Page 105 of Dirty Discipline, Vol. 1

I stopped in the kitchen and washed my hands in the sink before retrieving a glass of iced tea for my stepmother, because I knew that was what she was going to ask for as soon as I went to her room. She’d never dare get up and get it on her own.

“Maren!” she bellowed again, and I cringed. Her shrill voice bounced off the walls of our small cottage.

“Coming, Mother,” I responded loud enough for her to hear but not loud enough to be accused of yelling. She didn’t allow yelling in the house. I laughed to myself at the irony of that rule. All she ever did was yell.

“Where have you been? I’ve been calling and calling. I’m dying of thirst and you just saunter in here taking your time. How dare you?”

“I apologize. I have to take some vegetables up to the castle and I can’t keep the princess waiting. I’ll be back as soon as I can,” I lied. Arianna didn’t need anything from my garden, but I used it as an excuse all the time to get away from the crazy bitch. As my bestie, Arianna was happy to oblige and even took my meager vegetable supply as part of the ruse.

“You’re going to the castle looking like that?” Vicki squinted at me with narrow eyes, her lips curled into a snarl. “You’re disgusting. What will the princess think?” Ariana was now technically the Queen since the death of her parents, but nobody ever called her that, including herself.

“The princess will be happy that her delivery wasn’t delayed due to my vanity,” I deadpanned. Once again, the irony was not lost on me, as Vicki had let herself go after my father died and sat on her bed covering most of the surface with her large, rolly body stuffed into an oversized mumu, but of course, I was the disgusting one.

“How long will you be gone? What will I do for a meal?”

“There are prepared sandwiches in the refrigerator, all you have to do is get yourself one.”

“No, that won’t do. You’ll bring me one before you leave.” She waved her hand at me, shooing me away. I gritted my teeth and went to get her some food before grabbing my basket of carrots, potatoes, and squash to take to the castle.

Arianna frowned as she pulled me inside the castle, her eyebrows furrowing together as she squinted at me.

"What's wrong? You always look sad and upset."

"That's because I am always sad and upset," I responded seriously, shrugging off her concern as I set my basket down on the table in the foyer. I didn't want to talk about Vicki. It was an impossible situation and talking about it only made the feelings of hopelessness worse.

"It's Vicki, isn't it?" she questioned, not dropping it.

"It's always Vicki," I responded with a sigh. "But I don't want to talk about that. I come here to get away from all that. It's my one short reprieve from the doldrum servitude that is my life. Tell me about you and Grayson. What's up with you two?" I smiled and smirked. "Get into any trouble this week? Want to tell me about it over banana bread?" The question was a rhetorical one, and the answer was always yes. Arianna was always managing to get into trouble somehow. I was convinced that her favorite spot in the world was face down over her Ogre Daddy’s lap.

Arianna's love story with Grayson was a literal fairy tale that I could listen to again and again, and it only got better with time. Grayson was a real life hero, a protective Daddy Dom who was always saving Arianna from her own shenanigans, and a top-notch baker to boot.

"Of course I did. You're going to love this story," Ari answered, dragging me into the kitchen. "And you know Grayson, he knew you were coming so he just pulled a fresh loaf of banana bread out of the oven not ten minutes ago."

We got into the kitchen and sure enough, there was a still warm loaf of Grayson’s famous banana bread with extra chocolate chips resting on a plate in the middle of the small table. Beside it was a fresh pitcher of milk, two plates, two cups, a dish of fresh butter, and some napkins. Grayson himself was nowhere to be found. He usually made himself scarce during my visits so Ari and I could have our girl time.

Ari cut off two thick slices of banana bread and plated them while I poured the milk. When our snack was ready, I took a bite and moaned. I came here for the girl time, but his banana bread was icing on the cake.

I ate the first slice in record time and cut another before leaning forward conspiratorially. "Okay, spill. Give me the scoop. What did you do this time, and more importantly, what did he do to you when he found out?"

With a shy smile, Ari opened her mouth to answer and then quickly closed it, squinting at me before opening it again.

"You need a Daddy," she declared. "That's going to be my mission from now on: to find you a Daddy of your own."

I choked on the bite of banana bread I had taken.

"Oh yeah," I snorted. "Ari, be serious. How am I going to do that? There aren't any good men my age around here. And even if there were, what would I do with a Daddy? Invite him to come live in my tiny cottage with my crazy stepmother, and help me wait on her hand and cankles for the rest of my life?" I felt a tiny stab of guilt for saying that, but dammit, she was meaner than just about anyone else I knew.

"Don't be silly. A Daddy would protect you from her. He would never let her treat you the way she does."

"Oh yeah?" I scoffed again. "And how would he stop her?"

"Spank her?" Ari shrugged with an evil smile. "Or maybe kill her. I don't know. I can't think of everything."

"Spank or kill her?!" I exclaimed incredulously, cry-laughing at the ludicrousness of Arianna's ‘solution’ to my stepmother problem. "He better not spank her. Why does she get all the fun? And as for killing her, what good would a Daddy do me if he was in prison for murder?"

"Well, obviously he would have to make it look like an accident." She shrugged. "Or he could just get a pardon from the king and queen. I could make it happen; you know." She leaned towards me, shielding her mouth behind her hand as she mock-whispered, “I’ve got connections.”

Actual tears were leaking from my eyes at this point and my stomach hurt from laughing.

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