by Thianna D.
“Perfect,” Brandon moaned, taking another bite. “How can Jonathon not love this?”
“He hates most spice. Poor man. I didn’t believe him the first time he told me he couldn’t eat spicy foods. After a night of watching him retch, I caught on that he meant it.”
Snorting, Brandon took a long pull from his beer bottle. “Thanks for coming over.”
His friend grinned. “After hearing how well things were going with Jason’s granddaughter, I figured I’d be hearing from you soon.”
Putting his empty plate down on the coffee table, Brandon nodded. “In some ways, I’m fully equipped for this. In others? I’m way over my head.”
“I don’t think so,” Benjamin said. “It’s just new. What makes you think you’re in over your head?”
Raising an eyebrow, Brandon told him about their afternoon. “Her shoulders finally came down and I thought ‘wow! She’s finally done it.’ Only to have her start to snore. She fell asleep standing up!”
Benjamin stared at him for about two seconds before he burst out laughing. “She fell asleep standing up? She should have been a Marine.”
“Fuck no. Dina would have been the most confused Marine known to mankind. But I want her to find a way to disconnect from her thoughts, Benjamin. She thinks too much and her thinking… it’s detrimental to her. The quick mind and intelligence is good in her field. But she has a tendency to be down on herself about her looks, her lack of experience. Hell, she thinks she’s plain. Plain? The woman is drop-dead gorgeous and she doesn’t even see it. I wanted corner time to be a way for her to de-stress. Instead, she fell asleep.”
It took several minutes before Benjamin could talk. He was laughing too hard. “Before you get annoyed, believe me. Every top here has been through this in one way or another. I know I have with Jonathon. So, let’s get down to the basics. You want to give her freedom from her head, something she can use once she leaves here, I assume.”
“Yep.” Brandon didn’t want to think about what would happen when September came, so he ignored that part of the statement.
“Besides the sleeping, has she ever separated herself from her thoughts?”
“During sex, her brain completely detaches. And when I spank her. Otherwise? No. Her brain just keeps going and going. She’s like a damned battery.”
“Well, then I suggest you two institute maintenance.”
“Maintenance what?”
Benjamin grinned. “Maintenance spankings. Consider it a weekly, or in Dina’s case maybe twice a week, time when the two of you connect as head of house and taken in hand. The intensity will be somewhere between erotic and disciplinary. Hard enough to cut her concentration, but lighter than if she broke one of your rules. Plus, the great thing about maintenance spankings is they can open up all sorts of stuff.”
“Like what?”
“More than half the time, they’ll lead to sex. But that’s not what I’m referring to. Little things will break free. Things she probably doesn’t even realize are bothering her. While she’s laying there, her bottom burning from your hand or paddle – I would highly suggest using something you don’t normally use, something she will come to equate with a sort of mental freedom – you get her to talk. Jonathon spills everything during maintenance. Stuff he thought was too inconsequential to tell me about, like someone put him down or he needs something from me he couldn’t find a way to ask. And it won’t just be good for her. It will allow you to comfort and take care of her just like you want.
“Some couples just use them at the beginning of their relationship. Jonathon and I have never stopped. We both look forward to that time each week.”
“Maintenance.” That sounded like a really great idea. It would help her break free from her thoughts while bringing them to a closer relationship. “What about come fall? I want her to be able to do this on her own.”
“During that time while her brain is disengaged, set up a trigger. Something easy like having her touch her thumbs to her forefingers. Have her do it each time you go through a maintenance spanking and every time she’s in corner time. It may take a couple weeks, but that trigger will kick in and she will find a way to distance herself from her thoughts.”
“Fantastic. I knew your information would be good for something someday, sir.” Brandon grinned as he spoke, laughing when Benjamin reached over and smacked him lightly across the head.
“Don’t you forget it, Marine. Or I won’t feed you any more stuff that’ll burn your insides.”
“Well, that’s just cruel. Threatening a man’s stomach.”
With the heavy stuff out of the way, they spent an enjoyable evening watching spring training on television. “The Cubs’ll take the pennant this year,” Benjamin said with a nod after the game was over.
“You say that every year.”
“Positive thinking, Delt. It’s a good thing.”
* * * *
The phone ringing brought him out of a deep sleep and he searched around until he found it. “Hello?” he grunted, sitting up. Dina moaned and pulled the sheet over her shoulder making him grin. They had now been dating for four weeks and over the last week she had spent every night with him.
“Brandon?”
The voice on the other end of the phone was not one he expected. “Mama? What’s wrong?”
“Oh, sweetie, I have bad news.” He tensed. A call in the middle of the night was bad enough. Those words just made it worse. “Your cousin Gary died about an hour ago.” He heard the words, but there was no response from within him. It was like they didn’t even make sense. “Did you hear me, Brandon? He was thrown from his horse and he died before the ambulance even arrived.”
Knowing she expected a response, he grunted. “Okay. So why did you call in the middle of the night to tell me?” She had to know that he and Gary were not on the best terms. They never had gotten along growing up and when Gary married Brandon’s ex, it basically put a kibosh on them ever being anything other than cousins.
“Brandon!” she exclaimed, her tone horrified. “How can you say that? He’s your cousin. His funeral’ll be in three days and you need to be here for it.”
Furious and not wanting to wake Dina up, he crawled out of bed and walked out into the living room, sliding the bedroom door closed behind him. “Mama, I’ll just say this once. There’s nothing that’ll bring me to Texas for Gary’s funeral.”
“Brandon Delt, that’s a horrible thing to say! He’s your cousin. Just for your Aunt Justine’s sake you should come down here.” For a moment, he felt a stab of guilt because he did love his aunt. But then his mother brought him back to reality. “And his widow could use a shoulder to cry on.”
“Mama!” he hollered. “That widow happens to be my ex-wife. A woman he was obviously seeing behind my back as they were engaged the day after I signed the divorce papers. How the hell can you—”
The door between the bedroom and living room slid open and his girl, disheveled and wearing his button-down shirt which was probably the first thing she found when she got up, walked up to him. He felt bad for waking her up, especially to this horrible conversation, but she hugged him tight and then walked into the kitchen, fixing a fresh batch of coffee. Damn, but he loved her.
As the thought went through his head he stared at her. He did. He loved Dina Minor. Ah, fuck. That was unexpected.
“Are you listening to me, Brandon?” his mother shouted, startling him out of staring at the beautiful woman in front of him. He looked down at his cell phone and lifted it back up to his ear.
“I hear you, Mama. I got distracted for a moment.” Very distracted by shapely legs and a gorgeous derriere, not to mention that he had fallen in love with her. That was going to take time to deal with.
“Well, no matter what your feelings on the matter, you need to come down. Maribelle’s overcome and she needs someone strong to help her through this. You know her best and in her condition it’s best to keep her calm.”
“Her condition?�
�� The two words blasted to him and he knew what they meant. His mother never said a woman was pregnant. No, she always commented on her being of a certain condition. Ah fuck. She wanted him to come down and take care of his ex-wife who was pregnant with his cousin’s baby. This sounded like the storyline of some horrible daytime show.
“Yes,” she said with glee. “Her baby’s due in about three months. A little boy. The family’s tickled pink. Of course, it should have been your child and if you hadn’t been so fixated on that whole spanking thing, the baby would be yours. But we won’t discuss that. You can just give that up and come home and propose. You would be a good daddy for this little boy.”
The daft woman actually thought he would take his ex-wife back and take on the son she conceived with his cousin. Where were the men in the white coats when they were needed? “Mama, where’s Dad?”
“Right here.”
“Put him on the phone.”
She let out a sigh but thankfully a minute later, his father’s gruff voice came over the phone. “Yes, I heard what she said. And yes, I’ll talk to her about it.”
“Thanks. It’s unbelievable.”
“It’s your Mama,” his father said in amusement. “You know she ignores everything she doesn’t want to hear. So how is life in Colorado? Froze to death yet?”
“It’s still summer. Give me another six months. And I—” He paused as Dina dug into his pantry and came out with his container of cocoa. In fascination, he watched as she took down two mugs, put heaping tablespoons of cocoa in each mug, and then poured coffee over the cocoa. After stirring both, she brought one over to him. Smiling, he walked back to a chair and after putting the mug on the table next to him, pulled her down onto his lap and then picked it up again. “Sorry, Dad. My girl just distracted me.”
“You’ve got a girl? Well, now, that was fast work. What’s her name?”
“Dina.” Dina raised an eyebrow and cocked her head to the side, obviously trying to figure out what was going on. He put the mug down and placed his thumb and forefinger together to remind her to zen out and she rolled her eyes at him making him chuckle. So far the trigger worked about twenty percent of the time, but it was getting a little better every day.
“Look, son, I’ll call you back when I’m at work. Your Mama’s grasping for the phone.” Before he even said goodbye, Brandon’s mother was back on.
“Dina? Who’s Dina?”
“My girlfriend, Mama.”
“But you’ve got a wife!”
“No, Mama, I’ve got an ex-wife who cheated on me with my cousin and is now pregnant with his baby. Just because said cousin’s now dead does not change that.”
Dina’s eyes softened and after putting her mug next to his, she snuggled close to him, her soft breath coating his throat and making him want to get off the phone and back to bed. His cock agreed and hardened against her thigh. Instantly she looked up, a slightly evil twinkle in her eyes. What was she up to?
“She needs you, Brandon.”
“Mama, she gave up the right to need me when she cheated on me. Besides, the two of us have nothing in common. Whereas Dina is exactly what I need.” He gasped in a breath when the woman on his lap moved slightly and wrapped her hand around his dick. As she stroked him from tip to balls, her eyes twinkled even more. Devil woman, damn but he loved her.
“Don’t tell me she lets you spank her!”
“Look, Mama,” he said, trying to hold back a moan. “I’ve gotta go. I’ll talk to you later. After Gary’s funeral. I—Bye!” He gasped out the last word as Dina slipped off his lap and wrapped her tight, warm, moist lips around the tip of his cock. “Shit, beauty, are you trying to kill me?”
She giggled and the tremors ran through his shaft. Placing both feet firmly on the floor, he slid both hands into her hair. “Well, now. Someone feels in a teasing mood?” She nodded. “Tease away, beauty, but I’ll warn you. Afterward it’s my turn.” Bare need lit up her eyes and with a moan that slid through his entire body, she pushed her mouth all the way down his cock until her nose came in contact with his short and curlies, swallowing once she reached as far as she could go. Several epithets left his lips and she slowly pulled back. “Where the fuck did you learn to do that?”
Grinning, she pulled her mouth off him. “I wasn’t sure if I would be able to. But I was challenged to throat fuck a banana in college. Got pretty good at it, too. Until now, I haven’t had the chance to try it out on a real live male, though.”
Damn. Every new thing he learned just made him more enamored of the woman on her knees in front of him. “Well, now, Carodine,” he said, using the tone that made his girl turn into an absolute animal right in front of his eyes. “Practice makes perfect. Suck my cock.”
With a small growl, she swallowed him in one lunge making him cry out and grab hold of her hair. Fuck she was good at this. So good he didn’t want her to stop. Wanting it to take longer than it probably would at the current rate she was going, he stood up, not surprised when she instantly rose to her knees, not releasing him from her mouth. Her eyes latched onto his when he held her head tightly enough that she couldn’t move. “Want to take this a step further, little slut,” he asked softly and she moaned making him tremble at how amazing it felt. “Hold still and let me fuck your tight little throat.”
If there had been any hesitation, he would have paused and asked, but her hands dropped from his thighs and she literally laced her fingers behind her back. The trust she put in him was an aphrodisiac and damn he wanted more. “My good girl,” he moaned, pulling out and slowly pushing back in. Going slow was torture, but a wonderful kind of torture. His breathing hiked as he sped up, looking for any indication that this was too much, but Dina’s eyes just darkened with lust with each thrust.
His balls tightened and pulled up and he knew he was close. Not knowing how she felt about swallowing, he released her hair and pulled back. Before he had pulled from her lips though, her arms were around his hips holding on as she swallowed around him. Crying out, he came, torrents of cum exploding from him rushing her throat. She swallowed most of it, though she coughed when she had to pull back to breathe. As he softened, he pulled her up into his arms and walked into the bedroom. Tossing her onto the bed, he landed next to her a second later, his lips fastening onto hers as he ripped his shirt off her body. The taste of him mingled with her breath was an amazing mixture and he rolled her onto her back, keeping his weight on his hands as he hovered over her.
“That was fucking amazing,” he said, his breath still coming hard and fast. “And my little slut needs payback in kind.”
“What do you—” Her voice cut off as he slid down her body and wrapped his lips around her clit. “Fuck!” she squeaked, her legs latching onto his head like a vice.
Damn but he enjoyed the way she tasted and here, fresh at the source, he wondered if he ever wanted to drink anything else. Her scent was so intense and he inhaled as he flicked his tongue across her little nub. Her wail filled the room as she came and he held on to her hips as she writhed under him, her legs grasping his head even tighter than before. As she relaxed, her legs fell to the bed and he crawled up, lightly kissing her lips. Her moan in response made him smile. Pushing the torn shirt off the bed, he pulled her back into his arms where she curled up.
To be that close to orgasm she must have been turned on from him throat-fucking her. If that was the case, he might see if he could train her to cum just from having his cock in her throat. Talk about enjoyment for all. “Maybe we’ll start tomorrow,” he murmured and she moaned and snuggled closer. Smiling, he wrapped his leg over her hips, pulling her as close as possible. “I love you, Dina Minor,” he whispered in her ear. She sighed softly and he closed his eyes, letting sleep take him.
Chapter 6
Dangling her toes in the water, Dina stared into the pool. The last few weeks had been wonderful. Finding Brandon had been amazing. Falling for him had been a bit of a surprise. A fun summer fling with a sexy guy had seemed l
ike the perfect way to spend her time. Only now, with fall approaching and their agreement that this was only a summer thing, she was highly confused. So confused that she had stopped doing research and filling out applications. So much of her didn’t want to leave Corbin’s Bend now.
Of course, Brandon seemed happy with their relationship. She supposed that as she was the first woman he was with after his divorce that she could be that in-between relationship everyone talked about, but she couldn’t believe that of him. He was a straight forward kind of person. Loving, kind, intelligent, and the most amazing lover she’d ever had or could ever have. Not to mention that he had actually found a way to calm that incessant voice in her head.
She glanced down at her right hand. Now, all she had to do was take up her corner, close her eyes and place her thumb and forefinger together and everything slowed down. The chatter stopped, relaxation took its place, and she felt calm. And happy. And he had done that for her.
The day she realized she was in love with him was the day he spanked her guilt away. That horrible guilt from having pushed herself too hard had lingered for so long that it felt like part of her. After enough maintenance spankings to understand just how good she felt afterward, she asked him one day if he thought it would help her guilt. For each kind of spanking, he used a different implement. Erotically, he started out with his hand, but when he used his belt on her during maintenance and it turned her on, it was added to their fun. A wooden paddle had become their instrument of choice for maintenance. It hurt and loosened her lips – hell, she spilled all sorts of gibberish during those times – but still wasn’t something she abhorred. When she asked him to spank her to see if it could help her get rid of the guilt, he decided they needed to find an instrument just for that. Though, she had a sneaking suspicion that it was just so they could go to the local adult store in Denver and do a little shopping.
She now had several costumes that were fun to wear. And they had what they both referred to as the “guilt paddle”. He found it in the sale bin at the store and had purchased it without her being aware of it. It was simple wood except for one little flaw. It had the word Love carved into it backward so that when it smacked her bottom, it left the word behind for him to see. And later on, when she looked into the mirror there it was – Love criss-crossing a million times over her skin.