When we finally drag ourselves out of the bathroom, I can barely keep my eyes open, and Kian seems like he could use a good, solid night of sleep.
We don’t say anything for a while, his breathing slow and even. My mind buzzes despite my exhaustion from the past few days. Flashes of my mother’s face when she told me why she killed my father buzz in my mind. I should feel some guilt for shooting her. Or sadness. Or something other than the immense relief that I’m experiencing. Maybe that makes me a terrible person, or maybe I just know I relieved the world of a little evil, and nobody will have to be subjected to her cruelty again.
It takes some time before sleep comes for me, but eventually my mind goes silent, and my eyes flutter shut.
I’m home.
Right where I belong.
And I couldn’t be happier.
It wasinevitable I’d find myself bent over Kian’s lap at some point for disobeying him. I just didn’t think it would happen before I’ve even had the chance to get a sip of coffee this morning.
“Daddy,” I whine as I clutch the bedding under my chest.
“Yes, angel?” he asks patiently.
After I woke up and went to the bathroom, Kian was sitting on the edge of the bed in a pair of underwear. When I came out, I made the mistake of walking right into his open arms. The hug he gave me at first was amazing, but then he somehow got me over his thigh and into this position before I realized what he was doing.
“I know you’re upset with me, and I’m sorry I didn’t listen to you, but I needed to see her. To hear it myself.”
Kian rests one arm over my lower back, holding me in place, while he smooths his other hand over my ass. “I’m not upset about you wanting to speak to her yourself. If you had called me or waited until I came home, I would have taken you there myself. What I’m about to punish you for is directly disobeying me and putting yourselfandyour health at risk. You pointed a gun at your bodyguards. You met with another man to get a gun and a vehicle?—”
I try to twist back to look at him, but his firm hold makes it impossible. “I’m friends with his wife. He owns a firearm store, and his brother has a gun range. I wouldn’t have asked Knox to help me if I didn’t trust him. I may have been blind to my mother, but I’m a pretty good judge of character most of the time.”
His hand raises and comes down hard on my ass, making a loud smacking noise ring out in the room. “I don’t give a fuck who he is. If you need something, the first person you come to is me. I don’t care where I am, what I’m doing, how busy I might be; you come to me, Ace. You’remineto take care of.”
“You were in the middle of digging up my father.”
He spanks the other cheek. “I don’t care, angel. You’re the most important thing to me. And I told you to call me if you needed anything. Didn’t I?”
All my life, I’ve been punished for the wrong things, scolded for not being enough. But this is different. This is about mebeing precious to someone. Tears prickle at my eyes as he spanks me again, and again. When he pauses, I let out a deep, relieved breath, but then he reaches for something and a second later, I feel something small and cool on my ass.
The wooden spoon.
Shit.
“You can fight me on anything else, angel. You can disobey, be a brat, or do naughty things. But when it comes to your health or your safety, I won’t bend.”
He brings the spoon down, twice on each cheek, and every crack of the wood to my skin sets my ass on fire. I cry out and try to kick my feet, but he already has his other leg thrown over both of mine, keeping me completely pinned.
Despite the stinging pain, my core is aching while I struggle against Kian’s hold.
Tears drip down my cheeks, and when he starts spanking me over and over with the spoon, I let out a sob and drop my head to the mattress.
Kian doesn’t stop right away. He’s not going to until he knows he’s gotten his point across.
My ass burns, and I’m sobbing into the plush comforter when he finally ends it and tosses the spoon onto the nightstand. A second later, he pulls me up and wraps me into his thick arms, then rocks me.
My tears are big and sloppy, but suddenly it’s like the floodgates have opened, and I can’t stop.
He never tells me to pull myself together. It’s like he knew this would happen; he was expecting it. I can’t remember the last time I cried like this. I’ve never felt safe. Not like I do with Kian.
When I go quiet, Kian presses a kiss to the top of my head.
“I love you, angel. So fucking much. Jesus Christ, it scares me how much I love you.”
I pull back to look up at him, his dark eyes searching mine.
