Page 25 of Forever His Brat

“Exactly and that’s the problem. You’ve been stuffing everything down and closing off because you were worried about me. And … I understand. Things have been hard lately.” His arms slid around her waist, squeezing her tight.

“But that’s not healthy, Charlie. Not for either of us. Sometimes life doesn’t go how we want it to, and we just have to get by however we can, until it gets better. This is your notice that we’re making the changes towards better and there isn’t going to be any more closing off.”

The corners of her mouth turned down as she regarded him. “I thought I was doing well.”

“Well? I don’t know about that. I don’t think the stress of trying to hold everything in is a good thing. You were keeping it together though, and I appreciate that. Being understanding about the situation makes you my good girl—but this was a temporary problem and it’s about to be fixed.”

Her eyes narrowed and her lips pursed as she stared at him. “So, you’re saying I’m going to be punished for being too good lately?” There was a hint of outrage in her tone.

Fake outrage. “You know that’s not what I’m saying. Listen up, Charlie girl—” He shifted her in his lap so they were face to face and he could see every nuance of emotion in her expression.

He took a deep breath as he carefully picked his words. “You’re going to be punished because you need to be punished. Because you haven’t let yourself do the normal things you would do to earn that punishment. We both know that part of you needs to be in trouble.”

She huffed but was silent otherwise. Maybe it was agreement or maybe she was just holding back an argument, he wasn’t sure, but he knew he was right.

“There are also things that would normally earn you punishment, but I’ve let them slide, so we’ll take care of all of that. And I’m going to keep a close eye on you this week to add to that list. But girl, truth is you just need a good working over. You’re going to be punished because you damn well need it.”

He watched her mouth work, trying to find a way to argue with what he’d said. Anything she said would be a lie and they both knew it.

“Mean,” was all she came up with.

He laughed. “Oh, sweetheart, you have no idea how mean I’m going to be. I have plans.” He felt the shiver that rolled through her, and it started a chain reaction in his own body. He could feel his cock stiffening in his jeans.

An erection wasn’t really going to help his meeting with Nick. He leaned in and nipped at her neck with a low growl. “Now get your ass home and think about what you’ve got coming. You and me Charlie, we’ve got a date. In fact, I’m going to mark it on my calendar.”

He lifted her out of his lap, set her on her feet, and stood up. There was an old-fashioned calendar on the wall. He got a few of them every January from companies they did business with. They were handy for keeping important dates visible— dates like this one.

He grabbed a red marker and circled a square, exactly one week from today. He wrote her name in the box and turned to look at her with a wicked grin on his face. “There, now you can count down the days.”

She looked … anxious. He could see all kinds of emotional conflict in her expression, and he knew she was about to short circuit, so he cut her off.

“Thiswillhappen, Charlie. Count on it—barring some big emergency, you can plan to be extremely busy next week. Got it?”

She shifted and her arms crossed nervously over her chest. “What if Nick hasn’t taken over by then? What if you’re still busy? I’m not sure we should plan until—”

He interrupted her with a sharp look. He made a decision on the spot. “You don’t need to be sure.I’msure. Thiswillhappen even if Nick isn’t ready. It will happen even if I’m still busy, because it’s past time we got our relationship back on track.”

“But—”

“Charlie, the only thing you need to worry about is your behavior for the next week. That’s going to determine how long it is before you can sit once I’m done with you.” He reached out, pulling her into his arms and both hands came to settle on her ass, squeezing.

She squirmed and shot a mortified look towards the open office door. There was no one out there but they were both aware someone could walk by. “Daddy, that’s not fair.”

“Good thing I don’t have to be fair then, isn’t it?” He gave her a solid swat on the ass and turned her around with a gentle push towards the door. “Get home. I’ll see you in a couple of hours.”

She hurried out of his reach, shooting an annoyed look at him over her shoulder. As she got to the door he said, “That’s four.” His tone was deliberately casual. “Oh, and Charlie?”

She stopped one step from freedom. “Yeah?” Her tone was cautious.

He had her worried now. The good kind of worry that came with being in trouble. “You can expect some preliminary events before the day. I want to make sure you’re in the right head space when it arrives so don’t be surprised.”

Charlie rolled her eyes and darted out the door before he could do anything else to rile her. But he knew he’d set her to simmering. Her mind would be working overtime with what he’d given her to think about.

Of course, playing with her had put him in the same place. Now he was wishing he hadn’t scheduled it for a week away, because suddenly he was full of the Dom vibe that had been so scarce lately. It almost made him think he should have pushed himself earlier.

But no, he’d tried a couple of times and it just hadn’t worked. He could only stretch himself in so many directions before he snapped. The hospital stay had proven that much to him. And all of it was irrelevant now.

He settled back in his chair and pushed all the intrusive thoughts out of his head. He did his best to ignore the uncomfortable bulge pressing against the front of his jeans while he finished placing the last order. The calculations and accounting did have the effect of cooling his body down pretty quickly though and by the time he was finished everything was back to normal.

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