“You can think about it, honey, no pressure.”
“Except that if I don’t agree, then you don’t want to be with me?”
“No, I’m not saying that.” Ok, he was sort of saying that, but the truth was although that’s what he wanted, he couldn’t imagine not having her in his life. “I’m saying that I believe that this is the way to a happy home. Look, between now and my next visit, why don’t you read up a little on the net about DD.”
“Domestic discipline?”
“Yeah.”
“Ok, I guess. I don’t know how reading can explain how it will feel though. Couldn’t you just, I don’t know, give me a taste of what it feels like?”
“I could. You sure?”
“I think so.” She grinned. “If you’re up to it. I mean, your concentration has been a little off.”
He grinned before placing her firmly back over his knee and taking off her pants altogether. “Oh, I’m up to it and you better be careful what you wish for, little girl.” His hand resumed his pattern, only this time he spanked harder and faster. He smiled at the now more subdued Chelsea who was breathing heavily and shifting uncomfortably rather than enjoying her spanking.
“Ok, you can slow up a bit now,” she panted finally. “I get the picture.”
“Nope.”
“What do you mean, nope?”
She tried to wriggle away from his hand, but he held her firmly and smacked her thighs, hard. “When you’re being spanked for punishment, I decide when to stop.”
“Ok, but it hurts, you control freak.”
“You might want to tone down that smart mouth, miss.” After another flurry of spanks he heard her sniffle.
“I will, I promise.”
He stopped immediately, the crack in her voice hurting him more than he thought it would. After all, this was a taste; she really hadn’t done anything. He helped her to stand up and she clung to him, resting her head on his shoulder. “Are you ok?”
“Yeah. That was kind of intense.”
“That’s the point.”
“I guess so. Lucky I’m a good girl; we won’t have to go through that too often.”
“Let’s hope not.” He felt like smiling finally. Chelsea really was the girl of his dreams.
* * *
They didn’t make love then; they’d lain on the bed cuddling and fallen asleep in each other’s arms. It wasn’t until the early hours of the morning that Chelsea woke. She was wet; Josh had apparently been amusing himself while she slumbered.
“I’m going to miss this,” he said, flipping her over and tugging one of her nipples.
“My nipples?”
“All of you. Your warm body breathing softly next to me. It’s like nature’s lullaby.”
“And yet you’re not sleeping.”
“No, that’s the flip side, even better than the sleeping. You smell divine.” He sat up and flipped off the covers. “That reminds me, I haven’t sampled my handiwork yet.”
“Hmm.” He kissed his way down her belly until he got to her completely shaved mound. “I did do a good job.” His thumb circled her rapidly swelling nub while his tongue danced around her lips, licking and suckling her bare skin.
“Oh, you did do a very good job.” She closed her eyes as the familiar tingles started to build. “Now Josh, please, I want you inside me.”
Josh kissed his way back up her body, spreading her legs wide as he went. “Oh, Chelsea, I’m going to miss you so.”
Chelsea could feel her inner walls folding around him as he slid deep inside her. It felt so right. As she rocked with him she almost wanted to cry out. Don’t leave me, Josh, but there was no point. She wrapped her legs around him as tight as she could, returning his demanding kisses as they came together, like two desperate people who were about to say goodbye.
Chapter Seven
“Oh my God, that man is frustrating!” Chelsea said, disappearing into the storeroom to hide for a few minutes. This day had been crap from the very outset. She’d tried and tried to get hold of Josh and he hadn’t picked up. When she rang his office, Mark had told her that Josh was in an important meeting and couldn’t be disturbed. If that hadn’t started her day badly, she had to come to work and get picked on all morning by Tom the terrible. Her life officially sucked ass.
“Just tell him where to get off, Chels! That’s why he rides you like he does, because he can.”
“I suppose so.”
“I know so. Now get out there, girl, and give it back to him.”
“I will,” Chelsea said, pushing some curls back inside her cap and pinning it.
“Are you two inside there nattering? You’re on my time! Get back out here and get to work!”
“Go ahead,” Sophie whispered. “Stick up for yourself.”
Chelsea nodded and took several breaths before speaking. She knew that Sophie was right, but it wasn’t easy. “Hold your horses, Tom! I’m entitled to a break.”
“Good girl,” Sophie hissed.
Then, without further ado, Tom threw open the door as if expecting to catch the girls in some nefarious act. The look on her boss’s face shocked her. She expected he would be angry that she had challenged him, but the man didn’t look angry at all. He looked kind of smug.
“Tom!” Chelsea snapped as he barged in.
“Chelsea, I’ve put up with you mooning around and being lazy since your rich boyfriend moved on and I’ve had enough. Your lack of respect was the last straw. You can take this as notice for the apartment too. I want you out by the end of the week.”
“You can’t do that!” Sophie said.
“I just did.”
He pointed to Sophie. “You, back to work.” He then pointed to Chelsea. “You! Get out of my restaurant.”
Chelsea picked up her bag and swung out the door without another word.
* * *
Her car must have known how she was feeling because it started at the first try with barely more than a cough and splutter. She pulled out onto the road with tears nearly blinding her and had to swerve for a van coming the other way. With the car back in the right direction, she drove away with no clue where she was going. It had happened. She had let Josh in, when she knew it was a bad idea and look what had happened. He had gone back to his life and hers had just fallen apart. The worst of it was that Tom had won. He’d beaten her. Her phone rang, but she ignored it. It wouldn’t be Josh in the middle of the day and there was no one else she wanted to talk to.
Chelsea drove around in a large circle for an hour before she found herself at the front of her parents’ house. Her seatbelt was still latched and she didn’t seem to be able to make herself release it. Sitting there in her old car brought back memories of another time she’d driven back to this house not that long ago, when she’d dropped out of school.
“Chelsea?” her mom called, the old screen door creaking as she opened it.
“Hi, mom.” Her tummy fluttered as she walked up the path. Her mother was smiling, surprised to see her and she dreaded being the one who was going to wipe that smile from her face.
“Is everything ok?”
“I’m sorry, mom,” she’d wailed. The speech she had gone over in her head all the way home had left her in a second, the moment she saw her mom’s face. “I couldn’t stay.”
“You didn’t want to stay, is what you’re saying?” her dad said from the doorway.
That had been a surprise. She hadn’t been expecting him at that time of the day. The thought had crossed her mind that it would be easier to break the news of her dropping out to her mom first. It always helped to let her soften the blow with her dad before she had to face him. “I… I might go back, dad. When I’m ready.”
“Well, I suggest you stay tonight and get a good rest and prepare yourself to be ready tomorrow.”
“It’s too late, dad. It’s done. I’ve already told them I’m not going back.”
Chelsea’s eyes filled with fresh tears at the remembered vision of her d
ad as he had exploded, telling her in no uncertain terms what he thought about her actions and his hopes or lack of hopes for her future without an education. She’d fired back at him and a massive row had broken out. Even her usually quiet mom put in her two cents about her daughter’s lack of focus. She had driven off that day, vowing never to return, not that she’d really meant that. It was the anger talking, but she hadn’t spoken to her parents for a couple of months. By then Chelsea had the job at the diner and her own place, or Tom’s place that he allowed her to rent from him cheaply. Had she actually imagined that she had redeemed herself with that dead-end job? Still, it was a way to earn money and a place that she’d come to think of as home. Now they were both gone.
Before she knew what was happening, she had started the car and was driving away from her parents’ home.
* * *
Josh was beside himself with worry. He’d been stuck in a meeting all day and when he finally got out, his personal phone was full of missed messages. The first was from Sophie.
“Hi, Josh? Um, I don’t want to worry you, but Chels, well, she’s kind of missing—Ok, sorry, I ran out of time. Tom fired her. He told her she’d have to get out of the apartment by the end of the week. She didn’t say anything, Josh, she just drove away. That was seven hours ago and no one has seen her since.”
What? Missing? How could she be? He scrolled down, reading one message after the other from Sophie, each one a little more desperate than the last until he got to one from Chelsea’s mom.
“Josh, is Chelsea with you? Sophie said she hasn’t seen her. I saw her car out the front of the house, but by the time I opened the door she was driving away.”
He tried calling but it hit her voicemail. “Come on Chelsea, answer,” he said, flicking his phone off and trying again as soon as it started her message.
“Hi there…”
This was ridiculous. Why wouldn’t she call him?
“Hi there…”
All these messages and none of them from her. Maybe she was on her way to him. No, she would have been there already. He tried again. Still going straight to her voicemail.
“Hi there…”
“Damn it, Chelsea!” When he did find her, he was going to tan her behind good for worrying him like this.
“Hi there, this is Chelsea! I can’t get to you right now, but if you leave a message after the tone, you know the drill.”
* * *
Chelsea was a whole town over and sitting outside a liquor store with her recently bought purchase beside her: A cold variety twelve-pack of Smirnoff. She wasn’t much of a drinker, but these were like alcoholic pop, really. She’d enjoyed them when she was in college when they’d partied. That’s what she intended to do with this night, party. She might be unemployed and homeless, but she could still celebrate being rid of Tom. If only Josh was there, they could have celebrated together, if he wasn’t too busy to bother with her.
She pulled away from the curb. The limited parking zone she was in was no place to settle for her pity party. She needed somewhere that was quiet where she could enjoy a couple of drinks and wallow. If only she could go home. There was no way she was going back to that apartment with Tom so close by. Not to mention the whole town probably knew by now. It was humiliating!
A park loomed ahead and it was empty. Normally she would never consider drinking right beside a park with a playground, but it was dark and there weren’t any kids about this time of night. She turned off the engine. It was as good a place as any and far enough away from the main road that she wouldn’t be seen.
How had everything gone so wrong? She looked longingly at the swings and the slide. Remember when life was that simple? When your biggest problem was a skinned knee? Now the hurt wasn’t a superficial outside ‘owie’ that could be kissed better. It was a mess.
* * *
Josh was momentarily stunned, but he looked up when Mark came bursting through the door. “Everything ok?” he asked. “Apparently the phones have been hot with people looking for your new girlfriend.”
“Mine too. It seems that her sleaze of a boss fired her and she’s run off somewhere.”
“I bet she’s fine. Just off somewhere letting off a little steam.”
“I’m sure you’re right. There aren’t many places to hide in that town though. It’s a very small town.”
“Have you called her?”
“I’ve tried. Straight to voicemail.”
“She probably doesn’t have her charger, maybe her phone’s dead.”
“Hmm. I hope that’s all it is. Damn that little weasel!”
“You’re really gone on this girl, aren’t you?”
“It shows?”
“Just a bit,” Mark chuckled. “You’re like a momma bear who’s lost a cub.”
“Or a papa bear.”
“I think I was right the first time. Go look,” Mark said. “You won’t be any use until you do.”
“You’re right. I just don’t know where to start.”
“Really? Where do you always start? At the beginning.”
* * *
Tom looked out the window. Still no sign of her. He felt for sure she would have been upstairs pouting until she gave up and asked for her job back. That was why he’d given her a week to get out. Just long enough to ponder her choices and realize that she didn’t have anywhere else to go; and yet she was gone.
“Tom, bit of help here?” Sophie said, snapping her gum.
“Don’t tell me what to do,” he hissed. “I’m the one in charge here, remember?”
“Yeah, well, this is our busy time and seeing as how you got rid of Chelsea, I’m it and I can’t do everything. You want your customers to walk?”
Tom looked around. They were filling up for the dinner rush. “I’ll get Cindy to fill in.”
“It’s her day off; she’s gone to Dallas with her mom.”
“Fine,” Tom said, reluctantly snatching the pad and pencil Sophie was poking at him.
“You’re your own worst enemy, you know that?”
“We’re busy, get back to your tables,” Tom barked.
* * *
Chelsea was on her third drink and wishing that she’d thought to pick up something to eat. The drinks were sweet and the alcohol was turning her empty tummy a bit. She really should ring someone and tell them where she was. Her phone was dead. So much for that idea. That wasn’t her only problem; she was freezing. The only thing she could do was to crack open another bottle and turn on the heat.
With the car running and gradually warming, Chelsea was starting to feel a little better. Although she was very tired. She sculled the last of her fifth bottle and dropped it on the seat next to her with the others. A nap, I’m tired, was her last thought.
* * *
Josh pulled his car back up at the helicopter. The pilot was still in there awaiting his instructions. He’d driven out to the diner and questioned Tom, but he was pretty sure that he was telling the truth when Tom said he knew nothing about Chelsea’s whereabouts. Sophie said he hadn’t left the diner all day and had actually looked worried himself a few times. The weasel was damn lucky that he had to focus on finding Chelsea or he would have punched his lights out.
Chelsea’s mom and dad had no idea and he was pretty short on solutions himself. The only thing he could do is look.
They circled the entire area three times.
“Nothing?”
“No, nothing,” Josh said. “I think we should widen the search.”
“Yep, can’t hurt, but you know the light’s a problem. I don’t know that it’s much point keeping this up all night when we can’t see.”
“I’m not giving up,” Josh said.
“No, of course not. We could start again in the morning early,” Steve, his pilot and friend said.
“I want to keep looking for a while at least. What if her car’s run off the road or she had some other kind of accident?”
“Ok. If that’s what you want.”
* * *
It was hot, and Chelsea’s head hurt. She must have banged it when she crashed her car. She’d been drinking… There was banging. Was it inside her head?
“Miss? Miss!”
Her eyes opened, but everything was blurry. There was a misshapen face in the window shining a flashlight. It must have been a dream, there was no crash. She was still in the same place that she started.
“Miss! You need to open the door and step out of the car with your hands up.”
She screwed her eyes up to get a better look. Was this a joke? Oh, no! It was a cop. “Um, hang on.” she said, pushing the empty bottles to the floor as quietly as she could.
“Now,” the cop said, continuing to rap on the window.
Chelsea opened the door and stepped out. Her bare feet ached as they landed on the cold wet grass. “I haven’t done anything,” she said feebly, dancing up and down with the cold.
The taller of the two twisted her around while his partner patted her down. She must have looked ridiculous. She wanted to protest, but her mouth wasn’t cooperating with her brain. Her lips opened and shut like a fish, but no sound escaped. It was only when the tall guy’s partner produced a bunch of empties from the car that her voice returned. “There’s been a mistake,” she said with great difficulty, wishing her lips didn’t keep sticking to her teeth. “I wasn’t driving.”
“Ma’am, have you had anything to drink this evening?”
“I wasn’t driving.”
“Answer the question.”
“Yes, but I wasn’t driving, I was just cold.”
“I need to see your driver’s license.”
“It’s in my bag,” she said. “Can I go and get it?”
“You can.”
Chelsea produced her license. She watched the partner as he disappeared back to the squad car with her license. “This isn’t right. I haven’t done anything.”
The Billionaire and the Waitress Page 10