Point Counterpoint

by Fiona Wilde

  "The gossip page of Newsday. We're in it. Again. Listen: What began with a political free-for-all and reportedly a behind-the-scenes dust up has ended with the highest weekly ratings in cable history for ANN's newest political show Loggerheads. According to ANN sources who asked to remain confidential, the network may have underestimated the skills of liberal activist Jill Parmele, who fumed on set that co-host Bill Chadwick had sought to sabotage her first appearance. Could it be that for all his misogynistic bluster Chadwick is afraid of women? Perhaps that's why he's a misogynist."

  He tossed the paper aside. "Great. That's just great."

  "I'm sorry they printed that," she said quietly. "It should have remained private."

  "The allegation shouldn't have been made in the first place," he said. "You were completely wrong to accuse me of putting a mole in your office. At the very least you should have asked me about in private about it before making a public spectacle."

  Jill stood and walked across the room, continuing to dry her hair. "I told you I didn't want to discuss this."

  "Well, I do," he said, rising to follow her. "And I know it's a lot to ask considering what you just went through but this might be the only place on earth where we can have a private conversation without someone listening."

  "Yeah," she said. "It sucks to feel betrayed by your co-workers doesn't it." She cast a glance at him and looked away.

  "I didn't betray you," he said hotly and then paused. "It was Shale."

  "What?" Jill stopped drying her hair and stared at him.

  "Tina was a plant You were right about that. And she was hired to be put in your office to feed my assistant information. Only I didn't know anything about it. I found out later, the day you and I met with Shale after the first taping. He told me after you left the office."

  "Why didn't you tell me?" she asked, indignant.

  "I tried, when I went to your office, remember? You wouldn't give me the chance."

  Jill dropped the towel in her lap. "Good Lord," she said. "It's worse than I thought."

  "If it makes you feel any better, I let him have it after he told me. And I'm seriously considering firing my assistant," he said. "Burke's been with me for a long time and I have no doubt that both he and Shale had my best interest at heart, but there are ways to do things and ways not to do things."

  "Your best interests?" Jill laughed. "How in the hell is it in your best interest to make you look like a total jerk?"

  "That's neither here nor there," he said. "The point is, Jill, you owe me an apology."

  Jill stood there, looking at him. When she spoke, her voice was level but cool. "Look, Brad," she began. "I appreciate your coming up here with me, spending your time and your money - which I will repay, by the way - but it doesn't change what happened at work. Even if you didn't have a direct hand in what happened, you might as well have. You should have known that those liberal-hating, women-disparaging jerks might pull something like this. If you were serious about wanting to fight me on a level playing field, then you should have made it very clear to them from the beginning not to interfere--"

  "How the hell was I supposed to know?" Chadwick took a step towards her, his face angry and his voice raised.

  "Because you know the way everyone at ANN thinks!," she countered, raising her voice as well. "What is it you guys always say? Liberals twist things? Liberals can't be trusted? Christ, Brad, that's practically your network's fucking mantra! And now you dare to stand here and pretend it never occurred to you that your little right wing posse would do anything to give you the advantage?"

  "It didn't," he shot back.

  "Yeah, right," Jill snorted and turned away, but Chadwick grabbed her arm.

  "Are you calling me a liar? And I suggest you think before you answer." His voice was low with warning.

  Later Jill would wonder what she was thinking. Had she wanted the situation to unfold the way it had? Had she been a hypocrite? After all, she'd told Chadwick that he should have foreseen what would happen at ANN. Later, in retrospect, she realized something in Brad Chadwick's demeanor and tone should have been warning enough of what would happen if she challenged him. Had that secret, hidden part of herself that longed to be disciplined recognized that Chadwick was just the man to do it. Had it known that all he needed was a reason? Was that why she gave it to him?

  "Yes," she hissed. "Yes I am."

  What happened then was nothing like Jill's dream. Brad Chadwick didn't offer up taunts or lengthy preambles as he pulled her over to the bed. But he did look up at her as he sat down on the edge of the bed, his expression so stern that her stomach flipped in fearful anticipation of what she already knew he intended.

  "Remember when we were in your office and I said you could use some manners? Remember what you said to me?"

  Jill fought to form an answer but couldn't. Instead she attempted to pull away but when she realized the strength of Chadwick's grip just stood there, looking at her slim wrist trapped in his broad hand and wondering - wordlessly - whether she was dreaming now. She couldn't think. She couldn't move. She could only look at him, wide-eyed, and shake her head.

  "Since you seem to have forgotten, I'll tell you," he said. "You said when someone came along to teach you to let you know. Well guess what? I'm that someone."

  He pulled her then - effortlessly, it seemed - over his knee and it was then that the reality of the situation hit Jill.

  "What --- What the hell are you doing?" She pushed up against the bed with her upper arms as she tried simultaneously to roll off Brad Chadwick's broad lap. But it was like trying to escape a vice, and it immediately became clear to Jill that she was at his mercy.

  "I'm going to spank you," Chadwick said matter-of-factly. "And you shouldn't be surprised. Frankly, I'm surprised someone hasn't done it already. If anyone deserves it, it's you."

  Jill didn't even have time to consider a retort before a stinging slap landed on her bottom, a stinging warmth radiating from the epicenter of the impact. The shock of it was enough to jolt her out of the surrealism of the situation and throw her headlong into reality of her predicament.

  "OW!" she cried, ashamed at the high-pitched, panicky edge she heard in her own voice. "Who the fuck do you think you are? You don't have any right to hit me! Let me go this instant or I swear to God, I'll..."

  She didn't get a chance to finish her sentence. Brad Chadwick smacked her again, about twice as hard. Jill squealed and bucked on his lap, cursing, and was rewarded with a salvo of hard spanks delivered in an alternating pattern. Left buttock, right buttock, repeat. Jill frantically tried to move forward and then backwards - anything to escape the pain that went from stinging to burning to throbbing, a pain far worse than anything in her imagination because it was frightfully, humiliatingly real.

  Still, Jill fought not to cry, fought to restrain and control her reaction as Chadwick's heavy hand peppered her bottom with blows. When the middle of her bottom was so thoroughly spanked that she was sure she'd never be able to sit again he focused his efforts on the lower part of her bottom, spanking the tender skin just above her thighs and pushing her over the edge.

  Jill had always been able to hide her emotions from those she considered adversaries. But not now. The emotion building in her chest built and built until - like a floodgate - it burst and she found herself sobbing uncontrollably.

  Chadwick loosened his grip then, both on Jill's waist and on the wrist he had pinned to the small of her back. Jill brought her hand to beside her head. Her face was buried in the crumpled bed clothes wet from the tears she continued to sob. Her body was limp from the exertion of trying to fight both Chadwick and her own emotions. His hand was rubbing her back now in slow, circular motions and Jill felt herself, for the first time, experiencing the feeling she'd always dreamed of, the feeling she knew she'd recognize when she felt, the feeling of "freedom" that came with losing or relinquishing control to someone else. She had been wrong, she knew, to call Brad Chadwick a liar. He'd been hones
t with her, and obviously had been angry with Shale and his aide for putting a mole in her office. She'd unfairly labeled him, and she couldn't shake the feeling that he'd rightfully punished her for the misstep.

  Then suddenly, the rebellious part of her awoke and - appalled at her comfort with the situation - she flew off his lap. Tears still streaked down her face, but her fists were balled up at her sides. Jill was suddenly filled with fury directed both at him, and at herself.

  "What the hell was that?" she asked.

  "You know very well what that was," Chadwick said, crossing his arms. His voice was level and calm, and he looked perfectly relaxed, which infuriated Jill even more. "That, my dear, was a spanking. A very well deserved spanking and one I imagine you've been waiting someone to give you."

  His calm, insightful answer enraged her, and before Jill could stop herself she moved to strike him. But Chadwick caught her hand before it made contact with her face and stood, pulling her to him. He looked down at her, his expression an mixture of amusement and annoyance. "You sure you want to do that, Jill? Are you sure you want to challenge me again? Because if you do I'll have no problem putting you over my knee and warming that pretty bottom again."

  Jill felt a strange, warm heat in her lower abdomen accompanied by a pleasurable, shocking sensation that radiated throughout her body. She knew it was the sign of excitement that went beyond the physical. This man, this conservative brute of a man, was turning her on! And try as she might she couldn't control her attraction to him.

  "Why?" she suddenly asked, a tear slipping from her eye. It was one simple word, but they both knew the question behind it.

  "Because when push comes to shove, a strong man won't hesitate to handle a strong woman if she needs it," he said.

  Jill didn't refuse the kiss that claimed her. She knew she couldn't if she tried. Brad Chadwick's mouth was warm and demanding, the beginning of stubble on his unshaven face rough against her smooth skin. When he picked her up and laid her gently down on the bed, the contact with the mattress hurt her bottom and she involuntarily arched her back, bringing her body up to meet him as he laid down with her. But both feelings were strangely comforting for her. Chadwick lay down beside her and trailed a finger down her face.

  "I'm not going just going to assume that you want this," he said. "I do but I don't want you to say later that this only happened between us because you felt overwhelmed and vulnerable."

  "I don't feel vulnerable," Jill whispered. "I feel....I feel...liberated. Do you know how long I've waited..."

  Her voice trailed off and she looked away, worried that she was revealing too much and yet knowing that what she wanted was no secret to this man, who already seemed to know her more than she knew herself.

  "Don't be ashamed, Jill. There's nothing wrong with wanting someone who can give you what you need. There's nothing wrong with your needs. I knew from the first day I met you..."

  "How?" She looked up at him, her eyes wide in amazement.

  "When I made the bad joke about the audience wanting to see me spank you, your expression....it was so uncomfortable, as if I'd just walked in on you naked or something." He leaned over and kissed her. "I knew then that I wasn't just going to be dealing with a worthy debate adversary, but a strong woman questing after a man strong enough to be her mate. Would it surprise you that the moment I saw you I knew I wanted to be that man?"

  "We don't even know each other," she said, and he leaned down and kissed her, his hand running up and down the length of her body. Involuntarily, Jill moaned with pleasure.

  "Don't we?" he asked and kissed her.

  It was like slipping over a waterfall for both of them and neither could stop the progression of the physical contact. Her fingers reached up to nimbly unbutton his shirt and pull it over her shoulders as he pulled down the pajama pants she was wearing and gently cupped her sore buttocks as she sat up and pulled her t-shirt over her head. Her breasts, large and slightly pear-shaped, drew his mouth like a magnet and she felt the same familiar shock of desire as his mouth closed over an erect, rose-colored nipple.

  Jill pressed against him, straddling his waist and enjoying the feel of his mouth on her breasts and the hard swell of his cock pressing against her through is pants. She tried to pull away, but he held her possessively to him, suckling first one breast and then another as her hips ground in frustration against his crotch.

  "Please," she finally said, and he released her and allowed her to push him back. She swung a leg over him, sitting on his stomach and leaning to kiss his face, his neck body traveling lower till she was kissing his abdomen where she'd just been sitting, the smell of his sweat mingled with the odor of her own musky trace. When she reached his crotch she deftly unbuttoned and unzipped his pants, admiring the cock that sprang free from its confines and stood straight up like a flagpole. Now it was his turn to feel the jolt as the tip of her wet tongue flickered to lap up the first clear drops of pre-cum from the tip and then ran wide, circular laps around the head and shaft before taking him full into her mouth. With a murmur of pleasure, she drew the first half of his rod deeper to the back of her throat as her hand worked the lower shaft and balls. Brad Chadwick moaned at her natural skills and allowed her to bring him again to the brink before roughly pulling her away and turning her over on her back.

  Their tongues and limbs twined as they kissed. Twice she worked herself on top of him, each time to be brutally reminded of her place when he flipped her back over with a growl. The third time she tried he restrained her by grabbing her still-sore buttocks and moving to bury his face between her thighs and torturing her pussy with darting licks and little sucking bites that set her awash in wave after wave of mind-blowing pleasure.

  And then when she was so wet that she could feel the slickness on her thighs, Brad Chadwick hauled Jill up on her knees and turned her around so that he was behind her. She could feel his hands roaming her bottom and without looking she knew he was admiring the view. It made her feel good then, to have a body like Juno, to be woman enough to elicit such passion from a big man like Chadwick. She tried to prepare herself for his entry, but still wasn't completely ready when he slid into her. It had been a long time and he was a tight fit. She heard him gasp in pleasure even as she moaned in pleasure pain at the invasion. For a moment they both were still and then he began to move, slowly at first, until she pushed up against him, hard, urging him to master her again. And he did, pumping her hard and mercilessly until she was crying out under the impact of his thrusts, overwhelmed and barely able- and then unable -to keep pace, collapsing in another orgasmic spasm that pulsated on his cock until he, too succumbed to his own.

  They lay together in the tangle of bedclothes, entwined in one another's arms. Jill sought to sort out her thoughts, but found she was unable. The light of a gray down was peaking over the horizon when she finally closed her eyes and yielded to the exhaustion that overtook her.

  Chapter Seven

  Part I

  The alarm clock by the bed already read 9:20 when Jill opened her eyes. She closed them again and reopened them, half-expecting to see her own room and realize that the past twelve hours had only been another dream. But her sore bottom, the muscular arm draped over her and the faint smell of sex that still clung to her told her otherwise.

  Biting her lip, she stared up at the ceiling, trying to sort it all out. On its face, the situation seemed almost laughable. Liberal activist enters hotel room with her archconservative rival, argues with him and is soundly spanked and fucked into giddy submission. And yet, it had all felt so completely right and natural. Even now, the sensation of his arm around her body filled her with a sense of safety and security. His strength and closeness was like an aphrodisiac. Even now, she could feel a little tug of pleasure in her lower belly.

  As if he could read her body, Chadwick pressed against Jill, nuzzling her hair and running a hand down her naked hip. "Mmmm," he said. "Good morning."

  Jill felt herself breathe a sigh of re
lief. Part of her had worried that Chadwick would awaken mortified at what they'd done or - worse - dismissive of her. But he was clutching her to him now and planted a kiss on her neck as he pressed his pelvis against her bottom. Arching against him, Jill felt her legs part as if by a will beyond her control and he was inside her again, his cock filling her, hard and throbbing inside her wet but slightly sore pussy. He was gentler this time, holding her as they found the rhythm and rocked back and forth. Their mutual orgasm was long, intense and sweet.

  "I need to see my sister," she said quietly after it was over and they'd lain there through several long minutes.

  "You'll need someone to take you to the hospital," he replied, kissing her cheek.

  Jill laughed and rolled over onto her back, feeling his slackening cock slide out of her as she did. "Are you offering me your services?" she asked.

  "You just had my services," he said, kissing her.

  "I mean your chauffer services," she giggled.

  "If you don't mind my squiring you around the halls of Valley General Hospital then I'm all yours," he said.

  "Thanks."

  Jill took his face in his hands and looked at him. She wanted so much to talk about what had happened between them, but felt it was not the time for a lengthy conversation. Rising from the bed, she went into the bathroom for another shower. She wasn't too surprised when Chadwick joined her there, wordlessly soaping every inch of her body and then allowing her to return the favor. He was well muscled and slightly hairy, and she enjoyed the feel of the springy curls as her lathered hands moved in circles over his broad chest. The hot water was starting to run out by the time they finished and the dressed hastily before heading to the hotel restaurant for coffees and Danishes to go.

  Snowplows were out, pushing the previous night's accumulation into deep drifts along the sides of the main thoroughfare leading to the hospital. The sky was still gray but a frigid, wind was rapidly pushing the clouds away.