Page 74 of Daddy's Naughty List

Edie’s protest was cut off by a large hand covering her mouth. “That’s quite enough, little pixie. Unless you’d like a trip upstairs.”

Even with Grant’s hand covering half her face, it was easy to see the red flooding her cheeks as she glared up at him.

“Are you going to behave yourself when I pull my hand away?” Grant asked, amusement tingeing his tone.

Behind his hand, Edie huffed, but nodded and Grant slowly pulled his hand away. When she kept her lips pressed together, he leaned down to press a kiss to her hair. “Good girl.”

The silence between them grew thicker and heavier with every passing second until Dom finally clapped his hands and grinned. “So. What’s Santa bringing for all our Little girls tonight?”

“I can’t believe you got them to agree!” Jesse whispered excitedly as she and Taylor snuck around the back of the house toward Edie’s shed. “We’re sending you to do all of the talking with the grownups from now on.”

“Yeah, well, it wasn’t quite as easy as I expected.” Butterflies were already doing somersaults in Taylor’s tummy at the memory of how stern Matt had looked. “Carly’s Daddy said he’d spank me if he caught anyone breaking the rules about not using any tools.”

“That’s a tough one,” Jesse agreed, her expression turning sympathetic as she opened the doors to the shed. “But maybe we can get the lights hung without actually using any tools. There’s probably nails or something up there already from where Edie has decorated in the past.”

“Maybe.” Hopefully. Because while her Daddy might be willing to let her off with a lecture, she had no doubt Matt would follow through on his promise to spank her. And Matt spanked harder thanallthe Daddies. Well, she wasn’t sure about Rex because he was the only one who had never spanked her, but he definitely spanked harder than Dom and her own Daddy.

Shoving those worries aside, she stepped into the dark interior of the shed and looked around. “There! Those storage bins in the corner there. One of those should definitely have lights.”

Jesse pulled down the first bin for them to open, but it turned out to be mostly garland and other decorations for the windows and stuff. Putting the lid back on, the set the box aside and opened the next one.

They didn’t hit the jackpot until the third bin, but when they hit it, they hit it big. More boxes of lights than Taylor remembered Edie having before filled the large storage bin to the top.

“Yes!” Jesse cheered quietly, pumping her fists in the air. “Christmas house, here we come!”

It took both of them to carry the box back to the front of the house, and they were just about to turn the corner when they heard Carly’s voice.

“We aren’t being naughty, Daddy, promise!”

“Where is Taylor? And Jesse?”

Crap. Of all the Daddies to come outside and check on them, ithadto be Matt.

Taylor nodded at the ground to signal they should put the bin down, then pressed a finger to her lips. Silently, they crept around the corner, peeking around to make sure they weren’t seen.

Thankfully, Matt was too busy glaring at his Little girl to look around. Taylor and Jesse tiptoed forward, until they were hidden beside the front porch.

“We should jump out and pretend to be monsters, like we were hiding to try and scare him,” Jesse whispered, curling her hands into claws like a dinosaur.

“Oh, perfect! Count of three?”

“Yup.”

Holding up three fingers, Taylor counted down silently.Three… Two… One!

“RAWR!” she and Jesse yelled together as they popped out from beside the porch like they’d been hiding there the whole time.

On the porch, Matt actually jumped, slapping a hand over his chest as he turned to glare at him. “You two brats gave me a heart attack! Have you been there the whole time?”

“Yes, Sir.” If Taylor hadn’t known Jesse was lying, she never would have been able to tell.

Being a big-time actress came in handy for other things, apparently.

“Hmm.” Matt didn’t sound convinced, and Taylor had to fight not to squirm as he studied them with that narrow-eyed stare. But eventually he nodded. “All right. Stay in the front yard where we can see you.”

“Yes, Sir,” she and Jesse replied in unison.

They didn’t breathe easily again until the storm door slammed shut behind him, at which point they slumped against each other with matching sighs of relief.

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