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  “Whether you have determined that it’s safe is irrelevant.” There was the steel she’d felt was always waiting to underscore his statements, no matter how tender his tone. “The law forbids passing on a double yellow line, even if you knew there was no traffic coming in the other lane for the next ten miles, doesn’t it?”

  Tessa frowned so severely that he found it hard not to chuckle at her, but he managed to keep himself under control. “Well, I suppose if you put it that way,” she agreed with obvious reluctance.

  “And although I don’t believe that there are any laws against directing obscene gestures at other drivers -”

  Damn! He had remembered! She began worrying her lower lip again, not daring to peek up at him.

  “I don’t consider that to be acceptable behavior for a lady.”

  Tess did lift her head at that, opening her mouth to reply something about how sauces for geese and ganders ought to be pretty much the same, but he beat her to it. “Or a gentleman, for that matter.”

  “But -”

  She was never able to finish that sentence, because as he was talking; he had dropped gracefully down onto the subtly-patterned loveseat behind him, bringing her down with him - not to sit down beside him, as she’d assumed, but instead to be carefully, firmly positioned over his lap, which she was humiliated to find gave him a bird’s eye view of her much-too-ample bottom as it was forced into embarrassing prominence.

  Sean didn’t wait in the least before delivering five cracking swats to that well-rounded bottom, making Tessa wish she’d worn a Kevlar skirt, instead of hauling out one of her good linen skirts for him.

  “Hey, cut that out! You can’t spank me just because you’re an abominably slow driver!”

  His hand claimed the entirety of her bottom before swatting her again. “Let me think about that for a moment.” Sean continued to rain down crisp, hard swat after swat. “No, I think you just might be wrong about that, Tessa.”

  Sarcasm noted, damn him! “Stop – Sean – ow! That really hurts!”

  “I know. It’s supposed to hurt, to help you remember not to endanger your life – as well as the lives of others – by driving so recklessly. And also not to make obscene gestures at people you don’t know, no matter what the perceived provocation.”

  She knew it was the absolute wrong thing to do, but Tessa couldn’t keep herself from issuing a derisive snort at that speech. It just sounded abominably pompous.

  Then she felt his hands go to her hips and her skirt beginning to rise slowly up her thighs. She tried to remember some of her gymnastic moves from junior high to help her slide off his lap, but Sean didn’t intend to allow her to get away that easily. He simply wrapped his free arm over her lower back, effectively blocking any escape.

  Tessa now found herself unable to move in any direction. Once he had better control of her, he managed with alarming ease to elevate the hem of her skirt to meet its waistband, leaving her bottom - clad in pantyhose with tiny pink bikini bottoms beneath them – even more defenseless against his discipline. Not that her skirt had been much of a defense, but at least it had been some kind of layer between her bottom and his hard, calloused hand.

  Without missing a beat, he continued to spank her. She had thought that the beginning was bad! That was nothing in comparison to this atrociously intimate position, with his hand covering nearly every inch of her skin with every loud smack, the unfamiliar sound ringing in the air time after time as he continued to chastise her for her misbehavior.

  How could she possibly have thought she wanted this? Now that it was happening Tessa decided it wasn’t sexy or hot or titillating in the least, damn it! Her backside felt as if it were being slow-roasted over an open fire, and he wasn’t showing any signs of stopping - or even slowing. Sean had covered every area of her butt five or six times over before he brought his palm down onto the back of her sensitive thighs - first one then the other.

  The shock of this new assault sent her into spasms of screaming with every blow – not that it helped her in the least. She wasn’t sure which was worse – swats to the backs of her thighs, which had been relatively untouched for a while, but was an area that she hadn’t counted on him smacking at all, or her already well worked-over rear end, which was more suited to a spanking, but was already ultra-tender, sore and swollen.

  By the time he stopped, she was a mess from crying and hoarse from screaming. There was a big wet stain on the loveseat from where her tears had drenched the cushion. She was sniffling and sobbing and breathing in that jagged, rough manner that told him that she had learned the lesson he had been trying to impart. Hopefully.

  He didn’t let her up immediately. Sean hadn’t spanked a lot of women. He could count the number on one hand, in fact; he was, as he’d told her when they first met, very particular about his women, and had rarely indulged in one night stands. They just didn’t work for him. He wanted more from his woman. He wanted this, right here – her lying across his lap, still trying to cope with the punishment he had seen fit to deliver, looking soft and sexy and feminine.

  He’d had that. Once upon a time in his life, he had had exactly what he’d wanted, and he had been bursting with happiness the entire time. They were dirt poor, but they were together, and she had reveled in this type of relationship as fully as had he. Sean ruthlessly dragged himself away from those memories. Dwelling in the past did him absolutely no good. He was grateful for those times with Deanna, and he would love her till the day he died. But she wasn’t here any more.

  Tessa was, much to his amazement. Now to find out whether she was going to file charges against him.

  Chapter Three

  He might have been a bit heavy-handed, but it was just a feeling he had in his gut about her. She radiated all the right signals for a woman who knew what they needed – and he was just the man to give it to her, whether she wanted it or not, and not do a halfhearted, playful job of it. Sean sensed that she needed someone who wasn’t going to back away from being strict with her. She wouldn’t confess exactly that; situations like this were never that easy, because who would actually say that, occasionally, they desperately needed to have their bottom blistered? That they really needed to be held firmly accountable for their behavior?

  “So,” he began, still not allowing her to get up but keeping her in place over his lap with nothing more than a big hand on the small of her back. He didn’t need anything more. Tessa wasn’t going to move until he allowed it, regardless. She knew she couldn’t tolerate any more attentions to her bottom, although she did realize, to her great surprise, that, although her butt throbbed and stung horribly, it wasn’t the only part of her lower body that was aching. The noticeable throbbing between her legs was as intense as the discomfort settling into her thighs and bottom.

  Damn. From that very first swat, she was thoroughly convinced that being spanked was the not what she’d wanted, despite its omnipresence in her fantasies. It just hurt too damned much. Didn’t it? But now that he’d finally stopped, her libido was getting a chance to catch up, and was doing so with a vengeance. She found herself desperately wanting to rub herself against the large bulge she could feel beneath her tummy, and although she swore she wasn’t going to do that, she was entirely helpless against the urge to arch and moan, hoping against hope that he would think it was because of the spanking he had just delivered, and not the real reason.

  His scolding tone somehow only made it all much, much worse.

  “The first rule I’m going to give you is that you’re to obey all traffic laws and signs. That means no speeding, no disregarding double yellow lines, and no flipping off people that annoy you.”

  “That’s not a law!” she pointed out a bit more vehemently than she had intended, trying to twist around so that she could see his face.

  “It is for you, Tessa, and I’m not kidding, as you may have noticed. You got a baby spanking for this infraction – although I really should have taken off my belt and strapped you good.”
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br />   Her lower body clenched rhythmically, swelling and straining at every word, and the manner in which he was saying it, most especially at the word “strapped.”

  Wait a minute. Her mind finally managed to wrest control from her crotch for a second or two. Had he just said that this was a “baby spanking,” as in the implication that it was somehow shorter and lighter than a real spanking?

  “A baby spanking?” she repeated incredulously.

  “Yes. You don’t think that I’m going to allow you to keep your stockings and panties on for a real spanking, do you?”

  “Hell yes – I mean,” realizing that she had blown it from the beginning of this conversation, when she should have been completely outraged at his assault and threatening to call the cops on him. Instead she had acquiesced – consciously or unconsciously – as if she was going to accept this as a regular part of their budding relationship. And she wasn’t. . . was she?

  “I mean, let me up. I should call 9-1-1 and have you arrested.”

  He heard the threats, but didn’t believe them in the least. There was absolutely no conviction in her tone. “So you’re going to let them take pictures of your backside – which has imprints of my palm as well as my fingers all over it - as evidence against me?”

  She hadn’t thought of that. She hadn’t thought her claim through at all, because she knew she wouldn’t go through with it, regardless. How could she possibly send him to jail when she’d finally found someone who would give her exactly what she had been craving all her life?

  “Uh . . . yes.”

  He didn’t sound convinced by anything she was saying. “Uh huh.” He surprised her just then by slipping his fingers under the waistband of her pantyhose, then moved them down between her panties and her hot, sore flesh. He reached between her already slightly-parted legs to cup her with the same hand with which he had just given her very first adult spanking.

  Now she protested in earnest, not that sincerity of purpose won her any more success. He still had that arm clamped around her waist, and wasn’t allowing her to go anywhere until he was finished. “Shhhhh. I’m not going to hurt you. I just want to see . . .” As gently as he could, he insinuated two of his fingers into that warm, moist place, parting the swollen lips he found there and delving past them to the spot he sought, discovering just what he’d hoped to find. She was drenched.

  He boldly dipped into that copious tribute, bringing his slickened fingers back up to the tight little bud he found at the apex of her thighs. It was already badly distended, as if actively seeking just the touch he brought. One long, slow circle of those rough, wet fingertips over that achingly peaked nub had her groaning, and it wasn’t from the fire he’d set in her bottom, either.

  But he allowed her no more than that, pulling his hand away and rearranging her clothes, even tugging her slim skirt down over her bottom as she drew in a sharp breath at the rasp of the material over her roasted cheeks.

  He helped her to sit up next to him. “There. That’s quite enough for tonight.”

  “No it isn’t!” Tessa fairly wailed, her crotch now throbbing more than her butt, although a few minutes ago she would have sworn that that wasn’t possible. He made as if to tip her back over his lap, saying, “You need more of a spanking, then? I can do that.”

  “NO! No more spanking!”

  Sean wouldn’t allow her to look away from him as he asked, “So what is it that you’d like more of?” His directness made her blush more than she had ever in her life. She wanted to look at anything but him while she answered, but he wouldn’t allow it. “Uh . . . well . . . um . . .”

  “Spanking it is then.” She found herself over his lap again before she knew it.

  “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! That’s not what I want!”

  He didn’t let her up. “You’ll find I require you to ask for what you want, Tessa. You said that ‘it’ wasn’t enough for the night. To what ‘it’ were you referring?”

  Tessa groaned on a sigh, barely able to comprehend that he expected her to tell him that what she wanted was for him to touch her intimately, that he had left her hanging, and she was finding the idea of his not bringing her to completion something she wasn’t at all sure she could survive.

  Her delayed response to him brought a round of sharp swats that had her rear fairly dancing beneath his palm.

  “All right, all right! It wasn’t enough when you . . . you . . . touched me.”

  “Ahhhh.” He completely agreed with her – his fingers were aching to explore her more thoroughly – but she didn’t need to know that. “I see. But we’re not going to sleep together tonight, so I don’t think that would be a very good idea.” He said it, even though he knew that he was going find it very hard to get to sleep himself when he hit his own cold, lonely bed.

  Once he’d helped her back up, Sean took her into his arms and held her tight. “There’s no need to rush into anything. I rather like the anticipation myself.” He kissed her slowly, deeply, but with unabashed desire, then pulled a bit back to say, “You understand, of course, that you’re not allowed to do anything about how much you ache, right, Tessa?”

  What? He was out of his mind if he thought she was going to forego the orgasm she had been promising herself since they’d met! “But -”

  “No touching yourself.” Sean tapped the end of his index finger against the tip of her nose. “Am I making myself perfectly clear?”

  All Tessa could do in response was groan – loudly. He reached under her skirt and cupped the place that was driving her crazy. Not trying to finger her, not doing anything more than holding the heart of her possessively in the palm of his hand. “Say, ‘Yes, Sir’.”

  She didn’t want to say, “Yes, Sir,” like a good girl. Tess wanted to stick her tongue out at him instead, but she couldn’t think with his hand where it was. No cogent thought entered her mind, so she surrendered – much too easily, she would realize, when she played the scene back in her mind later. She did as she was told.

  “Yes, Sir.”

  Sean nodded approvingly, withdrawing his hand and triggering another long, low groan of complaint from her. “Good girl. Now I’m going to go before I get in over my head. But I want to see you again tomorrow night.” He paused. “Remember,” he said, giving her a very stern look, “what you’ve been told not to do.”

  Still floating on a cloud of hazy, hot lust, Tessa couldn’t even begin to think clearly before she agreed eagerly. Anything to have him near her soon, with his authoritative voice and words, and his teasing fingers.

  Of course, his restriction only made it just that much harder to crawl into bed and not do what she had been prohibited from doing. Previously, she hadn’t been able to get herself to do it, and now – since he’d said she couldn’t – it was all she wanted.

  “Did you touch yourself last night after I left?” It was the first thing he said to her once they were sequestered in the cab of his pickup the next night. Tessa had gotten close to pouting because he was being a stubborn pain in the ass, and he wanted to draw her out, knowing that that was the kind of outrageous question that would do all the work for him.

  She had invited him in while she balanced out the cash drawer and did all the nighttime chores involved in shutting her place down. He declined, chiding her that she shouldn’t be allowing any strange man into her store after hours, even him, since she didn’t know him that well. Tessa had barely managed to keep herself from rolling her eyes at him, but did as he asked, locking him out of the store and herself in so she could return to her duties and get them done efficiently.

  Sean leaned up against the brick wall to wait; it was the first time in a very long while that he craved a cigarette. He’d picked up that awful habit when he was in high school, but had kicked it in his early twenties. Waiting for her like this, however, his body already halfway to satisfaction just at the sight of her, had him wishing for something to do with his hands.

  Besides, what he wanted to do - which, considering that the
y were only on their second date, as well as their second day of knowing each other - was much too intimate to be contemplated. Getting to know her much better – and much, much more intimately – was just about the only thing he had been able to think about since he’d heard her give her order to Helen in the coffee shop.

  He didn’t look up until she came out, regarding her hungrily. The look on his face telegraphed his intentions so clearly that Tessa halted in mid-stride, sucking in a quick breath, wondering to herself whether they were even going to make it to dinner!

  As he strode towards her, she took several tentative steps towards him, ending up engulfed in those muscular arms, held tight against him; there was absolutely no mistaking what was poking insistently into her lower belly as he lowered his head to hers.

  Damn he was a good kisser! – just the right pressure, not too wet, and with just the right amount of tongue, which she did her best to emulate. By the time he lifted his head, she didn’t give a damn whether they ever made it to dinner.