She hated wood. Hated the burn and the thud of it. But her Daddy was right; she needed a good, therapeutic cry, and wood was guaranteed to get her there.
Taking a deep breath, she crossed the room and handed him the paddle. Both of his eyebrows lifted, but he didn’t question her choice as he took the implement from her and guided her over his lap.
“This isn’t a punishment, jellybean. I want you to know that before we start.” His large, callused hand cupped and squeezed each of her bottom cheeks as he spoke. “It might hurt like one before we’re through here, but you aren’t in trouble and you’ve done nothing wrong. Okay?”
“Yes, Daddy,” she said with a sigh. She was practically melting into a puddle right there on the bed with him rubbing and massaging her bottom like that.
Then his hand was gone, and a moment later it returned with a crisp swat square in the middle of her right cheek. It stung, but not nearly as much as when she was in trouble.
Slow and steady, he built the heat in her backside until she was squirming and whimpering over his lap. It was starting to really hurt, but still nowhere near as much as one of his punishments. He paused to stroke her warm skin and she sighed into his touch.
“Ready for the paddle, baby?”
“I dunno.” She didn’t want to know. Didn’t want to be in charge of any decisions just then. What she wanted, more than the cleansing pain, was not to think, not to have any kind of responsibility for what happened next.
“Hmmm. I think you’re ready.” The cool wood tapped against her bottom and she buried her head in her arms as she waited for that first blow.
When it came, she nearly rolled off his lap at the fierce, blistering pain. “Daddy! That hurts!”
“I know, baby. But Daddy’s right here.”
Oh, sweet Jesus, why had she chosen that paddle? What the hell had she been thinking? Over and over again it fell, in that same slow, steady pace he’d been using from the beginning.
Pressure began to build in her chest, the kind that told her tears were close. But it just seemed to grow, tighter and tighter, without actually bursting.
“Come on, baby. Let go. Daddy’s got you.”
“Can’t,” she panted. “Stuck.”
Somehow, he understood exactly what she was saying, because he paused for just a moment to shift her so her bottom was propped nice and high over his leg. And then he lit into her. Fast, hard, blistering spanks peppered her bottom and no matter how much she wriggled, how much she fought him, he never missed his target.
And then she felt it. A small crack at first, before the dam burst. With a long, keening wail, she collapsed over his knee, tears rushing down her cheeks, her breath coming in big, hiccupping sobs, all while he continued paddling her.
“That’s my girl. Almost there. Let it out, baby.”
With his arm wrapped around her waist, she wept into the covers. She wept out all the hurt and the anger and the frustration that had been building for the past few weeks. She wept until she was empty, hollowed out.
Somewhere along the way, he’d stopped spanking her and returned to rubbing her now throbbing backside. Her sobs eventually quieted until she was left sniffling and whimpering over his lap.
“Feel better?” he asked, his voice soft and kind.
“Uh huh.”
“Good. Come here and let Daddy hold you.”
They wiggled back under the covers together and she snuggled into him. “Thank you.”
“Any time, jellybean. I’m right here, whenever you need me.”
Because it was true. And because she knew that, even with everything they’d been through in such a short amount of time, she could trust him, she fell asleep with a smile on her face.
Epilogue
When she wokethe next morning, Hayleigh winced at the lingering sting in her bottom as she pushed up into a sitting position on the bed. The spanking her Daddy had given her in the middle of the night had certainly helped, but geez she hoped it wasn’t something she needed often!
After using the bathroom and brushing her teeth, she checked her phone, frowning when she didn’t see a new message from Tillie. They hardly went a day without texting each other and Tillie hadn’t even responded to her pictures of her costume. She shot off another message to her bestie, hoping she’d just gotten caught up in her own Halloween fun and had forgotten to text.
Miss you! Hope everything is okay. I have some big news to tell you the next time we talk!