Page 21 of Flog Me, Sir

Chapter Seven

Lissa

Ifought off wincing at the brush of my skirt against my sore ass, lest I reveal to the Laurents and their remaining guests what had transpired between me and Garret in the woods. Mrs. Hummel caught me—and gave me a wink—but I ignored her while readying to take plates to the dining room.

Without extra hired hands for the evening, it fell to me to help Mrs. Hummel with dinner, and I feared what and who sat beyond the revolving door.

Face hot and body flaming, I pushed through, my focus on the tray I held and the side table where I would relieve myself of my burden. I didn’t peruse the table. Didn’t glance around to find Garret among the handful of people chatting and lightly laughing.

I felt his stare, though.

Shivers pebbled my skin, and I began serving one plate at a time, invisible and ignored while setting plates in front of two of the Laurents’ guests. I retrieved two more plates and returned to the table, the scent of Garret’s cologne, the scent of him I recognized as much as the hand resting on his thigh, sweeping over me.

“Thank you,” he rumbled his quiet words as I set a plate before him.

Warmth skittered through me—over me—and I shivered once more, but kept my focus on the floor.

Adam and Lily along with one other man I hadn’t noticed the night before also offered their thanks, and I returned to the kitchen a final time with an empty tray, refusing to dwell on the fact I served rather than sat at their table.

I might be a friend with benefits to one of their guests, but I would never be a true friend, the type who shared meals as they did. The kind of friend who went to movies and bars, played cards and binged TV shows. Heart heavy, I wiped the tray even though I hadn’t dirtied it, while Mrs. Hummel put finishing touches of mint leaves and carved strawberries on perfectly sliced pieces of homemade cheesecake she’d baked earlier that day.

I returned to the dining room with a pitcher of ice water, refilling guests’ glasses as needed, forcing myself to focus on my job rather than the man who had taken my virginity. He’d also taken the possibility of finding satisfaction with anyone else.

Oddly, that truth didn’t bother me one bit.

Stationed by the side table, I finally looked around the table. Took in the people once more bejeweled and dressed to the nines. A black suit hugged Garret’s shoulders, and I fought off the need to stare at the perfection of him. His face. His sexy rumpled hair. The full lips my own tingled with want to kiss again.

The strong, large hands lifting fork, knife, and water glass, the palms and fingertips that mirrored the marks on my ass I hadn’t been able to keep from staring at in the small hand-held mirror up in my bedroom.

While I had expected a spanking to remind me of my childhood, not one second of stinging pain from his hand landing on me took me back in time. The first couple of swats hadn’t exactly felt good, but being over his lap, hearing him check in with me, the memory of his kiss still on my lips had morphed that sting into a luscious burn deep inside me, the one a woman focused on in hopes it would flare to life and consume their soul.

I bit my lip and lifted my attention to Garret’s face. He stared at me, his eyes dark and full of lust, the promise he’d made to make things good for me.

My panties grew damp, and even though an ache lingered between my thighs from the thickness of his cock, I wanted him there again. Craved the connection I felt when he held still deep inside my body and stared into my eyes. I longed almost with madness to have his hands on me again.

The dinner hour dragged, and until the party retired to the living area Lily had decorated like an old Victorian parlor, I needed to change my underwear. Unable to escape upstairs, I opted to just remove the damn things, knowing they wouldn’t be on me long once I stepped foot into the stone church taunting me from the wood line anyway.

“If’n you’re wantin’ that boy, go tell him,” Mrs. Hummel said with a chuckle while I wiped up the last of the dishes.

“Just walk right in and announce it to the entire room?” I asked and snorted. “I’m afraid he wouldn’t appreciate being embarrassed in such a way.”

We had exchanged numbers—and he’d told me he would text me once free to meet me at the church. The waiting sucked, but at least I had chores to keep me busy.

“You could always whisper...” Mrs. Hummel said rather than declare I was good enough for her boy, that if he wanted me half as much as I did him, that he wouldn’t care I announced it to his peers.

“I’m afraid that wouldn’t be appropriate, either,” I said and heaved a sigh while hanging up the dish towel to dry. “I guess I’ll head upstairs.”

I slipped through the door before she could argue with me, deciding I might as well take advantage of the free time to change into something a bit sexier than my black skirt and white shirt.

My cell dinged before I made it halfway up the back stairs leading to the staff’s wing.

Perfection Personified: Ten minutes. I want you naked and on your knees.

Oh, God. I gulped, and my fingers shook while texting back a seemingly appropriate reply for the evening ahead: Yes, Sir.

---