Lessons for Lexi

by Charlene McSuede

  “I dabbled a little in my youth.” Althea responded.

  “You did?”

  “Your father and I, dear. We made ourselves sick with that stuff one weekend while your grandparents were out of town. The trick is to only take a pinky nail full at a time.”

  JT’s mouth dropped open at his aunt’s advice, but Alex took it in stride.

  “I’ll keep that in mind.” Alex tilted her head. “Anyway, me and Radford here were just trying to decide what to do on our summer vacation.”

  “Are you two college students?”

  “Perpetually. I’ve been trying to get my degree in heating and refrigeration for the past 10 years.” She pointed to her friend. “Radford is going to be a paralegal someday.”

  “In answer to your question,” Radford interrupted her, “we’re on hiatus from our jobs at a university. What do you do, Mr…?” he prompted JT meaningfully.

  “It’s Hussner. JT Hussner. I’m in marketing.”

  He kept talking about his job, but he realized that Alex wasn’t listening. Instead, she was staring at him, her unusual eyes wide, as though she’d seen something terrible. “Are you ok?”

  She snapped out of her trance and her eyes brightened again. “I’m fine; I just realized I have to go.” She sprung out of her chair so fast it rocked dangerously close to falling over. “I have an appointment.” Radford stood to join her, apparently not at all surprised by her abrupt departure.

  “Wait.” JT reached in his pocket for a business card. She was just what he needed. After a week of looking for an appropriate companion for his aunt, he had a feeling he had found one with the flower child now leaving the table. In five minutes, his aunt Althea hadn’t called the girl a hussy or potential thief. In Althea’s world, that meant she was in love. “I might have a job for you, for both of you, if you need a place to stay.”

  Alex pulled the card out of his hand and took off down the street without responding, Radford following close behind her.

  ***

  “Holy crap, that was JT Hussner. The same damn Hussner I was supposed to have that meeting with!” Lexi turned to Raj in astonishment. “Also, you are terrible at making up names.”

  “What’s wrong with my names?”

  “Alex and Radford? What are we? A fourteen year old boy and his faithful butler?”

  “I thought they were good for improvisation. Besides, I wasn’t the one who invited him to our table.”

  “I didn’t realize who he was until he said his name. I only met him for like four seconds last time.” She looked back down the street nervously. “Do you think he knows? Do you think he’s screwing with us?”

  “I doubt it.” JT hadn’t seemed suspicious and both Lexi and he looked completely transformed. “He offered us a job, remember?”

  “That might be part of his evil master plan.”

  “I highly doubt it Lexi.” He tugged on her arm and they started walking. “Let’s go see if Pennypinch can think of something.”

  Lexi nodded, plans for lunch now blown anyway. Truth be told, she could just give up and get an apartment or hotel room. She had more than enough money. But she didn’t want to do that. She didn’t want to give up that anonymous feeling she’d had ten years before.

  She was going to be invisible if it killed her.

  ***

  “I want the hippy girl and her little friend,” Althea announced to JT loudly and he flinched as the waiter gave them an odd look.

  JT rolled his eyes. “Won’t it upset you to have them fornicating in your house?” It was how Althea had responded to the last candidate with a boyfriend.

  “They’re not a couple.” Althea informed him definitely. “The girl thinks you’re cute and the boy is gay.”

  JT raised an eyebrow. “How did you know that?”

  “They were talking about you when you left the table. My eyes might not be what they used to be, but my ears still work.” JT sighed as he paid the bill. Just his luck, his aunt wanted the one person who he was pretty sure he couldn’t get. The girl had looked horrified at his job offer. “So are you going to get her?”

  JT sighed again. “I’ll see what I can do, but keep in mind, we have other candidates. We don’t even know that girl. She could be a thief.”

  “She’s not a thief,” Althea responded. “I have a good instinct about these things. I want her and her friend. They’re interesting.” Althea folded her arms. “I’m not as stuffy as you think you know.”

  “Fine,” JT resolved to come back to try and hunt down the hippy girl the following day. Althea was not going to let it go.

  “Of course, when she’s working for me, no making eyes at the girl.” Althea continued to lecture. “It won’t do to have you mixing with the help.”

  “I’m with Faith, remember.” JT nearly laughed out loud at the idea of the dopy golden retriever girl turning his head. He liked his women classy and put together, like Faith always was. The bohemian gypsy look that Alex was sporting had never been something he was into. “Trust me; I’ll keep my hands to myself.”

  Chapter 4

  Lexi sat on a park bench the following day, watching as her old friend Pinchpenny bustled around his van/house. Pinchpenny was an older man who’d let his hair grow long. Too long. His stark white hair landed mid back and his beard made it to his belly button. He’d looked like that for as long as Lexi had known him. He’d always made her think of a wizard. He currently had his VW bus parked outside a parking garage and had already received a couple of warnings to move it.

  “So what are you up to today?” Lexi asked Pinchpenny as he took a seat with his feet hanging out of the back of his van.

  “Driving around, looking for a new place to park.” He sighed. “I might have to leave Texas.” Pinchpenny had been living in his van for months, since even the commune was hit by the economy and had to disperse.

  “That sucks.” Lexi frowned. She’d decided to go downtown to find a place to stay for the next three months. “We’re going apartment hunting. Wanna stay with us?”

  “No can do, my man.” Pinchpenny smiled an apology. “I have to be outside, ready to commune with mother earth.”

  Lexi nodded. Even in the days of commune living, Pinchpenny always slept in a tent in the yard, usually naked. Lexi doubted this was going over very well with the parking authorities.

  “Wanna come with us? Apartment shopping with no budget is always fun. I might make somebody’s day and buy a building.” Lexi decided that if she wasn’t going to be invisible, she was at least going to have a lot of open space. She’d given up the idea of commune living or joining the circus after a very stern talk with Raj the night before. He was right. There were certain things she couldn’t do anymore.

  Being too far away from a hospital was one of them.

  So she grudgingly admitted defeat and agreed to go apartment hunting. She still insisted on staying downtown. She loved downtown Austin. It was huge enough to be anonymous, but still had that old west vibe that she loved so much.

  “Andrew would find you for sure.” Raj popped out of the back of the van behind Pinchpenny. “Let’s just stick with an apartment.”

  “You don’t think we’ll run into him again, do you?” Raj didn’t have to ask what she was talking about. Coming face to face with JT, even though he hadn’t recognized her, had done a number on her stomach. It had also been the main reason for the lecture from Raj and she wasn’t interested in another one.

  “No, Austin is a big place. Yesterday was just an uncomfortable coincidence.” Raj wasn’t sure, but he was hopeful.

  Two hours later he was swearing under is breath as JT Hussner waved at them and started walking in their direction on the sidewalk at 6th. “God damn it.”

  “Shit!”

  Pinchpenny put out the joint he was smoking. “Is that a cop?”

  “No,” Lexi sighed, “but we were trying to avoid him. I’m Alex, Raj is Radford, ok?”

  “Radford?”

  “I didn
’t have time to think. It was the best I could do on short notice,” Raj muttered darkly.

  “Alex, Radford!” JT gave them a bright smile and Lexi found herself a little dazzled. She had noticed he was handsome before, in a kind of generic way. He was well put together, possessing the poreless skin and perfect haircut that the truly wealthy always seemed to have. But there was something else there that she couldn’t put her finger on.

  “Hi JT.” Lexi smiled. “No Althea today?”

  “No, she’s at home.” He sat down next to her and Lexi started to relax. He didn’t seem to recognize her. “Thought anymore about my job offer?”

  “Sorry,” she winked at him. “Living with a strange man and his blind aunt isn’t really in the cards for me.”

  JT chuckled. “I’ve never been called strange before, but if it makes you feel any better, you wouldn’t live with me. Just my aunt. I have an apartment in the city.”

  “I really can’t.” Lexi gestured to Raj and Pennypinch, looking for another excuse. Even if she wouldn’t have to deal with JT very often, he was sure to find out who she was when he processed her employment paperwork. “We’re trying to stay off the grid and regular employment would kind of ruin that.”

  ***

  JT raised a brow and wondered if his aunt’s instincts were off. “Running from the law?” He asked, half serious.

  “Nothing so interesting,” Alex responded. “We’re just simple migrant workers who don’t like dealing with the government when we don’t have to.”

  His voice was stern. “It would be illegal for me to pay you under the table.” She might not be a criminal, but Alex had a naughty streak. It was a streak he was a little intrigued by.

  Alex shook her head. “I pay my taxes. I just do it as an independent contractor at the end of the year.” She smiled. “I’m not an idiot. Even I wouldn’t fuck with the IRS.”

  JT held a smile in check, not wanting to encourage her potty mouth. It seemed strange for dirty words to come out of such a cute mouth. “Then you could be my independent contractor.” He shrugged. “That way, I could give you a 1099 at the end of the year instead.”

  “No background checks or anything like that?”

  JT was concerned again. “Something you don’t want me to see?”

  Alex shrugged. “I just think they’re an intrusive pain in the ass.”

  That potty mouth again. JT rarely swore. It was something that had been worked out of him thanks to repeatedly having his mouth washed out with soap when he was a kid. He was sure that it was something that would benefit Alex greatly. “I really can’t risk that. For all I know, you’re criminals.”

  Alex’s eyes shot fire. “Well, fuck off then.” She turned her head away, offended.

  JT’s eyes widened at the response. Alex apparently had never had any discipline at all. Years of southern courtesy, along with more than a few trips over his dad’s knee, had instilled an innate politeness in him. Alex clearly hadn’t had the same upbringing as him.

  He could easily picture himself remedying that for her. Just the thought of putting the little troublemaker over his knee, yanking down her panties, and giving her a much needed paddling had his cock thickening.

  It was one of his most secret and shameful fantasies and he hadn’t had the opportunity to do it as much as he wanted. He liked being dominant in bed, and he especially liked the idea of disciplining his own willful woman. Not that he’d ever had a relationship like that.

  He wouldn’t dream of spanking Faith. She was too prim, too proper and would be horrified to even consider the idea. Their sex life was sedate and perfunctory. He’d had his dalliances on the side, and tried out his fantasies. While arousing, they were never really satisfying because they weren’t real.

  Alex was real. He doubted a sex life with her would be sedate. She would be wild and uninhibited. She would give him a ton of trouble as well. Trouble that he would make her pay for by disciplining her regularly. He could picture it in his head.

  Her strangely beautiful eyes would be filled with trepidation as she begged him for one more chance. She’d promise to be a good girl if he wouldn’t, but he’d be firm. He’d order her to drop her pants and her eyes would tear up, but she would do as he said. Her tiny hands would shake as she unzipped her jeans and pushed them down to her knees. Her panties would be next, pushed down even more reluctantly. But he would insist. The embarrassment of the punishment was a major part of the lesson, and paddlings in his home would always be given to a bare bottom. Then, she would lie over his lap, her bare backside poised and quivering. He’d raise his hand and…

  “Hey?” Alex snapped in front of his face. “You have a stroke? You got this fucked up zombie look going on.”

  After he was done, he’d make her stand in the corner, with a bar soap in her mouth, as an additional punishment for swearing. “Just thinking,” he answered through an incredibly dry mouth. “Maybe we could work around this background check thing.”

  Alex’s aversion to authority and background checks might work in his favor. He didn’t believe for minute she was just trying to stay off the grid. She was hiding from something and people who hid were not likely to go to the cops. If he caught her misbehaving, or doing anything he didn’t like, he’d give her a choice. He would contact the authorities or he would give her a spanking.

  She’d choose the spanking. He was sure of it. He couldn’t believe the extent he was willing to go to live out his fantasy but it was a once in a lifetime shot. He’d likely never run into the opportunity again.

  “Fine,” he finally said. “We’ll do this without background checks and paperwork. But I’ll be checking in on you guys regularly.”

  “Ok,” Alex stood and he admired her perfectly round ass as she stretched. “Let me talk it over with my friends.” She walked away and had an animated discussion with Radford, along with a strange old man who looked like a wizard. He wasn’t worried; she would say yes. He knew it.

  His prediction was accurate and when she returned, she reached out a hand to shake his. “Mr. Hussner, it looks like you got your aunt a companion.”

  JT shifted to hide his erection and smiled as he took her hand. “And little Alex is going to get some much needed discipline,” he added silently.

  He couldn’t wait for her to make a mistake.

  Chapter 5

  Alex only made it a week in his family home before he had to discipline her. He’d arrived as part of a surprise inspection, hoping to catch her in the act of misbehaving.

  He’d caught more than that. There was a naked man in his aunt’s driveway, standing outside a dilapidated VW bus. JT put the car in park and slid out of his driver’s seat. “What the hell is going on?”

  The old naked man gave him a lackadaisical smile. “Communing with nature, my man, communing with nature. When you’re kind to the kind bud, the kind bud is kind to you.”

  He was about to ask what he meant when he smelled it. It was an odor he hadn’t smelled in years, not since he’d been in college. Marijuana and it was coming from the back garden. He raced out back to find several mature pot plants, not even slightly hidden, sitting right next to his aunt’s roses and hydrangeas.

  JT stormed into the house, never so furious in his entire life. His family home was in shambles, there was a naked hippy growing weed in his backyard and…he let out a growl as his foot squished in a fresh pile of dog poop. Alex had apparently decided to adopt an entire animal pound, judging from the amount of animals he saw around him, along with what they were leaving behind. He scraped off his shoe as best he could and continued his angry march into the house.

  Alex was taking advantage of his aunt’s kindness. He berated himself for not running a background check on her and for not checking up on his aunt sooner. He was going to kill Alex. When he’d hired her, he thought he would only have to deal with a little mischief at best. Despite the fact that she had a naughty streak, he never thought she’d be the type of girl who would take advantage
of an old lady.

  He finally stumbled across Alex, who was just finishing giving a bath to a ratty looking dog in his aunt’s kitchen sink.

  “Hey JT,” she said cheerfully, as though she hadn’t destroyed his family home.

  “Where’s my aunt?”

  “She’s at the pet store with Radford. They’re buying food for the dogs.”

  “Dogs?”

  “Yeah, Althea wanted a puppy. Then we got there and it got out of hand.” Alex’s eyes got misty and she missed the anger in JT’s eyes. “I just saw their faces and I couldn’t resist, so we wound up adopting a few more than we thought.”

  “How many?”

  “Five dogs, three cats.”

  JT clenched his fists at the idea of 8 mongrel shelter animals wandering around the pristine grounds.

  “The hippy in the driveway?”

  “My friend Pennypinch. His commune got shut down.”

  He tensed even more. “How about the marijuana growing out back?”

  “Oh my God.” For a moment, Alex’s eyes got wide and JT was relieved to see she at least had some remorse. “I’m so sorry. Pennypinch was supposed to hide that.”

  Before he even knew what he was doing, JT yanked a chair out from the table. Alex put the puppy on the floor, completely missing the danger, and watched as the dog began to shake itself off. She turned in surprise as she felt JT’s hand catch the waistband of her jeans, his lips set in a thin determined line.

  ***

  “What are you…” Lexi gasped in surprise as the room spun and she realized she was suddenly staring at the floor. JT still had his hand in her waistband, only now that hand was pinning her to his lap and the other was yanking her pants down to her knees. She struggled to get free, wriggling as she felt JT’s hand on her bottom again, only this time, he was yanking down her panties too. It took Lexi’s mind a minute to connect the dots, but when it did, she realized she was about to get a spanking. “Wait, JT, no…”