Page 50 of Daddy’s Hunted Bride

The sleepy voice stops me in my tracks, and I crane my neck to find Tabby sitting up. Frowning slightly, she rubs at her eyes, looking for all the world like a sleepy child.

“It’s okay,” I whisper. “Go back to sleep.”

But luck is clearly not on my side tonight. Tabby’s wide awake now, and excitement lights her eyes. “Are you sneaking out? Where are we going?”

“We aren’t going anywhere. Go back to bed, Tabby.”

“But I wanna come too!”

I open my mouth to assure her she’s not missing out on anything, but another voice joins the fray and I have to bite back a groan.

“Wha’s goin’ on?” Lanie asks, sitting up and looking around with a yawn.

“Nothing’s going on. I just… wanted a drink of water.”

That was clearly the wrong thing to say, because Lanie’s entire face lights up. “Midnight snack run!” She whisper-cheers, and Tabby lets out a soft squeal of excitement.

Thankfully, the noise doesn’t wake Gray, but I don’t want to take any chances so I immediately shush her while my brain scrambles to think of a plan. With both of them awake now, there’s no hope of me actually sneaking out. But clearly they aren’t going to go back to sleep, either. Lanie is already crawling around the fort, tugging at blankets and looking for an escape.

Guess we’re going on a midnight snack run after all.

“Over here, guys,” I say as loudly as I dare while still trying to keep my voice low enough to avoid waking Gray.

Tabby immediately moves to follow me, but Lanie detours by the two sleeping lumps to give one of them a shake. “Josie. Josie, wake up. You’re gonna miss all the fun!”

Fucking hell, she’s going to get us caught before we even have a chance to do anything fun. Even if my escape plan has been ruined, I’d at least like to do something to earn the punishments we’re all definitely going to get. If Gray wakes up and we all get spanked without so much as a cookie for our troubles, I’m gonna be pissed.

“Leave me ‘lone,” Josie whines, batting at Lanie’s hand.

But Lanie is not to be deterred. “You’re gonna miss out on midnight sna-acks,” she sing-songs.

That gets Josie’s attention. Bolting upright, she stares around the dim interior of the fort. “Snacks?”

“Yes,” I confirm, holding open the “exit” I’ve found. “Now hurry up before you wake Gray.”

“We better hope she doesn’t wake up before we get back.” Tabby’s voice is heavy with somber warning as she crawls past me. “We’re gonna be in so much trouble if she catches us.”

And yet, here they all are, following me headlong into that trouble. Sometimes I think they must like getting their butts spanked.

Then again, maybe they think the same about me, considering this is the longest I’ve managed to go without a spanking and here I am, leading the charge.

But even knowing we're definitely getting spanked at some point, excitement sparks in my chest as we all crawl out of the fort and tiptoe toward Gray’s bedroom door. It squeaks a tiny bit as I pull it open, and we collectively freeze in place, nobody even daring to breathe as we wait to see if we’re about to be caught.

When nothing happens, we all let out a quiet sigh of relief and slip out of the door and into the hallway. I swear I can hear all our hearts pounding as we creep past the other bedrooms, all of which contain someone who could easily wake up and catch us if we aren’t careful.

The stairs are the trickiest, but we realize quickly that if we press ourselves against the walls, the steps don’t make nearly as much noise.

By the time we make it to the kitchen, I feel like I’m going to jump out of my skin, in the best possible way. This might be even more fun than watching a scary movie together.

“C’mon!” Practically vibrating with excitement, Lanie gestures for us to follow her. “I know where Uncle Eli keeps all the good snacks.”

She leads us over to a lower cabinet that is, sure enough, stocked with all the treats a Little girl could possibly ask for. Excited squeals pepper the air, followed by the sound of us shushing each other and giggling as we reach for our favorite snacks.

And in that moment, I really am a Little girl, high on the promise of illicit sugar. The threat of a punishment still lingers in the back of my mind, but it’s overridden by our shared victory. We pass around our snacks, trying each other’s favorites and either approving or rejecting each one.

“Oh my god.” Eyes watering, Tabby coughs and waves her hand in front of her face. She’s just tried Josie’s favorite snack, a spicy, cheesy thing that looks a bit like a rolled-up chip. “Water. Need water.”

“I can do better than that!” Josie hops up from her spot on the floor and carefully pries the door open. A moment later she holds up a half-empty bottle of wine. “Auntie Gray put this in here the other day.”