Being Their Baby (25 page)

“All right, bunny,” Josh said, sitting down on the bed next to her and patting his lap. “Come on. We need to have a chat with Uncle Josh.”

During lighter moments, she would make fun of how often he used the royal “we” with her. On days like this, however, it obviously made her feel more childlike and submissive to him, because she slowly picked herself up and sat on Josh’s lap without looking up at him. She probably knew where this was going.

He curled his fingers under her chin and tilted her mouth up so he could kiss her. He couldn’t get enough of kissing her; there was something so enticing about her little pink mouth. “I need you to be honest with me,” he said slowly afterward. “Do you really think Charlie went overboard?”

She blinked, frowned, but eventually shook her head. “No.”

“So you just called me out of response to the pain?” he asked.

She nodded. “I guess so,” she admitted softly. “And I guess… because I was angry.” She winced. “I wasn’t thinking. I was angry about being left behind, and so… I might have been kinda snippy… Or argumentative… Or bratty…” She sighed with surrender. “Or whatever…” She swallowed. “But my feelings didn’t change just because I was getting
spanked
for it…” She tangled her fingers on her lap.

He found himself putting his nose into her dark blond hair. He just wanted to squeeze her sometimes. She was still adorable. “Sophie—I’m not going to the gala black-tie deal, either. Know why I’m not upset about getting an invite?”

She shook her head and looked at him with those baby blue eyes. “Because although Liz loves me, and I love her, and we are all quite happy living polyamorously, that doesn’t mean that she can take all of her partners with her on an invite. She has to choose, and the choice isn’t always easy for her, but she does it to protect us, and to protect herself. People out there are judgmental about other’s love lives, you know that.” He patted her bottom. “You watch MTV; you’re not new to this culture.”

She sighed and nodded.

“But you know something extremely cool about having
you
around?” he said. She blinked, apparently unable to fathom a good part in the scenario. “When Liz and Charlie are stuck in their fine
fripperies
,” he grinned as she giggled slightly, “you and I can actually go and have a good time, too. We got a date, baby!
Each other
. We don’t have to be lonely—you and I can hit the town up right.”

She straightened, and to his satisfaction, she did look much more chipper. “Really? You’ll take me out? Just you and me?” she asked, chewing on her bottom lip. Her eyes were absolutely glittering with excitement.

He nodded. “Just me and my girl,” he assured, squeezing her tight. Unable to resist himself, he found his own hand wandering up the side of her leg. He hardened even more when he recalled that she wasn’t wearing panties. God bless Charlie—that was the best idea ever; not letting bad girls wear panties.

She wasn’t complaining. As soon as he ran his hand over the side of her hot, well-spanked bottom, she wrapped her arms around his neck and crushed her mouth onto his.

He turned her over until he was pressing her against the bed, delving roughly into her mouth with his own. He didn’t have any underwear on, either, so he could feel her heat through the fabric of his khakis, especially when she was arching her groin up to meet his.

“God,” he gritted. “I love this schoolgirl skirt.”

She bit her lip and simpered, “You can take it off if you want…”

His cock assured him that this was the best idea he’d ever heard. He’d fooled around with her plenty, but somehow he hadn’t brought himself to get rid of that pesky little hymen of hers. It always gave him pause, made him think about what he was doing and especially the
gravity
of what he was doing to a girl eleven years younger than he. It made him ask himself if he was taking advantage, if she was actually ready for it, or if he was pushing her into something…

Damn it, he was thinking about it
now
! He thought a virgin would have been so exciting, so delectable, so enticing. And she was—but the virginity also brought to him a guilt complex he’d never had while chasing any other girl’s skirt.

Sophie wasn’t just any other girl. Sophie was special. Sophie, come hell or high water, was someone Josh had promised would be a permanent fixture in his life. She needed something special.

He kissed her and then smoothed loose strands of hair back from her face. “Soon,” he promised.

“I’m ready,” she assured him. It sounded cute and pleading, like a child who wanted a puppy.

“Soon, baby.” He pulled himself back up, with difficulty. His cock ached, seemingly angry at Josh using his restraint once again. “For now you have to get up, go downstairs, make up with Charlie, and then you need to get to school before you’re late.” He gave her a slap on the butt to get her to hurry.

She sighed with frustration as she sat back up. “Can’t I wait to make up with Charlie until they come back from their thing?”

He frowned, unable to keep himself from wondering how he’d feel if she’d screamed Charlie’s name to protect herself from Josh. He’d feel like shit!

“No. We wouldn’t play those games with you, and so you won’t play them with us. You know you were in the wrong, and I don’t want you getting me in the middle of things to put a rift between you and Charlie, and neither do you. Get down there, apologize, and be sincere about it.” He pointed firmly toward the door.

She grumbled, but pulled herself to her feet and shuffled out the door. Josh followed her out, but let her get quite the head start down the stairs. He didn’t want it to look like he’d forced her to apologize to Charlie, even if that’s sort of what he had done.

When they got to the kitchen, he realized why Sophie wanted to put off her apology. He could feel awkwardness spilling out of her. She scrubbed the floor a little bit with the toe of her shoe, but eventually she walked up to Charlie, who was reading the newspaper as if he hadn’t heard them enter, and climbed onto his lap like a cat would, without need for permission and without any respect to whatever it was he might have been reading.

She leaned her head against Charlie’s chest and said, “I’m sorry I called for Josh. I didn’t mean to. It just came out because I was angry. I wasn’t thinking.”

Charlie, who looked like he had been settled on continuing to be pissed when she’d first come into the room, melted visibly and put his arms around her, and so Josh turned toward the coffee pot.

“That’s okay, honey,” Charlie was telling her. “I know it hurts. But you know I’m not going to give you any more than you can take, right? I’ve done this for many years. You don’t have to feel like your safety is in jeopardy.”

“I didn’t,” she protested innocently. “I trust you, Daddy. I honestly do. You’re right. I wasn’t being fair. You and Mommy have all the right in the world to go out and have fun by yourselves.” Josh turned a bit and saw Sophie taking Charlie’s hands in hers. “I really am sorry. I didn’t… I don’t want anything to change.” She bit her lip and looked like she was waiting to see what Charlie’s thoughtful expression was brewing.

He put his hand on the back of her neck tenderly and looked into her eyes with his most serious expression. “Then I don’t think we’re done, do you?”

She frowned theatrically. Surely, this was what she’d feared the most out of the confrontation with Charlie and also why she was thinking about putting it off. She shook her head and finally sighed, “No.”

“Go over and bend over the arm of the sofa, baby girl. I’m gonna make this quick, then I need to get you to class.” He patted her bottom, and leaned into her to kiss her forehead.

Josh wiggled his eyebrows as he watched Charlie gently help her off his lap. If Charlie and Josh didn’t spend so much time together in the middle of the day to talk about things, Josh would have assumed that Charlie didn’t want the girl sexually. Charlie had moved his daddying up a notch with Sophie—he was much more gentle, tender, and patient than he had been with any other girlfriend before in his entire life.

Charlie used to pride himself about how hard he could spank, or how he could get in a girl’s head enough to incite tears. Josh had a feeling that was no longer Charlie’s end-game. Sophie could cry on her own without anyone getting “into her head” quite well, and Charlie admitted he’d never spank Sophie any harder than he would a child. Yet, even though it was so against his norm, Charlie seemed much more confident and happy lately.

Josh was pleased that he’d had the sense to get Sophie to apologize right away. He didn’t want her nervousness over punishment or the awkwardness of apologizing to get in the way of her and Charlie’s relationship.

As for himself, he had no doubt as to how close they were. He wasn’t the disciplinarian, and he wasn’t the spoiler that Liz was. She’d constantly give Sophie gifts, probably because she’d feel guilty about not having more free time. Josh had oodles of free time, on the other hand, and he spent most of it with Sophie, feeling that that’s what she needed most of all.

Sophie acted like Josh was Superman, and he loved it. Sure, they teased each other a lot, but it was obvious that Sophie held Josh in high esteem, and that was something that he’d never really had with Liz. Liz always sort of mothered him—sexily, of course, but she mothered him all the same. Liz had known Josh all his life; she had been there to witness every single screw-up he’d ever made. Sophie was blissfully ignorant of how horrible of a child he’d been, how annoying he’d acted, and how pig-headed he’d been all through high school.

He turned, leaning back against the countertop as he watched Sophie nervously step over to the sofa, her eyes darting toward Charlie, who was unbuckling his belt.

Josh could hear her gulp before she whimpered, “Daddy… Not the belt.”

“You’ll be okay. Bend over, bottom out, legs apart,” Charlie replied, pointing to the padded, overly large sofa, which sat in the family room next to the kitchen.

She slowly bent over, sticking that round, glorious little bottom out to the entire room. She was wiggling back and forth, nervous. She jerked nervously when Charlie came behind her and pulled up her skirt to her lower back.

Charlie tapped the inside of her thigh patiently to demand she move her legs further apart. She complied with his direction, but she was clenching already so much that it was obvious that she was worried about herself.

Josh wanted to say something like, “Take it easy on her!” but couldn’t. Liz was shooting him a look that demanded he not commentate. The edges of his mouth went down. He certainly couldn’t disagree that Sophie needed discipline in her life. If she went a whole week without a spanking, she became a real brat every time and would seem to go out of her way to earn herself one.

Watching Sophie get a spanking was also extremely exciting. Yet Josh couldn’t help wishing he could keep her from them all the same.

“You’re getting fifteen. I’m not going to have you count them out because
that
might take all morning,” Charlie told her. “But I want you to keep your hands down and I want you to stay in place like a good girl, you hear me?”

“Yeah,” she replied with a voice barely above a whisper.

“Answer me correctly,” Charlie demanded.

She took a deep breath. “Yes, Daddy.” She also had the option of saying “yes, Sir,” but she never did. Josh wondered if she forgot Charlie’s real name half the time. She never, ever used it at home and Charlie’s name was only said with difficulty in public, normally coming out as, “‘Da—Charlie.”

“Good girl.” Charlie whipped his arm back and brought it firmly and perfectly across Sophie’s flinching, pink bottom.

Sophie’s back went up and she gave a loud, sharp cry of, “Ow!”

“Get back down, baby, we have to make this quick,” Charlie told her firmly.

She whimpered sadly and then bent down again.

And
SLAP!
Another perfectly placed, utterly controlled strike fell across Sophie’s bottom, right on her sit spot, with enough impact that she rocked forward on her toes. “No-oh-oh!” She put her hands back and then immediately pulled them obediently forward.

“Good girl. Keep still,” Charlie encouraged. In many ways, Charlie’s rigid posture and dutiful appearance made him seem sort of like a schoolteacher. One with a thick neck and shoulders the size of most people’s thighs.

Charlie strapped the poor girl to tears. After ten, he had to hold her down; her bottom was well beyond pink, and even her upper thighs were showing marks, yet not low enough that they wouldn’t be hidden by her skirt while at school.

“I’ll be good, I’ll be good!” she cried into the sofa, wiggling her bottom back and forth. “I will! I’m sorry!”

Charlie wasn’t going to be stopped, apparently, by any amount of pathetic begging, because he wrapped his arm around her and delivered the rest of the strokes, letting each one settle in before he struck again.

He stroked her quivering bottom cheeks with his fingers when he was done, letting her cry it out a little before releasing her.

Instead of withdrawing, Sophie got up and crawled miserably onto Charlie’s lap, letting him cuddle her against his chest and rest his chin on the top of her head while he rubbed her back in soothing circular motions. Tears were staining her freshly cleaned cheeks as she accepted Charlie’s comfort.

“You know I love you, snuggle bunny?” Charlie asked, wiping her tears off her cheeks. Charlie looked like a giant next to her; his hand covered the full expanse of her face. Josh knew that it couldn’t have looked too different when she was sitting on Josh’s lap, but he normally didn’t notice it as much unless she was near Charlie. Josh imagined that Sophie had to feel like she was Goldilocks in a house full of bears.

She sniffled and wrapped her arms around his neck. “I love you, too.”

“Are you still upset with me and Mommy?” Charlie asked.

She shook her head. “No.”

He kissed her cheek and squeezed her. “Thanks, sweetheart, for understanding. Now, do you have your books and everything together?”

She looked over his shoulder and he followed her gaze to the table in front of the television, where she had about three books open, pens and papers everywhere, and papers piled around haphazardly. He groaned and she said, brushing her tears from her cheeks, “In my defense, I thought I’d have more time this morning.”