Embraced (16 page)

He cleared his throat and rearranged the papers on his desk for the umpteenth time. That was not what this spanking was about, though. This spanking was a long time in coming. He’d owed her this one from the beginning of the summer, and was just able to get around to administering. Meg had visited his sister Amanda every summer during her summer vacation for a few weeks. This summer, she had driven all however many hundreds of miles while barely recovered from a serious bout of pneumonia.

She’d had asthmatic complications to the pneumonia, and the thought of her hacking and coughing her way, alone, across most of the country made Barrett livid.

And Meg had absolutely no remorse regarding her decision, he knew. Well, he grimaced, realizing it was time to stop stalling and get on with it, and he aimed to rearrange her thinking on this matter, forcibly. Barrett stood and joined her on the comfortable leather couch, taking her smaller hand in his big paw. He met her eyes, and could already see the tears shining in them.

Meg had never wanted to run from Barrett more than now.

She knew this was going to be a hard spanking, much more like the first one he’d given her for nearly setting his family homestead on fire, than the short, sharp lessons she’d experienced lately.

She’d never realized how lax her language had become until she spent more time in his company. He never once hesitated to pull down her pants and panties on the spot and spank her to tears, all the while delivering as blistering a lecture as he was a

- 134 -

BacksideOfLove.com

Embraced

spanking. That was saying nothing about that horrid rule he had about not leaving the bed when she’d just come. Meg couldn’t describe it, but sometimes when he pleasured her, it was just too intense for her to take, and her mind reverted to fight or flight mentality. Well, she was definitely going to lose a fight with her overgrown, muscular mate, but the flight was entirely feasible . . .

until he outlawed it. He’d laid down the law on her bottom at least three nights since they’d come home, and she knew he would never rescind that rule. Somehow, she was going to have to find a way to cope that didn’t cost her a painful trip over his lap. And it usually didn’t stop there, either. More often than not, once he’d reddened her bare fanny, he’d lay her back on her sore bottom and press his very full erection into her already wet and ready pussy, riding her almost roughly, and occasionally squeezing a throbbing bottom cheek as a reminder.

Just thinking about it made her blush deeply, and she had too look away. “I’m sorry; I shouldn’t have let this go on so long, but I’ve just been so busy since we got back that I haven’t had a chance to deal with you properly until now.” Having said that, Barrett mulled it over in his mind. He had, essentially, gotten back to the ranch with his brand new wife and reverted to his old workaholic tendencies. Dinners together were rare, and even his weekends were occupied by business. Maybe that was a contributing factor to her naughty behavior. Hmmmmm. He’d have to think on that some more. He definitely missed her company, and if he’d been able to take so much time off over the summer, then there was no reason why he couldn’t delegate now to spend more time at home with his wife.

“That’s okay,” she said quietly. “It’s not like I’m not getting spanked fairly regularly anyway.”

“Yes, but discipline should be timely. On the spot, if possible.”

- 135 -

BacksideOfLove.com

Carolyn Faulkner

Meg added wryly, “Oh, it has been,” and Barrett grinned, knowing how much his woman hated to be pants and panties down over his knee in the kitchen getting a red bottom because she sassed him or used a bad word.

“But not in this case. But maybe it’s better,” he said thoughtfully. “I treasure you more now than I did then, Meg. If you’d gotten seriously ill on the trip, or had an accident or whatever, I wouldn’t have you in my life. And I’d be much poorer for it, as a person and as a man.” He kissed her hand, and saw a tear trail down her cheek.

“Barrett, sometimes I think I don’t deserve you,” Meg through her arms around him impulsively. He came out with the most touching things at the most unexpected times!

Barrett cradled her head against his shoulder, caressing the red-gold locks. “No, Darlin’. It’s entirely the other way ‘round.”

His kiss was shatteringly tender, then he gently dried her tears with his big thumbs. “Do you want to tell me why you did it?”

Meg sat back, pressing the backs of her hands to her eyes.

“You know why I did it. I didn’t want to spend time with you, and Mandy had assured me that you weren’t going to be here those two weeks. I wanted to see her, and so I came down. Wild horses couldn’t have kept me away. Mandy and I are very close, still are.”

Amanda had moved out, despite sincere protests from both Barrett and Meg that she was a part of the family and should stay.

Meg had felt awful until they sat down and talked, and Amanda told her that it was not such an impromptu decision, that she had been saving and planning to move out for the past six months. So the newlyweds had the house to themselves, which meant there was never a time or a place that Meg couldn’t expect to find herself

- 136 -

BacksideOfLove.com

Embraced

getting a butt blistering if the situation called for it. There was no one to hear her screams.

“I know you are, Angel-girl. But if something had happened – “

“But nothing happened.”

He gave her his “don’t-argue-with-me-young-lady” look, chin tucked down against his chest and eyes rolled upwards to stare at her warningly. “That is not a valid defense of your behavior, and you know it.”

“Says you!” Meg really didn’t mean to sound sassy, but it must’ve come out that way anyway.

Barrett didn’t see the need to engage in this discussion any longer. As a matter of fact, he didn’t even see the need to use the straight-backed chair. He grabbed her and had her shorts and undies around her knees in one swipe, then pulled her over his lap for a hard series of smacks.

*SMACK*SWAT*SLAP*SPANK*WHACK*SMACK*S

WAT*

“Yes, young lady,” he agreed, emphasizing each word with a stinging reminder to her quickly reddening butt, “Says me. And what I say goes. And I say if you ever do something so stupid again I’ll get out my father’s paddle and give you something to really cry about.” *SPANK*SLAP*SPANK*WHACK*SMACK*

He had manacled her outside wrist with his thick fingers, and a thickly muscled arm lay firmly across her back. She wasn’t going anywhere until he deemed she’d been punished enough, and it was going to be a while before he reached that point. His broad

- 137 -

BacksideOfLove.com

Carolyn Faulkner

hand *smacked* down one leg, then up the other, alternated between cheeks, spanking top, middle, bottom over and over, concentrating the majority of *spanks* on that ultra-sensitive area where her full, curvy bottom melted into thigh. Sitting down for the rest of the week would not be a fun experience. Barrett didn’t neglect the backs of her thighs, either, raining down *slap* after sharp *slap* on that tender flesh.

Meg screamed and cried, begged and pleaded, all to no avail, as usual. Promises of good behavior in the future never made up for past indiscretions; she learned this the hard way. Salty tears fell on the worn leather as she sobbed her heart out; her mind tattooed with the inexorable rhythm and pain of his firm discipline.

He paused to say, “Twenty more good hard strokes, my love. Then we’ll be done.”

OH, NO!!, Meg thought. The last twenty would be the hardest. And she didn’t have to wait for the torture of full strength, all-out *swats* to start stinging her already swollen, plum-red cheeks. He began immediately, keeping up a completely merciless, steady beat as if he had a metronome to keep time for him. Meg had expelled all of her breath on the first stroke, and wasn’t able to inhale until around the eighth. The pain was unbearable, and she struggled mightily to get away. He quelled her wiggling by clamping his arm down as easily if he were pinning a butterfly, never letting her disrupt his painful rhythm. By the twelfth stroke, she was breathless again, unable to scream or moan for lack of oxygen. Somewhere around the sixteenth *spank*, she regained her voice and screamed at the top of her lungs as the last four strokes fell on the tender-sweet spank spot he had favored with his attentions until the area was almost purple.

Barrett had continued his tradition of keeping her in place afterwards. At least in a more formal disciplinary spanking like

- 138 -

BacksideOfLove.com

Embraced

this one, he felt that laying helpless and sobbing exhaustedly from a very thorough little-girl punishment on her bare bottom, helped her acknowledge her place as his wife and his as the husband and head of the house. She wasn’t struggling any more, just sobbing quietly, pitifully. He kept her immobile with her wrist against the small of her back, not offering comfort just yet. Barrett wanted her to admit her error before he forgave her. For her own sake, he hoped she would no longer be defiant.

“Meagan, say you’re sorry and it’ll be all over,” he said softly, giving her a way out of disgrace and into his open, comforting arms. He literally ached to hold her and reassure her of his love.

With her free hand, she wiped tears and hair off her face to look back at him, face all swollen and snuffing her nose. “And if-if I don’t s-say I’m s-sorry?”

He sighed. “Then I will give you double the last count –

forty strokes. Then I will double that, if necessary. We will be here all night, my girl, until you realize your mistake. I won’t have you thinking you can repeat such behavior. Do as you’re told and say you’re sorry, Meg. Or I promise you forty more strokes like the last twenty, only I’ll be angrier.”

Silence. Oh, God, she was going to be stubborn, the little cuss!

“I’m not going to wait all evening, Meagan Costas,” he warned sternly, executing a sharp slap onto her burning flesh.

It was that twenty-first slap on her already swollen and abused nates that convinced Meg that she should definitely think twice about doing something like that again. That meant she was sorry she’d done it in the first place, didn’t it?

- 139 -

BacksideOfLove.com

Carolyn Faulkner

“I-I’m s-sorrryyyyy!!!”

Barrett closed his eyes briefly, thankful he didn’t have to carry out his threat – although he certainly would have if she hadn’t repented. Then he turned her in his arms to cradle her against his chest, letting her cry herself out as he stroked her hair and rubbed her back soothingly. “There’s my girl,” he murmured against the crown of her head.

He held her to him tightly for a long time, rocking her occasionally and wiping away copious tears. Meg was limp in his arms. Though it was still early, he tucked her into their bed, on her tummy, shhhing her murmured protests with his lips to hers. “No, Sweetie. I want you to get some rest. You know how a good spanking tires you out.”

“But it’s only – “

His finger over her lips cut her off. “I know what’s best for you, Angel. Just go to sleep, and I’ll join you in a few hours.”

Meg was not about to dare to argue any further, but found she drifted easily into sleep just after he closed the door quietly.

~ ~ ~

She decided a while later that it was time they started being a little more social as a couple – if Barrett had his way, he’d never allow her out of the bedroom, even to cook. He threatened occasionally to restrict her from wearing clothes while he was home with her, and had already ripped an old cotton t-shirt completely off her in his eagerness to satisfy his need for her one afternoon.

- 140 -

BacksideOfLove.com

Embraced

To test his theory about her bad behavior, he began to delegate more work to his vice presidents, and spent much more time at home with his lovely, luscious bride, making love to her any time the thought struck – in or around the pool, in front of the fireplace in the living room, once on the kitchen counter, and, on the dining room table, he laid her out like a sumptuous buffet and licked his way from one end to the other. They rode their land together, and he was proud to see that she was becoming an accomplished horsewoman. Bookstore owners got used to seeing them together as they scoured the shelves for the latest books on archeology, then split up – him toward the Sci-Fi section and Meg toward the romance section first, then on to horror to see if there were any vampire books worth her perusal.

He had been right. With his steadying, consistent presence, there became fewer incidences where immediate or prolonged discipline was necessary. At one point, it had been a week since he’d had to up-end her and crack his hand against her bare bottom.

That was, at this point, a record, but one he was sure she would break as she settled into his expectations of her behavior.

“So who’s going to be our first victim?” he was asking, as Meg poured over recipe books while bent fetchingly over the counter, as if offering her bottom for a paddling. He was definitely savoring the view.

“I don’t know. Who would you suggest?”

Barrett thought a minute. “How ‘bout Jake?”

Meg got a truly evil grin. “Oh, yeaaaaaaah. And we then we can invite Mandy over, too, and watch the sparks fly!!!”

- 141 -

BacksideOfLove.com

Carolyn Faulkner

“C’mere, woman,” he ordered, and she simpered over, offering him her ponytail. “What’m I supposed to do with a hunk of your hair?” He looked confused.

“Well, when you issue a command like that, you sound like a Neanderthal. I figured the next thing you were going to do was drag me around by my hair – Oooh!”

He grabbed her and pulled her between his legs where he was seated at the kitchen table, “Neanderthal, am I?” He growled and Meg giggled, which made Barrett frown in mock-seriousness.

“You’re not supposed to giggle at a caveman, Honey.”