Daddy Says

Chapter 2

If I believed in God, I’d say he sent her here to test me. She was as eager and erratic as a summer storm. Good lord, she was totally naked and planned to let a complete stranger hunt her down, catch her, and put his hands on her.

And worse, much, much worse. I envisioned her at their mercy, helpless. Without me there to save her.

After riding for an hour, away from the fields bordering The Ranch and up the mountain to my hunting lodge, I opened the gate and bed down my horse for the night. Afterwards, I took Gigi into the cabin and locked the door behind us, I crouched in front of the wood-burning stove, scraped out the remaining with ash and blackened chunks, and began building a fire. As I did so, my annoyance increased and I found my hands were shaking.

God, what if Priscilla hadn’t warned me about what Gigi was doing? Those men might of hurt her. I pushed the thoughts away as I snapped an alder branch in half over my knee and stalked towards her, murder lingering in my gaze from contemplating all the things that could have happened to her, had I not been there to rescue her.

Fear, stark and vivid, flashed in her eyes.

She backed away, hands instinctively covering her breasts from my stare. “Are you crazy!?”

I couldn’t think of what to say but, “Yes.” It was the truth. There could be no lies between us.

But she wouldn’t stop talking, waving her arms as if trying to shoo flies, and pacing the room. “I can’t believe you kidnapped me and brought me out here to the middle of nowhere!”

I did have a response for that. “It was the only way to give us a try. There are always a million people around you.”

My answer was correct. She was a performer. Dramatic. It was impossible to tell half the time if she was flirting with me or simply doing it for show. Only one way to find out.

Just her and me, my hunting cabin in the woods, and a big ass f*****g bed.

I sanded and sawed the bed frame for her with my own two hands. Spent weekends carving its four posters with images of all the things I wanted to do to her. I’d have traded anything to be touching her instead. Carpentry was one way to stave off s****l frustration, and I was nervous about her seeing my efforts at artistry for the first time. Especially since she was writ large all over its surface—my best guess at what she looked like beneath her clothes didn’t hold a candle to looking at her in the actual flesh. Her breasts were f*****g excellent. My fingers itched with the need to touch them again.

I tossed my sweatshirt at her. Not like I hadn’t seen her legs before. She wore a skimpy skate suit every day. It revealed her perfect landscape of a midriff to the world, and made me want to shroud her in a burka. Standing in front of me, her silky thighs on display, I wondered if her intoxicating smell would rub off on my sweatshirt.

If so, I’d never wash it.

She looked up, perplexed. “You always act like I’m invisible. Are you telling me it’s been because I wasn’t giving you my full attention?”

I grunted in the affirmative and noticed she was shivering atop the wood plank floor, the fake fur of her boots trembling with the motion.

There was one of my grandmother’s hand knit throws on the window seat and I wrapped it around her shoulders. “You’re still cold.” This wouldn’t do. “Let me light this fire and I’ll run you a bath.”

Disconcerted, she wandered restlessly about the room, looking at the photographs on the wall. “Is this your family?”

“Most of them.” I mumbled.

“I see the resemblance. Big. Buff. Bad ass,” she sassed. My male relatives were just that, but I pointed out a photograph of my mama in a black velvet dress, which heightened the translucence of her face and neck. ‘Ethereal’, my daddy had called her.

“Oh, she’s pretty.” Her smile softened her features and, for a moment, there was no tension between us.

It didn’t last for long.

“Whelp. Being abducted by a rude Viking wasn’t something I had planned for the day.” She bounced on her toes as if there were phantom rubber stops, which she used constantly to come to skid to a halt and avoid slamming into something, on her feet. “It’s totally against the rules to remove a competitor from the hunt, you know? You weren’t even supposed to be there.”

She didn’t need to know I had a couple co-conspirators in on my rescuing her. If I knew my Gigi, that would just piss her off even more, so I distracted her away from our contentious conversation. “Fire’s lit, time for your bath.” I offered her a forgiving smile now that things were going according to plan. I’d make sure she was thoroughly clean and warm before moving on to the crux of the matter: Gigi’s punishment.

She owed me, alright. For months and months of torture while I watched and waited, biding my time.

That was all irrelevant now. Gigi was here where she belonged.

She was mine.

The claw-foot tub was an indulgence I’d purchased with her in mind, as were the smelly scented bubble bath and oils, the feminine articles of clothing tucked in drawers and hung in the closet. Her enthusiasm was gratifying, even though I never let on how much I appreciated her gushing at me. “It’s so pretty. I didn’t think of you as a spa-type, Noah. I guess wonders never cease.” She spoke in a casual jesting way, “Don’t look.” I turned my back to her as she shucked my sweatshirt, and stepped into the steaming liquid.

“Decent?” I asked, and turned to see the plug placed on a washcloth, its fluffy fox tail silver hanging over the side of the bathroom counter.

“Now you’re worried about my modesty?” she sassed. “It didn’t seem to bother you when you shanghaied me off the field and threw me on your horse.” Her undiluted laughter rang off of the walls. “That was pretty hot, you know?” Water splashed as she bathed and I turned around to see her hidden beneath the bubbles. “Would have been hotter if you ravished me on the forest floor or demanded my complete submission as soon as we stepped through the doors of your cabin.”

My hardness collided against the crotch of my jeans, and the familiar ache of longing settled into my groin. “Who’s saying I won’t?”

I sat on a stool, watching over her, admiring the way the steamy bath loosened tendrils of hair which softened her face.

“Explain to me how you found yourself in that mad contest today. They could have hurt you.” No denying the critical tone in my voice.

“Maybe you don’t know what it’s like to need money, Noah. Ten or twenty thousand dollars for a day’s work is impossible to turn down.” She ran the sponge between her shoulder blades, blushed, and covered her exposed breasts, which lifted above the bubble line with the effort. “Besides, what do you care? You’ve never so much as kissed me.”

My chest felt as if it would detonate.

“Did you want me to?” My voice sounded hungry.

She stammered in bewilderment, “You… I… How…” and struggled to reach the place just below her shoulder blades. “Are you kidding me? You’d have to be deaf, blind, and dumb not to know I’ve been trying to get your attention for months.” I reached over and snatched the sponge from her fingers, finding the room suddenly sweltering, and washed her wet back from behind.

“I didn’t ask you to criticize me. I asked if you wanted me to kiss you or not.”

She arched a brow; her guard up, and stretched out to touch my lips with a playful finger. “Of course, I do, you big, giant fool.”

There was a flicker in her intense eyes, and my heartbeat throbbed in my ears. She raised a hand and touched her fingers to my bottom lip, as if asking a question. I cupped her head, kissed her mouth and all the blood rushed to my c**k. I shot up to my feet, and grabbed a thick fluffy towel to wrap her up in, allowing myself the privilege of feasting on her naked body with my eyes before drawing it around her skin, which was rose-pink from the bath.

The waiting time was finally over.

“You think you can just run that pretty mouth of yours whenever you want, only I’m here to teach you different. There are consequences for irresponsible behavior, and I’m about to pronounce you guilty as hell.”

I pulled a set of panties I’d bought for her out of the cupboard, and plopped them on the stool along with a nightdress with spaghetti straps and a v-neck. “Meet me in the living room after you put these on.” Her n*****s would poke through the flimsy fabric, as intended. “I’ll stoke the fire, and we’ll have a discussion about your irresponsible behavior.” I grabbed the plug from the counter and took it with me to the living area.

After setting it down, I went to the porch to fetch an armload of gathered wood and let it clatter onto the hearth, spilling small bits of moss and bark along with the tumble of my heart. She wanted me to kiss her, but what she needed was a session over my knee, so she didn’t make the same mistake twice. I tossed the split wood into the fire, stoking it from coals to flame until its sound roared comfortingly through the cast iron door.

This was what you called a quandary.

I longed to wrap her in my arms. Tell her how lovely she is. How she makes my heart stop every time she walks into a room.

But she’s been a naughty girl.

And now she is my problem to work out.

So long as we were together, and I plan on making it permanent, it meant it was my job to teach her a lesson. It’s the only way to keep her safe.

“What are you doing with that thing?” She pointed to the plug after she stepped into the area so quietly, barefoot, that her words surprised me.

“You work at The Ranch, Gigi, so I know you’re no stranger to daddy doms.” Her whole being seemed to be filled with waiting, and my gaze traveled over her face and searched her eyes. “Come here.”

My lungs inflated to their fullest through deep, satisfied breaths when she took approaching steps, coming to a halt in front of me. She faced me straight on, skin flushed and trembling. “Would you shut up and kiss me already?” she asked. The irony of her bossing me around didn’t escape me. I was ten-years-older than her, thirty-eight to her twenty-eight, and I possessed the required maturity to tame her little brat.

Holding up the fake-tail butt plug, my abrupt bark of laughter lacked humor. “Bend over and stick that sexy fox tush in the air for your daddy. It’s finally time for some hard, bare-bottom spanks after I stuff your backside full. You’ve been asking for it since the day we met.”

“Are you sure?” She shuffled from one foot to the other and put a finger in her mouth, asking in a silky voice. “Once we start, I might not be able to stop.”

Oh God.

She did me in.

This was supposed to be punishment.

Why was she acting like she would enjoy it?