She was the woman for him. He knew that. But he also knew that he had to give her a chance to live life the way that she wanted to. Otherwise she would always wonder and one day she might come to resent him.
This is why it was better to never love than to love and lose.
He sucked in a breath. Fuck. He loved her. Fate sure did love to fuck him over. He’d fallen in love with a woman that he was going to have to let go.
“Daddy, you okay?” she asked worriedly, patting his shoulder soothingly.
Shit. He needed to get his head back in the game.
“Yeah. Sorry. Just thinking about all the ways you might have hurt yourself today.”
She bit her lip worriedly.
“Ellie, you might feel better, but I don’t want you pushing things too far and having your health go backwards. That’s completely unacceptable to me.”
He pointed a finger at her. “You agreed that I would be in charge. While we are here, I make the rules. And I enforce them.” He patted his lap. “Come lay yourself over my lap, little girl.”
She had to hold back a whimper as she climbed onto his lap. Somehow, she’d managed to fool herself into thinking he’d just give her a couple of swats or a scolding for breaking the rules today. She realized she’d been lulled into a false sense of security.
Bear arranged her so her head and torso rested on the bed on one side of him, and her legs on the other side. He even handed her a pillow.
“Put this under your head,” he ordered.
“Daddy?” she asked.
“Yes,” he replied as he pushed her panties down her legs. Oh God.
“Will you hold me after?” she asked in a small voice.
He paused then he rubbed her bottom. “Baby, I will always hold you after.”
“You’re really not mad?”
“I’m not mad at you. I’m upset because you disobeyed me and you could have hurt yourself. But I was never angry. You need to know that I will always follow thro
ugh when you break a rule. Understand?”
“All right.”
“You think you can keep your hands out in front of you or you want me to hold them?”
Have him hold them? She wasn’t sure, but she didn’t really like the idea of that. At least until she knew what she was dealing with. “I can do it, Daddy.”
“Okay, I won’t make you count this time since it’s your first real punishment. You remember to use your safe word if anything other than your bottom starts to hurt.”
“Yes.” The knowledge that she had a safeword squashed some of the nerves dancing inside her.
“Good. Let’s get this done with so I can give you those cuddles.”
He smacked his hand down heavily. One smack. Two. She cried out. It smarted. He seemed to be smacking harder than yesterday. After five, she was squirming.
“Daddy, no! It’s enough.”
“No, it’s not. You have twenty more, baby. How is your head?”
She wished she could lie, but she knew that would get her in worse trouble. “It’s okay.”
He was rubbing her bottom as he spoke and that was kind of nice. In fact, it was starting to make her clit tingle. Hmm, perhaps if he kept doing that then this spanking wouldn’t be so bad. But then his hand landed on her bottom again. Five sharp smacks that had her kicking her feet and little cries escaping unbidden from her lips. The sting was starting to really burn. Unable to stop herself, she reached back to cover her poor bottom with her hands.