H
e saw the moment her brain registered the intent of his words, and the inner struggle that took place.
He ignored both and scooped another bite onto the fork. “Open up.”
She didn’t, of course, so he scooped the bite into his own mouth and rubbed his stomach in a show of exaggerated pleasure. “Oh, that’s yummy.”
She said nothing, but he could tell she wanted to eat.
One more bite onto the fork, and he lifted it to her lips.
She sat there with her lips tightly pinched and the fork poised just outside her mouth for a full minute before giving a soft little sigh, and letting him feed her.
“There you go. Good girl, chew chew,” he murmured happily, even though she was shooting daggers at him with her eyes.
Hunger won out over anger, though, and she silently played along, allowing him to feed her every last bite until the plate was clean.
“Good girl. Now let’s get you washed up.” He dipped a napkin into a cup of water, and washed the sticky sweet syrup off her lips. “We didn’t have time for a bath this morning, because you needed a spanking instead, so we will have to do that later. If you’re a good girl, Daddy will buy you a rubber ducky and some bubble bath for later, and if you are a bad girl, you’ll have a bath with no toys and no bubbles, and end up with a hard spanking on a bare, wet bottom. That doesn’t sound like fun, does it?”
“No, Daddy,” she agreed, and he smiled to himself, noting that she was getting Littler by the minute. She was still fighting it of course, but his plan was working.
Moving his attention to the bib, he looked down and shook his head with a frown. “Look at all this chocolate and sticky syrup that would have gotten on your dress. Aren’t you glad Daddy made you wear a bib to protect your pretty outfit?”
Without waiting for an answer, he stood and moved behind her, unfastening the bib in a flash and discarding it onto the table.
“Clean as a whistle and pretty as a princess,” he declared, taking her hand and standing her up. “Okay, princess. Go potty, and then we will go.”
Again, he knew she wanted to argue, but common sense got the better of her and she stopped short, instead crossing the room to obey, and shutting the bathroom door behind her.
When she emerged a few minutes later, he was waiting at the door, with a unicorn backpack packed for the day’s outing.
Her eyes lit up when she saw it, but she didn’t say a word. She also didn’t fight him when he helped her slide it over her arms and onto her back.
“Okay, little one,” he said, pulling the door open. “We are going to the Nursery now.”
Izzy was silent on the long walk down to the Nursery, but she kept her hand tucked tightly in his, and her body language was that of a shy little girl.
She wasn’t going to like the Nursery, he knew that, but that was kind of the point. Tension knotted his gut as they entered the corridor that housed the Nursery and other classrooms. He hoped she would stay in her Little space, and be pliant to the lesson he was trying to teach her. When they reached the brightly decorated room, they were greeted by a matronly woman who introduced herself as Nanny Victoria, proclaimed that the nursery was a fun place for good Little boys and girls, and took Izzy’s hand, leading her away.
The Nursery was overwhelming,
a mixture of Izzy’s deepest fantasies and her biggest fears. There were large, adult-size cribs with adult babies tucked inside, wearing diapers and sucking on pacifiers. There were workers rocking babies in rocking chairs, and others feeding them in oversized high chairs. She was glad Max hadn’t squired one of those for the stunt he had pulled this morning.
Their kink is not my kink and that’s okay,
she repeated to herself as she scanned the room wide-eyed, searching for a familiar face. She didn’t find any, but she did spy a table full of Little boys and girls coloring in a corner, and another group sitting cross-legged on a mat, being read to.
Nanny Victoria still had hold of her hand, and she was too overwhelmed to speak, so she pointed at the coloring group.
Nanny looked down at her and smiled encouragingly. “Those little boys and girls are having fun coloring and I bet they would love to make a new friend! But if you want to join them, you’re going to have to use your words, and ask like a big girl. In here, babies are the only ones allowed to cry and point, and you’re not a baby, are you? If you are, then we will have to take you back over there, and get you a binky or a bottle.”
Izzy didn’t want that at all. Forcing herself to speak over the lump in her throat, she looked up at the woman holding her hand and voiced her request in a thick whisper. “Please, can I go color?”
“That’s better!” Nanny exclaimed. “What a big girl you are! Come on, I’ll introduce you and you can choose a coloring book. We have lots to choose from.”
Izzy felt lighter as they all but skipped over to the group. A thin girl with red braids and freckles wearing an Alice in Wonderland
style dress smiled up at her when she approached. “Hi. I’m Kasey! This is my brother Cody.” She jutted a thumb toward a redhead in overalls and a striped shirt at the end of the table. “And that is Lissy. We like to color. I’m coloring a unicorn. We have all kinds of coloring books,” she announced, waving her hand over a pile on the table. “Pick one.”
Izzy looked at the pile of coloring books, thinking about her students and how much they loved to color. This could be fun if she let herself enjoy it. She found a book full of Disney
characters. Flipping through the pages, she found what she was looking for. The Little Mermaid
, with her beautiful red hair and all of her underwater friends, had always been her favorite. After finding the colors she wanted, she started her masterpiece, no longer hearing the noise around her.
“Izzy, your Daddy is here to pick you up,” Nanny’s voice said from beside her, and Izzy wondered where she had come from. She had been so engrossed in her coloring page, she had tuned out almost everything else.
But Daddy was another story. When she saw him standing near the entrance, she shoved the crayons in the box and grabbed her picture up off the table, taking it with her.
She ran toward him and wrapped her arms around his waist. To her surprise and horror, she stuck her thumb in her mouth and her face in the fabric of his shirt.
Daddy didn’t say anything, just scooped her into his arms and carried her into the hallway.
Once they got there, he kept up a steady stream of chatter, not seeming to care that she wasn’t answering.
He talked about errands he had run, and a party that was taking place that night, and running into Master Marshall.
Finally, he stopped talking and turned a corner, heading toward the cafeteria. “How was your first experience in the Nursery, little one? Did you have a good time?”
It was the use of the word ‘first’ that got her. Her breathing grew shallow and her chest got tight.
She tugged on his shirt and pointed to the floor. Stopping in his tracks, he paused to look at her quizzically, and set her down on both feet.
“What’s up, princess?”
“Red. Cheeseburger. Pickle!” she cried, frustrated because those were all the wrong words.
Daddy’s face got very serious and he stooped gently so that they were at eye level, grabbing both of her hands.
“Red. Cheeseburger, pickle? Your safeword is tomato, Izzy-doll. Are you trying to use it?”
Slowly, she shook her head back and forth.
“Okay.” Daddy nodded, seeming to breathe a little easier. “Are you trying to call for a pause? Do we need to talk about something?”
She nodded.
“Okay.” He guided her around another corner until they found a bench to sit on, then he pulled her close and gave her his undivided attention. “What’s up, buttercup?”
The silly expression made her smile, and the tightness in her chest eased.
“Is this about the Nursery?” Daddy prodded. “Did something happen?”
Izzy shook her head. “You asked if I enjoyed my first visit to the Nursery, and I don’t want to go back, so I panicked.”
“You don’t want to go back? Can you tell me why?”
She wrung her hands together and bit her lip, searching for words. It was hard to have a big girl conversation when she still felt so little.
“I am getting used to being that little for you,” she answered honestly. “And I can like it with you, even though that scares me. But I don’t want to be that little with anyone else. It’s too much.”
Daddy nodded sagely. “I understand what you are saying, little one, and I agree with you. I don’t want to miss out on any more time with my sweet little Izzy, either. You were only there for an hour, but to be honest, it felt like much longer.”
It had felt that way to her too.
“Can I be honest?” Daddy asked, and she nodded emphatically.
“I knew you weren’t going to like it there, and I took you anyway. And I don’t plan to take you back there, but unless you tell me tomato, or that it’s a hard limit, I can’t promise that I won’t, either. My plan for taking you to the Nursery was probably one Master Marshall wouldn’t approve of. It was a punishment of sorts. It was meant to show you the difference between that kind of environment and what I’ve created for you, so that you would appreciate and recognize everything I am trying to do for us. Now that you know that, maybe you can stop fighting Daddy quite so hard today, hmm? Because I have to tell you, little one, if you keep trying to be in control like you were this morning, you’ll end up back in the Nursery again for a long time out, and you’ll go there with a hot bottom as well. Do you understand?”
Floating between Big and Little from minute to minute, she considered his words. If she really felt unsafe, she could say tomato and Daddy would respect that. But now that she understood the lesson he had intended to impart, she didn’t feel the need to do that. If she didn’t want to go back to the Nursery, she needed to let go and be little and trust her Daddy.
She could do that.
“Yes, Daddy, I understand. I’ll be good, and I won’t have to go back to that yucky Nursery.” She paused and stood up, turning in the direction of the banquet hall. “It’s too early for lunch. Can we go see the puppies instead?”
Daddy laughed. “It’s eleven, and I didn’t get time to eat my breakfast, so I am very hungry. You need to eat a little bit too, princess. Your body needs energy for all the plans I have for you today. So we are going to go to lunch, and after I eat, you are going to let me feed you, without a fuss this time. Remember what I said about those panties.”
Izzy nodded wide-eyed and yanked on his hand. “I remember!”
“Good. Lunch first. Then puppies.”
