Total pages in book: 184
Estimated words: 188108 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 941(@200wpm)___ 752(@250wpm)___ 627(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 188108 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 941(@200wpm)___ 752(@250wpm)___ 627(@300wpm)
At the moment, the dumb bird was happy sitting on the top of the window and likely pooping all over it. But that was another worry for later.
Right now, he needed to make a few things clear to his girl.
“What if that banging had been something else?”
“Like what? A squirrel banging into the window?” she asked. “I mean, I probably would have still gone and helped the poor thing.”
Wait . . . what?
She would have gone and touched a damn squirrel?
“You can’t go around touching squirrels!” he told her.
“Why not?” she asked. “If it was hurt, why wouldn’t I help it?”
“Because it could have all sorts of diseases and parasites! Rabies, leprosy, salmonella, ringworm!”
“I don’t think it’s very likely it would have rabies or leprosy,” she told him. “And ringworm?”
“Yes. Do you want to be all itchy and scaly?”
She tilted her head to the side, studying him like he was a strange creature she’d never encountered before. He felt a bit out of sorts. He wasn’t really acting like himself.
And yet at the same time, this felt right.
“I don’t think anyone ever actually wants to be scaly and itchy, do they?” she asked.
He crossed his arms over his chest, giving her a firm look. “Well, that’s what could have happened, little girl, if you’d gone out and picked a squirrel up. Now, what do you have to say for yourself?”
“Well, I’m kind of wondering what’s going on right now,” she told him. “And I’m wondering if maybe I did go out and touch a squirrel and he gave me rabies and now I’m living an alternate reality where you lecture me about getting ringworm and call me little girl.”
Shit. He had called her little girl.
He hadn’t meant to do that. It must have been because he’d been thinking about yesterday’s conversation.
However, he didn’t want to start something he’d have to explain to her. Not before this weekend.
And not before he’d figured out what he wanted to do. Who he was to her and to himself.
So he took the only route he could see working and decided to ignore that part of their conversation.
“You are not living an alternate reality, unfortunately for you. Because in your actual reality, you put yourself in danger.”
“By touching a non-existent squirrel with non-existent diseases?”
“No, if that had happened you would be in a lot more trouble. For going outside without coming to get me.”
“I’m not allowed to go outside?” she asked, rubbing her head and giving him a confused look. “But Roman said I could.”
“Roman did not know that you heard a bang.”
“Which was a bird,” she told him with a note of exasperation in her voice.
Oh, his hand itched to give her another spanking.
The brat needed it. She needed a firm hand. But she also needed some fun. And caring.
What could he give her that the other two couldn’t? Salem could dish out discipline and aftercare easily.
Only . . . Salem was known to talk shit to death. And he might go easy on her when he should go hard.
Sometimes action was the way to go.
Sometimes a naughty sub just needed to be disciplined then and there, not given a five-page lecture and sent to the corner to think.
Hmm. He didn’t think that Tamsyn did well with thinking.
And sometimes a naughty Little just needed their Daddy to put them over their knee. Whether they were in the privacy of their own home or out in public.
Of course, the out in public part would only work in BDSM friendly places.
Or in a private area.
Was he really thinking this could work? That he could be a proper Daddy to her?
“Which could have been something else,” he told her, shaking himself back into the now.
“Like what?”
“A gunshot,” he informed her.
Now she would understand what she had done wrong and apologize accordingly.
Instead, she made a scoffing noise. “I know what a gunshot sounds like. That wasn’t a gunshot.”
“And how do you know what a gunshot sounds like?” he murmured.
“I’ve been to a shooting range before,” she replied.
“And that makes you an expert?” He walked forward and grabbed her chin, tilting her head back. She was so tiny compared to him that it was nearly ridiculous.
“What if it had been someone trying to break into the place?”
“But it wasn’t! It was a bird! Not a raging squirrel or a gunshot or a thief! A silly bird that is currently still in the house and likely pooping on antiques worth more than the GDP of some small countries.”
He smirked at that. Although part of him did wonder if she was right.
“All right, let’s take care of the bird. Then you’re going to promise to not go outside when you hear strange noises. Instead, you’re going to come find me.”
“The bird could have died by then.”
“Clearly not, since it’s currently pooping on a vase worth more than you and me combined.”