I nodded and relaxed, when I hadn’t realized I was tense. I had time. I wanted to ask if he’d really cut the asshole’s dick off after I left, but I didn’t want to know for sure.
Almost as if he knew what I was thinking, Bubbles said, “This is who I am, Half-pint. I take care of problems. I won’t hurt you, but if you’re afraid of me, you can go back to your room.” He gave a deep, gruff chuckle. “Well, other than the spankin’, but that’s different.”
“I’m not afraid of you. Grossed out and a little horrified at the extremes you went to, but I get it, and I appreciate you doing what had to be done to keep me and my family safe. I’m glad my sister works for ya’ll. I feel better about her job, knowing she’ll be safe while she does it.”
“Do you have homework?”
“Just some reading, and I need to look over my notes. An hour, maybe two.”
“I’ll take you to class in the morning and then go to work, and I’ll pick you up when you get out.” He kissed the top of my head. “You should be able to start driving again in a few days, but I’d like to keep you here a few weeks — until Fury’s healed and had time to decide whether to take retribution or not. You’ll need to carry that three-eighty with you until we’re sure.”
“I can’t take it on school grounds.”
“You’ll have it in the glove compartment. Speaking of which, we won’t have to report your car stolen anymore, unless you just want a new one.”
I shook my head. “I like my car. It isn’t much, but it’s mine.”
He kissed the top of my head again. “It’s a dependable means of transportation with a kick-ass little engine and a respectable racing transmission. You’ve done well, Half-pint. You’re going to make an awesome hair person.”
I laughed. “Hair person?”
“Whatever the fuck they’re called. You’ll be great.”
“Stylist, colorist. I want to be known for giving people great colors.”
“I like your hair. It suits you.”
“You really aren’t going to… do anything unless I ask for it?”
“That’s the deal. No rush. Whenever you’re ready, and if you’re never ready, so be it.”
I sighed. “I should get in the shower. Are you going to tell my sister you spanked me?”
“I won’t volunteer it, but I won’t lie to her if it comes up.”
I repressed a sigh and got out of bed.
“Take jeans and a t-shirt into the bathroom with you. You can change into shorts afterwards, but you’re gonna want denim on that adorable ass. Come straight to my room when you leave the bathroom.” I nodded, but he said, “That isn’t how you acknowledge an order in this house.”
Fuck. He’d practically ordered me to call him ‘Sir’ once before and I’d avoided it, but something told me he wouldn’t let me get away with that again. Everything inside me tightened when I said, “Yes, Sir.” My clit throbbed, which was all kinds of wrong, and I turned and left as fast as I could without running.
I stayed in the shower way longer than necessary. I’d practically begged for this, but now I was worried. Would it really hurt? Did I want it to? Would I be disappointed or relieved if it didn’t? I couldn’t answer my own questions.
When I finally exited the bathroom with my damp hair in a bun at the back of my head, barefoot, in jeans and a thin tee without a bra, I was a nervous wreck. I’d forgotten to take the bra into the bathroom before my shower, and I didn’t have the nerve to stop off by my room and get it.
I crossed my arms over my chest before I entered his bedroom, and stopped a few steps inside the door. He’d brought a chair in from the deck, and was sitting on it, waiting. He wore jeans and no shirt, and his feet were also bare. My eyes focused on his huge-assed arms. His muscles had muscles. What the fuck had I gotten myself into?
“The purpose of today’s exercise is to demonstrate what can happen if you make low grades in the future, but it’s also about accepting that you need correction. I promised you I’d help make sure you make it out of school and into your dream job if you stay here, and this is one of the many ways I’ll work to keep that promise. For your part, it’s about understanding bad decisions and accepting the consequences so you’ll do better.” He stood. “Lean over and put your hands on the seat of the chair. Arch your back so your ass makes a good target. Offer yourself up for the spanking you feel you deserve.” He cupped my face in his hands. “You practically begged me for this, Half-pint. Show me you still want it. Show me you want me.”
I must’ve looked confused, because he added. “No, not that. You don’t get that unless you verbally ask for it, but I need to know you want me to correct you.”
I nodded, and he shook his head. “Everything’s verbal, Lexi. No nods when we’re like this. You know what to say.”
He held my gaze while I said, “Yes, Sir.” It felt as if electricity flowed between us, from those two simple words. His eyes were kind, but there was no doubt he’d taken control.
I bent over, put my hands on the chair’s seat, and arched my back. Heated blood pulsed to my clit. My pussy ached for him to rip my jeans off and sink into me. My nipples hardened and craved his fingers around them. Or his lips. Fuck, but I had it bad.
“Three licks, but if you move the lick doesn’t count. It’ll hurt. It’s supposed to. Be thankful for the jeans today, because you won’t get them again.”
My stomach sank into my feet when he began unfastening his belt. He’d said a spanking! I’d thought he would use his hands, not his belt! I stood and shook my head, but he didn’t stop taking it off. “I’ll be disappointed if you don’t bend over and take your medicine after asking for it, Half-pint.”
“Your hand! I didn’t mean your belt!”
“This is how I give spankings. Bend over.”
He didn’t seem angry, but he wasn’t going to change his mind, either.
My feet wanted to run away, but I forced myself to bend back over and push my butt into the air again. I could survive three licks.
I jumped a little when the heat of his hand rested on my back, barely above my butt. “Stay put or it won’t count. Three licks and it’ll be over — I’ll hold you until you calm down, and then we’ll get breakfast.”
I expected it to hurt, but I wasn’t expecting it to feel as if a line of fire had been emblazoned on my ass. The jolt of both the sound and blistering pain had me in shock at first, and I froze. No breathing, no sound. I’m not sure my heart even beat for a few seconds.
And then I came up from the chair, grabbed my ass, and screamed louder than I’d have ever believed possible. Tears filled my eyes and threatened to spill over. I couldn’t stop screaming, even though I’d run out of breath and had to refill my lungs several times.
When I finally stopped dancing around and my shouting subsided, he calmly said, “That one doesn’t count, sweetheart. Let’s try it again.”
“But it hurt!”
“It’s a spanking. What did you expect?”
He was so damned calm about it, I wanted to shake him.
“I can’t take three more of those!”
After a good twenty seconds of silence, he said. “Sit and think about it. I need to walk out on the deck and make a phone call. I don’t expect to be gone longer than three to five minutes. You’ll let me know what you’ve decided when I return. Should we continue, it’s possible you’ll have some slight bruising on your ass, but you won’t be injured. It’s correction that you asked for. This is who I am, but I’m always fair about it. You won’t be spanked unless you deserve it. This is a taste. If you aren’t up for it, it’s good we know now.”
He turned to walk out, but stopped when he reached the door, and spoke again without turning to look at me. “Fun spankings are an entirely different animal, but you don’t get one without the other. I’m a package deal.”
I stared at the empty door when he was gone. Why the hell hadn’t I known to ask for a fun spanking?
I made a whole lot of deci
sions while I sat and waited for him to return. The biggest decision was that I wanted Bubbles — lock, stock, and barrel. I wanted the whole package. I wanted to sleep in his bed. I wanted to eat breakfast with him.
And I wanted him inside me worse than I’d ever wanted anyone. I was more than a little worried about the fact he’d expect anal, but someone would eventually force the issue.
When he returned, instead of telling him any of this, I turned around and assumed the position once again — and planted my feet with the hopes I could keep from moving.
The first strike hurt just as bad as the earlier one, and I danced and screamed and nearly cried, but I kept my hands on the chair and didn’t come up.
When I was still, he caressed my bottom and felt along the lines of fire.
“I’m proud of you. That was one.”
He didn’t make me wait long for the next, and I recovered a little faster from it, though I’m certain it hurt just as much. He kind of helped me cheat after the third, because he stepped closer and held me down when I’d have come up, but it was all seamless, so once I was down for about five seconds, he picked me up, cradled me in his arms, and sat in the chair with me in his lap, in his arms.
I bawled my eyes out not just because it had hurt, but because it was over and he was taking care of me. He made me his by holding me and comforting me, and no man had ever done it before. Etta had comforted me more times than I could count, and my foster mom had on the few occasions I’d cried while I lived with her. That was it. I couldn’t even remember mama ever holding me while I cried.
I fell the rest of the way in love with him in that moment, and in my head, he felt the same. It was as if whatever walls had been between us came crashing down, and I belonged to him now, whether we’d talked about it or not.
Even though we hadn’t even kissed, I was his more surely than if we’d been having sex for months.
8
Bubbles
* * *
Lexi was mine. I’d made a promise to her sister, and I’d honor it, but it was only a matter of time before Lexi asked me for more, and I’d give it to her when she did.
She was my Half-pint, and no one else would lay a hand on her.
Her tears were a release. I had no idea why she’d needed them, but she had. My wolf can smell the difference between healthy tears and the unhealthy kind, and I trust him about these things. I held her until she calmed, and I readjusted her a little, so her head rested on my chest at a better angle.
I didn’t rush her, and I didn’t demand she tell me why she was crying. I just held her until her tears subsided and she was breathing easy.
“We’ll need to talk about it when you’re ready, but until then, I’m gonna consider you mine. You’ll let me know when you’re ready to explore things physically. No pressure, but… fuck, Half-pint. Tell me there’s no one else in your life?”
“There’s no one else. Why are you being so nice?”
“I just told you. You’re mine.”
“That might sound creepy if I didn’t feel the same.”
My heart grew wings and soared, and I held her even closer. “Okay, Half-pint. Okay. You ready for breakfast? You want to change clothes and go somewhere, or make it here?”
“Here is good. I just need to stop off in my room. I forgot a bra, but you’d said to come straight in here.”
I’d noted her arms over her chest, and then the lack of a bra, but had been too focused on her reactions before and during the spanking to pay too much attention. I made a point of not staring when she stood. “Whatever makes you feel more comfortable.”
“I’ll need to call Etta and tell her what happened last night. Well, not all of it, but the beginning parts, at least.”
“Slick was in charge of stopping by her house this morning to let her know, with instructions that you’ll be sleeping in and she should wait for you to call her, so she doesn’t wake you. She knows the whole story, but you have to be careful of what you talk about on the phone and online. LEO frequently gets warrants to listen in to our communications, and even when they don’t have a warrant, we’ve had proof in the past that they’ve listened illegally. Nothing came of the proof, but it’s worth remembering. They can’t use what they find out to charge or convict if they don’t have a warrant, but they can discover crimes they may not have otherwise known about, and then find their proof elsewhere.”
“Okay. Thanks for the reminder. Do you mind if I call her before we start breakfast?”
“Go ahead. I’ll get the steaks and biscuits started.”
I could hear her side of the conversation and most of Betty’s even though she was in another room. Betty Boop wanted to make sure her sister hadn’t fucked me yet, and my little Half-pint answered with, “Not yet, but I’m going to, and you’re going to have to be okay with it. I’ll tell him when I’m ready. I haven’t yet, but I plan to. I like him, Etta. I know he’s too old for me, and he’s a felon out on parole, and he’s a biker, but I don’t care. He’s a good guy, and okay, maybe he does bad shit, but he’s still a good guy. Also, he’s adamant that I make good grades and stick to school. He isn’t going to derail me. Trust me to keep my head where it belongs. Okay?”
Betty’s response was of the, I think you’re making a mistake but it’s your life and I’ll be here to help you pick up the pieces when everything explodes, variety.
All in all, I approved of the conversation. Two sisters who obviously love each other fiercely, which probably had a lot to do with the fact they survived despite the shitty mother life handed them, but they’d come through it and were doing okay. Some people might not think Betty was doing all that great, but she enjoyed sex work and she was damned good at it. When I’d asked Bash who I should go to when I’d wanted to get a little rough with someone, he’d asked questions, found out I just wanted to fuck someone rough and wasn’t interested in spanking them, and told me to talk to Betty but to be clear what I wanted. She’d heard me out, quoted a price, and been the perfect little fucktoy for three hours. My sense of smell tells me when someone’s faking or truly enjoying it, and she was the real deal.
I’d gone back a few times — when I knew I needed something I couldn’t expect of the sweetbutts. I didn’t mind paying every once in a while.
Would my little Half-pint be up for what I needed? Short women can rarely take my entire length. In order to make my dick short enough to keep from hurting her, it’d have to be awful damned thick. If she was as inexperienced as her sister seemed to think, I wasn’t sure she could handle that even in her pussy,
And she’d need a lot of training before she could take me in the ass.
Once the wolf chose someone, though, we wouldn’t cheat, so I hoped to hell she could give us what we needed.
They hung up, and my phone rang fifteen seconds later. Betty didn’t bother with hello, she just said, “If you hurt her, I’ll hurt you. I don’t know how, but I promise I’ll find a way. Treat her well, and we’ll be good.”
“I believe you, but that’s okay because I have no intention of hurting her. I’ll let you off your end of the bargain. We’re good, Betty Boop.”
“You’re lettin’ me off because Lex would be pissed as fuck if she found out you fucked me after ya’ll started your little dance together.”
I chuckled. “Yeah, but I’d back off even if that weren’t the case. We good?”
“Treat her right and we’ll be good.”
When we disconnected, I looked up to see Lexi standing in the doorway with her hands on her hips. “She called you and threatened you, didn’t she?”
I grinned. “She loves you. I’m glad ya’ll have each other.”
She sighed and pulled the eggs out of the fridge. “Yeah. You want me to do the whole dozen again this morning?”
“Maybe just eight, if you’ll eat two. I was gone a few hours this morning — had to go to a quick meeting at the clubhouse. It’s a weekly thing. I picked up food on the way, and then again on the way back, so
I won’t eat as much as usual.”
“You left me alone?” Her scent turned sour. She thought I’d deserted her when she’d trusted me. She wasn’t used to trusting people, and she’d trusted me.
“Someone was in the yard watching the house while I was gone. We pull trusted guards in to watch the subdivision anytime it’ll be known we’re all somewhere else — church, parties, rides. We brought an extra person in this morning because of the threat to you. You were safe.” I pulled her into my arms. “Still workin’ out how best to keep you safe at school and work, but I have you covered everywhere else.”
Her scent evened back out, but I realized she was just waiting for me to hurt her as most everyone else in her life probably had.
“I like to go somewhere I can walk a few miles on Sundays.” She spoke into my chest, and I didn’t let her go. “Are there trails in the woods behind your house? Is there a map I can find online?”
“Those woods are the side of Chickamauga Battlefield visitors rarely venture into. There are trails, but why don’t we ride the bike up Lookout Mountain and hike those trails together? I could use some beautiful scenery while we commune with nature.”
I smelled dismay, followed by conflict, followed by… hope?
“You want to spend the day with me?”
I needed to address the dismay before I answered her question. “If you need time alone, the woods behind my house should be safe, but I’d rather spend the day with you.”
“I thought I needed time alone, but a ride on your bike followed by hiking down the mountain and back up sounds good.”
In prison, finding time away from cameras when I was assured I wouldn’t be disturbed wasn’t easy, especially during my first three years under heavy security. I’m strong enough to stay human during all three nights of the full moon, but it fucking hurts. Eventually, I’d been able to change on one of those nights, but the wolf had been trapped in a room and hadn’t been able to run.
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