For Sparrow (The Dream Dominant Collection Book 3)

by Pandora Spocks

  “It’s nice to meet you, too. You know, since you don’t have to make the run to the hospital, do you have time to come inside? The birthday girl should have just cut the cake.”

  “How could we say no to birthday cake?” Alex laughed, slapping Judd on the back. “You’ve been holding out on me, Farris,” he said under his breath as they followed Jessi into the party.

  Chapter 12

  Jessi led Judd and Alex to an empty table near the kitchen and asked a server to bring them some coffee while she went to get two slices of cake. “Here you are, gentlemen. It’s the least I can do for calling you all the way out here.”

  Alex smiled. “It’s not like it’s that far. The station is only about two miles away.”

  “Well, I appreciate you anyway.” She smiled genuinely.

  “The cake is great,” Judd said.

  Jessi nodded. “I use this terrific home baker. She really puts the big commercial bakeries to shame.”

  A server dressed in a black blouse and slacks with a white apron approached the table. “Jessi, sorry to bother you.”

  “No problem, Carla. What’s wrong?”

  “There’s a guy at Table 5 who’s refusing to show ID.”

  Jessi looked to Judd and Alex. “If you’ll excuse me for a moment.”

  Judd watched as Jessi moved purposefully across the room. He couldn’t hear the conversation, but he could tell that the young man at Table 5 was not pleased with what Jessi had to say. The young guest stood abruptly to try to emphasize his point. Jessi pointed sharply toward the door, and the kid attempted briefly to stare her down before he truculently sank back onto his chair. Judd chuckled to himself.

  She’s a tough lady. I wouldn’t want to be on her shit list.

  Jessi returned, her lips twitching in amusement. “Sorry about that.”

  “Everything okay?” Judd asked.

  “Sure. You know, there’s always some ass-hat trying to push the limits.” Jessi laughed lightly. “Don’t make me use my teacher voice.”

  Judd had to cover his mouth to keep from spitting a mouthful of coffee across the table. “Ass-hat?” he coughed.

  “Oh, yes, definitely ass-hat,” Jessi laughed. She looked back and forth between the two men. “Can I get you something else? There’s probably still some pork and chicken in the kitchen.”

  “The cake is fine,” Alex answered, grinning. “But I think I’ll go get another piece.”

  “Oh, I don’t mind getting it for you,” Jessi offered.

  “No worries, I’ve got it,” he said. Taking his plate, he headed off in the direction of the dance floor.

  Judd laughed as he watched Alex move across the room. “He probably saw a girl he wants to talk to.” He turned back to Jessi. “You look very pretty tonight.”

  She looked down at herself, blushing. “Oh, this is just one of my ‘party uniforms’.”

  He gazed at her intently. “You need to learn to take a compliment, little one. I think it’s something we’ll work on. Like making your bed.”

  “Making my bed?” Jessi felt her face flush again.

  “When I carried you to bed last night, it wasn’t made from the night before.”

  “Oh, well...” she trailed off. “I wasn’t exactly expecting that anyone would be in my bedroom except me, so...” She looked down. “I suppose I’ve been letting some things go.”

  Judd nodded. “Like your toes. Which I see you still haven’t taken care of.”

  “Unh! Well I still have a week on the pedicure. It’s not like I knew I’d see you tonight,” she countered defensively.

  “Careful, little one. You wouldn’t want to earn a punishment.”

  Jessi stared at him, her eyes wide. He’s not seriously saying he’d punish me. What, he’d spank me?

  Judd’s soft brown eyes bored into hers and there was a hint of a smile playing across his lips. Jessi stifled a smile of her own. The idea of Judd putting her over his knee was incredibly hot.

  “And yes. I would.” He arched his eyebrow.

  Jessi feigned innocence. “You would what?”

  He shook his head slightly. “Damnedest thing I ever saw,” he murmured.

  She frowned. “What is?”

  “The way your eyes show everything you’re thinking.”

  “Hey, bro, we should bounce,” Alex called out as he neared the table. “It was nice to meet you, Jessi. Thanks for the cake and coffee.”

  Jessi stood, grateful for the interruption. “It was my pleasure. Thanks so much again for coming out for our guest.”

  “Thanks, Jessi,” Judd said with a smile. “I’ll talk to you soon.”

  Jessi raised her hand in a wave as the men headed back to their truck. Holy shit! she thought as she returned her focus to the party.

  Chapter 13

  “How’s your week going, Jessi?”

  She smiled into her phone. It was the second time Judd had called since she’d seen him Saturday night. He wasn’t obtrusive, just checking in on her, making sure everything was alright. Like a good Dominant should.

  “It’s good, actually. How about yours?”

  He laughed lightly. “Oh, you know, the usual mayhem. I wanted to touch base with you about Saturday. This week’s project is going to be putting a planting bed on the east side of the house.”

  Jessi smiled. She’d been after Graham for years about how bare that side of the house was. “That sounds great. I’ve been wanting to spruce up that area.”

  “How about you helping me out? We can take a look at the space and make a few plans before we go to the nursery to pick out plants and things.”

  She looked down and wiggled her freshly manicured toes. “I’d love to help. That sounds like a plan.”

  “Alright, then. I’ll be by around 10:00.”

  WHEN JUDD PULLED UP on Saturday morning, Jessi opened the door to greet him, but Buddy pushed past her to eagerly romp across the lawn. “Hey there, killer!” Judd laughed, reaching down to muss the puppy’s ears before striding up to Jessi on the front porch.

  “Can I get you some coffee before we get started?”

  Judd beamed at her. “Coffee sounds fantastic.” He followed her to the kitchen, admiring her tanned legs and the way her khaki shorts hugged the curve of her ass.

  “Would you like some breakfast, eggs or something?” She poured coffee into a blue mug and handed it to him.

  “No, I’m good for now.” He scanned down to her toes in her jeweled sandals and grinned back up at her. Jessi smiled smugly, knowing that she’d completed her task satisfactorily.

  Coffee mugs in hand, they wandered outside to the east end of the house. “It’s pretty blank,” Judd observed.

  “It is. I always thought it would be nice to have a sort of free-form planting bed edged by foxtail ferns or something, and then maybe something tall in the center and accented here and there around that with annuals.” Jessi looked to Judd, wondering about his opinion.

  He flashed her a brilliant smile. “Sounds perfect. Let’s go get what we need.”

  TWO HOURS LATER, JUDD leaned against the handle of his shovel and swiped his forearm across his brow. He glanced at Jessi who knelt nearby, removing a new pink begonia from its black plastic pot so she could place it in the hole she’d just dug. He tried unsuccessfully to avoid looking down the gaping neckline of her purple top.

  I’m going to hell.

  He crossed to the porch and retrieved a bottled water from the small cooler they’d placed there. “How about some water?”

  Jessi looked up gratefully. “Yes, please!”

  He took another for himself and wandered back to her. Jessi stood, dusting off her knees and removing her gardening gloves. “Thanks so much!” She unscrewed the cap and sipped gratefully.

  Judd looked around at their handiwork. “Not too bad, right? Another couple of hours and we’ll be finished.”

  She smiled. “Now I wish we’d taken ‘before’ and ‘after’ pictures.”

  They fi
nished their water break and returned to work. Judd turned over a shovel-full of soil. “So how did you and Graham meet?”

  He watched expectantly as Jessi looked up in surprise. But he knew the answer to the question.

  I met my Sparrow when I was a graduate assistant. I was teaching a freshman journalism class. When she walked in on the first day, I knew my life was forever changed.

  “Oh, well,” Jessi began, “I met Graham at UF. He was working on his doctorate and he taught one of my classes my first semester there.” She glanced up at Judd to gauge his reaction. “I know, I was only eighteen. He was fifteen years older. But he was so handsome and smart and sophisticated. I fell for him right away.”

  “When it’s right, it’s right,” he said softly.

  “We dated for a while. I was only nineteen when we got married. Obviously, I finished my degree, and then we moved down here. He’d gotten a job with the newspaper. We bought this house and I got a job teaching.”

  “And the kids came along?”

  Jessi smiled. “Yeah. Cara when I was only twenty-two, and then Adam a couple of years later. I was kind of young, I suppose. Now they’re out on their own. I don’t feel old enough to have adult children.”

  “You’re forty-five?” he asked. Jessi looked surprised. Judd backpedaled a bit. “I did the math. You said Graham was fifteen years older.”

  “Oh.” She blushed slightly. “How old are you?”

  “I turned forty last month.”

  Jessi chuckled. “You’re young yet. You and your wife didn’t have children?”

  Judd shook his head. “Nope. That was one of the reasons we broke up. She wanted kids. I didn’t.”

  Jessi frowned slightly. “Not ever?”

  “Does that make me a bad person?”

  “No, of course not. It’s just, well... How can you be so certain that you won’t change your mind?”

  Judd looked at his feet for a moment. “I got sick when I was a kid. The mumps. I can’t father a child. So, if I ever had kids, I’d have to adopt or use a donor, and to me, it’s just not how I want to do it. Besides, I like my life the way it is.”

  Jessi blinked as she considered this information. “Do you want to be married again one day?”

  He sighed and looked out over the lawn. “I don’t know. My divorce hit me pretty hard. Left me feeling like maybe marriage isn’t for me.”

  Not sure how to respond, Jessi walked to the back of the pick-up truck to retrieve another flat of begonias, pausing to pull her auburn hair back into a ponytail. She knelt as she began planting them at the far side of the bed.

  Judd spoke again. “So how did you and Graham get into the ‘lifestyle’?” It was another question to which he knew the answer.

  It shocked me to the core. My Jessi, chatting and flirting with other men online. In a lot of ways, I felt that it was my fault. She was so young when we met. She never really had a real college experience, never dated different guys.

  After my heart attack, they had me on all sorts of medication that made it impossible for me to please her physically. And that made me a grouchy old bastard, let me tell you, Judd.

  Jessi is so passionate, so sexual. And when I pushed her away, she started looking elsewhere for companionship, for validation as a woman. I was furious, of course. But I knew that if I wanted to keep her, I needed to up my game.

  Jessi coughed slightly and turned to face away from him as she focused on the begonias. “What?”

  “I said, how did you and Graham get into the ‘lifestyle’?” He watched as her ears reddened.

  “We, um,” she sighed deeply. “You see, we got really busy working and raising kids, like people do, you know. And then Graham’s heart...”

  She cleared her throat, still facing away from him. “I loved him so much. And when he began having trouble, you know...”

  Judd watched as her ears turned even redder. “I would never have complained to him about not being able to perform. I tried to be patient and kind and supportive.”

  She patted soil around the bottom of a plant, then dug another hole for the next one. Judd waited quietly. “We went for a couple of years without...” She stopped digging for a moment. “I didn’t orgasm for two years after his heart attack.” She resumed digging. “When I tried to initiate sex, he’d get angry. I think he just felt worried he might not be able to perform.”

  Mechanically, she removed the next begonia from its pot and placed it in the hole. “I started chatting with a few men I met online. Just friendly innocent stuff. I didn’t mean to be unfaithful. But Graham had become so angry and distant. And these men were sweet and kind and complimentary.”

  “When he found out, I thought our marriage was over. He was absolutely furious. I did everything I could think of to apologize. I let him rant and rage at me. Finally, he came to me and gave me three options. One, we’d divorce. Which was the last thing I wanted. I loved him so much. The second option was for us to have an open marriage. I could see other men, he could see other women. But I never wanted other men, not really. I just wanted my man back. The third option was for me to give him my utter submission, to accept him as my Dominant. There would be rules and chores, and there’d be punishments for infractions.”

  Jessi finally risked a glance in Judd’s direction. “Obviously, I opted for number three. And I never regretted it. His rule and Dominance were exactly what I needed. We found our way to a deeper intimacy than we’d ever had before.”

  Judd smiled kindly. “Dominance and submission are like that. I appreciate your honesty. I know that wasn’t easy, little one.”

  Jessi looked down shyly. “I never told anyone that before.”

  “Then I am most honored.”

  With their gardening completed, Jessi and Judd stood back to admire their handiwork. She turned to him, smiling. “This is great! It’s better than I even imagined it would be.”

  “We make a good team,” he laughed. “What do you say we get cleaned up a little and get ready for knee time?”

  She smiled up at him shyly. “Yes, Sir.”

  “I noticed your pretty feet,” Judd said, and she wiggled her fuchsia-tipped toes once again. “How about your bed?”

  Jessi’s eyes went wide. “Shit!”

  Judd arched an eyebrow. “Did you forget the bed, little one?”

  She gave a frustrated sigh. “Yes, I forgot to make the bed.”

  He smiled knowingly. “We’ll take care of it at knee time. Hurry and get cleaned up. Be in position in fifteen minutes.”

  Chapter 14

  Jessi rushed upstairs to take a quick shower and put on clean clothes. As the shower ran over her body, she contemplated what consequence might await her.

  He’ll probably spank me. Maybe. What else could it be? Am I really about to submit to this? This is crazy. If I told anyone, Sarah for example... They’d think I’d lost my mind.

  She regarded the unmade bed and feverishly considered making it. But she knew it was too late at that point. Instead, she slipped into a faded pair of jeans along with a soft purple V-neck t-shirt and headed downstairs to discover her fate.

  Judd went for a quick dip in the pool, putting on a clean black t-shirt he’d brought with him. He considered what he was about to do. He wondered if Graham had intended for him to take it this far, and then decided that he had. The two had talked extensively about exactly what it meant to be an effective and thoughtful Dominant.

  He smiled as he thought of Jessi upstairs, probably fretting what was about to happen. If circumstances had been different, if she hadn’t been the recent widow of a good friend, mind-blowing sex would follow.

  But it is what it is.

  He entered the den just as Jessi came downstairs. She met his eyes briefly and went about the business of kneeling in her position without a word. He watched her settle herself and become still, her hands clasped behind her back and her head bowed. Judd smiled to himself as his heart filled with the appreciation of her submission. He kn
ew there was no other life for him except as a Dominant.

  He gave her a few minutes before he approached her. “How are you feeling, little one?”

  Jessi looked up at him. “I’m a little nervous, Sir. If there’s any way we could let this go, I can assure you that I won’t forget again.”

  Judd knew she told the truth. “Here’s the thing, little one. There’s no point in having rules if they aren’t enforced.”

  He saw the anxiety in her eyes. “We’re at a crossroads. You have the power of your safe word. Use it, and we don’t go any further. I will continue to come here to complete Graham’s list. But you won’t be subject to my Dominance. You’ll be free to do as you please.”

  He let her think for a moment. “Do you wish to safe-word, little one?”

  Jessi considered this. She could avoid this punishment. But part of her longed for a spanking. The thought occurred to her that maybe she even forgot the bed on purpose.

  “No Sir, I don’t want to safe-word.”

  He reached to lift her chin and he looked deeply into her sparkling green eyes. “Good girl, little one.” Reaching into his pocket, he removed the black satin blindfold he’d bought on his way to Jessi’s house that day. Just in case, he’d thought at the time. He slipped the blindfold over her eyes and took her hand, helping her to stand.

  “Come this way,” he said, guiding her next to the leather chair. He placed her thighs against the rolled overstuffed arm and leaned her over it. “That’s right, little one, lean over the arm. You can rest your head on the cushion. Keep your hands clasped over your head.”

  Jessi complied, sighing deeply as her head found the cushion. She was braced for impact when she heard Judd walk away. Straining, she heard him open and close several drawers in the kitchen. Then she heard him return, and with him, the butterflies that had filled her stomach since she realized she’d forgotten to make the bed.

  “Now, little one, you were tasked with getting a pedicure, eating properly, and making your bed. Did you do all of these things?”