Chapter 10
Chapter Ten
Austin
“Babygirl, if you don’t stop and take a deep breath—make that more like a dozen—and calm down you’re either going to have a stroke or earn yourself a very hot bottom.”
Marcie looked at me as if I’d said something so far out of her scope of reality that she couldn’t comprehend what I was saying. And for my Little girl, that wasn’t exactly a good thing.
I was pretty sure I was disappointing not every Dominant who’d ever spoken to their submissive. On the flip side, I believed every Daddy Dom who’d ever attempted to grant his Little some grace by cutting off a tantrum before it had a chance to pick up too much speed to stop understood my effort.
“Calm down? How can you expect me to calm down? The better question is why aren’t you in as frickin’ a frenzy as I am?
Have you any idea how awful it will be if everything we’ve done isn’t enough?
What if nobody even shows up to the party?
Or even worse, what if everyone shows up but nobody buys a single pig?
Did you ever consider that, Mr. Cool, Calm and Collected? ”
Okay, so I was the one who took those calming deep breaths, not an entire dozen but enough to speak as soothingly as possible.
“Marcie, honey, you’re freaking out for no reason.
And you can’t claim we haven’t sold a single pig.
We’ve been consistently selling them since the first poster went up advertising there was going to be a sale.
I bet there are at least a hundred pre-sold pigs just waiting to be picked up and—”
“A hundred! A measly hundred?” She stopped pacing to turn and stare at me, her eyes huge and frankly, rather wild looking.
“You’re telling me that you actually believe that a measly hundred is good?
Well excuse me, but considering that means there are nine thousand, nine hundred pigs that no one wants, I think you need to take a refresher course or are you so s—”
Then again, not only was I was both a Dominant and a Daddy, for this month at least I was Santa Daddy and if there was one thing the jolly old head elf had definitely made no qualms about was the fact that only good girls and boys got rewarded with presents and stockings full of candy and toys.
As for naughty ones, he had a totally different pair of items that had become famously known as well.
Since I didn’t have any coal readily available, I was going to have to go with option number two.
It took but a moment to sweep Marcie off her feet and sling her over my shoulder.
Her huff as her tummy slammed into my shoulder, most likely was the only thing that would keep the bar of soap in the bathroom out of her mouth.
My granted grace had let the “frickin’” slip by and her present position had cut off that last word before she’d had time to complete it.
As I strode out the patio door and into our backyard, she unfortunately had time to suck in enough breath to continue.
“Put me down! We don’t have time for this shit!”
So much for grace.
“We’re making time,” I growled, my patience was getting dangerously close to evaporating.
“Daddy! I’m serious! We’ve got to go! We’re going to be so late!”
That was easier to ignore considering that I knew exactly where we were going. And while it definitely wasn’t into the car and on to the club, our destination was a hell of a lot closer. “Not late, in fact, we’re here.”
“What?”
I felt her hands planting on my back as she used them to brace herself enough to push up in order to see. If her view wasn’t quite as steady as she’d like, that was just too bad. Selecting and breaking a tool essential for playing Santa took some effort.
“No! Daddy, no! I-I mean, okay, I-I’ll calm down.”
“Too little and way too late—”
“But listen!”
Poor little elf. If she believed dragging in huge, noisy lungfuls of air only to practically vomit them back out in order to draw another counted as a calming exercise, she was poorly informed.
“See? I took twelve breaths and now I’m all good!”
“Babygirl, you are so far from all good, I can’t even see the “D” on the end of the word. But don’t you fret. By the time Santa Daddy is through, you’re going to be nice and calm and ready to face the world again like my sweet Christmas elf.”
“But you’re going to spank me!”
I could have pointed out that those who’d reached a level of serenity didn’t screech but decided it would be far more effective to correct her statement. “Not at all, Marcie. Daddy isn’t going to spank you.”
“What? You’re-you’re not? Oh, thank—”
“Santa Daddy is going to switch you.”
Though I couldn’t see her face as her head was somewhere near my waist and behind me at that, I was pretty sure that if I could, I’d see her rounded eyes and her mouth opening and closing like a poor fish trying to think of the one thing that might get him thrown back into the water before the worst thing in his imagination happened.
Unfortunately for Marcie, she wasn’t a fish.
She was my Little girl–my very naughty Little girl—but that would soon change.
“Daddy, please, I’m sorry I don’t know what got into me I was just nervous but you’re right everything is going to be great in fact I bet we sell our piggies so fast your head will spin so you can just stop trying to break that limb off before you hurt your poor hand and put me down and we can go and party with our friends and have the bestest time ever and forget all about nasty switches and–”
“We will do all of that once I’ve striped your little ass,” I finished for her when she simply ran out of oxygen from stringing only god-knew-how-many words together without pause.
“Oh, nooooo…”
“Oh, yes!” I countered, pretty satisfied when the snick of the switch breaking off the willow tree punctuated my last word.
I almost laughed when I felt her hands leaving my back and heard the umph she gave as she flopped against me as her hands moved from bracing herself to whip back in an attempt to cover her bottom. The change of position didn’t stand a snowball’s chance in hell of working, but damn, it was adorable.
Her promises of perfect behavior began as I turned back toward the house and were uttered nonstop as I crossed the yard, ascended the steps to the porch, reentered the house and continued into the kitchen.
I hooked a barstool with my foot and dragged it far enough out from the island that I would have plenty of room to take care of business.
A slight shrug had her off my shoulder and a simple bend had her feet back on terra firma.
“Tights and panties down, skirt up and bend over the stool. Wrap your fingers around the bottom rung, push your bottom out and spread your legs.
I couldn’t’ see her expression to know if she understood my directions as her hair was covering a great portion of her face.
Sliding the switch under my arm, I used my hands to sweep the auburn curls off her cheeks.
Poor thing, if there had ever been a Little who seriously regretted throwing a tantrum, I was sure they looked exactly as my babygirl did at this exact moment.
Her bottom lip quivered and her eyes were already welling.
“Please, Daddy, I-I really am sorry.”
“I know you are, babygirl, but we both know that if we just let this go, while you’ll probably manage to remember how sorry you are for a few minutes, by the time you walk into Gem, you’ll be a sack of nerves just waiting for the slightest hitch to set you off.
Then, do you think you’ll remember how sorry you are? ”
Her mouth opened instantly, the Little inside her so very anxious to shout that she would remember, but the Marcie who made up that Little girl knew that would be adding a lie to what she was already regretting.
“No, Daddy, I-I guess not.”
“Then, you know why I’m punishing you.”
“Because you’re my Daddy.” Her gaze dropped from mine to the implement nature had so kindly provided. “But… could you… I mean, would you maybe just use your hand instead of… of that?”
“I’m afraid not. You lost that opportunity when you let naughty words come out of that sweet little mouth.
Besides, every Little knows how Santa deals with naughtiness and since I’m standing in for him until he arrives for real, it will be the switch.
The only question is how many stripes is it going to take to make sure that you remember exactly how sorry you claim you are. ”
She lifted her head to look at me again. “I think maybe just one, Daddy.”
As much as I want to chuckle, I refrained. Instead, I quirked my brow and just waited. Finally, my babygirl shifted on her feet and gave a deep sigh. “As many as Santa Daddy thinks is probably a better answer.”
“It is indeed,” I praised and bent to kiss the tip of her nose. “Now get into position while I prepare your switch.”
She nodded and when I stepped away, she walked to her fate. Well, it was more like she trudged as if going to her doom, but Marcie had always been fond of a bit of drama in her life.
It was cute beyond words watching her begin to peel down her tights while her gaze kept skipping from my face to the switch to the island counter where I was dropping the leaves I was stripping off the branch.
What should have taken her no more than a few seconds was taking ten times longer, but I wasn’t in any hurry.
The house would have to have been on fire for me to rush us out of our home.
A million people could be waiting for us to make an appearance, but I only cared about an audience of one and she was currently standing with her tights down at her ankles and her panties lowered to just beneath the hem of her party dress.