I nodded. "I will."
That wasn't exactly truthful. I knew from experience that the first swat from Aaron's hard hand would likely send all coherent thoughts spinning right out of my head.
"All right, then. And stay in position, Kyla, with your bottom high in the air, or I'll have to give you even more swats than I'm already intending to."
"I will."
I knew this was a promise I might not be able to keep.
Aaron tightened his grip on my wrists with one hand and pulled his other hand away from my rear. I braced myself for the first swat. But before he could even deliver it, there was a loud knock at the door, followed by Seth's voice. He called out that everyone was waiting on us.
Aaron groaned, the sound tapering off into a near-sob. And when he spoke, his voice was something like a quiet sob, too.
"Why? For the love of God, why?"
More than a little disappointed myself, I still couldn't help but gloat a bit at getting out of my consequence for teasing him. I sprang up from my undignified position over the bed, giggling.
"Aw. Sorry. I guess sometimes it just happens that cruel girls are allowed to tease their soon-to-be husbands with no consequences whatsoever. Or actually, the only consequence being a fun, lighthearted time. A good time for all."
Aaron immediately pulled me into his arms, his voice a husky whisper. "Not even close. When a consequence for teasing is delayed, especially when the one who is to receive the consequence takes such joy in that delay, and even seems to rub it in the face of the one who is to administer the consequence, well, then, I hate to say it, but the consequence then becomes more severe. The consequence that is still going to be administered...just later."
A tremor of something between excitement and apprehension rippled through me. Aaron seemed to notice, and his mouth twitched with amusement.
He moved his mouth to my ear. "So think about that the entire time we're digging, you beautiful, naughty little thing."
I exhaled a fluttery breath, wondering if there was any possible way Seth would just go away. Wondering if he did, if Aaron would administer my more severe consequence right then. Wondering if he'd let me feel his hardness inside of me immediately after.
But Seth didn't go away. He knocked again, even louder this time, and shouted. "We're all ready, you two!"
Aaron swore under his breath before responding, calling out that we'd be out in a second. I even swore. And then Aaron swore again, raking a hand through his thick dark hair.
"My brother, king of perfect timing. So perfect I could just about strangle him right now."
I giggled at seeing Aaron so uncharacteristically flustered, earning myself an extra few swats later on. I asked him why, and he said just because. Which made me giggle again, earning myself another extra few. And then we heard Calvin from somewhere nearby outside, hollering to Seth asking if we were ready.
Aaron sighed. "I guess you're not the only one around here who can be cruel."
Several minutes later, we both emerged from the cabin after dressing in digging clothes while trying not to look at each other and get each other all worked up again. Aaron gave Seth the briefest of glares, but I caught it and had to work hard to stifle a laugh. Even though I felt just a tiny bit like glaring at Seth myself. He, Calvin, Aaron, and I began heading to the back of the cabins, where the money was buried in Mason jars with waterproof lids.
But we all soon stopped dead in our tracks. Samuel, who'd already started digging, came running up to us, strands of his light brown hair escaping his ponytail. His expression was one of fear or panic.
"It's not here anymore. It's gone. All the money is gone."
CHAPTER THREE
Aaron frowned. "What do you mean, all the money is 'gone?'"
Samuel wiped a streak of dirt off his face with the back of his hand. "Just what I said. It's gone. I started digging exactly where Seth and Calvin told me to, right to the west of the tallest elm out back, but there is nothing there. No jars, no money, nothing. Just dirt."
His expression serious, Calvin asked Samuel if he was sure. But I thought I detected Calvin's mouth just wanting to twitch with a smile, although I couldn't for the life of me figure out why.
Samuel nodded. "I'm positive. I dug right in that two or three foot space between the tree roots and that yellow-leaved shrub, just like you and Seth told me to. I dug down at least a couple feet. But there's nothing."
Seth, normally always a little on the serious side, spoke with an inexplicable twinkle in his hazel eyes. "You sure you dug down deep enough, Sammy? Maybe you just gotta put a little extra muscle into it."
I looked at Aaron and saw that his frown was gone. I suddenly understood that Samuel was being pranked by his brothers. Having been turned into a bear shifter at only twenty years old, he was the youngest of them all by an average of about ten years and was often the butt of jokes.
He sputtered, looking at Seth. "Did I dig down deep enough? I dug down at least two or three feet! And as far as putting a little extra muscle into it, why don't you grab a shovel and give it a try yourself if you think you're stronger than me. Maybe you and Calvin should both grab a shovel, just to see if both of your old man muscles are still up to par."
Calvin covered a burst of laughter with a cough. "I'd love to take you up on that, Sammy, but I wouldn't want to throw my back out. So why don't you just dig down a few more feet and report back."
Calvin had another laughing-cough fit, and Seth erupted in one of his own. Samuel suddenly seemed to realize he was being pranked. He balled his fists, glaring at Calvin and Seth.
"Let me kick their asses, Aaron."
Aaron stepped aside, his expression amused. "Get Seth first."
Needing no further invitation, Samuel charged and knocked a howling-with-laughter Seth to the ground. He began pummeling his face, really earnestly hitting him hard, almost immediately giving him a bloody nose. I made a little gasp, a hand flying to my mouth.
Aaron pulled me close. "Don't worry. We shifters heal fast, remember? And I think Seth deserves this. For a number of things he's done today."
Samuel got in a few more punches at Seth, who was still laughing, before Calvin hauled him off and told him to take his best shot. Samuel swung, but Calvin ducked.
"Gotta be faster than that, Sammy. Gotta be faster than that to get a wily old-timer like me.” Samuel came at Calvin, fists flying, and landed a few good punches before Emily arrived on the scene, shrieking.
"Enough! Enough, both of you!"
Calvin rubbed his ribs, where Samuel had slugged him. "Both of us? But I wasn't even hitting him back!"
Emily narrowed her gray eyes, her face about the same color as her red hair. "I want you, Calvin, to stop doing whatever it was that you were doing to him before he started hitting you! And I know you were definitely doing something."
Samuel turned to Emily, and I thought I saw his lower lip jutting out just a smidgen, in the slightest hint of a pout.
"They had me dig in the wrong spot for the money jars, just so that they could laugh at me."
Emily gave Samuel a sympathetic look and then turned her gaze back to Calvin. "Very mature, dear. Very mature."
Calvin shrugged. "Not our fault the lil' runt does everything we tell him."
Samuel was hardly a runt. He was only about two inches shorter than Calvin's six-foot frame.
Samuel got two more good punches in at Calvin's ribs before speeding away, yelling something along the lines of a wily old-timer like Calvin should be able to take a few punches.
Calvin clutched his sides, doubled over. "Lil' runt's getting stronger, though."
A short while later, every single family member stood in the vast, forested yard behind the cabins, preparing to dig. The men had all insisted that Emily, Jasmine, Sarah, and I didn't have to dig, but the four of us insisted that we wanted to. After that was all established, Aaron showed everyone how he'd been burying the jars over the years in a sort of grid pattern. But even w
ith this organization, it was still going to take a good deal of time to complete the task. There were hundreds and hundreds of jars, and the forested area of "backyard" we were dealing with was about the size of a football field.
"Now, remember that some jars will have gold in them and some will have cash." Aaron gestured to ground west of the cabins. "Let's put the gold over here, and the jars with cash in a separate pile."
Over the years, he'd periodically dug up some of the jars containing old cash and had traded the bills in for gold.
"All right. Let's get started."
We all began digging in the late afternoon sunshine, and within a few minutes, several of us had unearthed Mason jars full of hundred-dollar bills. The jars weren't buried extremely deep, and the work wasn't extremely hard. And in fact, the mild temperature of the early October day made the activity actually pleasant. While we worked, a few yellow leaves fell from the trees surrounding us. For a while, I completely forgot about my impending consequence of teasing Aaron earlier. But just for a little while. He and a few of the other men eventually took their shirts off, and just seeing him lift his over his head, his muscles rippling, sent a current of electricity running through my veins.
And when he came over to me and spoke in a low voice near my ear while everyone else was talking and laughing about something, that current of electricity became something like a few dozen butterflies zipping around my stomach.
"I've decided I'm going to take you over my knee, pull your panties down, and spank your bare bottom. Just thought you should be thinking about that."
I couldn't find my voice for a long moment. "You're going to...."
He brushed a strand of my long blond hair out of my face, his deep green eyes glittering. "That's right. I'm going to take you over my knee."
He'd never done that before. The butterflies in my stomach began doing wild flips and spins.
"Don't you think you deserve a few good, hard swats, or several dozen, Kyla? After all your teasing and giggling today? Don't you think you deserve to end the day over my knee? Don't you think you deserve to end the day with a pink, stinging bottom?"
I nodded, inhaling the clean, woodsy scent emanating from Aaron's bare chest, a light sheen of perspiration covering the broad expanse. "Yeah."
He moved his mouth even closer to my ear, his normally deep voice becoming even deeper. "Well, so do I. I'm glad we're in agreement about this."
"Screw digging up the money. Let's just go back to the cabin right now."
I could barely even remember what the money was for.
Aaron chuckled. "Not quite yet. Part of your punishment is waiting for it. And we won't be going back to the cabin; we'll be taking a little walk in the woods. I spotted a moss-covered fallen tree with several other quite sturdy trees growing directly behind it, almost making it a couch or a bench of sorts. I think we'll call it 'Kyla's spanking bench.' Just the perfect thing for me to sit down and get comfortable on before taking you over my knee."
I became a little dizzy, glad I had a shovel to lean on to support me. "Okay."
Aaron moved his mouth from my ear and gave me a kiss, his mouth firm and warm. "Happy digging, you gorgeous, naughty little thing."
He strode off, and I opened my mouth to tell him that now he was the one teasing and being cruel, but I couldn't quite get the words out. I was too focused on slowing my rapid, fluttery breaths.
Around five, Emily brought out some sandwiches and apple cider for me and anyone who hadn't been hunting that day. I only picked and nibbled, preoccupied with the line of Aaron's strong jaw and his rippling muscles while he worked. I was also a bit preoccupied by a sensation of wet slickness between my thighs.
After maybe only half a sandwich, I went back to digging for jars, not that I could really focus on that, either. And before long, Aaron looked as if his concentration was slipping a bit, too. He kept glancing at me from under his dark lashes between what appeared to be halfhearted shovelfuls of dirt.
Just when I thought I couldn't stand it anymore, he told everyone to take a break. And then, not seeming to care at all about a few raised eyebrows, he announced that he and I were going to take a walk in the woods to stretch our legs.
"Take as long a break as you like, everyone. Even for the rest of the day. We've still got all of tomorrow and Sunday to get all the jars out."
"But that's not really a lot of time to-"
"Then, keep at it, Samuel. I'll join you when I return from my walk."
And with that, Aaron came over to me, took me by the hand, and began leading me into the deep woods. "Relax and enjoy your break, everyone."
When we'd gotten maybe only twenty or thirty feet into the woods, just far enough that a few mighty evergreens and oaks blocked us from being seen, he pulled me into his arms and planted a kiss on me that left me breathless.
"Hop on my back, you beautiful, naughty, little angel. We'll get there faster."
Even without being a bear-shifter, Aaron would have probably been an incredibly strong man, but since he was a bear shifter, he had the strength of several men. This meant that he could carry me with ease, despite my full figure, and I loved this.
I hopped up on his back, and he began striding through the forest, the late-day sun revealing just the slightest hints of amber in his dark hair. With my arms around his shoulders, I pressed the side of my face into his broad back, my breathing becoming a little fast and shallow even though I wasn't the one walking.
Soon we arrived at the moss-covered fallen tree bench-couch thing he had described, and I hopped off his back, a little reluctantly, suddenly wondering just exactly how many swats he was going to give me and exactly how hard his hand would be. But an ache building low in my belly wouldn't even let me consider backing out of receiving my punishment for teasing him earlier that day.
He sat down on the tree-bench, surveying me, his jewel-green eyes gleaming. "All right, Kyla. You know you've been a naughty girl, and you've agreed that you deserve a good spanking. Do you still agree that you deserve a good spanking?"
I nodded mutely, studying his bare chest and long, muscular, jean-clad thighs, suddenly unable to make eye contact with him.
"All right, then." He took me by the hand and pulled me a little closer to him. "I'd like you to pull down your pants, but leave your panties up, please. Those are for your soon-to-be husband to remove."
My face suddenly a little warm, I began unbuttoning and unzipping my jeans, my heart hammering in my ears. I still couldn't look Aaron in the eyes.
He gently lifted my chin. "Please look at me while you do this."
My pulse accelerating, I did as I was told, willing myself to hold at least more or less steady eye contact with him while I pulled my jeans down to my ankles, my face flaming. When he spoke next, his voice became decidedly lower and huskier, though still controlled and commanding.
"Thank you. I'm going to take you over my knee now."
While butterflies rioted in my stomach, he did just that, his hands firm, except he more like bent me over his lap, the angle tipping my bottom high in the air. Biting back a low growl, he spent a few moments positioning me exactly how he wanted me, his hands on my hips. Trembling in anticipation of what was about to happen next, I pressed the side of my face into the mossy tree-bench, feeling something awfully similar to a steel rod pressing against me through his jeans. His voice came out in a growling whisper.
"If you try to cover your bottom, I'm going to have to hold your wrist. Would you just rather I did it now?"
I nodded, the ache low in my belly intensifying. Aaron gently but firmly pinned my right wrist up at the small of my back with his left hand. And then silently, he slowly pulled my sheer lace underwear down to about mid-thigh, exposing my entire upturned bottom. My breathing became fast and ragged, and I closed my eyes, my face hotter than I ever imagined possible. His own breathing even a little faster and more ragged than my own, Aaron caressed the fullness of my bare bottom. But only for a moment or two.
He drew his hand back, and I braced myself for the first stinging swat, expecting it to be a really hard one. And it more than fulfilled my expectation.
I yelped, and then again several more times, in rapid succession, while he began my spanking, his big hand feeling as hard as a wooden paddle. He continued, accelerating the swats, his hand even a little harder still, and I whimpered, squirming against the enormous rod in his jeans. He paused, unable to hold back a groan, but my already-intensely-stinging bottom didn't get much of a reprieve. Within a few moments, he resumed the spanking. And soon my bottom became about a thousand times hotter than my face had been just a minute or so earlier. I wiggled and squirmed, struggling, unable to resist kicking my legs a little. But Aaron held me in position firmly and continued the spanking, his hard hand swatting each of my blazing rear cheeks in rapid succession.
Her Bear Protector Trilogy Page 15