Page 347 of Dirty Discipline, Vol. 2

"I l-lost m-my b-b-binky."

He unbuckled her seatbelt. "Daddy's going to take you home now. I'm sure we'll find it there. Come here."

He held out his arm, anxious to hold her, comfort her, comfort himself. After this scare, they both needed it.

But Tabby didn't move.

"We can't go home," she whispered, a whole new wave of misery flooding her eyes. "We have to go to jail."

"No, baby." He slipped in as close as he could, already folding his arms around her and pulling her in tight. She let him pull her close, but even before his arms were entirely around her, she was curling into him. Reaching up with one hand to cup the side of his neck while she cried. “Shh,” he murmured, glad just to be able to hold her again. "It’s all right. Daddy's going to take you home. Everything else can wait until tomorrow."

Daddy would work his magic and fix it all then.

He hoped.

The morning dawned like it always did and yet, from the moment streams of daylight poured in through the bullet-riddled curtains to wake her, the brightness seemed dull and diminished. The only thing that helped to alleviate her sadness was waking up with Jeff's body heat branding her back and his arm still wrapped around her waist.

She was sleeping in his bed. He was on top of the blankets, fully dressed except his boots. Warmly wrapped up under the blankets, she remained in t-shirt and diaper, something she knew she ought to feel embarrassed about. And yet, in this room with just the two of them, she didn’t mind it. Most of last night was a blur of activity that she didn’t want to examine too closely. Just the important parts. Like how he’d taken such care to bathe her, and not once had he touched her inappropriately. He could have. In the state she had been, she had no idea how she’d have reacted. Lying here in the cold light of morning-after consequences, she wasn’t entirely convinced that she would have resisted him.

Or regret it.

Careful not to wake him, she tried to roll over in his embrace. She thought she was successful, until she got all the way onto her back, and then she noticed his eyes were open and he was watching her.

Neither said a word. What was there after all to say? Good morning? There was nothing good about having to part, and she saw no way in which they could develop any kind of happily ever after.

He was the sheriff. She was about to get slapped with her second round of felony charges.

She was an embarrassment. Not just to her father, but now also to the man who'd let her call him Daddy when she'd needed it.

She still needed it, a little voice inside her whimpered.

Maybe she always would, but she needed to let him go before the consequences of what she'd done caught up with the wrong person.

He drew a breath, his lips parting to speak and, afraid he might be about to tell her this very same thing, she kissed him.

His warm lips moved under hers, welcoming the distraction, so she kissed him again.

She touched his shoulders, cupped his face, opened to the flicking of his tongue encouraging him to roll her onto her back as his tongue swept in to deepen their kiss.

She was so sorry for all the trouble she’d caused. She was sorry for the way she’d acted. She was sorry she’d taken such a hard stand against him and she was so grateful that he had truly gone above and beyond with everything that had happened last night.

Unable to tell him with words, she told him with her body, arching her back to let the scrape of her nipples against his chest invite him closer, wrapping her legs around his hips so she could feel the heady press of him against all the tingling parts of her.

Catching her wrists, he pinned them to the bed. His lips nibbled at hers, the heat of his hungry mouth burned all the way into her soul.

He suddenly pulled back, eyes closed, his breathing heavier. "We need to stop now…"

She wasn't stopping anything. She reclaimed his mouth with hers, a desperation of a different kind now filling her up. She needed him. She needed to feel him touching her, kissing her, filling her up inside until she lost connection to everything but him.

"Daddy," she mewled. "Please…"

He tore his mouth from hers, delivering a sharp smack to the side of her bottom. "I won't take advantage of you, Tabby."

"You aren't," she softly replied.

He gazed down at her, concern outweighing the passionate need that lurked in his eyes. "I don't want to hurt you."

Regardless of who his brother was, after all they'd been through, after all he'd done for her and in the cutting morning light, she didn't think he was capable of it.

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