Page 14 of A Very Naughty Christmas

“Be-because I ran a… a stop sign.”

His hand came down on the inside of her thighs and he smacked them until they began to blush and Sara’s cries turned to pleas. “Are you ever,evergoing to do that again?”

“N-no, Sir!” she answered.

He believed her, but that didn’t change what he had to do. His hand went back to reddening the inside of her thighs with quick, effective smacks. “Are you ever going to put yourself at risk like that again?”

“No, Sir!” A few more well-placed smacks had her wailing in protest and curling her legs.

“Legs down,” he ordered firmly. “Are you going to obey all the traffic laws from now on?”

“Yes! Yes, Sir! I promise!”

He spanked her inner thighs two more times each but stopped when she emitted a loud, keening cry.

“I’m sorry, Daddy!” she cried out. “Please, please stop now!”

He was caught a bit off guard, but only for a moment. “Almost, honey. We’re almost there,” he assured her before he finished her spanking with a flurry of quick smacks to the backs of her thighs, ensuring that both the inner and outer thighs were blushing. Only then did he stop and began patting the sobbing girl’s back. Most of his spankings weren’t quite so thorough, but he was determined to make her understand that she really could have hurt herself—or someone else. Hopefully what she had been through today had been a sobering awakening, but if not, the spanking he’d given her should remind her for the next day or two.

When her sobs let up, he helped her to sit on his lap and wrapped his arms around her. This was his favorite part. Not that he minded giving a well-deserved spanking. He liked the idea of meting out justice and changing behaviors for the better—hence his chosen profession. But he liked it best when it was over and he could comfort the crying girl, assuring her of his forgiveness. Sara had certainly earned it, and more than that, she’d earned his respect. All in all, she’d taken her punishment very well, and that wasn’t something he saw every day.

“I’m so sorry,” she said, weeping quietly as she buried her head in his chest.

“Shh, I know. I know. And you took it so well. I can trust you’ll be a good girl from now on?”

“Y-yes, Sir,” she replied, sniffling.

“Good. I’m glad to hear it. But I have to warn you, if Ievercatch you breaking another traffic law, not only will I paddle your bare butt, but you’ll also write me an essay on the dangers of unsafe driving. Understand?”

“Yes, Sir. I un-under-stand.”

“There’s a good girl.”

Chapter Four

Sara didn’t know when she’d ever been so embarrassed. Though Alex had given her a few more minutes of cuddling, she hadn’t been able to look him in the eye. Not then, or when she’d asked permission to go home. He’d granted it, though he’d insisted on walking her the few yards that separated their houses. She’d told him that there was no need, but he hadn’t been swayed, and considering that she’d just been spanked, she didn’t see the wisdom in pushing the issue. If he noticed that she hadn’t looked at him once, not even when he’d said goodnight on her doorstep, he didn’t mention it.

Which was probably because he knew that she had every reason to be mortified. The spanking itself had been bad enough—the fact that she’d erred seriously enough to go bare-bottomed over his lap was humiliating. But then, in the heat of the moment—or, rather, enduring the heat of her blazing behind—she’d embarrassed herself past the point of no return by calling himDaddy. It was so awful that there were no words for it. No words.

Although as she shut the door behind him and sank to the floor, her back against the solid wood doorframe, she managed to find a few.Idiot, for starters.Pathetic, for another. What else could he think of her? He probably thought of her as nothing more than a silly child. She’d already suspected that to be the case, but she certainly hadn’t done anything tonight to raise her estimation in his eyes.

Sara groaned aloud, allowing all the awfulness trapped inside to come to the surface. She couldn’t believe it. She just couldn’t. What had she beenthinking? Of course, that was just it: she hadn’t been thinking at all. She had lost her head somewhere in the middle of all those hard, punishing spanks and had begged him to stop. She’d called himDaddy. Ugh, it was too petrifying to contemplate, but it was all she could think about.

Part of her wanted to explain, wanted to make sure that he knew that she wasn’t just missing her father, or something like that. No, her little slip was much, much worse, because the truth was, as much as she longed for him to see her as an adult, she was truly a little girl on the inside, longing for a strong daddy to take care of her, to make her feel safe and loved. And somehow, against all the odds, she’d found that very thing over Alex Maxwell’s lap even as he’d blistered her poor behind. Or maybe it wasbecausehe cared enough about her to discipline her for her carelessness that had done it. Either way, she knew that there was no way she could ever see him again. Not after she’d made such a fool of herself. He probably thought… oh, God, she didn’t want to think about how he saw her now! It was just too awful to contemplate!

Sara pulled her legs to her chest and made a box with her arms to bury her face in.When she began to cry, it had nothing at all to do with the throbbing in her bottom. Worse still was the realization that what she wanted most, right in that moment, was the comfort of the man she could never, ever allow herself to face again.

* * *

Sara had managed to stay locked up in her house for forty-eight hours, doing little more than sighing dramatically and burrowing herself under piles of blankets as she watched Hallmark Christmas movies. She didn’t watch any of the ones that she’d enjoyed with her mother—her father, like most men, had never been much of a Hallmark fan. She knew she would return to their old favorites in the coming years, when she could handle it, but this year, the pain was just too fresh.

And when she wasn’t thinking about how much she missed her parents, she was remembering what a colossal idiot she’d made of herself with Alex. She should have just taken the damn ticket and been done with it. Sure, she might have ended up borrowing ramen for lunch and dinner for the next two months from her dorm-mate, but at least she would have been left withsomeof her dignity intact. She would never be able to so much as look at his house now without remembering the shame of what had taken place, of the word that had slipped out of her lips when she was out of her mind with desperation to make the spanking stop.

Oh, well. It looked like it was a pretty good thing she was selling the house. She wouldn’t have any reason to see him once that last piece of business was taken care of. So why did that thought make her feel worse, not better? It didn’t make any sense.

Suddenly, there was a loud knock on the door that echoed throughout the empty hallway.

At least she hadn’t beencompletelyuseless. Since she was spending all her time indoors these days, she’d thought it would be a good idea for her to begin packing up her parents’ things. She’d made three piles: keep, give to Goodwill, and trash. Her ‘keep’ pile was growing much bigger than she’d anticipated, but it seemed like everything she touched brought back a flood of memories she just couldn’t bear to part with. She’d just keep going, and if she had to ship boxes back to her college dorm, well… then that was just what she’d do.

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