Chapter 27
Grant
Waiting for Edie to get ready hadn’t been too bad when he’d been occupied with getting everything ready for their last-minute date. But now that everything was in place and he could hear them whispering at the top of the stairs, the nerves were starting to set in. What the hell could be taking them so long?
Then the boards creaked, alerting him to movement on the stairs. He looked up, and all the air seemed to freeze in his lungs.
She was a fucking vision. The dress she’d poured herself into was the color of a good wine, and it clung to every gentle curve of her body like a jealous lover. And the impossibly high heels made her legs look a million miles long.
But it was her face he couldn’t take his eyes off of. She still looked like Edie, but sharper. Sexier, in a more lethal way than Jesse’s girl-next-door beauty. It hit him then, more than ever, how very different they were.
And how completely wild he was about both of them.
Pausing a few steps from the bottom, Edie smiled, but the gesture was tinged with a nervous energy that matched his own. “Hopefully that’s the good kind of stunned silence.”
“The best kind, I promise you.” Shaking off the shock as best he could, he stepped forward and held out his hand to help her down the last couple of steps. Even in the heels, the top of her head barely reached his chin. Some men might mistake her diminutive stature for fragility, but he knew better. There was nothing delicate or fragile about the woman standing in front of him.
“You are… stunning,” he finally said, running his hands down her silky-smooth arms. Despite his very firm stance when Jesse had been trying to push them together, he was suddenly desperate to get his hands on Edie to see if the rest of her was as smooth as her bare arms. “I am a very lucky man.”
One dark eyebrow raised in challenge, and he just barely resisted the urge to sink his fingers into her dark locks to force her to her knees. “I would think any man who landed Carly Simmons would consider himself lucky.”
The reference to Jesse’s stage name made him grin. “Undoubtedly. Trust me, I am in awe every day of how lucky I got with her. Which makes it a goddamn miracle that I’d be blessed with two smart, gorgeous women at once.”
A pretty blush stained her cheeks, making her look much softer than when she’d been coming down the stairs. “Thank you. That was a lovely thing to say.”
“I meant every word.” Cupping the back of her neck, he drew her in, slanting his lips across hers. There was no hope of keeping it soft and sweet, not with the need burning through his veins already. And the moment her lips touched his, the moment she pressed herself against him with a soft whimper of need, he was lost. Drowning in a sea of want and desire and her.
By the time he pulled away, her eyes had gone glassy and unfocused, his own want and need reflected back at him in the dark depths. Her lips parted, as if she was about to say something, but they were interrupted by a loud wolf whistle.
As one, they looked up to find Jesse bouncing in place at the top of the stairs, clapping and cheering them on. “God, that was hot. I’m almost bummed I can’t see you two in action later.”
“Jesse…” He put enough warning in his tone to have her cheeks turning red.
“I’m not pushing anything, Daddy, I promise! But if that kiss was anything to judge by, I won’t have to,” she added with a waggle of her eyebrows. “You crazy kids have fun and just let me know if I shouldn’t wait up.”
“Behave, little outlaw. Don’t forget to check on the animals. And eat something real for dinner, not just leftover donuts.”
“I will, Daddy. Now go, shoo, be gone.”
His palm physically itched to swat her sassy little bottom. But he was still hyper-aware of the gorgeous woman at his side. A woman who deserved all his attention tonight.
Maybe after their date, they could come home and teach their babygirl some manners together. Bolstered by that thought, he turned and offered his arm to Edie. “Your chariot awaits, m’lady.”
Head thrown back, she let out a whoop of laughter that had him grinning in response. “You’re ridiculous, you know that.”
“I’m told it’s part of my charm.”
“It’s certainly part of something,” she teased back as they stepped outside. “So, where are you taking me?”
“You’ll see when we get there.”
Oh, she didn’t like that. Her smile dipped down into a frown, and her brows drew together at his response. “I’m not a huge fan of surprises, Grant.”
He waited until they were at the passenger door of his car to turn to her, gripping her chin between his fingers and tilting her head back. “I know it can be difficult to let someone else take the lead, especially when you’ve had to be the one taking care of everything for so long. But just for tonight, I want you to trust me to take care of you. Can you do that for me, little pixie?”
“I can… try. Sir.”
“Good girl. And one more thing.” He ran the pad of his thumb over her full bottom lip and tried not to imagine what those lips would look like wrapped around his cock. “I’d like you to try something for me. Just for tonight. If you hate it, you don’t ever have to do it again.”
Wariness crept into her eyes. “What?”
“I want you to call me Daddy.”
Edie
The flash of arousal his request sent through her was more confusing than anything he’d said or done so far. “Why? I already told you, I’m not a Little.”
“And I already told you that you don’t have to be Little to have a Daddy. But I can’t turn off who I am, Edie, not even for you. If calling me Daddy is too much, I’ll accept that, as long as you accept I’m always going to need to take care of you. It’s just how I’m built.”
It was a fair enough compromise, and still her stomach was filled with nervous butterflies. “I’ll try, but I can’t make any promises.”
“That’s all I ask, little pixie. Thank you.” Leaning down, he gave her another of those soul-stealing kisses before opening the car door and nudging her down into the seat.
He didn’t buckle her seatbelt for her, the way he did for Jesse, which she tucked away for later. Maybe it was one way of differentiating between being a Daddy to a Little and being her Daddy.
When he joined her in the car and plugged an address she didn’t recognize into the GPS, she fought the urge to ask him again where they were going. Just like they had during most of their dinner in Folly, they kept their conversation to the lighter ‘getting to know you’ topics as they drove.
The whole time though, her gaze kept drifting to the screen in front of them, and the unfamiliar route they were taking. She’d assumed he’d want to take her into the city, show her off like she imagined men in his position enjoyed doing, especially with all the work Jesse had put into prettying her up. But the address he’d entered was nowhere near Charleston as far as she could remember, and she couldn’t for the life of her think of anything that was out this way.
After a solid twenty minutes of driving, her curiosity got the better of her again. “Where are we going?”
He glanced over, long enough for her to see his brow raised before he returned his focus to the road. “You’ll see in a few minutes.”
According to the GPS they still had ten minutes. But it might as well have been another hour. “Why can’t I know now?”
“Because I said so, little girl. And unless you’d like to arrive at our destination with a sore bottom, I suggest you don’t push the issue.”
Fuck. She’d heard him use that ‘Daddy’ tone with Jesse plenty, and it had been hot as hell then. But having it aimed at her was a completely different experience. Still really fucking hot, enough to have her squirming in the passenger seat of the car, but there was an added dash of humiliation she didn’t normally experience when it was Jesse on the receiving end of a scolding.
And for the first time in over five years, she found herself at an achingly familiar crossroads. In one direction, there was the option to be a good girl and listen.
In the other was the option to push, just a little, and see what happened.
She’d never been a very good girl.
Crossing her arms, she glared at him, which was a bit of a feat when she was fighting back both the laughter bubbling in her chest and the nerves dancing in her stomach. “I don’t understand why it has to be a big secret. Why can’t you just tell me?”
To her delight and horror, he sighed and signaled to the completely empty road that he was moving to the shoulder. Her laughter died in her throat as he put the car in park, but her nerves skyrocketed to an all time high.
Without saying a word, he opened the door and stepped out of the car. But instead of coming around to the passenger side like she’d expected, he opened the back door and slid to the middle of the seat.
Then his eyes locked on hers and despite the humor she could see dancing in the brown, she instinctively knew she’d chosen the wrong road.
“Come here, little pixie.” He punctuated the order by patting his knee, leaving zero doubt as to his intentions.
“Um, no thanks, I’m good up here.”
“You have until the count of three. If you are not over my lap by then, I can promise you the rest of this evening will be far more uncomfortable for you than necessary. One.”
Curiosity only went so far. She shoved open the door before he even got to the count of two, and by three she was climbing over his knee. To her relief, he managed to reach over and close the car door, so at least she wouldn’t be getting her spanking with the door wide open. For once, being short worked in her favor.
“I was almost hoping you’d be more stubborn,” he said with a chuckle as he settled back into place and pushed her dress up over her hips. “There’s a plug in the glove compartment just waiting for a naughty little bottom.”
Arousal pooled low in her belly at his words, and it was only made worse by the feel of his hand running over her bottom. The underwear Jesse had picked out for her wasn’t exceptionally fancy, but it didn’t cover even half her ass, which meant his fingertips were occasionally brushing against bare skin.
“Now. When Daddy tells you to stop pushing, what should you do?”
She just barely resisted the urge to squirm over his knee. “Stop pushing.”
Two surprisingly sharp swats landed across the middles of her thighs. “How do you address me, little girl?”
Now she did squirm as the combination of arousal and humiliation edged toward unbearable. “Stop pushing, Daddy.”
“Good girl.” His praise came out as a low growl that had her rocking forward, desperate for some kind of pressure to take the edge off the ache in her clit. “Hopefully making the rest of the ride on a red-hot bottom will help you remember who’s in charge.”
How the hell could she possibly forget after this? But she knew what he was waiting to hear, so she forced the words past her lips. “Yes, Daddy.”
The first swat that actually connected with her ass sent her rocking forward again with a gasp. Need, piercing and hot, flooded her system as the second swat landed on the opposite cheek.
“It’s been a long time since you had to answer to anyone, hasn’t it, little pixie?” he asked softly, rubbing the sting from her bottom and fueling the arousal clouding her mind.
“I guess.” Two more swats across her thighs reminded her very quickly to answer correctly if she didn’t want to be walking into wherever they were going with glowing red legs. “I mean, yes, Daddy!”
“Much better, little girl. If I have to remind you again, I’ll be sending you back to the front seat to fetch that plug.”
“Sorry, Daddy.” His title was coming more easily, and with slightly less humiliation now. “And I’m sorry I pushed about where we’re going. I’m… not known for my patience.”
“That’s all right. Daddy knows exactly how to teach naughty little girls to be more patient.”
With that, the spanking started again. Harder than before, hard enough to have her crying out and wriggling over his knee as he heated her bottom. Jesus, the man could spank. The swats stung more than she’d expected, each one layering fresh pain over the ones that had come before, until she was feeling very sorry indeed for pushing her luck.
By the time he paused again, stroking his heavy palm over her warm skin, she was panting for breath. Both from the struggle of trying to escape the spanking and from the need between her thighs making her absolutely frantic for his touch.
“Are you going to be a good girl for me now, little pixie?”
“I’ll be the best girl if you touch me, Daddy. Please.”
Chuckling softly, he let his hand drift down between her thighs, a too-light touch trailing over the gusset of her panties. “Do you want Daddy to make you come, pretty little pixie?”
“Fuck, yes. I might actually die if you don’t.”
“Hmm.” His thoughtful hum accompanied the press of his fingers to her clit. Even through the thin material of her panties, it was like an electric shock that had her gasping and pressing her hips back against his hand. “I don’t normally reward naughty little girls with orgasms.”
Through the haze of need, she realized with a growing dread that she’d grossly miscalculated what her actual punishment might be. “I’ll be so good the rest of the night. I swear.”
“Very tempting. But… I think you’ll be even better behaved if you know you have an orgasm waiting for you at the end of the night. Up you go.”
Sitting up on her knees, her bottom burning and her clit throbbing, she glared at him. “That was incredibly mean.”
“I know.” He grinned, looking rather proud of himself, and she resisted the urge to snarl. “I’m going to enjoy flexing my sadist muscles to keep you in line, little pixie.”
“I can’t wait,” she grumbled. But she couldn’t quite hide the smile on her face as she said it.