Chemistry of Attraction

by Thianna D.

“Ever thought of working with the environment?”

  “In what context?”

  “In my job, we hire professionals to do all sorts of things. For example, we have a small lab halfway between here and Boulder where an intrepid group of chemists, biologists, and a few medical professionals test what we find and give us the information we need to protect the environment and to go after those who poison it.” He paused as he drank the last of his drink and then turned his gaze on her again. “We have an opening, if you’re interested.”

  Her mouth dropped and she stared at him, wide-eyed. “You’re offering me a job?”

  He smiled. “Well, if you’re interested, you would need to come for an official interview at the lab. Jeffrey Humphries, one of our residents here, is the lab manager. But my recommendation would carry weight. Brandon mentioned your credentials one day when we were talking…”

  “You mean when you strong armed me into agreeing to be on the Disciplinary Board,” Brandon retorted.

  “Same difference. And you’re a perfect addition to the board. Anyway, as I was saying, he told me about you and when one of our chemists left for a job in Europe, I called him to see if you’d be interested.”

  “Which is why I insisted we go out to eat tonight,” Brandon explained. “And you don’t have to decide right away. It’s just an idea, a lead; it doesn’t have to mean anything.”

  Maybe it didn’t have to mean something, but it did. And the job itself sounded intriguing. “I would definitely like to hear more about what the job entails,” she said, her mind whirring with the possibilities this put in her lap.

  “Perfect.” Charles reached inside his suitcoat and pulled out his wallet, withdrawing a business card. “Call Jeffrey tomorrow and tell him I told you to call. He can give you a better job description than I could.” After they paid for their meals, Charles left and Brandon escorted her out of the restaurant and to his truck.

  On the drive back to his house, she couldn’t figure out a nice way to ask what she wanted to know. Did he want her to stay in Corbin’s Bend? Had he looked for something for her? And the biggest question: did he love her? Or could he imagine himself falling for her?

  His house had that stale-air scent as they walked inside and as she went into the bedroom to open up the windows in there, he opened the ones in the living room and kitchen. As she walked back into the living room, he took her hand and tugged her next to him on the couch. Pulling her close, he pressed his warm lips to hers, never deepening the kiss, but it lingered for several wonderful minutes, before he pulled back and looked her in the eyes. “I can hear that brain working overtime. Tell me what you’re thinking.”

  “So many things,” she admitted, still unsure how to broach the subject without scaring him off. Every woman said you should never ask your boyfriend where the relationship was going, but that was what she needed to know. Deciding to circumvent the conversation for a little bit, she said, “So when did they decide to get you into the discipline board? And what is the discipline board, anyway?”

  “Well,” he said, pulling her close against him, “there are certain rules in this community. If someone breaks one, the case is sent to the disciplinary board. If it’s a major offense, they may decide to push it further up to the housing board at which point the housing board votes on whether or not to expel the individual. But the rest of the rule breaking falls to the board I’m on. If someone has done something that affects the community, they will be disciplined in some fashion. Could be in a censure of some sort, in having to apologize in front of the adult members of the community, or it could be a disciplinary spanking.”

  “Like in public?” she asked, both horrified and turned on by the idea.

  “Yep. All adults in the community who were possibly harmed by the event would be invited to attend.”

  “That’s gotta be embarrassing.”

  He chuckled. “Yes, I’m sure it’s not fun, or sexy. I’ve seen the paddle they use. The individual who takes swats from that thing won’t be sitting down for quite some time.”

  “So you’re on the board. How will that affect your research?”

  “Not much. They meet weekly for an hour to go over any infractions and they attend any public disciplinary actions. Mainly it means I’ll have to meet more people and my name will be more widely known.”

  She snorted a laugh. When he cocked his head in confusion, she giggled. “Sorry, but a disciplinary board sounds strange to me.”

  He shrugged. “Better than a judge and jury, I think. The board’s there to help the person, not persecute them.” A soft tug on her hair made her look up. “But you didn’t answer my question. What are you thinking?”

  Damn, she was hoping he would forget that. “It’s just… a lot to contemplate. I’ve been wondering what the hell I was going to do come fall and here an opportunity falls in my lap.”

  “Well, you don’t have to take the job – hell, you don’t even have to consider it if you don’t want to – but I know you’ve been disappointed with the positions you’ve found and when Charles happened to mention this job, I thought it sounded right up your alley.”

  Oh, it was up her alley all right. Especially if… Damn. If she even thought about it, he would ask.

  “Carodine,” he said in a firm voice, making her gulp and look up at him through wide eyes. “What’s going on in your head?”

  She had seconds, literally seconds to come up with an answer that didn’t ask him if he loved her. So she blurted out the first thought that came to her mind. “I broke one of our rules.”

  He raised an eyebrow. “Which one?”

  “For two weeks I haven’t done my hourly job hunt,” she admitted.

  “Why?”

  “I wasn’t finding anything. It was depressing just to look. So I didn’t.” It sounded simple enough, but by the expression on his face, he wasn’t fooled.

  “You’re keeping something from me.”

  “No! It’s… I’ve felt awful about not doing it. I know I should have and everything. In fact, I thought it was the one rule that would be the easiest to follow.” And yes, she was keeping something from him, but not wanting him to know that, she hung her head. “I’m sorry.”

  There was a moment of silence where the man next to her didn’t move. It didn’t even feel like he breathed. “All right,” he finally said. “So you knew that you were breaking one of our rules and you kept doing it rather than talking to me about it.”

  “Yes?” Oh, that sounded really bad. As though she had broken their rule on purpose. Well, she kind of had, but not to flout the rule so much as she was afraid by following the rule that it would take her away from Corbin’s Bend. The reasoning sounded so silly when she thought of it that she decided never to admit to it. It just sounded too pitiful.

  “Go into my bedroom and get the package wrapped in paper in the top drawer of my dresser.” She glanced up to see if his face gave anything away, but his eyes looked sad, which just made her tremble. It had never been her intention to make him sad. Quickly, she made her way into his bedroom and opened the top drawer. To her surprise it was filled with spanking implements and other baubles that she was unfamiliar with but had the feeling might be sex toys. In the back corner of the drawer sat a thin package wrapped in paper. Grabbing it, she forced herself not to peek inside and took it back out to him.

  To her surprise, he wasn’t sitting where she left him. Instead, he was sliding the window closed. When he walked back to the sofa, he stood next to the arm. It seemed to take forever but when she reached him, he took the bag from her hands. “Hike up your skirt and bend over the arm.”

  Hike up her skirt? Usually he had her strip before he spanked her. This felt wrong. Grasping her dress, she pulled up the mini skirt until it rested around her waist and bent over the arm, unhappy to be facing away from him for once. He was so quiet and contemplative. Was he regretting suggesting her for this job? “Brandon?” she whispered, unable to voice all her fears in this moment.r />
  “Fifty swats for deliberately breaking one of our rules,” he said quietly. His fingers tugged at her panties and they quickly slid down her legs, landing right above her knees. For some reason, that made her feel even more vulnerable. “Try not to move.” His hand settled on her lower back and fire burst across her ass in a wave. Screeching, she tried to stand up, but he held her steady. “One.”

  It was horrible, the worst thing she had ever felt. Each swing of whatever he was using was so quiet and yet as it came in contact with her skin, it was akin to him pouring gasoline all over her and lighting a match. Each blow held the bites of millions of hornets and as each new swat fell, it tripled the effect. In no time she bawled like a child, crying so loudly that she couldn’t hear him count. The fire on her skin grew out of control until it zapped to her chest and she felt something she had been hiding from herself. The disappointment she knew he would feel when he found out. She had known, but had hidden that from herself. Realizing just how much she had concealed and how wrong she had been to do so, the pain in her ass, while worse than being burnt by acid, was nothing compared to the loathing she felt for what she had done.

  As the implement continued to rain down on her bottom, her anger and disgust at herself exploded up until she cried and screamed her apologies and how badly she felt, the words so intermixed with sobs and wails, there was no way for him to understand them. And that just made the tears worse. She blubbered for quite some time until she realized she was encased in two strong arms and on Brandon’s lap with her flaming backend hanging just over his leg. Ducking her head under his chin, Dina continued to tremble. “I’m sorry,” she whispered through her dry throat.

  “Shh,” he whispered. “You’re forgiven, beauty.” Hearing the nickname, she clung to him.

  “But I am sorry. I shouldn’t have broken the rules and then hid it.”

  His lips pressed against her forehead. “My beautiful girl,” he said with a warm sigh, his breath drifting over her face. “Do you have any idea how much I love you?”

  She heard the words but couldn’t believe they were real. “What?” she asked stupidly, pulling back enough to see his face. His warm gray eyes glowed.

  “I love you, Dina. I’ve known for a while, but quite honestly with our summer agreement, I didn’t know when or how to tell you.”

  A little joy sprung up in her chest and she hoped she wasn’t dreaming. “Why are you telling me now?”

  For a moment he looked nonplussed and then he grinned. “You don’t remember what you said, do you?”

  “What I said?”

  “When you were getting out all your guilt and pain from your spanking.”

  “Uh, no?” What had she said? Something embarrassing more than likely. She hoped she hadn’t insulted him.

  Leaning down, he pressed his lips lightly to her own before pulling back. “That you loved me, beauty. That you were afraid a job would take you away from the man who made you happier than you ever dreamed possible. Oh, Dina,” he said, his breath fanning across her face. “We might not have known one another for long, but I feel like I know you more than I’ve ever known anyone else. And I want to be honest with you, too. Yes, I want you to stick around, but I will not allow you to give up your life to stay here. If that job Charles talked about is perfect for you and you want to take it, then great. But if it isn’t right for you, find the job that is and we will work it out.” His fingers drifted through her hair. “I love you, Carodine Lea Minor.”

  Her heart burst at the words. “I love you, Brandon,” she said in a rush, the freedom in the words making her beam. “I was afraid to tell you because I didn’t know if you felt the same. And everyone knows guys run away when it comes to emotion stuff.”

  He cocked an eyebrow. “Emotion stuff?” Laughing softly, she nodded. “Let me show you how well I do the emotion stuff. Right now, my beautiful girl, I want to go to bed and make love to you until nothing exists but the two of us. I plan on touching your heart tonight, my beauty, in a way you’ve never been touched before.” Lifting her up, he set her on her feet. “But first, I want to take care of your rear end so it doesn’t bruise too badly. So let’s go into the bathroom. I have some cream that will help.”

  The cream at first burned but then soothed the heat across her cheeks and by the time he helped her off with her dress, she had to admit she was tired. As she walked by his closet on the way to the bedroom, she paused and opened up the one door to look at the mirror. She wanted to see just what her back end looked like after what had happened.

  It was bright red, which surprised her, but it wasn’t the bright red heat or the darkening bruises that got to her. It was the word emblazed across her skin from the top of her rump down to her thighs. Criss-crossing all over, it took a couple minutes to make out, but when she did, she slammed her hand over her mouth as her lips quivered and her eyes stung with tears. He had purchased a special paddle for her discipline and looking at the results, she knew she could never hate it. For the mark it left on her skin was something she treasured. MINE it read over and over again. As the tears made a silent trek down her face, she had an idea and as she looked into the mirror, couldn’t wait to make it a reality.

  Chapter 7

  “Word has it congratulations are in order.”

  Brandon looked up and chuckled self-consciously as Jim walked over and sat next to him on his front porch. “Who did you hear it from?”

  “Actually Ange heard it from Bethany who heard it from Char who heard it from Rose Rolson.” He chuckled. “Whole damned community knows about you and her granddaughter.”

  Groaning, Brandon shook his head, but he couldn’t stop grinning. “Hell, we’re only moving in together officially. Whole damned place is going to go crazy when I get around to proposing.”

  With a grunt of laughter, Jim handed him a bottle of beer. “When’s she moving in?”

  “Saturday. She flew back to Florida to go through her storage. On the phone earlier she was complaining about all the junk she’d saved. But said there were still ten boxes she was shipping back. Most of it will be at her grandparents’ house, at least until we make a decision on whether to ask for a larger unit or not.”

  “Ah, feck no. Don’t even think about moving. Sure, I’d only have to break in new neighbors.”

  It had been two weeks since they decided to move in together. And a busy two weeks it was. Jason and Rose were thrilled about the arrangement. Unfortunately, neither Dina’s nor his parents were as happy about it. Brandon’s girl knew her own mind, though. Nothing her mother said had changed her path. In fact, every argument Mrs. Minor made just seemed to stiffen Dina’s resolve. Her mother didn’t know her at all. Both Brent and Jonathon had promised them the application process was just red tape and that they saw no issues with her being an official Corbin’s Bend resident.

  His mentor had grinned like a Cheshire cat when he came over after the news took off. Lt. Colonel Benjamin Steppings made a terrible winner. Claimed he knew from the moment he saw the two of them at the barbeque. Brandon called bullshit which just made the bastard laugh loudly.

  While Dina was back getting her stuff ready to ship, he had invited a few of the men he knew to come help him make the place a little more ‘female friendly’. Dina had never complained, but the house had been decorated with nothing more than the basics. As such, their bedroom was now painted beige and they even had a thin, tall dresser in their closet that would hold her lacy panties, of which he had already purchased several pair he knew would look fantastic on her. Before he ripped them to shreds, of course. Half of his clothes were packed up and put in his brand new storage shed that sat behind the garage. Now, all his house needed was her.

  “Jim!” Ange’s voice bellowed into the air and as Brandon grinned, his companion stood up.

  “Well you might laugh, Brandon. That smirk will soon be on the other side of your face, boy.”

  Brandon sat on his porch until the sky was nothing but a smattering of stars.
Heading back into the house, he mentally marked another day off the calendar. A couple more days and she’d be back.

  * * * *

  The Denver airport was a pain in the ass. Brandon stood waiting for Dina to make an appearance after it took over an hour to find the way to the airport and another twenty minutes to find parking. He was just glad he headed out early.

  The arrivals board said her flight had arrived ten minutes ago and for the first time in a long while, he wished he would have been able to meet someone at the gate. She wasn’t expecting him. Jason was actually supposed to pick her up, but Brandon had convinced him – quite easily in fact, the older man’s eyes had twinkled at him the whole time – to allow him to do it. As a new surge of people made an appearance, he looked over the heads in front of him, waiting until he could catch sight of her.

  Damn, he hadn’t felt this excited about something since he was a boy waiting for Santa. The two days he was away doing research had been bad enough. Five days without her was five days too long. A patch of reddish-blonde hair caught his eye and as he stared, the person who was in front of her moved and there she was. Wearing a simple blue t-shirt and shorts, her eyes darted around, looking for her grandfather. As he stepped around the people in front of him, her lavender eyes fell on him and her mouth expanded into a breathtaking smile. “Brandon!” she squealed, dropping her bag and running forward, jumping into his arms.

  He wrapped his arms around her tightly and held her close, breathing in the unique scent that was hers and hers alone. “Beauty,” he breathed. “Fuck, I’ve missed you.” His mouth found hers and as he tasted her lips, the part of him that had been missing for days snapped right back into place. Her arms squeezed tightly around his neck before loosening and as he put her on her feet, he grabbed her bag and swung it over his shoulder. But he couldn’t not touch her. Pulling her against his side, with his hand grasping her shoulder firmly, he pulled her toward the carousels. “How was Florida?”