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He couldn’t tell her while she held herself away from him. He needed the connection, and so would she when she heard what he had to tell her.

He pulled her to sit on his lap and rested a hand on her thigh. “I know because Sev told me. That’s why he called. His housekeeper found a burner phone that someone had tried to throw away. Sev called because the phone had been used to send texts to a number with a Wyoming area code. He knew it wasn’t mine, but he figured I might know whose it was. And whose number was it, Tildi?”

“Mine.” She spoke in a whisper, as if saying it made it worse.

He wanted nothing more than to wrap his arms around her and tell her he’d take care of everything. He could tell she regretted her decision. She hated disappointing him, but that wasn’t enough. Not this time.

Hardening his heart, he kept pushing his point. “Yeah. Yours.”

Boone had damn near lost his mind when Sev told him the number, Tildi’s number. Sev, too, was as pissed as Boone had ever heard him.

Sev had a spy. Even worse, he had a spy interested in Tildi.

And that was why it was vital his girl was open and honest with him.

“Now you’re going to spend some time thinking about what you could’ve done instead of hiding those texts from Daddy.I don’t think you’ve had a chance to check out your naughty corner.”

Her jaw dropped. “N-naughty corner? What naughty corner?”

Boone pointed to a corner near the big window. “That naughty corner, little girl. I have a feeling you'll be spendin' a fair amount of time there. Go ahead. Get a closer look.”

Tildi stared at the corner across the room. Oh, she pretended to be upset, but the dark pink flush creeping up her chest and cheeks told a different story. As did the scent of her arousal. Ah, the love-hate relationship Littles had with punishment. It was the bane of their existence, yet they craved the security it gave them.

She obviously needed a stronger incentive to overcome her inertia. “Now is not the time you want to make me repeat myself, babygirl.”

Cute as a button, she squirmed around, thinking he wouldn’t know she was doing everything she could to relieve the need growing between the tops of her thighs.

His girl liked her naughty corner. Good to know.

When she reached the corner, for some reason, she thought sassy was the best behavior card she had in her deck. “Well, the stool is cute and all, but I don’t get the height. It’s too high to step up on, but too short to sit on.”

He could play along. Until his hand got too itchy to ignore, anyway. “I see your point. You should know that it isn’t intended to be used for sitting, and if I ever catch you standing on it, you’ll get a quick lesson in what it is intended for.”

She tried to hold back the shiver of excitement. Instead of folding her hand, she raised the stakes and kept playing. “The shelf is pretty, but it’s too small to hold much.”

It was all he could do to bite back his laugh. She was hell bent on writing checks her ass wasn’t going to enjoy paying for. “Justhow many more things do you want to add to that shelf, darlin’? Cause there are a few things in the barn I think would look real nice hanging on that empty peg next to Daddy’s belt.”

She glanced at the hairbrush laying on the shelf and the paddle he’d carved years ago hanging from the third peg below, right next to his belt. “Um, no, that’s okay. They say in decorating, less is more. And I think this shelf can already use less than what it has on it.”

He’d just bet she did. “What about the sign above the shelf? What does it say?”

When she turned to read it, he moved to his bedside table and took out two of the items he’d put there the day before. It was a good thing he’d stocked it while Tildi showered. Never let it be said he was a Daddy who wasn’t prepared.

“The font is a bit hard to read, but I think it says ‘Tildi Is A Good Girl’.”

“That’s exactly what it says. But it shouldn’t say that right now, should it? You need to flip it over so the other side shows.”

“What’s on the other side?” She tipped it up and her sharp intake of breath made him smile. She turned it over, her lip poking out in an adorable pout. “Tell Daddy what it says now, naughty girl.”

“It says ‘Tildi’s Time Out Corner’. We don’t need this, Daddy. Or any of that stuff on the shelf, either. I don’t like them.”

“I hate to tell you, but you’re gonna like them even less in a few minutes.” He placed a hand on her lower back and guided her to the stool. “You didn’t say anything about your pretty rug.”

Her brow scrunched as she studied the long, narrow rug. “The shapes on it resemble paisley, but—wait, are those footprints?”

Yes. Yes, they were. He’d had that rug custom made. “Those are to tell you where to put your feet. You see how each one has a number? What’s on the two closest to the center?”

“Ones?” she questioned. Confusion looked good on her, but then, everything looked good on his babygirl.