When I’ve finally wrung every ounce of pleasure I can from her body, I tuck her into bed with me. Snuggled beneath the covers with my babygirl, I drop into sleep and dream of the perfect future I can see stretching out in front of us.
CHAPTER 9
MIA
What have I done?
Staring at the sunlight playing across the ceiling of Sloane and Ethan’s bedroom, I swallow hard against a rising wave of nausea. How could I have let this happen? How could I have been so weak, so fuckingselfish?
“Mmm.” Beside me, Sloane stirs with a soft, satisfied hum as she rolls and nuzzles her nose against my neck. “Morning, baby. How’d you sleep?”
“Okay.” Like a fucking log. Probably the best sleep I’ve had in years. Which is just one more thing for me to feel guilty about.
“Good.” Her voice is still slurred with sleep, rough and sexy in a way that stirs my arousal even as my stomach churns.
I really am the worst fucking person.
A soft hand strokes my stomach, moving lower, stoking those fires deep inside me. I squeeze my eyes shut against the growing need and the tears burning at the backs of my eyes. “Sloane, we can’t.”
Her hand stills. “What did you just call me?”
There’s steel in her voice and my heart stutters, then races. I force my eyes open and turn to meet her stern gaze. “Last nightwas a mistake,” I say, ignoring her question entirely. “It can’t happen again. Ethan…”
Anger still glitters in her eyes, but her mouth curls up in a smirk. “You let me worry about your Daddy.”
“He’snotmy Daddy. Not anymore.”
“Oh, but he absolutely is, babygirl. But that’s a conversation for later, when he’s home. Right now we have something else to discuss.”
Releasing her hold on me, she rolls nimbly off the bed and strides toward one of two giant walk-in closets, her lush curves swaying with every step. Anxiety skitters up and down my nerves as I push myself up in the bed, waiting for her to return. I should go, run to the spare room and lock myself in there, but fear roots me to the spot.
Fear… and need.
Both are pounding through my veins when Sloane reemerges from the closet holding a thick leather belt in her hands. “I told you, the next time you neglected to use my proper name I would take one of Daddy’s belts to your naughty bottom. Roll over on your tummy, Mia.”
“Sloane, please.” I swallow hard and squeeze my thighs together to ward off both the rising fear and the growing arousal. “Can we talk about this?”
“There’s nothing to discuss. Little girls who don’t follow the rules get their bottoms spanked. It’s as simple as that.”
It’s not. Nothing about this is simple. And yet, there is a part of me that latches onto her words, clinging to them like a desperate man clinging to a lifeboat in the middle of a churning sea.
Because if there’s nothing to discuss, if I’m just a Little girl following the rules she was given, then none of this is my fault. I can’t be held responsible because I’m just a baby.
Right?
That logic has more holes than Swiss cheese, but it’s enough to calm the churning in my stomach and to give me the strength to roll onto my tummy, my bottom exposed for my punishment.
“Good girl,” Mommy praises quietly, running her hand over my bare bottom. She’s Mommy again in my head, because thinking of her that way makes it easier to believe I really am just a Little girl with no choice in this game we’re playing. “You called me Sloane twice this morning, so we are going to spell out ‘Mommy’ twice with the belt. If it happens again after this, I will plug your bottom with ginger while I whip you. Am I understood?”
Oh, god. Even if I hadn’t already decided to submit, that threat would have done me in. Ihateginger, with a passion, and I would do literally anything to avoid that fate. “Y-yes, Mommy.”
“Good. With each lick of the belt, I want you to spell out mypropername. Do you understand what I want from you, baby?”
“Yes, Ma’am.”
“My sweet girl. Make sure you don’t miss a letter or we’ll have to start over.”
With that, the leather snaps against my ass, leaving behind a line of pure hellfire that has me kicking my feet and squealing at the agony exploding across my skin. “M!” I manage to yell out before she can scold me.
