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“Really? You just scared fifty years off my life and all you have to say for yourself is ‘Hi, Daddy’?”
“Um, I’m really sorry I worried you.”
“Trust me, princess. You don’t even know ‘sorry’ yet. But you will by the time I’m through with you.”
A delicious, familiar fear races through my veins. “Yes, Daddy.”
“But first, you are going to sit your naughty bottom right there and tell me why you snuck out in the first place.”
Nodding, I sit back down on the couch, twisting my fingers together in my lap. “Um, well. I was looking for the docks.”
I’m fairly certain if I told him I’d gone out looking for an alien spaceship to abduct me, he couldn’t look more shocked than he does at this moment. “What? Why the hell were you going to the docks?”
“Well, I kinda had this plan to stow away on the ship so I could get back home.”
“And why the hell would you do that?”
Some of the boldness I’d felt sneaking out of the house earlier comes trickling back, and I jerk my chin up. “Maybe I’m sick of being treated like a baby all the time.”
I half expect him to haul me up and paddle my bottom red right then and there. But it’s my turn to be shocked, because his response is the farthest thing from what I ever would have predicted.
He just…laughs.
And not the low, wicked kind of laugh I’ve come to expect when he’s about to do something depraved to me. But a full-on, head thrown back, from the gut kind of laugh.
I can only sit and stare as he laughs until tears stream down his cheeks and he inhales deeply. “Oh, princess. I hate to tell you this but you never would have made it back to New York.”
Irritation runs prickly little fingers along my spine. “Why the hell not?”
“Because.” He laughs again. “You never would have made it all the way back to the states without being discovered. And thenyou would have been at the mercy of a bunch of mountain men with my same proclivities and none of my… elegance, we’ll say.”
Again, I can only stare in shock. “They’re… like you? With the whole Daddy thing?”
“Yes.”
“How many of youarethere?”
“More than you’d think, though most prefer to keep that part of themselves in the shadows. That’s why we built this island, so we could live as we wish without condemnation. Our lumberjack friends are much the same, though they don’t have an entire island to themselves. I can promise you, princess, as soon as they realized who you were, they would have been on the phone with me. And I would have let them spank your naughty bottom every day until I was able to retrieve you.”
The thought of complete strangers, mountain men of all people, laying hands on me should terrify me. And it does, though there is a part of me that thrills at the idea of my Daddy ordering someone else to punish me in his stead.
But I’m not about to let him know that, so I huff and flop back against the couch. “Yeah, well, I changed my mind anyway. I’m not leaving.”
“Is that so?” His tone is slightly mocking, and my bottom clenches in response as he leans down, his hand wrapping around my throat. “I’m happy to hear that, princess. But just so you know, it was never your choice to begin with. You aremine, Juliet Blackwood, and there is nowhere on Earth you could hide where I wouldn’t find you. And as soon as I get you home, I’m going to make sure you never, ever so much asthinkabout running from me again.”
Oh. I amsofucked.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Jasper
Poor little Juju. Seated beside me in the back of my car, she jiggles her leg nervously, constantly shifting in her seat as we make our way back home. Every few seconds, she shoots me a glance, then looks away again, an adorable blush blooming on her cheeks.
“Do you want to ask me something, princess?”
She jumps a bit, and I swallow a laugh. “No. No, I’m good.”
“Lying will only make your punishment worse, Juliet. Tell Daddy what’s on your mind.”