Page 57 of Morally Gray Daddies

“Erik?” I said softly after a few minutes. His breathing had grown heavy, so I knew it was only moments until he fell asleep.

“Hmmm?” he responded, sounding barely awake.

“What will you expect of me?”

“I live my life with little expectations.”

“Will you expect me to act as your… wife?” I had been promised to be married to a man who waited for my delivery.

“No.”

“Then what?”

“Go to sleep, Maya. This conversation is meant for another time.”

I wanted to press, but I also didn’t want to risk having a finger shoved back in me, another spanking, or possibly another type of punishment I was still unaware could exist.

I certainly had never known a man to spank and finger a woman before. The men of my father’s church ruled their households with different levels of strictness. Discipline was expected, and never looked down upon. My father had definitely taken my mother in hand. I had witnessed it many times, but it was never tender or loving. It was not a simple spanking he administered, but rather a beating. My father never called my mother any terms of endearment, and I never once saw him give her affectionate kisses. Erik, on the other hand, had been firm yet gentle with me. He had wanted me warm. He had made sure I was fed. He had stood up against his own brother to protect me. He had punished me, yet not once did I feel it was like how my father punished my mother. Everything about Erik and his actions were completely foreign to me, and I wondered if I would ever understand.

I couldn’t decide. Was this man good or bad? And did it matter either way?

Chapter Five

“Say your goodbyes, Maya. You won’t be seeing Rue and Dabney again,” Erik said as he gathered the bedding and began loading the dirt bike. The sun had risen, and I could already tell by the early morning temperature that the day was going to be much warmer than yesterday. Erik and I had already eaten our breakfast and gotten dressed long before anyone else had woken. He was clearly anxious to be on his way.

“Oh, come now, brother. You sound so dramatic,” Pasco said, feeding Rue bits of food as she sat beside him.

“You know damn well that you’ll see us again,” Pasco added as he petted the top of Rue’s head.

“No, we won’t,” Erik said, securing the bedding to the bike with leather straps. He seemed angry with the thought, which confused me. Why wouldn’t he want to see his brothers again? “You take the boat and head to Seattle. Shay is heading to the main part of Heathens Hollow and then taking the ferry from there. We all agreed we’d split up and stay that way. This job was our last. I’m done pushing my luck with stealing from the Godwins.”

I glanced at Shay, who was silently loading his bike, apparently uncomfortable with the conversation and appearing to stay out of it. Dabney stood nearby, quiet as usual.

“That’s what you said after the last job, but when starvation is knocking at your door, stealing from a new shipment doesn’t sound so bad, now does it?” Pasco broke off another piece of meat and laid it delicately on Rue’s tongue.

“I told you this was the last job, and I meant it.” Erik didn’t even look at his brother. His jaw clenched, his shoulders seemed stiff, and I feared him. “I’m heading to my cabin and making the best off the land and fishing.”

“Fuck that land. You and I both know that it’s not worth crap. And this last haul gave us nothing but another mouth to feed. You know we’re going to have to do another in a few months or die. Stop seeing it as a crime, and see it as a way to fucking survive.”

“I’m going to make do,” Erik grumbled, then turned to look at me. “Are you ready?”

I glanced at Rue, who didn’t seem the least bit concerned about me, then at Dabney, who appeared too scared to come and give me a hug.

I looked back at Erik and nodded. “We can’t just leave them.”

His eyebrow rose, and his eyes darkened. His silent warning was all I needed. I didn’t want to have to ride the bike on a freshly spanked bottom.

“Yes,” I quickly corrected as I went to where he stood.

Pasco let out a loud laugh. “You got a lot of training ahead with that one. Better get her tamed before I see you again, brother.”

Erik ignored the statement, grabbed me by the waist, and lifted me onto the back of the bike. He gave a nod to Shay, then a nod to Pasco before hopping on in front of me.

It was an uneventful goodbye, but then I was used to those. I hadn’t even said goodbye to my parents when I left my home. Why bother?

We rode in silence for miles at a high speed. I tried to take in the scenery, but the air whooshing past my face dried out my eyes every time I tried, so I eventually gave up and closed them as I rested my head on Erik’s back.

“Are you cold?” The rumble of his voice vibrated against my cheek.

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