Page 110 of A Very Naughty Christmas

When we finished that, he declared, “It’s bath time.”

I wasn’t crazy about that. I wanted to eat some cookies for dessert. I had done such a good job with drying the dishes that I thought I’d earned a reward. Plus, those gingerbread cookies smelled delicious!

“Can’t I have one cookie first?”

“No way, sweetie. You had plenty of sugar today while we were making the cookies.”

“But—”

“But nothing, get on upstairs.”

“No fair! I made ‘em and can’t have even one?” My lower lip turned down in a pout before I could stop it.

“If you continue to keep complaining, young lady, you’ll be over my lap for an attitude adjustment.”

I knew what that meant… a spanking. I didn’t want a punishment spanking again, so I raced out of the kitchen, upstairs, and into my bathroom.

By the time I had taken all of my clothes off, Daddy was just walking in to get the bath water turned on.

“I want to make sure that I get the water to be the right temperature,” he said, holding his wrist under the water. “I think this is it. You can get in whenever you want.”

I hopped in and sat down, anxious to get my bath over with. Since I wouldn’t be able to eat any cookies tonight, I figured I might as well rush my bath, so I could get to sleep faster and Santa would come.

Last year, I had tried to stay up and wait for him, but was told that Santa wouldn’t come until I fell asleep.

“What toys would you like to play with?” Daddy asked, holding up the basket filled with my bath toys.

“None. Let’s get to washing.”

His eyes practically popped out of his head as he put the bucket down. He knew how much I loved playing in the tub, but I thought he must have understood that the sooner I fell asleep, the better.

Instead of grabbing a loofa and washing me, his hand came up to my forehead. I was confused.

“What are you doing?” I asked, looking up at him.

“Checking to see if you have a fever. You never skip playing with your toys. Are you feeling sick?”

“No. I want to hurry so I can go to sleep so Santa Claus can come faster,” I explained.

He continued to look down at me in shock. I didn’t get why this was so hard for him to understand.

When he continued to stare at me, I reached for the pink loofa and soap on the edge of the tub.

That seemed to knock him out of his stupor.

“All right, sweetie. If this is what you want, then I’ll wash you right away.”

“Thank you.”

He poured some of the bubble-gum-scented soap onto the loofa and began washing my back.

As he did, I imagined all of the icky germs from the day slipping away. When we had been playing outside, I had gotten really sweaty, so it felt good to get cleaned.

When he brought the loofa over to my front side, my nipples tightened.

He dunked the loofa in the water, making the water fizzle. Before he continued to wash the rest of me, he put more of the body wash onto the loofa.

“Stand up.”

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