"Spoken just as if you were my father! Why don't you go practice on your own siblings, Max?"
"Fine. Your choice," and she felt him begin to lift her out of the chair.
"No, no, Max!" she gasped, not having believed he'd actually make good on his threat.
"I gave you the choice, Elise."
"I'll come, I promise." She couldn't bear it if he actually spanked her in the restaurant.
He paused. "Okay, but one more word from you until we're in private and you know what will happen." He looked at her agitated face and tense posture and sighed. "Let's get your coat, Elise."
* * *
She sat glaring at him in the privacy of their suite as he poured himself a drink from the bar.
"Are you going to tell me what this is all about?" he asked mildly. Although he was angry at her performance in the restaurant, his temper was firmly under control. He just couldn't understand what had caused such an outburst. She'd known from the beginning how important her safety was to him; how could she even think he'd let her roam by herself into the unknown without any protection?
"You know damned well what this is about!" she bit out.
He winced again at her response. "I've already told you not to use that language with me. I thought that, if nothing else, you at least held some sort of common respect for me after the last two weeks."
"Respect?" She shot up out of the chair. "How the hell can you talk to me about respect? I thought we were both on the same page. I thought you understood me. But then, I find that all you want to do is treat me like some child who can't be trusted to be out on her own! And there was me worrying about making sure we had the time to see each other with our different schedules!" She burst into tears.
Shocked at the tears and the distress he could see was consuming her, he tried to pull her into his arms to comfort her, but she slapped his hands away. "Don't bother, Max, there's no point!"
"Sweetheart, I don't know where all this has suddenly come from. I definitely don't think of you as a child and I don't think I treat you as one, either. When have I ever treated you as a child, or like I'm your father?"
"You want to wrap me up in cotton wool all the time and have me chaperoned wherever I go! I'm not stupid; I know Tom and the others have had a fit at me being away on my own. This is just more of the same!"
"Elise, love..." He reached out again for her, but she pushed against him, and he ran his hands through his hair in near despair as to how he was going to get her to understand that his actions derived from his love for her.
"I told you, don't bother." Her voice was trembling.
"Love, do you understand why Tom, Luke and Alex don't want you roaming round the world on your own?"
"Of course I bloody understand. They don't think I can look after myself or find my own guides!"
"No, Elise." He was firm, knowing he had to make her understand. "It's because they love you. They each see you as their own sister and they'd do anything to keep you out of danger."
"I can keep myself out of danger."
"Maybe you can, but you can't predict everything that might go wrong, when you might need extra help or knowledge to reduce the risks. Why would they take that risk with your life?"
"Oh don't give me all that safety talk again! You made your point when we were at the cabin. I thought you said that you didn't believe in prolonged arguments; you spanked me and said it was over!"
He was silent for a couple of minutes as he began to realise that he'd made a fundamental mistake with her over the last weeks. He'd thought that she'd understood why he'd spanked her, but now he realised that she'd treated her spankings as punishment for specific actions rather than the underlying issue her actions had pointed to. As he thought to himself, he also realised that although she'd always apologised as he'd spanked her and cried out, and had readily admitted she'd deserved it, she perhaps hadn't actually seen the bigger picture.
He decided to take a chance.
"I meant it, Elise. I don't believe in long drawn out fights and I don't believe in lengthy recriminations. I'm glad you understand that. It might make this a bit easier for you."
Swiftly, he picked her up, ignoring her flailing hands, and carried her over to the bed. With one hand he placed a couple of the pillows towards the foot of the bed and then, while she was still in his arms, unfastened her jeans and pushed them, along with her panties, to her knees. Quickly he placed her so her head was cushioned by the soft down of the bed's quilt and her bottom was propped up, facing him, on the pillows with her legs dangling over the edge of the bed.
"Max! Don't you dare! I have done nothing wrong. Do you hear me? Nothing! Damn you!"
He sat on the bed and she turned her head to face him, while one of his hands stayed on the small of her back, keeping her in position effortlessly.
"Really? You think you've done nothing wrong? Is that just because you're looking for a specific action, Elise?"
"What do you mean?"
He sighed. "What I mean is, when I've spanked you before, it's usually been because you've done something that's put yourself in danger, but I wonder whether, in your head, you've thought of it as being a punishment for a small thing, like running outside at night with the rifle, rather than about the bigger, more important thing that you running outside that night represented, like putting yourself in a situation where you could be hurt."
She was quiet, so he continued, "Because, I think that if you did fully understand that it was about the bigger thing, then you'd understand that it's your safety that's so important to me. When you went outside that night, I wasn't angry because you broke a rule about going outside at night. I was angry because you broke the rule that says that your safety is paramount, and running outside at night with a loaded rifle put your safety into jeopardy. I thought I'd explained that on our first night, but I don't think it's fully sunk in with you. I love you, Elise. Your family loves you too, but I love you in a way that's far from brotherly, and I'd go to the ends of the earth to keep you safe."
He heard her breath catch in her throat at his declaration, and he internally berated himself for not having told her before tonight how he loved her, for not having given her that security while they were at the cabin. He'd only held off because he didn't want to move too quickly for her and scare her away. Although she'd said she wasn't traumatised by what had happened to her in Kenya, he'd wanted to give her the emotional space to dictate the pace of their relationship. He knew his particular brand of dominance could be overwhelming and he'd wanted to give her the time to get used to him.
"That's why I'm going to do this, Elise." He stood up and she watched as he removed his belt from his jeans, doubling it in his hand and making sure that the metal was firmly caught in his palm so it was well away from her soft skin.
"Max, no!"
"Yes, Elise. We could sit here and talk about this for hours, but I doubt it will achieve anything. The only sure fire way I know of making you understand is to show you."
He knew this was going to be tough on her. Although he was going to use his belt, which had a fiery bite, he would be gentle, as he knew the spanking would likely go on a while. He wasn't going to stop when she inevitably apologised for her rudeness in the restaurant or for her reaction to his comments about Mongolia. He was going to continue until he was sure she understood that she wasn't to even think about taking the kind of risks she used to take again, and although she could roam the world as much as she wanted in the future, it would be with him or with properly qualified protection.
With a sharp crack the belt descended onto her bottom.
"Ow!" she jumped at the immediate sting. "Ow!" she cried out again, "Max, please stop. It hurts!" The bite of the belt was so much sharper than his hand, or even the spatula he'd used on her in the cabin.
"No, Elise. Now tell me again about what caused you to be so upset this evening."
"You know what caused it! Ow!" The leather of the belt rained down on her bottom, turni
ng it a rosy shade of pink with only a few strokes.
"Tell me again."
"You want to treat me like a child! You're too so over-protective!"
"How is it treating you like a child to want to ensure that the woman you love isn't in danger, especially miles away in a place where you might not be able to get to her easily?"
Silence.
"Answer me, Elise." His voice took on the dark, commanding quality that had been one of the things that had initially attracted her to him.
"I don't know!"
"How would you feel if Lily put herself in danger? How did you feel when she tried to take on that fight in her school's playground?"
"Tom's got a big mouth! Ow!" Elise's voice broke and she began to cry as the heat in her bottom increased and she squirmed on the pillows, trying in vain to propel herself away.
"Tom's like family to me, Elise. He was going out of his mind worrying about Lily and trying to keep her safe, while still respecting that she had her career and responsibilities. Lily knows Tom told me about his worries; he didn't break any confidences. But tell me instead, do you think Tom was treating Lily like a child when he tried to keep her safe?"
"No!" she sobbed. "But that was different."
"How?"
"Lily's the youngest. I'm used to taking care of myself!"
"I think you've gotten far too used to it. You've become selfish, Elise. You've forgotten how those who love you worry, and their need to make sure you're okay."
"Okay, fine. I'm sorry, Max. I'm sorry I argued with you and you can send someone with me to Mongolia. I promise. Please, just stop."
"You still don't get it, do you?" This time he let the soft leather of the belt lick the tops of her thighs; he fully intended to ensure she couldn't sit comfortably for days. "This isn't about the restaurant, or even Mongolia. This is about the fact that I love you and I'd hoped that you loved me. It's about my need to ensure that the woman I love is safe. How did you feel when you heard about Lily wading into that fight?"
"I don't remember!" she sobbed.
Again and again he spanked her with the belt. "Don't lie to me, Elise. I know you remember; I can see it in your eyes." Indeed, despite the tears streaming down her face, he'd seen the memory of fear flicker across her face as she clearly remembered Lily's plight.
Her voice cracked, "I was scared for her. And angry." She hiccupped.
"Why, Elise? Tell me."
"She shouldn't have done it. She could have been hurt."
"But she's an adult. She was in the safety of the school's grounds. Why shouldn't she have done it?"
"We could have lost her!" she wailed. "She didn't know what she was walking into. We were all so worried..."
"Why were you worried?"
"Because I love her!"
Max saw her shoulders shake as realisation began to dawn on her and her breath hitched up a notch.
Quickly, he pushed the belt to one side. He wasn't finished with her spanking, but her bottom had had enough from the belt. Anything more with the belt and he risked hurting her, which he would never do. She didn't protest – he suspected she didn't even notice – as he lifted her away from the pillows and instead placed her over his knee, bringing his hand down on her now red, blazing bottom.
He felt her relax into his lap as her sobs consumed her, and realised that when he'd spanked her before, she'd never quite reached this place in her head. She'd always accepted her punishment, but had never found the comfort in it that he hoped she would find tonight. He knew that many would laugh outright at the idea of finding comfort in being spanked, but he'd seen it often enough that he knew it wasn't as unusual as it sounded.
He continued to spank her as she cried. "I'm sorry, Max. I'm so sorry. I didn't understand. I thought you didn't trust me to work on my own. I thought you didn't think I was responsible enough. I'm sorry, Max."
"I do trust you, love. I trust you completely. But the need to look after you is a part of me, and I can't change that. I need to know you're safe and secure, and to know that I've done everything in my power to ensure that safety, whether that's giving you a spanking to make sure you don't do something reckless again, or whether it's being with you and taking care of you when you're in some far-flung wilderness."
She was quiet and he felt her sobs gradually subside and her cries ease. He knew her bottom must be burning by now, but she was calm as she lay over his lap, and he could see that her eyes were slowly drifting shut, even though she wasn't sleeping.
After a few more long minutes, he slowed and then stopped the spanking, and instead began to stroke her back, not quite the massage he knew she loved, but softer and designed to comfort. They stayed like that for a long while, until she eventually moved her head and blinked up at him through swollen eyes.
"Hold me?" she whispered, suddenly unsure of herself.
He kissed her forehead gently and eased her upwards, before moving over so he was lying with his head at the top of the bed and then he drew her back down so that she was tucked into his side, draped over him slightly to protect her sore bottom.
"It's okay, Elise. I've got you." He reassured her, knowing instinctively that she needed his comfort now more than she had after he'd spanked her before, and cuddled her to him.
"Max," she stopped.
He looked down at her, "Yes, love?"
"Do... do you forgive me?"
He lowered his head and slowly placed a light kiss on her lips, "You know I do, love. I'm just sorry that we went through this. I should have been clearer to begin with, when we first met, and made sure you knew that wanting to ensure your safety had nothing to do with not thinking you were responsible enough. I should have picked up that you were worried about it."
She shook her head. "I should have said something, Max. I know I can talk to you about anything. It just somehow all built up inside me. I was so happy this evening, but I'd been worrying about how things would be when we return to England, and how we'd juggle our different jobs with our relationship, particularly when one of us has to travel abroad." She sighed, "I thought we'd just figure it out later, but when you started to talk about accompanying me, it made all my worries about that bubble to the surface, and it then just overflowed when I thought you didn't think I was responsible enough to go to Mongolia by myself. It felt like I couldn't win no matter what; either I lost out by not seeing you if I travelled, or I lost out by having you with me by thinking you were only there because I wasn't to be trusted."
"Oh, sweetheart," he groaned, "if only I'd known! You know, regardless of me accompanying you on your projects, there won't be any issue juggling our relationship with work. I'll make sure there's not. I can pretty much pick and choose my travel and my hours these days, so it'll be easy enough to make sure we see each other. Besides, I fully intend to make sure you fall in love with the area in which I live, so we can maximise our time!"
She laughed softly. "I'm sure I will, Max. I trust you completely. But, you know," she took a deep breath, "I think I'd fall in love with any place if it had you in it, Max."
He looked down at her, hoping that he was interpreting her words correctly, but not quite able to believe it.
"I love you," she said quietly. "I know we haven't known each other long, but I do know how I feel."
He breathed out a deep sigh of relief at her words. "Oh, love. I didn't want to push things with you and take things too quickly, make you feel overwhelmed."
"You didn't, Max," she interrupted him, shaking her head. "I know you were worried about me, especially after I told you about David and Kenya, but you've given me more space than I feel I've had in years. I'm not sure how, but somehow being around you makes me calmer and more..." she searched for the right word, "steady, maybe," she said, hoping he'd understand what she meant.
He nodded at her, knowing exactly what she meant. "I'm glad, love. So glad. But do you think you can live with my need to keep you safe, now that you understand the motivation?"
She thought to herself for a few moments, knowing that her answer had to be completely honest. "I think so. I wish I'd understood more to begin with, though. There will probably still be times when I push against it, just because that's the way I am, but at least it won't be because I don't understand why you're doing it. It's odd, but I'd never really thought about why I was so angry at Lily for wading into that fight, or at Meg when she nearly got attacked by an awful client of hers."
Max nodded. "Luke mentioned that when I met up with the guys."
"I guess I've always been away so much that I'd never really thought that anyone would feel that way about me."
"You've only recently met me, but you should have known that your family would always feel like that."
"Maybe. I guess I knew my sisters would feel like that, but I hadn't thought much about the guys. I guess I thought they were just a bit over-protective and felt responsible for me because I didn't have a boyfriend."
"They love you and think of you as their own sister, Elise."
"I've figured that out now. I love them all dearly. They're like the brothers I never had. I thought though, that they didn't feel they knew me so well, as I was away so much. I've known Alex since we were kids, but then, he left for the States and none of us saw him very much until he returned recently. I only see Luke and Tom when I'm passing through London between shoots. Although," she mused, "they were all pretty mad at me after Isabelle and I drank too much at Meg's party."
"They were all worried about you, Elise. They don't want to smother you –nor do I – but they want to make sure that you're okay. I think I told you before, they were also worried that you were getting increasingly lonely on your own."
"They're pretty perceptive, too, aren't they? They seem to have guessed my feelings well."
Elise's Story: A Bentley Sisters Novel Page 11