Page 48 of Their Forever Daddy

She just needed to get something on her body so she didn’t feel so fucking exposed.

“Edie, stop.” There was worry now, beneath the steel in Grant’s tone. “I think you’re having a panic attack.”

No shit, Sherlock.

Ignoring him, she grabbed her t-shirt and yanked it over her head without worrying about her bra.

“What are you doing?” It was fear in Jesse’s voice, more potent even than the worry in Grant’s had been. “Edie, talk to me. Please.”

“Can’t. I need to get out of here.”

She was practically blind with panic now, racing for the front door. For her keys and her boots, which were thankfully right where they always were.

But before she could grab either, an iron band wrapped around her middle, lifting her up into the air. Panic blossomed into outright terror as she fought against her captor with everything in her.

She was pretty sure she caught him in the kidneys as the breath whooshed out of him, followed by a string of rather inventive curses. But he still didn’t put her down.

Not until they reached the couch. At which point she was dumped rather unceremoniously across his lap.

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”

“Giving you about thirty seconds to calm down before I help you calm down.” Despite how even his tone was, the threat was clear.

And still, she couldn’t find her calm. Couldn’t find anything inside her except fear and panic and grief. “Fuck you.”

“Door number two it is,” he said with a sigh before yanking her jeans down to her knees. They were baggy enough he didn’t even need to unbutton them.

At the first crack of his palm across her ass, she froze. It had been so long since anyone had dared to spank her, the sheer shock of it seemed to short-circuit her brain.

She’d forgotten how much a spanking could hurt.

But then a second swat landed, jolting her out of her stunned state. She came alive again, struggling and fighting with everything she had to escape.

Red. Say red and he’ll stop. Any Dom worth half a shit would honor that word.

And yet, of all the words that came flowing out of her mouth as he lit her ass on fire, that wasn’t one of them.

“You need your mouth washed out,” he growled, moving his attention to that sensitive crease where ass met thigh.

“Try it and I’ll shove that soap up your—Ow! Goddammit, Grant!”

All her threat had earned her was a set of painful spanks across the backs of her thighs before he returned to her ass.

Other than the comment about her language, he didn’t bother to lecture her. He just kept spanking, and she just kept fighting, until she finally hit a wall. Completely drained, she went limp over his lap, her breaths coming in deep, shaking gulps of air.

“Good girl,” he murmured, running his hand over her scorched flesh. “Deep breaths for me, little pixie. That’s a good girl.”

She had no idea how long she lay there, filling and emptying her lungs at his command before he finally pulled the borrowed jeans back into place and helped her sit up. Cradling her on his lap, he pressed a kiss to her temple.

And for just a moment, all her problems ceased to exist, as if the spanking had simply wiped them away. Closing her eyes, she snuggled into him. For the first time since her husband’s death, she allowed herself to draw on someone else’s strength.

When she finally opened her eyes, she found Jesse, still stark naked, staring at them like they were some kind of alien species.

“What the fuck just happened?”

Chapter 18

Edie

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