by Megan McCoy
“Are you cold?” Sebastian asked her, she could hear the concern in his voice.
Shaking her head, she moved a little closer to him and squeezed his hand harder.
“Let’s go,” he said decisively. “Home is where you need to be right now.” He was right she wanted to be home, in bed with a hot cup of tea, her dog and man cuddled next to her. Which was ridiculous since it wasn’t near bedtime and she rarely drank tea. It just sounded like what you should drink when you were upset. She was upset.
Following him, she let him put her in the car, and shut the door behind her. Her frozen fingers managed to fasten her seatbelt, and she crossed her arms in front of herself. He got in, and started driving. “Talk,” he said firmly.
“Talk?”
“Tell me what’s going on in that pretty head.”
Maggie shook her head, not wanting to discuss her emotions right now, she might shatter if she did.
But Sebastian would have none of that. “You can tell me now, or I can pull over up there.” He pointed to a deserted parking lot. “And then you can tell me with a sore red butt. Your choice.”
He said that as if it were a real choice.
“I’m scared,” she said, trying to stop her teeth from chattering.
“You are safe with me,” he pulled into the deserted lot and pulled her into his arms.
“Don’t spank me,” she begged. “I’m trying.”
“I won’t.” He tipped her chin up to look at him. “Right now, anyway. Just feel safe in my arms and talk.”
“He tried to hurt me, Sebastian. I don’t even know him. What if you hadn’t come?” She started crying and couldn’t stop shaking. Why now? Just because she saw him? It wasn’t a ‘just’, it was because she saw him. “Help me,” she asked. “Please.”
He held her another few minutes, stroking her back and hair, and then said, “Put your hand on my leg.” She did as she was told, he put the car in gear. “Now, take a deep breath, shut your eyes, and start counting out loud backward by threes from six thousand.”
“What?”
“Picture the numbers in your mind. You heard me,” he said and drove down the road a little faster than he should be, she shivered again, but shut her eyes and started counting.
“Six thousand. Five thousand nine hundred and ninety-seven. Five thousand nine hundred and ninety-four. Five thousand nine hundred and ninety-one.” What was the point in this? She trusted him though, and his thigh felt warm and muscular and somehow comforting under her hand, and if that’s what he wanted her to do, then she would. “Five thousand eighty-eight.”
Concentrating on her numbers, she was almost surprised when he pulled into her driveway a few minutes later and said, “Here we are.” Home already. For some reason she felt calmer. She’d have to remember that trick when she couldn’t sleep at night. Less than five minutes later, she was in a tub full of warm bubbles and he stripped and slipped in behind her. This. This was all she wanted right now, to lean against him as he held her, covered in water, bubbles and lavender scent. His hands soaped her breasts and she relaxed against him.
“Will you always keep me safe?” she asked and hated she was asking. She’d been on her own for years, had a good job, a mortgage, a dog and a life. She didn’t need him to keep her safe, but held her breath waiting for his answer. Why? She didn’t know. Shock and stress, she assured herself. That was all.
“I will not only keep you safe, but keep you happy,” he said and started washing her hair. She loved when he did that. Nothing felt better than a scalp massage. Well, a butt rub after a spanking was a really close second.
She relaxed against his chest. “I don’t want to go to court and testify,” she said, staring at the bubbles and feeling his fingers in her hair. “I’m scared.”
“It's okay,” he said. “You don’t have to want to and it's normal to be scared. I’ll be within a few feet of you, if I can be.” He paused. “Because I’ll testify too, I might have to wait outside the room.” She tensed, and he said, “What we will do to make you feel safe, if I have to be outside the courtroom, if you need me, you just whistle.” He let out a shrill whistle between his fingers that made Simon start barking from the other room.
Maggie giggled, “You have mad skills, but I can’t do that.” She leaned back against him as he started to rinse her hair with the shower wand.
“You don’t think I can save you?” he asked, pouring conditioner on her hair.
“Oh, I know you can, but I can’t whistle.” Maggie let the feel of his fingers on her head relax her.
“Then I’ll buy you a whistle,” he said and continued to massage her head.
“You are silly,” she said, but felt much better. He rinsed her hair, then sprayed the water on her front, and made her giggle.
“Why do you make me feel better every time?” she asked him.
“Ask me that next time I’m baring your butt and turning it red,” he said and kissed the top of her head.
“Ha ha.” Maggie reached around and punched his arm gently. She liked not having to look at him while they talked about serious things. “Even that makes me feel safe mostly.”
“Mostly?” he asked.
“Yeah, there’s this bit of... panic, I guess you’d call it, when I don’t feel safe and I’m very afraid, even though I know you know what you are doing.” She traced her hand along his hairy leg.
“You always come through it, and feel better on the other side,” he stated it as if it were a fact.
“Well, after a while. I don’t like standing in the corner, I like when you hold me after,” she told him. Last week, he’d given her what she called a yank and spank, where he flipped her over the arm of the couch and whaled on her bottom, then sent her over to the corner with her hands on her head while she kept rising on her toes and wiggling, wanting to rub her bottom but didn’t want another spanking if she did. She did not like corner time, not one little bit, but he told her that she wasn’t supposed to like punishment, which was a very male thing to say. Why did she feel as if he read her non-existent diary and was fulfilling every single one of her fantasies?
“You know better than to leave the door unlocked while you’re gone,” he said, calmly. “You weren’t supposed to like it, because you were supposed to remember it next time you went out the door. After corner time, you got your holding and comforting, didn’t you? Besides,” he said as he kissed the top of her wet head, “I like watching you do the spanking dance.”
Maggie felt herself blush. What had she gotten herself into? A lifestyle she loved with a man she adored? Yeah. That.
“I have to start back to school next week,” she said, reaching down for his foot and massaging it.
“You ready for that?”
“I am, but it's been so nice the last few weeks,” she answered. She actually liked making him dinner and taking turns sleeping in each other’s houses. Playing with his taciturn self and finding out what made him tick. Learning to serve and submit to him and learning more that she loved doing it. She didn’t even really mind his spankings, or she wouldn’t if he didn’t spank so hard. There was no convincing him of that, however. He thought he knew best, and she mostly liked it.
“How did I get so lucky?” she asked him.
“Because you’re cute and I like your freckles.” He touched her nose with his soapy finger and made her sneeze. “And your ass.”
“You only like my ass when it's red,” she pouted.
“Nah, pink is cute too.” He stood up with her in his arms and kissed her. “Let's rinse and go to bed.”
It wasn’t a question and she was glad of that.
She planned to take Sebastian out to her folks’ farm tomorrow to show him around the farmette. For a man who sold farm equipment for a living, he didn’t get his hands dirty very often. He could help her pick whatever was ripe right now, and see how he liked farm life. She’d talked to Cambry and the folks had invited them, too. They hadn’t gotten together as a family all
summer and hopefully it would be a calm, low key, laid back day. They could really use a day of relaxing.
His new store was having problems with some legal thing, and he was having a challenging time finding a new manager for one of the stores he was trying to turn around. They both needed a change of scenery and her folks’ farm was just the right place for it. Not to mention her mom would make them something fantastic for lunch, and no one cooked like her mom. Looking around her classroom once more, she said quietly, “See you in a few days.” Then left the building to drive home.
“You nervous about having lunch with the family?” she asked him the next day.
“Should I be?” he asked, looking surprised. Or as surprised as his stoic self ever looked.
“I’d be nervous having lunch with your family,” she said.
“There would be no reason to be,” he said, turning where his car told him to go.
He looked so hot in his jeans and T-shirt she wanted to drool. But her tank top would make it awkward to wipe it off, so she didn’t. She wanted to pick some melons later for her mom, and she knew it would be hot.
“Ready for lunch with the folks?” she asked as they got to the long lane to her folks’ house. “I see Ben and Cambry’s car. He usually shows up just in time for food.”
“Sure,” he smiled at her, and slowed as they went down the lane. He had a bit of stubble on his cheeks and she loved it, even when he gave her whisker burn. Whisker burn was the best thing ever.
They walked to the house and said their hellos to everyone. She could smell roast beef cooking. The guys all went out back and she started helping set the table and put the food out. Pulling the bread from the oven, she could hear her stomach growl. She’d helped her mom make bread all her life and her bread still didn’t compare to her mom’s.
She turned it out to let it cool before slicing and went to help her mom and Cambry finish setting the table. “Where’s Ryan?” she asked.
“He’s staying with some friends for a few days, they were going to a water park and invited him along,” Cambry said. “Wish I could have gone with them, but I couldn’t get off work.”
“Well, he will have a good time, and I’ve heard there’s an indoor one up in the Wisconsin Dells. Maybe we can all go sometime this winter?”
“That’s a great idea,” Cambry said. “I love a water slide. We’ll have to see what winter brings.”
“I love a water slide, too.” Maggie laughed, wondering what Sebastian would look like sliding down a huge tube of water. Did he like roller coasters? So many things she didn’t know about him. “What do you think, Mom? You up for a water slide vacation this winter?” She finished slicing one of the cantaloupes that had been picked earlier and inhaled the sweet, fruity, yet earthy fragrance. Someone should bottle that. Opening a cabinet, she brought down a serving bowl and put it on the table.
“Oh, we’ll have to see about that,” her mom said. “Want to call the guys in?”
They all sat down at the table and Maggie looked around. Everyone she loved best was in this room, except for Ryan. She adored having Sebastian by her side at a family meal. It just felt proper and right. Hopefully, there would be many more meals like this.
“We have something to tell you,” her dad said after they were all served, and her mom looked both excited and nervous. Her mom was never nervous and that made her nervous.
“Something wrong?” she asked, as Sebastian put down his fork to watch and listen. She noted Ben did the same.
“No, nothing wrong,” her father said decisively. “Your mom and I are taking a very belated honeymoon.”
Maggie relaxed. This wasn’t bad news at all. Her folks deserved a vacation. “That’s wonderful,” she said. “Where are you going?”
“We’ve rented a house in the south of France for a year,” her mom said.
“A year?” Maggie choked on her potatoes and Sebastian patted her back. “A year is a long time,” she said then took a gulp of her tea.
“You know I’ve always wanted to go to France,” her mom said. “Well, we’ve been saving for it for years and while I was all but incapacitated with my broken wrist, I found a house.”
“That will be our home base and we’re going to explore France together.” Watching her parents clasp hands and smile at each other made a shot of jealousy zing through her.
“Great news!” Cambry poked Ben in the side. “I want to do that!”
“That is wonderful,” Sebastian said to them. “Congratulations, it's going to be a year to remember.”
“It is,” Maggie agreed. “I’m so happy for you! When are you leaving?”
“About a month, after harvest is over and I get my food put up,” Ellen said. “Can’t have my garden go to waste.”
Maggie shook her head. “No, you can’t. Wow, a year is a long time.”
“You going to be okay?” her dad asked, looking at Sebastian, but she knew he meant her.
“I’m a big girl, Daddy,” she replied and laughed. “I can handle it. I can talk to you every day if I need to. You going to use Facebook and do a diary to let us know what’s going on? And big brother is around if you worry about me.” She smiled and rolled her eyes at him, letting him know she was joking.
Ben interrupted, “Well, big brother is going to be a little busy. Cambry and I are going to have another baby.”
“What?” Maggie squealed and got up to hug Cambry. “I’m so excited for you!”
Her mom turned to her dad and said, “Oh, maybe we should put it off a while?”
“No,” Ben said. “Baby won’t be here until you are almost back home, we just found out. You’ll have the rest of your life to spoil him or her.”
Maggie could tell that her mom wasn’t real certain, but didn’t protest anymore. Maggie changed the subject and asked, “What’s going to happen to the farm and house while you are gone?”
“We plan to rent it out, temporarily. We don’t want pipes freezing or anything, but need to find someone reliable,” her dad said.
They excitedly chatted about plans for the trip and the baby for the rest of the afternoon, until it was time for her to call Simon, who’d been out sunning all day, and head home.
As they were driving back into town, Sebastian asked her, “Are you going to be okay?”
“I’m not a child,” she said, almost irritably. “I can do without my mommy and daddy. I have a job and a life, and…” she tried to tamp down her irritation, she was a little jealous of Cambry but didn’t want to mention it, because a baby was not in her plans just yet. “I have an adorable next-door neighbor guy to hang out with sometimes.”
“That’s true,” he conceded. “He is kind of adorable, isn’t he?”
Maggie giggled, all irritation vanishing. “I’m so happy for them all, especially Mom and Dad,” she sighed. “They’ve both worked hard all their lives and really deserve this. I wonder who they will get to rent the house and take care of things, while they are gone?”
“I have someone who might be interested,” he said. “I finally got a new manager hired for the store that’s about twenty minutes from their house and I know he’s looking for a place to stay. Your dad and I talked about it while we were cleaning up the dishes with Ben.”
“That was nice of you to help,” she said, patting his thigh. She loved the feel of his muscular thighs.
“It wasn’t nice,” he said. “It was just something needed done.”
Yeah, but how many guys would do that, she wondered. Most disappeared when the meal was over.
“Tell me about your folks?” she asked.
“About them?” he paused as if to decide where to start. “Dad is a lot like Henry, my older brother. All business, practical and doesn’t take anything from anyone. He’s always worked really hard and built the three stores he got from his dad to what we have now.”
“How about your mom?” she asked.
“Mom is Mom,” he said, half smiling. “She’s a tiny bit of a thing a
nd how she birthed four boys, including the twins, is beyond me. She’s flighty and reminds me of a hummingbird. She doesn’t deal with money or business and my dad is her sole reason for being. She just lives for his happiness.”
“They seem like total opposites,” Maggie said, feeling a pang of jealousy. What would it be like to live your life for a man only? What kind of life would that be like? She thought back over the past few weeks when Sebastian had been her life and while she spent time with her folks and played ball, all she really wanted to do was be with Sebastian. In his bed, across from him during meals, cook things that made him happy, do things that made him smile, or he’d point to his lap and she knew a spanking was coming.
Now school was starting, and it would be her focus again. It had to be.
She had enjoyed the time immensely, except for a few jealous moments like when someone, who had to be his ex-girlfriend, called while he was in the driveway talking to a contractor about adding a garage on.
“Sebastian’s phone,” Maggie had chirped into it.
“Oh,” a female voice.
“Can I help you?” she’d asked, curious.
“I just miss him,” the voice had said.
“Who is this?” she asked, somehow feeling badly for a stranger.
“It doesn’t matter,” she’d said and hung up.
Maggie knew Sebastian had old girlfriends just as she had old boyfriends. It just made her sad in a way she couldn’t describe. Except she honestly could. She did not want to be that girl missing him.
“Opposites attract, I’ve heard.” He turned into the driveway. “I like your folks.”