by Maggie Ryan
The other part wanted to climb in bed with Hazel and spend the day watching daytime television and eating junk food, just to see what would happen when Beau got home.
She didn’t know which was crazier: that him talking to her like that made her want to rush to obey, or that it made her wet just thinking about what could happen if she didn’t.
Thankfully, Hazel started crying and she was saved from having to think about it.
In the end, Laney called, and Ginger ended up going in to work. But not, she told herself, because Beau had told her to.
The Ginger Paddle was busy when she got there, showing up right at the beginning of the lunch rush probably hadn’t been the best idea. Everyone was there, and everyone wanted to stop and talk to her, and of course, everyone wanted to hold the baby.
She passed her off to Jonathan, who was there having lunch with Brent and some prospective residents, and she felt okay smiling and making small talk for a while, but the noise and crowd quickly became overwhelming.
When Carol Bentley came in, with Erin Cunningham, Jen Harcourt and Sierra Toms, they immediately made a beeline for Jonathan, who was still obliviously bouncing Hazel up and down on his hip. Ginger saw them coming, but Jonathan did not. Between the four of them, they had a handful of kids, and when Ginger looked at them, all she saw were germs. All of a sudden, the small lunch crowd might as well have been a jam packed rock concert. Faces and colors started to swim before her eyes, and she knew she had to get out of there, but the door was blocked from the line. Grabbing Hazel from Jonathan’s arms, she quickly made a beeline for the back, all but running into her office.
She heard through the fuzzy haze in her brain, over the loud buzz of constant raucous chatter, Laney and Jonathan calling after her, but she couldn’t stop to answer them.
She slammed her office door shut and fell against it panting. Oh, god, her chest felt as if it were on fire, and she could hardly breathe. Her office was dark and quiet, but she still heard the buzzing and saw lights spinning around her.
Clutching her daughter to her chest, she concentrated on getting her breathing under control. “It’s okay, baby, we’re okay, everything’s fine,” she wheezed, talking more to herself than to Hazel. Hazel of course was unfazed by the whole thing, smiling her gummy smile and chattering away as Ginger tried every trick she could think of to get the spinning and ringing to stop.
“Ginger?” Laney called from outside the door. “Are you all right?”
“I’m fine, everything’s fine!” Ginger cried, hoping her cousin would leave well enough alone. She didn’t want anyone to see her like this, didn’t want them to know how horribly she was dealing with the smallest of things these days.
“Oh good, I just wanted to apologize for—” Laney opened the door and stopped short. “Ginger, what’s wrong? Are you okay? Oh my god, you’re all sweaty! Why are you breathing funny?”
I’m fine, I just…need a minute. I’ll be okay,” Ginger tried to reassure her, but her voice sounded funny even to her.
Laney eyed her critically, stepping forward to take Hazel from her. Ginger let her.
“Are you sure you’re okay? Do you want me to call Beau? Or Dr. Devon?”
“No!” She hadn’t meant to shout it, but she really didn’t want anyone knowing about these problems she was having. She was sure that coming in during the lunch rush had been the cause of it, and that it was just a case of too much too soon. Surely she was just overwhelmed. What new mother wouldn’t be?
“I’m fine,” she assured her cousin once more. Her breathing was almost normal now, and the vise-like pain in her chest had seized. “I just want to get the stuff for the books, the invoices and such. Would you mind if I just took these things home with me and worked on it there?”
Laney nodded slowly, still looking at her strangely. “That’s fine. I’m going to go back to work now, are you sure you’re okay?”
“Stop asking me that! I’m fine! I just wasn’t expecting it to be so busy in here!” Ginger snatched Hazel from Laney’s arms and started gathering up folders and files. “There’s no way I could get anything done with all this noise.”
“Well, you did come in during—” Ginger shot her a withering glare, and Laney backed off, putting her hands up in surrender. “Okay, I’m going now.” She left thankfully, shutting the door behind her.
It took Ginger less than five minutes to gather up everything she needed. She left through the back door.
Beau wasn’t sure what to expect when he got home after work. He half expected to see his bags packed and sitting on the front lawn. Ginger didn’t always do well with change, and the idea of other people taking control, even him, usually sent her into a tailspin.
Whatever he was expecting, it wasn’t the scene that greeted him when he opened the door. The house was sparkling clean, the table was set and ready, and the scent of fresh garlic bread was wafting through the air. Hazel was cooing at him from her spot in her swing, and Ginger greeted him with a smile. She looked, he thought, like a vision of a perfect housewife from an old 1950s TV show. He didn’t dare say it out loud, of course.
She looked perfect: immaculately dressed, hair perfectly coiffed, contacts in place of the glasses she wore so often lately. She stood on her tiptoes and greeted him with a kiss, taking his jacket and hanging it up for him.
“Who are you, and what have you done with my wife?” He was only half-joking. He fully felt as if he was trapped in an episode of the Twilight Zone, and was waiting for the other shoe to drop.
Ginger gave him a shy smile before looking down at her shoes. “Silly, it’s me. I just had a really good day today.”
As far as he was concerned, it was proof positive that he had stepped through his front door and into a parallel universe.
“I’m glad to hear that, sweetie. Did you get any of the financials done?”
“Yup, I’m almost all caught up. I might just finish it up after dinner.”
There it was. He frowned. “I have other plans for you after dinner. I meant what I said, and we are going to talk about it.”
“Yes, Sir.” Her soft spoken response was uncharacteristic to say the least, and he fought the urge to check her forehead to make sure she wasn’t running a fever.
They sat down to dinner, and he continued to study her quietly throughout the meal. Dinner was almost a surreal affair for him, with the perfect meal, the happy baby, and his wife being so agreeable. It was, he reminded himself, almost the way things had been before, but only almost.
“Tell me about the rest of your day. I see you got my note.”
“Yes, I did.”
“What did you think about it?”
“Oh!” Her cheeks colored instantly, and he was reminded how adorable she looked when embarrassed. “It was…different.”
“Yes, it was,” he agreed jovially. “But you liked it didn’t you?”
Ginger pursed her lips, and he wondered if this was where the façade ended.
“I did.” She responded carefully, looking shocked at her own admission. “It was nice to know that before you rushed off to work that you stopped to think about me, and what I was doing. It made me feel…special.”
Very interesting, Beau thought to himself. It wasn’t the reaction he had anticipated at all, but he was grateful for it, and he could see where she was coming from.
“It also made me mad at first,” she admitted shyly.
Beau nodded for her to go on.
“It was just a very interesting day,” she continued. “It was full of a lot of surprises.”
Indeed it was, he thought. Indeed it was.
Ginger seemed to have nothing more to say on the subject, and Beau was happy to leave it at that for now. They finished their meal in companionable silence, the only sounds coming from Hazel babbling happily to herself from the swing.
When they were finished, Ginger stood up and began to clear the table. Beau reached out and caught her hand with his. “Leave it, I’ll get i
t. You did a lot today. Go relax and spend some time with Hazel.”
She didn’t have to be told twice, and Beau suspected she was seriously jonesing for some quiet time with their daughter. He was certainly impressed at all she had accomplished today, and even more so with her attitude. Sure, they had been practicing domestic discipline for many years, but he had never seen Ginger so…submissive.
He needed the quiet time he got while doing the dishes, even though there weren’t many to begin with. He had a lot to think about regarding the events of the last twenty-four hours and what would come tonight. He had winged it this morning, and it had apparently turned out better than expected, but tonight he needed a plan, and he wasn’t leaving the kitchen until he had one.
Chapter 6
It was time. After dinner clean-up was finished, Beau had excused himself to his office, but before he had, he had given her a set of instructions to follow. They were pretty standard, and probably things she would have done anyway, feeding and bathing Hazel, putting her to bed, taking a shower, but the fact that she was doing them because her husband told her to made her all tingly down there.
And the last request he had made, had taken her breath away. It was now nine o’ clock, the time she was supposed to be ready for him. As per his instructions, she stood in the corner of their room. And, as per his instructions, she was completely naked.
This was new, and even as she stood there waiting for him, she struggled with her own mixed emotions. Being made to do corner time was nothing new, but the naked part was. And then there was the lack of reasoning behind it. She often found herself facing the corner before a spanking, but as far as she knew, she had done nothing to deserve a spanking today, nor had Beau said she would be getting one. He had only said he wanted to talk.
The idea of a spanking made her stomach do a little flip, bringing a tingle to her nether regions. Her cheeks flushed as she stood there staring at the wall, lost in her own naughty fantasies. She wasn’t sure what Beau meant for this, but she was pretty sure it wasn’t this.
She shivered when she heard the click of the lock, signaling that Beau had entered the room. She stood still, listening to the footsteps approach until he was standing just behind her. His large hands cupped her bottom and his breath was hot on her neck.
“Are you ready to have our talk?” he whispered.
She nodded nervously, not knowing quite what to expect but inexplicably excited to find out.
He took ahold of her shoulders and turned her towards him. She snuggled into his embrace, burrowing her face into his chest.
Finally, when she couldn’t stand the uncertainty for another minute, she pulled away and peered up at him. “Am I in trouble? Why do I have to be naked?”
Beau just smiled and kissed her head. “No, sweetheart, you’re not in trouble. It’s just something new. I wanted to try to keep you in the right mindset while we have our discussion. Think of it as a reminder, or a submission exercise.”
Submission exercise. The words were foreign to her and she mulled them over thoughtfully, wondering where her husband had gotten it from.
Beau led her to the oversized loveseat they kept in their room for times like this. They had had many talks, and also many spankings on that loveseat.
As she sat, she became fully aware of how fully exposed she was, and reached to the quilt hanging over the arm of the couch, meaning to cover herself with it, but Beau stopped her.
“If you’re cold, I can turn up the heat.”
“No, I’m fine. I’m just not used to this. It just feels funny. Can we just talk now, and get it over with?”
Beau frowned. “Well, I don’t want to start off with you having an attitude. I won’t tolerate sass tonight, it will not end well for you.”
“I’m sorry,” she whispered, and meant it. “I don’t know what to say, I don’t know what we are going to talk about.”
“How about, you just listen for now?” He tilted her chin up until her eyes met his. The mixture of dominance and desire she saw there turned her insides to mush. Who was this man, and where had he come from? She rather liked him this way, but she felt almost dirty admitting how crazy turned on he was making her. He hadn’t even done anything yet, and she was dripping wet. She shifted uncomfortably on the couch, squeezing her legs together so he wouldn’t see how wet he was making her.
“Yes, Sir.”
Beau smiled down at her. “Mmmm I like the sound of that.”
She did too.
Beau took her hands in his, and pulled her closer to him. “I’ve been thinking. We’ve been doing domestic discipline for what, seven years now?”
She nodded, not sure where he was going with this.
“And we’ve been doing it the exact same way since day one. We have not changed a rule, or a boundary, or a punishment since the day we agreed to start this thing we do.”
She nodded, again.
“And it’s worked okay for us, until now.”
She was starting to feel very worried about where this would go. She had a feeling she knew what was coming next, and it scared the hell out of her.
“But, from the very beginning, you have really been the one in control here. You set the rules, you set the punishments that you felt were acceptable, and everything has been carefully orchestrated to allow me just enough control to make you happy.”
She felt like she was going to cry, she realized with dread that everything he said was completely true, and that she had in a way, been stifling him from being the true head of their home. She swallowed heavily, her throat thick with emotion. She didn’t want to be that way, and she knew her husband deserved more than that, but the thought of giving over that kind of control terrified her.
His eyes searched her face. He knew her so well. “You’re scared aren’t you?”
“Yes.” It came out in a broken whisper.
“Do you trust me?”
“I want to.” She knew that her control issues were deeply rooted in her trust issues, and those went way back to her childhood.
“We don’t have to figure this all out right now. But I think it’s time to re-evaluate the way we do things around here. We’ve changed, our lives have changed, our circumstances have changed, and even our family is evolving. It’s time for this to evolve with us, to fit our current circumstances.”
She took a deep breath, trying to breathe through the fear. She knew he was right, but the idea of change was still a scary concept for her. “So where do we start? What do we change first?”
“I think,” Beau started, expelling the breath he hadn’t realized he had been holding, “that today was a good start. These last few months have been really tough on you, and I don’t want to overwhelm you with too much too soon. So, we’re going to keep our basic rules in place. No disrespect, dishonesty, disobedience, or dangerous behavior. Those things are exactly the same as they were before. Nothing’s changed except the way I will be dealing with things, which is entirely up to me.”
He searched her face, looking for signs of fear, or anxiety, any hint that he needed to slow down, but he found none, so he continued. “In addition, it’s time for you to start going back to work, even if it’s just for an hour a day. Laney has been doing everything all by herself, and now she has a wedding to plan. She’s going to need a break sometimes, and I want you to eventually be ready for that.”
Ginger looked apprehensive, but she smiled and motioned for him to continue. So far, so good.
“Each day, I will give you a list of the things that I want you to get done, whether they be cleaning, paying bills, or even just getting out of the house. Just whatever I say. If those things do not get finished, there will be consequences.”
That got her gander up. He had expected it would. “Beau Davies! I have handled everything around here for the last seven years perfectly efficiently and without some daily chore list handed to me as if I were an irresponsible child! I most certainly do not need—”
She was cut
off as he quickly scooped her up and flipped her face down over his lap. His hand cracked across her cheek with a resounding slap that reverberated off the walls.
“Stop it right now,” he warned her, his hand hovering above her round globes, poised and ready to deliver a harder warning if it was needed. “If you have something to say, you can say it respectfully and without raising your voice. That rule has not changed.”
“Okay, fine, I’m sorry,” she spat in a tone that was neither fine nor sorry. “Will you let me up now?”
“Tempting, but no. I think I’ll keep you like this for a while in case I need easy access.”
A muttered “Hmmph” was the only response.
“I’m not going to argue your point. You did an amazing job of managing to run our lives responsibly and efficiently for a very long time. But I’m not talking about the last seven years. I’m talking about the last five months. I’ve no doubt in my mind that you still are very capable, that is not the issue.”
“I’ve kind of had a lot going on!” she muttered into the couch. It was faint, but he heard it. He let it slide.
“You’ve been overwhelmed.” It was not a question.
She mewed in response, and he took it as a good sign. His hands roamed the creamy white flesh of her buttocks, smiling in surprise when they reached the v between her legs and found her dripping with desire. This was new.
“Whether you’re willing to admit it or not, I think this is just what you’ve been waiting for. And I think it’s precisely the reason you’ve been acting out the way you have. There’s too much for you to handle right now. You’ve been waiting for me to take charge for you, because you’re overwhelmed, and you don’t know where to start.”
Silence. His fingers roamed across the undercarriage, stroking her swollen clit. Her head reared up in surprise, and she gazed at him from over her shoulder. He winked back at her.
“This is what you’ve wanted, isn’t it, sweetheart? Admit it.” His fingers stroked and teased, delving inside of her until she was squirming in his lap.