Page 7 of Daddy's Arms

“You weren’t bad. Sit up, little one.”

She obeyed, wincing when her tender bottom pressed against the stiff denim of his jeans. Cupping her cheek with one hand, his eyes locked with hers. “I love you. And I’m sorry I didn’t see how badly you needed me. From now on, I’ll try to pay better attention. But I need something from you, too.”

“What, Daddy?”

“I need you to come to me and be honest with me if I’m not being the Daddy you need. You’re not to act out at work to try and get my attention. And to make sure you remember that, you’re going to write ‘I will be honest with Daddy’ and ‘I will not act like a brat at work’ fifty times each.”

At the mention of writing lines, her lower lip pushed out, and he couldn’t resist leaning in and capturing her mouth with his own. The taste of her was better than the sweetest wine and he groaned, deepening the kiss as she opened for him. Everything in him yearned to lay her down on the floor and worship her from head to toe before fucking her senseless.

But his little girl still had some lessons to learn. And since this whole fiasco was partly his fault, it only seemed fair for him to suffer right along with her. Reluctantly, his entire being screaming in protest, he pulled away and broke the kiss.

“Let’s get those lines started and Daddy will go make dinner.”

Looking slightly dazed, she stood and shuffled over to her desk. He followed behind, carrying the chair back to its rightful place. Olivia wrinkled her nose before looking longingly at the pillows on the bed and then back at him, her question clear in her eyes.

“No, Livvy. I want you to feel how much your bottom hurts and think about that while you’re writing your lines.”

“Yes, Daddy,” she conceded with a sigh before lowering herself into the chair. She winced when her bottom pressed into the unforgiving wood, and he gave her a minute to squirm before he placed the paper and pencil in front of her.

“Fifty of each, Livvy. What happens if you don’t finish before I come back upstairs?”

It took longer than he normally would have allowed for her to answer, but he was willing to give her a little leeway, all things considered. “I get another spanking.”

“With?” he prompted gently.

“Your belt,” she whispered, her wary gaze landing on the thick leather encircling his waist.

“That’s right. One for each line you don’t finish. You better get started, little one.”

She sighed but picked up her pencil without argument and started writing. Leaning down, he pressed another kiss to her hair and left to go make dinner for his favorite girl.

Chapter4

When the door shut behind him, Olivia let out another, much louder sigh, and shifted in her chair, trying her best to take some of the pressure off her burning bottom.

As much as it hurt, she couldn’t really complain. She’d wanted her Daddy back, and that was exactly what she’d gotten. It still sucked that she had to write stupid lines, though. She hated lines, something her Daddy was well aware of.

I will be honest with Daddy.Her tummy clenched as she wrote the words for a fifth time. Each line was like a knife in the heart, because shehadn’tbeen honest with him, and now she knew it had hurt him as much as it hurt her.

“Stupid,” she muttered under her breath as a single tear slipped down her nose and plopped on the paper.

“Goddammit.” Annoyed with herself, she glared at the wet spot. Daddy expected her paper to be neat and presentable and now she’d have to start all over again, which meant she wouldn’t finish and she’d get a whipping with Daddy’s belt. All because she was a big crybaby.

Resentment started to build, crowding out the happy, contented feeling she’d had after her spanking. It wasn’t her fault, completely, that things had gone so sideways between her and James. So why was she the only one being punished? It wasn’t fair.

The resentment grew to outright anger and she slammed the pencil down on the desk. Jumping up from her chair, she yanked her panties and pajama pants over her bottom, wincing a bit when the cotton brushed against her raw skin. The flash of pain made her pause. If she didn’t finish her lines because she messed up and had to start over, there was always the chance James would show her some mercy. But if she didn’t finish because she was being deliberately defiant, even the smallest chance at leniency would evaporate. Sitting comfortably would be a distant memory if he kept his promise of one stroke for every line she didn’t finish.

But it still wasn’t fair. Her bottom was burned from the spanking she’d already gotten, and sitting on the chair was pure hell. It simply wasn’t right for him to keep punishing her like this.

Her mind made up, she stormed out of her pretty little bedroom down the hall to their master suite. Here, James’s influence was more noticeable, though her taste still reigned supreme, much like the rest of their house. Ignoring the guilt gnawing at her tummy, she grabbed her Kindle and stretched out on top of the cream-colored duvet. She opened the book she’d been trying to read all week, about a daring female spy and the hard-nosed man she’d been paired with who didn’t take lightly to her putting herself in danger. It didn’t take long for her to lose herself in the story, and she was deep in a world of intrigue and danger when the Kindle suddenly disappeared from her hands.

Blinking in surprise, she lifted her head to meet James’s furious gaze. With more calm than she felt, she smiled up at him. “Oh. Hey. Is dinner ready?”

The widening of his eyes was actually rather comical, but she wisely smothered the laugh bubbling in her chest. There was bratty and defiant, and then there was just fucking stupid. Laughing at him when he was clearly furious with her definitely fell under the latter.

“You have five seconds to explain why I shouldn’t take my belt off right now and give you every one of the ninety-five licks you have coming, young lady.”

The resentment that had caused her to disobey in the first place rose to the surface and she pushed herself to her knees so they were eye to eye. “Because it’s not fair! I shouldn’t have to get punished over and over when you fucked up, too!”

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