The question caught her off-guard, and for a moment she could only blink at him. “Ah… pink. But not like, light pink. I love a really bright, hot pink. Even more if it’s sparkly. You?”
“Black, like my soul.”
Silence stretched between them before they both burst out laughing. “I don’t really have a favorite,” he said when their mirth subsided. “They all have their uses.”
“Yeah, but having a favorite color isn’t about usefulness. It’s about what makes your soul happy. Like, when you see that color it makes you smile for no reason, or gives you a little boost in your spirit.”
Seemingly giving her words some consideration, he nodded slowly. “Pink, then. But very specifically the shade of pink your ass turns when I’m spanking it.”
Heat infused her skin. It was embarrassment and pleasure and need all at once, warming every inch of her. Even knowing he didn’t actually mean it and he was just flirting, well, what woman wouldn’t be flattered by that kind of flirting?
“There!” Triumph rang in his voice as he reached for her, cupping her face and running a thumb across her cheek. “That’s the color, right there.”
“You’re ridiculous.” Pulling away, she swatted at his hand and returned her attention to her shrimp and grits.
“Maybe. But you like it.”
“I do not.”
“Naughty girl. You know what happens to little girls who lie to their Daddies, don’t you?”
Her heart kicked into high gear, galloping in her chest as she swallowed hard. “What?”
In one ridiculously quick, ridiculously smooth move, he plucked the bowl from her hands, set it out of the way, and pulled her face down over his lap once more.
“They get spanked, and then they get their mouths washed out with Daddy’s cock.”
Chapter Seven
Lochlan
* * *
Thank fuck. He’d been hoping for an excuse to get her back over his knee.
And maybe “Because I want to” was a perfectly legitimate reason to redden his babygirl’s delectable ass, but there was something about the thought of punishing her, of hurting her because she’d earned it that had his heart beating fast as he ran his hand over the generous swell of her bottom.
Cupping one cheek, he squeezed, savoring the way his fingers sank into that soft, supple flesh while she whined and fluttered her feet against the mattress in response. “It’s not nice to lie, little girl.”
“I didn’t!” More of that adorable whining, now combined with the cutest fucking pout he’d ever seen when she craned her neck to look up at him. “You’re just a bully.”
“Oh, I am absolutely that, babygirl. Something you should keep in mind if you ever decide to really test me.”
Awareness filled her eyes, as if for the first time she was realizing that maybe he was more dangerous than she’d expected.
“You wouldn’t really hurt me.”
A statement, not a question, but he felt compelled to answer either way. “I might. I’m not a good man, babygirl. And I enjoy hurting you. Especially when you’ve been naughty.”
“But you wouldn’t hurt me. Not like… Not in a way I couldn’t come back from.”
He could. Easily. He knew every way there was to cause a human pain that would, eventually, break their mind down until they were nothing but a shell of their former selves. And he’d employed those techniques more times than he could even remember, shredding bodies and minds to extract whatever information he needed before discarding said bodies as a message to his family’s enemies.
But with her… “No. No, baby, I wouldn’t ever hurt you like that.”
She nodded, once, and then lowered her head to arms, her hips shifting so that her bottom jiggled. “Okay then. Punish me, Daddy.”
My pleasure, babygirl.
