My House, My Rules

by Constance Masters

“Okay. Jay. For God's sake, I get it! I should have opened the mail! You don't have to go on and on about it!” She followed her unimpressed speech with a stomp of her foot.

  As soon as the words left her mouth and her foot had landed, Alex realized she may have let that last statement slip through her lips with just a tad too much attitude. She held her hands up to signal a truce so she could apologize, but the man who was staring at her didn't look like he was interested in her too little, too late apologies. At all.

  “Um, Jay, I can see how you thought that may have come out wrong,” she said, stepping backwards as he rose from the table without breaking eye contact at all. “I—I mean, I just, what I meant to say was that of course I should have opened the mail.”

  “Uh huh,” he said, looking less than convinced as he rounded on her. He wasn't even hurrying, and she could have run, if she had a death wish. That look on his face was kind of daring her to run, to see what would happen. “I've warned you several times about your attitude.”

  “I'm sorry!” she tried. “I will can the attitude, I will. I promise!”

  “Yes, you will,” he said. He grabbed hold of her arm, sat on one of the kitchen chairs, and bent her over his knee, his hand immediately connecting with the back of her jeans. “You will not give me attitude because you don't want to hear what I'm saying.”

  His hard hand was biting her butt with stinging smacks, even through the thick denim. “I won't!” she said desperately. “I promise!”

  “You will not stomp your foot like a child throwing a two-year-old tantrum!”

  “I'm sorry, Jay!” she yelled rocking from side to side to try and avoid his hard swats.

  “You will not give me attitude at all.” Every word was punctuated with a hard spank. Her eyes widened as his hand slipped underneath her. He expertly undid the button of her jeans and slid down the zipper. “Lift up,” he said.

  “Not on my bare bottom, please,” she begged.

  “Lift. Up,” he said. “I won't tell you again.”

  Inwardly cursing herself for losing control, Alex did as she was asked, not wanting to make it any worse than it was going to be.

  Jay pulled down her jeans and underwear in one fell swoop, sadly missing out on the pretty new panties she'd donned that morning in the hope that he might get to see them.

  When she felt a cool rush of air across her already warm bottom, Alex did the only thing left for her to do. She squeezed her eyes shut and hoped like hell he would be happy to just use his hand.

  * * *

  Jay took a moment to admire his pink handprints that were splattered over Alex's white bottom. He hadn't spanked her in the last couple of weeks, wanting her to have a chance to absorb what she'd agreed to trying. It hadn't been easy, and he'd had to ignore his itching hand more than once, but here they were, at the start of a new beginning. He ran his hand over her soft skin before slapping each cheek hard. He had to let her know that he wouldn't accept attitude even if she did find the adjustment hard.

  “I said I was sorry!” she cried. “Stop.”

  Jay spanked his wriggling target for just a few more minutes before helping her to stand.

  “That hurt,” she said with a pout while attempting to rub out the sting.

  “You were warned,” was all Jay said before replacing her panties and jeans.

  “I didn't know we'd started yet,” she grumbled.

  “Well, now you do.” he said.

  “Fine,” she said, realizing she wouldn't win this argument.

  “Do you need some corner time?” he asked. “Because you’re sounding very much like I didn't spank you hard enough.

  “No. I'm just fine. I was agreeing with you,” she said with a glowing, if a little false, smile.

  “Uh huh,” he said.

  * * *

  “Okay, that's it, the last of them.” Jay said. “I think we should put each pile into date order.” From what he'd seen of a statement dated a couple of months prior, there was still money in the bank, but he wanted to make sure.

  “Okay,” Jay said finally after looking through all the statements. “You're not in dire straits, but you will be if you don't take care of this.”

  “So, I still have money?” she asked, relief finally showing on her face.

  “Yes, you do, Alex. But you're going to need to take care of it,” he said. “I don't pretend to know everything about investments, so I want you to make an appointment at the bank tomorrow for as soon as you can get one. You need to listen to some advice. I would say keep some of the money in your account to pay bills and live on and such, but you're going to have to invest some too. You're going to have to learn to live on a budget.”

  “I can do a budget,” she said.

  “Well, good. Come on, let's go box the stuff you need until we can get a proper file and then get rid of the rest. We still have a few hours until school's out.”

  “Okay,” Alex said. “And, Jay, thanks for your help. I do appreciate it. I'm sorry for being a bit of a brat.”

  “You're welcome,” he said. “I wouldn't say you were a brat. You were stressed, but you need to learn to handle that.”

  “I don't think you understand what a relief this is.”

  “I think I can imagine.”

  “So, you're not mad?”

  “No, of course not,” he said. “I get why you got in a mess, so long as you understand that now it's time to change.”

  “I do,” she said wrapping her arms around his neck and kissing his neck. “I'm a fast learner.”

  “Good. Then this should be easy for you. I'll be expecting organized things. Starting from tomorrow. I want you to open any mail as soon as you get it, and I expect you to start the cleaning list tomorrow.” He handed her a piece of paper that had chores written up. Some were weekly, some were daily.

  “Wow,” she said. “This is some list. If I have to start taking care of all this tomorrow, then maybe we should take advantage of being alone right now.” She kissed him and smiled.

  “I could be talked into that,” he said, returning her kiss with fervor. “But we only have an hour.” He took her hand and started to lead her to the stairs.

  “No need to waste time going all the way up there.” Alex said as her fingers worked the button of his jeans. “We're all alone, remember?”

  “Aren't you getting plucky?” he asked brushing over her nipples with his thumbs through her thin t-shirt before lifting it over her head.

  “I have this new guy that's encouraging me to take charge of my life. He's very bossy.” She rolled her head back as he grazed a tingly path from her ear to her breast.

  “Good,” he said leaning back on the table. “Some people need a little bossy in their lives. Show me how good you are at doing as you're told. Take off your clothes.”

  She flinched slightly but did as he asked. Slowly removing each piece of clothing until she was standing in nothing but a pair of lace panties. “You like?” she asked.

  “Very much,” he said approvingly. “Leave them on.” He again ran his thumbs across her peaked nipples, smiling as she shivered in pleasure.

  “Aren't you going to take off your clothes?” she asked, pulling him towards her.

  “Oh, yeah,” he said with a chuckle as her greedy gaze followed his every move.

  “You know, I think I'm going to like the fact you work from home,” she said, running a finger down his taut body.

  “Bend over the arm of the sofa,” he said.

  “You're going to spank me again?” she asked, a little surprised.

  “Bend over, Alex,” he said. Those were the most adorable panties he'd ever seen. They were low-cut, tight lacy shorts. He could see every shaved inch of her pussy through the sheer material. “You look beautiful. I want to see them from the back.”

  Alex lay over the sofa as seductively as she could, hoping the view from the back was enticing.

  Jay thought so. He ran his hand over the stretchy lace that disappeared between her w
ell-formed cheeks. He bent down to kiss the generous amount of flesh that peaked out. There were still faint prints from the earlier short spanking.

  “Don't wanna rush you there, cowboy. Really, I don't…” Alex said. “But time's ticking.”

  “Smart ass,” Jay said with an accompanying hard slap. He did move it along though and deftly peeled the lacy booty shorts down and dropped them on the ground. He nudged her legs apart and drove into her. A guttural moan escaped from both of them as her wet lips folded around him.

  * * *

  “No homework,” Aaron said happily.

  “Me neither,” Thom said. “So, can we go to the park?”

  “I don't see why not,” Jay said. “If it's okay with your mom.”

  “Fine by me,” she said.

  “You coming?”

  “Nah,” she said. “I might start on the list.”

  “Good idea,” Jay said proudly.

  “You staying for dinner?” she asked hopefully.

  “That'd be nice,” Jay said with a smile as he herded the boys to the garage to get their bikes.

  Excited high-pitched voices along with Jay's deeper one petered out as they all rode bikes towards the park. Alex picked up the long list. “Laundry,” she read out loud. “Guess that's somewhere to start.” She went into the laundry room to take care of that task, bundling enough of the clothes off the floor for a load. When she opened the washer's lid she found there was still a load inside. By the smell of it, a load that should have been put in the drier a while ago. With some colorful language, she dropped what would have been a new load, added more soap, and slammed the lid shut, starting it again before wandering back into the kitchen to see what was next on the list. Well, I'm not washing floors at this time of the day, she thought. That was a morning task. Not much point folding laundry when there was going to be more soon. She'd do them all together. The oven? Nope, she'd have to cook with it soon. She could vacuum but what was the point when she had to fold the laundry when it was finished? There'd be bits of drier fluff on the floor after she folded the clothes. She'd have to do it again anyway.

  She went to go upstairs to make the beds and clean the bathrooms when her computer buzzed, alerting her to an email. It was a Facebook notification. Jay and the kids would be a while, she thought. They'd only just left, really. She could spend a few minutes on her farm, just repaying her neighbors. She should put some dinner on, but it was early. She tried to ignore it, but the red writing at the bottom of the list was staring at her glaringly. NO FACEBOOK AT ALL BEFORE CHORES. She sighed and tapped the paper on the table while she mulled over her options.

  After thinking about it for a few minutes, Alex folded the list and put it in her pocket. She only said she MIGHT start on the list. Jay had said to start the next day.

  Alex looked up sharply when she heard voices at the side of the house. Damn! She looked at the clock at the top of her screen. How the hell had it gotten to five-thirty, and she hadn't even noticed? There was no way she was going to get dinner cooked early enough now. The kids had school the next day. She should have planned something that wouldn't take as much time as a whole chicken. Sandwiches? Way to look organized, Alex, she thought.

  “Hi!” she said to her three boys as they came panting through the door, all smiles.

  “Hi, yourself,” Jay said, bending to kiss her.

  “Um, there's a small problem with dinner,” Alex said with a wince.

  Jay glanced at the laptop that was sitting next to Alex on the sofa. “Oh? What's that?”

  “Boys go and get showered and put on your pajamas,” she said.

  “But it's not even dinner yet,” Aaron whined.

  “If you do it now you'll have time for a half hour of television before bed,” Alex said.

  Both boys took off upstairs, obviously happy with the time trade off.

  “You were saying about dinner?” Jay asked.

  “I kind of lost track of the time,” Alex said quietly.

  “That's okay. How did you go with the list?” he asked.

  “I didn't have to start the list today,” Alex said a little defensively. “I thought I might start today, but it was a bit late.”

  “Okay,” Jay said. “I'll accept that. For today.”

  Alex let out a breath that she didn't know she'd been holding. “Now there's just dinner to worry about. I was going to cook a chicken.”

  “We could cut it up and do something quicker with it.”

  “Yeah, let's do that,” she said with a smile.

  “I can put it on the grill,” he said.

  “Even better,” she said happily.

  * * *

  “They went to sleep quickly tonight?” Alex said.

  “First day of school and then the park,” Jay said. “They flaked.”

  “I did start the list,” Alex said out of the blue.

  “I believe you,” Jay said.

  “I know, I just wanted you to know that I did start.”

  “I'm happy to leave this until tomorrow, Alex,” Jay said. He was. Sitting there with his girl in his arms was pleasant, and he wanted it to stay that way.

  “Well, I was going to start, but there were reasons…”

  “Alex, just start the list tomorrow, and we'll be good.”

  “I will,” she said.

  “And ring the bank.”

  “I will.”

  “Stay off Facebook until you've done your chores,” Jay said pointedly. He looked at Alex who had skipped a beat this time before her answer.

  “I will,” she said to the raised eyebrow, with a nervous giggle. “You knew I got caught up playing, didn't you?”

  “Uh huh.”

  “You're not mad?”

  “Nope, not tonight. You had me on a technicality, but we are starting tomorrow.”

  “I know,” she said. “I'll be ready.”

  “Good girl,” he said, drawing her in for a kiss.

  Chapter Nine

  Alex stomped into the house with a face like thunder. Everything had gone wrong in the last twelve or so hours. She hadn't gotten much sleep because she wasn't a tummy sleeper and her bottom hurt. The boys had argued with her about everything this morning. Then, she'd gotten every red light on the way home. Thankfully, her ass was only vaguely sore this morning.

  Her appointment at the bank weeks ago had seemed to go well at the time, but she was sick of the whole arrangement. Jay was the only reason she was still in this thing. Well, that wasn't exactly the truth. She'd fallen for Jay hard, that was the truth. But things were better, and that's why she still wanted to do things Jay's way. Just not every day. Well, not this day. Damn it to hell, she was sick of not being able to spend money on whatever she wanted, and she was really sick of cleaning every single day. It just got messed up again anyway. She'd stuck to that damn list for weeks! Done everything she was supposed to. Mostly. So, she'd slipped a little in the last week, but there was no need for Jay to spank her last night like he had. “Just a warning, my ass,” she grumbled to herself. Well, she deserved a day off, and she was going to have one. Let Jay do his worst, she didn't care.

  She pushed the breakfast dishes out of the way, plopped her laptop on the table and turned it on, going to get herself some coffee while it booted. She hadn't had breakfast yet, so she grabbed a box of cookies to go with her coffee.

  After clicking on a few new photos and making a couple of comments, Alex went to click on her farm, but a niggle of guilt made her hesitate. Fuck you, Jay, get out of my head, she thought. She hovered over a new game. If she had a look, it wouldn't be that bad. When the game opened, she smiled. Cute. Candy everywhere. A lot like other games she'd played, but she liked the look of the game board layout. The first game was easy. Dead easy. And quick. By the time she got to level twenty-five though, it started to get harder. Much harder. As her last life dwindled away she sighed with irritation. Decision-making time. She'd wasted the whole morning, and now she had to decide before Jay came over for lunch.
Buy some new lives and keep playing which Jay would not approve of or clean up. How brave was she?

  “Hi!” Jay called from the back door.

  Damn, he'd jumped the fence again, and he was early. Looked like there was a third choice, and she had no option but to take it. She was going to have to brave it out and hope the man had brought his sense of humor with him. Jay's sudden presence had drained the anger right out of her, replaced instead by a feeling of dread. As the door slid open, she slammed her laptop shut, wishing she'd had a chance to close the game and delete the history.

  “Hi,” she said, a little more grumpily than she intended. “You're early.”

  Jay said nothing as he took in the state of the kitchen. “Which of the rules, honey, was written in big red writing?”

  Alex stuck her chin out defiantly. “I, I'm having a day off,” she said as firmly as she could.

  “Oh?” Jay said. “From?”

  “You know. This, well, this arrangement,” Alex said.

  “Us?”

  “No. Not us. Just this. You know, the list, the cleaning.”

  “The doing as you’re told.”

  “Yeah,” she said. “Just for one day I'm doing what I want.”

  “It doesn't work that way,” Jay said.

  “Just today!” Alex whined, sounding more like Aaron than a grown woman and a mother.

  “No.”

  Alex sighed. “Why not?” she persisted.

  “Because it's not what we agreed on, and it won't help.”

  “It might help me!”

  “Sure. Then whenever something doesn't appeal to you, you can just take the day off and not worry about the rules. We agreed on the rules, and we agreed on the consequences.”

  Alex frowned. “Hmpf,” she said folding her arms. Her bravado was slipping, but she couldn't shake the bad mood. “Okay, then I'll clean!”

  “Yes, you will, after your spanking.”

  “I don't want a spanking. I said I'd do it!” she said, pulling her hand up to her chest so Jay couldn't grab it.

  “Too late,” he said. Ignoring the hand she was clutching to her chest, he deftly undid her jeans and pulled them down.