Page 37 of Daddy's Laws

“Uh huh.” Leaning in, he lowered his voice to a conspiratorial whisper. “In case you didn’t know, your Daddy hates to be tickled. He also happens to beextremelyticklish.”

“Hey! Flag on the play, Masterson.”

“Hereallyhates being tickled on his tummy.” Dean’s dark eyes sparkled with humor. “But you’re such a good girl, I’m sure you won’t use that information against him.”

“Goodbye, Dean,” Bryant growled.

“Don’t be a stranger!” Dean's laughter followed him out the front door.

When they were alone again, Bryant pushed her away just enough to see her face. “You okay, princess?”

“Yeah.” She forced a smile and prayed he’d buy it. “I just had a bad moment. Can we watch the movie now?”

There was a long silence, like he was debating whether to push or not. “Sure. What did you want to watch?”

Her stomach did a funny little drop, and it took her a moment to recognize the feeling as disappointment. And another to realize why she was disappointed.

He hadn’t spanked her for defying him when he’d said not to open the door. And as much as her bottom didn’t want another spanking, she couldn’t help but wonder if it meant he was tired of her already. Not thirty minutes ago she’d agreed to try being his little girl, and she’d already disobeyed him. What Dom would want a submissive who couldn’t be obedient for half an hour?

“Shannon? What’s wrong?”

Shaking herself out of her funk, she flashed him a smile. “Nothing. Just trying to figure out what movie to torture you with first.”

“Oh, is that so?” A teasing smile tugged at his lips. “Just remember, I get a turn, too. How do you feel about foreign films?”

“You wouldn’t!”

“Guess you’ll have to see, won’t you?”

Doing her best to ignore the niggles of doubt, she snuggled into his embrace. After nearly twenty minutes of agonizing over her choices, she settled on a more recent romantic comedy she thought they might both enjoy. They watched mostly in silence, with her curled up beside him and his fingers toying with the ends of her ponytail. She’d forgotten how much she loved having her hair played with until this time with him. He couldn’t seem to keep his hands off her.

And still, she couldn’t quite shake the feeling she’d messed everything up.

“That was fun,” he admitted, giving her hair a playful tug when the movie ended. “I guess we can skip the subtitles for tonight.”

“I’m glad you enjoyed it.”

“I did. What do you want for dinner? I’m starving.”

Now that she didn’t have the movie as a distraction, her earlier disappointment returned with a vengeance. “Whatever you want is fine.”

He paused in the middle of stretching to frown at her. “Everything okay? You seem off.”

“I’m fine.”

His frown deepened for a moment, but he let it drop. “Go out or stay in?”

“Stay in.”

“Chinese?”

“Sure.”

It took them another thirty minutes to decide on what to order, and she was certain they’d be eating leftovers for the rest of the week by the time he hung up the phone.

“Now that we’ve settled that.”

Before she could blink, she was stretched face down over his lap, and his hand was caressing the exposed skin of her bottom.

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