Return to Corbin's Bend

by Corinne Alexander

  “And just what made you decide that? Oh, that’s right, I didn’t pick up on your hints,” she said sarcastically. “Just when were you giving me these hints anyway?”

  “It was years ago,” Grant replied. “Kathleen was a baby.”

  “For the love of God, Grant, I was a sleep deprived twenty-year-old who had just given birth. You could have been waving lighted flashing signs around, and I might not have picked up on it. Don’t you remember how exhausted we were?”

  “So what are you saying?” Grant questioned. “Are you telling me you would be open to trying erotic spanking?”

  “Maybe,” Lainie replied hesitantly. She was curious. Hearing the others talk about it had made her wonder, and now, knowing that it was something Grant fantasized about as well just upped curiosity even more. But what if Grant was right? What if some fantasies were better just left as fantasies? What if she hated it?

  Before she could make a decision, Grant leaned over and kissed her, cupping a hand behind her head and pulling her to him. When she was breathless with heat boiling in her blood and zipping along her nerves like electricity, he broke away and began trailing tiny kisses up her neck from shoulder to ear. He caught her earlobe between his teeth, nipping it gently in a way that never failed to turn her into a puddle of goo. Where did this come from? One minute they had been talking about spanking and the next... The thought slipped away before she could finish it.

  “Stop me if I do something you don’t like,” Grant murmured, releasing her ear and working his way back down, alternately nibbling, suckling, and kissing.

  Stop him? Who was he kidding? She could barely form a coherent thought much less draw a breath to protest. Besides, after all this time, he knew her body as well as his own, as she knew his, knowledge he was using to good effect just now. He had worked his way slowly down to her breast and was mouthing them through the thin cotton T-shirt she wore. Her head dropped back of its own accord and small whimpers and moans left her lips without conscious thought. He pulled away long enough to catch the edge of her shirt and strip it over her head. She gripped his shirt, pulling herself up right, and scrabbling for the edge of it, intending to return the favor.

  Abruptly, Grant pulled back, kissing her hands and pulling them away. “Uh, uh, uh, naughty girl, we’re doing this my way, on my terms. Keep your hands to yourself.” He tucked her hands into her lap and covered them with his own. Lainie made a halfhearted attempt to pull away, but he simply shifted, putting just a bit more pressure on his hands and holding her exactly where he wanted her.

  Ah. So that was how this was going to be. Since they married, there had been occasional nights when he had done this, taken charge and given her small commands and limits, even occasionally pinning her down or restraining her hands. It was familiar and something they both enjoyed. Not that she didn’t also occasionally enjoy putting up a fuss about it.

  Biting back a smile, Lainie huffed, “Fine.” So quickly she didn’t have time to realize what he was doing. Grant transferred both her hands into one of his and used his free hand to swat the side of her bare thigh where it was exposed below her sleep shorts. It wasn’t a particularly hard swat. It barely stung, but it was sudden and completely unexpected and made her jump. A faint handprint bloomed on her skin, clearly visible even in the dim light, and she stared at it, fascinated.

  “Stop pouting,” Grant said. His voice was stern though his expression was something akin to smug amusement. “Keep it up and I’ll give you what you’re asking for. Understood?”

  And suddenly everything fell into place. The earlier conversation, the sudden turn to sex, and exactly what Grant was doing now. Just as clearly, she knew he was giving her an out. If she stopped and simply went along with him, then it would be just as it normally was, the same mild dominance that they had done many times before, but if she continued her lighthearted resistance and grumbling then he would spank her. The choice was entirely up to her.

  “Understood?” he asked again. He wasn’t asking if she understood what he was saying. That much was clear. He wanted to be sure she knew what he was doing and was okay with it.

  She nodded slightly in answer to his unspoken question. Then, taking a deep breath and committing herself, she said aloud, “I’m not pouting,” deliberately jutting her lip out in a clear pout. “I’m just waiting on you to get on with it, unless of course you’d rather I take things into my own hands.” Lainie leaned over and kissed him. Then, while he was distracted, snatched her hand from beneath his and deftly slipped it into his shorts, cupping and fondling gently.

  Grant groaned. “You’ve done it now,” he said against her lips. Reluctantly, he broke away and extricated her hand. “I told you to keep your hands to yourself.”

  Lainie grinned, completely unrepentant. “I couldn’t resist.”

  “I know I’m pretty irresistible,” Grant replied, ridiculously smug, “but that was very naughty. I’m going to have to punish you.”

  Lainie let her eyes go wide. “No you don’t,” she told him, shaking her head. “I’ll be good.”

  “Oh yes,” Grant said, voice going deep and husky. “This is going to be very good. I promise.” He pulled her to her feet and guided her around to stand between his legs. Then, he hooked his thumbs in her shorts and pulled them and her panties well down.

  Though Grant had seen her naked many times before, Lainie’s face flamed, and she had a sudden urge to cover herself. Grant didn’t give her the opportunity. Taking her arm, he guided her around to his side and over his knees. Lainie swallowed, finding her mouth suddenly dry and her heart racing, though whether with anticipation or nervousness she couldn’t have said. Grant wrapped an arm around her waist and shifted her position so that she was tucked in close to his stomach and her upper body was resting on the bed. Given the difference in their heights, this left her feet dangling well off the ground and her bottom perched high in the air. She was acutely aware of the cool air brushing her backside. Somehow it seemed cooler than it had been just moments ago on the bare skin of her arms and legs. She felt Grant shift and she tensed, expecting a swat, but he only laid his hand on her bottom. After a moment he began to move, rubbing and caressing, pausing now and then and cupping his hand gently where it lay. It was more like a massage than a spanking and Lainie found herself relaxing into it. After a while, his hand lifted and came down, but it was barely more than a pat and entirely painless. He made a complete circuit of her bottom, covering it in light pats. When he started the circuit for the second time, the swats were a little harder and a little harder still the time after that. Now they were beginning to sting, but surprisingly, that wasn’t a bad thing. In fact, Lainie found she quite liked it. When he amped it up yet again, covering already well warmed skin with solid swats, the sting washed over her like an electric current and seemed to connect right with her center, making every swat like a lightning bolt of arousal.

  “Oh, God,” she moaned. She was squirming and twisting now, low groans and wordless noises mingling with echoing swats.

  “Like that?” Grant asked. Even without being able to see him, she could hear the grin in his voice.

  “No,” she said dryly, “not at all.”

  Grant slid two fingers into her wet heat. “Liar.” Since she was sopping wet, it seemed pointless to argue. Of course, if the hardness jutting into her hip was any indication, Grant was enjoying this is as much as she was. He took hold of her clit and rubbed it firmly between his fingers.

  Lainie gasped, bucking helplessly. “Please,” she choked out.

  “Please what?” Grant asked genially, as if he didn’t know damn well what she meant.

  “Dammit, Grant,” she spat, desperate with need. He freed the hand holding her waist and brought it down hard on her ass. “Owww,” she whined even as she clinched hard around his fingers.

  “Watch your mouth,” he warned. He started spanking again, but this time he was thrusting his fingers in and out of her in time with the spanks, spiraling her
up farther and farther until she finally shattered. When she was sprawled limp, boneless, and breathless over his lap, he withdrew his fingers and gathered her up, carrying her and laying her on the bed. He was gentle, but he laid her squarely on her hot and stinging bottom. “Don’t move,” he commanded before standing up and stripping off his tee shirt and shorts.

  Naked and standing over her, Grant suddenly seemed very big. He wasn’t an overly large man, but he was broad shouldered and well built. He was nearing forty but didn’t look it. There wasn’t an ounce of extraneous fat anywhere on him. Long lean muscle layered beneath extremely fair skin like ropes under white silk, the expanse broken only by the scattering of freckles across his shoulders and the sparse sprinkling of hair in shades of autumn and brown across his chest, leading to the thicker thatch down below. He climbed on the bed and braced himself over her, moving in a way that reminded her of a very large, very stealthy big cat, a tiger perhaps, waiting to pounce.

  And pounce he did. Capturing her mouth, he entered her in one hard thrust, driving into her with an intensity that stole her breath. Then he withdrew and did it again, pounding her sore ass against the bedspread. Fire blazed and burned with every movement. It hurt and it didn’t, all at once. She arched up to meet him, running her hands over every part of him within reach. Pleasure and pain mingled washing over her in waves, hurling her ever closer to the peak and sending her over. Grant followed close behind. For a moment, he collapsed over her, eyes closed before he came to himself and rolled off of her.

  “Let that be a lesson to you,” he said wryly, sometime later when they could both breathe again.

  Lainie snorted, choking on a laugh. “If that’s what being naughty gets me, I’ll have to misbehave more often.”

  Grant guffawed, rolling onto his side to look at her. “Next time I’ll take you from behind so I can see that gorgeous red ass the entire time,” he rumbled into her ear.

  Lainie grinned, a delicious shiver running through her. “What’s stopping you now?”

  Grant opened one eye and glared at her. “Sassy brat, you’ll pay for that when I can move again.”

  Lainie raised up to kiss him. “I’m looking forward to it.”

  Chapter 4

  Saturday dawned bright and clear. Grant woke to sun streaming in from the window overlooking the backyard. He stretched slowly, smiling. Beside him, Lainie was still sleeping soundly, curled onto her side. He debated waking her to take advantage of the quiet, private time before the girls woke but ultimately decided to let her sleep. He got up and went into the bathroom, throwing on a T-shirt and shorts in case one of the girls decided to get up early, not that he expected them to. Being teenagers, or nearly teenagers in Natalie’s case, they could and would, given the opportunity, sleep until noon. As he made his way toward the kitchen, he couldn’t help but smile again. Save for the few boxes still stacked in the office, you wouldn’t even know they had just moved in a few days ago. The way the community had come together and helped them was amazing. Though they had been living here for less than a week, it already felt a lot like home.

  He started coffee and leaned against the counter, waiting for it to brew. He felt happier and more optimistic than he had in a long time. He was already loving their new home in the community, and he was looking forward to starting his new job on Monday. He had known almost immediately upon seeing the Corbin’s Bend website that this was the place for them. So far, his expectation had been proven true. Colorado was going to be really good for them.

  Kathleen remained the only fly in the milk. As Lainie had predicted, she had been utterly miserable over her grounding and had made a concerted effort to make the rest of them miserable right along with her. It was only the threat of extending the restriction that managed to quell her temporarily. More than once, Grant had questioned his decision. Lainie did have a pretty good point about isolating Kathleen. He knew Kathleen needed friends, and he didn’t want to cut her off from them. At the same time, he had to get her attention. She was rude and disrespectful, and it had to stop.

  And then there was Lainie. On the one hand, she seemed to be settling in well. He was relieved beyond measure that she had slotted in well with the other women here. He knew she had been worried about it, and truthfully, he had worried about it no little himself. Lainie was a social person and generally made friends easily, but she had a lot of preconceived notions about DD. She had somehow gotten the crazy idea that being Taken In Hand turned a woman into some kind of creepy Stepford Wife. He’d worried that might make her resistant to getting to know the other women. He was thrilled that it hadn’t. The other women could help her understand in ways he couldn’t even begin to attempt. Not to mention he would be forever indebted to them for introducing Lainie to the concept of erotic spanking. That alone had improved their sex life considerably. Hell, he was half hard now just from the memory. With one thing and then another, they hadn’t been able to try it again after that first night, but they would. He’d make sure of it.

  Now if she would only take as easily to his making decision in other areas, especially with the kids. He hated it when she contradicted him when he tried to discipline the girls. She had the right to speak up of course. They were her children as much as his, and to be fair, she had been the one who had done the bulk of raising them, but it seemed like every time she intervened, it was trying to get them out of a deserved consequence. It felt like the more he tried to enforce discipline the more she undermined it. The other night when he had grounded Kathleen was a perfect example. She wasn’t even arguing because she disagreed with him. She was only arguing to get out of having to deal with Kathleen. If she had truly had concerns about his decision, he didn’t think it would bother as much. As it was, she was whining as much in her own way as Kathleen was, and it was driving him crazy.

  Should he have spanked her for it? Was he making matters worse by not being more forceful with her? She had agreed to incorporate domestic discipline, but he still wasn’t sure how to actually go about it. Though he had considerable experience on the receiving end, he knew next to nothing about the giving side of things. Sure, he knew the basic mechanics well enough, but how did you know when it was the right thing to do? More importantly, how would he know he wasn’t hurting her? It was all so damned confusing.

  The phone rang just as the coffee was finishing. He snatched it up quickly, hoping it wouldn’t disturb the rest of the household.

  “Taylor,” he said, tucking the phone between his ear and shoulder so he could pour himself a cup of coffee.

  “Grant, it’s Matt,” the voice on the other end said. “I just wanted to tell you that we’ll be at the pool today if you and Lainie and the girls wanted to come by. It’s usually packed on the weekends during the summer. Everybody wants to take advantage of the warm weather before winter hits so it might be a good way to get to know some people.”

  “That sounds great,” Grant agreed. “Let me check with Lainie, but I’m sure we can at least come by for a while.”

  “Good, we’ll see you soon then,” Matt replied before saying goodbye and hanging up.

  Lainie readily agreed, and as Grant had expected, Natalie was overjoyed at the prospect of spending the day at the pool. Kathleen wouldn’t dare risk showing enthusiasm for anything but had agreed with a speed that suggested she was interested as well, even if she wouldn’t dare show it, but even enthusiastic teenage girls took a lifetime to get ready.

  It was nearly an hour later by the time they made it to the community pool, tucked in behind the community center and administration building that was known locally as the Dome, a reference to the massive building’s domed structure. As Matt had predicted, the pool area was packed. The pool itself was filled with children, swimming, splashing, and diving. A few braver women swam and played alongside the children or lounged in the shallow end, but most of the women were lounging on chairs along the edge of the pool. Interestingly, there were almost no men in sight. Lainie and the girls went immediate
ly inside the gate, staking out a chair and shedding coverups in preparation to swim. Grant lingered at the fence, watching them and feeling distinctly awkward. Matt had said he would be here too, and he was pretty sure that was Matt’s wife, Julie, Lainie was talking to. Where was he? Where were all the men, for that matter?

  Just then, Matt came out of the building behind him and called his name. “I’m glad you decided to come out,” Matt said, coming up beside him.

  “I don’t think Natalie would have forgiven us if we hadn’t,” Grant replied. “As soon as I mentioned it, she was all for it.”

  “Most of the kids around here love it,” Matt agreed. “I know mine do.” He smiled fondly in the direction of where his two oldest children were splashing around in the shallow end of the pool near where Julie sat lounging in the water, one hand on the swim ring the baby was floating in. “Come on, I have something to show you.”

  Grant followed Matt into the Dome and down one of the long hallways. There was a doorway at the end of the hall. Matt opened it to reveal a descending staircase. Growing more curious by the minute, Grant followed him down. He reached the bottom of the stairs and stopped dead. The entire basement of the dome was one room decked out in the manner of a large recreation area. Only this area had clearly been designed with men in mind. There were multiple television screens on the walls and large leather couches and recliners scattered around in seating areas. There were a couple pool tables and even a bar.

  “Wow!” Grant said, stunned. “This wasn’t on the tour when we came before. I’m sure I would’ve remembered it if it were.”

  Brent, who was sitting on one of the leather couches, turned and grinned at him. “We can’t give away all our secrets.”

  “That’s right,” Jonathan, the executive assistant for the community, piped up from where he was perched on the arm of a chair in the group that had gathered around Brent. “We keep the outsiders away from the man cave and the paddles in the supply closet upstairs.” Jonathan flashed a cheeky grin and several of the men around him laughed. For a moment, Grant was too surprised to react, but eventually he joined in the laughter too. Jonathan was clearly joking. He had to be. Then again, thinking of the paddle they had received in their welcome basket, he might not be either.