Josiah watched as a full range of emotions flashed across her beautiful features. For a moment, he feared she would cry again, but then her eyes darkened and her scowl returned. “All right fine! I’ll get in the car with you, but it’s not because you said to. It’s because I really need my keys,” she said, stomping around to the passenger side and opening the door.
“Whatever gets you through the day, sweetheart.”
“Don’t call me sweetheart. I’m nobody’s sweetheart— least of all yours!”
“Gee, I can’t imagine why,” he retorted, turning on the car and starting the engine. He was grateful for the piercing darkness of the night. It meant she couldn’t see him smile.
Chapter 4
Laney sulked as she stared out the window into the darkness. This night had started out good but had quickly gone from bad to worse. And now she was buzzed, and melancholy and angry sitting in a silent car with the infamous Josiah. He had yet to introduce himself, but Laney had known exactly who he was the minute she saw him standing on the sidewalk outside the house. There were only four cops in Corbin’s Bend, and she knew the other three. Simple powers of deduction had told her that this man was the one Julie swore was made for her. And damn but if he wasn’t ten times hotter than Julie had made him out to be. No girly boy metrosexual leanings here. This was surely a man who knew how to dominate both in and out of the bedroom. Lean and muscular without being too much, he filled out his uniform in all the right places. And his eyes, she thought, fighting the urge to fan herself, his eyes were smoldering. It was too dark out for Laney to tell what color they were but it hardly mattered. She had blown her chance right out of the gate. “Stupid, stupid, stupid,” she muttered to herself.
“You know, it’s not very nice to name-call,” Josiah said calmly. “If you wanted to know what to call me, all you had to do was ask.”
Ugh, the man was infuriating! How could one manage to be sarcastic and charming at the same time? “I know who you are,” she snapped, still staring out the window. “Although for the record, next time it wouldn’t kill you to at least introduce yourself before you force a woman into your car.”
“Duly noted,” he said, and she could have sworn he was smirking. “Also, for the record, my name is Josiah, not stupid.”
“Are you sure about that? Because I’m pretty sure I just told you that I already know your name. You may not be stupid, but you must be deaf.”
The car jerked to a stop in the middle of the road, letting her know that she had finally gone too far. But, as was her way, she just kept going. She had never been good with warnings, or big glaring, flashing stop signs for that matter.
“You know you can’t just park in the middle of the road. It’s dangerous, and I happen to know there are laws against it.”
“Hmmmm,” was his only reply before he turned to gaze at her, his face stone cold with disapproval.
“Don’t stare. It’s rude,” she admonished, meeting his gaze defiantly, crossing her arms over her chest in a weak gesture of insolence.
“I’m just trying to gage how much alcohol you had tonight. You seem to be having trouble remembering that I am the law in Corbin’s Bend now, and currently I’m the only officer on duty. I’m trying to be nice and offer my assistance to the citizens of this town, one in particular at the moment, but she seems determined to fight me at every turn, and to be honest, I’m just not quite sure how far my duty extends here. See, if you would have asked me, I would have guessed that this qualified as falling into the above and beyond category, but we seem to have a differing opinion here, I’m guessing, because you seem anything but grateful.”
He sat there watching her, eyebrows slightly raised, mouth set in a flat line, and she just knew he was waiting for her to come to some sort of epiphany and sing praises of his wonderful virtues, but it would be a cold day in hell before that happened.
“Great. Just great, not only did I get forced into a trip in a cop car, but I got stuck with a cop on a power trip.” She matched his facial expression for a moment, raised eyebrows and all, before throwing him a disgusted look. “Dude, you need to get over yourself. I was just fine until you came along.”
He gave her the look. She didn’t quite know how else to describe it, other than it was a look she saw around the ‘Bend on a regular basis. She knew its meaning solely by the way her body reacted to it. Her heart dropped to her stomach and turned into a flock of dancing butterflies. Her cheeks flamed, and she felt the heat creeping from her neck up to her hairline. It wasn’t until the heat shot lower, pulsing and throbbing underneath her thin satin panties that she realized the sheer ridiculousness of her reaction, and became incensed with anger. She sat there stewing, racking her brain for a good insult, or snarky comment in vain. The throbbing in her pussy was making it impossible to concentrate. Josiah, apparently, was having no such problem, much to her dismay.
“Okay, I’ve had just about enough of your piss poor attitude, missy. And, to freshen your memory to the actual sequence of events that took place tonight, I didn’t, as you keep insinuating, come along and force you into my car! In fact, if anyone just came along, it was you!”
“ME? I just came along? You have got to be kidding me right now! It’s my house!”
“You know what? You’re right. It’s your house, and I wouldn’t have been there at all if not for your irresponsibility and failure to complete a simple task like locking a door!” Josiah, who until this point had handled everything she threw at him with a touch of humor and an even tone, was finally starting to show his anger. His cheeks were red underneath his dark facial hair, and his voice was getting louder with each word he spoke. The fact made her feel oddly pleased with herself, and egged her to continue.
“Oh, sure, throw that back in my face!” she roared, leaning forward to smack her hand on the glove box for good measure.
“Right, because I’m the one who started this!” Josiah roared back, finally getting as angry as she herself was acting. “Again, might I remind you, that I was only there because you left the door unlocked and the storm blew it open, and someone had to take care of it and be the responsible one while you were out getting wasted tonight. So not only was I cleaning up after you, but doing so put me in a very uncomfortable situation when I apparently interrupted something between your cousin and her husband. But instead of apologizing for that, or God forbid, even just accepting my offer of help with a simple ‘thank you’, you have done nothing but insult me and attack my character since the moment you met me! And then, on top of all that, you have the audacity to accuse me of being ‘just another cop on a power trip!’” He paused then clearly the most insulted about that over anything else she had said tonight, and she had to wonder if that spoke to the measure of the man, or only to the size of his ego.
She had to admit, when he put it like that, she finally saw that okay, maybe this comedy of errors really was slightly more her fault than his. But, only slightly. Still, she opened her mouth, ready to swallow her pride and force out an apology of sorts, when he started up again.
“Let me tell you something about trips, missy. I’m not on a power trip of any sort so you can rest easy on that one. However, one more ill spoken word from you and you’ll be the one on a trip— a trip over my knee!”
Eyes flaring with hurt and rage, she turned back to the window. “Please take me to my car,” she whispered, afraid that if she spoke any louder she wouldn’t be able to hold back the tears threatening to spill. She closed her eyes in relief as the car started moving again, and he turned onto the road that Amore sat on.
She refused to speak another word, and not for the reasons one might think. The empty threat of a spanking she so desperately needed and god knows even deserved had been the final straw. She had no fight left in her after that. What was it about Corbin’s Bend men that made them think they could just go around randomly threatening to spank her when they had no intention of ever following through on it? Didn’t they know that every empty t
hreat was like a knife in her back reminding her of what she didn’t have?
Thankfully, it took only a few more minutes to reach her car, and by some miracle she was able to convince Josiah that she was sober enough to actually drive her car home, rather than just retrieve her keys. He made her blow into a breathalyzer just to be on the safe side, but when she blew out a .02, he conceded to let her drive, provided she let him at least follow behind her. She grudgingly agreed, desperate to get out of his car, and away from him, and she could see on his face that he felt the exact same way.
The rest of his shift was quiet and uneventful, and when he pulled into his driveway the next morning at eight, Matt Renton was sitting in his truck in the driveway waiting for him.
He nodded at his friend with a smile as they both exited their vehicles simultaneously. Matt was a bit faster and met him at the top of the driveway.
“Are you beat after your first night shift, or could I coerce you into inviting me in for a quick cup of coffee?” Matt asked with an easy smile.
“No, I mean, yes,” Josiah faltered. “I mean, I’m fine and would love to invite you in for a cup of coffee, but er…I don’t have any. It is…was…against my religion.” He was a little embarrassed at having to admit such a small thing, but it was just another thing that set him apart from the real world.
“Oh, gosh, I’m sorry, man, I wasn’t thinking. I just wanted to talk to you about something real quick, I don’t need coffee.”
Josiah sighed. That, like most things, had come out wrong. “Don’t be sorry. I do, on occasion, drink coffee on shift. I just don’t have a coffee pot, or any coffee to offer you. But honestly, I would love a cup right about now, it’s been a long night.”
“Great, well hey, let’s run over to my house and grab a cup there. Julie is running the kids around right now, school, doctor’s appointments, and grocery shopping, so we might be able to get a little peace.”
“Sounds good.”
They made the short walk to Matt’s house in silence, and Josiah was grateful for a friend who lived so close by. They went inside, and sure enough it was unusually quiet. Josiah sat down at the kitchen table, watching while his friend brewed a pot of the once forbidden drink. It smelled amazing, and he felt instantly alert as Matt slid a cup in front of him, and the heady scent filled his nostrils. He made a mental note to buy a coffee pot as soon as possible.
“So, listen, I wanted to warn you, and apologize to you, but Julie seems to have it in her head that you are perfect for her friend Laney. I’ve talked to her, and warned her off, but I’ve got to be honest. I don’t really think it did much good. She seems to be determined to do some match-making here, and as much as I want to do the responsible thing and nip it in the bud, I can’t actually say that I disagree with her on this one.”
Josiah closed his eyes, the weight of the events of the night heavy on his heart. It meant so much to him that two people whose opinions already mattered so much thought he would be a good match for Laney, someone they obviously cared for a great deal. She was a beautiful and spirited woman, and he would have loved to get to know her better. Too bad he had already blown it. The people of Corbin’s Bend had no idea how hard this dating or relationship stuff was for him, and how unnatural it seemed. It was something that ninety percent of the world took for granted, but arranged marriages were all he knew. You found out who you were to marry, then you courted and fell in love. To do the latter first felt a bit like putting the cart before the horse to his line of thinking. It was undoubtedly what he wanted, but that didn’t make it any easier.
“Tell her to forget it, Matt,” he sighed. “Actually don’t even bother. I’m sure Laney will fill her in on what an asshole I am.”
His friend just frowned in confusion. Josiah wasn’t ready to explain, so he filled the silence by finishing up his coffee. God, that stuff was good.
Matt was still staring at him, brow furrowed waiting for him to explain. So he did, filling him in on every last regretful sordid detail, ending with his threatening to spank her. He couldn’t believe he had done that. This place was wearing off on him quickly, and he wasn’t sure that was a good thing. “Man, I don’t know what I was thinking, how presumptuous of me to say something like that to someone I had just met! I must have come off like a real jerk.” He didn’t realize until he stopped talking that his friend was openly laughing at him. Not quiet chuckles either, but loud hearty guffaws. Matt was laughing so hard he was having trouble breathing. Josiah stared at him in annoyance until Matt thumped on his chest, gasping for air.
“Oh, man. That sounds like quite a night!” he exclaimed. “But listen, it really sounds as if Laney was the one in the wrong here. If anything, I’m a little surprised you’re still interested. It sure sounds like she was in rare form after her and Julie’s little martini date last night. But, since you seem to be, I’m going to clue you in on a few little secrets here. The first thing is, threatening to spank her isn’t something unusual around here. We all do it to the ladies, especially the single ones like Laney, probably a little more often than we should. You weren’t out of line. She was.”
“But, I just met her!”
“True, but I really don’t think that that’s what got her upset. She’s pretty used to it. I know Brent does it fairly often, as does Beau, and occasionally as do I, or I used to. And now, here is the big secret, the real reason she probably got upset after that, and the reason I no longer make empty threats to anyone who isn’t mine to spank. It wasn’t your threat that hurt her, it was the lack of follow through.”
Josiah stared at Matt as if he had grown two heads. “So, you’re saying that she’s mad, not because I threatened to spank her, but because I didn’t do it? But, that’s crazy!”
“Yes, it may be, but Laney is here because she wants that. Just like you, she moved to Corbin’s Bend because she wanted a domestic discipline lifestyle. And trust me, man, if there is anyone who could benefit from a good spanking, it’s her. I get it, it’s a whole different way of doing things than you’re used to. Back in Green Valley you probably practice just because it’s the way things are done, and then you see the benefits of it. Here, we already see the benefits of it, and we do it because we want to, and as far as spanking and relationships are concerned, sometimes it’s okay to put the cart before the horse so to speak.”
“Meaning to spank someone and then maybe consider a relationship with them? But that…that’s nuts!”
Matt made a face, then nodded. “It might be, but you can’t take back what you said, and my gut tells me that if you’re interested in a possible relationship with Laney, the only thing to do is to make good on your word and put your money where your mouth is.”
It was a miserable day at The Ginger Paddle. The storm had passed but the weather was still unusually dreary for August, and Ginger was still pissed at her about leaving the door unlocked. As impossible as Ginger could be already, she was one pissed off Prego. The hormones made her a force to be reckoned with, and woe to anyone who got on her bad side. Business was slow, which always put Ginger even further on edge, and Laney was doing everything she could to avoid her cousin at all costs.
When the bell on the door rang, signaling that they had a customer, Laney ran to the front of the store, perking up until she saw who it was. Josiah took a seat at the bar, right in front of where she made the rolls. Of course he would, she thought in annoyance. If it was any other day, she would have gotten Ginger from her office and begged her to take care of it. But today Josiah certainly seemed like the lesser of two evils, although not by much. His charming easy smile made Laney want to smack him upside the head, and when he aimed those pearly whites right at her, she could literally feel her blood pressure rising from his mere presence.
“Afternoon, Lannea,” he said pointedly, and she realized with chagrin that she hadn’t greeted him when he came in.
“It’s Laney,” she spat out, barely disguising the venom in her voice.
“Well now,
that’s not what your apron says,” he said, gesturing to the large loopy embroidery that formed a semi-circle across the top of her apron, and was Ginger’s handi-work.
“Okay, sure whatever. What can I get for you, Joe?” she said pointedly, shortening his name with a sarcastic smile. He didn’t take the bait, a fact that further enraged her. She would just have to work harder.
“I’ll take a Corbin’s Bend Roll, and a Paddle You Pink Roll, to go please.” His eyes twinkled mischievously, and Laney blanched at his choice, relieved that he had chosen to take his order to go. She really didn’t know how much more of him she could take. It was only noon, and she was ready for this day to be over. She donned a new pair of plastic gloves, then stepped behind the glass screen to make his order, every nerve in her body painfully aware of his eyes following her as she worked. She didn’t think she had ever worked as fast, mad at her body for betraying her, as his mere presence caused her to be instantly aroused. She needed him to be out of here, and she needed to stop seeing him everywhere she turned. Ever since he had arrived in Corbin’s Bend, if she wasn’t seeing him, she was hearing about him.
Wordlessly, she finished his order, bagged it up, and walked it over to the register. She took his cash, and quickly made change for the twenty he handed her. “Have a good day,” she said, dismissing him with a fake smile. To her dismay, he didn’t leave.
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