Chapter 13
TABITHA
Iwatch Daddy leave the living room, surrounded by his brothers. Leaving me alone with Auntie Gray, Lanie, and Josie. My chest aches, and every muscle in my body tenses to follow him.
But then someone lays a hand on my arm and I look up to find Auntie Gray smiling down at me. “Come on, little one. Let’s get you ready for your big day.”
Swallowing back tears, I nod and let her lead me over to sit on a pillow placed in front of the couch.
Even as I try to settle gently on the cushion, the pain from my spanking flares and I can’t help but wince.
I am never ever going to give Daddy a reason to spank me with that evil brush ever again.
Auntie Gray sits on the couch behind me, while Josie and Lanie sit on the floor facing me. I can’t help but notice Josie also winces when her butt hits the floor, and it almost makes me feel as though we’re connected in some way.
That’s probably silly, though. They’re a family and I’m just… me.
“So, Tabby.” Eyes sparkling with excitement, Lanie wiggles her shoulders like she’s about to get some juicy gossip. “How did you and Uncle Colt meet?”
“Um, at a bar, I think.” Heat creeps into my cheeks. “I don’t really remember last night all that well. I sort of remember sitting down at the bar and meeting him, but after that everything is a blur.”
Auntie Gray’s hands, which have been busy pulling my braids apart, go still. “After one drink?”
“I must have had way more than one and just don’t remember.”
“Hmm.” Her hands begin moving again, the gentle tug and pull threatening to lull me to sleep. “Well, I suppose it’s a good thing all the alcohol in this house is kept locked up where Little girls can’t get to it.”
There’s a hint of disapproval in her tone that has the heat in my face growing hotter. “I don’t really drink anyway. Last night was a special occasion.”
“Oh!” Josie’s expression lights up. “What kind of occasion? Is it your birthday? Auntie Gray, can we throw Tabby a birthday party?”
“Why don’t you give Tabby a chance to actually answer you before you start party planning, Josephine.”
Bottom lip puffed out in an impressive pout, Josie sighs. “Fine.”
“Keep giving me attitude, little girl, and see where it gets you.”
Red floods Josie’s cheeks until she looks as embarrassed as I feel. “Sorry, Auntie.”
“Good girl. Continue your story, Tabby.”
“Oh. Um. Well that’s really all I remember before waking up this morning in Daddy’s bed with him telling me we’re married now and he’s going to bring me home to his family whether I like it or not. I kept insisting we were absolutely not married but, well...”
I hold up my left hand and both Josie and Lanie’s mouths drop open.
“Holy shit, that thing is huge!”
“Josephine Elise!” Auntie Gray’s voice takes on a hardness I’ve become all too familiar with and my bottom clenches in sympathy. “When your Daddy comes back downstairs, he is going to hear about your naughty language. You know better, little girl.”
“No, Auntie Gray, don’t tell on me!” Josie whines, clasping her hands together in front of her. “Please, Daddy will be so mad!”
“If you didn’t want to get in trouble, then you shouldn’t have used that word. But if you want to keep arguing with me about it, my brush is ready and waiting for another naughty little bottom to warm.”
Crossing her arms, Josie glares up at her. “This house is a prison.”
“Yes.” Auntie Gray’s tone is dry, bordering on sarcastic. “A prison full of people who love you and spoil you rotten ninety percent of the time. The life of a Little girl is so very hard.”
Shoulders hunching forward, Josie scowls but doesn’t say anything more. Apparently satisfied, Auntie Gray gives my hair a gentle tug. “It’s a very pretty ring, Tabby. You’re a very lucky girl.”
Lanie huffs out an impatient-sounding breath. “Yes, very lucky. You still haven’t told us why you were celebrating last night, though!”
It takes me a moment to realize we’re back to talking about me. “Oh, I wasn’t celebrating. I was… Well, I guess I was having a bit of a nervous breakdown if we’re being honest.”
Eyes wide, Lanie brings her hands up to her cheeks with a shocked gasp. Even Josie leans in a bit, her scowl giving way to curiosity. “What happened? Are you okay?”
A sharp, bitter laugh escapes me. “Everything happened. I lost my job out of nowhere, my boyfriend told me he was in love with my best friend and then kicked me out of our apartment. I was looking for a hotel to stay in for a couple days while I figured things out and I got an ad for these super-cheap flights to Vegas bundled with hotels that were way less expensive than the ones near me. So I hopped on a plane and went to Vegas for a few days. My plan was to drown my sorrows and maybe try to win some extra cash at the casino, but then I met Daddy and like I said… the rest of the night is a blur.”
“You poor thing.” Throwing herself forward, Lanie wraps her arms around my neck. “It’s okay. You’re with us now and you never have to worry about any of that yucky stuff ever again.”
“I wish it was really that easy.”
When Lanie pulls away again, her expression is earnest. “It gets easier along the way. But Josie and I both know how hard it is, at least at first.”
Now it’s my curiosity being piqued. “You do?”
My “cousins” both nod. “Daddy found me in the middle of a snowstorm. I’d just run away from a marriage my parents had arranged for me and the van I stole ran out of gas.
The last thing I thought I wanted was to be thrown into another marriage I didn’t choose, but honestly it turned out to be the best thing that had ever happened to me. ”
Apparently finished with her story, she glances over at Josie, gesturing for her to share. “Daddy drugged me and kidnapped right from the cabin I was renting.”
“Josephine,” Auntie Gray says over my shocked gasp. “There is more to that story, little girl, and you are testing my patience.”
Rolling her eyes, Josie continues. “I knew the Thornes way back before they… relocated,” she says, once again giving me the impression there’s far more to their relocation than anyone is saying.
“I was super close with all of them, but Daddy and I, we were in love. It was a wild freak coincidence, bumping into him out here in Colorado, especially when I never thought I’d see him again.
And, well, he decided he wasn’t letting me go. ”
I can’t help a soft, dreamy sigh. “That’s… actually kind of romantic.”
Josie snorts. “In a very twisted, dark romance kind of way. I’m thinking of putting it in a book.”
Leaning forward, Lanie gives my arm a reassuring squeeze. “I know it probably seems really big and scary right now, being in this house full of people you don’t know and being treated like a Little girl, but—”
“No, that’s not it. I know I should probably be angry about how this all went down but, I mean, have you seen this house? It’s way better than being jobless and homeless.”
Lanie’s brows furrow with confusion. “Then what’s wrong?”
Unsure of how to explain, I lift my shoulder in a shrug. “Good things don’t really happen to me. And even when they do, they don’t last long.”
“That may have been the case before,” Auntie Gray says, her tone firm as if she’s daring the Universe itself to defy her. “You’re a Thorne now, and absolutely nothing will ever change that.”
A mirror appears in front of me, and I gasp at the vision before me. My hair has been twisted into a simple, but surprisingly elegant style. And nestled in the braids is a shining tiara of golden flowers and gems that sparkle so brightly it almost hurts my eyes.
“I look like a princess,” I whisper in awe, turning my head this way and that to examine my reflection.
“You look beautiful, little firecracker.”
Tearing my gaze away from the mirror, I nearly choke on my own breath at the sight of my Daddy, dressed in a perfectly fitted suit, surrounded by his brothers. And even though they all look so alike—especially Daddy and Uncle Bram—my Daddy is easily the handsomest of them all.
I’m still staring, trying to get my suddenly frozen brain to function, when Auntie Gray clears her throat. “Is there something you want to tell your Daddy, Josephine?”
Josie shoots our Auntie a pleading look, but when Auntie Gray only stares, Josie lets out a deep sigh. “Tabby showed us the ring Uncle Colt bought her and I mighta said the s-word when I saw it. I’m sorry, Daddy, it just slipped out!”
Bending down, Uncle Bram hoists Josie up onto his hip. “If you’ll all excuse us, my Little girl has a date with a bar of soap. We’ll be back for the ceremony.”
“No, Daddy, it was an accident! I don’t want soap!”
Josie’s pleading echoes down the hall before it’s cut off by the sound of a door closing. A familiar mix of worry and anger wells in my chest, and I want to run after her, to stop Uncle Bram from hurting her again.
But the memory of what happened the last time I interfered in a punishment is fresh in my mind, so I force myself to stay calm and stay put.
Luckily, I’m distracted from Josie’s distress by the sensation of my own Daddy picking me up and twirling me around.
My heart trips in my chest and before I know what’s happening, a happy giggle bursts from my lips.
“My beautiful little girl,” he declares with a grin before setting me back on my feet. “Did you tell Auntie Gray ‘thank you’ for doing such a nice job with your hair?”
The happy, free feeling from just a moment ago disappears under a shock of panic as I whirl around. “Thank you, Auntie Gray! I’m sorry, I should have said that already. It was really rude of me not to. Please don’t be mad.”
Auntie Gray’s dark gaze slides to Daddy before returning to me. “Of course I’m not mad, honey. Even polite Little girls sometimes forget their manners when they’re excited. It was my pleasure to do your hair for your special day.”
Her words calm the beating of my heart and I manage a tremulous smile before turning back to Daddy. For a split second, I see something dark, almost dangerous on his face before he smiles and whatever I thought I saw disappears.
“All right, little firecracker,” he says, distracting me from that mysterious something. “Time to finish getting ready. Arms up.”
Another wave of embarrassment heats my body as I remember what he told me about the ceremony. I don’t want to be naked in front of all these people, but I also don’t want to make Daddy angry and get my bottom spanked again.
It’s sore enough as it is, thank you very much.
So I raise my arms as I’m told, ignoring the fact that I feel like I’m going to combust into flames at any moment due to the humiliation. Daddy strips my pretty dress from me, and as soon as it’s gone I cross my arms over my breasts, desperate for a hint of modesty.
“No, baby,” Daddy scolds gently, pulling my arms free. “You don’t ever hide any part of your body from Daddy. Understood?”
Tears blur my vision and clog my throat, but I manage to nod. “Y-yes, Daddy.”
“Good girl.” He flashes me an approving smile as he reaches into his pocket. “This is the pacifier I told you about. It buckles around your head so you can’t spit it out.”
“But how am I supposed to say my vows?”
One corner of his mouth kicks up in a smirk. “You let Daddy worry about that. Open up, little one.”
I do as I’m told and part my lips and he slides the rubber tip into my mouth.
Instinctively, I suck on it, and to my great surprise my anxiety over being naked in front of all these strangers immediately lessens.
Curious, I suck at the tip again, and again, a strange feeling of calm coming over me the more I repeat the motion.
Movement from the corner of my eye draws my attention to the hallway where Uncle Bram has reappeared with a puffy-eyed Josie on his hip.
He passes her off to one of the other brothers, a somewhat more slender but clearly not weaker version of Uncle Bram and my Daddy.
Josie wraps her arms around our uncle’s neck, burying her face in his shoulder as he bounces her and makes soft, soothing little sounds.
Meanwhile, Uncle Bram is pulling a long length of pretty blue rope from his pocket. Holding out the rope, he kneels in front of me with a smile I’m sure is meant to be reassuring, but only serves to send my heart rate spiking again.
“Can you give me your wrists, little one?”
I glance up at Daddy, who nods encouragingly.
Sucking harder on my pacifier for comfort, I slowly lift my hands, offering up my wrists for him to wrap the silky-soft rope around.
Uncle Bram makes quick work of the rope, folding it over and over in an intricate pattern around my wrists, binding them tightly together before tying the tail ends into a pretty bow.
“We’re almost ready, little firecracker. You just need your something borrowed.”
That is apparently Auntie Gray’s cue, because she steps forward to slide the handle of her hairbrush between my clasped hands. For just a second, I would swear I see tears sparkling in her eyes before she blinks them away.
Then Daddy takes my arm and turns me to face another of my uncles standing at the opposite end of the living room past the couches that have been pushed aside for us, a large book in his hands.
Music fills the air and my heart slams against my ribcage.
Even though according to Daddy we’re already wed, the reality of it suddenly hits me.
I’m getting married. After today, I will be forever tied to the man next to me. The man who took advantage of my drunken state, spanked me into submission, and kidnapped me. Once we walk down this makeshift aisle, I will be his.
'Til death do we part.