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Nothing had ever sounded as good as that giggle. “Here’s the truth, bluebell. We make mistakes because we’re pushing ourselves to grow. We fall down because we’re being brave. Wemake bad choices because the future is invisible until it becomes the past. Those are all very good things. The only way we fail is when we let assholes like the General bully us into never trying to succeed. You are so much better than that man. He knew it, and that’s why he tried to control and manipulate you. You were something he could never be. Brave enough to love.”

He glanced down half expecting her to have fallen asleep. Instead, she stared up at him, her eyes filled with more love than he’d ever deserve. “Will they hurt?”

“What, life? Sometimes.”

She shook her head, smiling. “No, not life. Butt plugs.”

The shift in subjects threw him. “We don’t have to do that tonight.”

The joy in her face fizzled right in front of him. “Oh. Okay.”

Fuck. He’d just told her it was all right, even admirable, to try and fail. Then the first time she tried to follow his advice, he shot her down. Now who was the asshole?

He caught her chin and tilted her face back to him. “That wasn’t what I meant to say. What I meant to say was, butt plugs can hurt but this one won’t. Now, the spanking you’ve got coming after that is a completely different thing. You earned one hell of a butt blistering, and you’d better believe it is going to hurt.”

Only a Little in love would respond to that statement with a smile. It warmed his heart and ramped his need to drive his cock deep into her tight, wet pussy and fuck her until she screamed his name.

She shrugged one shoulder as her smile grew shy. “Okay,” she said. “I’m ready now.”

CHAPTER 13

Had she just told her Daddy she was ready to have him stick something up her butt? Because she was pretty sure she had. What had she been thinking?

“Alright, babygirl. Let’s get you ready.” Boone carried her back to her naughty corner and set her down in front of the stool. “Do you remember where I told you to put your feet?”

The footprint pattern stretched across the earth tone rug seemed much wider than it had before. Heart ticking up a notch, she nodded. “You said three, Daddy.” Her lady bits clenched standing with her legs spread so far apart.

“That’s right. You were a very naughty little girl, weren’t you.”

He was right. She’d known, deep down, that she should tell him about the texts. It might not be nice, but she was beginning to hate Nico Midnight. She hadn’t allowed herself any emotions about him for the year he’d held her. She couldn’t afford to.

She’d built a giant block of ice around her emotions and frozen them inside. She could tell they were in there, but she couldn’t touch them. And they couldn’t get out. If she’d let her emotions run rampant, she’d have gone crazy.

That had lasted until Boone had rescued her. Something about having a Daddy slowly chipped away at the ice encasing all those feelings. Her block had almost cracked once or twice while they were on the yacht, but with Daddy’s help she managed to keep it from shattering.

Only now, it wasn’t only the emotions from her captivity she’d frozen in her ice block. When the cracks had started, she shoved the memories of everything that happened to her that year inside, too.

Now she didn’t remember the details of that time, either. She only allowed herself the vaguest recollections. And she only did that so she wouldn’t look stupid when people asked her about the kidnapping.

She hated when people did that. It made her feel weak. And stupid. And so very afraid. That’s why she hadn’t told anyone about the texts. If the texts were real, they threatened to crack her ice block wide open.

And that could not happen. That was then, and this was now. Now she focused on making new memories. That way her iced over feelings and memories could never escape.

“Bluebell, are you ignoring Daddy?” The serious tone of Boone’s voice snapped her back into the present.

“No, Daddy. I’m sorry, I got distracted by the footprints. Is this the same rug that was here before? Cause those footprints are farther apart.”

“It’s the same rug. And you wouldn’t have to worry about how far apart they are if you hadn’t been so naughty, would you?”

“No, Daddy. I didn’t mean to be naughty. Being naughty makes me feel yucky on the inside.”

He pressed his body against her back. Comforting heat radiated from him, only to have an uncomfortable need flare to life as his cock grew hard against the top curve of her backside.

“That’s one of the good things about having a Daddy. It’s my job to help you get rid of those yucky feelings. Now, since Daddy has already taken your bottoms off. We can skip that step. You still won’t be needing them anytime soon.”

His words shot desire pulsing from her belly to thrum her clit before settling deep inside her core. Wetness coated her pussy, readying her for whatever was to come.

He reached around her from the back and gripped her inner thighs so close to her pussy he had to feel how wet she was.