Page 57 of Under Daddy's Spell

Chapter Seventeen

MORE SEVERE WEATHER, bringing high winds, driving rain, and hail, swept through on Tuesday evening. It was minutes before eight o’clock, and she was alone in the store. The last customer had hurried out the door thirty minutes before as the sky lit up and thunder boomed overhead.

Usually, she loved storms, especially watching them roll in from the screened porch off the back of the house. The sound of the rain hitting the metal roof was relaxing, and she enjoyed the light show nature put on in the sky. If it wasn’t dark, she’d curl up with a good book and stay out there for hours.

Tonight, Tessa’s mood matched the gloomy weather. Everything seemed to be converging on her at the same time. The recent slowdown at work had come at a bad time. She was going to have to tap into her savings again to pay her bills and meet payroll this month. The highs and lows of her budding relationship with Jordan had added to her stress, as had her exhaustion from lack of sleep. When she checked her email this evening, she’d received the flight information from her dad. He and Shelly would be in for four days the weekend after next, and she’d never describe things as placid when they were in the house.

Most worrisome of all was her lunch with Jordan tomorrow. She believed him when he said he wasn’t seeing anyone. But she still had questions.

His business seemed to be exploding. It required that he travel frequently. Did she want to get involved with a man she had to book dates with weeks in advance or communicate with more over FaceTime than in person and always seemed to be running to catch a plane?

There was also the daddy/little girl issue—something entirely new for her. From what she’d read, it could be anything from a bedroom kink to a lifestyle. She’d already had a sample of the former, which she enjoyed immensely—even the spanking. Okay... especially the spanking.

Some couples immersed themselves in the experience 24/7. Much of it sounded wonderful—the caretaking, having someone to lean on and cuddle with, who was always there to watch over her, to celebrate successes, or to lift her up when she was down, and to rescue her when things really went awry. She wasn’t sure where she fell on the scale, but suspected it was somewhere in the middle. She had her bookstore where she was the boss, and she enjoyed doing a lot of grown-up things. The age regression some in the lifestyle took part in was a whole other thing.

Jordan said a daddy was who he was, so she figured he leaned more toward it as a lifestyle than simply a kink. Was she ready to go there with him?

“Stop borrowing trouble, Teresa Grace.” She didn’t have enough fingers and toes to count the times her mother said those very words to her. “Worrying over something that hasn’t happened or that you cannot change is a waste of time and energy,” she muttered as she made her way around the coffee bar and reading nook, collecting books customers had left behind.

After she finished reshelving everything, she planned to tackle the boxes of new releases that came in today and assemble the marketing displays. It usually required her crawling on her knees as she wrestled to get tab A into slot B, but she doubted anyone else would be in tonight. It would keep her busy and take her mind off things, at least.

It took two trips to collect the scattered books, mostly paperbacks for a change. Allowing customers to peruse them at their leisure might seem counterintuitive, but her non-book sales, including coffee and things from the bakery case, doubled when she started the policy, and her book sales increased by 50 percent.

If her customers felt at home in her store, they’d linger, buy a second latte, or break down and have the brownie they’d declined the first time through the line. Often, if they liked the sample they read, they’d buy the book on the way out of the store, multiple books, if it was a series. So, her strategy was sound and, best of all, it helped her bottom line.

As she alphabetized by genre and author, she noticed a trend among the books stacked on her front counter. Mostly fiction—including several regency and secret baby romances, both very popular currently—but at least a third had titles likeAlpha Daddy, Big Daddy, Lumberjack Daddy,andDaddy’s Obsession.

This turned her thoughts back to Jordan, who was, without a doubt, an alpha. His dominant, self-assured, protective traits were unmistakable. But wasn’t that what made him daddy material? She picked upBig Daddywith its beefy, bare-chested hunk on the cover, and flipped to a random page in the middle.

Wouldn’t you know it was a spanking scene. Several phrases jumped out at her.

Ouch, Daddy.

Not so hard, Daddy.

And,Please, Daddy. I promise to be good.

Once she started, she couldn’t stop reading. Big Daddy’s response—he wasn’t exactly the strong, silent type—made her shiver.

You’d better be good, little girl, or you’ll find yourself over Daddy’s knee for another round on your naughty bare bottom. Is that understood?

That’s when her imagination took over. In the scene playing out in her head, she was the naughty girl and Jordan her firm-handed daddy.

Flipping forward a few pages, she read about cuddle time on Daddy’s lap. She’d certainly like to give that a try. Tessa skimmed through the next book and read about bath time, playing dress-up, and being tucked in for a nap with an affectionate kiss on the forehead. One of the stories included other punishments like writing lines, standing in the corner after a spanking, and there was a lot of time spent in daddy’s lap and in bed, snuggling.

She wasn’t sure she wanted to dress up like a little girl, but the rest sounded perfect. Well... Maybe not the corner time. But then she imagined standing with her skirt raised, panties around her ankles, and her freshly punished red bottom on display because she’d been naughty...

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