“But how do you know? You don’t know... you can’t—”
“I know that the more I’m with you now, the more I want to be with you.”
“Yes, but you don’t know how I can be, and...” She huffed a small sigh, unhappily admitting, “Sometimes I do things that people don’t like.”
“Ex-husband and in-law types of people? Are those the ones you’re giving more credence to right now than me?”
She flushed a little more, dropping her gaze to his collar. Her brow furrowed. “Maybe,” she muttered. “That doesn’t mean they’re wrong though, right? Why can’t it just mean that they knew me longer than you have, and they just have a better grasp on what my character really is. I mean—” She faltered when he patted her stomach.
“Up, baby girl.”
“No, wait,” she said, her expression devastated. “Don’t get mad. I’m just saying what if!”
“No, you’re not,” he told her gently. “You’re looking for reasons why they have to be right not only for voicing all thestupid things they’ve said about you, but for saying it so often that you’ve begun to believe it. Stace baby, what they said isn’t true and for as long as you are with me, you will never be allowed to repeat what they said as if it’s gospel. It’s not. It’s cruel, it’s untrue, and every time you start to believe them over me, I will not only spank you, I will bare your bottom and you will be a very sorry little girl before I’m through. Is that clear?”
She stared at him, as if on the verge of tears.
“Stand up,” he told her, carefully lifting Lily off her chest so she could obey. “Come on. Right now, or do I need to use something harsher than my belt before you’ll mind what Daddy says.”
Her eyes flew open wide. So did her mouth. “N-no, Daddy.”
She scrambled up, wiping her hands on the seat of her jeans as he sat up. She backed away when he stood, her hands still fumbling behind her back. He didn’t need to check to know that she was rubbing her bottom, feeling for any lingering tenderness from his last spanking, but there wasn’t any. He’d spanked her soundly, yes, but he hadn’t spanked anywhere near hard enough or long enough to leave lasting marks.
Lily woke up only long enough to see who held her, then she lay her head back on his shoulder and slipped back into sleep. Stace reached for her, but Brock stopped her. “I don’t want you holding her if you should slip in the snow and fall. I’m far less likely to drop someone if I only have to grab for you.”
“We’re going outside? But it’s so cold!”
“We’re just going next door so we don’t wake up Pops or Lily. We don’t need an audience for this, do we?”
“We don’t need to do this at all, in my opinion,” she said, disheartened. “Can we just call it a mulligan and start over? I’ll be a good girl,” she wheedled. “I’ll try really, really hard and not mention them again. I promise I will.”
Catching her chin in his free hand, he made her look into his eyes. “I love how all I have to do is call myself Daddy and you go straight into Little headspace. And I know you’re going to be a good girl, because no matter what you say or what you do, you will always be Daddy’s good girl. But I also need you to understand that when I say something, I am a Daddy of my word. If you have earned a spanking, you will get it. Every single time. If you say bad things about yourself, you will get spanked. When you start talking about your ex and his mother as if they get a say in how your life progresses from here on out, I will drop your pants and panties, and I will bust your little behind. Above all else, if you start to repeat the things they’ve said as if they still apply to you, I will not only bust your naughty bottom, Daddy’s belt is coming off.”
She rubbed her bottom again, making no effort to pull her chin from his hand. “B-but...”
“No buts,” he said firmly. “Did you or did you not just tell me they knew your character better than I do?”
“But they do,” she said in a very small voice. “We were together for five years...”
“How soon into your relationship before he started cutting you down?”
She opened her mouth, then closed it again. “I-I don’t know.”
“Do you remember what it was about?”
She didn’t need to answer that aloud. It was all over the way she tried to back away again, this time pulling at her chin so she wouldn’t have to continue meeting his eyes. Hers were too expressive. He knew at a glance the answer was yes.
“I made supper one night. It wasn’t good,” she said quietly.
“Was there anything wrong with that supper?” he asked.
“I cooked it too long. It was dark and crispy around the edges, but honestly, I really didn’t think it wasthatbad. It was the second time I’d tried to make a casserole, and I put tater tots onthe top and I thought...” She huffed, for the first time defiance stealing into the lines of her brow. She worked very hard to keep it aimed at the floor. “I thought it was very tasty. Tater tots should be crispy.”
That almost made him smile. “Do you often cook with tater tots?”
She shook her head. “I don’t cook anymore. Nothing I make is any good—”
“You just earned yourself lines as well as a spanking.”
