by Maren Smith
“The view is breathtaking, isn’t it?” Max said, startling her as he came into the room.
It was a beautiful view, the lake with its emerald waters and large palm trees spreading out as far as the eyes could see. Maybe things wouldn’t be so bad. She could take a bath and rest, go to the Navy base or wherever he was taking her, figure all of this mess out and come back refreshed. She turned toward him with a smile on her face, the first one she’d managed since he had shown up demanding she leave with him. Her smile quickly faded when she saw the look on his face.
“Why are you frowning?”
“You are really not going to like what I just found out. Why don’t we move to the living room and we can talk?”
Max was quickly losing his patience with the beautiful blonde sitting cross-legged across from him on the couch. One he had risked his life rescuing just an hour ago in a country ripe with civil war. He wanted to suck that pouty bottom lip into his mouth and kiss her until her stubborn defiance drifted away. Instead, he was getting ready for another tit for tat with her. She was none too pleased to find out that they would be here for at least three days. The evacuation wasn’t going as planned at the embassy, and another mission had come up that would take his team from there to the other side of the Congo. Because the two of them were safe, they would shelter in place until things settled down enough for an extraction.
“I am not exactly thrilled with the situation either, Bumble Bee, but it is only three days. It isn’t like it will last forever.”
“God, I haven’t heard that nickname in forever.”
“It isn’t my fault your initials are BB. Besides, you’ve always been sweet to look at but with a stinging tongue, my sweet little Bumble Bee.”
“We aren’t kids anymore, Max. I don’t respond to childish nicknames.” If looks could kill, the one Brianna was giving him would have buried Max six feet under.
“Your behavior isn’t exactly demonstrative of that fact,” he said while standing. Pacing across the room in front of the couch she sat on, he thought about the situation. When they were together, he would have never put up with the stubbornness or disrespect she had shown back in her clinic. Back in the day that behavior would have resulted in a long session over his knee reminding her of what was expected of her. But then again, he would not have allowed her to put herself in this type of situation to begin with.
“Good thing I don’t need your approval.”
“Yeah, about that. We can’t live here together for the next few days without a few ground rules.” He stopped in front of her.
“Rules?” She spat that word out with vengeance. “What is it with you and rules? I guess some things never change. I’m an adult. I don’t need rules.”
She was right, some things would never change. The adorable way Brianna’s eyes flashed when she was angry was one of them. “Everyone needs rules, Bumble Bee. I follow rules, too.” He sat down next to her, turning until their knees touched.
“You choose to follow rules. You decided to join the military, not me, Max. I mean, I would never…” Brianna grabbed the pillow and pulled it close to her chest, her face was blush red.
She was adorable. He could hear that little whine in her tone. Max had high hopes that she would learn to trust him again, opening the door to her vulnerable side, the side where she gave her submission freely to him. Ten years ago, he’d been the only person in her life she had ever trusted to give control over to. It was the most priceless gift he had ever been given, and he carried it as the treasure it had been, close to his heart, protecting the fragility of it. He beat himself up over and over again for letting it shatter. He was willing to do all the work to put the pieces back together, but recognized that the choice was ultimately hers. She would have to consent and give him permission to take the reins. First, he would have to bring that side back out of her. Reawaken it.
“Bee, you follow rules too. You are a doctor and have a lot of rules you follow,” he said, nudging her gently with his words.
“Those are not the same.” She shook her head.
“No? Do no harm?”
“That is an oath, not a rule.”
“Okay, Dr. Bradford. What about HIPAA?”
“What do you want from me, Max? Want me to admit there are rules I follow? Sure. There are rules for licensed doctors. We have certain high standards we abide by. That is not the same as the type of rules you are implying.”
The way she sucked in her lower lip and chewed on it was a big indicator of nerves, another thing that hadn’t changed.
“They are exactly the type of rules I am implying, Little Bee. Rules are rules. The consequences might be different for breaking them, but the concept is the same. I’m not going to take away your medical license, fine you an insane amount of money or write a bad Yelp review if you break one of my rules.”
“I don’t need the kind of rules you are implying, Max. I’m an adult. You are an adult. I think we can cohabitate for a couple of days without having to have rules.”
She shifted on the couch. Her hands clutched and unclutched the pillow. The outside of her ear was red. Her telltale signs. She was nervous. Max knew she felt the same sexual tension he felt. There was no denying the chemistry between them. It had been there for as long as he could remember and even after a decade apart, it was still there.
“Oh, but I think you do.” Max pushed himself off the couch and moved to stand directly in front of her before kneeling so that they were eye level. Brianna looked down at the pillow she now had a death grip on. He reached over and with the pad of his thumb, lifted her chin until she met his gaze. He applied firm pressure, refusing to let go. She’d look at him during this conversation as it was far too important to ignore.
“Yes, you do need rules, Little Bee. You have always needed rules. You need guidance. You’ve been wild and crazy since kindergarten. The only consequences you’ve ever had, I’ve given you. Ten years ago, I didn’t fight hard enough to keep what we had, and I didn’t know what we had had a name, a label. I’m older, more mature now. I am not the boy I was when we were high school sweethearts. I am a man now. I’ve gotten some experience under my belt. I know what I’m doing. I know how to nurture you, Little Bee.”
“Nurture me?”
“Yes, nurture you. I know how to nurture you, how to love you right. I can lead you the way you need to be guided. What you need, Little Bee, is a daddy. A daddy who can keep you on the right track, who can keep you safe, who can love you the way you need to be loved. You need a daddy, and not just any daddy. You need me.”
Chapter Three
You need a daddy. You need me.
The words reverberated through Brianna. She was aware of Max continuing to talk, but she couldn’t focus on the words he was saying. She couldn’t do this again. There was no way she could be Maximiliano’s girl. They had tried that once. It didn’t work. It had left nothing but a trail of heartache in its path, and what was with this daddy business? They had been together for eight years. The fourth year of their relationship, senior year in high school, Max had followed his two older brothers to a BDSM Club. It had changed him. They had started to dabble into some of the kink world and he, under the mentorship of said brothers, had been molded into a dominant. It wasn’t until college that the spankings had really begun. At first, she had balked at the idea, but as the time had gone on, she found that she craved the lifestyle he had given her. The consistency, the ability to let go and in one area of her life, finally not having to be the one in charge, had been freeing. But, she was a different person now. Those were childish games, weren’t they? Surely that wasn’t something that grown up Brianna would be into now.
Come on, you know you like it. How many times have you masturbated to the idea of being over Max’s lap again? The devil on her shoulder liked to whisper in her ear, far too often.
Shut up! Bree scolded her inner voice.
“…which means you need my rules.” Max finished talking and looked
expectantly at Bree.
He was waiting for a response, but she didn’t know what to say to him. They had tried this. Tried it and she was still nursing the decade-long hangover heartache from love gone wrong. Why did it have to be Maximiliano DePaul who showed up to escort her out of the Congo?
“Those who forget the past are condemned to repeat it, Max.” She grabbed his wrist and pushed it off of her chin, moving to stand.
Max cleared his throat in warning. Bree thought better of it and sat back down. He moved to sit back beside her, taking her hand in his. He rubbed her palm with his thumb.
“I’ve learned from the past, Bee. Truly, the past wasn’t so bad, was it? We shared some amazing times together.”
“Until they ended,” Bree muttered. And whose fault was it that it ended? Yours, stupid.
“Yes, until it ended. Life has given us another chance, Bee.”
“No, Max. We might be stuck here for a couple of days but that isn’t another chance.”
“Sure, it is. We are here together. We can spend this time rekindling our old flame, getting reacquainted and, if you give us a chance, Bee, I can prove to you that we need each other. We’ve always needed each other. You complete me, and I know if you would just stop lying to yourself, you would admit that I complete you.”
“That is such bullshit and you know it! We aren’t meant to be, Max. I’m the girl from the other side of the tracks, remember? I am entirely too flawed. I was flawed then and I am flawed now. I’ll never be good enough for you, good enough for The DePauls. You want me to stop lying to myself? You want the truth? There. That is the fucking truth.” It was scary how quickly Max jumped to his feet. Her heart was racing in her chest. She had been feeling those things for a very long time, never having the courage to vocalize them.
“What the hell is this about you being from the other side of the tracks? You aren’t from the other side of the tracks; our town doesn’t even have tracks. You are a goddamned doctor, Brianna, and a successful one at that. I’m an enlisted sailor. No one is perfect, Little Bee. I am not now, nor have I ever been perfect. Are you kidding me with all of this right now?” His tone was controlled, exasperated but controlled.
Brianna should have paid attention to the tic starting in his jaw. She didn’t. She stood up next to him and continued her tirade.
“Name one defect, one thing that isn’t fucking perfect about you.” She poked her finger into his chest and jabbed him with each following sentence. “Your chiseled chin? Perfect. Your rock-hard abs? Perfect. Straight A’s all through school, captain of the football team, from an upstanding family. Perfect, perfect, perfect! Fucking perfection. Maximiliano DePaul the tall, dark and handsome Navy SEAL. An enlisted sailor, my ass. Take that downplaying BS somewhere else.”
Max grabbed her hand and held it to his chest. “I should be flattered you think that highly of me, but I have demons too, Bee. We all have demons. My body isn’t the perfect one you might remember from boyhood. With age has come injury and scars. Do you remember how much I had to work for those perfect grades, Bee? Do you remember my struggle with dyslexia? You make it sound like everything came easy for me. You of all people know it didn’t.”
“What the fuck ever, Max.” She pulled her hand from his. “I bet even your demons are perfect.” Turning, she flounced down on the couch and flipped her hair over her shoulders, crossing her arms across her chest and pinning him with her most challenging look.
“I am about one second from taking you over my knee, baring your ass and spanking it raw until you shut that beautiful mouth and start to listen to me. Listening to understand what I am saying, not listening with defense or response in mind.” He moved over to where he was standing directly in front of her again.
“That is the second time you have threatened me with that particular thing, Max. I think you are all bark and no bite.” The words escaped her mouth before her brain caught up.
Shit.
“Don’t challenge me, Brianna Marie.” His voice dropped to a low, hard tone. A tone that sent shivers straight down her spine.
Brianna’s stomach clenched. She knew that tone. It had been a decade since she had last heard it, but she remembered it all too well. It was the same tone he used before spanking her. The same one he used the very first night he spanked her and with every disciplinary spanking he had administered after. It was the tone that screamed, “Warning! Warning! Warning!” It was the voice that had replayed over and over in her head for years. She felt the moisture pool between her legs.
Damnit.
“Are you ready to listen? Maybe pay attention this time?”
“Yes, sir! Right away, sir!” She gave him a mock salute while simultaneously rolling her eyes.
“That. That right there. Your sassiness. It tells me what I’ve always known. No man but me can love you the way you need, Bumble Bee. That is with my firm hand applied often to your backside to curb your naughty behaviors and my strong arms wrapped around you keeping you safe from not only the world, but also from yourself. I’m not wrong, Bee. You and I both know it to be true, don’t we?”
She opened and closed her mouth a couple times. There were too many comebacks on the tip of her tongue.
Fuck you.
Arrogant Bastard.
Who do you think you are?
Go to hell.
She closed her mouth and looked away from him. Max tipped her chin, turning her gaze back to his and looked into her eyes with an intense glare.
“I said, we both know it, don’t we, Little Bee?” He was daring her to counter his statement. But, how could she? Every word he had spoken was true. She knew it. He knew it. The question was, how long would she fight him? She reached up and yanked his hand down with a fierce determination, jumped up from the couch and tried to flee the room.
“No. You aren’t going to run away when the conversation gets hard. We’ve both done too much running away and not enough staying and fighting.” He snatched her wrist and, with a tug, whirled her around to face him. “I’m putting my foot down, Bee. We are going to talk about this.”
“I don’t want to talk about this. I don’t want to do anything but go back to my clinic and forget that you just waltzed back into my life.”
“That isn’t an option and you damn well know it.”
“Well, fuck you and the white horse you rode in on,” she muttered under her breath, just loud enough for him to hear.
“Brianna.”
The warning tone wasn’t lost on her. “What?” What do you fucking want from me?” She threw her hands up.
“That’s it!”
Without ever letting go of her hand, he sat quickly and pulled her over his rock-hard thighs. It happened in the span of a second. She had no time to respond. She tossed her head back to look at him, the determination etched across his features sending butterflies into her stomach. She saw the movement before his hand landed hard on her butt. Three swats later and she was squirming. It had been a very long time since she had been spanked and her pain tolerance was seriously lacking.
Damn. That hurts more than I remember!
She kept her thoughts to herself. She wouldn’t give him the satisfaction.
“I am tired of you deflecting. I have never put up with disrespect from you and I’m not going to start now.”
He swatted her quickly as he spoke and she found herself squirming in his lap. The stinging compilation of slaps was building into an uncomfortable pain. She tried to push herself up, but Max’s strong hand went to the middle of her back, holding her in place as he laid an especially hard swat on her left cheek.
“No, Bee. You aren’t getting up until you are ready to talk to me like an adult.” He peppered her behind with a volley of harder slaps. They stung, but nothing stung as much as her pride, being butt up across his muscular thighs.
“Fine!” she gasped out. “We can talk! Let me up!”
“Fine? I don’t think I am getting through to you.” He swatted her upper thi
gh hard, another swat followed on the opposite thigh.
The thin material of her shorts offered little protection against his paddle-like hands. She squealed, “That hurts!”
“If you are ready to talk now, really talk, I will stop.”
“Okay, okay! I’m ready!” She gave in. She could feel the warmth of her butt beneath her shorts.
“Are you going to talk like the mature adult I know you are? No name calling? No disrespect?” He continued to swat her behind as he talked.
She squirmed, kicking her feet. “Yes!”
“You promise?”
“Please, Max! I promise.”
He stopped swatting her and rubbed her back gently for a moment before helping her rise.
Max sat her up and pulled her into his lap. “Just sit on my lap for a minute, Bumble Bee, while we talk.” He rubbed her back for a second and let her catch her breath. It wasn’t a hard spanking. He had given her all of twenty swats, nothing to write home about. She had taken much more from him in the past. He just hoped it was enough to get her attention, to let her know how serious he was about this discussion. Ever since seeing her name on that screen, he had been planning for this conversation. After a pause, he spoke again.
“I’d like to be your man again, like to give us a chance. Let me do that for these few days. Be mine again. Let me be your daddy. Let’s at least talk about it.” He gathered her hair in his hands and moved it to the opposite side of her neck before gently guiding her head down to his shoulder.
“I don’t know what to say to you, Max. You come back into my life after a decade apart, flying in like a white knight on a horse to rescue the princess from the tower and expect me just to forget how you left me.”
“If you remember, Bee, you asked me to leave. You broke up with me, little girl. I was wrong in leaving. I shouldn’t have listened to you. I should have fought for you. I was hurt. You said you didn’t want me in your life anymore, you told me to get out of there, so I left. I was wrong. I should have stayed or at least come back after giving you some time to come down. I should have never let you push me away like that. While I don’t expect you to forget what happened, I am asking you to forgive. To move on. I am not the same boy I was back then. We were both kids. I didn’t know anything about loving a woman, not the right way at least. Hell, you were barely even a woman.”
