Fuck me, she’s adorable. “Where were you told to stay when you came upstairs, Josephine Elise?”
“In Lanie’s nursery. But we were just playing hide and seek! We weren’t being naughty!”
I can almost understand her logic. Almost. “Be that as it may, you were given very clear instructions to stay in one place and you broke the rules, so now you and Lanie are both getting your bottoms spanked.”
“No!” Panic flares in Josie’s eyes. “Daddy, no, that’s not fair! Lanie didn’t know I was gonna sneak out!”
“Sneak out?” I parrot back, raising my brow at her. “So you knew you were doing something naughty and you did it anyway.”
I had been holding out some hope that she’d simply gotten carried away with their game. But one look at her face tells me that no, that wasn’t the case at all. She was up to something, though I’m still not sure exactly what.
“Um, well, it sounds bad when you put it that way…”
“It sounds bad, because it was very naughty.” Glancing over, I catch Gray’s unusually sympathetic expression and my stomach twists.
“They were just playing a game, Bram. Maybe we shouldn’t be so hard on them.”
Fuck. She got in Gray’s head already.
It’s not that I’m unsympathetic to Gray’s position. She’s younger than Josie and when they were kids, they were as close as sisters. Closer, even. I can imagine it’s difficult now for her to step into that Auntie role.
But having multiple Little girls underfoot will be absolute chaos if we aren’t all on the same page. “Colt!” I call over my shoulder without taking my eyes off my naughty babygirl and her reluctant auntie. “She’s in here!”
My twin appears in the doorway, the same relief I felt a moment ago on his face. “Thank god. Josie, we were so worried about you, sweetheart.”
“Take Josie and Lanie both downstairs and put them in the corner to wait for us. I need to talk to Gray.”
“Daddy, please.” Josie’s bottom lip trembles and fuck me if I’m not tempted to give into that precious pout. “Lanie didn’t do anything wrong. She doesn’t deserve to get spanked.”
“Then you can spend your time in the corner thinking about how your actions affect others. Go, Josephine, before I decide you need your bottom paddled beforeandafter your corner time.”
She shoots me a furious glare, but she doesn’t fight Colt when he grips her arm to take her downstairs. With them out of earshot, I turn my attention on my sister.
“You can’t do this, Gray. I know you’ve missed her and I know this is a weird-as- fuck situation. But you can’t play favorites with her.”
Gray’s expression hardens. “I’m not playing favorites. You’re just being unreasonable.”
“Really? So if it were Lanie we’d caught out of her nursery and hiding out in your bedroom, you’re telling me you wouldn’t have already blistered her bottom with your hairbrush before Axel even got his hands on her?”
A muscle in her jaw jumps, but then she sighs, her shoulders falling forward. “I hate it when you’re right.”
Some of the knots in my stomach loosen and I can’t help but grin. “You’d think you’d be used to it by now.”
Rolling her eyes, she plants a hand on my shoulder and gives me a hard shove. “Fuck off, Bram.”
I take a moment to enjoy our return to our usual sibling bickering before sobering. “Seriously, Gray. We both know if it had been Lanie rather than Josie, you would be reacting very differently and we can’t have that.”
Mouth twisting up in a pained grimace, she nods. “You’re right, and I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have contradicted you like that in front of her.”
“No, you shouldn’t have. But I think I know how to fix it.”
CHAPTER 16
JOSIE
Ihaven’t had to stand in the corner and “think about what I’ve done” since I was anactualchild.
It’s even worse than I remember.
