Page 14 of Cowboy Daddies

While Rose was in the other room gathering more stuffies, Sage busied herself building the palace. Well, she would be, if she could just get this blanket to drape over the end of that ginormous entertainment center.

Without thinking, she stepped up on the flat part at the top of the stepladder. Leaning way over, she readied herself to toss the edge of the blanket, sticking one foot out behind her for balance. Their pillow castle would be the perfect height if she could just get the blanket she held over this end of the entertainment center. Of course, balancing had never been her strong point, and the next thing she knew, her ankle began to wobble. She over-corrected, turning her wobble into a teeter.

You are as graceful as a ballerina, she told herself sternly, you can do this. About the time it became evident that she was about to fall, two large hands grabbed her around the waist and lowered her safely to the floor.

Spinning around, she came face to face with a very scowling cowboy.

“Indigo Sage Cartwright, just what in the hell do you think you were doing?”

Her name on his lips shot sparkles and spasms straight between her thighs. The way he growled at her made it even worse. It didn’t seem normal for her tummy, let alone her bottom, to clench like that.

She should step back, create some nice, safe distance between them, before she did something completely ridiculous like melt into a happy little puddle at his feet. But her traitorous feet stayed rooted to the floor, refusing to listen to reason.

Every tingling nerve in her body felt like it was waking up from the longest nap ever, stretching and sparkling in ways that made her tummy do excited little flips. She’d never felt anything like this before Grady, and she had absolutely no idea how to handle it.

Oh no, she thought, her cheeks burning brighter. This was very, very dangerous.

“You need somebody watching you every second. What if I’d been out on the ranch somewhere and you’d fallen and broken your neck?” He pointed to the ladder. “That, little girl, is what I was talking about when I said not to put your safety at risk.”

Her gaze followed the direction of his finger toward the ladder. It wasn’t like she had actually fallen. He was making a big deal out of nothing.

Of course, she didn’t dare say those words out loud. As she stood there thinking of a suitable comeback, he snatched the blanket from her hands and, without any need for a ladder at all, draped the blanket over the edge of the entertainment center for her.

“All you had to do was ask.” Crossing his arms over his wide chest, he continued to glare.

“Thanks, boss. You’re right, that was easy. But I really was doing fine before you interrupted me.”

A look of disbelief exploded across his face.

“Do you call falling off the ladder doing fine? Maybe you didn’t notice the ladder starting to slip away from under your foot. One more second and you would have been lying on the floor.”

Unable to stop herself, she glanced at the hand weight she’d found in the exercise corner of the basement. Even though it looked like the front wheel set for the giant Hot Wheels car, she’d thought that if she put the end toward the edge of the entertainment center, it would be fine and hold the blanket in place. Now she was rethinking her decision.

Of course, his gaze followed hers. She knew in an instant he understood what she’d been planning on doing with that weight. Grady didn’t even try to contain his glower, which she thought was rather rude. Taking her hand in his own, he dragged her across the room and pressed her nose firmly in the corner.

“Do not move from this spot until I tell you to,” he said and accompanied his words with a firm swat to her bottom.

Everything inside her froze. He had smacked her bottom! And it hurt. A lot. Her hands reached down of their own volition to soothe the sting.

“I wouldn’t advise it,” Grady said, his deep voice sending shivers down her spine. “I put that sting on your bottom, and it’s damn well gonna stay there. You put your naughty nose in that corner and think about why I smacked your ass in the first place.”

Darn it!

His words shouldn’t make her pussy tingle that way. That wasn’t normal, right? The good girl in her wanted to do as he said and think about why he smacked her bottom. But what would happen if she didn’t?

Why was he so mad, anyway? That blanket was the final touch to what she and Rose had proudly named the “Pillow Palace”.

Moving the couch closer to the entertainment center to use as the back of their castle had been the hardest part. Hopefully, he didn’t think it was too heavy. No telling what he would do about that.

The patter of feet let her know Rose was coming back with the last collection of stuffies. It had been a lot of work, but when Rose’s eyes widened with wonder, all the effort had been so worth it. It was a killer castle, if she did say so herself. They’d even made a secret entrance between two chairs draped with colorful sheets. Everything was perfect.

Well, it would have been if Grady hadn’t stormed in and caught her trying to secure the blanket in place. Now she was standing with her nose in the corner, with her bottom tingling, hoping Grady would let her out of the corner before Rose saw her there. He must have read her mind because he stepped so close behind her that the heat from his body warmed the skin of her back.

“Rose will be back any second, so I’ll make this brief. If I ever catch you standing on top of a ladder doing something as reckless as putting weights on the entertainment center to hold a blanket in place, you won’t sit down for a week. Do you understand me, little wildfire? What would you have done if, while you and Rose were playing, that weight had rolled off and hit one of you? Either of you could have been seriously injured. You risk your safety like that again, you’re gonna be one very sorry Little nanny. Do you understand?”

“Yes, Dad—I mean, yes, boss.” Darn it. Why was he so good at bringing her Little to the surface?

“Believe me when I tell you that you had better.”