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Chapter Fourteen

Shock Waves

Erin

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ICOULDN’T BELIEVEwhat was happening. I’d been at the door, ready to fucking leave, and then suddenly, he was on me, his vice-like grip making it clear I had no option but to come to heel.

Gasping when his hand struck my upturned cheeks a second time, I could hardly think, but the muscles at the apex of my sex clenched at the debilitating idea of my submission. Elihadbrought me to heel. There was no greater demonstration than the humiliating ordeal he was putting me through at that moment. I should have been fighting to be free, yet for some reason, I was just sprawled there, accepting the supposed punishment.

Why?

The question pinballed in my head just as his palm struck me again. He hadn’t been joking when he said he wouldn’t be gentle; the latest swat forced my lips to open and release the air I’d been inadvertently holding.

“I want to help you, Erin.” His voice thundered over me as though he were a dark god.

Pushed unceremoniously over his thighs and the edge of the damned chair, I guessed in a strange way, that was exactly what he was. Trapped between the insufferable weight of my indignity and the brunt of his hand, there didn’t seem to be any way I could change his mind.

Perhaps I could have kicked and screamed to get away. I could have tried to rise and fight him off, but I wasn’t an idiot. I’d seen some of his body, and even in the half-light, I had made out significant biceps and pectorals. The impact of those muscles was currently still reverberating around my poor ass, so I, better than most, acknowledged how strong he was.

I’ll never be able to overpower or outrun him.

Resistance is all but useless.

The weight of his free hand at the small of my back warned me just how futile the protest would be.

Hewouldcatch me, and then what would happen? My throat dried as yet another smack landed on my poor defenseless ass. If he reacted to me shouting at him with an impromptu spanking, then what would the penalty be for an attempted ‘escape’?

A shiver rushed through me as I contemplated what that meant. The idea that I evenhadto escape chilled me to my bones, but there I was, face down on his lap and receiving my so-called penance.

“AndI willhelp you.” His voice rumbled through me like the resonance of an electric bass guitar. “But there are rules.”

Rules?

What did he mean by that? A torrent of fresh smacks rained down on me, obliterating the question as my fingers clawed at the wooden floor.

Fuck, this hurts!

Writhing over him, one of my hands rose to try and protect my behind, but the palm pressed against my back caught my wrist and hiked it up toward my shoulder blades.

“Please!” I didn’t know what I’d expected when he’d pulled me down and promised me a spanking, but it hadn’t been pain as intense as that. Whatever I’d done, I didn’t deserve it. “Please, Eli!”

“You can’t be begging again already.” He sighed theatrically, delivering a succession of fast swats while I thrashed over him. “We’re nowhere near done yet, little girl.”

Wait, what?

I stilled in the haze of my discomfort and embarrassment. Had he just called me ‘little girl’?

That couldn’t be right, could it? I was closer to fifty years old than forty, and while I’d once been a slim young thing, there was definitely nothing ‘little’ about me anymore. I was a grown woman with curves in all the right places.

“I can’t hear you.” His hand struck me again, that time focusing the hurt on the place where my ass met my thighs. I inhaled at the change of tack. Somehow, the new location hurt even more. “Are you begging me?”

“No!” I screamed, trying to twist and catch his gaze. In truth, I had been pleading, but I wasn’t going to bloody admit it. “But it hurts!”

“Good.” In the brief moment I caught sight of him, he looked irritatingly smug.

Fucker.

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