by Yvette Hines
Moving back behind her, he continued in the same calm manner he’d started. Time was of the essence but he would not be rushed. Mandy needed to learn a lesson.
“I don’t like dishonesty, Mandy.” He stroked one butt cheek with his thumb. It was warm and silky. “Pretense serves no purpose. Do you understand?”
“Yes.”
Stepping off to the side, he wasted no time in drawing his hand back, and with sure aim and swiftness he landed a firm strike onto her beautiful flesh. The sound of the contact echoed throughout the room. He had no fear of being heard, his office was a solitary room on the other side of the vault.
“Aww!” She yelped, her hands tightened, balling into fists, but she stood her ground.
Heat radiated from her skin to the palm of his hand. Steve knew he had to move his hand and step away. He’d made his point and he was never one to over discipline. Lowering his hand, he spotted the slight tinge of red evident beneath the normal golden, biracial complexion. His mark.
Unable to resist, he touched his tongue to her warm flesh and dragged it along the sweet flavor of her skin.
She moaned and arched toward his mouth.
The heady scent of her arousal enveloped his senses and beckoned him to taste. To push aside the small material barrier covering her sex, lower his head and dip his tongue into her moist pussy.
But, he had customers waiting. If he tasted her he wouldn’t be able to stop until she drenched his face and mouth. Every man he came in contact with the rest of the day would pick up on the scent and know.
Breaking contact with her body, he efficiently removed the tie and began placing it back around his neck. “Straighten your clothing.”
Standing, she pulled her skirt down and looked at him. Her face was flushed and desire still lit her eyes, her bottom lip was swollen as if she’d bitten it.
“Did I hurt you?” he asked his voice husky.
Licking her lips, she said, “No.” She took a step as if to come toward him.
He moved to his desk. “Do you understand your lesson?”
Briefly, her eyes flickered away from him and then returned. “Yes.”
“Good.” Pressing the button, he said, “Ms. Ida, send back my next customer.”
“He’s on his way, Mr. Ewing.” Ida’s cheery response bubbled through the speaker.
“Until next time, Miss Franklin.”
Mandy’s lips moved as if she were about to say something, but instead she pressed her lips tight and shoot him a look full of fire. Taking a deep breath, she brought herself under control. She did it so effectively, he wondered if her small moment of submission had been an act. He pondered if he could ever bring her to the point of being so consumed by him and needing him, she would beg.
Turning sharply on her heels, she walked out.
As the door opened, he saw Mr. Ranscal step to the side as she passed him.
For a moment, Steve wondered if he would have told her that he was just as aroused as she was, would it quell her anger.
He doubted it.
* * * *
“Damn it, Danni, now what?” Mandy paced her living room as she raved into the phone.
“Well, if you calm down and tell me what happened then maybe I can help you,” Danni answered back.
“Nothing happened, absolutely nothing!” Mandy flopped down on her couch and stared at the muted TV screen. She normally loved watching Dexter, but tonight it gave her no peace.
“Could you be more specific? First off, did you see Steve?” Danni asked.
“Oh, I saw him.” Mandy placed her feet on her wood coffee table and slouched down on her plain brown couch. Her home was plainly decorated, just like her life. Just like she had been until Liza and Danni got their hands on her. Even now, she was in sweatpants, a t-shirt and lip gloss—normally she wore Chap Stick, which was the extent of her make-up. “I even did all the tricks you and Liza taught me. Hell, I was damn proud of myself. Until…”
“Until what?” Danni urged her on.
Growling, like a frustrated bear, Mandy said, “He knew what I was up to.”
There was a pause, before Danni let out a short, “Oh.”
“Oh is right.”
“So, what did he do?”
What did he do? Mandy couldn’t help flexing her butt cheek. The sting had gone away within a few minutes, but the memory of Steve spanking her ass did not. It was in HD Technicolor in her brain, replaying over and over again. She didn’t know what had shocked her more: Steve’s commanding display or her acceptance of it. There was no doubt that she had been apprehensive about what was going on.
She had trembled from the moment he told her, he knew what she was up to. That tremble had shifted from internal into physical. She wondered when he touched her, if he could feel tremors rioting in her body, especially when he’d laid his hand on her ass. It had taken her every ounce of composure not to moan when he stood behind her. She remembered his warmth aligned behind her chilly cheeks.
“Mandy?”
Sighing, she said, “He was pretty annoyed. More like pissed off. He pretty much said I didn’t know what I was getting myself into.” She gave a dry chuckle. “Like I’m some teenager having her first crush.”
“Aah, men!”
“Yea, men.” Or man. One man in particular.
“Did he at least appear interested?”
His interest was the only thing that kept her from feeling like a complete fool. “Yes.” Oh, yes. He’d licked her ass cheek. A little bit of information she would keep to herself. She’d never experienced the intense emotions and actions from a man before and she wouldn’t know where to begin to explain things to Danni. Not without her friend believing she was some type of freak. Hell, she didn’t understand it herself.
“Good.” Danni’s voice was full of confidence. “Did he ask you out?”
“No.” More like threw her out.
“No, worries. If you caught his attention then there is still hope of it becoming more.”
But what was more, Mandy wondered. “If you say so.”
“I do. Give him a few days and see if he does.”
“Yeah, right.” At the bank, she’d seen a different side of Steve Ewing and it was more self-assured, commanding and bolder than she’d ever imagined.
“Trust me. From my experience I know that when a man is attracted to a woman, it is almost impossible for him to resist. So, we will give him some time and see what happens. If not, then we move into the next phase.”
“What? There are phases to this thing? Maybe it’s best if I just leave it alone. I don’t know what I was thinking anyway.”
“No, it is not best. Take it from me, powerful feelings for someone just don’t go away.” There was an assurance in Danni’s voice. Mandy knew from getting to know Danni that she and Robert had dated years ago, before things pulled them apart. Danni had never gotten over him and thankfully Robert felt the same, and now they were “going to the chapel.”
“Okay. This is just new ground for me.” In more ways than one, she thought to herself.
“I’ll help you along the way.”
“Well, I’ll do my best not to panic.”
“Panic is okay. When he comes around don’t freak out like I did and start pushing him away.”
Laughing, Mandy confessed, “I make no promises. I haven’t had the best of luck in relationships.”
“Well, good thing, you only need to get one right.”
“Especially since I’ve struck out all other times.”
They both laughed and took a few minutes to exchange disastrous relationship stories. Shaking her head, she realized how many bad relationships she’d had in the past and how much she wanted a relationship with Steve to work.
“Danni, you’re a cop like me. We see or hear about a lot of intimate things about people.” Because she wanted the relationship with Steve to work she needed to be able to talk openly with someone, Danni was that someone.
“Yeah, we do. Some pretty crazy shi
t.” Danni chuckled.
“Do you recall when we responded to the emergency call from Lenny Hanley?”
“I do. He had tied Ms. Jamison in rope and he couldn’t get her loose,” Danni confirmed.
“I remember he was wearing a bunch of black leather and his ass was beet red.” Mandy paused then added, “Like he’d been getting spanked.”
“That probably was the case. As a cop it isn’t our job to judge people as long as there’s nothing illegal going on,” Danni added.
“I agree.” She paused, then plunged ahead. “What do you think about that?”
“About Hanley and Jamison? They are a sweet fifty-year-old couple and it’s nice if they still like to be freaky.” There was no sign of disapproval in Danni voice.
Plucking at the tie string of her pants, Mandy continued to press. “Not really about them. But, about the whole spanking thing?”
“If you’re talking about BDSM, there are varying degrees of it. I’m not sure how involved Hanley and Jamison are, nor do I care, if they are happy.”
“They seemed to be that night and every day since then.”
“Why all the curiosity?” Danni inquired.
Realizing she had to come completely clean or leave the conversation alone, Mandy plunged forward. “I think Steve is into that kind of thing.”
Silence greeted her announcement. Shit, she’d gone too far and now Danni was shocked, probably appalled. Mandy smacked her palm against her forehead. She felt bad letting out his private life now. Even worse, she wouldn’t have anyone to discuss her feelings of being dominated. If she couldn’t talk to Danni about this, there was no one else in the county she could trust with this information.
“What makes you think that? Did you see a paddle mounted on his office wall?” In the background, Mandy could hear Robert enter and kiss Danni. Would she still be able talk with Robert there?
“No, no paddle or anything in his office that would reveal that. It’s just something about him that you don’t expect. A side of him I don’t think most people in town know. Even Liza didn’t let on to it.”
“You’re probably correct. Steve does appear to be very sweet and conservative on a daily basis.” Danni added, “I’m sure he has his reasons for hiding his lifestyle or his interest. Anything else?”
“Like I said, he was pretty upset that I’d shown up in his office under pretense.” Mandy cleared her throat.
“Did he do something? He didn’t hit you, did he? Beating people up is not approved of in the BDSM community, if that’s what he’s involved in.” Danni’s voice rose and there was an edge to it. Her friend sounded like an officer of the law ready to extract justice.
“No! No!” She sighed, “Not like that.” Mandy rushed to exonerate Steve. She didn’t want Danni to think he was some type of brute.
“Like what then?” Danni asked.
“He tied my hands and…” Say it girl. “Spanked me,” she blurted out.
“Spanked you?” Her voice was low and unbiased, as she asked, “Did you like it?”
Did she like it? She recalled the shock, the burn, the tingle and the arousal. “I don’t know how to answer that,” she responded.
“Does saying yes not seem to fit the bill on the experience? As if you felt so outside of yourself and what you thought you should feel didn’t make sense. Did you feel like you deserved the discipline, not because you were bad, but because the instruction was necessary? You knew that his actions were caring. It showed he cared.”
Slipping lower on the couch, Mandy rested her head on the back cushion and closed her eyes. She found it amazing that Danni had placed words to her emotions. Emotions and thoughts she had never considered feeling.
Danni finished by saying, “You felt a sense of peace even while it was happening?”
“Yes.” With one word she confessed it all. “How do you know?”
“That’s how I feel with Robert,” Danni admitted.
That caused Mandy to sit up. “Are you all into BDSM?”
Chucking, Danni said, “Yes and no. Sexually, yes. Actually, full in the lifestyle, no. That’s how it works for us.”
“Thanks for sharing that with me.” There was so much she didn’t know. As if she’d been living under a rock most of her adult life. Well, not a rock but maybe her badge.
“You’re my friend. The only person I’d consider a friend in the town, besides my soon to be sister in-law.”
“Yeah, Liza’s alright for a non-cop.” Mandy laughed.
Danni joined her. “Maybe we ought to pull her in at the next recruitment rally.”
Mandy heard Robert call Danni. “You have to go take care of your man. I’ll talk to you later.”
“Okay. You know how and where to reach me if you need to talk.”
“Got it.” They ended the call. Mandy picked up her remote and turned the muted television off. Getting up, she headed to her dining room table where her laptop was connected. Danni had provided her with a lot of information that stimulated more questions.
She hated being ignorant. Maybe that all came through her playing sports most of her life and people thinking it allowed her to skate her way through school. It didn’t. She had no life outside of basketball and school. She studied just as much on her different classes as she honed her skills on the court.
Connecting to the Internet, she wasted no time. She went to the search engine and typed B-D-S-M. She wanted to know more about Steve, and maybe this would help her.
Chapter Five
“Hey, son. Good to see you could make it.” Simon Ewing stared at Steve from the couch where he sat watching the baseball game with a beer in one hand and the remote in the other. The Braves were playing in Milwaukee against the Brewers. Otherwise his father would have been at Turner Field.
“I promised Mom I’d be here.” Steve had let himself in. People in Claremont County rarely locked their doors, even with the recent activities over the last few months.
“Yea, Tammy told me she went by the bank yesterday to ask you to come to Sunday dinner.” His father shifted his gaze from the TV for a moment to pin him with a questioning look. “Since when should a mother have to ask her unwed son to come home?”
Steve shook his head. He could see his dad was already in a mood. If he’d have known that, he’d have stayed away longer. He corrected himself: he would have still come. It was too hard for him to say no to his mother. “I have a lot of things to do.”
Staring back at the TV, his father said, “I’d be interested to know what that is, considerin’ the bank ain’t open on Sunday and the final deposits and balance checks get done on Saturday night.”
That was the problem with being in the same business his father had retired from. All his life, his dad had worked as the bank manager. When he turned sixteen, there was no question where he was going to work and he’d been there ever since in all positions. Three years ago his father had retired and the bank manager position naturally went to him. That was how things were done in Small Town America. “Just stuff. How are the Braves doin’?”
His father lifted an eyebrow, but never broke from the TV, letting Steve know that he caught the change of subject. “They’re farin’. They’re only up by one run. Cox’ll push through this.”
Steve sat back for a while, watching the game with his dad. Outside of a lot of their differences, baseball had been something he enjoyed with his old man.
“You’re gettin’ older. Still not married. By your age I already had a wife and a baby.”
We’re back on that again.
“A man needs someone to pass the torch to when the time comes. Otherwise, all those years of hard work don’t mean a damn thing.”
“Dad, I’m not in any hurry.”
Lifting the beer to his lips, his father took a swig. “That’s evident.” Simon gave a dry chuckle. “Or maybe that’s what you’re doing on Sunday nights.”
Sometimes it was better to remain silent. What he really wanted to do was tell h
is overbearing father to stay out of his damn life. But, he’d been raised to respect his parents and even though his dad exasperated him to no end, Steve knew he wouldn’t say anything. Just live his own life. When he was twenty, his father had made a surprise visit at his college. His father had walked in on him using his fraternity paddle on his girlfriend’s ass, while she was tied to the bed rail. His father had told him he’d meet him at a restaurant downtown Atlanta close to the college, then walked out.
All the lectures about decorum had started then.
As if his father had feared that his dark sexual passion would lead him to a life of crime. Even worse, disgrace the family because people in town found out. So, he had kept his desire under wraps. When he dated women in town, he kept it all traditional, staid behaviors in the bedroom. Occasionally, he’d travel down to Atlanta to a club he’d discovered a few years ago. He’d had no problem keeping his desires across the county line, until Mandy.
“Sweetheart, it’s so good to see you.” Tammy Ewing came into the living room and made a beeline for him.
Steve stood and hugged his mother. He may respect his father, but he adored his mother. She was sweet and understanding. Never judged him like his dad. “Hi, Mom.”
Leaning back she smiled up at him. “I hope you brought your appetite, I made all your favorites.”
“All of them? You didn’t have to go to all that trouble.” Steve felt guilty that he didn’t come by more often so his mother didn’t feel she had to make a Thanksgiving feast every time he showed up.
“It was no trouble, Christy helped out with most of it,” his mother said.
Christy? That’s when he looked toward the archway leading to the dining room and noticed Christy Wilks standing there with a small smile. Oh, no.
“Hi, Steve.” Her voice was light as a summer breeze. She was thin, medium height with shoulder length blonde hair and hazel eyes. Christy was attractive, but he knew the only reason she hadn’t been snatched up yet was because she was a homebody. Even during high school she hadn’t attended any dances. In the last twelve years, things hadn’t changed. She’d even stayed in the county for college, attending the community college, then finishing her degree online. The youngest of seven kids, she was the only child that still lived at home.