Page 52 of Forever His Brat

“Too late now, Charlie girl. Three.” Back to the first cheek, the wooden-backed brush landed in almost the same place as it had the first time, but a little harder. He kept the pattern predictable as he slowly counted out twenty-five in the same order—each accompanied by a nice solid swat.

By the time he was done her backside was dry, and also red hot. She’d probably worn herself out wiggling and struggling to get away from the fierce wooden sting, for all the good it had done her. He patted her sore cheeks and let her up.

Charlie was in full on pout mode, and she was sniffling audibly. “You said you weren’t doing anything mean until later.” It sounded like an accusation.

“I said ‘ifyou behaved yourself’. Your choice, darlin’. Now, rinse your hair -quick- and get dressed unless you want anothertwenty-five.” He emphasized the number and then waited for her to understand

Her mouth dropped as she finally realized what the counting had been for.

“Yep, that’s right, Charlie. Every time you sass me, or don’t listen, or you’re slow to behave today twenty-five is going to be your number. Every single mistake—guess you’re wishing you hadn’t racked up such a high count huh?” He let her see the grin, wanting her to know he was enjoying himself.

“That’s so… not nice,” she said, sounding resigned.

“Maybe, but I’d watch myself if I were you. The number can still go up. You’re going to be a sore brat by the end of the day.” He smirked and left her there to finish her shower. “Don’t dawdle, Charlie girl.”

They had a quick breakfast which was filled with a lot of shifting and grumbling on Charlie’s part. Sam used the time to quiz her on what she needed to get done for school so he could plan around it. Then he set her some additional tasks.

“I’ve got some paperwork to do and I’m trying to give Nick some space to find his footing on his own. So I’ll be working in my office upstairs. You are going to do what you had scheduled for school and then you’ll be writing me an essay on what you think your role is as the submissive in our relationship.”

She wasn’t a fan of that kind of essay and the long sigh demonstrated that, but she knew better than to argue. “Yes, Sa—Daddy.”

He grinned at her slip. Since she corrected it herself, he just warned her. “Calling me Sam instead of Daddy is one of those things that will net you twenty-five. I’d be careful if I were you.”

Her mouth worked and he could almost hear the backtalk building up. She locked it down and not a peep escaped, but it looked like it had been a near thing. “Yes, Daddy.”

“Good girl. Come get me upstairs when you’re done. You said you needed about two hours for school, and I figure you can knock out that essay pretty fast so three hours is your deadline.” She started to protest but he held up a hand. “I’m not going to punish you if your class runs late, Charlie. Just let me know if it does, so we can add more time for the essay.”

She sat back mollified. “There’s a quiz today so it just depends on how long it takes me to finish.”

He leaned over and pulled her in for a quick kiss before he stood up. “I’ll let you get to work then. Three hours.”

The rest of his morning was filled with financial forms and expense reports. It wasn’t his favorite task, but it was something that had to be done every month. And lately there had been more of it.

While he and Charlie were legally the owners of the ranch, all financial decisions still had to be signed off by the lawyer, Morris Bernard. He was the executor of her father’s will, and he would continue in the position until Charlie got her degree, her time ran out to meet the terms of the will, or until they were married.

Since the plan was for the latter to happen soon, Sam didn’t expect to have to be reporting to the lawyer much longer. It wasn’t all that bad though. Once Sam and Charlie had worked things out between them and they seemed to be in agreement, Mr. Bernard had backed off on most requirements.

He now let them work out the management issues on their own. The expenses were the one area that did still need to be reported. And the lawyer had explained, regretfully, that it was a legal requirement for an executor. “But I’ll be happy to hand that over to you as soon as I see your marriage certificate,” he’d assured them.

The marriage codicil had been her father’s way of trying to fix a problem he felt responsible for. Jimmy’s insistence that she go off to get her master’s degree had strained and finally broken her relationship with Sam. He’d always regretted that.

When she’d come back home after her father’s death, she’d been livid to find that Jimmy had left half the ranch to her ex, but also put him in charge. The only wayshecould get an equal say in things was if she got her doctorate and she had five years to do that. Otherwise, her ownership would be without any power.

Charlie wasn’t the kind of girl to put up with that and it had caused no end of problems between them until they’d finally worked things out. But if she married then she became full half owner of the ranch, with authority equal to Sam. They would legally be partners.

Jimmy had hoped the whole situation would help her to reconnect with Sam, maybe even lead to them becoming a couple again. In Sam’s opinion it had done more to push Charlie away from him.

But it had all worked out in the end. And the issue of who was in charge of the ranch was now more or less moot, because Sam was in charge of Charlie. As her Daddy he had the final say in everything anyway.

In a few more months they’d be married and then they would have full control of the ranch, and of their lives. Until then he was stuck with the monthly reports. Luckily, with Charlie and Sam in agreement about their plans to expand the ranch into an event destination, Mr. Bernard had been fine with signing off on the added expenditures—so far those were minimal, but they wouldn’t be much longer.

He had however, added some additional paperwork for the new expansion. Each planned change to the property had to be reported in detail, including estimates. It was a pain in the neck, but Sam suffered through it diligently and gave the work his total concentration.

He didn’t notice Charlie trying to get his attention when she reported in. “Sam!” Her voice was raised, and it was clearly not the first time she’d spoken to him.

His head jerked up and he blinked, confused. “Hmm?” And then when he pulled his head out of the accounting haze, he narrowed his eyes at her. “What did you call me, Charlie?”

She sighed. “Well,Daddy, you weren’t responding to that title, and I tried twice. I thought your name might get through.” There was only a little bit of attitude in her tone, but the eyeroll compounded it.

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