“I like that.”
“Good girl. Now, it’s nap time.”
The first peep of protest from me and Ace has a hand on my throat. “Not a good time to argue, little one. Did Daddy not just have to chase you down and bring you home? I think now is a very good time for you to do as you are told. Those ass cheeks of yours could very quickly be upturned over my knee if that would help you take your nap?”
I poke out my bottom lip, unsure if I want the spanking more than I don’t but see in his eyes he is weary as well. I opt for shifting up and into his lap instead.
“Okay. As long as you will lay with me.”
As I nuzzle into his neck, his beard nuzzles me back, and he lays me down, curling in behind me and pulling the down comforter up and over us. He’s fully clothed to my nakedness, but I still love feeling so small, curled into his massive frame like this.
“Now, say it, Babygirl.” He grinds out the words into my ear. “Tell Daddy what you know he needs to hear.”
I rub my booty into his hardness and turn my head as far as I can so I can see his face.
“I love you, Daddy.”
I feel his body harden, then he releases a breath, and his arms tighten around me. It feels like we are one person right now and I hope this feeling never goes away.
“I love you too, my lamb. Always have. Always will. You just have no idea how much.”
With that, I cuddle in, and sleepiness overtakes me. The sound of his even breathing lulls me into slumber, to dreams of happily-ever-afters.
“NO!”
The police officer gives me a sympathetic squeeze on my shoulder, but I feel nothing.
You promised. You promised me we would be together forever.
“Ma’am. I’m sorry. It was a drunk driver.”
I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe.
Sobs wrench from places inside me I didn’t know existed. I am in a tunnel. At one end is the blue uniform of the officer and his voice droning on about the accident. At the other end of the tunnel, I crumple to the floor. It feels like pillows and blankets are pressing down on my face and I’m suffocating.
Sobs turn my throat raw and make the muscles in my back spasm and cramp with the intensity.
Daddy, you promised. Now I’m alone. Again.
This time, I truly have no one. No one will come and save me...
Just before the tunnel closes and I’m enveloped in a pain that knows no end, a hand reaches up through the darkness and presses flat and warm on the left side of my chest.
“Lamb.” The word swirls along in the black light, and for a moment all I wish for is to disappear into the nothingness all around me.
“Lamb!” Louder this time. Another hand comes up and gently settles at the back of my neck.
The ground beneath where I lay begins to shake. Its hardness turns soft, and there is a flicker of light in the distance. I squint, trying to take a breath.
“Lamb, wake up, Daddy’s right here.”
I gasp, and the shaking feels like it’s pulling me. Pulling me into something that feels familiar, safe, and suddenly I can breathe again.
“Daddy.” I manage, and as soon as the word leaves my lips my eyes snap open and I see Ace’s worried eyes, bare inches from mine as he holds me against him. One hand is over my heart while the other cradles the back of my neck.
“Jesus, baby. You scared the shit out of me.”
The room is dark, a line of orange scraping across the horizon beyond the expanse of windows that line the back wall of the bedroom.