The second blow robbed her of the ability to breathe.
“Ow!” she shouted. She couldn’t have held it back if she’d wanted to. “I’m sorry!”
He didn’t hesitate. The swats fell hard and fast. The paddle cracked across her already tender skin. She lost the ability to hold still. She kicked and screamed and promised him that the very idea of rappelling would never cross her mind again. Not in a million years.
Had she thought his hand was as hard as a paddle? This was so much worse, lighting her bottom on fire. It would not surprise her if her rear end set the couch on fire when she sat down. No, “if” she sat on it. As if he’d read her mind, the last four swats focused on her sit spots.
That’s when she broke... completely.
She sobbed. Big, fat, wailing sobs that wracked her entire body. She cried and begged him, “Please, Daddy. Ow! Owie! I’m sorry, Daddy.”
She wailed for the pain to stop. For the life she’d lost. For the fear she had of the future. She didn’t even realize he’d stopped spanking her.
He rubbed her back. “I’m proud of you, little one. You took your punishment and so much more. You are such a good girl.”
Her sobs of release, forgiveness, and longing slowed until no fresh tears fell, and only her shoulders still shook. She focused on her breathing as Jaxon gently caressed her sore bottom.
Tazzy twisted her head to look back over her shoulder and saw pain etched in the furrow of his brow as he rubbed his eyes. She reached back with one shaky hand and touched his thigh. “Daddy?”
He looked down at her. “Yeah, baby?”
“You are hurting too,” she whispered. “I can see it.”
Jaxon let out a slow breath and nodded. “This is not about me right now. This is about taking care of you.”
Fresh tears slipped free, but these felt different. Cleaner. She let them fall while he continued to rub her sore bottom in slow circles.
It gave her time to think.
She had fought him so hard at first, but now the relief of surrendersettled into her bones. There was safety here, too. And not only safety, but something a wall could never provide. Love. Here was the Daddy she had missed with every piece of her heart.
He helped her up, pulling her onto his lap, mindful of her tender backside. She curled against his chest, face buried in his shirt, and let the last of the sobs fade away. His arms wrapped around her tight, one hand still resting possessively on her hot bottom.
“That’s my girl,” he murmured against her hair. “Let it all out. Daddy has you now, and I’m never letting go again.”
Tazzy nodded against him, “I was so scared to give in. I thought, if I let you in, it would mean I was weak. Or that you would leave again.”
“I know, baby. But you are not weak. Needing your Daddy does not make you weak. It makes you mine. And I am never leaving you again. Not for the General. Not for anything. You hear me?”
“Yes, Daddy,” she whispered. “I never stopped loving you, not really. Even when I tried so hard to hate you, I couldn’t do it.”
“I never stopped loving you either. Not a day went by without me thinking about you. Every night I promised myself I would come back and make things right. Now I have the chance to do just that. We have a lot more talking to do, but right now I just want to hold my girl and let her know she is safe.”
She snuggled closer, her punished bottom resting warm on his thighs. He kept one hand on her back and the other cupping her sore cheek, offering both comfort and a quiet reminder of the consequences she had just accepted.
They sat like that for a long time. The quiet house wrapped around them like a cocoon. Tazzy felt the last eight years begin to fade into the background. The pain, the separation, the fear, all of it started to lose its grip now that she rested in his arms again. When it came down to it, she had chosen him. She had called him Daddy and meant it. She had taken her punishment and come out the other side softer and more open than before.
He pressed a kiss to the top of her head. “We are going to figure out the rest together. The General doesn’t get to control us anymore. You and me, Sprite. That’s all that matters now.”
Tazzy let out a shaky sigh and nodded. “You and me, Daddy.”
Now she knew that the last eight years had all been leading up to this moment. She would spend the rest of her life making sure he never regretted coming home to her.
The sun had dipped lower in the sky by the time her breathing grew steady and calm. Jaxon kept holding her, content to let the world outside stay far away for a little while longer. His hand continued its gentle strokes along her back while his other palm rested warm on her bottom, a silent promise that he would always be here to correct her when she needed it and to love her through every storm.
Into the evening, they sat, quiet and still.
“Daddy?”