8. Chapter Six
CHAPTER SIX
SAMMI
A week had passed and Sammi had been going into Gene’s office four times a day to show him that she’d drunk her water and refilled it. Had she actually swallowed the water? No. She always dumped it out on some plant before she got to his office.
Did it pain her to do that? Yes, because her mouth salivated at the thought of drinking. She was always looking at her water bottle but telling herself she couldn’t have any. Was it dangerous? Without a doubt she always guzzled water and other things when she got home. It made it hard to sleep at night when she woke up with the need to go to the bathroom on multiple occasions, but she figured it was better than stopping even more at work.
Guilt had planted himself in her stomach and stayed there every single time she dumped her water out and lied. He was happy, proud of her for drinking the water. Sooner or later, she was going to have to come clean or quit her job and never see him again so she didn’t feel guilty anymore.
“Boss wants to see you, Sammi,” Nolan yelled.
Her eyebrows pinched together, and she looked over at Nolan. Everyone had a walkie-talkie. Gene normally called her over the walkie-talkie. Maybe his had broken and he’d called Nolan on his phone.
Sighing, Sammi placed the container down and started walking toward his office.
“Wait! You forgot your water bottle,” Nolan called out.
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Gene said he wanted her to carry it around with her at all times. All she wanted to do was leave it at home, so she didn’t have to have the constant reminder that she was absolutely thirsty.
“Boss ain’t gonna like this.” Nolan shook her water bottle. “Haven’t been drinking?”
“It’s going to be fine. I’ll drink it while I walk over to his office. I’ve just been busy packing orders, and I forgot. Out of sight, out of mind,” she explained.
“Make sure that you do. Next time, I’ll set reminders so you can drink at regular intervals.”
Sammi glared at him and sneered. “I don’t need fucking reminders. I’m a grown woman.”
Nolan’s eyes went wide as he stared at her. She quickly grabbed the water bottle and turned around.
“Sorry, but please, you don’t need to set reminders. This is the first day I’ve not been drinking,” she said and started to walk before he could reply.
Her grip on the water bottle was tight as she walked out of the barn. She had made it the whole week without Nolan working with her. Until today. Today, it seemed like both of them were testing her. She hadn’t even known they were going to be working together until Gene had sprung it up on her.
She had gotten away with working on her own, taking jobs that didn’t need two people, but Gene had other ideas. Apparently, she wasn’t working enough with other people. That’s what Gene had said, anyway. But she knew that was all a bunch of baloney because she knew several people on the farm who always worked alone. Gene just wanted someone to have eyes on her and make sure that she was following the rules.
Sammi took a deep breath and opened the lid of her water bottle. She was almost to Gene’s office, and she needed to get rid of this water, so it would seem like she had drunk all of it.
She started to slowly pour it, looking at the water in longing as it got soaked up by the earth. Maybe Sammi needed to find a job where she could work from home and not have to worry about how many times she went to the bathroom.
“What the hell are you doing?” someone yelled.
Screaming, she turned real fast and stared at Gene with wide eyes. Her body swayed as everything became dizzy. She needed to stop moving so quickly, or she was going to pass out.
Arms wrapped around her, holding her steady as she took several deep breaths in, but the stars in her eyes weren’t going away. Was she going to faint?
“You’re okay. Nice deep breath in for me. Hold it. And slowly let it out. Good girl. Are you feeling better?” Gene gently asked.
“Yeah,” Sammi replied, but she really wasn’t.
She felt like she was going to collapse with her vision ever so slowly closing in on her. She gripped his shirt, not wanting him to let her go and her fall to the ground.
“I’ve got you,” he gently told her. “Daddy’s going to pick you up now.”
Before she could process his words, she was in his arms, and he was walking. Her grip tightened around him.
“Don’t worry. I’m not going to drop you.” He chuckled. “You’re precious cargo, and I wouldn’t want anything to happen to you.”
Everything quieted as he walked into his office, setting her on a chair.
“Can you tell me what’s wrong? Does anything hurt? Or are you still dizzy? Do you need anything?” he asked her in quick succession.
Blinking several times, she stared at him, not knowing which question to answer first.
“Nothing hurts,” she offered as he continued to stare at her, worry across his face. “I see some stars, but they’re going away.”
She was being honest this time because she knew if she wasn’t, he would just know. It was that, but she was also hoping it would help some of the guilt go away. Realistically, Sammi knew the only way the guilt was going to go away was to come clean and get punished for it.
“Here, have some chocolate and some water.” He held a piece of chocolate in front of her mouth.
Sammi went to take it, but he held the chocolate back. She glared at him and he gave her a smile.
“I didn’t say you could grab it. Open your mouth like a good Little girl, and let Daddy feed you the chocolate,” he gently said.
Sammi stared at him in shock, and she opened her mouth just a little. So she hadn’t dreamed that he said those words the other week. He really had and she was hearing them again.
“Good girl,” he cooed at her as he placed the chocolate in her mouth. “Such a good girl for Daddy.”
She hummed in delight as the chocolate melted in her mouth. She relaxed into the chair as he fed her another piece. She could get used to this, but she knew it was a one-time deal.
“Feeling a little bit better?” Gene asked.
She nodded and stared at him. Anticipation was rolling in her stomach as she waited for him to say something. So much had gone on in a short span of time. Did he actually see what she was doing, or was he just trying to scare her?
“Nolan said you wanted to see me. If you don’t need me anymore, I’ll go back to work and finish up the couple of orders I had left,” she softly spoke when she realized he wasn’t going to say anything.
“You will not be returning to work today,” he calmly said.
She stared at him worriedly as he stood and walked around his desk. He grabbed his chair, rolling it right in front of her. Sammi took a deep breath as he sat down, placing his legs on either side of hers, trapping her.
“Is everything okay?” she hesitantly asked.
“What do you think?” he answered with a question.
Alarm bells went off in her head as she stared at him. It was never a good sign when somebody answered a question with a question.
“Umm, yes?” she replied.
Sammi searched his face, trying to figure out if she had given the right answer or not. But the longer she searched his face, the more nervous she got. He gave no indication whether she was right or not.
“No. Everything is not okay. Do you want to know why?” he asked.
“Umm, no, not really,” she honestly replied. She had a feeling that she didn’t want to know why everything wasn’t okay. She had a feeling that it had to do something with her, and she didn’t like that.
“Tough because you’re going to sit here while you sip your water and listen to me,” he said as he opened the bottle, handing it to her.
Her hands shook as she took it, a splash landing on her lap. His hand wrapped around hers, steadying them as she took a deep breath.
“I should keep a sippy cup in here for you,” he muttered.
Sammi stared at him as his words sunk in. He wanted to keep a sippy cup in his office for her.
He knew.
Her mouth fell open as she blinked several times. How did he know? She had only slipped up once and thought he hadn’t heard anything. Was she mistaken? Had she done something else to clue him in?
“Then you won’t spill on yourself. But you would only drink it in my office, which means I would be able to keep a better eye on you drinking your water.” He brought the water bottle up to her lips, and she took a small sip. “Let go of the water bottle. Daddy will help you drink from it. Just relax on the couch as I talk and give you water.”
She didn’t like the sound of that one bit. Things had changed between them, and she was seeing that.
“First, Daddy wants to know if you dumping out the water was a one-time thing or if you’ve done it every single time. And don’t think about lying because it’s getting added to your tally.”
“My tally?” she asked in disbelief. “When did I get a tally?”
“When you started being naughty. So, was that the first time, or have you done it multiple times?” Daddy asked.
He brought the water bottle to her lips, and she took a couple of sips, pulling her head back when she was done. Sooner or later, she was going to need to pee again, and she was betting on the sooner rather than later.
“It wasn’t the first time,” she mumbled.
She had a feeling he already knew the answer, and she didn’t want to get into any more trouble than she already was.
“How many times?”
She looked down at her hands. He definitely wasn’t going to be happy when he found out it was every single time.
“Little One, answer Daddy’s question.”
“Every time,” she whispered, closing her eyes and waiting for him to start yelling.
“Did you drink any water?” he deadpanned.
Sammi shook her head, still not looking up. She knew what she did was wrong, but she had a good reason for it. Gene knew how much she went to the bathroom. It was hard to miss when she made multiple trips in a short span of time.
“Can you look at Daddy?” he calmly asked.
But she didn’t want to. She didn’t want to see the disappointment on his face. She didn’t want to see the anger either. She knew what she had done was wrong, and she shouldn’t have done it. But she felt like her reasoning for doing so was a good one. She wasn’t doing it to defy his orders. She was doing it so she could do her job.
“Look at Daddy now, Little One,” he commanded.
She slowly lifted her head and met his eyes. She searched his gaze, but he wasn’t giving anything away. Daddy was really good at hiding his emotions.
“Why?” he asked. “Why did you empty your water? Why did you lie to me?”
Was he going to understand if she told him?
“Why?” he asked again, giving her another sip of water.
“I don’t want any more,” she mumbled.
“Tough, you are drinking water until I say you’ve had enough,” he replied.
Sammi glared at him, but he just looked back at her like he was unbothered.
“Little One, answer the question.”
There was no way out of this. He was going to find out either way.
“I can’t drink water.” She looked into space.
“Ah, I didn’t say you could look away,” he gently said. “Look at me. Now, Little One.”
Sammi glared at him once again, not liking that he was making her meet his gaze. Why did he that so badly?
“Why can’t you drink any water?” he asked.
Heat crept up her face. Did he not see how embarrassing that question was?
“Little One, there is nothing embarrassing about needing to pee or drinking water. Now, why can’t you drink water?”
She didn’t want to answer that. What would happen if he found out she was going to the bathroom so many times when she wasn’t drinking anything?
“Sammi.” His voice held a warning tone. “Why?”
“Because I’ll pee even more than I do already!” She raised her voice. “Happy?”
Daddy looked at her, just staring at her face as he lifted the bottle to her lips again.
“No.” She gently pushed his hand away.
“I don’t like that word. I forbid you from using it with me. The only acceptable answer is yes.” He held the water bottle up again.
“You can’t just forbid me from saying no!” Sammi exclaimed. “You can’t forbid me from doing anything.”
“I can, and I just did.”
Sammi growled and took a sip of the water. “You aren’t always going to get your way, you know that, right?”
“We’ll see about that.”
She shook her head and crossed her arms over her chest. He was so arrogant sometimes, and it irked her. Maybe because he was confident in whatever he did, and she wasn’t. Or maybe it was because she knew he was right.
“You haven’t been drinking anything all day, yet you still go to the bathroom a lot?” he asked.
If her cheeks could get any redder, they would right now. “Yes, but I drink when I get home and in the morning before work.” She winced. “Okay, just at night, but I eat fruit and other things that have lots of liquid in them. That explains why. I’m fine.”
She probably wasn’t okay at all. It was a little concerning, but she was going to get it checked out in a couple of days. She had a doctor’s appointment all set up when her insurance kicked in. It was actually several days after since Sammi wanted to be sure it had kicked in.
Daddy looked at her, not saying anything.
“Umm, can I go back to work?” she asked.
“No.”
“Why can you say no, and I can’t?”
“Because I’m the Daddy and you aren’t,” he pointed out.
“I could totally be a Mommy or a Daddy!”
Daddy raised his eyebrow as he looked at her.Disbelief painted on his face.
“Okay, I don’t have a dominant bone in my body. I get it, but still. I should be allowed to say no.”
“No.”
“Then you shouldn’t be allowed to say it either!”
“Not how it works.”
“But it should be!”
“Like I said before. Not how it works.”
Sammi growled in frustration. “I need to go back to work. There are things to do, and I can’t be caught slacking off.”
“You aren’t going back, and you aren’t slacking off. I called you in here to talk to you. I do that with a lot of the other employees.”
“We don’t need to talk.”
Daddy sat back in his chair. “You’re right. We aren’t going to talk right now.”
She gave him a puzzled look. He just said he wanted to talk to her, but they weren’t going to talk?
“You’re going to receive your punishment.”