Jackie Draws A Straight: The Journey Series Book 5 (11 page)

Lavinia Stumps looked at Pete and then Jackie and back again. "Okay, Doctor. I'll do the
sugar meter
like you said. The way you showed me to work the
thing
helped. I don't read much, so figurin' it out was a puzzle."

He gave Lavinia's hand a squeeze and rose from her bedside, not looking at Jackie though he spoke to her. "Come along, Miss Journey. Time to get back to the office."

"Yes, Doctor," she said meekly. She knew she'd done wrong in minimizing the importance of his
dietary
instructions to Mrs. Stumps, but Lavinia
had been
getting confused and frustrated. She'd only wanted to make the complicated situati
on less complicated for the woma
n. Unfortunately, the advi
ce Pete had given his patient shouldn't be disregarded. In some ways, Jackie could have endangered Mrs. Stumps' health.

She made sure Lavinia was comfortable and then followed Pete out to the car. It had been parked in the full sun and was hot as blazes
inside
. He immediately turned on the A/C and Jackie felt the cool air blowing against her hot face. Jackie was hot as much from embarrassment from her faux pas as from the roasting car interior.

Time to
cut the lecture off at the pass. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said anythin
'
."

Pete frowned at her for a moment, but soon put all his attention on getting them down the gravel road and onto the highway. When he spoke, Jackie could hear the irritation in his voice.

"I don't appreciate being
contradicted
, Jackie."

"I know. It won't happen again."

"You should know better."

"Yes, sir. It's just that I've known Lavinia Stumps since I was a little girl.
I went to school with her daughter, Prissy.
She's a nice lady and she was
gettin'
upset. I wanted her to feel better about thin
'
s."

"
Here's the thing, Jackie… I knew she was getting upset, but I was intentionally trying to impress upon her the seriousness of her condition. She's been neglecting the treatment Dr. Ford and I recommended to her and that neglect could kill her. There were ample opportunities for her to ask questions about my instructions, and she was doing that when you interrupted with your nonsense about doing the parts she could live with."

Jackie
had been
an irresponsible dolt. "I know. I'm sorry."

Pete glared at her for a moment before turning back to the road. "I don't know now if she'll actually do what I told her to do."

Knowing Lavinia, she'd be more likely to take Jackie's advice rather than th
e advice of a doctor she wasn't yet
familiar with. "I can check on her in a day or two."

"Maybe you should."

"Yes, sir. I'll do that." A thought occurred to her. It was risky, but maybe it could get things moving in a direction she wanted to go with Pete. "Are you going to punish me?"

"Punish you?" He
considered
that for a minute. "
Are you telling me you'll be behaving that way again if I don't do something else?"

A little jolt of both fear and excitement shot through Jackie's abdomen. "I might forget."

Pete's eyes went to hers, but she couldn't read the look he gave her. She dropped her gaze and stared at her knotted hands in her lap.

"What do you suggest, Miss Journey?"

Now or never. "You could spank me again."

"It hasn't worked up to this point," he said wryly.

"I'm not makin
'
the same mistakes over again. I'm not late to work. I haven't cheated you at cards."

"We haven't played cards again."

True, but that wasn't where she wanted to go with this conversation. "I think I've learned better behavior every time you spanked me."

"
What game are you playing at, Jackie?"

"There's no game." And that was true enough. For Jackie, it was serious as a heart attack.

They rode in silence for half an hour. She could see that he was thinking over her suggestion. He didn't turn on the radio. Usually, he liked to pick a country station and sing along. His voice was one of Jackie's favorite things about him. He could sing into the lower registers with ease, and the deep, mellow
vocalizations
and surprisingly well done harmonies
made her insides catch fire.

Ten minutes away from the office, he spoke. "Alright."

Cymbals clashed in her head. "You'll spank me?"

Pete's jaw clenched and released, clenched and released.
It was obvious
that he was torn, but she didn't relent or back down. "Yes."

"I promise I'll learn the lesson." It was hard to keep the excitement out of her voice, but she succeeded.

"You'd better. This is becoming a habit."

"I'm sorry."

He gave her a warning look. "You will be, if you're not now."

The promise of further intimacy with Pete warred with
trepidation about the pain that would be inflicted on her tender behind. She kept her own counsel until they got back to the office.

After they put their supplies away
, Pete voiced a concern. "Is your father going to be worried if you're home a little later than usual?"

"How late?"

He shrugged. "Probably not very. How long does a spanking take, after all?"

Lots of cuddling afterward took time. "I'll call and tell him I'm workin
'
late."

"I don't like the lie, Jackie."

"It's not really a lie. I'm here at the office. You're goin
'
to work with me
on somethin' work-related—my attitude. My Daddy will be fine."

Pete nodded and pointed to the phone. "Call him, please. And then come back to my house."

Jackie remembered that her father told her not to venture into Pete's house again unescorted, but the situat
ion
merited a little fudging of the rules this time.

As she stepped down the path toward Pete's house, Jackie tried to picture how it was going to go. He'd be there, all stern and demanding. She would
be
demure and submissive and regretful. He'd ask her to strip down and soon after he'd start spanking her. That part wasn't so much fun, but thinking about the after part made her belly do a pleasant little pirouette.

She didn't knock on the door. It was partly open, so she walked in. "Pete?"

"In the kitchen. Come in here, please."

Jackie put down her purse and
made her way into the roomy kitchen. It was modern and airy, with green-sprigged wallpaper and lighter green tile backsplashes. There was a big white table and chairs with green cushions tied on. She liked it very much and had a fleeting sense of how wonderful it would be to be the woman cooking in this kitchen.

Pete leaned on the counter, a bottle of water in his hand and an enigmatic look on his face. "Take off your pants and panties and bend over the table. Grab the far side at the wall."

Hmm. No foreplay. Well, that was okay. She wanted to get to the good stuff anyway and for that, they had to get past the painful part. "Yes, sir."

He reached for his belt and Jackie felt a moment of panic. Was he taking his clothes off? Were they going to have sex? After years of holding herself in reserve, was she prepared to do it now?

"You can stop looking so scared," he said. "The belt won't hurt you any worse than my hand."

Belt on her bottom? Oh. "Okay." She tried to seductively pull off her scrub pants and yellow panties, but they halted at her shoes. So much for sexy. It took her a couple of minutes to get rid of all the lower-half clothes, but soon she was standing half-naked in his kitchen. She felt so exposed. What did he think of her, willing to bare herself like this in front of a man?
He'd seen her like this once before, but she'd been upset already.
Was this slutty behavior? Her family would have died of embarrassment for her.

"Bend over the table." His low voice was thick with some emotion Jackie couldn't identify.

"Yes, sir." The table was cool and smooth against her belly and hips, and hard against her breasts. She grabbed the far end and found herself stretched. Her toes barely touched the floor.

Pete's belt buckle made a jingly sound but was soon muffled. He smacked
the belt
against something—his palm?—and the snap made her jump. This was
so
not going to be good.

She cried out loudly
as
the first sharp blow hit her bottom. "Ouch!" That really hurt. This was going to be even worse than she anticipated. But, she reminded herself, the after part, the intimacy, was going to make it all worth it. When he struck her three more times rapidly, she bounced on her toes and
squawked.

"You will not, not
ever
, contradict me in front of a patient again, Jackie," he told her, his voice very stern.

"Ow! Ow! Y-yes, sir!"

"Patients need to trust me and your behavior doesn't encourage that."

"No, sir. I'm sorry! Oh! Ouch
!" Her butt was burning and every stripe was
a passel of bee stings
. Five more rapid spanks jolted through her
. And then a weird thing happened, a special, wonderful thing. He touched her bottom with his hand. It was a gentle glide of his fingertips, apparently following a stripe across her left cheek.

"I don't like doing this, Jackie," he said, his voice somewhat tight. "You need to clean up your act."

If she'd get more touching with more spanks, she was willing to take it, even encourage it. "I'm sorry. I deserve this."

He took a breath and resumed the spanking with three hard strokes. Tears were coming to Jackie's eyes and she sniffled.

"You do deserve this, I agree. I'm not sure I'm the man who should be delivering it, but here we are." Four more whacks and now the tears were streaming down her face and sobs caught her breath.

"I won't do it again. I promise."

Another three whacks, and he paused again, smoothing her bottom with his palm. His hand was hot against her scorched behind but
there was a distinct stirring in her lower belly. She felt wet and soft between her legs where a little buzzing
sensation
was growing. Pete's touch had started all kinds of delicious changes, changes she didn't want to escape, though she wished the spanking hadn't been the reason for his caresses. His voice was soft and she had to listen carefully over her sobs and sniffles. "I could wish for things to be different." He followed that up with a heartbeat of a pause and then a volley of belt strokes to the juncture of her thighs and seat. The pain was worse than anything she'd ever
experienced
before and she gave little half-screams in response.

"
Don't make me do this again, Jackie," he told her.

"N-n-no, sir! I won't!" Not if she could elicit his touches some other way, she sure wouldn't.

Pete stopped spanking and there was a pause before
he put
his hand on her behind again. The warmth trailed down her
red-hot butt and lower,
to
the
cross
just above her private parts. A shiver rippled over her, centering there, between her legs.