Page 184 of Giddy Up, Daddy

“Stay on topic. Yes, my cheek hurts, but it’ll heal. Why didn’t you say something to Alden after your divorce was finalized?” I kept her on track by squeezing her upper thighs. I hoped the physical sensation would help ground her and focus her attention on what was happening between us.

“I didn’t want to. Or guess maybe I thought that after all this time… he didn’t want me. Or maybe I was scared. Not scared that he’d reject me. Scared that he wouldn’t.”

“I’m not the brightest crayon in the box, darling. What?”

Kennedy kissed my jaw, distracting me. I stopped her when she sucked on my earlobe.

“Damn, babygirl. You’re going to get me hard. Explain what you meant, please.”

“It’s like being afraid of success instead of failure. I’m used to failure, Wyatt. I’ve fucked up a lot of times in my life. Made poor decisions. Obviously I never want to cause someone grief, but…” She took a huge breath and let it out slowly.

“Okay, I think I understand.” I rested my hands on the back of my head gathering my thoughts before speaking, something I seldom did. “If you set yourself up to succeed and you fail, youcan regroup. If you set yourself up to succeed and you do it, then you have to continue it. If you asked Alden out and he refused, no big deal. You’d probably still enjoy each other’s company in bed. I’m sure you’d still be friends. Am I right so far?”

“I’m starting to think you’re never wrong, Daddy.”

Oh, that title did things to me. It had been far too long since someone called me Daddy. To hear it from her soft lips with meaning? It affected me more than I thought it would. Closing my eyes for a moment, I slowly opened them. “Fuck, baby…mmm. Believe me, I’m wrong more often than you can imagine.”

“Understood. Yes, Alden and I would likely be friends no matter what nonsense happened. He’s been a steadfast part of my life for many years. I trust him completely.”

“Aha. So, if you told him how you felt and he rejected you, no big deal. But if you poured your heart out and he claimed you the way I did so thoroughly last night? Then it would be real. Instead of fantasizing about it or whatnot.” I said almost the same thing in a different way.

Kennedy slid off my lap and busied herself with the breakfast dishes. Joining her, I dried each one as she handed them to me. The tension swelled as the silence stretched on. Still, I didn’t want to push her if she didn’t want to share.

“Yes. Sorry for taking so long to say anything.” She bit on her bottom lip. “I needed to gather my thoughts. It’s easy to deal with rejection but acceptance for some reason is harder. It’s backward in theory, but true all the same. I’m also not entirely sure how our dynamic works.”

“I’ll show you, darling. Come over to the couch with me.”

She side-eyed me, but followed less begrudgingly than I expected. Sitting down, I patted my thigh. She made no move to get into position.

“Have you ever had a punishment spanking, baby?”

She sat next to me and I helped her across my lap. Bunching her shirt up to her waist, I rubbed my hand over each of her panty-clad bottom cheeks.

“Logan paddled me after I told him how messed up I let things get this past summer.”

“Damn. I’m impressed. But Logan isn’t your Dom. It’s different when you have someone who holds you accountable. Someone you have feelings for. Unless you don’t have an emotional connection to me yet.”

“I do. We are friends despite everything else, we’ve always been friends. I guess there was a part of me though that saw you as competition for Alden. Though that was probably just another wall I put up to guard my heart.”

“Aw, babygirl. I get it. On my bad days if I allowed myself to admit the feelings I had for Alden, I probably saw you the same way.”

“That makes me feel better. I should have talked to you, but honestly, I’d been drowning.”

“In margaritas?”

“Hah! No, I meant in life, but alcohol was on that list too.”

“We both made mistakes not communicating. We’ll do better. Both of us.” Kneading either side of her ass, I stopped and touched the waistband of her panties. “These need to come down. Would you like me to do it?”

She stiffened slightly, but then nodded. “Yes, please.”

“If you’re going out at night, no matter what time it is, I want to know about it. I’d rather not set a curfew.”

“A curfew! You’re joking.”

Lowering her panties, I admired the soft supple curve of her ass. I’d touched her body last night intimately, but I hadn’t spanked her. There was something very special about correcting Kennedy after her poor choices. Her behavior wasn’t acceptable.Alden told me to keep an eye on her, and I hadn’t done a good job of that.

“What would you have done last night if Leon picked you up and brought you to his house? He said nasty things about what he wanted to do to you. He was drunk. That’s a bad combination.” I hoped to paint a picture of how sideways things could have gone.

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