letting you go.”
Before I can even process his words, my diaper is ripped from me and his hard hand slams into my unprotected bottom. The force of it rips a shocked yelp from my throat even as he spanksme again, and then again. Fast, hard swats that barely give me any time to breathe, never mindthinkas he lights my ass on fire.
“You belong to me, little girl. And the next time you so much as think about asking me to send you back to New York, I will whip your ass every night until I am one hundred percent convinced you understand where you belong. Do you understand me?”
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry! Please, Daddy, I’m sorry!”
“I didn’t ask for an apology, Natalie Quinn. I asked if you understand that you fucking belong to me and I am not ever sending you back.Do you understand me?”
Every word is punctuated with the hardest spanks I’ve ever felt, hard enough to have the truth pouring out of my mouth before I can think better of it. “I don’t know!”
His hand stills, and his voice is a low growl when he speaks. “What do you mean, you don't know?”
“I d-don’t know! I thought you were gonna—” The actual words stick in my throat. “Send me to sleep with the fishes.”
“Jesus fucking Christ. You thought I was going tokillyou?”
“M-Maybe.”
To my horror, the spanking starts all over again, somehow ever harder and faster than before. “You put that nonsense out of your head right fucking now, little girl. I would end anyone who dared to harm a single hair on your head. You hear me? I would never let any harm come to you, and that sure as hell includes at my own hand.”
Hot tears that are both pain and relief rush down my cheeks as I choke out my answer. “Y-yes, Daddy!”
“Good.” With two final swats, he ends the spanking and just as easily as he flipped me over his knee, he sits me up again, cradling me close as I weep into his chest. “What in the actual hell made you think I would kill you?”
It takes me a moment to stop crying enough to actually talk to him. “The email. I just thought… I didn’t think that was the kind of betrayal a man like you could forgive.”
“Ah.” There’s a world of understanding in that single syllable. “If it were anybody but you, then you’d probably be right. But no, kitten, I have no intention of killing you. Paddling your ass until sitting comfortably is nothing but a fond memory, on the other hand…”
“Didn’t you just do that?”
His laugh is loud and humorless. “That? No, kitten, that was just your spanking for clawing the fuck out of my arm. We still have to deal with you sneaking out of bed, breaking into Daddy’s computer, trying to expose our family’s secrets, and running from Daddy. Trust me when I say the spanking you just got is only the tip of a very large iceberg.”
“Would it help if I said I was really, really sorry?”
“I suppose that depends on whether or not you actually are sorry.”
I open my mouth to assure him that I am, then snap it closed again.
