Page 21 of Promising Little Poppy

“Wait!” Poppy yelled from across the room. “Can you bring that here before you put it with my laundry?”

With a curious look aimed at her Little, CJ handed the dress to Poppy.

“Close your eyes.”

CJ raised an eyebrow in Poppy’s direction. “And just who is in charge here, little miss?”

“Puh-leaseeee close your eyes, Daddy.” Poppy hoped the little, whiny, pout could get the sternest of Daddies to loosen her reins.

With a dramatic flourish, CJ closed her eyes, acting like the simple task was a monumental ordeal. Poppy giggled, sneaking the present for her Daddy into her hand. “Okay, here you go.”

CJ took the still-damp dress back and added it to the pile of laundry in the bathroom then crossed back over to where Poppy laid cocooned in bed like the sweetest little crepe.

“Want to tell me what was hidden in your dress that you so desperately needed?”

Poppy’s cheeks went hot and she was sure she was red as a firetruck careening toward a five-alarm fire at full speed with lights and sirens aglow. “It’s what I went to my dorm to get earlier. But I’m kinda embarrassed about it now.”

Daddy sat on the side of Poppy’s bed, an earnest look etched onto her angular yet soft, kind face. “Sweetheart, as long as whatever you have isn’t going to harm you or someone else, you don’t need to tell me what it is. But, I would really like it if you did. You can trust me, Poppy. Let me be your person.”

With a shaky hand, Poppy lifted her arm out from under her blanket. She opened her palm to CJ to show her an adult-sized pacifier. It was purple, glittery and sparkly, and everythingfeminine and girly rolled up into one. In the middle of the pacifier was a small, fluffy kitten with a tiny bow in its hair.

Curious eyes met Poppy’s. “Where did that come from?”

Poppy suddenly felt shy. She also felt so different than the angry woman she’d been when she first began meeting with CJ at the start of their dynamic. She nibbled on her bottom lip, scrunching up her nose in embarrassment. “I saw a few Littles using them during our craft time and I got to thinking about wanting to decorate and try one, too. I wasn’t sure that I would be brave enough, so I hid it in my dorm room so you wouldn’t stumble upon it in our suite.”

“Well, sweetheart,” CJ’s voice was heavy with the gravity of the situation. “Thank you for being such a brave girl and sharing this desire with me. You certainly picked out and decorated the perfect paci for yourself. Would you like to try it out while you take a nap now?”

Poppy nodded with a small smile on her sleepy face. In response, CJ took the pacifier from her Little and coaxed it between Poppy’s parted lips. “Just remember, if you don’t like using it, you don’t have to. That’s a decision only you can make. But no matter what you decide, I’m here to support you.”

Continuing their tradition, CJ bent down and placed a kiss against Poppy’s temple. “Try to get some sleep, sweet girl.”

And when CJ was almost at the door, Poppy’s voice stopped her. “Do you think that maybe you could lie with me until I fall asleep?”

CJ

A smile spread across CJ’s face, her heart simultaneously soaring at this new side of her Little while dreading that this would all be over when Poppy awoke, clearheaded and unclouded by the need for post-punishment comfort. But right now, she could give Poppy what she needed as long as it didn’t cross any of their previously agreed-upon boundaries.

Honestly, it was exactly what CJ needed too.

“Yeah, sweetheart. I can lie with you until you fall asleep.”

CJ crawled into bed alongside Poppy, pulling her soft body against CJ’s own firm muscle, the big spoon to her adorable Little. And as Poppy’s breath evened out as she fell into a deep, restful sleep, CJ couldn’t help but think back to what Poppy had told her before Poppy’s punishment started.

Extracting herself from around Poppy was hard, her body and mind both desperate to stay. But she had plans to rearrange and changes to make.

She looked back at Poppy’s sleeping form from the doorway, taking one last look at her Little before closing the door behind her.

And with her back pressed against the closed door, CJ said the words aloud that Poppy was still slightly too afraid to say out loud, but more than willing to speak with her eyes, her body, hersoul.

“I’m glad it was you, too, kitten. I’m glad it was you.”

CHAPTER 10

Poppy

“So you’re gonna go for it, right?”

Poppy looked toward where Billy sat at the table in the cafeteria. He was on his fifteen-minute break and had snuck out to sit with his Little friends when they arrived for lunch from their classrooms. It had been two days since Thanksgiving. Two days since Poppy had gotten lost in the snow, resulting in what had been by far the worst panic attack of her life. And while her bottom was no longer tender, her cheeks—on her face andnother backside—still flushed when she thought back to the punishment and subsequent kiss she shared with her Daddy.

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