"I'm sorry," she whispered. "So, you're not going to spank me for cheating?"
"Damn it, Jackie!"
"I deserve it, don't I?"
She did deserve it, but every spanking he delivered brought her closer to his heart. Every time he thought of her little round butt getting red from his hand, his ape ancestors—driven to frenzied lust by the red behinds of their females in heat—nearly overcame all the evolution from that point forward. Her lovely heart-shaped face was turned up to him, her lips trembling, and her breath shallow. Resistance was impossible, but this time, he took it a step further.
"No panties this time. Bare your butt and put yourself over the arm of the sofa."
"Bare?"
He nodded. "Or I take you home to your father right now."
Slowly, she shook her head. "I don't want to go home."
"Then do as I say."
Without a word, Jackie rose from the sofa and started unbuttoning her jeans. She snaked her hips to peel down her tight jeans and reveal her tiny, string-sided pink panties. Pete almost called it off when she glanced up at him, but the need was almost palpable between them. She needed this spanking and he needed to deliver it. It was as simple as that.
The panties, barely more than a bright scrap, slid down her slender thighs to meet with her jeans at her knees. Shuffling a little, she positioned herself over the padded arm of the sofa, offering up her pale bottom as a perfect target.
Pete's hand itched. Not with the urgent need spank so much as the desperate urge to touch in any way he might. However, this was a spanking.
He positioned himself at her side and raised his hand. She was thoughtless and bratty. She had no self-discipline and barely any morals. Punishment was appropriate. The thought spurred him into action and he gave her a hearty swack right in the middle of her cheeks. She cried out and tensed. Pete delivered several more hard spanks before he tried to make the lesson clear to her.
"Cheating is wrong, Jackie." He pounded her bottom with the flat of his hand six or seven more times and listened to her shocked cry with each one. "You shouldn't cheat at cards. You shouldn't cheat at anything." Another half dozen smacks and her bottom was glowing. His dick got hard and he used every ounce of self-control he could muster to hold himself back from taking her. His desire for her could go nowhere.
"I'm sorry!" Her breath caught and she started crying after another few spanks. "Oh! Ow!"
"You make me crazy, Jackie Journey. Why can't you behave?" The spanking continued and she was sobbing and scissoring her legs, trying to mitigate the pain of her bright red rump. Her jeans and panties came off in the commotion, landing several feet away.
"I'm sorry! Oh, God! I can't help it!"
"You can help it. You can. You will." Gasps and moans were her response and the percussive beat of his hand on her butt was a martial cadence. "Are you going to cheat again?"
"No! No sir! Please. I won't. I won't do it. Please stop."
He delivered another six spanks, the last one on the perfect cross where her bottom and thighs met, just above that place his raging erection wanted to explore. His hand was stinging furiously and he told himself that he'd have to use his belt the next time. Frustration swept over him as he realized that he couldn't think of next times. These were isolated incidents. It couldn't become a habit, though he was smart enough to realize that that's exactly what it was becoming.
Jackie's tears wet the sofa, moistening his jeans as he sat down and took her in his arms. With her lower half exposed, her lightly-furred mound was visible, and he tried with all his might not to look. Pete wanted to scream with frustration. "You're killing me, Jackie," he whispered against her hair. He didn't think she could hear him over her sobs and hiccoughs.
He handed her a hankie from his back pocket and after a while she calmed. They snuggled and rocked and eventually, she fell asleep.
Chapter 4
Jackie was dazed, awakening to an insistent knock on Pete's front door. The doorbell rang in accompaniment.
"Dr. Kaminsky! It's Ace Journey here!"
Pete's eyes shot to Jackie. "Put your pants on," he said softly, then turned to the door. "On my way!"
Moving as quickly as she could, Jackie looked around on the floor for her jeans and squirmed into them. Her panties were nowhere to be found. Ace was going to have her head on a platter. Who knew what time it was and she hadn't called home. All her family knew was that she’d planned to have dinner in town.
Pete smiled as he opened the door, and Ace stood there, his posture straight, unsmiling. "Good evenin', Doctor. I'm plumb sorry to come callin' so late at night." He offered his big hand. "Ace Journey."
Pete shook with him and gestured for the tall man to enter. "Pete Kaminsky. Please come in."
Ace spotted Jackie across the room and nodded to her, but turned back to Pete. "Wally at Carlos' told me I'd find Jackie here. I found her car in Carlos' parking lot and was a mite worried." His gaze traveled back to his sister, and then his eyes darted down to a spot on the carpet a foot from her. It was her bright pink panties.
Face flaming, Jackie scooped up the panties and quickly put them behind her back. Ace didn't miss it, however. His dark eyes met hers and exchanged a clear message, you're in trouble now, li'l girl.
"You should have called home, Jackie," Ace told her.
Pete spoke up. "I'm sorry. I should have reminded her. The time got away from us."
Ace gave him a direct look. "Ain't your responsibility, Doc. Jackie's full grown."
What could Pete say to that? Jackie certainly was full grown, and she knew it. "I'm sorry, Ace," she said. "I got carried away. I was havin' a good time."
"A real good time, by the looks of it," he responded with a frown. "Them's your panties in your hand, ain't they?"
Oh no, his drawl was deep and thick. Jackie knew that spelled doom. "I…uh…"
He turned to Pete. "I hope your intentions are honorable. We Journeys don't brook no disrespect of our women."
Pete frowned a bit, but was undaunted. "Nothing happened here. She's my employee."
Jackie thought that was putting quite a fine point on it. Ace was no country hick who was going to miss the evasion. "Pete and I…we were…" She sighed. There was nothing she could say. Her panties were in her hand. "Nothin' happened, Ace."
His frown was deep. "We'll talk about it on the way home. Get your thin's." When he turned back to Pete, his frown hadn't eased. "I don't know what your usual employment practices are, Kaminsky, but I reckon we can have a few words about how they apply to my li'l sister." His posture got a little menacing. "I've a mind to take you to task."
"Nothing happened," Pete repeated, his demeanor equally rigid. "I don't have to explain myself to you."
"If you want to hold your head up in this community, Doc, you're gonna have to consider your neighbors—and their values with regard to their women."
"Ace!" Jackie was deeply embarrassed. She stuffed her panties into her purse and confronted her big brother. "Nothin' happened! There's nothin' to talk about. Are we goin' or what?"
Ace snorted and backed away from Pete. "Dad's got a few thin's he'd like to say to you. He was so pissed off that he couldn't come collect you directly. March yourself out to my truck and get in. I'll be there in a moment."
Jackie eyed the two men. "Ace, really," she tried, trying to placate his ire. "Nothin' happened. This isn't Pete's fault."
"Get. In. The. Truck."
Huffing her displeasure, Jackie headed for the truck, leaving the two men to have their conversation. She only hoped it wouldn't turn to a fistfight. Pete was a strong, capable man, but Ace was a former bull rider who had him on reach and weight.
As she settled in the big truck, she heard the door close and Ace come down the gravel pathway. He got in quietly and reached for his cellphone, dialing and putting it up to his ear. Jackie noted that his knuckles looked normal, no fistfight scrapes. It was a big relief.
"Hey, Dad. I found her. Yeah, she w
as at the doc's house. On our way home now." He listened for a moment, then said his goodbye and started the truck. They drove for several minutes, the silence stretching between them making Jackie progressively more uncomfortable. Finally, she had to say something.
"Are we goin' to get my car?"
He didn't take his eyes off the highway. "Nope."
"But Ace…"
"We're goin' home where you will apologize to our father. I can't believe you were this inconsiderate, li'l girl."
Jackie did feel very guilty. She should have been home hours ago. Finding her car abandoned in Carlos' parking lot must have made Ace considerably worried. "I'm sorry."
"Save it for Dad. I'm well and truly pissed off at you."
She hated having her brother so angry. "I didn't mean to do it."
His eyes darted from the road to her and back again. "What did you do?"
"Nothin'!"
"Jackie," he said, his voice barely more civilized than a growl, "A woman don't take her panties off in a man's home for 'nothin''."
"I'm a full grown woman," she said, her own anger rising at his Chauvinism. "I can act any way I want to in a man's home."
"Not while you're livin' at Journey's End, you cannot."
"Damn it, Ace! I ain't done nothin'!"
"You end up pregnant, li'l girl, and you will be in a world o' hurt."
"You are impossible!"
They didn't talk again in the truck. When they got to the ranch and through the back door into the kitchen, Ace nodded toward the hall. "Dad's in his office. Best you go make your peace."
Guilt, trepidation and anger coursed through her. Jackie stuck her nose in the air and headed toward their father.
The door was partially open, light spilling out on the wood floored hallway. She tapped at the doorframe. "Daddy?"
"Get your butt in here, daughter."
She opened the door firmly, squaring her shoulders as she stepped into the warm, masculine space with forest green walls and dark wainscoting. Her father sat at his big pine desk, his hands knotted together as he leaned forward in his chair. His laptop was closed as though he'd been sitting there thinking.
It pained her to think that she'd worried her father so much, but damn it, she hadn't done anything wrong and she was an adult. Even if she had done anything sexual with Pete, it was her business and had nothing to do with her family. She repeated it to herself like a mantra as she came in and stood before her father's desk.
"Sit."
Bristling, Jackie sat in the hide covered chair across from him. He looked tired, his face drawn, the wrinkles on his face pronounced. Leo was still a strong, handsome man, but tonight he looked pretty close to his nearly seventy years. Jackie felt like a total heel in the face of his disappointment in her.
"I just got off the phone with Pete Kaminsky."
"Phone?"
"Yep. We had ourselves a little talk."
"Daddy…I… What about?"
"Sonora, in general and you specifically."
Her chest felt like a big rock was sitting on it. "Daddy, my relationship to Pete has nothin' to do with you."
"You are my daughter."
"I'm your grown daughter." Irritation crept into her voice though she was trying to remain calm. "Did you do this to Queenie, too, while I was away at school?"
"We got standards," he said, leaning back in his chair. The light dimmed on his face and she couldn't gauge his expression except by his voice. His tone was clipped. "You don't go to a man's house late at night after a night on the town. You know better."
"What I do ain't none of your business!"
"You live in my house, li'l girl, you live by my rules. That's the way it's always been. Your sister had to live by the same rules."
"This is the twenty-first century, Daddy! Those rules are archaic!"
"Watch your tone with me, Jackie. You had me worried sick. I don't know what you learned at that private college up there in Belton, but I hope you didn't throw all your morals out the window as you got your education."
She tried to be calm, but she was mad enough to cry. "Why are we talkin' about my sex life?"
Leo drew in a long slow breath. It was a sound he made when he was trying to rein in his temper. "You have a sex life, li'l girl?"
Time to regroup. "Um, no…"
"I'm pleased as a child at the circus to hear that."
"He spanked me."
"What?" Although she couldn't see it, she heard the frown in her father's voice.
"Pete spanked me. That's all."
There was a long pause, but eventually Leo spoke up. "He didn't mention that on the phone. He said he'd found you in the bar, that you'd had too much to drink and he didn't want you drivin', so he took you back to his place where you played a few hands of cards."
"That's all true."
"Then where does this spankin' come in?"
"I cheated."
"At cards?" She nodded, there was another pause and then Leo laughed like he'd heard the funniest joke in the world.
"Daddy!"
He snorted and wiped his eyes. "If that don't beat it all. Your mama used to try that with me. I walloped her ass for it, too. Same as your doc."
Jackie was chagrined, and her voice was snippy as she replied. "He's not 'my doc', Daddy."
"You are the spittin' image of your mama, Jackie-girl, and now I see you've got her tendency toward mischief as well. I thought you'd grow out of it, but you've only gotten more wily."
She liked the idea that she was like her mother, even though she only knew the woman through photos and stories. "Yeah…well…What did you say to Pete?"
"We clarified a few matters."
"Like?"
"Like you ain't gonna be goin' to his personal home again unescorted."
Groaning inwardly, she tried to defend modern behavior. "Daddy, I'm not some precious flower that needs to be protected."
"You are to me, daughter."
Anger shot through her. Much as she loved her daddy and wanted to be loved in return, she did not want to be treated like someone from the 1800s. Why, if he knew what all her friends at school got up to, he'd have made her come home from there lickety-split. "Daddy, girls don't follow those rules no more."
"My girls do. Your mama was a virtuous woman, your sister Queenie was, too—although she married that jackass Harry Tatum the first time around, at least she wised up after."
She interrupted. "But, Daddy, Ace, Deuce and Trey, they all had girlfriends before they got married. How is that different?"
"It's like this, daughter. A key that fits many locks is a valuable key, but a lock that fits any key is a really crappy lock."
"Women are like locks?"
"Yep."
"That's dumb."
"Jackie Elaine Theresa Journey-"
She held her hand up. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to be disrespectful."
He snorted. "You are spoiled, girl. Spoiled and willful. Damned if I ain't done it myself."
"You make me so mad, Daddy." It irritated her further to feel so compelled to defend herself, but she did. He was her father. He cared about her. "I am a virtuous woman." Her statement was met with silence. "I am!"
He changed the subject abruptly. "Must be somethin' 'tween you and this new doctor for him to spank you."
"No."
"He was just mad at ya, huh?"
Jackie squirmed uncomfortably in the chair and as she did, her butt smarted, reminding her of Pete's heavy hand on her behind. It had been intimate there with him. She'd have liked more, but he seemed disinclined to want more too. "It wasn't like that."
Fortunately, Leo didn't pursue it. "I can't talk to you like your mama would, li'l girl. I got only a father's words to offer. But I will tell you this, a virtuous woman's more valuable in this world of corruption. You don't go giving up something you only got one of to some fool off the street. You got me?"
Suddenly, she was defeated. The dream of a home with a husband and child
ren seemed years away. So many years. Witnessing the intimacy between Ace and his wife had stirred up those desires in her. Pete was so appealing and she felt so close to him. The spankings were like sex. Or, what she thought sex ought to feel like.
She mumbled out her answer to her father. "Yes, sir."
"Get to bed. We'll get your car tomorrow. I have errands in town anyway."
She rose and moved around the desk, bending to give her father a kiss on the cheek. Old-fashioned as he might be, he was her father and she loved him dearly. "G'night, Daddy."
"G'night, li'l girl."
* * *
Ace watched his sister walk by the kitchen archway and toward the stairs. He was glad to see that she wasn't in tears or stomping up the stairs in anger. Her shoulders slumped a bit and she was obviously tired. Apparently, their father had lit into her but good.
In a way, he felt bad for her. He knew most girls were given a lot more leeway than the Journey women, but at the same time, there was value in that. He hadn't wanted to make a permanent partnership with a loose woman, and he didn't know any fellows who did. Most men wanted to know that their women would be faithful and true and didn't cat around. Certainly, that's the way the Journey men behaved and he had no friends who weren't similarly inclined. But that was hard on women. His own wife had been with another man before he married her—but only one.
Ace figured Jackie would rise or fall on her own initiative. Much as he cared about her, he couldn't make her behave one way or another. He could only watch out for her as he had when she was a little girl. Sometimes a person had to skin their knees before they learned to ride a bike. He hoped that she hadn't skinned her knees up to the point of scarring while she was away at school.
A deep yawn assailed him and he rose to go up to his suite and his wife. He wanted to stake his claim on her once again. Ace was not a man to share the things that were most precious to him and the idea that he shared a place in her sex life with another man made him burn with jealousy. Gabby was his. Although he couldn't take away her behavior prior to meeting him, he could sure make sure she didn't think of that guy with any kind of wistfulness.
Jackie Draws A Straight: The Journey Series Book 5 Page 5