“That you are,” Stone said, taking the opportunity to toe off his remaining shoe and to lower both his jeans and briefs. He only had his socks left to remove when Micah stood, having found her strength.
“Your turn,” she announced, gesturing toward the toilet as if it were some prize.
It seemed that all those times he’d assured his Little that using the toilet was a perfectly natural occurrence didn’t include his own bladder. Then again, he was the Daddy and she was the Little.
Instead of peeing, he grabbed tissue from the holder, quickly wiped between Micah’s legs since she’d seemed to have forgotten to do so herself. He dropped the paper into the bowl, flushed the toilet and then picked her up again.
“You didn’t go pee-pee,” she said, her tone indicating she was most definitely slipping deeper into her Little headspace.
“Bath time,” he said, ignoring her observation.
He set her on her feet once more, this time in the tub. “Hold on,” he instructed, stripping off his socks and stepping in behind her. Sinking down into the warmth of the water, he reached up to place his hands on her hips. “Okay, Webby, you can sit down,” he said, guiding her to sit between his legs.
“Mmmmm,” she practically purred as she obeyed, sinking into the mountains of bubbles. Leaning the back of her head against his chest, she said, “I love bubbly baths.”
Stone chuckled. For someone who’d been pouting only moments before, she sure sounded like she was enjoying bathing now. He settled against the tub’s porcelain surface, drawing her back with him, an arm wrapped around her waist to assure her safety. He had to admit that even though he was going to smell like a strawberry, she was right. Bubble baths were indeed quite lovable.
Chapter Four
Micah
After her punishment and their bath, both had been too exhausted to do more than push the clothing and suitcase off to the floor and strip the wet coverlet off before they fell into the bed. She was happily dreaming of sunshine and ice cream when the vendor informed her it was far too early to serve any ice cream.
“But I see it, right there!”
“No, you’re smelling it.”
“Don’t be silly; you don’t smell ice?—”
“Rise and shine!”
Huh? That didn’t make sense.
“Micah, wake up, it’s time to shake a leg.”
How does one rise, shine, wake and shake a leg all at the same time?
Dreams fled and reality smacked her in the face when the sheet was pulled down and the cool air hit her naked body.
“Up and at em!”
How anyone could sound so cheerful or come up with silly phrases to wake was just another one of life’s mysteries she’d never understand. “It’s still night,” she said after cracking one eye open and seeing not a single beam of light from behind the curtain at the window.
“Not for the early bird and the worm.”
“You’re calling me a worm?” she asked, her open eye finding him standing beside the bed.
Stone chuckled. “No, sweetie. Little girls who put off packing until the last minute get to play the part of the early bird. Not to get the worm, necessarily, but definitely to finish the job.”
Seeing that he was not only awake but actually dressed had her groaning. “Just five more minutes,” she murmured, attempting to pull the sheet over her head.
“Only if you want five nice swats for each one of those five minutes,” he said, bending over to kiss her forehead while giving her bottom a single swat as if a physical act would help his words sink into her sleep-fogged brain.
Foggy or not, she was able to do the math and when it came up with the number twenty-five, she figured she could take a nap in the car.
“I’m up,” she grumbled, slowly sliding her body up to sit.
There was never a question of how much she loved her husband, but there were times when she was caught up in a moment that had her wondering what on earth she’d done to deserve such an incredible Daddy. It might not be ice cream, but the aroma coming from the mug her Daddy was holding had the words of the vendor making sense. She took another deep inhale before taking a sip.
