Chapter 2
2
Ben couldn’t believe it. He loped off, up into the foothills, his mind and body numb. They had purposely rented a house near the wilderness so he could roam at will in wolf form, and he ran up the steep side of a mountain face now, wanting to run forever.
Ashley had lied to him. She’d betrayed his trust. But even worse, it had been because she was afraid to tell him the truth. That fact had hit him like a fist in the gut. What kind of mate was he if his female couldn’t even talk to him about the things that were important to her?
Because he’d never witnessed an ounce of cowardice in Ashley. Even as a human, she had alpha female written all over her—confident, whip-smart, and a social genius. She could wrap anyone around her finger. She’d dared joke with him on her interview, even though she’d been nervous. And she’d kept opening her heart to him, when he’d repeatedly shut her down.
So to hear she feared him meant she hadn’t forgiven him or forgotten the way he’d marked her. It meant they didn’t have any level of trust between them.
Images of his mother, cowering from his father’s wrath, flashed before his eyes. He ran faster, over the rocky terrain, the cold February wind blowing through his fur. He’d always feared he’d become his father. It was why he hadn’t wanted to lead his brother’s pack, and hadn’t looked for a mate. But you can’t escape your parentage, it seemed.
The loving, trusting relationship his brother so easily modeled with his wife and he’d foolishly thought he might find with Ashley was not for wolves like him. The gray day turned colder, the higher he climbed. Time and distance fell away and he reached the tree line, where snow still covered the ground. Fresh snow began to fall.
He stopped, turning in a circle to scent the air. He smelled elk, but was in no mood to hunt. Sitting, he lifted his nose to the sky and howled, a long, mournful howl.
Only a toothbrush would get out the dirt between the grout lines of the shower. Ashley pushed her sleeves up and returned to her position on her hands and knees in the empty bathtub, scrubbing at the tiles. She’d attacked the house, cleaning it from top to bottom, as if that somehow might make things right with Ben. It was now pushing six o’clock and he hadn’t returned. Her stomach had clenched like a fist.
When she finished cleaning, she grilled three steaks and made a Greek salad and herbed quinoa.
Still he didn’t come home. The clock read half past eight. Night had come and snowflakes had begun to fall. Surely the cold didn’t bother him. But even so, was it a sign of how upset he was that he didn’t return, despite the dark and cold?
Unable to eat, she dished the food onto plates, covered them with plastic wrap and put them in the refrigerator. The house didn’t feel like hers anymore. She tiptoed around it, like she didn’t belong, every creak of the wood floors making her jump. Wrapping a blanket around her shoulders, she sat down and turned on the television, flipping through the channels. She found an old Clint Eastwood movie and watched it until her eyelids began to droop.
Maybe she should just go to bed. But would he return soon? Or had he gone elsewhere for the night? Was this the end for them? Tears pricked her eyes, but she blinked them back, heading to their bedroom to try to sleep.
She woke at two a.m. to find the space beside her in the bed still empty. A sense of dread filled her chest as she climbed out of bed to check the house. She stopped in the living room, finding Ben’s sleeping form sprawled on the couch. He was naked, as if he’d just shifted back. The chiseled muscles of his powerful chest and arms were exposed, with a light blanket tossed over his waist.
They weren’t sleeping together?
She willed herself to exhale, but couldn’t seem to catch her breath. Did this mean things were over between them? Her nose burned as tears crowded up into her throat. She crept to the side of the couch and knelt down beside Ben’s face, tears spilling down her cheeks.
His eyes blinked open and he sat up. “Ashley,” he said in a hoarse voice. “Go to sleep.”
“I can’t,” she said. She remembered he’d told her once that the smell of her tears would bring him to his knees. She thought she saw pain in his eyes, but in the darkness, it was hard to tell. “Can we talk?” she croaked.
He sighed. “We’ll talk tomorrow.”
“Will you come to bed?”
“No,” he said heavily. “I don’t think so.”
“Then I’m staying here,” she said, brushing the tears with the back of her hand.
“No,” he said, his voice hardening. “Go back to bed. Now.”
She shook her head.
He made a sound of irritation and reached for her, freezing when she flinched. “You’re afraid of me,” he said hollowly.
She opened her mouth, then closed it, unsure how to answer. Had she flinched because she was scared? No, not really. Rationally, she wasn’t afraid of Ben, but his dominance did have an effect on her, making her instincts for self-preservation kick in, just as seeing him in wolf form always made her gulp.
“That’s why you felt you had to lie to me.”
She shook her head. “I just… I didn’t want to disappoint you at first. And then, once the lie was out, I was afraid to confess the truth because I knew you’d be mad—rightfully so.”
“Did you think I’d force you into parenting? That you don’t have a say in the matter?”
“No… no. But you seemed so excited. And I?—”
He waited when she trailed off.
“My career is just getting started. I love working for you and I’m just not willing to give that up yet.”
“This is the discussion we should have had five months ago.”
She dropped her head and stared at the outline of her hands in the dark. “I know.”
“I wouldn’t have pushed you,” he said, a bitter edge to his voice. “I thought you wanted this.”
“I do,” she protested. “Just maybe not right this second. We’re not even married yet.” She knew the institution of marriage didn’t matter to shifters the way it did to humans, but they had agreed to have a long engagement to give her and her family time to adjust to the suddenness of their relationship. In Ben’s world, he’d marked her and she belonged to him, period. She had accepted that, but still wanted time to get used to the idea.
“I’ll stop taking the pill. I was going to throw them out today, when you caught me.”
He made an impatient gesture. “You don’t have to. I don’t care about that. You think pups are more important to me than your happiness?”
Shame made her face grow hot and her eyes wet again. “I’m sorry.”
He said nothing.
“Are you going to punish me?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Go to bed, Ashley,” he said, sounding tired.
“Not without you.”
He reached for her again and this time she held still, not surprised to find his touch gentle, despite the stony lines of his face. He scooped her into his arms and carried her to the bedroom, where he tried to deposit her on the bed. She clung to his neck, though, refusing to let go.
He growled and she nearly let go, but rallied her courage to prove she wasn’t afraid of him. He dropped to the bed with her and held her down, delivering several sharp smacks to her pajama-clad backside.
She lay perfectly still for them, holding her breath. A spanking really would clear the air between them. He’d given her a serious spanking once before, and while it had hurt and she hadn’t enjoyed it, it had brought them closer.
He didn’t continue to spank her though, nor did he leave. He settled beside her on his back, his fingers knit behind his head, looking up at the ceiling.
She would take what she could. Curling against his body, she tucked her face against his side and closed her eyes, praying he’d find it in his heart to forgive her.
Ashley radiated anxiety. It sent his shifter instincts haywire to feel his mate’s stress, and yet he couldn’t manage to change his own emotions, which largely seemed dead. He’d returned to the way he’d been before he met her—the ‘Stone man’ who lacked emotion, fired people at will, and never smiled. He took her hand in the elevator, making an attempt to soothe her.
She looked up at him with her big blue eyes, the pleading quality twisting his heart. The elevator stopped and the doors slid open for other employees to get on. Ashley moved to pull her hand away, but he held it fast, tugging her slightly behind him to hide their clasp. He did not release her until they reached the top floor and they parted without speaking. He’d never been a man of many words, but even to him, the silence seemed strange. The gulf between just seemed to grow with each passing moment.
He wasn’t angry. Betrayed, yes, and he felt like an idiot for the months he’d thought they were trying to conceive a child while she’d been taking the pill. The lack of trust between them devastated him. He wasn’t the type to trust or love easily, but when he’d taken Ashley as his mate, he’d thought he’d turned a corner. Now, he could practically feel his old walls re-erecting themselves around his heart.
Worse, he couldn’t stop thinking about Ashley’s fear of him. Maybe mating with a human couldn’t work. The difference in their physical abilities would always separate them. Shifters have a pack order. Dominance is established and maintained with physical expressions. Males resolve problems with other males with a fight. They resolve problems with a female by spanking. Ashley hadn’t minded it—hell, she loved it when he flexed his authority, but even so, she must worry he’d lose control as he had when he’d marked her, causing her real injury and harm.
He didn’t hear from her until lunchtime, when she tapped on his door and entered. Usually her smile and her presence brightened his days. Today, she looked diminished, almost shy—which didn’t fit her outgoing personality. He hated seeing her that way.
“Do you want to get lunch? Or, um, do you want me to get you something?”
He didn’t want to go to lunch with her. Just seeing her pained him. “Bring me a sandwich,” he said, not meaning to sound so curt.
She ducked her head and nodded, leaving without a word.
Damn. Why did he have such a talent at making things worse?
She brought him the sandwich, and he ate alone at his desk. He poured himself into financial reports for the rest of the day, not surfacing until six o’clock, when he closed up his office and found Ashley slumped in her chair, staring at her computer screen.
“You ready?” he asked.
She looked disappointed, as if she’d hoped he would say something else. But what was there to say?
They walked in silence to the elevator. Once inside, he put an arm around her and pulled her to his side, where she melted against him. He bent to kiss the top of her head.
She lifted her eyes. “Are we okay?”
“Yeah,” he said, but they both knew it was a lie.
At home, she went to the kitchen and began to reheat the dinner she’d made for them the night before. He took off his jacket and tie and unbuttoned his shirt at the collar. From the kitchen, he smelled steak, but also the salty smell of Ashley’s tears.
Nothing subdues a shifter more than the scent of his mate’s anguish. Damn. He walked into the kitchen to find Ashley facing the stove, her shoulders hunched and tears running down her face.
“Hey,” he said softly, turning her around. “Enough.” He wiped the tears from her face. “That’s not helping anything.”
“What will?” she asked, her voice rising to the pitch of desperation. “Because I can’t stand this living with a stranger thing we have going at the moment. Why won’t you just yell at me? Or punish me? Aren’t you the alpha around here?” She gave him an ineffectual shove, her face screwed up into a little ball of fury.
“Enough,” he said, lacing his voice with the hard edge of authority.
“Is it?” She slapped his chest with the palm of her hand.
Even knowing she meant to goad him into it, he responded instinctively, as any dominant wolf did when challenged, catching her wrist and spinning her around to pin it behind her back. He delivered the first swat before he had a chance to think.
He stopped, inhaling deeply. He didn’t want this. If she feared him, spanking her didn’t help. But then she’d practically begged him for it. Maybe she needed it, to assuage her guilt. She certainly wasn’t fighting him now, standing perfectly still, her head bent forward so her thick hair curtained her face.
He released her and turned her to face the living room. “Take off your clothes and kneel in the corner over there,” he said, pointing to the one near the couch.
She moved immediately, not meeting his eye, her head still bowed submissively.
He remained where he was, conflicted. It was too late to change his mind, of course. But what if punishing her only made things worse between them? He shut off the oven, leaving the steaks inside to stay warm.
When he turned, Ashley had taken her position. He caught his breath at the sight—her long reddish-brown hair falling down her back, the flare of her hips and, of course, her perfect ass, settled between her heels where she knelt. His cock forgot his reluctance to punish her, pressing eagerly against his trousers.
He walked over to the couch and sat down. “Come, Ashley.”
“Woof,” she said, barely louder than a whisper, wringing a half-smile from him. It had been her joke since the day he interviewed her and had told her to sit. He hadn’t laughed then, and yet she’d persisted, just as she’d persevered despite his repeated rejections of her affection.
She walked to stand in front of him, her chin dropped, hands clasped behind her back.
“Why am I punishing you?”
“For—” She cleared her throat. “For lying.”
He waited.
“—sir,” she added.
He said nothing, keeping his face blank.
She nibbled her lip. “I should have known you would listen to and value my feelings on the matter. You always have.”
Her words came as a relief to him.
“Ben?”
He raised an eyebrow expectantly.
“Would you make me stay home with the kids?”
He grabbed her waist and pulled her to sit on his lap. “Make you?” he asked. “Is that how you think things work around here?”
She fidgeted with her hands.
Taking her chin, he lifted her face to his.
“I don’t know. It’s just—your sister-in-law…”
“That’s what Shayla wanted. She never had an interest in getting involved with Leon’s company; that’s why he left it to me. Shayla wanted to be well cared for, so she could devote herself to her children.” He studied Ashley’s blue eyes. “Did you think it was a shifter thing? Is that what this is about?”
She shrugged. “Well, it’s part of my fear. But also I’m just not ready.”
He nodded slowly. “Look, I know I’ve been an asshole. I ran Stone Tech like a dictator, and it was my way or the highway. But with you—” He broke off, his throat closing with emotion. “You expected more of me, you believed I had a heart. With you, I thought I’d changed.”
Ashley’s lip trembled.
“Don’t make me into that guy again. Do you really think I’d make you do anything that made you unhappy?”
A tear spilled down her cheek and he thumbed it away. “No. I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I’m really sorry.”
Ben lifted her from his lap, deftly turning her face down over it, her bare bottom angled perfectly for his punishment. Goosebumps raised on her flesh. She reached for one of the throw pillows, wrapping her arms around it. The first few spanks stung the worst, the shock so much more than what she expected.
She realized how much he held back when he spanked her in fun, because each slap of his hand connected now with force enough to make her lose her breath. She meant to hold still, but found herself twisting and bucking, trying to wriggle her way off his lap. He wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her close.
“Do not kick or I’ll take off my belt,” he warned.
She crossed her ankles, squeezing them together to keep from kicking. The warning actually came as a relief—it meant he hadn’t planned on using the belt later. Not that it mattered at the moment, his hand was doing enough damage. It came raining down swift and hard, first one cheek, then the other, then square in the middle.
She clamped her lips together to keep from crying out as he spanked her over and over again. She buried her head in the couch cushions, biting at the fabric. “Ow… please,” she found herself begging, despite her resolve to take it like a good girl.
Firm smacks continued to fall, the burn setting in from the previous ones making it all the worse.
“Ben… oh! Please,” she whimpered, her cheeks throbbing now as he continued to spank her ceaselessly.
He stopped, resting his hand on her heated flesh. “How many months did you let me believe we were trying to conceive a child, Ashley?”
She cringed, her shame worse than the pain. “Five months,” she mumbled into the sofa.
“How many?” he asked sharply.
She turned her head to speak. “Five, sir.”
He began to spank her again, just as hard and fast as before.
She moaned and squirmed, reaching back to try to rub.
He caught her wrist and bent it behind her back. “You know better than that, little girl,” he said in his most stern and disapproving tone.
She hunched her shoulders against the agonizing smacks. “I’m sor-ry,” she wailed.
Thankfully, he stopped again. “Five months of deceit deserves five spankings, don’t you think?”
“Tonight?” she asked, suddenly terrified.
He chuckled. “Not tonight.”
“When?”
“When I decide.”
He lifted her to her feet and she cupped her flaming ass. “This spanking isn’t done,” he warned. “Go stand in the corner while I get something from the kitchen.”
She walked to the corner, trying to rub away the burn.
“No rubbing,” Ben called from the kitchen. “Interlace your fingers on top of your head.”
She sighed and obeyed, feeling like a very naughty girl who had already been well chastised. What more did he plan to do?
She listened to the sounds of him rummaging in the kitchen and then his return to the living room. His footsteps sounded behind her.
“Bend over and grab your ankles,” he said, tugging her hips backward to give her room to fold.
She swallowed, her mouth dry.
He waited for her to comply, watching her slowly bending at the waist and reaching toward the floor. The stretching of her ass only made the throbbing worse. He pressed something slick and cool against her anus and she jerked, trying to clamp her cheeks closed. The position kept her spread to him, though, and he pushed more insistently, until she relaxed and allowed it in.
“You may stand up now,” he said, wiggling the object inside her. Turning her hips, he used the intrusive object to propel her forward, until she reached the arm of the sofa. “Bend over,” he said, pressing her torso down. “This is ginger,” he said. “You’re going to keep it in for the remainder of your spanking. I’m going to make sure your bottom burns on the outside and in,” he said.
She tried to erect herself, craning her neck around to look, but Ben pushed her back down and held her in place.
“If you’re a good girl, I will finish this spanking with my hand,” he said. “That means no reaching and no kicking. If you’re naughty, I will take off my belt and spank you until you scream. Understand?”
Her heart thundered in her chest. “Yes, sir,” she whispered, her pussy clenching despite her fear.
His fist wrapped in her hair and he tugged her head back. “You like it when I punish you,” he growled in her ear, probably smelling the scent of her arousal.
Her nipples hardened. The roughness in his voice gave away his desire for her. Her wolf had returned from whatever cold place he’d retreated.
“I don’t like it,” she said, which was a half-truth.
He pulled her hair back again. “Yes, you do.”
“I don’t like disappointing you.” That was all true.
His teeth closed lightly on her shoulder, then released—a love bite.
She became aware of a burning from the ginger and she moaned. “It burns.”
He released her hair and pushed her back down. “It’s supposed to burn. I’m teaching you a lesson, little girl. Do you lie to me?”
“No, sir,” she said, gulping as he began to spank her again, just as hard as he had before. This time, her ass was already sore and now her anus burned as well. She tightened around it, which only made it worse.
Ben spanked and spanked, merciless in his punishment as she lay helplessly sprawled over the arm of the sofa with a stick of ginger in her ass. Her entire body grew hot from the root, and she began to sweat. Her pussy swelled between her legs, heating along with her entire pelvis, arousal dripping down her legs.
“Oh, it burns… it burns,” she moaned. Every time she shifted or squeezed, she incited a fresh bloom of agony from the ginger root. That, combined with the pain of his seemingly endless spanking seemed more than she could bear. “Ben,” she whimpered. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I’ll be a good girl,” she pleaded. “I’ll never lie again. Please don’t spank me, please don’t?—”
“Shh.” The spanking stopped. Ben slid a finger between her legs, over her glossy slit.
“Please take it out,” she begged.
“No,” he said. “I’m going to fuck you with it in.”
Her pussy clenched, eager for any activity he wanted to give her.
His finger had found her clit, circling the sensitive nub.
She heard his zipper and spread her legs, arching her back.
He pushed the ginger in deeper, creating a fresh zing of torturous burn and gave her bottom several more smacks. “You may not come,” he said at the same time he stretched her wide with his thick cock.
“What?” she asked, confused.
“You heard me, little girl. You were naughty and are being punished. I don’t think you deserve to come tonight.”
She couldn’t believe it. Not coming would be an impossibility. She’d almost just come from him saying he was going to fuck her. And yet, disobeying him, tonight of all nights, seemed out of the question.
“Ben,” she whimpered. “Please… I need to come.”
He slid his cock in and out of her, shoving the ginger deeper with each in-stroke. The burning was unbearable and her need so great she thought she’d explode.
“No.”
He gripped her waist and picked up speed, pumping harder.
She surrendered, offering herself up to him, trying to forget about the pain and her mounting desperation to come.
Ben buried himself deep inside Ashley, his release pouring out. He wrapped his arms around her from behind, lifting her torso and nuzzling at her neck. He’d been a fool. Ashley had been right, as usual. A spanking did fix everything. Or at least it had brought them back together, to face their challenges as a couple, rather than two islands drifting apart.
He cupped her breasts in his hands, rolling his thumbs over her nipples.
She moaned wantonly.
He eased out of her and pulled the ginger finger from her ass. “Don’t get dressed,” he murmured in her ear. “I want you to serve me dinner just as you are.”
She turned in his arms, resting her hands on his chest and looking up at him shyly.
He bent to kiss her, claiming her mouth with great authority, sliding his tongue between her lips, showing her with action what he had trouble expressing.
When they broke apart, he saw her relief. She understood she’d been forgiven and that all was right between them. He stepped back to allow her passage. “Go on,” he said, giving her reddened ass a slap as she turned toward the kitchen.
He raised the temperature on the thermostat so she wouldn’t get cold prancing around their kitchen in the nude and settled in a chair to watch, his cock already forgetting its recent release.
Ashley’s hands slid over her swollen cheeks, circling and rubbing away the sting. He hoped he hadn’t spanked hard enough to leave marks. As reluctant as he’d been to begin with, once he started spanking, his emotions had cleared. Her willingness to accept his displeasure in that form eased all his discontent, leaving him in appreciation of her beautiful submission.
Now, as she dished salads onto their plates and pulled steaks and quinoa out of the oven, her eyes were bright with unspent desire, face still flushed. She darted glances at him under her lashes, sending a fresh shot of lust kicking through him every time.
“It’s ready,” she murmured, turning to face him.
He gave her a lazy grin and unfolded himself from the chair, walking to the table. “ Gracias, mi amor .”
She set the plates down at their separate places, but before she could sit, he grasped her waist and tugged her down to sit on his lap. She flinched a little at the contact of her chafed bottom with his pants, but then snuggled in.
“You eat here tonight.”
“Okay,” she said, sounding pleased.
He picked up his knife and cut her a piece of steak, which had turned slightly dry from being reheated.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “It was better yesterday.”
He stabbed it with his fork and lifted it to her full lips. “It’s fine,” he reassured her. “And it was my own fault, so don’t apologize.”
She chewed, her hair falling forward to cover part of her face.
He brushed it away, watching her eat.
“I want to have your babies,” she said when she swallowed.
He suppressed a smile. “Too bad. You had your chance and you blew it.”
Her ocean-blue eyes studied his face. “I threw out the pills.”
He sobered, his chest growing heavy again over this conflict that never should have been an issue. “Ash… baby. I’m not asking you to have my pups. I thought you wanted them now and I ran with it. It turned me on to think about getting you pregnant. But I can wait—I never meant to pressure you.”
“I know,” she said, touching his lips with the pad of her index finger. “But I realized that you… that our family is more important than my career.”
He picked up her fingers and kissed them. “You’re going back on the pill,” he said, adding steel to his voice so she’d know his decision was final. “We will re-evaluate in a year. Understood?”
Her eyes watered and she nodded. “Yes, sir.”
“Good girl.” He popped another bite of steak into her mouth.
He continued to feed her as he stroked her soft skin and enjoyed the view of her perfect breasts bouncing near his face.
When they’d finished, he helped her clean up the kitchen, then scooped her up and carried her to their bed, where he laid her on her front. Her bottom was still red, her pussy still gleaming wet between her thighs. He stroked her bottom, squeezing her sore cheeks.
“Mmm,” she encouraged.
He crawled on top of her, unbuttoning his shirt. “The trouble with naughty girls like you is that you like your spankings too much,” he said, fisting her hair and tugging her head to the side to bite her shoulder. “I have to be very firm to make an impression. Isn’t that right?”
She whimpered, probably not knowing how to answer such a question.
He divested himself of his shirt and undershirt, then unbuttoned his pants and slid them off. “You may please me now,” he said, settling beside her on his back.
She scrambled up to her hands and knees, crawling over him with an eagerness that had his cock standing at full mast before she even arrived. She licked her lips as she reached for his shaft, then bent her head down and flicked her tongue on the underside of his glans.
He shuddered with pleasure, thrusting his hips up for more.
She gave him a Cheshire cat smile, lowering her eyelids seductively and opening her mouth to engulf the head of his cock.
He reached for her, burying his fingers in her thick, glossy hair as she lowered and lifted her head over his shaft. She sucked hard, moving her tongue in a swirling motion than made him dizzy with desire.
“Bring your ass over here,” he said, his voice thick.
She turned sideways, offering him her punished bottom as she continued to expertly tease his cock with her tongue.
He brought his hand crashing down on her bottom, causing her to surge forward and deep-throat his cock. “I’ll tell you what, little girl. You’re doing such a good job sucking my cock that I might let you come. But I’m not going to touch that pretty little pussy of yours. All I’m going to do is spank your rosy red ass. Do you think you can come from a spanking alone?”
She made a sound around his cock, the vibration sending a zing of pleasure straight through to his toes.
He slapped her again. “Was that a yes?”
She popped off him. “Yes, sir.”
Another spank, harder this time. “Did I say you could stop what you’re doing?”
“No, sir,” she said, returning to her ministrations.
He spanked slowly, deliberately. Not too hard, but not softly, either. He aimed for the middle of her cheeks, just above her sex.
Judging by the enthusiasm with which she applied herself to his throbbing shaft, he knew she was getting close. He let his hand fall again and again as she bobbed frantically over him, humming and sucking. Seeing her come apart was his undoing. His balls contracted.
“I’m coming,” he warned her, but she didn’t stop. He continued to spank her, faster now, wondering if she’d be able to do it. She wiggled her hips, rolling them around, begging to be fucked, but he resisted touching her except to spank. He came and she paused, receiving his seed in her mouth, her hand wrapped tightly around the base of his cock.
She sat up and swallowed, giving Ben her wild-eyed look.
He sat up and pulled her across his lap, resuming the spanking.
She parted her legs, angling her bottom up, lifting it to meet his hand. Fingers twisting into the bedspread, she arched, teeth bared like a little wildcat.
“Only the naughtiest girls can come just from having their sore, red bottoms spanked.”
She cried out, squeezing her legs together and rubbing her hips over his lap, her bottom clenched tight and toes pointed straight out behind her.
He chuckled, squeezing her tightened buns and shaking. “That’s my girl,” he murmured. “I knew you could do it.”
She lifted her head from her arms, looking exhausted. “Does that count as one of my spankings?”
He threw his head back and laughed. “Yes. But don’t imagine they will all be this pleasurable.”