Alex was very disappointed with herself as she hurried home to open the door. This went against what she'd always thought she believed in, that once you were an adult, you were the boss of your life and your destiny.
* * *
As she covered up her youngest, safe and warm in his own bed, she sighed. It was great to see them interact today with Jay. Would it have been like that for them if their dad were alive? Probably, she thought, but the truth was that he was gone, and he wasn't coming back. She let them run a little wild, she bought them things, and she sometimes let them get away with things that she shouldn't because she wanted them to be happy. But the one thing she hadn't been able to supply the boys with was a dad. They had her brother-in-law, but it wasn't the same as having a real dad.
She closed the door of Aaron's room, stepped out into the hall, and found Jay still waiting for her in the doorway. “Hi,” she said. She suddenly felt shy again and self-conscious. She'd been borderline rude to the man after he'd showed them all such a lovely evening. “I may have overreacted back there.”
“Uh huh. You know, letting someone help you doesn't make you weak,” he said. “And doing things the hard way and alone doesn't make you strong. Being astute enough to know you need help does that.”
“Okay,” she said. “I get it, and thank you for the lovely evening.”
“Well, I guess I better go,” he said. “When did you want to go out for dinner?”
“Dinner?” she asked surprised.
“Yes, dinner.” he said. “The bet?”
“Oh. Well. I… You still want to go out for dinner with me?”
“You weren't going to hedge on a bet, were you?”
“No, of course not,” she said. Not much, she thought. “I'll have to check with my sister. See when she's free to babysit.”
“Well, good,” he said with a smile. “The sooner the better. Just let me know.” Before she had a chance to answer, he was gone.
Alex wondered what it would feel like to have his soft lips on hers. They were going to dinner. Would he kiss her? She hoped so. She watched him step over the small dividing fence with a quick wave, and she closed the door.
Alex watched Jay walk away from the house through the window. He seemed a little deflated. She wished she could have just smiled and told him he was the kind of man she'd always been looking for. Maybe he was. Who knew? There was still dinner to look forward to.
* * *
“Oy! Did it not occur to you to ask who was there before you opened up your door in the middle of the night?” Jay asked when Alex opened the door without asking who was there.
“It's
not
the middle of the night, Jay,” she said. “It's ten-thirty!”
“It wouldn't matter what time it was to a stranger.”
“Can I help you with something?” Alex asked.
“Actually, I brought you something,” he said reaching into his jacket.
She took the book he held out to her like it was going to burn her. “Is this one of yours?” she asked hesitantly.
“Uh huh,” he said with a grin. “A little light reading for you while we're waiting for our date.”
“Thanks,” Alex said. She couldn't help but smile. His enthusiastic grin was contagious and not a little bit irresistible. “Well I guess I better…”
“Go and read my book?” he asked.
“Maybe,” she said.
“Okay, well, I better go,” Jay said backing down the path with a giant grin.
Before she could think of a reason to ask him to stay, he was gone.
* * *
Comfortable as she was going to get in her bed by herself, Alex propped herself up on extra pillows and examined the outside of the book. “Nice,” she said, taking a sip of the glass of wine she'd brought to bed with her. She gave the lawman on the cover an appreciative look. Of course people would probably take him a lot more seriously if he put his shirt on, she giggled. She could just imagine being pulled over by this guy. Yum. She wouldn't complain. His suntanned, rock-hard abs weren't hard to look at, that's for sure.
By the second chapter, Alex was hooked. Jett, the very alpha sheriff with the spectacular abs, well that's how he was in her head anyway, had to keep an eye on a twenty-something girl called Kodie, who had a stalker ex-boyfriend chasing her. By all accounts, especially Jett's, the ex was very dangerous and was known to have colluded with a criminal element. Jett was so certain that Kodie was in danger that he installed her in his house with him. As far as he was concerned, she wasn't leaving his sight until her stalker had been caught.
Alex rolled her eyes as she started reading. Jett had the bossy know-it-all thing happening. He overruled Kodie at every turn. Interestingly, it was like he shared a brain with Jay. Oh yeah, he did.
Unable to catch the perp, Jett and Kodie's living situation went on for weeks. Not that Jett was complaining. As the days went by, he got used to her being around. Then, he was glad she was around, and before long he was quite attached to her. Not that he admitted that. To himself or her. The only thing he admitted was that she irritated the daylights out of him. He'd never met a woman more in need of a spanking in his life.
When a lead finally came through on his phone with an address where the ex could be found, Kodie saw it. Jett told the headstrong girl in no uncertain terms what would happen if she didn't stay put. She smiled and told him what he wanted to hear, that she had no intention of looking on her own.
Was Jay sure this wasn't her mother that wrote this book? Alex thought.
“Don't do it,” she found herself saying as Kodie managed to avoid the security that had been guarding the exits and sneak off. Funnily enough, she didn't even realize at the time that as the book went on, she was cheering for Jett, not Kodie. This girl deserved to have her ass spanked. When the psycho captured her and had her tied up in a basement, she was sympathetic but also couldn't wait for her to be rescued so that she could get her due. Her due? Alex thought. When exactly did she start thinking along those lines? It was a revelation. She actually agreed with Jett. Did this mean she agreed with Jay as well? Maybe, but this was fiction. But then, Jay wrote it, so there had to be a certain element of Jay's life and beliefs in it. Well, from what he'd told her anyway.
Jett had been so angry in the car on the way back to his house he'd barely spoken to the little brat. Even when she'd suggested that it was perfectly safe to be driven back to her own apartment now that her ex had been arrested, he'd only been able to scoff. He couldn't ever remember being so pissed as he was at the moment. Of all the silly hair-brained schemes. How DARE she defy him like that? Well, he'd told her what would happen, and she'd gone ahead and done it anyway. As far as he was concerned, you didn't write a check that you couldn't cash. She'd asked for a good hard spanking as well as if she'd asked him herself with words, and by God she was going to get what she was looking for. He did need to calm down though, so a short bout in the corner wouldn't do her any harm.
Alex rubbed her already swollen and throbbing clit, lubricated with her own juices that poured out of her as she read Jay's stern ramblings. When she saw the word ‘spanking’ there in print, sparks of tingly pleasure pinged through her. She pushed her panties out of the way so her fingers could delve further into her aching pussy. It felt so sensitive down there already with her hair removed, and she was wetter and hotter than she could remember ever being.
“You're not going to spank me,” Kodie said tentatively. It was half a statement and half a question with a whole lot of hope.
“Take your pants down and stand in the corner,” Jett said. “You know what I told you.”
“Well see, I KNOW what you told me, but well, I had no way of knowing whether you really meant it or not, now did I?” she said a little hopefully and with a whole lot of sass. “I was erring on the side of you bluffing.”
“Well, that was a mistake,” he said gruffly.
“Exactly!” she said with the biggest smile she could plant on her face. “Now, I that I KNOW I wouldn't DREAM of disobeying you again.”
“I won't tell you again,” he said.
“But I don't think you realize just how sorry I am, or how grateful that you saved me and caught the bad guy and all.”
Jett spun her around and yanked her tights and panties down to her ankles in one fell swoop. He faced her towards the corner and helped her get there in record time, with a solid smack to her bare bottom.
“OW!” she yelped. She so badly wanted to stomp her foot, but she didn't dare. That one smack had nearly set her ass on fire.
“
Ooh,” Alex moaned. Her own voice surprised her as it escaped with the surge of pleasure that thumped from between her legs, right up inside her, making her squirm. She tried to spread her swollen lips apart with one hand so she could dip her fingers deeper, but she almost dropped the book, so she went back to just caressing herself gently. She had to see what happened. She skipped the bit where Jett went to another room to cool down and cut to the chase. The spanking.
“Come on over here,” Jett said.
Kodie looked over her shoulder with a pout, assessing Jett's mood. He seemed calmer.
“Now, Kodie,” he said. His tone wasn't angry, but it wasn't exactly friendly either.
“Okay. I'm coming,” she said, trying her best to keep the sarcasm to a minimum. “It's hard to walk with my pants around my ankles.”
“Do you need me to help you to move a bit faster?” Jett asked, his eyebrow raised.
“No, no, I'll manage,” Kodie said, suddenly perfecting the about-to-be-spanked shuffle.
She stood at his side chewing the inside of her cheek nervously.
Alex's busy hand stilled for a few minutes while Kodie stood waiting for her spanking. Her heart was pounding, and she was holding her breath. She could almost feel the girl's nervousness. Once again, it left her imagining what it would be like to be standing where Kodie was. Standing or laying over Jay's knee, she thought, as the story progressed.
The air left Kodie's lungs with a whoosh, and she found herself tipped none too gently over the sheriff's knee.
“The first thing you have to learn is to DO. AS. YOU’RE. TOLD,” Jett said, emphasizing each word with a sharp spank on her bare cheeks.
She actually had to fill her lungs again with air before she could scream, but scream she did, and loudly, as soon as she was able. Never before had she felt anything like the sharp stinging and burning that was pounding through her with every painful spank. “Stop!” she yelled. “You're killing me!”
Jett rolled his eyes and kept on spanking. “When the law tells you to stay put, you STAY PUT!” he said, alternating smacks from one cheek to another. “If I tell you to stay put, then you do exactly that!”
Alex didn't know what to feel. She had both hands on the book now, pleasuring herself shelved for the moment while she tried to figure this out. The way Jett was treating Kodie seemed harsh, but what Kodie had done was really dangerous. Dangerous and downright stupid. It wasn't like she didn't know what he was going to do. She kind of deserved this punishment.
Misguided self-preservation urged Kodie to save herself. She suddenly flew into fight or flight mode. She kicked, she clawed at his legs, she even tried to bite through his thick denim jeans. The only thing that stopped her was her greater need to scream.
Jett narrowed his eyes and tipped Kodie further forward on his left leg and then clamped his right leg over both of hers, effectively trapping her.
Her eyes widened as she felt herself suddenly clamped between Jett's legs. She had a terrible feeling that things were about to get a whole lot worse.
“When I say ‘ANYTHING’, I mean it,” he said spanking one cheek repeatedly in the same spot.
When fight or flight doesn't work, then use the only tool that's left to you. Beg, she thought. “Please! Please, Jett!” she begged. “I'm sorry!”
“You should be sorry,” he said turning her other cheek a bright shade of pink. “Do you know how scared I was when I realized that maniac had you?”
Kodie didn't realize at first that Jett had stopped spanking. Her ass was still throbbing and burning.
Jett helped her to stand, and then he pulled her between his legs and cuddled her as she sobbed.
“Don't ever do that to me again,” he said into her hair.
“I'm sorry,” she sobbed. “I thought I could talk to him,” she said into his neck. She was so embarrassed. Not because she was nearly naked, but because she'd been so headstrong and stupid, and because she now realized what she hadn't until now. She loved this man.
Alex was relieved when the story switched to Jett's point of view. Maybe she might get a glimpse into what Jett or Jay was thinking after he spanked Kodie.
Jay held Kodie between his legs and kissed her hair. Her ear. Her cheek. He badly wanted to kiss her sweet lips. Until he realized she was missing, she'd just been an annoying pest with a smart mouth. He didn't realize how much she'd come to mean to him.
“Kodie,” he said, his voice filled with pent up emotion. “I love you. I couldn't stand to lose you.”
Her eyes sprung open. “I love you too,” she said shyly.
“I want you to listen to this though, darlin’, because I mean it. This is who I am. I will keep you safe and I will see that you have everything you need. But there'll be no taking the obey out of our vows. If you'll marry me, that is. I won't hesitate to bare your bottom and spank you rosy if I think you deserve it.”