by Jane Henry
Nora grabbed the papers she needed from the desk, and towed Tess back into the hallway.
“Let’s go,” she whispered.
“Go? So soon?” their mother spat, and Tessa flinched. She hadn’t realized they were followed.
“We need to get going,” Tessa said, her teeth clenched. “Excuse me.”
“No, excuse me,” her mother said, her eyes shiny and unfocused. She swayed on her feet, but still managed to jab a finger in Tessa’s chest so hard it hurt. “Nora’s my daughter and you can’t take her with you.”
It figured that the only time her mother even cared that she had Nora for a daughter was when she could use her to taunt Tess.
“To her study group? The hell I can’t,” Tessa said. “Now move.”
Anger clawed at her chest, hot fury bubbling up at the woman who’d made her life a living hell.
Tessa reached out a hand to hold her mother back, but her mother moved faster than she’d thought possible, grabbing a fistful of Tess’s hair and yanking hard. Tess screamed as pain radiated from her scalp. Instinctively, she elbowed her mother, and her mother howled, doubling over. Tess took both hands and shoved her away. The hallway was so narrow, her mother’s body slammed against the wall.
“Get the hell away from us!” Tessa screamed. “Put a hand on me again, and I call the police!”
“Hey, hey, what’s this?” Roger lumbered into the hallway, his eyes narrowed on them. “Desi, baby, we don’t want any trouble, remember?” he warned.
Her mother was practically vibrating from fury and whatever cocktail of chemicals were currently working inside her, but she allowed Roger to step in front of her and hold her back against the wall, while Nora and Tess edged past.
“You think you’re so much better than us now? You and your fancy car and fucking job?” Desiree screamed. “You think you can just sashay your way in here and you’re fucking welcome?”
Tessa stopped when she was in front of her mother, and pointed a shaking finger at her. “I wouldn’t come back here if it was the last fucking place on earth,” she hissed. “I’m only here because of Nora. We’re leaving.”
“Get out, and don’t come back!” her mother shrieked.
Nora took Tessa by the hand and yanked her out the door.
An hour later, Tessa was still shaking from the helpless anger. Nora was with her study group and already had plans to stay over her friend’s house. But Tess had no means to get away.
God, what she wouldn’t do to go over the lap of someone. Hell, anyone.
Her ex-boyfriend Louie was the one who’d introduced her to the scene. She’d met him when she was still in high school. He was five years her senior, and she had been drawn to his dominant personality. It had been over Louie’s lap she’d gotten her first-ever spanking, and she’d never looked back. He showed her it was darkly erotic and freeing to give control to someone else. Louie hadn’t exactly been into long term, though, and was still young and immature. He couldn’t handle the responsibility of being a full-time dom. He liked to spank, and he liked to screw, but meeting the needs of a submissive was where he fell woefully short. Their break-up was amicable, and she’d always been grateful he had shown her a side of herself that had lain dormant.
She glanced at her phone. No time. She couldn’t even go to The Club and ask one of the guys there for a quickie. She knew enough men who functioned as Tops that she could ask them to help bring her back to her senses. A good spanking would center her, relieve stress, and help her relax, and most of them were more than happy to lay her over a bench and give her a few good whacks. Unfortunately, her shift started in just a few minutes.
Tessa’s hands shook as she put her phone back in her bag and lay her head back on her seat. The tears that threatened to fall were right there, right on the surface, and for one second…
She jumped at a knock on the passenger-side window. Sitting up quickly, she recognized the large frame of her boss before her eyes even adjusted to the bright light streaming in behind him. He opened the door.
“Sorry. Would’ve just opened the door but didn’t want to scare the shit outta ya,” he said, as he slid into the passenger seat. “You okay? You’ve been sitting out here for like half an hour.”
God! She had? She was losing her mind.
“Yeah,” she said, tipping her head back on the seat and closing her eyes. “It’s been a really long afternoon.”
She didn’t trust herself not to cry, so she just shook her head.
“You need some time off?” he said softly, and the tenderness in his voice almost made the lump in her throat dissolve. “I can take it from here tonight.”
“No, thanks, Tony,” she whispered.
They sat in silence for a few minutes. It felt nice, just sitting here with him. She missed chatting with Eva, who was so into her boyfriend now, she never answered calls anymore. She couldn’t confide in Nora, and Hillary would understand, but Hillary was waiting tables and not really free to listen as Tessa spilled her guts.
And then a thought crossed her mind. If Tony knew that Hillary and Heidi, who were normal, healthy, perfectly happy girls, liked to be spanked, would he accept that she did, too?
The hell with it.
“I could really use a trip to The Club,” she said. She kept her eyes closed shut, and she could hear his sharp intake of breath.
“You need… something at The Club?” he asked, as if genuinely curious.
She laughed mirthlessly. “Yes. I do. I need a really good session,” she said with a laugh.
“Session? As in, like, sex?”
She laughed out loud. He was so damn cute sometimes. “Sex is good,” she said, opening her eyes and watching him closely for a reaction. “But what I really need is a good spanking.”
He nodded slowly, working his jaw as he listened. God, the man could listen. She loved how he really listened to her.
“Did you… do something wrong?” he asked. “And you… feel like someone should punish you?”
She shook her head, still smiling. “Not this time, no,” she said. “But getting spanked can be good stress relief.”
His brow furrowed. “Stress relief? Letting someone smack your ass relaxes you?”
She sighed. “Oh, yes. It so can.” She put her head back and closed her eyes again. “It releases feel-good hormones. And the act of giving up control, it does a lot for a girl. It’s freeing, to just clear your mind for a while, and not have to worry about anything but submitting. And then taking the spanking, knowing I can handle it, makes me feel strong and powerful.”
He was quiet for a minute before he spoke. “Want to tell me what makes you so stressed today?” he asked. The lump in her throat rose again.
Her voice dropped to a whisper. “I saw my mother.”
He paused for a beat before he spoke. “Shit, Tess.”
“I know,” she whispered, and she felt tears sneak out from beneath her eyelids. She reached her hands back and over her head, forgetting for a minute that when she did, the hem of her skirt rose. She knew he saw the scars when he swore again.
“Tessa. Jesus, Tess, what happened to you?” Her eyes flew open, but it was too late, one of his huge, warm hands had already reached out, his index finger tracing the edge of the scar on the uppermost part of her right thigh. She shoved his hand away.
“Please, Tony. Don’t.” She swiped at the tears in her eyes. God, what would he think about her? She’d just talked to him about needing to be spanked, and now he was looking at her scars. He was a bright guy. He’d put two and two together.
Would he tell her to get help? Would he lecture her? Would he get all awkward and clam up?
For a moment he said nothing, as she cried quietly to herself, wiping her eyes. But then his hand reached out to hers, and squeezed. The next moment, he released her hand, and was opening the car door.
Oh, God. She really had done it. He really did see her for the freak that she was, and he was out of here. She wanted to take
it all back, and put the wall back up. But she couldn’t. There was no taking it back. He was leaving, and she—
But, no. He wasn’t leaving. The next thing she knew, the driver’s side door was opening, and he was taking her hand again. He pulled her out of the car, and she blinked up at him, baffled at the sight of him, the sun dipping behind him in the autumn sky, as he pushed one large hand out and shut the car door behind her.
“C’mere,” he said gruffly, and he did what she’d been pining for since the first time she ever laid eyes on him. He pulled her into his chest, wrapping his arms around her so tightly it hurt. And when he did, the feeling of being safe and accepted overwhelmed her. He was every bit as strong, and warm, and comforting as she’d imagined he’d be. She cried real tears as he rocked and held her.
“They’ll see us,” she said in a wavering voice, as he hushed her.
“I don’t care,” he answered. “What are they gonna do? Tell the boss?”
She laughed through her tears. “Maybe they’ll talk,” she said.
“Let ‘em talk,” he growled, and the next thing she knew, he was lifting her face and his mouth was on hers, the taste of salty tears intermingling with their kiss. It was a brief kiss that lifted her to the tips of her toes, and when he released her, she blinked up at him.
“This could make the roommate thing a bit, um, awkward,” she whispered.
“Then you’d better stop trying to seduce me.”
She snorted, smacking her hand flat on his chest, as he turned her around and led her into the restaurant to start their shifts.
He laughed. “Wait, I thought you were the one who liked to be smacked around,” he said, and she punched him hard on the arm.
“Tony, don’t even!” she said, but she was laughing. If he was joking around with her, then he couldn’t think she was that much of a freak… could he?
She felt as if something had shifted, but she didn’t yet know what.
Chapter Four
The first few notes of Bruce Springsteen’s Thunder Road pounded through the kitchen as Tony hefted dough out of the giant mixer and onto the stainless steel countertop. Saturday mornings alone in the kitchen were the absolute best. He could crank his tunes as high as he wanted and sing as off-key as he pleased—the bread dough was the only witness, and it never told tales.
And why the hell wouldn’t he sing? His family was happy, things with the restaurant were going so well he was booking months in advance, and thanks to luck and his own careful maneuvering, he was the lucky son of a bitch who got to start and end each day seeing Tessa Damon’s smile.
That smile, man. He was quickly growing addicted to it, along with everything else that was Tess—from the husky sound of her laugh, to the sparkle in her eye when she teased him, to the soft curve of her hip beneath his hand as they’d sat on the sofa watching television the night before.
Some dim corner of his brain, likely the part that remembered exactly how it had felt when shit exploded with Val, cranked out an automatic warning—Turn back! You can’t give her what she needs! But he’d started tuning out that voice a few days ago, right around the time he’d found himself holding Tess in the alley, and brushing his lips over hers in a kiss that had begun as a sign of comfort and affection, but which had become so much more. The way she’d cried in his arms then relaxed against him afterward, her sobs giving way to breathy laughter as the tension left her body, suggested that just maybe he could give her what she needed. Or at least part of what she needed. As for the other parts…
He floured his hands lightly and began working the dough into a long rope as he contemplated.
He’d seen and (unintentionally) overheard enough of the way his brothers treated their ladies to know that there were certain unwritten rules to the relationship between a dominant and a submissive. For example, a submissive always had to speak respectfully to her dom (though Hillie, in particular, pushed her luck with this from time to time). She deferred to him on all major decisions. And she followed the rules that he set out, which usually had to do with her safety and well-being. When she broke any of those rules, he’d spank her.
The safety part, he was all-in with. He’d love to know that Tess was taking care of herself and wasn’t doing stupid-ass shit, like sleeping in her damn car. He shook his head and gave the dough a vicious twist.
Then he frowned, because the rest of the gig was a much tougher sell. For one thing, the very thought of spanking her, of causing her pain, made his stomach clench. For another, he genuinely liked it when Tess gave him sass—the way she tossed her hair back, the cheeky tilt to her mouth. It made him hard as a rock, however un-dom-like that probably made him.
And he wasn’t all about being a dictator, either. There were a few things in life he knew—how to cook, how to tie his tie, how to tell when someone was lying. On pretty much every other topic, he accepted that he wasn’t an expert, and it didn’t make his balls shrivel to admit it. In fact, he remembered his dad saying that it took a strong man to admit that he didn’t know what he was doing, and a smart man to seek help.
Still, could he try to live with those things, be that kind of guy, if that’s what it took to keep Tess happy?
He remembered the feeling of her lips beneath his, warm and pliant, and the answer came easily. Hell, yes he could try.
As he cut the dough with his left hand and rolled with his right in the practiced way his mother had taught him, he found himself singing along with The Boss.
“Come take my hand, we’re heading out tonight to… Oh, Jesus!”
A startling burst of color flashed in his peripheral vision, and Tony spun to confront the intruder… only to find none other than Tess, herself, standing there staring at him, her candy-apple red sweater clinging to her truly impressive curves. Despite the pounding of his heart, he couldn’t help but grin.
“The lovely Miss Damon! Didn’t expect to see you here today! How are you this fine morning?” he asked, resuming his work with the dough.
Tessa did not look nearly as happy to see him.
“Tony, what the heck is this?” she asked, brandishing a piece of paper at him.
“Well, I can’t see it if you keep moving it,” he said reasonably, squinting at the paper.
“It’s an email,” Tess told him.
“Yup, that’s just what I was gonna say,” Tony agreed. And when she continued to stare at him, he continued, “So, are you gonna tell me what it says? Or should I guess?”
Tess’s cheeks flushed and she inhaled through her nose as though she was counting to ten. Did it make him completely depraved that he found the sight of her like this arousing?
More importantly, did he care?
“It’s an email from Alice,” she said.
Tony looked at her blankly.
“Alice Cavanaugh,” she repeated, as though this should mean something.
It didn’t. Tony shook his head. “Okay, I’ll bite. Who’s Alice Cavanaugh?” he asked, covering the rolls and setting them to rise.
“She works at The Club. As a waitress.” Tessa began.
“Ah, right! Her!” Tony said, snapping his fingers as he grabbed the bench scraper and started to clean up. “She’s a friend of Matt and Hillary’s. More a friend-of-a-friend kind of thing. I don’t think Matt even mentioned her name when he told me about her. She’s looking for a temporary, part-time gig, and Matt vouched for her, so I told him to give her our contact info and we’d see what we could do. We can find her some shifts during lunch or weeknights when she’s not at The Club.”
Call him a sap, but helping out a single mom trying to save up to buy Christmas presents for her kid was a no-brainer.
Tessa stared at him, crestfallen. “But… you said… I thought we agreed… Nora…”
Tony paused in the act of scraping flour off the counter and frowned at her in confusion. “Your sister? What about her? She’s coming for an interview in…” He quickly checked the large clock on the wall. “Half an hour. You remi
nded me twice yesterday and left me a sticky note on the apartment door this morning.”
Which had been mildly annoying, frankly, since he wasn’t an absent-minded guy. Messy, maybe, but never absent-minded.
Tess threw her hands up. “How the heck do you propose we hire both of them?” she demanded, her tone adding a “you idiot” to the end of her speech, even though she didn’t voice it.
He narrowed his eyes as he felt his temper rise. “Well, Tess, it generally starts with me telling them they’re hired, and then you schedule them some shifts. What’s the problem?”
“The problem is that we can’t afford to hire two new employees! We can barely hire one. And you didn’t even discuss it with me before you promised!”
He held up his hand to cut her off. “Okay, hold up. First of all, I haven’t promised anyone anything.”
“That’s not what this email says!” she nearly shouted, waving the paper at him once more. “She says to thank us so much, and she’s available to start work as soon as you need her!”
Tony shrugged. He hadn’t promised, but since he’d fully intended to employ the woman anyway, it didn’t matter much.
“Great. Let’s get her in for an interview this week. And as for your second point,” he said, talking over her when she began to object. “We can afford it. Christ, Tess, we had two organizations call just yesterday to request outside catering jobs for holiday parties, and I happen to know that John,” he said, referring to their kick-ass pastry-chef, “has a bunch of outside jobs coming up, and he can use the help, too. We need to grow our staff if we want the business to thrive.”
“We need to be careful, Tony, if we want the business to survive! We could’ve gotten by with the staff we have! We could have made it work!”
