Page 23 of Dirty Little Secrets
Val’s voice is ice-cold, and Junie flinches at the sound. “I didn’t mean to. Honest. I–I sorta figured you guys had like, an open marriage or something. You’re both so big on honesty and communication it literally didn’t even occur to me until I got here that I was making a wild assumption.”
“So what was your plan?” I ask, curiosity creeping in to nudge anger to the side. “Why bring us both here today under false pretenses?”
Junie’s eyes roll upward. “False pretenses? Really?”
The sharp sound of a palm striking skin rings out in the car and Junie yelps as she snatches her hand to her chest, tears welling in her blue eyes.
“Watch your attitude, little girl,” Val warns in a low, deadly voice I’ve never heard before. “I am alreadythis closeto putting you over my knee and spanking your bare bottom until you can’t sit for a week.”
Sniffling, Junie rubs at the back of her hand. “Sorry, Mommy.”
Val’s expression softens, but only a fraction. “Good girl. Continue.”
Junie’s bottom lip trembles for a moment before she nods and continues her story. “I thought… It’s just… I really like you both.”
Her words fade to a whisper that tugs at my heart. “You set us up because you like us?”
“No. Well, yes, but it wasn’t really a setup. In my head it would be this funny moment where we all had a good laugh over this crazy coincidence and then…”
She trails off, her voice hitching as a tear silently slips down her cheek.
When Val speaks, her tone has gentled considerably. “And then, what, baby?”
“And then you’d both want me to be your Little girl,” she whispers, so softly I almost don’t hear her. “For realsies. Not just at the club.”
Fucking hell, my heart feels like it’s about to break apart into a million pieces. It makes sense, in a very “Little girl” kind of way, even if it was a betrayal of our trust.
Looking up, I meet Val’s shattered gaze. And I know, without a doubt, she’s wondering the same thing I am.
Could we make this work? Could we both have our cake and eat it too?
I drop my gaze to my sniffling Little girl. “Junie, I want you to go stand beside the car and wait for us. If you move more than two feet from the vehicle, I will drag you back in here and you will get a spanking from me and Mommy both. Understood?”
Eyes round, Junie jerks her head up to stare at me before giving a silent nod. I reward her with a smile and a reassuring kiss to her forehead. “Good girl. Go on.”
I climb out of the car long enough for her to scurry out. She stands in front of me, looking for all the world like a broken, desperate Little girl, and I can’t resist the urge to give her another forehead kiss.
“Don’t worry, baby. Daddy’s going to fix this.”
With that, I climb back in the car.
And turn to face my wife.
Valentina
How can I be feeling too much and numb at the same time?
Staring at my husband, the man I thought I knew better than myself, I try to make sense of what just happened.
“So… Mommy, huh?”
The question snaps me out of my haze and I raise a brow at him. “Daddy, huh?”
He shrugs, at least having the grace to look sheepish. “I guess we had more in common than either of us realized.”
Grief slams me hard in the chest. What could we have had all this time if we’d just been honest with each other? “You never told me.”
“Neither did you.”
