Page 61 of Double Daddies (Dirty Daddies Anthologies #8)

Chapter Eight

Ben

“Make sure you have some protein with those pancakes, sweetheart.”

Cami makes a face. “Hey, I’m eating for two!”

“You are,” Ryle agrees, reaching out and rubbing her belly that has finally begun to show at five months. “Which is why you need to make sure you’re eating the right things.” Without another word, he reaches over and puts two pieces of sausage onto her plate.

She scowls but picks one up and takes a bite.

“I’m coming with a glass of water,” I say, reaching for the fridge.

As I do, the sight of our calendar catches my eye.

I quickly scan it, and my brow furrows as I read.

But I pour the water into her cup and bring it to the table.

I take a seat and watch her drink before I bring it up.

“Didn’t you have an OB appointment yesterday? ”

“Oh, that’s right. We were both swamped, so I guess it slipped my mind. How’d it go?” Ryle asks.

“I didn’t have an appointment,” Cami says, taking a bite of sausage.

I pull out my phone and open the calendar app. “I have it here.” I slide it over to her.

She shrugs a shoulder. “You must have written it down wrong.”

Ryle catches my gaze and arches a brow. We’ve gotten even better at reading each other over the last couple months. What’s up? His eyes are asking.

He’s about to find out, because I know my Little girl enough to know when she’s lying. It doesn’t happen often, but when it does, she’s squirmy and avoids my eyes. “Let me see your calendar, Cami.”

She shrugs again, but when she tries to hand me her phone, she’s looking at the wall above my head.

“No. Not that one. Your datebook from your purse.”

She meets my eyes then, her mouth open, her expression turns indignant. “I mean, I will, but what’s with the interrogation, Ben?”

“Maybe I just need some practice,” I say wryly.

Cami makes a face at me and takes another bite of sausage, chewing thoughtfully. She’s waiting for me to give up, but she’s out of luck. I can wait with the best of them.

“Did you hear what he said, Camille? Datebook, please.” Ryle makes “please” sound an awfully lot like now .

She jolts toward Ryle, her eyes wide and betrayed. “Could I just?—”

“No,” we answer in unison.

“But—”

“Listen to your Daddies, Little girl,” Ryle cuts her off.

Cami gets up with a huff, and once her back is turned, we trade amused looks. That amusement fades the moment she drops the datebook on the table in front of me. I can tell with the way she’s shifting foot to foot and her growing agitation what I will find.

“Do I need to open this, or would you like to tell me what happened?”

She doesn’t answer except to drop her eyes to the ground.

“Why would you lie?”

“I didn’t lie,” she protests. “I mean, not exactly.”

I look over at Ryle to see him looking very stern and serious as he looks at our back-tracking girl. "What does that mean?”

She swallows hard and looks at me with tearful eyes. “I forgot. Helen asked if I could cover a shift for her, and I said yes because I forgot about the appointment. I remembered an hour before I was supposed to be there, but I couldn't go because I was at work.”

Ryle clears his throat and I glance at him, then back to Cami.

“So why wouldn’t you just say that?”

“Because… I didn’t want to get in trouble.”

She sounds so pitiful, under normal circumstances, I would feel sorry for her. But these are far from normal. “I think you’ve been long overdue for being in trouble,” I say.

Her eyes widen. “But?—”

“No. Not buts,” I cut her off. I turn to Ryle, unsurprised to find him looking back at me. “I think it’s time.”

Ryle

“I think it’s time,” Ben announces, his voice quiet but determined.

“Time for what?” I ask, puzzled.

“Time to show you what happens when our Little girl gets herself in trouble.”

I glance at Cami and see the dread that changes her features.

“We have rules,” Ben continues. “Rules that are for Cami’s safety. And when she breaks them, she earns herself a punishment.”

I arch my brows. “Such as?”

“It depends. Sometimes she gets put in timeout.” He nods at the corner, case in point. “Sometimes she gets grounded.”

I can tell from a quick glance at Cami’s face neither of these things are the one she’s most afraid of. “What else?”

Ben looks over at our girl who is staring right back at us with a pained, frozen expression. “Sometimes I have to take her over my knee.”

“Understood. Anything else I should know?”

“Our rules are simple: they’re no disrespect, no dishonesty, and no danger .” He emphasizes the last one, staring hard at her.

“But I didn’t?—”

“Missing a doctor’s appointment could be dangerous,” he puts in over her objection. “And besides that, you lied.”

Cami opens her mouth, but either she rethinks her objection, or she doesn’t expect to be allowed to make it because she just closes it again and looks down at the floor. Her shoulders are drooping, she keeps sniffling and dragging her toe across the floor in pure pout mode.

And much to my surprise and amusement, I still find her absolutely adorable. Stunning, even. She’s done the impossible—I’ve fallen hard for Camille Rodgers. But that also means caring about all of her, and Ben has a point: lying to get out of trouble should never be allowed to slide.

“Corner.” Ben points to the same corner he indicated earlier.

Cami gives him a look that’s guilt mingled with remorse before she trudges across the oriental rug to the corner.

I feel for her, I truly do. I have a cleaner come twice a week, so there isn’t a single dust mote to look at. She’ll have nothing but her thoughts of what she should have done differently to keep her company as she stares at the oatmeal-colored walls.

Once she’s settled, I turn back to Ben. “I like the rules you have for her, but I believe she could tolerate a few more.”

“Really?” Ben turns his attention to me, and we both ignore the gasp coming from the corner. “What did you have in mind?”

Cami

They’re talking about me like I’m not here!

Up to this point, I’ve felt nothing but adored and surrounded by affection from my Daddies…

but for the first time since we started this arrangement, I don’t like that there are two of them.

Being in trouble with Ben on the rare occasions it happened was always bad enough, but adding Ryle to the mix…

giving Ben someone else to give him feedback…

it makes me feel even more uncomfy than I normally do while I stand in the corner, awaiting to hear the verdict of my punishment.

“Cami.”

I tense as Ben says my name. I hear it in the sternness of his voice that they’ve decided, and that I’m not going to like it.

“Come here, please,” Ryle adds in his deep, gravelly voice.

His order makes me shiver and my body tingles with trepidation. I take my time turning around, and I shuffle toward them as slowly as I dare. I stop a good three feet in front of them—out of arm’s reach.

They’ve turned the chairs from the dining room table around and are sitting next to each other. Ryle has his arms folded across his wide, muscular chest and Ben has his legs crossed. Both present an intimidating sight, but together, it’s enough to make me feel next-level anxious.

“I was w-wrong,” I say, unable to bear the silence for another second. “I shouldn’t have forgotten the appointment. But all the sites say that pregnancy brain is really bad in the last trimester.”

My Daddies exchange glances. When they look back at me, I can tell they’re unmoved by my argument. I feel the pit of worry in my stomach grow.

“First of all, you’re not yet in your third trimester,” Ben points out.

“Second, please tell us you’re not trying to get out of this by using the baby.”

I blink in surprise at them. “I mean, pregnancy brain is definitely a thing. If you don’t believe me—which you totally should, I’m a nurse—you can Google it.”

“I don’t need to Google it,” Ben says, and both of their faces are even sterner, if that’s possible.

“We know that pregnancy brain is real, Camille. That’s not what’s in question here. It’s your ability to tell the truth.”

I gasp. For someone who I thought was very new to the Daddy scene, Ryle sure has caught on quick! “I… I…”

“ Lied ,” Ben supplies. “That’s the issue we’re addressing here.”

Ooh, I do not like how he said that. It sounds like I need to be worried. The skin on my bottom crawls.

“We only want what’s best for you,” Ryle begins. “I’m not sure we would have agreed to you taking the overtime if you had asked us.”

“You weren’t here! Both of you were working, so what does it matter?”

Ben’s arches a brow at me, and I feel my stomach sink.

Uh-oh. I shouldn’t have raised my voice. Now he’s adding disrespect to my list of crimes.

“Maybe we would have been fine with it.”

“You wouldn’t have let me cancel a doctor’s appointment to work,” I grumble.

“We might have,” Ryle pushes back. “The point is, you should have checked with us.”

“Why?” I demand hotly, knowing I’m digging a deeper grave for myself and not caring. “Why should I have to? It’s my body, and I’ll do whatever I damn well please!”

Silence.

Silence has never been so loud.

I cringe, wishing I had a time machine so I could go back and undo the last two minutes of my life. Hell, I’d just go to the damn appointment and then none of this would even be happening.

“I’m sorry,” I say, as meekly as possible.

“I hope so. I think you need some more time in the corner,” Ben suggests.

I groan, but Ryle speaks up before I get the chance.

“You’re clearly not in a good headspace to accept accountability.”

“I can. I promise.” I wait, holding my breath to see what they will decide. I’ve gotten myself in too deep to even want to risk another misstep.

Finally, after what feels like forever but is probably only a minute, Ryle nods permission.

“Thank you,” I murmur. “I just… I forgot,” I say softly. “The appointment slipped my mind. I know I should have told both of you, but I was afraid.”

“You know you never have to be afraid of us,” Ryle says firmly.