HIS By Design -Coveting Claire (9 page)
Read HIS By Design -Coveting Claire Online
Authors: Helen Karol
Tags: #erotic romance, #bdsm, #spanking, #contemporary romance, #domestic discipline, #alpha male, #friends to lovers, #domination and bondage, #fiesty female
It's then I remember. Then I want to call
triumphantly across to Terri. “See. See. This is why. This is why
we’re resisting him.” Not because the age gap unnerves me. Not
because he's my undercover target in an investigation by a federal
special task force. Not even because he makes me sopping wet with
simply the sound of his voice. No. None of those is the reason.
There is only one reason and it's quite simply that I'm petrified
that if I allow myself to get any closer to this man, I may melt
deep, deep into him and very probably disappear.
Read the first episode of
Intimate Knowledge
or buy the boxed sets
here
“Wow! A vintage Mustang.
Nice
.”
My best friend, Lisa walks around the classic
car parked inside my neighbor, Rick’s, boathouse. She looks back
over her shoulder at me, Rick and his best buddy, Luke. She's
staying with me for the weekend and has her eye on Luke. I imagine
she'll be successful. He was the one who suggested we share a taxi
back from the Saturday town dance and was insistent we come in for
a drink before we head back to my little bungalow. He's visiting
from Boston for the weekend, but he and Rick are close enough that
he's comfortable making free with his friend’s hospitality.
Lisa looks back at the car and then gives
Rick a questioning look. “68?”
“You know your cars.” Rick is impressed, Lisa
has quadrupled in his estimation. He loves that car. It's his pride
and joy to be guarded fiercely. I’ve first-hand knowledge of that
fact.
She walks around to the front of the car.
“You restore it yourself?”
Rick nods.
“Mmm, wow, classic chrome bumper. Original?”
She bends to get a better look.
Rick nods again. He doesn’t look at me as he
flicks the light to aid her admiring inspection.
Promising numerous minor gods my first born,
I desperately pray she won’t notice.
“Oh, too bad about the dent.” She
notices.
I groan inwardly. Of course, she notices,
everybody does. Why the hell doesn’t he just get it fixed?
Because he likes to see you squirm over it,
of course, why else?
Too many margaritas from Mexican Night at the
community center make me belligerent and too full of bravado. “It’s
not really a dent, more of a little ding.” I claim recklessly.
He looks at me then. Expecting dark, stormy
recriminations, I'm surprised to see what suspiciously looks like a
quirk of his lips. My eyes fly up to his, but they're bland.
They're devoid of amusement and there's no hint of annoyance. He
must have had a shitload of margaritas of his own to be acting this
magnanimous.
He flashes Lisa a smile and what might be a
hot look. My stomach sinks when it dawns on me that his mellower
mood could be attributed to more than the margaritas. Lisa, my best
friend since we were in law school together, is very, very sexy,
especially when she's putting on the moves like she is now. I
thought it was Rick’s cop buddy from Boston homicide, Luke Kincaid,
she was interested in. I fight a sick feeling that, my neighbor and
nemesis, Detective Rick Andrews of the Lake Andrews Sheriff’s
Department, might now be the lucky man on her radar.
“How did it happen? Why not get it fixed?”
She asks him.
I gulp, willing the lake to have an
unexpected tsunami or perhaps a dark monster a la Loch Ness to
distract them. It's all I can do not to yell at Lisa and drag her
off to my small but increasingly, inviting abode next property
over, well the only property over. My little patch by the lake and
Rick’s sprawling land and comfortable lake house are the only
inhabited properties on the south side of Lake Andrews. I'm
terrified that if I don’t get her home soon, he'll volunteer
the
story.
I hold perfectly still and then relax when
Rick decides not to go there. He shrugs.
“That’s a story for another time. I’ve got
used to it. Fixes never work on originals. It would never be quite
the same. Keeps it more authentic, I guess. Besides, nothing should
be flawless, right?”
Tilting his head, he melts her with that grin
and hot chocolate gaze of his. I swear I can see Lisa’s knees
buckle. I don’t like this. I tell myself it's because I don’t think
they're a good combination, but I know that’s not true.
I am jealous.
I'm shocked at the white-hot heat of my
jealously as it sears through me. I turn and walk down the dock
straight to the water’s edge. Rocking a little drunkenly on the end
of the wooden pathway, I lean forward and peer into the midnight
black depths of the lake. Rick stiffens, Lisa no longer has his
attention. He may be flashing sexy grins at her, but he's as
intractable as ever with me.
“Get back from the end of the dock, Sara.” He
growls at me without ceremony.
“Now.” He adds sharply when I don’t
immediately react.
He lets out a frustrated breath and moves
rapidly towards me when I still fail to obey him. Picking me up by
the waist, he carries me along the length of the dock and deposits
me in the redwood swing seat on the lawn.
“Hey, what’s your problem?” I throw at him,
steadying myself as the seat rocks a little. It's the only protest
I can manage in my pleasantly drunken, jealous, and pathetically
turned–on by his caveman tactics state.
“The water’s high tonight, you’re too drunk
to swim and none of the rest of us are in any better of a state to
fish you out. Stay there and don’t move any closer to the dock. And
don’t let me see you anywhere near the water when you get home,
either.”
There's a shocked silence from Lisa and Luke
and I want to hide under the chair. Rick seems oblivious to the
atmosphere he's created and just stares down at me with a dark
look. Despite my embarrassment, I feel stupidly reassured by his
overbearing concern.
Luke coughs and Lisa finds her voice.
“Wow, bad cop. Hot!”
Read the first episode of
Her Keeper
or buy the complete book
here
Chance straightened, a determined green blaze in his
eyes, steel in his tone. “You sure know how to live up to those
flame-colored tresses of yours, missy. That’s quite an attitude you
have on you. One that’s earned you a sore spanking that’s gonna
leave that beautiful backside of yours a lot redder than your
hair.”
Despite all her pushing, the surreal nature
of what was happening astonished Tessa when he reached out and,
with one swift motion, turned her over his knee. Stunned, she
didn’t fight him. Instead, she steadied herself with one hand on
his lower thigh. Keeping her in place with his arm cinched in a
firm hold around her waist, he angled her body so she was supported
by the couch. Telling herself dignified disdain was her best route,
she buried her burning face in its soft, worn leather. Now that he
was actually following through with his threat, she’d no intention
of gracing his caveman tactics with a reaction.
Until the first smack landed.
Even through her jeans it burned atrociously.
Chance was clearly intent on getting his message across. He
systematically brought his large hand down hard, covering the
middle of each cheek with a fiery smack. Rhythmically alternating
backwards and forwards between both buttocks, he laid on the
tanning to her jeans he’d promised. A tanning that had her twisting
and turning on his knees trying to avoid it. Not that it helped
much. Chance just followed her movements, spanking relentlessly,
keeping up the tempo and force of his blows with each of her
frantic, alternating shifts across his muscled thighs.
She was soon yelping and throwing her hand
back in a dual attempt to protect her bottom and stop his blows. He
didn’t even break stride, simply blocking her movements with one
hand while the other raised such a fire in her butt it was all she
could do not to blubber like a little girl. All her bravado left
her and she was mortified to hear her own voice howling and
pleading for him to stop. “Oww! Ouch! Oh, it hurts! How can a
spanking hurt so much? Stop, Chance, stop!”
Ignoring her pleas, he changed his pattern,
spanking her thoroughly across her whole bottom randomly again and
again. Lifting one thigh, he upended her even more so he could pay
plenty of attention to her tender sit spots at the underside of her
buttocks. Finally his hand stilled. He rubbed the base of her back
and then righted her to sit on his knees. She tried to scramble
off, but he held her fast. “No, you don’t, missy. We’re not done
yet.” Taking her chin in his hands, he asked her firmly, “You want
me to stop? For your spanking to be over? Is that it, Therese
Marie?”
Rubbing her abused cheeks, she glared at him
mutinously. “How can you do this to me? You hardly know me. You
have no right.” Now she was no longer in the humiliating position
across his knee and his hard hand was no longer burning her butt,
her bravado foolishly returned.
“Wrong answer, babe.” To her horror, he
turned her back face down over his knees in the opposite direction,
resuming the spanking. In this position, from a new angle and with
his other hand, he seemed to find new spots to spank and redden, as
well as reviving the burn of his previous smacking. Unlike the last
bout, when he spanked without speaking, this time he lectured.
“No right, huh?”
Smack. Smack.
“Let me
tell you about rights.”
Crack.
“Not.”
Smack.
“Only.”
Smack.
“Do I have the right.”
Smack.
“I’ve the
responsibility.”
Smack. Crack.
“Even if there weren’t strong
feelings between us and I didn’t have serious intentions toward
you, which there are…”
Crack.
“…and I do.”
Smack.
He stopped for a few moments while Tessa lay
across his knees, squirming at the furious sting in her backside,
kicking her legs, bucking, yelping, and whimpering, any attempts at
maintaining dignity long abandoned.
Jeez
. Who’d believe it!
All those weeks of seemingly ignoring her while she crushed on him
and now, less than a day after finally getting to know her, not
only was he spanking her, but he was declaring the intensity of
their feelings and the seriousness of his intentions while doing
it!
Erotic Romances
or individual
episodes
Coveting Claire
,
Correcting Claire
,
Claiming Claire
,
Conquering Claire
,
Cherishing Claire
The Rancher’s
Woman
(Published by Stormy Night Publications)
Her Keeper – Reckless
Endangerment
or individual
episodes
Her Keeper 1 Part 1
,
Her
Keeper 1 Part 2
,
Her Keeper1 Part 3
,
Her
Keeper 1 Part 4
Her Keeper2 – individual
episodes
Her Keeper 2 Part 1 - In His
Custody
Her Keeper 2 Part 2 - In His
Custody
Her Keeper 2 Part 2aKU - In
His Custody
Her Keeper 2 Part 2bKU - In
His Custody
or individual
episodes
