The Art of Discipline: Running Toward Trouble (The Mockingbird Chronicles) (13 page)

“Why did you feel the need to sneak out today?”

“Honestly?”

“I always want you to be honest with me, Danielle.”

“I didn’t think I’d get caught.”

“Ah, well, I guess that’s pretty frank.”

“How did you find out?” Dani couldn’t help but ask.

“Phone rang while Will was with a customer. I came down to get it, and then checked on you.”

“Oh.” Dani hung her head a little sheepishly.

“How long were you gone?”

Dani shifted. “About twenty minutes.”

Emma shook her head at Dani’s response. “All right then, I’m still planning on spanking you before bed, but I think we need to deal with this separately.” She paused for a moment, as Dani shifted again. “Now,” she continued, taking the kitten away from Dani and setting it safely on the floor, and then taking Dani by the wrist and adjusting both of them so that Dani was over her lap. “Why don’t you tell me why I’m going to spank you, Danielle?”

Dani chewed her lip before sniffling. “Because I’m still grounded, and snuck off without telling you.”

“And?” Emma prompted. “How many times has this happened today?”

“Twice,” Dani squeaked.

“Right,” Emma accented her comment with a sharp smack. “Perhaps I should have just paddled you this morning like Stevie suggested.” Dani whimpered as Emma punctuated her statement with a half-dozen swats. “Maybe I made a mistake in letting you get that kitten?” Emma asked with two more hard spanks.

“Please, Emma, don’t take it back,” Dani suddenly pleaded.

The despair in Dani’s voice was apparently too hard to ignore, because it forced Emma to pause. “Dani,” she said quietly, resting her palm on her backside. “I may regret the decision of getting the kitten, but I won’t take it away from you. It’s not a thing; it’s alive and we’ve made an agreement to care for it.” She tapped Dani’s backside. “Besides, she is kinda cute. I always was a sucker for big blue eyes.”

Dani looked over her shoulder, blinking the tears out of her own blue eyes. Sniffling, she managed, “Thank you, Emma.”

“Don’t thank me yet,” Emma smirked as she pulled back and gave Dani another solid strike. “I still plan on making sitting through dinner rather uncomfortable for you.”

* * *

Dani sniffled from her spot in the corner. Even though the earlier spanking was done over her pajama bottoms, her backside was still stinging. She’d been in the corner perhaps five minutes, and still had fifteen more to go. Emma thought it was a fair trade for the twenty minutes she’d gone missing earlier. She would have argued, but Emma had also stressed that any talking would result in her time restarting, and the last thing she wanted to do was have that happen.

Hearing noise coming from the kitchen, Dani knew that Emma was busy making dinner, but she also knew that from this corner in the living room, Emma could check on her at any time. Forced to wait out her sentence, she rested her forehead against the wall, and tried to think of anything but her current predicament.

Suddenly stiffening, she felt something furry rub against her leg. Looking down, she noticed Matilda had found her and was making herself quite at home loving up her ankles. Dani tried to stifle the giggle as the kitten tickled her bare feet with its whiskers. The kitten lay down and Dani moved slightly, rubbing its belly with her toes.

“Danielle,” Emma’s voice cut through her happiness. “Stand still.”

Dani groaned, and pushed the kitten gently away with her foot, returning her attention to the wall. The kitten, however, was having none of it. She reacted to the foot, deciding that it was now a threat, and proceeded to attack Dani’s big toe. Dani pushed her away again, trying to hide the toe behind her other foot, but the kitten was relentless. Now a game, Matilda pounced on the leg, grabbing on with her claws and making Dani suddenly yelp.

“Danielle!” Emma snapped.

Dani gulped and, using the distraction to shake off the kitten, straightened once again. Now wary of sneak attacks, Dani managed to catch the kitten out of the corner of her eye. At least if she could see it, she could be prepared if Matilda pounced again. Unfortunately for Dani, while she was concentrating on Tilly, she failed to see the attack coming from the other side. Suddenly out of nowhere, Atticus pounced. Matilda hissed and in a panic, decided that Dani’s head was the safest place in the room. Scaling Dani’s body, the kitten settled on her shoulder and hissed once again at Atticus.

Reacting to the pain, Dani spun, grabbing the kitten and dislodged its claws from her shoulder. Holding the kitten at arm’s length, she stomped her foot, scaring off Atticus, and then spun around only to be captured by green eyes.

“Mockingbird!” Dani quickly proclaimed her safeword. “It’s not my fault, I was attacked.”

Green eyes twinkled, before Emma broke down in a full belly laugh.

“It’s not funny!” Dani cried, putting the kitten down and watching as it took off back down the hall.

“God, yes it is,” Emma replied, wiping the tears from her eyes. “You should have seen your face.”

Dani crossed her arms over her chest before allowing her lip to stick out in a pout.

Emma shook her head, turning the pouting brunette back to the wall and giving Dani a little pat to her backside. “Dinner’s almost done,” she chuckled.

“Not funny,” Dani mumbled.

“Danielle, do you want your time to start over?”

“No,” Dani whined.

“Then no more talking.”

Dani moaned and put her forehead back against the wall. It had to be the longest twenty minutes of her life.

Chapter Seven

Emma looked up as knuckles rapped lightly on her office door.

“Hey, Emma. Dani said you wanted to see me?” Stevie asked.

Emma glanced at the clock, noting they still had ten minutes before opening. “Yeah, come on in and close the door.”

Stevie’s brow furrowed, as she was suddenly concerned. “Everything okay? It looks like you and Dani had a successful chat by the way that I saw her rubbing when I came in.”

“Yeah, we chatted twice last night, and once this morning. Oh, and sorry about cancelling your run last minute like that.”

“Hey, no problem. Although Anna might not be too happy with you. When I came back early, I caught her on her third cup of coffee.”

“Uh-oh,” Emma grinned.

“Indeed,” Stevie returned the grin. “So what’s up? What did you want to see me about? More trouble with Dani?”

“Not exactly,” Emma answered. “Remember that bet we made?”

“Yes…” Stevie drew out.

“I lost.”

“Emma, it hasn’t even been 24 hours yet.”

“I know,” Emma shifted.

“What did it do? Eat something? Worse?”

Emma couldn’t help the giggle. “Well, it did attack Dani when she was in the corner last night.”

“God, that’s too funny,” Stevie laughed.

“It was. But the cat isn’t the problem. It’s the way that Dani is reacting to it. You were right; I shouldn’t have gotten it for her. Almost the moment you left yesterday, Dani snuck up to the apartment to play with it, and then this morning…”

“This morning?”

“Let’s just say that Dani should be glad that I’m not a fan of writing lines, or else she’d be writing, ‘Kittens do not make good alarm clocks,’ about 500 times today.”

“You’re kidding?” Stevie laughed. “That’s too funny… and Anna is
never
getting a cat.”

Emma chuckled. “Funny now, maybe. Not at the time.”

“Ah, so I guess that means our next session is going to be extra fun then,” Stevie smiled.

“Yeah,” Emma squirmed. “I ever tell you how much I hate canes?”

“Hmmm, once or twice,” Stevie grinned evilly.

Emma grimaced. “Then I have a favor to ask. Think we can move it up? With the stress that I’m already under, I don’t think I can have this hanging over my head for another two-and-a-half weeks.”

“Sure, would this afternoon do?”

“That soon? I suppose,” Emma frowned. “I suppose we can wait until Anna comes in so she can babysit Dani.”

“Right. Do you actually own a cane, or would you like me to ask Anna to bring in a couple from our collection?”

Emma paled. “I don’t, but nothing artificial,” she warned.

“Hey, I thought that choice was up to me.” Stevie’s eyes twinkled.

“You are such an evil top. No wonder you are perfect for Anna.”

Stevie laughed. “Why, thank you, Emma Renee.”

Emma growled mockingly at the use of her full name. “Don’t you have work to do?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Stevie saluted just as mockingly, before she stood and left Emma’s office.

Emma shook her head as her hand absently traveled to her behind. She was going to get no work done today, and worse than that, what was she going to tell Dani?

* * *

Dani’s eyes narrowed as she watched Anna approach the back door. Meeting Stevie, she handed the blonde something long and narrow, but with the grainy black and white picture, Dani couldn’t quite make out what the item was on the small TV screen. Over the past few days, she’d found the new surveillance system rather interesting as she’d watched the comings and goings of the bookstore customers from the safety of Emma’s office.

“Hey, honey?” Emma called from the doorway. “Got a sec?”

“Sure,” Dani replied.

“Are you busy? Have anything pressing going on?”

“Not at the moment, why?” Dani asked, suddenly uneasy with Emma’s tone.

Emma entered, closing the door behind her, and practically flew into Dani’s lap.

“What’s the matter?” Dani asked, surprised by the clinginess of her partner. “You alright?”

Emma pulled back. “Yeah, I just needed a hug.”

“Well, I can help you out there,” Dani teased, putting her arms around Emma and hugging her tight. “Better?”

“Yeah, I need you to do me a favor.”

“Anything,” Dani agreed instantly.

“Cover my shift for an hour or so?”

“Why?”

Emma wrinkled her nose. “Stevie and I need to have a chat.”

Dani frowned. “What? Why? I thought you agreed on once a month?”

“We did. This is something special. And I’d rather not go into specifics.”

“I don’t understand. Did you do something?”

“Dani, please don’t. Not this time. You just have to trust me, okay?”

“Of course I trust you, but this, I don’t know if I can be okay with it if I don’t know why.”

“I’m not asking for your permission, Dani, but I do expect you to stay in the store with Anna until Stevie or I can relieve you.”

“Sounds like you are the one that doesn’t trust me. I know what you are telling me, but how do I really know what you and Stevie are doing up there?”

“Danielle, you don’t really mean that. There is nothing sexual about this…”

“So you say. So go ahead. You don’t need my permission. I’ll be a good girl and sit with my babysitter and mind the store while you’re having your
chat
upstairs.”

Emma frowned. “Stevie is waiting for me. We can talk more about this later.” She then tried to kiss Dani on the cheek, but Dani pulled away. “I love you, Dani.”

Dani chewed her lip a moment, resisting the impulse to say it back.

With a final sigh, Emma stood and left her office, leaving the door open in her wake.

Dani sat back in the chair. She couldn’t help the anger that rose inside her. There had been many times with Emma when she had put her on edge. She’d often treat her like a child; spankings, groundings, and controlling when and what she ate and drank. There were even times when a single look from her could turn Dani’s knees to jelly, but Emma had never dismissed her like that. Never told her she didn’t have a choice, and just had to accept that Emma was going to do something very personal with someone other than Dani.

Dani was suddenly pulled out of her thoughts by the appearance of Anna at the door. “You gonna stay in here and pout all day?”

“Maybe,” Dani returned, not being able to stop the smile.

“They’re going to be a while. I say let’s call the bakery down the street and see if they’ll deliver us a couple of cupcakes.”

“You are incorrigible,” Dani scolded, but pushed her seat back and followed Anna back out into the main store. “Think they have red velvet?”

Anna giggled. “And you say I’m incorrigible. You, Danielle, are impossible.”

Dani grinned, glad for the moment that the store was empty, “Anna, do you know what Emma did?”

“Nope, and I don’t want to know. My backside is safer that way.”

Dani frowned. “What did you bring to Stevie?”

“Bring?”

“I saw you hand Stevie something long and narrow through the surveillance system,” Dani prompted.

“Oh, that. Not allowed to say.”

Dani groaned. “I think I’m gonna need two cupcakes.”

“You’re gonna ruin your dinner,” Anna teased.

“Hey, not my fault if my babysitter stuffed me with junk food.”

“Hey!”

Dani laughed before taking a step closer to Anna. “I want to know.”

“If I tell you, neither of us will be able to sit for a week,” Anna protested as she took a step farther away.

“Well, if that’s the case, why don’t you tell me? Then we can close up the store and go get those cupcakes in person. You can get a latte and I’ll get a giant diet soda.” Dani grinned mischievously.

“Now I’m not sure if I should be impressed or scared half to death,” Anna laughed nervously. “I’m supposed to be watching you.”

“Oh, that’s right. You’re the babysitter. Guess you’re kinda responsible for what I do, but then if you don’t want to go…” Dani shrugged. “I guess I could go by myself.”

“You wouldn’t.” Anna swallowed hard. “Besides, there needs to be two of us in the store at all times.”

“Well, then you could either lock up and go interrupt Emma and Stevie, or you could come with me. Or…”

“Or?” Anna asked nervously.

“You could just tell me what’s going on.”

Anna narrowed her eyes. “You are evil, Dani.”

Dani smiled. “So?”

“Fine,” Anna groaned. “Stevie is going to cane Emma.”