Page 41 of Their Forever Daddy

Her Daddy’s expression hardened, but before he could reprimand her, Edie stepped in. “Little girl, you are in more than enough trouble already without digging yourself any deeper. I suggest you do as you were told before I decide you need a lesson in respect.”

It had been so long since she’d been taken to task by Edie, the shock of it snapped her back into that more submissive mindset. “Yes, Ma’am. I’m sorry.”

“Apologize to your Daddy, not me.”

“Sorry, Daddy. I didn’t mean to be rude.”

Looking slightly surprised, Daddy nodded. “Thank you for the apology, baby.”

She was so desperate to get away from their stern gazes, she hurried past them to the bathroom. Despite her protests, she actually did need to potty. And she took her time doing so.

No need to rush back to her doom, right?

Edie

* * *

She couldn’t help but chuckle at the sight of Jesse all but running for the bathroom. Poor Little girl had no idea what she was in for.

But then she looked up at Grant and once again found him just watching her with those unreadable eyes, and suddenly she felt like the naughty little girl in the room.

It was the most disconcerting type of whiplash.

And she kind of liked it.

“Ah, sorry if I overstepped,” she said, forcing herself not to shift from foot to foot like a Little girl in Big Trouble.

“You didn’t. I would have called you on it if you had.”

“Oh. Okay. Um, good, I guess.”

“You’re a natural at this.” His tone had turned thoughtful, and he was still watching her with those eyes that saw far more than she was comfortable with. “And Jesse still responds to you. I used to watch her at play parties before we were together. I’ve never seen her cave that quickly for anyone but me.”

Pleasure fluttered in her belly, warring with the concern and worry tying her up into knots. “I don’t really know how to respond to that.”

“You don’t have to. It’s just an observation.”

Tilting her head to the side, she studied him. “You do that a lot, don’t you? Observe.”

A smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. “It comes in handy.”

“I imagine it does.”

“You sure you’re up for this?” he asked, his tone and expression turning serious. “We can wait if you need some more time.”

It was tempting. So fucking tempting. But she knew herself well enough to know that if she took him up on that offer she’d just keep finding reasons to keep putting it off.

And deep down in those places she tried hard not to examine too closely, she wanted to punish Jesse for what she’d done. This was a chance to find out if she could actually go through with it, and she didn’t want to give that up. “No. I just want to get it over with.”

“I understand that feeling. I usually enjoy punishing Jesse, but not for something this big. And not when she’s been keeping things from me.” He blinked, suddenly looking sheepish as if he’d said more than he’d meant to. “Sorry if that’s a bit too much information.”

“No, it’s fine.” She let her lips tug up in a wry smile. “And same, if we’re being honest. Punishing her was often the highlight of my day when we were together.”

“Good to know,” he said with a wicked little grin of his own. “Now, let’s go see what’s taking that Little girl so long.”

She tried not to read into the fact he hadn’t said ‘My Little girl’. They were just words, with no hidden meaning waiting to be unearthed.

Because, really, it wasn’t like they had room for her even if she wanted to be with Jesse. Maybe that kind of thing happened in the romance books Taylor was always reading, but it didn’t happen in real life.

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