After making a quick pit stop in the parking lot to unload their recent purchases into the trunk of Dana’s SUV, the two of them hustled their way back inside the mall and made a beeline for the food court.
With their stomachs rumbling, they shared a brief discussion about where they wanted to eat and soon settled on Chinese from a big name chain, due in no small part to the fact that its line was one of the shorter ones. A few minutes later, laden down with trays piled high with steaming plates of tasty food and tall cups of soda, the two of them wove their way through the milling press of their fellow shoppers in search of a place to sit.
They eventually managed to find a small table that a couple out on what appeared to be a first date had just vacated, and they quickly claimed it for themselves before anyone else could.
“Oh my god, finally!” exclaimed an exasperated Rhen as she plopped down across from her aunt at their wobbly table. “I’m starving.”
“You and me both,” agreed Dana with a low laugh, amusement sparking behind her dark blue eyes as she slid out her chopsticks from their paper sleeve, while the younger girl opted instead to use a plastic fork.
“Now eat up before it gets cold.”
That was an order Rhen didn’t have to be given twice as she began to all but inhale her chow mein and orange chicken, only pausing occasionally to dribble soy sauce onto her noodles. Her aunt kept pace with her remarkably well. Their whirlwind shopping trip inside of Cashman’s had drained most of her energy as well, and she found herself chowing down with just as much gusto as her niece. Although as she ate, she did so with far more grace and without the need to be reminded to chew her food thoroughly before trying to swallow it.
“Oh god, that was so freaking good,” moaned Rhen with immense satisfaction some fifteen minutes later, slurping up the last of her chowmein and letting out a quiet burp.
“Manners, Rhen,” chided Dana without much energy as she too slurped up the last of her noodles.
It had indeed been a surprisingly good meal, especially for mall food.
Ignoring the way her aunt’s mouth had tightened with disapproval at her antics, Rhen flopped back against her seat back and let her body go limp, sliding a few inches beneath the table as she sighed.
“Thanks for lunch, Aunt Dana. I’m stuffed.”
“You’re more than welcome, dear,” the red-haired woman replied around a pair of pursed lips that were struggling to hold back a smile, dabbing at the corner of her mouth with a napkin as she glared mildly at her not-niece.
She held her stare in place for another moment or two longer, hoping that the bratty girl sitting across from her would take the hint and straighten up. But seeing that her dirty looks were going completely ignored, she decided to let things slide for the moment as the corners of her mouth tugged upward once again with barely-restrained excitement.
“So, are you ready for round two? We’ve still got a lot of shopping to do, you know.”
“I sure am!” agreed Rhen, visions of her promised video game dancing around in her head as she straightened up in her chair and smirked.
“But only if you promise that there won’t be any more frilly skirts or glitter tops involved.”
Or stupid sales clerks getting a good look at my panties and telling me how cute I am, she added silently with a little shudder. Once was more than enough for me, thank you very much.
“We’ll see, cutie pie,” her aunt chuckled wryly, as if reading her thoughts as they both pushed back from their table and gathered up their trays. “We’ll see.”
With their stomachs now full and no longer feeling like they were trying to eat themselves from the inside out, they dumped their trash out into one of the many cans scattered throughout the chaotically-packed food court, and set off to do even more shopping.
Now that the major hurdle of outfitting Rhen with an entirely new wardrobe had been taken care of, they were free to adopt a more casual pace as they meandered from floor to floor and store to store, browsing at their leisure. And although some of the places they visited were boring beyond belief for her, Rhen still managed to keep a lid on her urge to complain and misbehave.
For the most part, anyway.
No amount of sass or disobedience, no matter how small, seemed to escape her aunt’s sharp gaze as they browsed and window shopped. And any time it seemed like she was about to step out of line, Dana’s hand would casually drift down to give her tush a meaningful little pat and squeeze through the pleats of her dark skirt. Regardless of who happened to be standing around them at the time.
“Uh-oh, does someone need a spanking?” she’d ask smoothly.
Those words, along with her warning touch and challenging half-smirk were more than enough to send an anxious shiver slithering up Rhen’s spine from the spot where she’d been gripped. One that when it reached her face, set her cheeks ablaze and made her stomach roil with swarms of anxious butterflies.
“No ma’am, I’m sorry!”
Letting out a small squeak and apologizing quickly, she’d then make a heroic attempt to reel in her brewing annoyance before it could get her into any actual trouble as she scurried out of arm’s reach and tried to steer the older woman’s attention over to just about anything else that happened to be close to hand at the time.
“Oh, now would you look at that? Uh… candles! I wonder what those smell like. Let’s go find out… Heh, heh…”
The only silver lining Rhen could see to these humiliating and heart-pounding little exchanges was that at least the various sales clerks and their fellow shoppers who happened to witness them didn’t seem to find them all that notable. They’d just smirk to themselves, or maybe snicker and point, but that was about the extent of it. To them, she wasn’t a college sophomore being asked in public if she needed a spanking. Instead she was just another young teenager out for a day of shopping with her doting, but stern, aunt. And that was all.
Oh well, I guess it could always be worse, she tried to reassure herself with a mental shrug. At least they’re just seeing a little pat on the behind, and not anything more… strenuous.
Rhen shivered.
Hopefully things would stay that way.
Somehow though, she doubted they would.
Why was it so hard to stay on her best behavior?
—
An hour and a half or so later, Rhen’s Auntie Dana had bought her several more things that she would need for school or else that she thought might spruce up her bedroom back home, including a brand new winter coat. It was puffy and bright pink, of course, but it was also very warm and she knew that it would keep her nice and dry when it started snowing in a few months.
“Look here, Rhen, honey, it even comes with a pair of matching mittens. Isn’t that wonderful?”
“Um… uh… yeah, I guess so,” the younger girl had answered, unsure of how to respond to that question in a way that didn’t make her sound like a child, or else come off as being overly sassy. “Oh hey, they work with smartphone screens. Nice!”
Dana also bought her a new backpack as well, one that was mercifully free of any glittering bedazzlement or Disney princesses.
Although the stylized cat ears at its top and the little black and pink paw-print pull tabs for the zippers did little to make her look any more mature with it on. Especially when she caught a glimpse of herself in a mirror and saw how it looked slung over her shoulders while she was wearing her new outfit.
Oof. Now I really do look like I graduated from high school a few years early… Or else I’m just about to start it, she thought to herself with a grimace, rolling her eyes at the pouting teenager she saw reflected back at her in the mirror. I guess I should just be grateful that nobody from my old dorms is here to see me like this, at least.
Rhen deliberately chose to ignore the embarrassing reality that everyone on campus would soon be getting the chance to see her dressed like an adorable thirteen-year-old when she went to class next Tuesday.
That was something she could worry about later. For the moment she was just determined to enjoy the shopping trip out with her aunt.
—
With the bulk of their shopping now behind them, there was only one more stop Dana had in mind for herself and Rhen before they headed home for the day. (Well, aside from visiting that game store she’d been mooning over all afternoon, that is.)
After making another quick trip to the parking lot to drop off their latest crop of purchases alongside the rest of the stout bags taking up a large amount of the space in her trunk, Rhen’s aunt took her niece’s hand in hers and steered her back inside one final time. Thankfully the crowds had thinned out a fair amount by then, and she was able to easily guide them through the corridors and into a little boutique nestled in a quiet corner of the mall.
Prismatic was a store that specialized in high-end hair care supplies and accessories. And it was a place that Dana had been meaning to visit ever since Rhen had agreed to come live with her last Monday. She’d actually planned on visiting the little specialty shop the day after they’d made their living arrangement, but upon mulling things over further, she’d decided that it would be a lot more fun to wait until she had her new cutie pie coed by her side; especially after she’d had a chance to have a nice long chat with her granny that following Tuesday.
Given the younger girl’s temperament and the general level of behavior she’d seen from her so far, Dana had a sneaking suspicion that it would end up being a far more entertaining and effective little outing for the both of them if she brought her along with her. Plus it would provide some valuable insight into just how willing the raven-haired girl was to fully embrace her new role as a bratty teen while she slowly relearned how to be a mature young woman.
With the emphasis being on slowly.
As they stepped into the quiet shop and breathed in the soothing scents of tea tree oil and lavender, Dana’s eyes lit upon exactly what she’d known she’d find in there.
Oh yes, this was going to be fun.
—
“Hello ladies, welcome to Prismatic. Can I help you find anything?” spoke up a sleepy sounding sales clerk, stifling a yawn as she roused from where she’d been dozing behind her cash register upon catching sight of the two of them.
Rhen guessed that she couldn’t have been much older than she was, as she watched her step out from behind the front counter and join them beside the glass display case her aunt had stopped before. Though of course, at the moment she looked about a decade younger than the pretty clerk did. Turning away from her and her welcoming smile with a pout after noting with irritation that her full attention seemed to have shifted entirely to her aunt and not her, Rhen studied the wares on display in front of them.
The metal and glass display case came up to just above her bellybutton, and was lit from within by a long strip of bright white LEDs that cast a cool glow over the neat rows upon rows of hairbrushes inside of it.
“Why yes, I do believe you can,” answered her aunt smoothly as she turned from studying the display to address the young woman beside her with a friendly smile. “I’m looking for a very special hairbrush for my lovely little niece, Rhen.”
She wrapped an arm around Rhen’s trim shoulders and gave them an affectionate squeeze to indicate just who it was that she meant in case there had ever been any doubt.
“Oh, well I can definitely help you there, ma’am.”
The clerk nodded eagerly as she moved behind the display case and slid it open from the back, the prospect of a fat commission reinvigorating her tired movements.
“These brushes here are our top of the line models,” she explained, indicating the top row of dark and highly-polished wooden hairbrushes gleaming in the glow of the lights just a few inches above them. “They’re all made from Cameroon Ebony that’s been sourced by one of our three fair-trade certified distributors, and are hand-crafted by a team of Prismatic Style Specialists working out of our headquarters in Vermont.”
She frowned appreciatively at the brushes before them as she lovingly traced her fingertips across the glass.
“They’re a bit pricey, yes, but well worth the money in the long run, if you ask me. Especially since each of them comes with a lifetime warranty and a free bristle reconditioning once a year.”
Not giving either of them a chance to say they weren’t interested, she eyed Rhen’s inky black hair thoughtfully for a second and then pointed to a group of three brushes near the end of the display case.
“For your niece, I’d recommend any of our paddle brushes here.
They’re perfect for straight hair like hers, and will keep it shiny and clear out any tangles that might pop up.”
Rhen’s face colored at the phrase “paddle brush” and she felt a twinge of apprehension coil itself around her stomach then. Surely her aunt didn’t mean…
“Hah! You know it’s funny that you should mention paddle brushes, dear,” Dana laughed, an amused smirk quirking up one side of her mouth.
Oh come on, do we really have to do this, Aunt Dana? whined the aghast sophomore internally, rolling her eyes but keeping her mouth shut.
“Because aside from keeping my little Rhenny’s hair looking its best, I’m also looking for a brush that I can use a little further down south whenever the need arises as well.”
As if to make it even more humiliatingly obvious just what it was that she meant, her aunt reached over and gave her bottom a couple of firm pats and then winked at the preening younger woman.
Rhen desperately hoped that the clerk would baulk at her aunt’s implication, or at the very least have the good grace to blush, but instead she just flashed her a knowing smile before looking back up and locking eyes with Dana.
“Oh yes ma’am, I totally understand. If that’s the case, then I would recommend you pick one of these three,” she indicated three of the shiny black hairbrushes with wide backs of various shapes and sizes as she continued. “Which are all more than up to the task of roasting a pair of bratty buns.”
As she said it, a faint hint of color traced across her freckled cheeks, and Rhen was left wondering just which side of the discipline equation the pretty young saleswoman had been on to become so familiar with which brushes were the best for giving a spanking.
“I see,” observed her aunt, drawing out the words as she pursed her lips and stepped in a bit closer to the display case, leaning over to more closely examine the brushes that the clerk had pointed out to her. “Oh my, they all look so lovely, it’s hard to decide which one to pick.”
She turned her head and arched a teasing eyebrow toward Rhen.
“What do you think, cutie pie? It’s your hair and tush that we’re shopping for, you know. Do any of these stand out to you in particular?”
Rhen’s stomach gave another apprehensive twinge as she stepped up closer beside her aunt and glared down at the hairbrushes on display.
“I don’t care, they all look the same to me,” she grumbled.
That seemed to touch a nerve with the sales clerk, who apparently had more than a little bit of professional pride tied up in the products she was charged with selling. Even if the downtime between sales as she waited for customers to wander in bored her to tears.
“Well, that’s not too surprising to hear,” she cooed in a sickly sweet voice as she began extracting the three brushes in question from their glass case, laying them out carefully on the countertop before her. “I wouldn’t expect a little girl like you to immediately be able to spot the subtle, nuanced differences between three high-end hair care accessories.”
It took a supreme effort of will for Dana not to burst out laughing at the glare her niece leveled at the saleswoman behind the counter.
The clerk let Rhen stew in her indignation for another moment or two as an idea began to form in the back of her head, drinking in the sight of the pouting little brat in front of her with an unabashed smirk. She planned out her next words oh so carefully, rehearsing them a couple of times in her mind, and then once again turned her full attention back to her aunt. Her smugness gone in an instant as she locked eyes with the older woman, replaced once more by her all too sweet professional smile as she continued.
“If you’d like, ma’am,” she offered helpfully, gesturing once again at the brushes she’d laid out on the counter as she flashed her most dazzling smile. “I’d be more than happy to let you give these three a small test drive. After all, with the price tag they each come with, you might as well be sure that you’re getting the very best brush for handling all of your niece’s needs. Both top… and bottom.”
She winked.
And in that moment Rhen could have reached across the counter and strangled the grinning girl her as her stomach dropped and all of the color in her face drained after it toward her feet.
Oh, you bitch.
“Now that sounds like an excellent idea,” crooned Dana at the same time as her niece’s thoughts turned venomous. “But are you really sure you don’t mind?”
“Not at all ma’am,” answered their sales clerk with a broad grin as she waved away her concerns. “Please, by all means, help yourself.”
“Well, in that case, I do believe I will. Thank you very much, young lady.”
With the matter now settled, she turned her attention to the three brushes laid out in front of her, and eyed them thoughtfully for a moment before picking up the one on the left. She hefted it experimentally, getting a feel for its weight and the shape of its handle in her palm, before she looked over to her niece.
“Why don’t you go ahead and bend over the counter right here, honeybuns?” she ordered, indicating a clear spot just to the right of the array of brushes with the one she currently had gripped in her hand. “This shouldn’t take more than a few minutes, I’m sure.”
“What?” demanded an aghast Rhen, clamping down as hard as she could on the urge to grab her bottom protectively as she eased back from the counter in front of her. “Aunt Dana, please, you can’t be serious!”
“Oh honey, don’t be such a baby,” chided her aunt with a cluck of her tongue, as she transferred the brush to her left hand and advanced on her.
With a gentle, but firm, push along her lower back, she guided her forward a few steps and then over the front of the display case so that her elbows and forearms were resting against its glass top.
“I’m just going to give you a few whacks with each of these to see which one I like the most. You’re not actually getting a spanking, you silly goose.”
“But…”
Rhen groaned with embarrassment as her aunt said the “s” word out loud for anyone and everyone to hear, not really caring about the distinction between “just a few whacks” versus an “actual spanking” just then. That groan quickly morphed into a squeal of surprise and panic though, as she felt the back of her pleated skirt being raised up and out of the way.
“Wait, Aunt Dana, please!” she moaned, squirming her hips from side to side in a futile protest as the seat of her mint green panties was revealed to the store at large.
Thank god the stupid place was all but empty just then, save for the three of them of course. She just wished that her back wasn’t angled directly toward the open entrance to the mall.
“Oh hush,” snorted Dana, not impressed by her theatrics in the
slightest as she gave the middle of her cheeks a sharp pat. “Nobody cares about seeing some bratty little girl’s undies… Or her bare bottom for that matter.”
“No wai-!”
Where her bottom happened to be pointed to at that particular moment quickly became the least of Rhen’s worries as she suddenly felt the older woman’s slim fingers slip into the pink-trimmed waistband of her panties and then tug them down to just below the crease of her sit-spots.
She gasped at the sensation of the cold mall air caressing along her naked tush, as all of the blood that had drained from her face a moment earlier rushed back into it with a vengeance.
“Oh come on! It doesn’t have to be on the bare, does it?”
Her aunt just ignored her protests entirely however, not bothering to say anything more as she swapped her selected brush back to her right hand.
A moment later Rhen felt the back of that first hairbrush explode in quick succession against her unprotected rear end.
CRACK-CRACK! CRACK-CRACK!
Quick as a striking snake, Dana doled out four sharp swats, two to the centers of each wobbly cheek. And while they were definitely not as hard as they could have been, they were still more than enough to make her niece squeal and gasp with shock and pain in a way that brought a self-satisfied smirk to her lips.
“Hmmm… That’s not bad,” she said with raised eyebrows, hefting the wide-backed brush appreciatively as she eyed the two sets of slightly overlapping pink rectangles it had left in its wake. “What do you think, Rhen?”
“I think that damn thing stings like a mofo,” the petite sophomore bit out around a wince, shifting her weight from one foot to the other as she struggled to master the sting in her behind.
CRACK!
“Ah!”
“Watch your language, young lady,” warned her aunt darkly, before bringing the brush down on the other cheek to emphasize her point.
CRACK!
“That’s not the kind of thing I want to hear coming out of your mouth, especially not when you’re in this position. Is that understood?”
“Okay, okay, I’m sorry!” hissed Rhen, bouncing adorably on the balls of her feet. “It just slipped out.”
“Well it had better not happen again, or else you’re going to be chewing on a bar of soap for dessert tonight.”
Dana circled the back of the brush along the expanse of Rhen’s exposed cheeks to drive her message home.
“Is that clear?”
“Yes ma’am,” the younger girl quickly reassured her. “It won’t happen again, I promise!”
“We’ll see…”
A little snicker from their sales clerk brought an end to the tense exchange, and Dana cleared her throat.
“Ahem. Well, that was choice number one,” she said smoothly, setting the brush aside and picking up the next one. This one had a rounded back that was shaped into a wide oval. “And here comes number two. Are you ready, cutie pie?”
She tap, tap, tapped the new brush against the faint pink splotches she’d left behind on Rhen’s left cheek as she waited patiently for a response.
Oh god… Here we go again.
Swallowing her embarrassment, she nodded.
“Yes ma’am.”
CRACK-CRACK! CRACK-CRACK!
Sticking to the exact same pace that she’d used with the first brush, Dana delivered four more no-nonsense smacks to the centers of her cheeks.
And once again she squealed and squirmed like she’d just been set upon by a group of angry bees, though this time her feet shot up off the floor and flailed for a moment in the air with the stinging impact as it exploded across her seat.
“Ack! Owie, owie, owie!”
Planting her feet back beneath her once again, she hissed out a sharp breath through clenched teeth as she tried to ride out the pain. And much to her own annoyance, she realized that the snotty clerk had been correct.
Although at first it seemed like both brushes had struck with about the same amount of unyielding force as they’d crashed against her naked rump, upon further reflection it was pretty clear to Rhen that the second one had felt slightly different. Its rounded edges and more compact size had seemed to focus its point of impact into a smaller, tighter area. Which made it hurt far more than the last one had in her opinion.
“Oooh, I like this one,” declared her aunt excitedly as she looked down at the brush in her hand with a newfound respect. “How about you, Rhen?”
“Ugh, it sucks,” she begrudgingly admitted with a miffed pout, not daring to say anything more colorful as she clenched and unclenched her sizzling cheeks behind her.
“Yes, that one does tend to get a pretty good reaction out of naughty girls,” mused the smiling clerk from her vantage point behind the counter. “You definitely can’t go wrong with that one, ma’am.”
“Indeed,” observed the older woman with a matching smile as she drank in Rhen’s adorable squirming for another moment longer.
“Well then, let’s just see how this last one fares, shall we?”
Shrugging, Dana scooped up the final of the three brushes that had been laid out for her, a broad rectangular monstrosity that felt surprisingly heavy in her hands.
“Ready?” she asked one last time, holding the back of the brush poised and ready to strike just above Rhen’s naked cheeks.
“I guess so,” grumbled the girl with a roll of her eyes. “Ah!”
CRACK-CRACK! CRACK-CRACK!
Just as before, the back of the brush in her aunt’s hand exploded across her unprotected seat, and just as before, she found herself hissing in air through flared nostrils as she stomped her feet and waggled her seared bottom.
That last one had stung a lot, but coming so soon after the oval one, Rhen was able to tell that its wider profile had helped to take away some of the bite from its initial impact. And chewing on her lip as she compared the sensations from all three, she had to admit that it had been the easiest to bear of them all.
It had still stung like crazy, but it was clearly the lesser of three evils.
Keeping her fingers crossed and hidden beneath her torso where she lay bent over the display case, she silently prayed that her aunt wouldn’t pick up on that as well.
“Hmmm…” murmured Dana as she rubbed her chin thoughtfully and eyed the back of the brush in her hand before setting it aside with the others. “This one is nice too, but… I think we’ll take the second one, the oval one.”
Well, shit.
“An excellent choice, ma’am,” complimented the sales clerk as she returned the two rejected brushes back to their spots inside the display case, before fishing out an oversized piece of parchment paper from beneath the glass case and smoothing it out on top of the counter. “I’ll just wrap that up for you.”
While the smug saleswoman busied herself with going about wrapping up their selected hairbrush in the thick material, even going so far as to tie a little bow around it with a shiny red ribbon, Rhen’s aunt casually restored her niece’s panties back to their proper place over her pink tush and then smoothed down her skirt in back.
“There we go. All done, cutie pie. Now that wasn’t so bad, was it?”
“I guess not…” the younger girl managed to grumble, face still smoldering but unable to quite ignore the damp spot she felt between her still squirming thighs.
Pushing herself up from the display case, Rhen resisted the urge to reach back and rub at the furious sting still sizzling in her cheeks from those dozen or so test swats her aunt had given her. Instead she did her best not to pout too hard as the three of them all moved over to the cash register to pay.
“Thank you so much for your business, ma’am,” chirped the clerk in a cheerful voice as she slid their ribbon-wrapped package across the counter.
“You are most certainly welcome,” replied Dana with a smile of her own as she deposited their purchase into her purse. “And thank you for all of your help, young lady.”
She paused long enough to wink at her as she added.
“And your expertise.”
With an amused twinkle in her eye, she wrapped an arm around Rhen’s shoulders once again and gave them a light squeeze.
“Isn’t there something you would like to say as well, Rhen, honey?”
“Um, thank you,” mumbled the younger girl, face positively crimson.
“Anytime… Rhenny,” crooned the smug clerk from behind her register. “You behave yourself now, you hear?”
Rhen resisted the urge to unleash the bevy of curse words that sprang to the tip of her tongue at that condescending dismissal, and instead just nodded as politely as she could manage. And as her aunt turned her away and guided her out of that stupid, pretentious, totally overpriced store, she let out a quiet sigh of relief.
That had certainly been more than a little humiliating. Although she knew too that it could have been much, much worse. Even so, as she ground her teeth and mumbled darkly to herself about overeager sales staff, she couldn’t help but feel a nervous and giddy flutter in her chest as she wondered just when it was that her new hairbrush would be properly put to use for the first time.
Oddly enough, she couldn’t decide if she wanted it to be sooner or later.
I guess we’ll just have to wait and see…
—
Mercifully, it seemed that buying her a hairbrush for both her hair and her bottom had been the last thing that her aunt had had on their shopping itinerary, and Rhen’s mood immediately started to pick up as they neared the game store they’d been passing off and on all afternoon since having lunch.
As the store and its life-sized cardboard cutouts of grizzled space marines and whimsical dragons came into view, her focus zeroed in on it immediately and any lingering sting in her tail was all but forgotten. She gravitated toward the open doors that were beckoning her ever onward as the strong plastic scents of new games wafted over to her on a phantom breeze.
“Whoa now, hold on there, cutie pie,” ordered Dana as she dropped a firm hand onto her shoulder that stopped her in her tracks before she could cross the threshold into the store. “Not so fast.”
Feeling butterflies starting to stir up inside the pit of her stomach again, Rhen turned to regard her with what she hoped was an innocent look of confusion.
“Um… yes, Aunt Dana, um, ma’am?”
It didn’t work.
“I believe our deal was that I would buy you a game only if you were on your best behavior while we were out shopping today,” she said with a frown, releasing her shoulder and planting her hands firmly on her hips. “Are you really going to stand there and tell me that you’ve been a good girl for me all day, Rhen?”
“Um, well…”
Rhen’s face heated up as she directed her gaze down toward the tops of her new sneakers. Digging the toe of her right foot into the carpet in front of her, she wasn’t sure just what to say right then that might help turn things around for her. Part of her wanted to protest that she had been on her best behavior, or at the very least as good as could reasonably be expected from her given the circumstances, but she knew that doing so would only invite more trouble for her.
That, and it wasn’t remotely true.
Being a brat was just too easy for her. And too fun.
As if on cue, the heat from those test swats started to pulse quietly beneath her skirt again, and she suddenly found herself not in the mood to tempt fate so soon after having had her panties pulled down for her.
“No ma’am, I guess I haven’t,” she admitted, heaving out a dejected sigh.
She cast a wistful glance back behind her at all the games that had been calling for her since their arrival late that morning and huffed with annoyance at herself.
Oh well, maybe next time…
“I’m sorry, Aunt Dana.”
Then, just as she was sure that the twisting in her stomach was going to drive her to start sniffling as she teared up, her aunt spoke.
“I forgive you, dear, and thank you for the apology.”
Dana reached out and tipped her head up, making her lock eyes with her as she smiled fondly.
“I know today hasn’t exactly been easy for you. Lord knows I hated shopping and trying on clothes all day back when I was your age as well.”
She paused to give Rhen a wink as if to say that she meant that she’d been like that back when she’d been her niece’s adopted age, rather than her actual one.
“And so in light of that, I think you’ve earned yourself a little treat.
I’ll still buy you a game if you want one.”
Rhen’s jaw fell open, or would have if Dana’s hand hadn’t still been tipping her head back, and this time the fluttering inside her stomach had nothing to do with nerves.
“Oh Aunt Dana, thank you, thank you, thank you!” she squealed as she all but tackled the older woman and squeezed her around the waist just as hard as she could.
“Oof! Oh! A-Anytime, kiddo,” her aunt managed to get out around a wheeze, grinning in amusement and maternal affection as she released her death grip on her and turned to scurry off into the game store.
“Good god, that girl is far cuter than she has any right to be,” she laughed to herself as she slowly followed after her a moment later Today had been a very good day.
