“Jackson,” she began, straightening, beginning to turn.
His hand was on her back instantly. “Down. You do not want this belt to come down anywhere but on your ass.”
“One minute. Just one…”
“Down. Now.”
She bent again, her arms tucked beneath her chest, hands balled into fists. “Seventeen,” she said, looking straight ahead at her own face, tears falling onto the hood of the car.
“If you would have told me,” he began to lecture, his arm untiring, not needing to take a momentary rest, not even while he spoke. “We would have gone together. We would have maybe gotten both of those guys,” he said. “Count, Jess, or we start back at one.”
“Twenty-four.” She covered her face with her hands now, each stroke searing a new fiery stripe across her bottom and now upper thighs.
“We had dinner together,” he continued. “When did you get the note?”
“Twenty-seven…” She was squeezing her bottom tight and taking her hips from side to side.
“Soft. Soften or I’ll put something in your ass to make you soften.”
He had barely finished his sentence before her bottom was soft again. She did not want to find out what he was talking about.
“It hurts so much!”
“Well, you earned it. When did you get the note?” Another stroke.
“Twenty-nine,” God, were they not even halfway there? “Yesterday night. After you left.”
She saw him just shake his head. He paused for a moment after the next one, leaning down to look at her bottom. When his fingertips just barely touched the tender skin, she flinched. He rubbed very softly one cheek, then another.
She hoped he had changed his mind, that maybe he was going to stop.
“Thirty to go,” he said.
“Please.”
He switched the belt to his other hand and moved to stand on the other side of her.
“I’m sorry, Jackson. It’s enough, I promise.”
He paused. “Jess, three deaths are enough—they’re too many! I do not intend on adding a fourth to this tragedy.”
She looked at him from her bent position, the expression on his face not angry but more pained as he stood staring at her, his eyes moist in the moonlight. He was right, she should have told him. It was stupid for her to have gone alone. Hadn’t she known the note could have been a trick? She had, she absolutely had. Maybe had even known it all along but some part of her had still wanted to do it alone.
She nodded and turned to face forward, stretching her arms out to the sides again. She hollowed out her back and determined to take her punishment and he must have understood because when he began again, the strokes were no less painful but he no longer lectured and she simply counted. It wasn’t a peace she was feeling as her punishment continued, it was pain absolute, but in a way, his saying what he had said coupled with what she had glimpsed in his eyes, made her accept it, accept her punishment and it made some difference, as strange as that was. Her bottom throbbed as it paid the price for her deception and recklessness but she would take it. She would lie prone and take her punishment.
She didn’t straighten when she called out sixty, marking the last stroke. Instead, she lay her cheek down on the now wet hood of his cruiser. He watched her face and she watched him as he put the belt back on, neither of them speaking. He buckled it, his expression serious but also soft. His attention then moved to her bottom and he once again touched lightly, checking the skin maybe? She wasn’t sure. All she knew was she would not be sitting comfortably for a while.
* * *
Jackson looked at her waiting there, still bent over the hood of his cruiser, waiting for permission to rise. Her bottom was marked with red stripes. Sweat covered her, making her hair stick to her face. She had taken the last half of the punishment; she had simply taken it. That made a difference. At the start, she’d done as he had said, had bared her bottom and bent over in order to avoid doubling her punishment, but after the halfway point, when he had said straight out that she could have been killed tonight, she had understood. She probably had understood all along the possibility, at least he hoped so. But that moment had driven the point home and her lying prone to take her punishment made that very clear to him.
“You ok?” he asked.
She nodded, still lying with the side of her face against the car, a tear sliding down her cheek sideways. “My butt isn’t but I’m ok.”
Well, she still had her sense of humor.
“I’m guessing you won’t want to put your jeans on so just slide them off and let’s go inside.”
She rose slowly and pushed her jeans off one leg at a time so they lay inside out at her feet. She tentatively touched her bottom, feeling the welts. He bent to grab the jeans and her panties and walked her to the back of the house. In the kitchen, he handed her a glass of water which she took and drank. He noticed she made no move to cover herself.
“Would you like to have a bath?” he asked while switching on some lights.
“I don’t think I can sit,” she said.
“I’ll run a shower for you then, come on.”
“My things are at the hotel,” she said.
“We’ll get them tomorrow. We can also return your rental car tomorrow and make it look like you’re leaving at least.” She followed him up the stairs and into the master bedroom. He saw her looking around, taking in the room with the large bed in the center. From there he led her into the bathroom and turned on the water, checking the temperature to make sure it was ok before switching over to the shower. “You’ll have to lay low for a few days but it might be good for you anyway.”
She pulled her top and bra off, again, not trying to cover herself. He helped her into the shower. He found some ointment for her bottom in the cabinet and set a towel out for her. “I’ll wait for you in the bedroom,” he said.
“Thanks.”
She switched off the water before he had even closed the door behind him. He sat on the bed, arranging the two pillows in the middle of it. When she opened the door, he stood, taking in her small body that the towel barely covered, her glistening, damp skin, her wet hair that hung down over her shoulders and back.
“Lie down; I’ll rub some ointment on you.”
She hesitated.
“You’ll feel better,” he said.
She went toward the bed and knelt on top of it. She then stripped off her towel, glanced at him from over her shoulder and lay herself down so that her hips were raised by the pillows.
* * *
She had looked at the mean-looking welts in the bathroom mirror already and quite frankly, being naked around him didn’t bother her as much as it maybe should have. The towel, even though it was soft, still hurt when it touched her tender bottom.
She watched him watching her as she lay there, his expression changing, her own emotions confused.
“What are we doing?” she asked, barely raising her head off the bed, her expression serious. “I mean, what is this? I don’t understand what we’re doing.”
He looked down, then back up at her again and came to sit on the edge of the bed. “I feel very protective of you, Jess,” he said, his expression telling her he was measuring his words. “I don’t know why because you can manage to piss me off like no other woman has.”
“It’s my special gift, I guess,” she said, smiling.
He smiled too, then grew very serious. “I’ll be very honest with you and say that I haven’t felt this way about a woman in a long time. I know it’s only been days but since I first laid eyes on you under that pile of debris, you’ve managed to turn my world upside down and I can’t stop thinking about you.”
“No one has ever spanked me before,” she said. “I don’t even understand what happens to me, why I let you.”
He opened the jar of ointment, smearing a little onto his hand.
“Well, you didn’t exactly let me the first two times.”
“Ouch,” she flinched wh
en he began to rub the stuff into her skin. “I thought you were a crazy ass, backwards brute!” she chuckled.
He too smiled. “This is going to hurt for a few days.”
“Isn’t that the point?” she asked, leaning up on her elbows and looking back at him.
“Take your legs wider,” he said, moving to kneel between them.
She glanced at him, swallowed, then did as he said, turning to face forward as she spread her legs wide and arched her back to lift her hips. There would be no confusing her invitation.
“You have an amazing ass, Jess.” His tone was completely different now. It wasn’t that of disciplinarian but neither was it tender.
She almost had a comeback but when his hands came to either side of the cleft between her cheeks, she only managed to suck in a breath and wait as he rubbed the ointment onto her cheeks, spreading her open as he did until she felt his tongue on her sex, licking the length of her.
“Oh…” she began, holding perfectly still while he spread her cheeks wider, the thumb of one hand tracing the space from her sex up toward her back hole. He teased her, licking and caressing, his finger moving closer and closer until it came to rub soft circles around her bottom hole, his tongue licking, the tip of it just touching her clit when she pushed the pillows out from under her and buried her face in the mattress, lifting her ass high, giving him access to all of her.
He kept it up and she came fast, the heat of her bottom, the vulnerability of her position, the feel of his wet tongue licking at her pussy while his thumb just pushed against her back hole too much, the sensations overwhelming.
He held her like that while she stilled, keeping her hips lifted when she wanted to sag into the bed. She looked back to find him stripping off his shirt and without even taking his pants off fully but just unzipping them, freeing his thick cock, he pulled her bottom cheeks apart and drove hard into her pussy, causing her to call out with the force of it.
“I like you like this,” he said, his hands rubbing her sore bottom hard. “I like you offering your ass to me and I like it striped and red.”
“Mmm…” She began to lift up onto her hands.
“No,” he said, one hand at the back of her neck. “Down, face down, ass up tonight.”
She turned her cheek onto the bed and watched him watching his cock move in and out of her pussy as he fucked her, his cock pumping hard and fast into her, and when he once again covered her back hole with his thumb, she closed her eyes, lost again in sensation, in heat, pain and pleasure mixing into something entirely new and unbelievable.
Chapter Nine
The next morning, she woke early to find Jackson’s arms wrapped around her, holding her tight to him. She looked at him as he slept, his mouth slightly open, his square jaw scruffy with the night’s growth of stubble. His brown hair was ruffled and he was snoring lightly. She smiled, trying to pull free from under the heavy weight of his arm.
He made a sound and moved his arm, setting his hand on her hip.
“You’re kind of cute when you’re sleeping,” she said, touching the stubble on his face. “But you are getting gray,” she said. “How old are you again?”
“You even talk in your sleep,” he said, opening his eyes.
She grinned. “It’s sweet, huh?”
He raised his eyebrows, humor brightening his eyes. “Sweet. That’s what I was thinking too.”
“Jackson,” she began.
“Jess,” he mimicked.
“Tell me about your ex-wife.”
He looked puzzled. “Why?” he asked with a groan.
He rolled onto his back, his expression growing very serious as he looked up at the ceiling.
She leaned up on one elbow. “I’m just curious.”
He turned to look at her. “It’s not that interesting,” he began but continued at her insistence. “I was twenty-one when we got married. She was nineteen. We had met back in high school.”
“Go on.”
“We were only married a year and two months,” he began, “before she decided she was in love with someone else, someone from out of town. She decided the small town life was not for her, she wanted more.”
“Did she cheat on you?”
He turned to her and shook his head. “She says she didn’t and that’s all I need to know. I was angry at first and I can tell you, I was not calm about it when it was happening. I realize now, however, that we were both young.”
“No kids?”
“No, thank goodness. I wanted them but she wanted to wait. I guess it was a good thing she won that argument.”
“Where is she now?”
“New York. Married and divorced twice. Still no kids.”
“Do you keep in touch?”
“Talk once a year when she comes to visit her folks.”
“Was she pretty?”
He turned to her, smiling a mischievous smile. “Is that just a hint of jealousy?” he asked, touching the tip of her nose.
“You wish.” Then, “Did you spank her?”
He laughed. “Is that what this is about?” he asked, leaning up on an elbow.
She felt her face grow warm. “No! I just… I’m just…”
“Curious,” he said, laying a hand once again possessively on her hip, patting it twice. “You’re the only woman I’ve ever spanked. It was like you were just begging for it right from day one.”
“I was not!”
He laughed. “How’s your butt?”
“Sore,” she said, turning over onto her belly. “You probably shouldn’t touch it.”
“I like touching it,” he said, looking at it, feeling a few of the more tender spots. “You’ll have bruises, I think.”
“You think?”
He brought a hand to her breast and tweaked a nipple. “Smartass.”
“Ow!” She slapped his hand away.
“I wonder how you taste in the morning,” he said, sliding his hand down her belly. He kissed her, ignoring her protests to keep his hands to himself.
“Jackson, I’m nervous,” she said.
He stopped teasing her. “Why?”
“I want to get the FBI agent off my back and I’m not sure it’s going to work, me staying here.”
“It’ll work. We’ll go get it done now if you want. Pick up your stuff, return your car.” He sat up. “Go have a shower and I’ll make a quick call.”
She got up out of the bed. “How are we going to make them believe I took a flight out of here?”
“Leave it to me,” he said, sitting up and picking up the phone on the nightstand.
* * *
Jackson waited in her hotel room while she packed her things into her suitcase. “Don’t you fold anything?” he asked when she tried to zip up the overstuffed case.
She stopped and turned to him. “I have to do laundry anyway,” she said. “No sense in folding twice.”
“Hmm.” He looked around the room. “Got everything?”
“I think so. So do I just meet you at the airport?”
“I’ll pick you up after you check in,” he said. “The airport is small. I’ll be waiting just outside of baggage claim when you give me the call.”
His plan was simple; she’d return the rental car and check in as if she were taking up the assistant deputy director’s advice and going on a vacation to Mexico. She would then exit the airport. She would call him on her way out and he’d be there ready to pick her up and bring her home.
The agent was outside when they exited her hotel room. He made a point of kissing her at her car after loading her suitcase into it and then waving her off. The agent started the car almost at the same time she did and he followed her out of the lot. Jackson gave it a few minutes before climbing back into his truck and following them to the airport a little ways behind.
He parked in the waiting area at the small, local airport. He only had to wait about half an hour before his phone rang. He didn’t pick it up; it was just a signal and she would switch the thing off
right after she dialed him, keeping it off just in case they tracked her by it.
When he pulled up in front of the airport, she stepped out and directly into his truck. She exhaled in relief when she closed the door and he drove off.
“What are we going to do for the next couple of days while I keep a low profile?” she asked.
“I have an idea,” he said, grinning. He had a few, actually. “But first I need to go into the office and talk to Carl and Bill,” he said.
“Great. I’ll come with you.”
He glanced at her and shook his head. “No, you won’t.”
“I don’t want to miss anything,” she said.
“Maybe you need to spend some more time bent over the hood of my car. You have a very poor memory, Jess.”
“I just want to be involved. We talked about this and it’s not like I’m going out there alone…”
“Jess,” he said, pulling onto his driveway. “Today, you will be spending the day inside the house. Period.”
“But…”
“No arguments,” he said, climbing out of the car. She was unbelievable.
She opened the car door and followed him as he carried her suitcase up the stairs. “Jackson, this isn’t fair. I don’t want to be left out of this!”
He opened the door and gestured for her to enter, which she did. He was having a hard time believing she would stay put. He walked into the laundry room and set her suitcase down before checking his watch. He had told Carl he’d be there in half an hour.
“Jess, I don’t want to argue with you,” he said, unzipping her suitcase.
“And I don’t want to argue with you,” she replied.
He began to stuff her clothes into the washing machine.
“What are you doing?”
“Laundry,” he said. “Strip off your clothes.”
“What?”
“Everything off. If you’re naked, you might be more likely to stay put.”
She exhaled. “Fine. Fine, I’ll stay. And I’ll do my own laundry, you can’t put all those colors in at once. You’ll ruin my clothes.”
Dangerous Defiance Page 8
