Requested Surrender

by Riley Murphy

  “I want to hold her.”

  All eyes were on Ted until Rene sighed. “It annoys the hell out of me that she’s so calm around you guys. She cried when the cashier at the grocery store talked with her and that guy was five-foot tall and a hundred and ten soaking wet. And here she is faced with a pack of grinning giants and she’s smiling.”

  “She’s got good taste,” Ethan said, handing her back to her father.

  “What, don’t I get a turn?”

  Rene gathered his daughter in and beamed when she laid her cheek on his shoulder and let out a happy sigh. “Later,” he said to Ted as he swayed back and forth. But then his smile faltered as looked around. “Where’s Kavanagh?”

  Ethan put one hand on Rene’s shoulder and brushed his other one against Bea’s curls. “Don’t worry. As you suggested, I had a talk with him about the babysitter.”

  Rene nodded and spoke softly. “Good. The dial on the poor bugger’s pecker is set to ‘covet thy neighbor’s wife’.”

  David scowled. “I thought she was getting a divorce.”

  “Inks not dry on those papers, so we’ll see. Makes Laren vulnerable right now. Better to be safe.”

  “Excuse me. Rene?”

  A woman David had never seen before was standing in the open doorway.

  “Sorry to interrupt, but it’s time for Bea’s nap.”

  “Right. Guys? This is Laren. She’s helping Alex and I with the little one this weekend.” Rene went to her and handed over his sleepy daughter. After Laren left he said, “Nice visiting with you boys, but I have to go.”

  David was about to call him a pussy when one of the spa staffers arrived at the door. Out of breath and red faced. “Excuse my interrupting but there’s a woman in the meditation room who’s not very happy.”

  Ted took a deep breath and then grinned. “You can be more specific, kid. I’m not going to hold it against you.”

  The young guy didn’t miss a beat. “Should I tell her you’ll return shortly?”

  Ted’s grin turned up in smile. “Not if you like the set of balls you got in those pants. My girl likes to bust them. Best let me handle her. Gentlemen.” Ted nodded to no one in particular before he left. Walking with his hand on the young staffer’s shoulder. David’s guess? He was educating the poor kid on the finer points of handling a woman’s ire.

  Rene asked, “Will I see you guys at dinner?”

  “I don’t know about E—”

  “I’ll be there.”

  “Not sure about us. Lacy and I are probably going to head back to my place before then.”

  After Rene left, Ethan tossed his keys up in the air a couple of times and then stopped. “Are you good?”

  “Yeah. There’s no need for you and T to tag team me. I’ll get my shit together. No worries.”

  “Cool.” Ethan turned to leave and David went to sit back down at the desk, but then thought better of it.

  “Wait, I’ll walk you out. I need to find Lacy. Maybe we can get things rolling a little early.” He was tired of studying the bullshit legalese that Alistair packed into each contract. A little alone time with his girl in a tapas room was what he needed.

  “Oh, is she back?”

  The smile slid off his face and he stopped. E better be fucking with him. “Back from where?”

  “Richard said she went out for a walk.”

  “Lacy? Lacy went out?”

  “That’s what he said. Are you all right?”

  No, he wasn’t all right. And turns out, T was spot on when he’d said David would know when the timing was right. After this…this slap in the face of his asking her not go out, he knew for sure it was time he dealt with his main issue with her. Trust. He was fully prepared to step up to that spanking horse now. Very prepared. No more Mr. Nice Guy.

  “I’m fine. I’ll go check with Richard and see if she’s returned. Send Colin my best, would you?”

  “Sure.”

  Of course Lacy hadn’t made it back yet, so David sat in the lobby waiting for her and when four o’clock came and went, he seethed. Four fifteen, he fumed. Four thirty, he was ready spank her right there and to hell with who watched. But then it was four forty-five and the sweat broke out on his skin. Terrible thoughts. Horrible thoughts started to surface. What if something happened to her? What if she were in trouble? What if she needed him and he wasn’t there?

  His heart pounded and he wiped his sweat-drenched palms on his pants. He remembered this. The worrying. The not knowing. The fear of being left.

  Before he changed his mind he got up and had just reached the front doors when he spotted her jogging through the gates. He thanked Andrew for opening the doors and didn’t break his stride as descended the steps and headed straight for her.

  Chapter Twenty

  Lacy sat in the passenger seat of the car for the whole ride back to David’s house in complete and utter silence. She didn’t even get the chance to explain to him why she’d been so late. That hadn’t been part of her plan, but he didn’t want to listen to how she got caught on the other side of that drawbridge. How with each minute that ticked by, as the sailboats with their extended masts went under the open portal, she worried. But then, there’d been no more boats and still the bridge didn’t come down. She was almost ready to swim to the other side when the engineer from town finally showed up and fixed it. Even though she’d run the whole way back to the resort once she crossed, it was too late. David had marched down the steps and gone right to her. He’d asked her if she was okay and when she said, yes, he’d nodded and told her no more talking. They were going home.

  That had been nearly two hours ago. When it was light out. It wasn’t anymore, but the long drive was lit up and so was his house. She’d been dying to ask him about her things. Their things, because he’d packed too, but she didn’t. Couldn’t. There was an air of absolute authority that poured off him like waves of summer heat beating against the pavement.

  Beating. Yeah, that word had her sweating like she did on those hot summer days. She remembered Alex speaking to her about how Rene handled things with her when she’d shut him out of her life. How he’d put a crop to her butt and made her prepare herself for her own punishment. How he’d made her count off the strokes as they landed. Would David do that too? Wasn’t he more like Rene than Ted or Ethan? Didn’t they establish that this afternoon?

  Was it only this afternoon? It felt as if days had gone by.

  “Stay in the car until I come around and open the door for you.”

  Well, that quietly uttered sentence made her feel like complete crap. It would have been better if he’d told her to get out. She watched him walk around the front of the car. So fucking handsome. So determined. So impossibly collected that a shiver of fear wound its way through her. Intensifying when he opened her door and offered her his hand.

  She let him help her out of the car and when she was standing next to him, she spoke very softly. Almost pleading. “I’d like to explain why I was late.”

  Oh god, he wouldn’t look at her. He stood there, looking over her head at some vantage point he could stomach, something other than her.

  You knew this was going to happen. Just like it did before…

  “Your explanation, when I ask for it, will start before you made the misstep of being late.”

  When he looked down she wanted to wince. His gaze flayed her. How could a man be so mad, and yet so calm all at once. “Go inside. To your room. I’ll be up in thirty minutes. There will be a measure of discipline handed down as well as a punishment.”

  She nodded and then took two steps before she stopped and turned around. “Can you tell me what kind of punishment I’m in for?”

  “I could, but I won’t. Go.”

  Lacy turned and rushed up the steps. The front door was unlocked and by the time she got inside and halfway up the next set of stairs she was lambasting herself. She should have known. She should have been prepared. The bad always happened. Even when it was premeditated and s
elf-inflicted, it came at her worse. Why, why, why didn’t she ever remember this?

  It all started right after her thirteenth birthday. She’d never forget that time in her life. Thirteen. She hated birthdays. She hated the bad. She hated herself right now. How could she have been so stupid? She walked too far today. There was no reason she needed to go over that bridge. She should have hid in the bushes and counted off the seconds until 4:00 to return. Her plan was to breeze in at 4:01 and let him scold her. And now look.

  She went right into the bathroom and stripped off her clothes. She wasn’t going to mess around. She was going to shower, brush her teeth—she eyed the bathroom counter and swore. “Dammit.” Her bag with her tooth brush was at the resort. Wonderful.

  Once she cranked on the water and got in under the spray she tried not to think about the bad, but right now she couldn’t help it. Images kept popping into her head. The time she took the short cut through Heldan Field to get to the school dance and wound up contracting poison ivy. Bad enough, but worse, she gave it to half of the eighth grade class. The time she was supposed to pick up her parent’s anniversary cake at the bakers, but forgot. Bad enough, but worse, her grandmother had gone to get it instead. Only on the way there she wound up getting into a car accident and spent the next seven weeks in the hospital. Then there was the day she had to tell her father all the money she’d made at her summer job and had planned to use as spending money for her first semester at college was gone. Bad enough, but worse, she had tell him the guy he never approved of stole it from her.

  She knew why these things were haunting her now. It was bad enough she’d willing left the resort today after David had asked her not to, but worse, because she’d also made him wait by getting stuck on the other side of that bridge.

  When she turned off the water and grabbed a towel to dry herself, she finally had to admit it. She’d kept the bad at bay for years now simply by not dialing in. Before it had been easy to skate though life, but not anymore.

  Time to pay the piper.

  She used the towel to dry off the bits of hair that had gotten wet. She’d taken a shower this morning so she didn’t wash her hair tonight, but after her mile-long run back to the resort, she wanted to rinse off before she got spanked. What was he going to use? A crop, or a belt, or the paddle, or his hand? She knew what she was hoping it’d be.

  “Dammit.” She tried to make out her reflection in the foggy mirror. She’d been wishing he’d use the paddle for some reason, but hello? More bad news. The paddle was at the resort.

  Once she was dressed, although she had no idea why she bothered as he’d probably make her take everything off, she sat on the side of her bed and waited. She didn’t have long. She heard him moving around in his room for five minutes. The longest five minutes of her life, but the night was young so she was going to reserve judgment on that. Especially when he walked through the door…and she saw what he had in his hand. The riding crop.

  He came to the bed, standing right in front of her. Using the tip of the crop to tilt up her chin, he ordered, “Stand up.”

  She had no choice. The leather flag on the end of the crop forced her to follow his lead, as he used it to conduct her.

  “Good. Now strip.”

  She called that one. Pulling her head away, she was going to do as he directed. She knew she had this coming. Better this than be interrogated. She could only imagine what kind of fallout that bad came with.

  “No, you’ll work around it.”

  The leather was back under her chin, only this time she was forced to keep her head up higher as she tried to take off her clothes. More bad that got worse. She should do what all the hype is about in the D/s lifestyle and surrender to it.

  As best as she could, she took off her clothes while keeping her chin on that leather and her eyes on him.

  “Good. Now.” He turned to the side and directed her. “Go to this wall. That’s right. Lean against it. Palms flat. Lean in. Like I’m going to frisk you.”

  Thankfully he moved the crop so she could position herself the way he wanted. Was he going to make her stand there with ass out while he smacked her with the crop?

  “Bend your right leg back. From the knee. Foot perfectly straight.”

  Lacy did as he told her, and felt her toes stiffen and curl. She couldn’t help it. It was an odd angle for her.

  “This is my discipline being meted out. I’m going to balance this crop on the sole of your foot and I want you to hold this position for five full minutes. No breaking from this stance and no dropping the crop. If you come out of position, or if you falter and the crop falls, we start over. Do you understand?”

  Only too well. She wanted him to stop talking. To get this over with as quickly as she could. She felt the rod of the crop placed on her instep and didn’t move. She barely breathed as she found a section of whimsical script on wallpaper and focused in on it. She was going to get through whatever he had in mind to do, no matter what.

  “Now.” He ran a hand down her ass and then lightly tapped her right cheek. The action caused her to lose her focus and the crop fell. “Too bad. You were doing so well. Time to start over.”

  She bit her lip, not willing to complain even though she was dying to.

  “There.” He placed the rod across her propped up foot again. “I’m watching the time, so now I want to speak about discipline. I chose this particular method because you used your feet to walk away from me today when I expressly asked you not to.”

  “I’m sorry—”

  “Do not talk unless you are invited to do so.”

  “But—”

  Smack

  And the crop fell again. Dammit.

  “I can see this is going to be a long night.”

  She closed her eyes and willed herself to surrender to this. To stop trying to apologize or make sense of what he was doing or saying. All she needed to do was balance the crop on her raised foot and listen to him. That’s all. She trusted him. Yeah she did.

  With the rod resting on her sole once more, he continued, “As I was saying. You used this part of your body to disobey me, so this is how you are going to make amends. Five full minutes. The clock starts over if you come out of position or drop the crop. Do you understand?”

  “Yes.”

  David waited and waited. He’d been so sure she’d tire or go bratty on him, yet she didn’t. Hm. It was as if she were fighting for her life here. Admittedly, he’d been furious with her. He still was, but that had more to do with his own demons than her disobeying. It didn’t change the fact, though, that she’d done something he told her not to do, so she would be punished. Maybe she was storing her reserves up for that.

  Three minutes came and went and she did a good job of holding her position. He stood behind her and rolled up his sleeves as he watched for signs of fatigue. A slight adjustment with her hands. She was tiring now. He watched as she shifted weight from one arm to the other. Smart. Unfortunately, there was nothing she could do about her feet, so when her raised leg started to tremble, he wished he could push the time forward for her, but tonight there’d be no mercy given.

  The crop fell.

  To her credit she didn’t complain. She only used the opportunity to get better set. Once she was finished and he saw she’d placed one hand over the other he said, “Lean in and rest your forehead against the back of your hand. Good. Are you ready?”

  This time she didn’t even make it to one minute when her foot tilted and the crop rolled off. “I can’t. I can’t do it.”

  Both her feet were on the ground and her forehead still kissed her knuckles. With her ass out she presented him a convenient target. Scooping up the crop, he gave her bottom one solid swat. “You will do it.”

  She gasped.

  He took no notice of that and told her, “Use your other leg. Bend it. Now, hold this position and don’t let the crop fall.”

  Time ticked by slowly, but with each second that passed without her complaining or giv
ing up, he was heartened. Maybe she was ready to learn. At the two minute marker, he saw her leg tremble with strain. Three minutes in and her whole body quivered.

  If she lost it this time, he might lose her. At least in as far as the lesson went, so he moved in close to her and whispered, “You’re doing this for me. Making me proud after you disappointed me this afternoon. See yourself through my eyes. How you look right now. A beautiful woman made more beautiful because she’s accepting this exercise in discipline with grace and determination.”

  Did he imagine it, or was her trembling less? “One more minute to go. Fifty seconds.”

  Her breathing was harsh and rapid. Not a good sign.

  “Forty seconds more.” He hoped counting out the time would help her meet the goal. “Thirty.”

  “I can’t…I…can’t…”

  Her foot jerked and the crop almost fell, but she managed to keep it together. He was holding his breath. Willing the time to speed up. “Twenty seconds.”

  “Oh, no.”

  It was the barest whisper, but he heard it. She was losing it and if she did they’d have to start over again. “Ten seconds. Stay still, Lacy.”

  “Five, four, three…two”—he grabbed the crop as it teetered, catching it before it fell—“One. Done.” He was careful to help her straighten into a stand. Then slowly, he walked her to the bed. “Sit right here. I want you to take a few deep breaths while I massage your muscles for a minute. Then we’re going to talk before I carry out your punishment.” He dropped to his haunches and took hold of her ankle. Massaging her foot before he worked his fingers over her heel to her calf.

  “Wasn’t that enough?”

  He looked up. In her world maybe, but not in his. Not in their world, the one he was trying to create for them. “No. I want you to listen. And put your arms to your sides. No covering yourself from me.”

  When her eyes widened, he frowned. “You look surprised I said that. Don’t be. The best way to hold all the power is to take it. That’s what I do when I’m forced to.”