Daddy's Angel (Montana Daddies 7)

She looked over at the armchair in the corner of the room. Perfect. She strode over and grabbed hold of it, dragging it in front of the window. Darn thing was heavier than it looked. Grabbing a blue crayon, she started the top of the picture. She was so busy concentrating, she didn’t even notice the door to her room opening.

“Ari! What do you think you are doing!”

She jumped, wobbling on the chair and probably would have fallen, had Bain not grabbed her by the waist and set her on her feet.

“Daddy! You frightened me!”

“I frightened you! What did you think you were doing standing on that chair?”

“I had to get up higher. My picture needed a sky.” She thought it was pretty obvious why she’d been on the chair.

“What if you’d fallen? You could have hurt yourself.”

The only risk of falling was when he’d given her a fright. But she decided it was best not to say that.

“Daddy, I wouldn’t have fallen. And even if I did, it wasn’t like I was high up in the air. I wouldn’t have hurt myself.”

“You don’t know that. You could have broken your arm or leg. You could have hit your head. Furniture is not to be climbed on. You should have waited for me. I would have gotten a ladder and supervised you while you stood on it.”

“I don’t need supervision.”

“That’s where you’re wrong, little bit. You obviously need more supervision than you’ve been getting.”

“Daddy, you’re over-reacting.”

He crossed his arms over his chest and glowered down at her. Uh-oh. She bit her lower lip. “You got that look, Daddy.”

“What look?”

“That look like you gonna start scolding, but I think I was already scolded enough. When you look like that, you reminds me of Shrek.”

His eyes widened. Hmm. Okay, maybe she should have thought about what she was saying before she blurted that all out.

“Is that so?”

“Yeah, he was all grumpy and blustery on the outside. But on the inside, he was all squishy. Like you.”

“I’m squishy?” He ran a hand over his face before letting out a bark of laughter. Then he surprised her by dragging her against him.

She leaned back and grinned at him. “Super squishy.”

“Just gets worse,” he muttered. Then his face grew stern. “No more getting up on furniture.”

“Fine.” She sighed.

She squealed as he leaned her over his left hip, his arm around her waist so she was bent over. He laid a series of smacks to her ass. They were hard and fast and over almost before she’d drawn breath to protest.

He stood her back up, his hands on her shoulders to hold her steady.

“What was that for?” she demanded.

“Just thought it seemed like something an ogre would do.” His eyes twinkled with humor and she groaned. “Now, enough crayons today, I think.”

“But Daddy, I’m not finished.”

“You can do something else for a while.” He picked up the chair and slid it back. “This chair is far too heavy for you to be moving.”

She resisted rolling her eyes at his overprotectiveness. Just.