Love in the Rockies

by Thianna D

  “I’m not,” Grant said, “at least not officially. I’m only here to escort my wife home.”

  “I see,” Zach said. “Skipping out early. I don’t blame you. I’m getting out of here as soon as my shift is up myself. You were smart to take the early shift, Lainie.”

  Lainie plastered a smile on her face, desperate to make this seem like something other than the utter embarrassment it was. She couldn’t believe he had actually come to find her. As if she were a teenager out after curfew or something. Could he possibly behave anymore like her father? “That’s right. I helped with set up. Now the rest of you get to deal with actually trying to get them home and clean everything up. I got the easy part, trust me.”

  Zach laughed. “Well. I’m sure you have plans. Don’t let me hold you up. You two have fun.” He winked teasingly at Grant.

  Grant chuckled, wrapping his arm around Lainie’s shoulders. Lainie stiffened and tried to shift away, but he ignored her, pulling her closer to him. He said a quick goodbye to Zach and began to lead her through the crowd. Once they were well away from where anyone could hear, smothered in the music and the noise of the crowd, Lainie hissed, “What the hell are you doing?”

  “Bringing you home,” Grant said simply. “After all, I expected you nearly an hour ago.”

  “I’m working,” Lainie insisted. “You can’t just waltz in here and demand to take me home just because it didn’t fit your schedule.”

  “On the contrary,” Grant said. “It appears that not only can I, but I am. I told you. This is Corbin’s Bend. People here understand. Unless you outright refuse or safeword, no one here will interfere.” He paused in the gym lobby. “Is there anything you need to collect before we go?”

  “I can’t just leave,” Lainie protested. She still couldn’t believe this was happening. Never in a million years did she imagine he would actually forcibly enforce his curfew. She gave another try at twisting away but couldn’t even budge him.

  “You can and you are,” Grant insisted. “I’m sorry you chose not to inform Beau that you would be leaving now like I asked you to, but you are going. Now, one last time, is there anything you need before we go?”

  Lainie stared at him. Who was this man and what had he done with her husband? Grant wasn’t doing anything she expected him to do. There was an air of confidence about him that was entirely new. He seemed entirely sure this was going to go his way, despite all her arguments and protests. Except for when he had to speak over the music, he hadn’t once raised his voice. If anything, his voice had gone deeper and firmer. She could see in his eyes that he was angry with her, but he was completely calm and totally implacable. What has happened to the man who spent the first fifteen years of their marriage throwing himself into his job to avoid conflict? This wasn’t avoiding in the slightest. He was meeting it head on, steady and solid as an immovable wall. What the hell was she supposed to do with that?

  “If you don’t answer me, I’m going to assume that means there’s nothing you need,” Grant warned, drawing her out of her thoughts.

  “My coat,” she replied, still trying to wrap her head around the fact that this was actually happening. “It’s in the storeroom.” They had appropriated an equipment storage room off of the lobby to serve as a makeshift staging area to hold extra refreshments and leftover decorations. Several of the staff had also left their bulkier outerwear in there since the crowd of people crammed into the gym made them unnecessary.

  Grant released her. “Go get it.” Lainie didn’t immediately move, trying to gather her thoughts in an attempt to reason with Grant one more time. “Now,” Grant commanded, punctuating the instruction with a swat hard enough to make her jump.

  Lainie spun around, shocked. “We’re in public!” she blurted.

  “Yes,” Grant replied, low and rumbling in her ear, “and unless you want to give anyone who comes in the door or looks out of the gym the opportunity to see you get a lot more than one swat, I suggest you move – now.”

  “You wouldn’t?” Lainie gasped.

  Grant crossed his arms and looked at her, one eyebrow raised. He didn’t reply but his expression said Do you want to find out? as clearly as if he had spoken.

  At this point, Lainie’s feet seemed to move independently of her brain. She scurried into the storeroom before she was even aware of deciding to move. She pulled on her coat as slowly as she dared, which, given the mood her husband was in, was really quite quickly and went back to where Grant was waiting.

  He ushered her out to his car, opening the door for her and waited pointedly. “What about my car?” Lainie asked.

  “It will be safe enough here overnight,” Grant told her. “We can get it tomorrow. Get in.”

  Knowing she was in no position to argue, Lainie reluctantly got in and buckled her seatbelt. “I can’t believe you came to drag me home like a teenager out after curfew,” she said as he came around and climbed into the driver’s seat.

  “If you had come home when I asked you to, I wouldn’t have ever needed to, would I?” Grant replied.

  “That’s not the point, Grant,” Lainie flared. “I’m an adult and a professional. You made me look like a naughty teenager. It’s humiliating.”

  “I’m sorry it felt that way,” Grant said, starting the car and pulling out. “But as I said, this was your choice. It wouldn’t have been necessary if you had done what you told me you were going to. All I did was hold you to what you agreed to.”

  “That’s not fair,” Lainie insisted. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she was dimly aware that she was perilously close to sounding like the petulant teenager she was claiming not to be, but she was too furious to care. “You were being unreasonable. I couldn’t very well go tell my boss that I could only work the first shift because my husband gave me a curfew. That’s ridiculous.”

  “You could have told him that we had plans so you needed to leave after the first hour,” Grant said calmly. “That’s what you lead me to believe you had done.”

  “What else was I supposed to say?” she asked, exasperated. “I tried to explain. You’re the one who wouldn’t listen.”

  “I did listen,” Grant countered. “I listened to your concerns, and I tried to address them. I just didn’t agree with you.”

  Lainie huffed, flouncing back against her seat. She had a sudden and intense urge to bounce something off of her husband’s hard head. God, the man was maddening. She remained stonily silent throughout the rest of their short ride home. What was the point of trying to talk to him anyway? He didn’t seem to care that he had made a spectacle of her in front of her students and colleagues. He was just determined that he was right. Men... Why did they have to be so damn stubborn?

  When Grant pulled into the yard, Lainie scrambled out before he could come around and get her, storming across the yard and up onto the porch. She unlocked the door and shoved it open. And came to a dead stop.

  She hadn’t bothered to turn on any lights, but candles glittered everywhere, scattered across every flat surface of the living room. Mesmerized, Lainie followed the trail of candlelight into the kitchen. The table was covered with a white linen tablecloth. Two slim taper candles were fitted into her good pewter candlesticks, standing like proud sentries on either side of a bouquet of multicolored tulips. Some might have thought the tulips out of place, but they were her favorite flowers. She preferred them to roses and Grant knew that. How in the world had he managed to find tulips in Colorado in February? The table was set for dinner, though the plates were empty. Belatedly, Lainie realized that Grant must have put the food away to keep them warm when she didn’t come home.

  Hearing Grant’s quiet approach behind her, she turned to him, tears brimming in her eyes. “You did this?” she asked softly. “This is why you wanted me home?”

  Grant nodded. “I wanted to surprise you. We’ve spent so many holidays apart. I wanted to do something special to make it up to you.”

  Guilt and shame crashed over Lainie in waves,
drowning out all her anger. All this time she thought he didn’t understand. She thought he was just trying to control her when all the time he had been planning this surprise for her. “It’s wonderful,” she told Grant sincerely. “I’m so sorry. I had no idea.”

  “It wouldn’t have been much of a surprise if you had,” Grant said wryly.

  “There is that,” Lainie agreed. She shifted, looking hesitantly from Grant to the table and back again. “Could we... Should we eat?”

  “We’ll get to that in a bit,” Grant told her. “First, we have some other business to take care of. Wait here.”

  Before Lainie could ask what he meant, Grant had disappeared through the doorway. Her first instinct was to follow him, but given the mess she had already made out of tonight, Lainie didn’t dare do anything but obey.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Crossing the still candlelit living room with rapid strides, Grant pushed open the office door and went inside. Coming around the desk, he paused, bracing his hands on the near empty top and considered his options. This was unquestionably not the way he had intended to spend this night, but Lainie’s actions left him no choice. Not only had she defied and disobeyed him, she had lied in the process. He had to punish her. It called for serious consequences. Of that, he had no doubt. The question was how could he impress upon her the seriousness of what she had done without totally ruining any chance of salvaging the rest of the night. Bending slightly, he opened the bottom desk drawer and extracted the small, lightweight wooden paddle he kept there. He laid the paddle on the desk, considering. This paddle had originally belonged to his father. It was, without question, the implement Grant felt most comfortable with, and as such, was the one he typically chose for discipline.

  It wasn’t, however, his only choice. Rummaging further in the drawer, he pulled out the heavier paddle, engraved with the name and logo of Corbin’s Bend that they had been given when they moved into the community. Perhaps it was more appropriate. Being both heavier and denser, it packed significantly more punch than his father’s paddle. What’s more, the engraving would leave a visible reminder on her skin for several days. Maybe that was fitting. After all, if he had told her once, he had told her half a dozen times that this was Corbin’s Bend, and everyone here understood how this type of relationship worked. No one would have thought twice about his asking her to be home by a certain time. Beau would have undoubtedly cooperated. The embarrassment and uncertainty she was feeling came from her own head not from any real judgment by the community. Maybe the visible reminder would help her understand that.

  Finally, he reached into the drawer one final time and pulled out the last implement that resided there. It was the first and only implement he had ever purchased himself. Similar in size and shape to the Corbin’s Bend paddle, it was made of a thin, clear plastic and was almost translucent. He’d known for quite some time that he would at some point be in need of something a little more serious than his father’s paddle. At the same time, Lainie was blonde and fair and bruised extremely easily. Knowing that, he was wary of heavier implements. He wanted to leave her sorry and sore, not black and blue. After several conversations with various friends and some research online, he had settled on this paddle on the grounds that by all reports, it stung like fire but very rarely, when used correctly, caused bruising. If Lainie’s reaction to the one or two warning swats he had given her with this paddle a few times before were any indication, the reports were true. Thus far, he’d never actually used it for a full punishment, but maybe it was time. Maybe that sort of very sharp reminder was exactly what she needed.

  That decided, Grant put the other two paddles back in the drawer, shut it firmly, and headed back to the kitchen.

  * * * * *

  In the kitchen, Lainie flitted around the room, too nervous to settle and more than a little confused. From the way Grant had talked, she was almost sure that he intended to spank her, but if that were the case, why hadn’t he sent her to the office? Their shared office was where he always disciplined her. It was a routine he had set early on and had never deviated from. If he wasn’t going to spank her, what was he going to do? Why had he left her waiting here? Where had he gone, and why had he disappeared so abruptly.

  She had thought she heard him go into the office, but that didn’t make sense either. Why would he be in there if he had left her in here? Was he trying to get away from her? He hadn’t seemed that angry. Of course he was upset and disappointed, who wouldn’t be? She knew her husband though. While he unquestionably possessed the stereotypical temper that went with his red hair, he also had an extremely long fuse. It took a lot for him to lose his temper, and when he did, the result was explosive. She wouldn’t have been left in any doubt and neither would any of the neighbors in the vicinity. He was never violent, but he was loud and expressive. That wasn’t the state he had been in the left her here. So what in the name of all holy was going on?

  As if in answer to her unspoken question, Grant appeared in the doorway, just as quietly and suddenly as he had left. Lainie looked up, curious, but all curiosity fled in utter panic when her eyes fell on the paddle he held in his hand. It was the translucent lexan paddle he had bought several weeks ago. Though he had given her a few swats with it at the end of other spankings as a warning, he hadn’t yet used it to punish her, saying that he was reserving it for serious matters. Apparently, in Grant’s mind, this qualified as a serious matter. Lainie went cold at the thought. The warnings had been quite enough. That thing was evil incarnate.

  Lainie shook her head mutely, unable to stop herself. “We don’t need that, Grant, really we don’t. I’m already sorry. It won’t happen again. I promise.”

  “I sincerely hope not,” Grant said solemnly. “Otherwise I might get the idea that I’m not doing a good enough job, but it happened tonight, and that’s what we need to deal with.”

  “No, we don’t,” Lainie persisted. “I screwed up. I get that, but it doesn’t have to be that serious.”

  Grant shot her an incredulous look. “You deliberately disobeyed and defied me and then lied to me about it. That’s about as serious as it gets.”

  “Please, Grant,” Lainie pleaded, eyes blurring from sheer apprehension.

  Grant took no notice. He laid the paddle down on the table, pulled out a chair, and took a seat. “Come here.”

  “Now,” Lainie spluttered. “In here?” Somehow, the deviation from their normal routine only added to her anxiety. “But...”

  “There’s no one here but us. Marcus is bringing the girls later. I texted him and he agreed to get them when he picked up Michael. No one else is getting in unless I let them. Now, come here,” Grant replied, gesturing to a spot in front of him, very nearly between his knees.

  “Why here?” Lainie asked, biting her lip. “I thought you said –”

  “Yes, generally, discipline is reserved for the office,” Grant replied. “You’re right about that, but in this case I think the location should be part of the lesson. I think it’s appropriate that you should see and think about what we could’ve been doing instead if you had only done as I asked you to do.”

  That put a whole new spin on things. God, she had been an idiot. Would it have really been so hard just to say that she could only help with setup and chaperoning the beginning of the dance? It wasn’t as if she was backing out entirely nor would it have been news to anyone that Grant set the boundaries in their relationship. What was she trying to hide? Everyone already knew he was her HOH. Practically everyone in the community lived in a similar relationship. It wasn’t as if they would judge. Now, she had ruined Grant’s wonderful surprise and bought herself a serious paddling.

  “I’m sorry,” she said again. “I was such an idiot.”

  “Hey now, none of that, that’s my wife you’re talking about,” Grant said firmly. “It wasn’t the best decision you could’ve made, but it’s done. We’ll deal with it, and it’s over. You’ve stalled long enough. Come here and let’s get this over wi
th.”

  Lainie moved on the word. Reluctant though she was, she could have no more disobeyed him at that moment than she could have magically turned back time, however much she might wish she could have. When she got within reach of Grant, he took her arm and pulled her to stand between his knees. Long familiar with their routine, Lainie reached for the button of her pants only to have Grant move her hands away and do it himself, stripping both her pants and underwear well down below her knees. Then, to her surprise, rather than turning her across his knee as she had expected, he stood up and turned the chair he was sitting in so that the back was to the table, bending her over with her hands on the seat instead.

  Being so competently and thoroughly manhandled was a new and different experience. One that brought up a number of surprising emotions. Interestingly, it didn’t feel rough or violent in the slightest. Instead, she felt very small and very much his, as if she belonged to him in such a way that no real discussion was needed, which she supposed was the truth. Even though she felt very real apprehension about her upcoming punishment, to the point where her heart was racing and her palms were prickling with sweat, the intimacy and trust between them was tangible. The position also put the beautiful table squarely in her field of vision. It was impossible to miss the object lesson that Grant had intended. This is what they could’ve been doing. The two of them could’ve been enjoying a romantic dinner together instead of having to deal with a punishment, if only she had just done what she had told Grant she would. Her chest tightened painfully. How could she have been so stupid?

  Grant put a hand on her back, a gentle and comforting touch. She felt him move behind her and heard the faint sound of paddle moving through the air. It connected with a resounding crack and fire ignited over her behind. A yelp exploded from her without conscious thought. The sting was horrible. It only got worse as Grant continued, laying down swats in a furious rhythm, too fast and hard for her to be able to catch her breath, leaving her helpless to do anything but yell and squirm. The sheer sting alone drew tears, and they ran unabated down her cheeks. Why had she ever thought defying and misleading Grant was a good idea? Never again, she vowed fervently. She never ever wanted to go through this again.