Chapter 20
JOSIE
It takes what feels like hours to round everyone up and pile them into the giant van Uncle Eli likes to drive. He grumbles about it the entire time, even though I saw the way his eyes lit up when Daddy told him we were heading into town to get ice cream.
And now that we’re here, Uncle Eli has the largest cone of everyone, with three different flavors, and I can’t help but notice how ridiculous he looks with his large frame absolutely dwarfing the tiny chair at the ice-cream shop as he licks at his equally large ice cream.
Judging by the odd looks he’s getting from the other patrons, I’m not the only one who notices.
But Uncle Eli isn’t the only one drawing stares from the locals. I turn my head and find an elderly woman staring at me, a fierce frown on her face, and embarrassment heats my cheeks.
I tried to convince Daddy it was too cold for the pretty dress Uncle Max sent over in the approximately two hundred boxes worth of clothes that were delivered to our cabin a few days ago.
But not only has the weather warmed up considerably since I first arrived, apparently the boxes also contained multiple pairs of thick stockings.
So here I am, in a pretty purple confection of a dress with layers upon layers of tulle that force the skirt to fluff out around me, waiting on my ice cream.
The “Little girl” effect is not helped at all by Lanie, who is wearing a similar dress in a deep green and who is currently begging her Daddy for more than one scoop of ice cream.
“But Uncle Eli gets to have three!” she whines, tugging at Uncle Axel’s sleeve. “I only want two!”
Frowning, Uncle Axel looks down at his pouting babygirl. “Uncle Eli is about five times your size. One scoop of ice cream is more than enough for a Little girl.”
The woman in the corner of the shop frowns even more fiercely before turning to another wrinkly old woman beside her and whispering something in her ear. My cheeks heat to the point I’m surprised all the ice cream in the shop doesn’t instantly melt.
“But—”
“Melanie Brynne.” Uncle Axel’s voice is sharp, and I instinctively put my hands behind me, even though it’s not directed at me. I forget all about the women in the corner of the shop as I watch my friend’s eyes go wide at her Daddy’s tone.
“If you want to keep arguing, I will take you back out to the van and you can sit there without any ice cream and wait on everyone else to finish. Is that what you want, little girl?”
“No, Daddy,” Lanie whispers, her bottom lip trembling and her eyes welling with tears.
Uncle Axel scoops her up into his arms. “Then pick out one flavor of ice cream for your cone. We can always come back another time if there are other flavors you want to try.”
“Okayyyyy,” she says, dragging the word out into so many syllables I can’t help but giggle.
Lanie is still hemming and hawing over her decision when a happy squeal cuts through the din of the ice-cream shop. “Oh my god! Josie!”
Spinning around, I manage to brace myself just as Poppy throws herself at me, her arms tightening around my neck. “I was beginning to think I’d hallucinated you!” Pulling back, she runs her gaze over my dress, her eyes widening with delighted surprise. “Well don’t you look fucking adorable.”
“Persephone,” Auntie Gray scolds through gritted teeth. “Watch your language.”
But Poppy just rolls her eyes and ignores the daggers Auntie Gray is glaring at her. “Anyway. I was starting to worry I’d never see you again. I had this great idea the other day and I’ve been dying to talk to you about it.”
Now every eye in the shop is on us, and I silently wish for a giant hole to open up in the ground for me to disappear into. Poppy is sweet, she really is, but the last thing I want is to draw any more attention to myself than necessary when I’m dressed like a freaking toddler—diaper and all.
Unfortunately, the attention is already laser-focused on us, and the last thing I want to do is snap and say something rude to a fan, so I force a smile and nod. “What kind of idea?”
“A book signing! At my store!”
My instinctive reaction is Hell no. But she just seems so excited, I don’t have the heart to turn her down cold.
“Planning a signing like that is a lot of work,” I say gently, a sympathetic smile on my face. “Are you sure you’re up to it?”
“Totally.” Poppy rolls her eyes again. “What else do I have to do around here?”
I hesitate, still unsure, and Poppy squeezes my hand, bouncing excitedly on her toes. “Please, please, please? It would make my whole life to host a signing for my favorite author.”
Twisting around, I look up at Daddy, fully expecting him to step in and be my “Hell no” person. “What do you think, Bram?”
To my surprise, he grins. “I think that sounds like a great idea. And I’m sure you can help Poppy with the stuff she doesn’t know.”
Okay, well, I wasn't expecting that. But now that I know he’s on board, my brain begins to go to work, thinking of all the fun things we could do with a book signing in a town like Forbidden Pines. “That’s true. I’ve only done a few small signings, but… it could be fun to help plan one.”
“Ahhh, thank you, thank you, thank you!” Poppy throws her arms around my neck again and squeezes. “Can you come by the store tomorrow and we’ll start planning?”
Again, I look up at Daddy and he nods. “Sure. I’ll bring her by tomorrow after lunch. Say around two?”
“Perfect! Oh, this is going to be so much fun!”
With another happy hug, Poppy hurries from the ice-cream shop, and I turn back to the counter to pick my flavor, happily ignoring all the curious stares from the rest of the patrons.
Let them stare. And let them keep staring when my new friend and I put on the best book signing this town has ever seen.
Josie
By the time we get back to the cabin, I’m practically vibrating with anticipation over my plans with Poppy. As hesitant as I was at first, the more I think about it, the more excited I get over all the possibilities.
I’m so excited, in fact, I almost don’t notice the giant of a man sitting at our dining room table with a laptop open in front of him. But when I do, I freeze completely, unable to do more than stare.
He’s… huge. Even larger than Uncle Eli, if such a thing were possible. Larger, and a lot more dangerous-looking, which is something else I didn’t realize was possible. Everything about him screams grizzled mountain man, from the worn flannel to the wild beard sprouting from his face.
“Who the hell are you?”
The question bursts out of me before I have a chance to consider the repercussions, and a heavy swat immediately lands on my ass. And even though the blow is mostly cushioned by my diaper, humiliation heats my face as the stranger turns to glare at me.
He doesn’t even have the decency to address me, but rather looks from me up to Daddy, who is standing right behind me. “She yours?”
The stranger’s voice is as rough as the rest of him, and I instinctively bristle at his question. But a hand comes to rest heavy on my shoulder, and Daddy gives it a warning squeeze.
“She is. Josie, this is Gunther, he’s our resident tech expert.”
Nothing he could have said would have shocked me more. “This guy is your tech expert? What about Colt?”
“Your Uncle Colt is good with some things, but Gunther is who we bring in when we need help beyond Uncle Colt’s capabilities.”
It’s then that I realize the laptop sitting on the table in front of the giant mountain man isn’t just any computer.
“Hey! That’s mine! What are you doing to it, you big oaf?”
“Josephine Elise!” Wrapping his arms around my waist as I lunge forward, Daddy sighs and hauls me up into his arms. “Sorry, Gunther. We’re still working on her manners.”
“I’ll show you manners, you sonofa—”
“Enough.” Daddy’s voice rings with authority, jolting me back to reality. “Gunther, we’ll be right back.”
Uh-oh. I definitely crossed a line. “I’m really sorry, Daddy, I didn’t mean it!”
He carries me into the bathroom, where he sets me on my feet and pins me with a stern look. “You were incredibly rude, both to me and Gunther. And your language has been less than desirable the past couple days, so clearly you need a reminder on how good Little girls use their mouths.”
Fisting a hand in my hair, he forces me to my knees while his free hand reaches for his belt buckle, deftly flipping it free and tugging the tail of his belt from the silver contraption. He makes quick work of his button and zipper, and his cock springs free.
“Open, Josephine.”
I don’t dare disobey, so I force my lips to part for him. And I’m reminded rather violently of our “wedding day” where he stripped me bare and performed this exact act on me before we said our vows.
Or before he said our vows, to be more exact.
My throat constricts around the length of him as he thrusts into me, drool slipping from the corners of my mouth.
He fucks my face with fast, shallow strokes I have no time to adjust to, and I’m forced to gag around him.
Tears slip down my cheeks to mingle with the drool on my chin as I stare up at him, silently begging for mercy.
It takes a blessedly short amount of time for him to go still, for the hot, salty taste of him to fill my mouth. When he finally pulls free, I gasp for air, every breath like knives scraping my abused throat raw.
“I will not have my Little girl being rude to her family or our guests,” he lectures as he tucks himself back into his jeans. “And I certainly will not have her calling people names.”
With his jeans and belt back in place, he reaches into a pocket and pulls free the pacifier gag from our wedding day.
A smirk tugs at his lips as he holds the rubber tip under the pump for the hand soap and adds a few drops to the pacifier.
“I had a feeling I would need this again. You always did have a mouth on you, even when we were younger. Open.”
It isn’t until he issues the order that I realize I’ve pressed my lips together in a tight line. Without opening them, I stare pleadingly up at him, praying I can maybe look pitiful enough to earn myself an ounce of mercy.
But one look at his expression tells me those hopes are in vain. “Open your mouth, Josephine, or you will have a hot bottom to go with your soapy mouth.”
Getting spanked on top of having my mouth fucked and washed out with soap sounds like my worst nightmare, so I force my lips to part for him.
“Good girl,” he says softly as he slides the rubber tip of the pacifier between my lips. The acrid taste of soap fills my mouth and I instinctively gag, but there’s no spitting out the pacifier, as he’s in the process of tying it around my head.
Worst of all, though, is the fact that my brain knows this thing in my mouth is meant for sucking. As hard as I try to avoid it, I keep pulling on the tip, and every time I do, a fresh wave of gross soap fills my mouth.
Once the pacifier is buckled in place, Daddy grabs a fresh washcloth from beneath the sink and wets it, carefully cleaning my face of the tears and drool. “Now, are you ready to be my good, sweet girl while I talk to Gunther?”
I nod miserably. Yes, Daddy.
“All right, then.” Bending down, he hoists me up into his arms and settles me on his hip. “Let’s go see what magic Gunther has worked up for us.”