by Gray Gardner
Burton leaned back in her chair and folded her arms across her chest defensively. Why did he do that? Why had he gone digging? And why was he so good at it?
Dr. Yas leaned forward and quietly said, “And I see by your body language that you don’t want to talk about it.”
“Oh, but I’m sure you will. And I’m sure you have more,” she smirked, waiting for the rest as her foot bounced up and down next to her chair. Her secrets were starting to come out and she was beginning to feel the urgency to escape that windowless room.
“As the matter of fact, I do. After I checked your references for Oxford out, I realized that I recognized a couple of names. Not sure where they came from, I Googled them and you know what? Those names turned out to be the names of the Headmaster and Dean of Students at St. Andrews, one of the most prestigious private schools in London. So I checked further, and I discovered that you did graduate from high school—senior school at St. Andrews, in London, England. Now, what I don’t know is what in the world were you doing over there for just your last year?”
Burton shifted in her chair as her hands fisted on the table top.
“Did you expatriate? Or did you run away? What happened in your life that you had to lie about it to enlist in the US Military?”
She finally leaned forward on the table, collecting her thoughts and trying to control her anger, then turned her eyes up to the doctor and his condescending tone.
“That’s none of your damn business, Doc. I don’t have to tell you anything. Next subject,” she said through her teeth.
“You left a lot of information out when you enlisted, Private,” Dr. Yas pushed. “Do you have something to hide? Something that one day someone can use against you? I’m trying to help you.”
Burton shook her head and grinned, finally taking a deep breath and staring back at him with piercing green eyes. He had it all wrong.
“Do you want those girls to know that I attended the same secondary school as royalty and landed nobility? That I get newsletters every month from the History Honor Society that I joined at UVA? That I know all the best secret nooks at Oxford? And that I was the Vice President of Administration for my sorority?”
“Private Burton,” Dr. Yas tried to interrupt again, holding up a hand.
“Is that something that will bring us closer or set us completely apart? Huh?” she asked, crossing her arms again and leaning back in her chair. “Those girls haven’t been to college. They haven’t even traveled out of the US. I want to be their equal. I don’t want to be ostracized just because of choices in my past that were made for me!”
“I have to admit,” he sighed, shaking his head. “You have the most unique background of the bunch which is what concerns me. With your background and education, you could have gone straight to officer training. Why didn’t you do that? Why did you lie?”
“I just want to be a part of something. Can you understand that? I want to help people, and I don’t want to be a leader, okay?” she explained, slicing her hand through the air.
“What are you so afraid of?” Dr. Yas pressed, jotting something down.
Burton sat up straight and stared across the table at him.
“I’m not afraid.”
“Well, I believe that. We’ve gotten most of your unit to admit their greatest fears except for you. But, everyone has something to fear. Which brings me to our dream evaluations we did a couple of nights ago.”
“I don’t want to talk about that,” she sighed, turning her head and closing herself off again. This guy had a lot of nerve calling her a liar. She’d omitted details of her life. There was a difference.
“Your vitals were off the charts and you fell out of your cot in a sweat drenched t-shirt. Then you wouldn’t tell my assistants what you were dreaming about,” he said, rubbing his upper lip as he looked at her.
“Can you remember all of your dreams?”
“Ones like those I can.”
She chewed on her lip and drummed the table with her fingers. It was that same dream she had every night.
“It’s just a stupid nightmare I have,” she muttered, looking down at her fingers.
“A recurring nightmare?” Dr. Yas asked, furiously scribbling on his notepad.
Burton shifted in her seat as the monitors beeped.
“Baylor,” Dr. Yas began, setting his notepad down. “It’s just you and me. I only want to help you work through your issues so that you can become the best soldier that you can be. Honesty is important. This is a big part of Placement Training.”
Nodding, she sighed and closed her eyes, leaning her head on the back rest of her plastic chair.
“My life is such a mess. I admit, I kind of ran away from it by joining the service. Not that I regret it or anything. I really love it here. You know how when you find something, and you feel like you really belong? Like you’re supposed to be there? That’s how I feel right now,” she calmly said, opening her eyes finally. She frowned as she studied the ceiling. It was vaulted with mirrors. She’d seen a ceiling like that before, but she was on the other side of the mirror, looking down through it as surgeons operated on her father. She suddenly jerked her head down and glared at the doctor.
“Baylor?”
“Is that a two-way mirror?” she loudly asked, pointing at the ceiling.
“Shit,” Connor said, on the other side of the glass, as everyone else continued to stare down into the room and take notes in silence. He’d been watching and waiting for her to explode, but he thought maybe she was actually going to make it through without her temper raging. Not so. He ran for the door in the dark room, stumbling around as the only light came from the room below, where an angry little girl was about to explode like a powder keg.
“You told me that this was confidential. You said that this all was between you and me!” she shouted, standing up and sending her chair across the room.
“Baylor, no one is going to discuss anything you say unless it’s among the other specialists,” Dr. Yas calmly said, slowly standing and holding up his hand. “It’s so we can help you. We’re all professionals.”
“We? Who is up there? Oh God, is the captain up there?” she asked, holding her head as the monitors beeped. She furiously ripped off all of the suction cups and threw them to the white tiled floor. “Let me out of here!”
“Just, calm down,” the doctor said, leaning back against the door and holding up both of his hands as she approached. “We aren’t finished.”
“We are so finished, you quack!” she hollered, grabbing one of his arms and yanking forward. She twisted it behind his back and forced him to his knees, then pushed him face first onto the floor and dug her knee into his back.
“Private Burton,” he mumbled, eating the floor. “This is not a good idea.”
“Shut up!” she ordered, still sitting on his back and trying to think of her next move. Should she punch him? Run? She sighed and decided on the latter, standing up and pulling the door open. Freedom. She already felt better.
Sprinting down the hallway she searched all around and finally found the doors leading outside. Just as suddenly as she’d found the doors to freedom, though, someone appeared in front of the glass doors, the sun light causing the silhouette to just look like a large dark man.
“Burton!”
It was Captain Connor.
He’d run down the stairwell from the observation room in just the nick of time. She was running towards the doors at full speed. He called out her name but she didn’t look like she was stopping. Shaking his head and leaning over, he grabbed her up as she tried to juke around him.
“Just calm down!” he said, as she squirmed around in his arms. She weighed next to nothing but she was making it hard to hold on to her.
“Where do you find these people?” she hollered, gripping his camo jacket in her hands and trying to pull herself over his shoulder and towards the door. “That guy is a comprehensive malpractice lawsuit just waiting to happen!”
; “Burton! Just, will you stop?” he asked, gripping her large t-shirt and wrapping it around his hand a couple of times. “That’s an order, Private Burton!”
She obediently stopped moving and he dropped her to the floor, still gripping the t-shirt as he pulled her back towards the little blue room and Dr. Yas.
“Whose shirt is this anyway?” he asked.
“Where are we going, Captain?” she asked, as the shirt gathered up under her arms.
“Is this Nolan’s shirt?”
“What are we doing here?” she hollered, standing outside of the room where Dr. Yas was leaning against the table, barking at the other people in the room.
“Let’s just finish our session, Private Burton,” the doctor huffed, looking slightly disheveled as he rubbed his arm.
“I don’t have to tell you anything. You lied to me! Why should I trust you now?”
“Just calm down, Burton,” Connor urged, jerking her shirt back. He had to tamp down the urge to reach down and swat her backside, a sensation he’d never experienced with a private before. With a woman, well, never then, either…he shook his head as the two worlds he’d always kept separate seemed to collide. Why was he thinking about Burton as a woman?
“Fine,” Dr. Yas sighed, adjusting his glasses. “Let’s just continue this session tomorrow.”
Burton finally got Connor to release her shirt, and as she twisted it back around, she glared up at the doctor and replied, “In the words of my illustrious bunkmate, O’Malley: this shit is whack.”
The captain had to turn his head so that no one saw him smile. The doctor just gave her a confused look, so she continued.
“There will be no session tomorrow, Doc. And if by the grace of God you and your goons coerce me in here, I’ll lie. Perjury aside, this just isn’t fair! So forgive me, sir, if I don’t feel like opening up anymore. Everyone has personal things that they would prefer to keep personal. And I’m no different!”
Captain Connor rubbed his head as the little girl blurted out the formidable words at the poor doctor. He finally cleared his throat and she turned to look back up at him.
“Private Burton, I just brought you back here to apologize to Dr. Yas before I make you go and run laps for beating him up,” Connor calmly said, folding his hands behind his back and grinning, the small white bandage on his nose having replaced the large square of gauze.
Her mouth dropped open as she stared up at him, and all she could say was, “Oh.”
Dr. Yas took a deep breath and dropped his clipboard on the table as his assistants stood frozen in the back of the room, papers stacked high in their arms.
“I apologize, Dr. Yas, for making you eat the floor,” she softly said, giving him a guilty look.
“I accept,” he said, nodding at her. “But I’d rather you hate me and continue on with our sessions this week.”
“And I’d rather you suck a big fat dick but we can’t always get what we want…”
Captain Connor cut her off as he slapped a big hand over her mouth and dragged her out into the hallway.
“Oh, come on!” she protested, as they marched down the hall towards the parking lot, her arm in his hand.
He shook his head and continued to say, “why me” until they burst outside into the fresh air and hopped into the jeep. Burton sat silently in the passenger seat and twirled the long end of her canvas belt until they reached the track.
“Twenty laps, soldier,” he said, pulling his hat back and looking over at her, still trying to figure her out and trying not to be so amused by her antics. He had to turn and stare at the empty field because there was something about the way she looked at him that was seriously turning him on. Her confusion? Her green eyes? The way she was so bad but always seemed to make him laugh?
Burton stared down at her hands in her lap, not even feigning a move towards running laps. She’d worked so hard to get her life back into some kind of order. Had he been up in that observation room, hearing all of the things about her that she’d tried so hard to keep hidden?
“Captain Connor, you didn’t… I mean, you weren’t listening to what the doctor and I were talking about, were you?” she quietly asked, as the sun sank into the trees behind her. How much had he heard? Would he think she was a snob?
He wondered why it was so important that he didn’t hear anything about her past, but he decided to just lie and make her feel better. Good lies and bad lies, that was just the way the world worked.
“Dr. Yas buzzed my office and I ran down to play door sentry. He didn’t even have to tell me it was you. I knew who it was going to be,” he said as he tried not to grin and maintain a stern glare.
She pressed her lips together and felt satisfied with the answer.
“Okay, sir. Thanks for the lift.”
He grabbed the gear shift but reconsidered his command of taking laps. She looked exhausted and he’d already attributed her weight loss to all of the running he’d been ordering her to do. Also, if he was completely honest with himself, he didn’t want to leave her just yet. That draw he felt grew stronger by the day, making him excited to see her, eager to interact with her, and yes—motivated to discipline her.
“Forget the twenty laps,” he began, getting out and walking around the jeep as she adjusted her clothes and paused to look up at him.
“Oh thank God,” she sighed, sagging her shoulders and leaning her head forward, her head brushing into his arm. She was so tired.
He seized the opportunity to grab her waist and hold her at his side so she was facing backwards and couldn’t move. It was something his friend Captain Gwinn had said about her needing her ass spanked that had gotten him thinking. Maybe it could work for her. And him.
“There will be twenty smacks to your behind, though,” he said, not able to help his slight grin as her whole body stiffened in acknowledgement of what was about to happen to her. He reminded himself it was discipline, not fun.
“Please don’t!” was her initial response, as was closing her eyes tightly and grinding her teeth together. Oh God, he had her pinned and she couldn’t move. Could she fight him? She’d already broken his face.
Connor paused as she wiggled around in anticipation. She hadn’t really seemed surprised, though.
So she’d been spanked before. He considered that new piece of personal information about her only for a second. Not wanting to frighten her and only really wanting to send her a message, he quickly but lightly brought his open hand on her round little ass several times.
“You disobeyed orders, you assaulted a doctor, and you talked back to me! You can’t. Do. That. Anymore,” he commanded, his spanking emphasizing each word.
Baylor had no idea what to think about his new form of discipline, but since it didn’t hurt all that much and he stopped long before she could count to twenty she decided she’d better show him how damned grateful she was feeling at that moment.
“I’m sorry, Captain,” she said in a soft voice, wishing she could speak a little louder. His gentle hand on her chin actually felt pretty good, but she wasn’t sure after a spanking she could look him in the eye.
“Burton,” he kindly said, watching her long, dark lashes sweep over her pink cheeks. He’d liked giving that spanking way too much, but he also had to finish the disciplining part. “Look at me.”
She felt her cheeks flush as she turned her eyes up to his. He looked pleased but kind and sort of handsome. Shit. She had to keep it together.
Her blush almost gave him a full erection, but he didn’t want to confuse the situation any further. He’d never spanked anyone under his command before, but she seemed to just bring it out in him.
“Just be a good girl from now on,” he admonished, loving the way her eyes dropped back down and her cheeks flushed hot all over again. “Follow orders. Treat your superiors with respect. Understand?”
“Yes sir,” she replied quickly. There was no reasoning behind it but tears were burning her eyes and she really didn’t want him to se
e. Was it because she was embarrassed? Because she realized she found him to be kind of a hottie? Had she felt guilty about getting into trouble? Did he make her feel like he really cared?
“Dismissed,” Connor had barely and mercifully uttered before she turned and retreated back to her barracks. He stood in the twilight unsure of how to proceed. He’d gotten the feeling that she wasn’t angry with him. Which pleased him more than he thought it would.
He’d never been so intrigued by a woman in his entire life. And that was another thing. He was thinking about her as a woman and not a trainee in his command. That left him the slightest bit uneasy as he made his way to his quarters. And her cute little butt flashed into his head every few seconds which didn’t help his situation, either.
Near Fear
The following day the girls found themselves on a large coast guard boat with Captain Gwinn, crashing against the surf as they headed out into the deep water. The sun beat down without a cloud in the sky, making the water look beautiful and almost clear. The wind had subsided and it was actually the first warm day in weeks.
“Okay!” Captain Connor said, as the boat slowed and they could hardly see the shore. “This is a simulation of what would happen if you ever found yourselves stranded in the water without a vessel.”
The girls continued to stare at him as he stood at the front of the boat. Did he realize they weren’t in the Navy? They froze as the captain approached their unit leader.
“Private,” Connor began, hands on his hips. Her cheeks flushed so easily now he could only assume they were both thinking about the spanking he’d given her. He’d certainly been replaying it over and over in his hot, steamy shower. “You get your girls into the water in thirty seconds or you’re going to be very sorry.”
The idea of drowning or becoming dinner for a shark gave the girls enough reason to hang back, but Burton was trying her best to coax them gently into the water because the idea that he might actually be crazy enough to spank her in front of everyone weighed heavily on her mind. She couldn’t even look him in the eye. She pressed her lips together as his lecture about being a good girl played again in her head, accompanied by the smacking sound of his hand on her ass. Her body broke out into goose bumps again.