Page 14 of Learning Little Lizzie

He was tempted to give her a pass. She’d had a long day, and it was clear the unexpected guardianship and move had worn her out.

But he was also a man who believed in beginning as he meant to go on. “That’s ten.”

“Ten what?”

“Ten with my hand when we get back to the apartment. I suggest you watch your attitude, because if we reach thirty I will not wait until we return home to punish you.”

Eliza snorted out a laugh. “Dude, I’ve been spanked in front of pretty much everyone at this Ranch. That doesn’t scare me.”

“Have it your way. But I would also remind you that we haven’t finished our discussion about your disrespect toward Master Derek.”

“You already spanked me for that!”

He hadn't been anywhere near finished with her punishment when she’d demanded to talk to Derek. But the last thing he wanted was for her to feel like she was being penalized for safewording, even if she hadn’t technically used her safe word.

And there was something he wanted even more than he wanted to make a point about her disrespect.

“How about this? We can call it even on your earlier disrespect if you answer one question for me.”

Wariness crept into her expression. “What question?”

“Why is it so important to you not to have limits?”

CHAPTER 6

Between her club back home and Rawhide, she’d been involved in the BDSM scene in some capacity for nearly six years. And not once, in all that time, had anyone ever asked her so pointedly why she didn’t have any limits.

Maybe if they had, she wouldn’t have been left staring at her sexy new guardian as he studied her with those clear eyes that saw far too much for her comfort.

“Why do I need a reason?”

“There’s a reason for everything, Eliza. Whether we realize it consciously or not, everything we do can be traced back to something in our psyche that makes us behave that way.”

“Are you the new math teacher or the new psychology teacher?”

She was being snarky and she knew it, but he was asking her to think about something she didn’t particularly want to dig into. Especially with him.

Judging by the way his mouth kicked up in a smirk, he knew exactly how she was feeling about his question. “Math requires an understanding of patterns and connections. So does, to an extent, human behavior. Though humans are woefully more complex than numbers, I’m afraid. Still, there are patterns and reasons for everything. I want to know yours.”

“There’s no pattern. I’m just not afraid of anything.”

His smirk gave way to a slight frown. “Limits aren’t about fear. Or, not always about fear, I should say. Sometimes it’s just about knowing what will take too great of a toll, whether it’s physically or psychologically.”

“Oh.” She’d never really thought about it that way. But still. She could, and would, take whatever anyone could dish out. “Well, I don’t have an answer for you. I’ve just never found anything that really made me stop and say ‘No, absolutely not’.”

“And yet, you balked at the very idea of me calling myself ‘Daddy’. We hadn’t even discussed ageplay at that point and you safeworded out of your punishment so you could talk to Derek about our arrangement.”

“I did not safeword out of anything. You were the one who stopped. I never actually said Red.”

“Fair enough.” Crossing his arms on the table, he leaned in, his gaze seeing her far too clearly for her own comfort. “And what if I hadn’t stopped?”

“What do you mean?”

“If I’d continued spanking you, if I’d told you that you were going to be my Little whether you liked it or not, if I’d told you I planned to keep you in diapers and onesies every day for the rest of our time together, what would you have done? Would you have called your safe word then?”

“No.” But even just hearing him talk about it had her heart threatening to beat out of her chest. “I wouldn’t have been happy about it, but that’s not the same thing as having a hard limit or needing a safe word.”

“It’s not, no. And do you think being this stubborn will serve you well in the long run?”

---