5. Duke and Sunny
DUKE AND SUNNY
Duke leaned over Sunny, kissing her lightly. “I want you to stay in bed and rest until I get home. I won’t be long.”
“I have stuff to do.”
“Rest,” he said firmly. “You had a late night, baking cupcakes. Stay in bed. I’ll be about an hour.”
Sunny let out a disgruntled breath as she rolled over onto her other side. She heard the front door shut and counted to thirty.
Surely he would be gone by now, right?
Pushing back the covers, she sat up and got out of bed. She didn’t have much time, so she needed to get to work.
She couldn’t believe that Duke thought she would just lie around in bed while there were still things to get ready for the barbecue this afternoon.
She was in charge of the cupcakes, and Sunny was determined to make sure that everything was just right. Pulling on her robe, she put her feet in her fluffy unicorn slippers and rushed into the kitchen, nearly tripping over Hatter, who was lying in the hallway for some reason.
“Hatter, what are you doing? Have you had your breakfast?” She reached down to pet the large dog.
His tongue rolled out and he panted, looking happy with himself.
“You look like you’ve had your breakfast,” she said as she moved into the kitchen. “Sorry, I’ve got no time to play. I have to make some more icing. I really don’t think I have enough. And you know what they say, Hatter, there’s no such thing as too much icing on a cupcake.”
He gave a small woof as though in agreement. She kept an eye on the time as she mixed up more icing. “There we go. There’s some more white,” she said. “And now to add blue coloring to the icing to make some blue. These cupcakes are going to be so good, Hatter.”
At this pace, she was going to get this icing finished before Duke came home. She’d sneak back into bed, and he’d never be the wiser.
“Last, we have the red,” she said, mixing in the red coloring with a large wooden spoon.
Hatter let out a loud bark, and Sunny spun around, the spoon flying into the air, and blobs of red icing falling to the floor.
“Oh, shoot,” she said, racing over to the window to check that Duke hadn’t arrived home early.
Nothing. Phew.
She turned toward Hatter who gave her an innocent look. “You made me nervous.”
Rushing back, she added the icing to the container and then packaged everything up.
Finally, after putting all of the dirty dishes in the dishwasher, she turned back to look at the kitchen floor, and that was when she heard the truck pull up.
Grabbing a dishcloth, she quickly wiped up as much as she could before rushing back into the bedroom and throwing off her robe and slippers.
Oh, no. Oh, no.
He was going to catch her. She threw herself into bed and pulled the covers up over her shoulders as she lay there, trying to calm her racing heart.
The door to the bedroom opened.
Oh, shoot. Had that been shut or closed when he left?
Why hadn’t she paid more attention? She really wasn’t good at this sneaky stuff.
“Hi, did you get all of your errands done?” she asked.
“Good. How did you get on with your lie-in?” he asked as he sat facing her on the bed.
She sat up and leaned back against the headboard, hoping she looked innocent. “It was good. I think I really needed it. You were right.”
“I’m always right. So, is there anything that you want to tell me?”
“What would I have to tell you?” she asked.
“Maybe that you disobeyed me and got out of bed to possibly make some more icing? Maybe red icing?”
What the hell? How did he know that? Her eyes went wide. “What are you talking about?”
“Little Rebel, you’re already in enough trouble, so you might want to start being honest with me.” He gave her a stern look, and she swallowed heavily.
Uh-oh.
Sunny had a feeling that she could be in real trouble here.
Duke couldn’t believe she’d disobeyed him.
Well, he guessed he could believe it, but he had hoped that she would stay in bed, like he’d told her to.
She had dark marks under her eyes that he wasn’t very happy about, and he’d been hoping to get rid of them before they went to the barbecue this afternoon.
But now it seemed like she was going to be spending all of tomorrow in bed, resting.
Sunny had been doing far too much lately, and he wasn’t happy about it. She needed some care and attention, and plenty of sleep.
But to blatantly lie to him about it, well, that was a little bit more than naughty. And it was going to result in her over his lap, getting her bottom smacked.
Sunny sighed, her shoulders dropping. “How did you know?”
“Us Daddies know everything,” he told her.
Sunny eyed him with disbelief. “Have you got any cameras in the house, Daddy? That you didn’t tell me about?”
“No, I certainly do not have cameras in the house,” he replied. “What I do have is a naughty girl who doesn’t do as she’s told and then lies about it. What do you think that I should do with such a naughty Little one?”
“Hmm. Well, if you’re asking for my opinion,” she said. “I think you should give her candy and cuddles. Yep, that’s what I think you should do.”
“Is that right?” he said, hiding his amusement. “Well, that’s not what I’m going to do with such a naughty Little girl. She will end up getting some kisses and cuddles, but only after she gets her bottom spanked for being naughty.”
Sunny gasped, with her hand on her chest. “Daddy, who are you going to spank for being naughty? That’s not very nice.”
“You,” he said sternly. “I’m going to spank you, Little Rebel, for getting up when I told you to stay in bed, and for lying about it when I asked you if there was anything you needed to tell me. Instead, you pretended that you didn’t get out of bed, and that you didn’t disobey me.”
This was serious and she needed to realize that. She had been very, very naughty.
Sunny gulped. “Well, it does sound bad when you put it like that, doesn’t it?”
“Yes, Little Rebel, it does.”
“But, Daddy, you don’t understand,” she cried. “I didn’t have enough icing made. I needed to make more.”
“And it had to be done right this minute?” he asked. “You couldn’t wait until you’d gotten enough rest, then had some breakfast and gotten dressed? The barbecue isn’t till later on this afternoon, remember?”
“I just wanted to get it done, Daddy, and off my to-do list. I didn’t want it hanging over me, weighing me down, worrying about icing shortages.
I mean, could you imagine what a catastrophe it would be to have a decorate-your-own-cupcake table, and not enough icing?
Terrible. It would ruin the Fourth of July. ”
Duke shook his head at her dramatics. “It wouldn’t ruin the Fourth of July. There would’ve been enough icing, and if there wasn’t we could’ve made more together, after you’d rested in bed for a while.”
“But I don’t need to be in bed, Daddy. Daylight hours are burning and why would I waste them lying around in bed?”
“It’s not a waste of time to lie in bed when you’re tired and have dark marks under your eyes. If you don’t get enough rest, Little Rebel, then you’re going to get sick. And Daddy doesn’t want that happening. Understand?”
“Yes, I understand.” She nibbled at her lower lip. “I’m in a lot of trouble, huh?”
“Yes, you’re in a lot of trouble,” he told her.
“First of all, you’re getting your bottom spanked for getting out of bed when I told you to stay there and for lying about it.
Second of all, you’re going to be spending all of tomorrow in bed resting until those dark marks have disappeared from under your eyes. ”
“Daddy, no!” she cried. “The spanking is bad enough, but to stay in bed all day tomorrow? That’s not fair.”
He raised his eyebrows. “Who makes the rules around here, baby girl?”
Sunny sighed. “You do, Daddy.”
“And what does that mean you’re going to do?”
“Spend all of tomorrow in bed, but it will be so boring,” she grumbled.
“We’ll get you some quiet activities that you can do while resting,” he told her.
“I still don’t understand how you knew that I’d gotten out of bed and made icing. I was back in bed by the time you got home.”
“Yes, which was very sneaky of you,” he said. “But you forgot to do a couple of things, like check your face for icing.” He reached up and brushed his thumb over her cheek.
Oh, crap.
She had icing on her cheek the whole time? How had she not felt that? Probably because of the rush of adrenaline she’d gotten from sneaking around.
Sunny wasn’t generally that naughty, but every so often she liked to keep Duke guessing.
“Also, when Hatter greeted me at the door, he’d left red paw prints in his wake.”
Oh, heck. She thought that she’d missed cleaning some icing off the floor. Hatter must have stood in it and then walked with red paws all the way through the house.
“Well, that was a series of unfortunate events,” she said.
“Yes, the most unfortunate being when you decided to disobey Daddy,” he said. “Now, let’s get your spanking out of the way, so we can get some breakfast into you.”
He sat farther back on the bed and then patted his lap. “Up you get, and over you come.”
With a moan of disbelief and regret, Sunny positioned herself over his lap so her chest, head and legs rested on the bed on either side of his thighs. She was wearing a pair of pink-and-white-striped pajamas with little unicorns dancing on clouds.
They were adorable. Duke had bought them for her for Christmas. He drew down the bottoms of her pajama pants as well as her pink panties. Then he rubbed his hand over her bare bottom. She tensed, waiting for the first smack to come down, but he just continued to rub her cheeks.
“Why are you getting spanked?” he asked her.
Ugh. It was bad enough that she had to get a spanking, but did she really have to tell him why? Didn’t he already know? Wasn’t he the one who had decided she needed a spanking?
This part really made no sense to her at all.
“If you can’t tell me, I can get you to write it down,” he told her. “I think a hundred times might settle it into your brain.”
“No, no,” she said hastily. “It’s fine. I know. I don’t have to write it down.” Writing lines was the last thing she wanted to do right now.