Return to Corbin's Bend

by Corinne Alexander

  He supposed he could do this on his own, but he needed to talk to the bishop and make it official— then there would be no backing out. If Bishop Miller happened to have some insight or connections that would help Josiah decide where to go from here, all the better.

  Bishop Miller hung up his call and sank into his oversized leather chair, tapped his hands on the desk, and looked at Josiah with a smile, giving him his undivided attention. You would think that Josiah was one of his most beloved parishioners and faithful attendees from the look he gave, but that was just the man’s style. He had been the bishop of Green Valley for almost three decades, and he treated everyone exactly the same. He was excellent at what he did, and everyone loved him.

  “Josiah, my boy, it was so good to see you in church yesterday!” he exclaimed, clapping his hands together. “Now, what can I do for you?”

  “Well, Bishop, I need your help.” Josiah hesitated. He wanted to leave on good terms, but people rarely did. Not that they often left on bad terms, they just didn’t leave. They had a good life here, and it was comfortable. To them, the outside world was a bit scary. Josiah could relate. He loved it here, that’s what made this so hard. He knew he had to do it though— and better to get it over with quickly, like ripping off a Band-Aid. He hoped that the more he said it, the easier it would get. He cleared his throat nervously while Bishop Miller gazed at him expectantly. “I want to leave Green Valley.”

  There. He said it. It was done. There was no going back now. He exhaled deeply. He hadn’t realized until now that he was holding his breath.

  “I see.” Bishop Miller’s tone was thoughtful. There was no anger or recrimination to it. It wasn’t the man’s style. He regarded Josiah matter-of-factly. “Is it your intention to apostatize yourself from the church?”

  “I…” Josiah frowned and trailed off, stunned. Apostasy had such a negative connotation in his mind. He flinched when he heard it, and considered the fact that he would indeed be an apostate. He knew from the bishop’s kind smile that the man had meant no harm, and that he would not be apostate in the form that one would usually think.

  “It’s a rather strong word, I know. Shall we try this again? Is it your wish to leave because you do not wish to practice a plural marriage lifestyle?”

  Josiah sighed in relief. “Yes, Bishop, it’s become apparent to me— I mean, it’s been apparent to me for some time, that it is not the path He wants me on. And, it’s no longer the path I wish to be on either. I would like to withdraw my membership from Green Valley Community Church and announce my plans to leave Green Valley, with no bad feelings or ill will towards the belief system, or anyone here,” he clarified. “It’s just— it’s not for me.”

  “I understand.” The man’s sad smile told Josiah he did indeed understand, and he could see in Bishop’s eyes that he too had been privy to the mean spirited whispers and gossip that were becoming more and more rampant. “Do you know where you are going to go?” he inquired.

  “No, I have no idea. Besides police academy in Everton, and work, I’ve barely been outside Green Valley. I really don’t know what’s out there. And, there is one other thing, I was hoping you might have some insight.”

  “Oh?”

  “I don’t want a plural marriage, Bishop, but I do envy the relationships I see modeled in the community. I want a traditional marriage, I want to be the head of my home, and I want to live a domestic discipline lifestyle with a woman who sees the same benefits of it that I see. But, in today’s modern world, does that exist beyond Green Valley?”

  The Bishop smiled so broadly at this, Josiah was taken aback and more than a little confused.

  “By George!” he exclaimed excitedly, “I think I know just the place! Let me make some calls and see what I can find out! Can you meet me back here after lunch?”

  Bishop Miller was already picking up the phone, and Josiah looked on, stunned that he had been so quickly dismissed. Whatever the man had up his sleeve, he was clearly excited about it. The bishop waved him out and turned away from Josiah. Josiah took the hint and left, not really sure what to think about how the meeting had gone yet. Time would tell.

  Lannea Paulsen, known to most as Laney, sighed as yet another moving van made its way past the store front of her cousin’s sushi restaurant and up the road toward Spanking Loop.

  Her cousin, Ginger, looked up from the vat of sushi rice she was stirring and gave her a quizzical look. “What’s up, Laney? You usually run to the window whenever a moving truck goes by. Don’t you want a peek at the new residents? Or, hopefully, new resident? Maybe it will be a hunky new bachelor that’s just dying to find a naughty sushi artist to take in hand!” Her cousin was teasing, Laney knew, but that didn’t make it hurt any less. Ginger knew that was exactly what she hoped for every time a new resident moved to Corbin’s Bend, but she was beginning to give up hope.

  When Ginger and her husband Beau had announced that they lived a domestic discipline lifestyle, and were moving to a community in Colorado where they could be open about it, Laney had jumped at the chance to move with them. She didn’t know what had spurred their decision, but she suspected it had something to do with Ginger’s pregnancy. One minute she was researching doctors in Los Angeles, and the next they were moving to Corbin’s Bend, Colorado and opening a sushi restaurant. Laney would have gone with them anyway, but given as Ginger had a master’s in business and knew nothing about sushi other than how to eat it, Laney really had no choice.

  So Ginger and Beau had added her onto their application, and she had packed up her apartment and gone. She had had a nice life in L.A., but she had always wanted what Ginger and Beau had. She had tried for several years to find a man who wasn’t afraid to take her in hand for real, but Los Angeles was a city known for its metrosexual men. A few had attempted but, as they really didn’t know what Taken in Hand meant before she told them, it had felt more like sexual play than anything else and had left Laney feeling cold and unsatisfied.

  Laney had happened upon domestic discipline practices in culinary school when her best friend Mac had spanked her to get her to study for a big marketing test. Laney had complained that marketing and business shouldn’t be included in the curriculum, and that she was there to hone her cooking skills. Mac had listened to her whine, then turned her over his knee and spanked her until she agreed to study. She had aced the test, and she and Mac had entered into a platonic spanking relationship. It had been the most successful year of Laney’s life, and she had sworn to herself that she would have that in her relationships from then on. It hadn’t exactly happened that way, although she had tried. She hoped to find someone in Corbin’s Bend, but she had moved here almost a year ago, and while there was a steady influx of new residents, most of them were couples, and families with children. There had been a few bachelors but she had been so busy getting the restaurant going, there hadn’t been time to get to know anybody, and the few bachelors who had come had found love pretty fast. She hadn’t realized how much competition there actually was in Corbin’s Bend.

  “Laney, Laney, Earth to Laney!” Ginger was standing in front of her, waving a hand in her face to get her attention. “I’m not the sushi artist here, but I’m pretty sure that roll is done,” Ginger told her with an amused look on her face.

  Laney looked down at the Naughty Girl Roll she was making. Yup, it was rolled, probably a little too tightly. It was starting to look a little too skinny. She looked up at Ginger with a sheepish look on her face. Laney was a daydreamer, and it often caused her problems in her personal and work life. She lacked focus— she always had, except that one year in culinary school when Mac was taking her in hand.

  “Sorry, Ginger, I was just thinking.”

  “Yeah, I got that. I don’t know why you didn’t just go check that moving van like you always do. You’re obviously thinking about it.”

  “I wasn’t, actually,” Laney told her with a sad half smile. “That van was much too large for one person. It was obviously a fam
ily.”

  “Oh well, new customers!” Ginger said with a smile, subconsciously rubbing her belly. They had lost the baby she had been pregnant with when they moved to Corbin’s Bend, and it had been a devastating time, but she was now more than four months along, and things were going well with this one.

  “Not everyone loves sushi,” Laney reminded her with a grin.

  “Only because they haven’t tried yours— yet.” Ginger spoke with confidence, and Laney laughed.

  She loved her life in Corbin’s Bend, and even though it was tough at times, she tried to have patience and believe that her time would come. For now, she had a great job doing what she loved, a new niece or nephew on the way, and a community that allowed her to be herself without shame.

  Still, being around happy domestic discipline marriages all the time was hard. It sucked being surrounded by the one thing you really wanted, but didn’t have. Some days were harder than others. She knew that someday it would happen for her, and she spent more time than she wanted to admit fantasizing about finding a strong dominant man willing and able to call her out on her weaknesses, and turn her over his knee for a hard bare bottom spanking when it was warranted. Some days, it was all she could think about, and the longing she felt was overwhelming.

  She could picture the moment almost perfectly. She would be naked, in the corner, waiting for her impending punishment. She would have showered beforehand, and drops of water from her hair would run down her back, making her shiver with anticipation. He would tell her she was a naughty girl who deserved a long hard spanking and her pussy would clench at his words. He would call her over to him, and she would stand before him, nervously awaiting. He would put his hand on her back and lightly caress her, and suddenly she would be upended effortlessly over his knee. His hand would be large, and hard, and the first slap on her tender wet skin would take her breath away. She could hear his voice chastising her for some undoubtedly irresponsible thing she had done, as his hand came down again and again, turning her bottom pink until she was crying out and begging for mercy. But there would be none. The man of her dreams would pause and rub her aching bottom for a moment, and she would weep in relief thinking he was finished. But then he would lift her off his lap, and reposition her over the bed. She would hear his footsteps as he made his way to the closet, and she would know that he was going for the paddle. She would whine and whimper, and she would know that when he was finished, her bottom would bear the marks of the infamous Corbin’s Bend logo that had been burnt into the wood, just so, designed to leave its imprint on the offender’s bottom for long after the spanking was over. He would walk up behind her, gripping the paddle tightly. “Let’s see if this will help you learn your lesson,” he would say, right before he swung. As the paddle made contact with its target, her bottom would explode in pain, and she would cry out, then bite down on her lip, forcing herself to welcome the pain of his correction, knowing that the intention was to make her better and curb her naughty and irresponsible behaviors. She would move her hips toward him, jutting her bottom out to meet the hard wood.

  Laney moaned out loud. As a glorified house guest living with Ginger and Beau, she hadn’t gotten her own welcome basket, which meant, she had never actually seen the infamous Corbin’s Bend paddle up close, but that made it all the more intriguing to her. The elusive paddle was the subject of all her fantasies as was the unknown man wielding it. Someday she would meet him, and her fantasies would become reality.

  “Laney…LANEY!”

  She shook herself from her delicious daydream to find that her panties had become damp with her arousal underneath her skirt, and to her embarrassment, she was in the kitchen at work, and Ginger was regarding her strangely.

  “Um, yes?” She tried to act normal, but her mouth had gone dry, and her brain felt fuzzy.

  “It’s Wednesday, and Teri is out front waiting for you. Go take her order, and after you make it, take your lunch. You look like you could use the break anyway.”

  Laney sighed in relief. Teri Simms was one of their regular customers and the first friend Laney had made in Corbin’s Bend. She and Ginger had been so busy with the restaurant at first that there had been no time for socializing, or making friends with their new neighbors. Especially after Ginger had a miscarriage. Laney had been handling things all alone for a while afterwards. But Teri had been there at least twice a week, sometimes with her friend, and sometimes with her husband Roy. Teri was a bonified sushi addict who had moved from the city when she and her husband had gained custody of her nephew after the death of Teri’s twin sister Melinda and her husband, who had lived in Corbin’s Bend. Teri had been so ecstatic to see a sushi place in Corbin’s Bend, she had been there almost daily in the beginning, determined to try out everything on the menu, and with their mutual love for sushi, she and Laney had become fast friends. Now they had a standing sushi date every Wednesday on Laney’s lunch break.

  Grateful for a reprieve from her cousin’s questioning gaze, she hurried out to the counter to greet her friend.

  “Hey, Teri, what can I get for you today?” Laney could feel that her face was still flushed, but she hoped her friend would assume that it was from working in the heat of the kitchen and not ask any questions.

  Teri laughed easily. “Well, I was planning to get the Naughty Girl Roll, and an Orgasm Roll, but the way my day is going, I’m wondering if I shouldn’t switch to the Watch Your Mouth Roll, and top it off with the That’s Gonna Sting Roll.”

  “Wow, that bad?” Laney smiled. The outrageous spanking related names she had chosen made The Ginger Paddle the funnest sushi bar she had ever worked at. It made work just a little bit less work-like and certainly started some interesting conversations when people themed their orders around their lives, as most of them often did. “I can’t wait to hear all about it,” she told her friend. “In the meantime, how about we mix it up a bit, and get you a That’s Gonna Sting, along with an Orgasm Roll, and hope you get a little pleasure with your pain?”

  “That sounds perfect! What are you going to have? The usual?”

  “Uh, yeah, probably,” Laney muttered, feeling the color creep into her cheeks once more. Her usual was a Fantasy Roll and an HOH Roll, and seemed more than appropriate for her current situation, besides being her favorite two on the menu.

  Her heart pounded in her chest at the reminder, and she turned away quickly, hoping Teri would not see the pain and embarrassment she knew was etched on her face. Surely the time it took to make four rolls would be just enough to get her face and her emotions under control to enjoy her time with her friend.

  The fantasies were getting out of control if she was having them at work, and she feared she was becoming desperate. Not wanting to be seen as some desperate, sad twit, and knowing with certainty that her mystery man hadn’t made his way to Corbin’s Bend yet, Lannea vowed to stop waiting for Mr. Right to come along, and focus on herself for the time being. Transferring the rolls to the signature paddle shaped serving tray, she added a generous serving of their house pickled ginger and a dollop of wasabi to each, and feeling one hundred percent better about her new plan, made her way out to the dining area.

  Chapter 2

  Josiah was wrought with unexpected emotions as he unlocked the door to his new home and stepped over the threshold. He couldn’t believe he was here, nor could he believe such a perfect place existed, and that Bishop Miller had had the right contacts to get him in and settled as fast as he had. When that man was on a mission, he could move!

  Within a few days’ time of his initial meeting with Bishop Miller, he had been on the phone to Brent Carmichael, the head of the housing board for Corbin’s Bend, for an application interview. Bishop Miller had apparently gone to seminary with the pastor of a non-denominational Christian Church in the community, and because of his unique situation and the bishop’s connections, Josiah had been able to rush through the application process. A week after his phone interview, Brent had invited him up for a tour and a mo
re in depth interview with the rest of the housing board, and by the end of the day, Josiah had known that he had found his new home.

  Corbin’s Bend was a picturesque community nestled in the Colorado Rockies where all the residents had a predilection for spanking and domestic discipline. It was like a dream come true. Not only were they okay with it, it was basically a requirement for residency there that you either be in a spanking relationship, or open to one. As Brent Carmichael had assured him, there were plenty of singles in Corbin’s Bend, he would not be the only one. After the application interview, which had gone very well, the rest of the pieces had fallen into place perfectly, one after another until Josiah had no doubt that this was where he was meant to be.

  He had loved the small tight knit community from the moment he set eyes on it, and in many ways it had reminded him of home. The spanking aspect being a big part of that, of course. The added plus was that it was far enough away from Green Valley to be a true fresh start without being too terribly far. It was a good eight-hour drive, which to Josiah seemed like a perfect distance. He could easily make it in a day, as could his family, but it was far enough away to discourage random unexpected visits.

  Taking off his motorcycle helmet, he walked around the bare rooms taking it all in. He had gotten a smaller unit with a loft upstairs that was a combo bedroom/office area. It wasn’t great for privacy, as it was open to the downstairs, but he had a wonderful view of the mountains, and an extra small bedroom downstairs he could use if privacy became an issue.

  Feeling as excited as a child on Christmas, he took the stairs two at a time, sighing contentedly when he reached the top. Crossing to the window in two long strides, he gazed out the window again. He had actually missed the view the past two weeks. Funny how easily Corbin’s Bend had come to feel like home to him more than Green Valley did, and he hadn’t even unpacked the moving truck yet! Heck, he hadn’t even gotten the moving truck here yet. His brother Hiram, and Hiram’s wife Sophia had agreed to drive it up for him, so he could ride his motorcycle up. With baby Auggie traveling with them, they had had to stop more often than Josiah and they were a good thirty minutes behind him.