At Home In Corbin's Bend

by Maggie Ryan

  Nervous though she was, she knew they had to get this out of the way in order to move forward and she wanted that badly. “I am,” she said with a nod.

  Jason studied Melissa intently for a second, then nodded, seemingly satisfied by what he had found there. “I know a lot’s happened since I said this, and maybe it’s not fair to bring it up now, but I feel like it’s important. I meant it when I said I love you the other day, Melissa. We might have been friends first, but I think if anything, that friendship only deepened how I feel for you now. When I found out that you were really here when you told me you went to take care of your aunt, and I realized how bad things were for you, it broke my heart.” Emotion welled up in his voice. “I should have known something was wrong. I hate that I wasn’t there for you when you needed me most.”

  “Jason, you couldn’t have known,” she said. “I did everything I could to make sure you believed I was gone.” Her heart broke that he thought this was his fault and she hated that she had done this to him.

  Leaning forward, he laid both of his palms on her knees. “That’s part of why we need to have this talk now, before anything else happens. If we’re going forward in a committed relationship, and I hope with all my heart that’s what we’re going to do, we need to be on the same page with how things will work between us.”

  Twining her small fingers into his much larger ones, she smiled up at him. “I want that more than anything in the world.” Tears welled in her eyes. “You don’t think I’m too much of a mess?”

  “You’re not a mess to me. You’ve been through something that no one should ever have to go through. There is nothing to be ashamed of just because your body and mind are doing anything they can to get through it.” Tears welled in his eyes too. “Melissa, you are one of the strongest women I know, and you deserve someone to stand by your side who is just as strong as you are.” Pulling her hands to his lips, he laid a gentle kiss on each of them. “I love you, Melissa. I’m not going anywhere no matter what happens, you’re stuck with me.”

  Tears streamed down her face freely now. She didn’t know what she had done to get such an amazing guy, but she was never letting him go again. “Oh Jason,” she blubbered, “I love you too.”

  He pulled her into his arms wrapping them securely around her. She had never felt so safe in her entire life. They sat that way for a long time before Jason pulled back. “As much as I would love to stay like that with you for the rest of the night, unfortunately, we have more to talk about.” She curled back up on the couch next to him, tucking her feet back under her like she was sitting before. “Before we move forward, we need to establish some rules.”

  “I agree.”

  “I’m glad we agree,” he said, nodding. “The first rule needs to be no running. I understand that there will be times, maybe even a lot of times in the near future, that you will need space to figure out what’s happening inside your head. When that happens, I also understand that we will need to pause whatever else is going on in our relationship. All you have to do is tell me. I won’t let you hide anymore. We are in this together now.”

  “It’s probably going to be hard at first, and you might have to remind me, but I promise not to hide from you anymore,” she agreed.

  “Oh, honey, I know it will be an adjustment, and I promise to help you in every way I can.” A tiny smile broke through her uncertainty. She knew then without a doubt she wasn’t alone anymore. It felt like a twenty pound weight had been lifted from her chest. He really wasn’t going to leave her when she broke apart. Up until that moment she hadn’t really believed that he was here to stay.

  “The second thing is that you need to keep your appointments with Wade every week. You make an appointment and keep it, no matter what.”

  “I promise I’ll keep my appointments with Dr. Yu. I know I need them right now.”

  “Good, because I’m going to hold you accountable if you don’t. No excuses.” She swallowed hard. It might take some time to get used to someone else consistently weighing in on her decisions. She had a feeling there wasn’t going to be a lot of wiggle room on this one.

  “I get it.”

  “The third rule has to do with honesty.” He paused to take a sip of water from the glass he had sitting on the coffee table, in front of the couch. “Every relationship is built on the basis of trust and honesty. If we want our relationship to thrive, we must be honest with one another.” He emphasized, “In the type of relationship that we both want as the basis of ours, it is that much more important for us to be honest with one another.” Melissa nodded, listening intently. So far, she agreed with everything he said. “Now I can guarantee that it will be unpleasant at times, but facing things head on is so much better than sweeping them under the rug.”

  “From here on out, honesty will be my first priority,” Melissa agreed.

  “That leads us to number four. It’s important to me to establish a time every day for me to help you unwind. I think it will help you let go of all the stress in order to get better rest and it will help me to know that you are taken care of and safe.” So far this was sounding good to her. “Do you remember the first time I spanked you?” She nodded, curious of where this was going. “Remember how I took care of you, brushing your hair and tucking you in?”

  Oh yes, Melissa remembered that night well. She had felt so stress free and taken care of that night. She giggled. “I had the best night’s sleep after that than I had had since before the accident.”

  “That’s exactly why I would like to make it a routine,” he said, his eyes crinkling as he beamed down on her. “Most of the time, I’d like to include things like giving you a bath, brushing your hair, I can give you a good girl spanking with a massage, and we can end the night with a glass of warm milk with honey as I tuck you into bed.”

  “Now that one sounds like heaven.” Melissa laughed. “I think I can handle that.”

  Jason grinned. “I’m glad you like the idea. We can do that whether we live together or not.”

  She leaped onto his lap giving him a big wet kiss. “Can we do it right now?” she asked with glee.

  Jason laughed. “I wish we could, but unfortunately we have something more serious to discuss.”

  “Darn,” she said, pouting. She had a feeling she knew exactly what they still needed to talk about. She also knew that, even if he didn’t bring it up, she would have to.

  “Actually,” she said, reaching over to pull her purse off the side table, “I have something serious I need to talk to you about too.” Pulling out her fake ID, she handed it straight to him. Staring at her hands, Melissa couldn’t stand to look Jason in the eye. She knew how disappointed he must be with her. “I’m not actually twenty-one yet, not until December, anyway. I’ve been using a fake ID.” When he didn’t say anything, and she couldn’t stand it anymore, she looked up to find him studying her ID.

  “I’m glad you decided to come clean with me. This is exactly what I was about to talk to you about.”

  “How did you know,” she gasped.

  Setting the ID on the coffee table, he looked up at her. “Kenzie told me after we found all of the empty bottles around your house, before I found you at the club.”

  Understanding dawned on her. “Of course, that makes sense.”

  “I was waiting until you were in a better place to hear what I had to say.”

  Guilt consumed her as she looked down at the card, images filled her head of every drunken night, every night at the clubs, and every bottle of whiskey she had bought. Every mistake that she made stared her right in the face. She grabbed a pair of scissors out of the table drawer and set to chopping the card to pieces. With every snip of the scissors, she said goodbye one by one to all of her stupid mistakes. Once she finished and sat holding all of those tiny pieces in her hand, she looked over at Jason and she knew unequivocally that this man sitting next to her had her back. He would not let her self-destruct. He would not allow her to fall.

  Cupping h
is hands, he held them out for her to discard the pieces into. Once he had every last one, he stood to throw them away. Relief coursed through Melissa like an exhaled breath that had been held for too long. Once he sat back down, he turned his attention on her full force. “Melissa, do you know what you risked by using that fake ID to go into bars and drink?” Not pausing for her to answer he went on. “Not only did you risk getting caught and going to jail, which is serious enough as it is, but if the board had caught you, which they would have eventually, you would have risked, at best, a public whipping and, at worst, since it’s your second infraction and this one violates the law, you could have been evicted.”

  Shock coursed through her. “No,” she said adamantly. “I do everything to abide by my contracts. I wouldn’t do anything to get in trouble. I went to my therapy. I don’t even let anyone spend the night anymore if I can help it. Aside from the one time, I don’t even drink inside of the community,” she rambled as the room starting getting hot and her ears started burning. “This has nothing to do with Corbin’s Bend.”

  Jason shook his head. “Yes, honey, it does. This would have been a breach of contract. Surely you know that they take the law very seriously here.”

  Through the shock of how close she had come to jeopardizing everything, the steadiness that emanated from Jason gave Melissa the courage to do what she knew she had to do.

  In an instant she was on her knees in front of him. “This last year has been a wreck. I have been a wreck,” she amended. “I can’t do this on my own, Jason. Help me. Do whatever you need to do to help me become myself again.”

  Jason’s storm blue eyes held Melissa’s. “I promise.”

  She believed him.

  “This isn’t going to be easy, but we will make things right, together.”

  “I trust you,” she whispered, surrendering herself to him, and to this, once and for all. The energy shifted then and she knew it was time to get to business. She looked him directly in the eye. “I want you to punish me for this, Jason. I need it to be you, and I need it to be severe enough that I never resort to anything like this again.”

  His gaze leveled on her and she saw the moment his indecision turned to firm resolution. It was as if Jason decided that if Melissa could do this, he could too. “If we do this, you realize that it needs to be significant enough that if you ever have to answer to the board for this, we both can say unequivocally that adequate consequences have been delivered.”

  Squaring her shoulders, she nodded, and everything came into sharp focus. “Yes, I understand. I’m ready to face the consequences for this.”

  “Okay,” he said, the thoughts in his head visible on his face. “Are you sure you’re in a good enough place to do this tonight? It’s okay if we need to wait until you are.”

  “No, I don’t want to wait. I’m fine to do this now.”

  He nodded in acknowledgment. “I want you to go ahead and take a few minutes to freshen up, go to the bathroom, splash water on your face and when you’re ready, come back out here. This will give me time to think about what would be most appropriate in this circumstance.”

  Chapter 13

  Pacing back and forth, Jason deliberated on what would be appropriate for something of this caliber. He hated that he had to carry out such harsh discipline right now with everything that was going on, but he knew that it had to be done to wipe the slate clean. He would much rather be cuddling with Melissa right now than punishing her as harshly as he ever hoped she would have to be punished. He was impressed with how much grit this little girl possessed. He knew he could not let her down. Not wanting to drag this out, he would have to make do with what he had access to here. He had her hairbrush that he had spanked her with before. That would do well for a good warm up. He regretted that he would have to go much harder on her with it. Her warm up would probably be the caliber of a harsh punishment under normal circumstances. He didn’t have access to straps, paddles, or anything like that. Pausing, he considered his belt. It was not the best punishment belt he possessed. It was pretty flimsy actually. If he used it, he would have to significantly increase the number of swats to give her the level of punishment she needed properly. No matter what his personal wishes were, he knew he had to punish her to such a degree that if the board ever found out that she had obtained and used a fake ID, they would not feel like they needed to punish her again.

  By the time the bathroom door opened and Melissa padded back out to him, Jason knew what he had to do. She looked so sweet and so contrite walking out to him in a pair of cotton pajama shorts and tank top she had changed into. She stood facing toward him looking nervous but determined. Knowing it was now or never, he began. “This is not going to be easy on either of us. I want you to know, going in, that I don’t wish to dole this out as much as you don’t want to have to take it, but we both know it’s necessary and I fully intend to take my duty in this seriously.” Taking a deep cleansing breath, Jason began laying out the punishment ahead of them. “There will be four parts, with corner time between each part.”

  “Yes, sir,” she said, chewing on her lower lip.

  “The first part will be a hair brush paddling over my lap. This is not only part of your punishment, but it will also help warm you up for part three.” At her nod, he went on, “Part two, we will address the part your mouth played in this by drinking alcohol, when you are clearly too young to partake. You will get a thorough mouth soaping. You will not be allowed to rinse until your second round of corner time is finished.” She grimaced, nodding her agreement. “For round three you will lie across the kitchen table and receive one hundred lashes with my belt. I don’t have a proper strap, so the number is higher to make up for the lack of a proper implement. The fourth and final part of your punishment will have you sitting at the table tonight, on your bare bottom, writing an essay about what you have learned today.”

  “Okay.” She nodded, swallowing hard.

  When they stood, Jason pulled Melissa into an embrace. He might have to punish her, but like hell if he wasn’t going to comfort her in the process. He knew in his bones that she had done everything she had done to run away from a deep and abiding pain. It was a pain he hoped to help her heal with the right kind of love and attention. Leaning down, Jason buried his face into Melissa’s soft locks, inhaling her sweet scent as he kissed her on the top of the head. She looked better when he stepped back, as if she had just soaked up a little of the sun. “Are you ready?” he asked.

  Giving his hand the slightest squeeze, she gave him a tiny smile. “I’m ready.”

  “Please, go fetch me the hairbrush and a clean bar of soap.”

  Melissa was gone longer than he expected. He was just about to go after her, when she reappeared from the bedroom, carrying not only the brush and bar of soap, but a long piece of leather. Setting down the brush and soap on the floor, she held out to him the heaviest tawse he had ever seen. Speechless, he took it from her hands. The brown leather gleamed like it had rarely, if ever, been used. Turning it over, he saw the Lockgelly emblem imprinted on the back. What he held in his hands was a genuine Scottish, Lockgelly tawse, one of the harshest implements there were in his opinion. He cocked an eyebrow at her, questioning why she was handing him such an implement.

  “I bought this before I moved here. I’ve only ever had one lick with it, and it was the worst thing I’ve ever felt in my life.” Her words tumbled together as she explained. “I swore I would never feel it again, but this seems like the right time.” Jason could sense Melissa steeling herself. She swallowed hard again. “Please use this instead of your belt. I deserve it.” She paused. “No, I need it.”

  He sighed. “This implement is not one I would have chosen for you.” It pained him to think about using it on her.

  “Please,” she whispered. That one word hung in the air.

  Finally, he nodded. “I will use this instead of the belt, but I’m reducing the number to eight.”

  Jason held up a hand to stop Melis
sa, as she started arguing. “This may seem like I’m letting you off lightly, but believe me, I am not. In fact, I think you will find that this will be a far worse punishment than one hundred with the belt that I am wearing. Are you sure this is what you want?”

  “Yes.” She nodded with a firmness that showed a mind made up.

  “Let’s get started then,” he said, his mind grim with the task ahead. Taking a seat in the chair he had grabbed from the kitchen, Jason set the brush on the floor beside him within arm’s reach. Melissa came up by his side, but he stopped her before she could lay over his lap. “Take off your clothes. You will be naked for this punishment.”

  Melissa’s eyes flew to his for a second before she moved to comply. Gripping the hem of her shirt, tentatively she inched it up over, first her breasts, and then her head. Dropping it on the floor beside her, she reached around to unclasp her bra, slipping it down her arms until she was completely exposed to him. Her nipples tightened to pebbles as air hit them. This wasn’t the first time he had seen her completely nude, but that didn’t lessen the impact it had on him. The slopes and plains of her body were softly feminine despite her size. Her hips rounded to a small, but plump, bottom, a bottom he was going to become even more achingly familiar with by the time the night was through.

  Giving his lap a light pat, Melissa draped her body over it. Smoothing his work-rough hand over her velvety soft back, he let it come to rest just above her already pink bottom. Rubbing and squeezing her cheeks and thighs to get the blood flowing, he caught sight of the glistening pink lips of her pussy. The sight caused him to groan inwardly to see how much her vulnerability turned her on. It made him look forward to the day that they could enjoy a good girl spanking and all that encompassed. For today, though, it would be anything but.

  His hand lifted from her back and she braced herself for the first time the brush would come down on her bottom. Sharp burning pain descended on her bottom hard and fast. This was not like any warm up she had ever experienced. It was at that moment that Melissa fully realized what she had gotten herself into. There was no going back now. He spanked her bottom with the brush long and hard. It wasn’t until he started on her thighs that the tears came. He paddled her sensitive thighs from her sit spot all the way down to her knees and back up and then started all over again. The spanking went on for so long she thought it was never going to end. She thought she might wiggle her way right off his thighs, except for his iron grip on the small of her back and over her legs.