“Do you feel better?” he asked after they'd stood there for a long while in each other's arms.
“I do,” she said. “Sort of. I'm exhausted and I'd like to lay down, but I don't think I can.”
He took her hand and walked her around to the front of the sofa where he'd made them a makeshift bed. “How about a movie?” he asked.
“Still doesn't solve the not being able to sit, stand, or lay forever thing,” she said.
“Yes, it does,” he said with a smile. He lay down first and then held out his arms. “Climb on,” he said. “On your tummy.”
She did as he suggested and made herself comfortable on top of him. She did manage to clip him a couple of times in the ribs with her elbow, but hey, she was human wasn't she?
“Comfortable?” he asked as he flipped the quilt over the top of them both.
“Mmhmm,” she said burying her tear-stained face into his chest.
“You wanna watch a movie?” he asked.
“Nah,” she said sleepily. “Tired.”
He pulled her closer and closed his own eyes, more content than he could remember being in a while. “Oh, Alex, honey? We need to talk about some simple rules to help you get back on track.”
Alex opened one eye and winced as her bottom started to throb again. “Rules?”
“Shh. Sleep. I think we'll leave it until the kids are back in school,” he said. “It'll give us time to think about what those rules should be.”
“You mean it'll give
you
time to think about what rules we need.”
“Yes,” he said. “But I also want you to think about what's not working for you and what you need help with, and it'll give us time to get to know each other a little more.”
“Sounds fair,” she said, yawning and closing her eyes.
* * *
“Alex?” Jay whispered. “Alex. It's four o'clock in the morning. You wanted to go home before the kids were up.”
“Oh, yeah,” she said, trying to open her eyes. She couldn't remember the last time she'd woken up this early. Or in the arms of a man. God only knew what she looked like. “You stay asleep. I'll go.”
“I'll walk you home,” he said softly.
He was using that tone again, and Alex knew there'd be no stopping him. “Hi,” she said with a creaky morning smile. She tried to ignore the fact that she must look like something the cat dragged in, not to mention she could probably use a toothbrush. “Sorry, I didn't mean to stay like that all night.”
“I liked having you in my arms,” Jay said. He planted a quick kiss on her lips. “But time to go if you don't want the kids to know you've been out all night.”
“Yeah, you're right,” Alex said, regrettably dragging herself away from him and to her feet. She was surprised when she stood up that her bottom didn't hurt as much as she thought it would. She'd feel it when she sat, and it was still vaguely sore, but it wasn't the thumping inferno that it had been the night before. “I need to use the bathroom and get changed.”
“Do you want to put your dress back on, or do you want to get something from upstairs?” Jay asked, picking her dress and the other underwear up from where he'd folded it the night before.
“I think I'll just see if you have some sweats or something,” she said. There was no way she was going to squeeze that dress on without the spanks, and
they
weren't going anywhere near her for a while. They'd been compressing her half to death before she'd had her bottom paddled, and she couldn't imagine how they'd make her feel now. “Is that okay?”
“Of course it's okay, silly. You don't even have to ask,” he said, pulling her in for a last hug and a last rub of that adorable naked bottom beneath his T-shirt. “There's a spare toothbrush in the bathroom if you need it.”
* * *
Jay stuck his toothbrush under the tap to rinse it and grinned as Alex did the same. He felt like the cat that got the cream. Standing next to him with a spanked bottom was the beautiful girl of his dreams. It was like she'd been sent to him. She was everything he wrote about and everything he dreamed about having in a wife. Submissive enough to let him lead her and naughty enough to need her bottom warmed. Hopefully quite a lot.
“Okay,” she said wiping her now fresh mouth on the towel. “I really do need to go now.”
“I'll walk you home.”
Jay's hands delved deep into the loose pants that Alex had borrowed as he kissed her long and hard, like two teenagers after a date. “I almost expect one of your parents to come out or turn the light on,” he said with a chuckle.
“Well, my sister's here, but she'd be more likely to watch from behind the curtains than disturb us.”
“I should go anyway,” he said giving her a quick kiss and regretfully removing his hand from her bottom. “You can get some more sleep before you have to get up for the boys.”
“I guess,” she said. “One more kiss?”
He didn't have to be told twice. He wrapped her in a tight embrace.
Alex finally tore herself away from his warm arms.
“See you tomorrow?” she asked
“I was thinking tomorrow, or today really, we could go to the movies or the zoo or something,” Jay said.
“Don't you have to work?” she asked.
“That's the beauty of working at home. I can fit it in around other stuff.”
“Okay then. I think the boys would like that.”
“Well, good,” Jay said with a wide smile. “Which?”
“You choose,” she said happily. “I'm happy to go with whatever you decide.”
* * *
“I wish the summer wasn't over,” Thom said.
“Me too,” Aaron said. “I don't wanna go back to school.”
“I used to feel that way too,” Alex said. “It was scary going back to school not knowing if any of your friends were going to be there or which teacher you were going to have.”
“It's still scary now,” Aaron said. “If I'm sick tomorrow, do I have to go?”
“I bet you won't be,” Jay chipped in. As he had been doing lately, he'd joined Alex and the kids for dinner.
“I might be,” the small boy said. His eyes that were so much like his mother's trained on Jay's carefully from beneath his long lashes.
“Hmm,” Jay said. “It'd be a shame if you were. I was thinking that I might take you and Thom to the park after school to ride your bikes and toss a ball. If you're too sick to go to school, you'll have to stay in bed. Won't he, Mom?”
“That's right, Aaron,” Alex said.
Aaron frowned at his mom. “You never used to make me stay in bed if I was home sick,” he said grumpily.
Alex could feel Jay's eyes as they watched her and waited for her answer. “That's the best place for you if you're sick,” she said smiling. Alex had been happier in these last weeks of the summer than she could ever remember. She and the boys had spent some normal days, like they had before Jay, but most of the days had been spent either going out or laying around the pool or watching movies at night on Jay's big TV. There'd been no more talk about discipline or rules. She knew though, that the conversation was coming. Soon.
When the boys were sound asleep, Jay had tugged Alex onto his lap. “School’s tomorrow,” he said.
“Uh huh,” she said, suddenly feeling a little shy. Although it was hard to remain shy when your boyfriend was nibbling your neck and working his hands inside your panties to knead your bottom.
“We have some things to talk about.”
“Oh?” she asked, feigning innocence.
“School's back tomorrow. We're going to talk about some rules, remember?” he said kissing her gently. “If that's still what you want.”
“I remember, and it is what I want,” she said with a grin. “Straight after I take the kids to school?”
“Good a time as any,” he said. “Shouldn't take a really long time. Then we can have a nice quiet lunch together.”
“Sounds good,” she said, although she had to admit she was nervous.
* * *
Alex had stayed long enough at school to see the kids settled and to gossip a little with the other moms about the summer. She didn't normally converse like that in the morning if she drove the kids, but it
was
the first day
and
there was a conversation waiting for her at home that she was happy to put off for just a little while. Fear of the unknown maybe? Fear of the known?
Alex shuffled a little uncomfortably in her seat while she drove home. Her mind kept drifting back to the last spanking Jay had given her. It was probably what she'd be facing on a regular basis once Jay defined some rules. Of course, the after effect wasn't altogether unpleasant. Even though she'd endured the worst pain she'd felt beside childbirth, she had still been turned on. Not enough that it overrode the pain, but it was there. Then there was the feeling of elation. She'd felt happy. Really happy and calm. Her biggest problem with all this today was that Jay wanted her to tell him what
she
felt she needed help with.
Safely parked in front of her garage, Alex closed her windows and doors and sat there, trying to think of what she should tell Jay. What did she need help with? They'd discussed the kids, and she had a pretty good feeling he was going to elaborate on that. He probably had an opinion on her computer games. The main thing she needed help with was something that she'd been avoiding, and she really didn't even know what that was. She flicked open her glove compartment and a slew of paperwork fell out. Unopened letters, mostly from the bank. Although there were some from other people, they all had that look about them, and one thing was for sure, they weren't greeting cards.
This was big though. Should she tell Jay? Should she ask for help? What if it was bad? Really bad? What if they were writing to tell her that her money had run out?
* * *
Jay heard Alex's car pull into the driveway, and he typed furiously to finish the last couple of paragraphs of the chapter he was working on so he could go and see her. The last couple of weeks he'd tried a few times to work but seemed to have hit a patch of writer’s block. He'd been working on a book before he went to help out his parents, but too much time had elapsed, and he'd had trouble picking it up again. Then he'd met Alex and the kids, and all he'd wanted to do was spend time with them.
He didn't know if it was going to bed with the thought of his discussion with Alex about rules that had spurred him on but this morning, he'd found his head swirling with words, a new book was taking shape before him, and for the first time, he was one of the starring characters.
He jumped the small side fence between the front of their houses and was surprised to see Alex still sitting in the car. He knocked on the window. “Hey,” he said “You okay?”
Alex smiled. “Yeah, fine,” she said quickly getting out of the car and shutting the door. “Coffee?”
“Thanks,” he said. “Coffee would be great.”
Jay sat at the table and watched while Alex poured their coffee and put out a plate of cookies. She was very quiet.
“Thanks,” he said. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah,” she said. “I'm just a bit, I don't know. Can we do this rule thing and get it out of the way?”
“Is that's what's bothering you?”
“Kind of,” she said. “It's just that I've never done any of this before, and I think I'd feel better if I knew exactly what was expected of me.”
Jay nodded. “That's fine by me. You know you don't have to worry. None of the rules will be unreasonable or hard for you to follow.”
“I'm not worried about that, and I'm not an idiot. I can follow rules,” she said with a little more attitude than she meant to. She was nervous.
Jay frowned. “Do you have some paper and a pen or pencil?” he asked. When Alex passed them to him he started to make numbered points.
1. You will speak to me with the same respect that I give to you. NO attitude.
Alex picked at her fingernail and sighed.
Jay took a sip of his coffee. “The boys play down here this morning?” he asked, looking at the living room floor that had been clear the night before and was now covered in video games, cords, and controllers.
“Yes, but they were up early,” she said. “I was going to pick it all up, but I ran out of time and they'll use it this afternoon anyway.”
“I'm not going to tell you exactly how I think you should raise your kids, but I do want you to think about the choices you make for them, what's best for them.” Jay started to write again on the rules list.
2. I expect you to set up a proper routine for the boys and write up a set of house rules, which YOU will make them stick to. You need to figure out consequences if they break their rules or don't do their chores. You need to think about the consequences seriously, because whatever you set for them you have to enforce.
“So you mean restrictions?” Alex asked.
“If that's what you decide,” Jay said. “But you can't take away a toy for a week and then give it back after two days because they're whining and complaining.”
“What if they've been really good for those two days and they earn it back?”
“They won't earn it back until their time's up,” Jay said. “If you go back on what you say, they won't respect you.”
Alex looked far from convinced.
“If you put a punishment in place and give in to either of the boys, I'll spank you,” he said. “Hard. That will be your consequence for breaking a rule.”
“Okay. I get it,” she said, her bottom lip threatening to go into a pout of its own accord.
“You have to remember that you wanted to try this,” Jay reminded her.
“I know,” she said. “But it's hard.”
He took her hand. “It'll be okay. Why don't you sit and relax a little.”
“Now, let's talk about the house,” Jay said. He simply did not understand how she could just ignore the mess around her. There were dishes in the sink from breakfast and two baskets of laundry on the couch waiting to be folded and her computer was sitting on the table where she'd had breakfast with the boys. The only reason their cereal bowls weren't still on the table was because she'd moved them to make room for them to have coffee.