Wanted: County Knights MC (13 page)

              Just as he opened his mouth to speak, the doorbell rang. He swallowed hard. “Don’t move from that spot, Anna Nielsen. This conversation isn’t over. Not one fucking step away from where you are, got me?” I never knew a man could sound so much like a rabid animal until I heard Jackson growl so many orders at me.

              My chest hurt from the large breath I was holding, and I finally let it out once he disappeared out of the kitchen. I planted my elbows on the counter and cradled my head in my hands. What was I doing, provoking Jackson? Nothing good would come out of it, why start a fight with him?

              The idea of his arm wrapped around someone else made my stomach turn. In the last seven years of not knowing where he was or what he was doing, not a day went by that I didn’t think about him. I knew he’d moved on with his life, and that meant he’d have relationships with women. Grown women. Not innocents like me. Innocent. What really defined that word anyway? It meant one thing to Jackson, but something entirely different to other people.

              None of the guys I dated were innocent. I thought I searched for Jackson in every man I saw. Rugged. Trouble makers. I quickly was starting down the same path my mom had dragged me down. It took one horrible night a few years back for me to realize what I was doing, I was trying to replace Jackson, but they were nothing in comparison. Just a muscle head with a bag of trouble. But even those rough and tumble guys, none of them electrified my core as quickly as Jackson could. Just a stare, a quick look could put me on edge and make me want him.  And damn if he didn’t exploit that fact.

              “Pizza’s here,” he called from the hallway. I listened to his steps as they came closer. I needed to get my head on straight. When he walked into the kitchen, he slid the pizza box onto the counter and grabbed my arms. Pulling me toward him, his lips crashed down on mine before I could take a breath.

              Jackson didn’t do gentle, and that was just fine with me. His tongue licked at my lower lip, and when I didn’t open for him right away his teeth bit into my lip, dragging it downward. I couldn’t stop the groan that escaped me as his tongue slid past my lips, sweeping into my mouth. His hand cradled the back of my head, his fingers clenching and pulling my hair. The pain in my scalp mingled with the sensuous stroking of his tongue.

              When he broke off the kiss and looked down at me, my lips felt swollen, and I licked them, tasting the remnants of him. Deep wrinkles appeared on the side of his eyes as he grinned down at me.  A strand of hair had fallen over his brow, giving him a boyish look. His fingers didn’t release my hair as he spoke. “I had a feeling that would put you in a better head space.”

              I blinked. When had my hands moved up to his chest? My fingers were curled into his t-shirt, clinging to him. 

              “You’re not some chick off the street, Anna. I would never treat you like that.” His words were said with sincerity and his eyes matched his tone. The warmth crept back into them. My hair was released and he brought his hand forward, trailing down my jaw until it curled under my chin. “My Anna.” He whispered so softly, I wondered if I had heard him correctly. “For now. For now you are mine and only mine.”

“Until you’re done with me,” I managed to say, looking at him so pointedly in the eye unsettled my resolve to remain distant.

              “Until we are done with each other.” He gave my chin a little shake. “Say it. Say that you’re mine.”

              “I’m yours, Jackson.”
I always have been.
“Until we are sick of each other,” I added with a small smile. How easily he could always turn my mood around.

              “Mmmhmm.” He kissed me again, quick and hard, before completely releasing me. “Let’s eat.” He pulled out the stools for us to sit and pulled the box in front of us. No plates needed, we ate right over the pizza.

              “I need to know what’s going on, Jackson.” I tiptoed into the forbidden territory between bites of the mushroom side of the pizza.

              “I’ll tell you what you need to know later.” He didn’t even look over at me as he gave that directive. I wanted to shove him off his stool.

              “What I need to know is everything.” I tossed my crust back into the box. 

              “Still don’t eat the crust?” he asked incredulously. “I thought only kids put the crusts back.”

              “Well, I thought only kids ran away from home. Turns out we were both wrong.” I slid off my stool and swiped my bag from the counter, heading out of the kitchen in search of a bathroom and bed. I needed to get some work done and go to sleep, but Jackson was at my side in a flash. His hand gripping my shoulder and spinning me back around to face him. I barely had time to acknowledge he was there before he hoisted me up over his shoulder. I lost my grip on my bag in the process and it fell to the floor.

              “I’ve had enough of that bratty mouth of yours.” He slid his hand up my thigh, resting it on my ass. “I think it’s time we had a talk.”

CHAPTER THIRTEEN
 

              From the sound of his voice, I didn’t think he actually meant talk as in exchange words in an open form of communication. The hard slap he delivered to my ass when I tried to buck off his shoulder explained pretty well what his idea of talk was going to mean.

              “I wasn’t being bratty.” I swung my fists at his back, but he didn’t seem to notice as he never even broke stride as he marched up the stairs to the second floor.

              “Oh, I think you were. At least a little. Maybe you didn’t believe me, maybe you wanted to see what happens to naughty girls.” His grip may have been harsh around my legs, but I could hear a little playfulness laced in his words. Maybe he wasn’t really pissed.

              “Why didn’t you want to see me when you went away? Why did you just drop me like that?” I asked. His shoulder dug into my stomach, I needed a distraction if I wasn’t’ going to lose what little pizza I had just eaten.

              A door banged as he kicked it open and I closed my eyes as he tossed me onto the bed. I bounced before I caught myself and braced my body against my elbows.

              “You want to know everything, but you haven’t given me shit,” I yelled up at him. That did it. His face burned red, and his eyes darkened. I watched in shocked silence as he unbuckled his belt and ripped it from his jeans. “No.” I pushed my body to move and scrambled to the other side of the bed. “You are not going to beat me.” I slid off the bed and stood, staring at him. The barrier wasn’t much, he could climb over it, jump over it, or simply walk around it to get me. The door was behind him. To my back was a wall and a window.

              “There’s that potty mouth again.” He folded the belt in his hand, not looking disgruntled at all. “I’m not going to beat you. I’m not like your step-dad.” My eyes went to his belt. True, my step-dad never hit me with a belt, it was always a fist. He didn’t care where it landed, my stomach, my back, my face, just so long as his closed fist knocked me down so he could get a good kick in before stumbling away.

              “Your belt.” I nodded at him. I couldn’t explain it, but the sight of him standing there, his muscles tense beneath the t-shirt, his determined eyes set on me, and the thick black leather belt in his hands, didn’t frighten me. If anything, I could feel my body reacting to him, my panties started to dampen the longer I stared at the leather strap.

              “You are going to come around the bed, bend over and present that sexy ass to me for your spanking. You’ll take five good licks of this belt, apologize for being mouthy, and then you’ll get a reward for being a good girl. Once we are done with all of that, if you do everything you’re told, you’ll get your damn answers.”

              “How is this different than my step-dad?” I swallowed hard. One definite difference could be evidenced in my panties. The longer he stared at me like that, with the hunger and control, the wetter I became. The more I wanted to submit to his will.

              “You didn’t have a choice with that asshole. He didn’t care about you, he only wanted to hurt you. I’m going to discipline you, put you in your place so we can get on to the rewarding part. But your mouth has written a few checks and it’s time to cash them.”

              “I choose not to have a belting.”

              He smiled. “Cute. But no, you’re getting your spanking, naughty girl. By choice I mean you can choose to be good and get lots of rewards, or you can choose to be a bad girl and take your spankings. That’s your choice. Although, I suppose you could choose not to take your spanking, but then you are also choosing not to get your reward—and you won’t get your reward until you take your spanking.”

              All his code talk and repeating the word spanking had my mind twirling and unable to catch up. “What’s my reward?” I asked before I thought better of it.

              “Your orgasm. You won’t have another one until you’ve taken your punishment.” He might as well have stroked my clit with the way his words affected my body. My pussy clenched and my nipples hardened under my shirt. “And if you’re thinking you’ll just give yourself one, remember you said you’re mine…which means you can’t touch that pussy unless I give the okay.”

              I hadn’t read that fine print down in the kitchen, but damn if the idea didn’t sent my juices flower even faster.

              “So you choose.” He took a few steps back until he reached the chest against the wall. Crossing his arms over his chest, he leaned against it, taking an entirely too casual stance. Didn’t he understand what he was asking me to do? To subject myself to a spanking like an errant child? Had I really been a brat to him? Had I pushed him on purpose to see if he would actually spank me?

              I realized I held no fear. When my step-dad came home drunk and angry, I’d shivered in a corner of the room, praying to go unnoticed. And when he raised a hand to me, I shook in terror and dread. I waited for those feelings to resurface, but, as usual, looking at Jackson calmed me. He was my center. 

              Dammit.

              “Fine,” I huffed, and climbed back over the bed, turning around and sliding off, keeping my back to him. I didn’t want to see the satisfied look on his face at his win. I bent over, pressing my body against his mattress, taking in the smell of his comforter. 

              He laughed softly from behind me. “Take off your pants and your panties, Anna. Then spread your legs so your feet are shoulder length apart.” 

              Didn’t he understand how humiliating it was already to subject myself to his Neanderthal punishment? He needed to add to it by making me strip for him? If I positioned myself the way he described, there would be no way he wouldn’t see how wet I was, how much I wanted him to touch me. 

              “Anna, I can help you, but I’d have to add two lashes for disobedience.” He didn’t sound as though he would mind all that much. 

I pushed all the air out of my lungs and went to work on doing what he said. I didn’t look at him though, no, he could just keep his eyes on my back, or my ass. Using the heel of my foot I took off my shoes and pushed them to the side. I slipped out of my jeans and tossed them on the floor. I pushed my panties down to my ankles and kicked them on top of my jeans. I could already feel the heat in my cheeks just from knowing he could see me, would know in just a minute how much his horrible behavior turned me on.

              I walked my feet outward until my legs were spread to his specifications, then bent over the damn bed again.  I gripped the comforter and buried my face in it. If the spanking didn’t kill me, the mortification of that moment surely would.

              The floor boards creaked beneath his boots as he stepped to me. A featherlike touch made contact with my upturned bottom. He dragged his fingertips along my smooth backside. “Such a nice ass. Smooth and creamy white. Perfect.” He gripped my cheek hard in his palm, his fingernails dug into my flesh just enough to get a reaction from me. “Keep your head up, Anna,” he said when he released me and walked to the other side of me. “You’ve never been spanked before, and normally I’d warm your ass up before taking a belt to it, but I need this to drive home what I expect from you. I expect honesty. I expect straight answers when I ask a question. I expect a respectful tone at all times. I expect obedience, and I expect you not to hide anything from me.”              

              The last statement caught me off guard. I looked at him over my shoulder then. I needed to see his face, to see if he knew something. Nothing. His eyes were on my ass, watching his fingers trail down toward the curve of my cheeks. “Are you ready?”

              Of course I wasn’t! “Yes.” I nodded and looked forward again. It was at that moment I realized his blinds weren’t closed. I could see him in the reflection of the glass against the darkened night. He didn’t look down at me with a menacing grin, he looked almost pained as he brought the belt back. My eyes clenched shut when I saw his arm move forward.

              Nothing in the world could have prepared me for the searing fire that lit up across my ass when the belt landed against both of my cheeks. I screamed and scramble up onto the bed, covering my ass with my hands. He looked at me with a mixture of surprise and irritation.

              “Get back in position, Anna. Now, or that one won’t count.” 

Tears burned my eyes, but I managed to scramble back into position. I wondered again what the hell was wrong with me, complying with him. 

“Now, tell me the first thing I expect from you.”

              I bit my lip. My ass burned already, and I had four more lashes to go. “You expect honesty,” I muttered, and just as I finished, the belt landed again, just below the first lash. I yelled out again, but managed to stay put. My fingers dug into the comforter and the tears spilled down my cheeks. “You expect straight answers when you ask me a question.” I tried to clench my ass, but with my legs spread it wasn’t as easy to manage and the belt landed again, inciting another fire in a new part of my bottom. “You expect a respectful tone.” I gulped in a deep breath, readying myself for the fourth blow. I didn’t have to wait long, the crack of the leather against my ass filled the room but didn’t compete with my grunted curse.

              “Language.” He warned with a soft slap of his hand against my thigh. Language?  Every sentence he uttered was laced with curse words, but I couldn’t let one slip while he set my ass on fire?  “What’s the next thing I expect, Anna?” His hand ran over the last lash of the belt, the cool touch of his fingers only made the sting more apparent.

              “You expect obedience.” My throat felt raw as I said the words. He never knew me as a rebel, to his memory I walked the straight and narrow. Never got into trouble, stayed the course when things got rocky. Only once did I walk out of my little box, and that one time had been enough to assure myself I’d never do it again. But I knew Jackson wasn’t talking about that, he was talking about complete obedience. To everything. To sit when he said sit, eat when he said, to let his goons babysit me when he said. I was grown up now, and I didn’t need a babysitter anymore. I may still have stuck to the rules of the road as much as possible, but I could do what I wanted, if I wanted. He was asking me to give that up, to hand over my freedom. As much as I wanted to rebel against him in that moment, it was Jackson, and I would always obey him.

              The last lash of the belt landed just below my ass at the top of my thighs, bringing with it a more intense burn that sent me scrambling up the bed again. Tears flowed easily now as I tried to rub away the sting. 

He reached for me and dragged me off the bed, pushing my face into his chest and pinning my hands behind me. His belt clambered on the floor when he dropped it. “Last expectation,” he whispered into my hair just before her placed a soft kiss to my head.

              “You expect me not to hide anything from you,” I repeated, and promptly snuggled deeper into his chest. God, he smelled good. 

His arms wrapped around me tightly, holding me close as I let the tears fall. “Shh, it’s over, Anna.” He pushed the hair away from my wet face. I didn’t understand why I was crying at the time, the spanking hurt, but nothing like the beatings my step dad gave me and I never showed him how much those hurt.  

              Then I realized the difference. When my step-dad beat on me I didn’t feel remorse, it hadn’t been my fault. He was just acting like the drunk buffoon he was, but with Jackson it was different. I had been pushing him all day, testing to see how much teasing, how much irritation I could send his way before he pushed back.

              “I’m sorry,” I found myself saying as he peeled me off his chest. “I…you pissed me off so much with all your ordering me around, I just…I pushed you.”

              “Yeah. “ He laughed. “You did. Other men, Anna, they won’t demand these things from you, but while you’re mine, it’s what I expect.”

             
While I’m his
. What exactly was the expiration date, I wanted to know, but didn’t ask. 

              “You’re a lot bossier than I remember. I mean, you were always bossy, but not so mean. Not mean, just, well, you never turned that voice on me. The one you used on the other kids who pissed you off.”