Page 10 of Margo

It made sense, but Knox honestly hadn’t considered that. He’d assumed all the girls would want to wait for Baze and the extent of his job with any of the girls outside of Margo would be making sure they followed rules to the best of their ability, passing out lines and CT—aka corner-time–and writing down offenses for Baze to deal with when he got home.

Taking the question and her answer seriously, he looked at Mariah and answered carefully, “Let’s save this conversation for later. I want to meet with each of you separately and make sure we are all on the same page.”

Mariah looked uneasy. “When are you gonna do that?”

“Right after breakfast cleanup,” Knox promised. He’d planned to wait until the end of the day, but he could already see that wasn’t a good idea. Littles didn’t do well with uncertainty. It made them feel insecure and they’d flounder, and that wouldn’t be good for him. It was better to get any uncertainties out of the way now and let them know how things would work with him in charge. Plus, it would give him another opportunity to talk to Margo, without her having an excuse to avoid him—which he could already tell she planned on doing as much as possible.

Knox

After breakfast, Knox sat at the dining table upstairs with his hands folded in his lap, and Baze’s notes in front of him. He fully expected these meetings to be a hundred percent formality only with no real surprises. He’d remind them of the rules and expectations, and they would say that they wanted any infractions to be saved for when Baze got home. Easy peasy lemon squeezy. The only possible exceptions to this probable outcome were Mariah who, like his Margo, had a bit of a troublemaker streak, and Jade who just seemed too cool to care half the time.

But Jilly was first, and Jilly he was sure, would be easy. She was quiet and timid and not much trouble most of the time unless she let Luna or one of the others talk her into participating in one of their schemes. He knew all the girls, Margo especially, were super protective of her and would probably have his head on a platter if he laid a hand on her—even if she deserved it.

The meeting started exactly how he’d anticipated. Jilly shuffled in, her eyes cast to the floor and took the seat across from him.

“It’s okay. You can look at me,” he joked, his tone gentle. “I don’t bite.”

Jilly smiled but didn’t look up. “I’m sorry, I’m nervous.”

“Nothing to be nervous about. You’re in charge here, Jillian.”

When he used her full name, her head jerked up, her eyes blazing. “Don’t use my full name… please.” She tacked on please like an afterthought, her voice louder than he’d ever heard it. He knew immediately that he’d triggered her and made a mental note to add that to Baze’s notes.

He reached across the table and laid his hand on top of hers. “I’m really sorry, Jilly. I can see that really upset you. It won’t happen again. I promise.”

“Thank you.” She was back to looking down, not meeting his eyes. “Getting back to what you said, I know I have the control, technically. I know I could say that I only consent to non-physical punishments like lines and corner time but…” She paused and sighed deeply. “Waiting for a spanking is the worst. It makes me physically ill. It will be all I can think about. It’s not the spanking itself,” she clarified. “Just the waiting.” She shook her head. “I don’t want to wait ten days. So if I earn a punishment, I consent to you spanking me.”

“Okay.” Knox nodded. “Understood. Now can I tell you my boundaries?”

Jilly gasped softly and when she looked up at him he could see the surprise etched on her features. “You have boundaries?”

“I do. Everyone should. Mine is that I’m not able to do physical intimate caretaking. I expect all of you girls to dress yourself, put on and take off your own Pull-ups if you choose to wear them and be responsible for your own baths.”

“Ooooh. Thank you. That’s my boundary too. I was gonna say that. I was just trying to figure out how to phrase it.”

“I’m glad we’re on the same page. Is there anything else we need to discuss?”

“No, I don’t think so. I’m pretty sure that’s everything. I’ll try to be a good girl and not make you hafta punish me.”

“I know you will,” he told her warmly as she stood, scooting in her chair. “Send Mariah in next, please.”

He’d expected a few holdouts, but every single girl had expressed the same sentiment Jilly had. Waiting was the worst, and they didn’t want to wait ten days if they had the option not to. It wasn’t at all what he’d expected but he was honored by their trust.

Now there was only one girl left: Margo herself. He knew this conversation was not going to go as smoothly as the others had. Margo had barely spoken to him last night after he’d refused to spank her and told her she was topping from the bottom and had gone out of her way to avoid him all day so far.

She sulked in with her arms crossed over her chest and glared at him from across the table. It was exactly what he’d expected, and he even felt guilty for what he was about to say, but Baze had been very clear in his instructions to both of them.

“Margo,” he began, firmly. “You know why you’re here. You know what Baze said. You heard him yourself. If you choose to break the rules, then you will be punished by me.”

“It’s not fair. I don’t wanna,” Margo grumbled.

He didn’t point out that that wasn’t what she’d said last night in front of the elevators. He knew something had changed since then.

“It’s not up to you. You gave your consent to me a while ago, and everyone including Baze knows it. This is what he thinks is best for you.”

“It’s not fair.” She pouted. “I’m supposed to have control. You told all the other girls they did.”

“And all the other girls gave me their consent regardless. They trust me, and so do you.” It was herself she didn’t trust. He knew it and so did she.