Kyle’s Bargain (10 page)

Both networks slanted it as a human-interest story—the
developer with a conscience. Each rolled sound bites from his remarks and then
clips from their interviews with Meg. He never liked listening to himself talk,
though he couldn’t pinpoint any real problems with it. His voice didn’t crack
or squeak and he managed to sound coherent if not charismatic. It just didn’t
seem like him, somehow. He felt as though he watched an actor playing himself
and not getting it quite right.

Meg, on the other hand, carried off her part like a born PR
person. She was pleasant, articulate, patient and gave just the right impression
of an ordinary person caught up in an unusual situation. She didn’t gush or
rave and her praise of his consideration and generosity came across as more
genuine as a result. She admitted it had taken some doing to get him to talk to
her about the issues, but she understood he was a busy man with a tight
schedule. When she showed him the problem, he acted to do something about it.

Laurie clung to her side throughout, giving the camera an
occasional shy smile when it focused on her, but Meg tried to emphasize that
all of the remaining tenants had problems that would make relocating a hardship
at best.

All in all, he doubted it could have come across any better.
She didn’t paint him as a saint or a hero, just a man who seemed to be trying
to do the right thing at no little cost to himself. She did make that clear.
Kyle was making a considerable sacrifice to accommodate the needs of the
remaining tenants in the center.

It might just work. In fact… He’d have to consult Jana about
it on Monday, but he had an idea for a partnership with the banks throwing in
more credit in return for becoming part of the “Development With a Heart”. The
more he thought about it, the better he liked it, so he ended up calling Jana
at home to run the idea by her.

“‘Development with a Heart’?” she repeated. “A bit trite,
but I like the general idea. We might rephrase the tag line to something like
‘Development that works for and with people’.” She sighed. “That’s not quite
right either, but let me work on it.”

He played golf with his partner Gary, Gary’s brother Tom and
one of Tom’s business partners the next morning. He got some gentle ribbing
from them about showing up on the news as a softie and a bleeding heart, but
the general opinion was positive. They invited him to go to dinner with them
that evening, but he declined. Kyle managed to stay vague about who he was
meeting instead.

Driving back from the golf course, he stopped to pick up
flowers for Meg then debated about a gift for Laurie. He kind of doubted she’d
appreciate roses as much as her sister would, but he wasn’t sure what kind of
dietary restrictions she might have. To settle it, he fished out his cell phone
and dialed her number.

“Yes, you can bring her candy,” Meg said when he asked if it
would be appropriate for Laurie. “She’s actually very good about knowing that
she has to space out sweets. But she’d love you forever for it.”

The small catch on the end of the sentence worried him. He
could guess the reason for it and wondered where it would lead her. How far
would she go to protect her sister from a potential broken heart? Further than
she would to shield herself?

“I’ll see you in a little while,” he said before he ended
the call.

When she answered, “I’m looking forward to it,” he all but
sighed in relief.

He went home to shower and shave before he drove to her
apartment. Meg opened the door for him, looking wonderful in dark slacks and a
deep green silky top that brought out green sparks in her hazel eyes. Of course
she’d look just as terrific out of that top. He shrugged that image away for
later and handed the flowers to her.

Laurie was right behind Meg. The girl grinned at him and
extended her hand.

He tried to frown in disappointment. “What? I don’t get a
hug this time? We’re private, so it’s okay. Isn’t it, Meg?”

She flashed him a worried glance that changed quickly to a
smile. “Yes, it’s okay.”

Laurie wasted no time. She charged at him, wrapped her arms
around his waist and hugged for all she was worth. He squeezed her back. There
was something so simply elementally charming about the girl’s enthusiasm that
he couldn’t resist it. When he finally released himself and handed her the box
of candy, she beamed at him, hugged it to her and then wrapped him up again
with the box between their bodies.

“Thank you, Mr. Harrison, thank you so much!” Her unabashed
joy touched him.

“You and your sister were a very big help to me yesterday,
so I wanted to thank you.”

Meg lifted her nose from the bouquet of flowers. “Did it
work?”

“Don’t know yet. I’ll tell you more over dinner.”

He took her to his favorite restaurant, which served a
sophisticated and seasonally adapted American cuisine. Over wine and a shared
appetizer of crabmeat-stuffed mushrooms, he explained his idea of pitching his
project as “Development With a Heart”.

Meg thought about it. “Could work,” she said. “Your tag line
probably needs to be more subtle, but it seems like it’s a viable angle.”

“That’s pretty much what my PR person said.”

“We’re both geniuses, obviously.”

They spent some time batting around ideas for marketing the
development to his business partners and to the public. When their meals
arrived, though, he switched the subject to movies they’d seen and liked. Due
to the constraints of her sister’s care, Meg didn’t get out to the theater
often, but she’d watched a lot of them on her DVD player.

They found they liked the same kinds of movies, had similar
tastes in music, but didn’t read the same books at all. The conversation was
lively, interesting and again she had him laughing often with her sometimes wry
way of viewing the world and everyone in it.

She didn’t start showing signs of nervousness until they
were back in his car and on the way to the house, but he was dealing with his
own concern. He planned to tell her about his needs and about Rick and Lindy
later that evening. The trip was made mostly in silence, but he didn’t find it
uncomfortable. He appreciated that Meg was at ease with it as well and didn’t
feel obliged to fill it with chatter.

Once at his place, he led her straight to the guest room.
“No point in putting it off,” he said. “Let’s get it over with so you can
relax. Strip and get on the bed, facedown.”

Meg bit her lip then nodded sharply and began removing her
clothes. No striptease this time. She took each garment off quickly and laid them
neatly on the chair in the corner. While she took off her shoes, Kyle went
across the hall to his bedroom and dug a light leather paddle from his “toy”
box.

By the time he returned she lay on the bed on her stomach
with her head turned toward the door. Her gaze focused on what he carried and
her eyes widened.

He nodded, but hoping to check her incipient panic, he said,
“I’m going to give you a few with this and then we talk about it. But first,
you remember why this is happening?”

She swallowed so hard he heard it. “Yes. For virtually
kidnapping you to make you listen to me. It was wrong and I knew it.”

“Right. Get ready.”

She closed her eyes and turned her head away. Muscles all
along her body tightened, drawing his attention to the graceful line made by
the side of her breast, narrow waist, round hip and sweetly curved buttock.

He shifted his grip on the paddle, raised it and brought it
down smartly on her right ass cheek. On contact it made a sharp but not loud
crack and left a faint pink ribbon on the flesh. She drew in a breath but more
from surprise than pain. He smacked a little harder on the other cheek and this
time she didn’t even flinch.

He spanked each side one additional time. The center of each
cheek showed shadings of pink already fading at the edges. He couldn’t resist
rubbing over the area. It felt slightly rough, in delightful contrast to the
smooth, sleek skin surrounding it. She squirmed at his touch and moaned…not in
pain, however. A sheen of moisture between her thighs gave evidence of the
effect those spanks had on her.

“Was that too harsh?” he asked.

She lifted her head and turned toward him. “No. It stung,
but not really very much.”

“You could take a lot more, couldn’t you?”

Meg gave a harsh laugh. “I must be crazy. But yes.”

“This is supposed to be a punishment, so I’m going to spank
you until it hurts. But here’s the deal. You have to tell me when it’s enough.
I expect you to realize it’s punishment and you have to endure more than you
want, but I won’t make you take any more than you think necessary.”

Her eyes widened. “That’s… cruel. Diabolical, even.”

He shrugged. “I set the terms. You say ‘stop’ and I stop. If
you say ‘wait’, I’ll stop and wait until you’re ready to start again. Got it?”

She sighed and nodded. “Got it.”

“Good. Get ready.”

She turned away and tensed up again. He raised the paddle
and smacked it down on her bottom, not very hard at first but spanking more
harshly as he continued. For the first dozen or so she flinched occasionally
but made no sound or effort to avoid the strokes. Her bottom turned pink and
then darkened to rose where he’d spanked several times on the same spots. He
tried to spread them out more, covering most of her cheeks. After half a dozen
more she began to gasp with each slap of the paddle. Welts started to swell,
though they faded again almost as quickly.

Taking careful aim, he brought the leather down sharply on
the crease between her bottom and thighs. She gave a shrill squeal then settled
down to a series of panting moans and began to squirm.

“Stay still,” he ordered sharply. “I don’t want to miss and
hit somewhere I might damage something.”

She drew in a deep breath and managed to settle herself. He
started again with the paddle, going over as much of the surface as he could
safely reach. He struck harder, raising more welts and painting red stripes
over the already rough, flushed surface. She cried out louder and her hands
fisted in the coverlet as she struggled to keep still.

Kyle would have stopped there if it had been left up to him.
Her bottom had a nice red glow with a few lines and a couple of spots that
might form small bruises, but on the whole it hadn’t been too severe. However,
he’d turned the decision on when to end it over to her, and now the strength of
will that kept her enduring more both thrilled and alarmed him.

He spanked a few more times and while she moaned, tensed and
even arched her body again, she didn’t tell him to stop. When he slapped the
paddle down on the crease between thighs and bottom, she jumped and gave a long
groan. She rocked side to side for a moment but still didn’t say anything more.

Another spank on the same spot pulled her bottom up off the
bed and drew a shrill squeal. Finally she said, “That’s enough. Stop, please!”

He set the paddle down on the dresser top. Meg continued to
bounce and rock while the site of his last two spanks got very red. But the
sheen between her legs had spread and he could smell the perfume of her
arousal.

She calmed as he put both palms on the hot, rough skin of
her buttocks and she sighed as he began to caress it. Her breath got faster
when he ran a palm down her thigh and back up, letting one finger lap over the
side and brush up between her legs.

Before that went too far, though, he stopped and stepped
back. “I know you’re turned-on,” he said, “But I want you to remember this as
punishment, not foreplay, so right now you’re going to give me the massage you
also owe me.”

Meg nodded and her fingers tightened in the coverlet for a
moment before she rolled over and struggled to sit up. She winced as her bottom
touched the coverlet, though he doubted he’d left many bruises to plague her
later. She’d be sore for a bit but it would fade quickly.

She stood with no trouble and waited while he stripped down
to his boxers and stretched out on the bed. Her hands stroked over his back,
seeking with gentle fingers the places where his muscles had tightened. It
didn’t take much searching. He knew all too well how tense his shoulders and
neck felt.

Some of that tension rose from his qualms about the things
he had to tell her this evening and how she might react to them. More of it
came from the doubts about whether he could pull off the financing for the
changes to the plans for the shopping center. His father’s reaction contributed
its own bit of muscle-clenching anger and doubt.

After exploring for a few moments, Meg began to knead the
bunched muscles right at the base of his neck, digging into them with her
fingers, massaging and stroking just as he’d shown her. She worked over his
shoulders for quite a while, pounding and pressing, smoothing down his back
occasionally, kneading until the tightness finally released and he began to
relax.

He drew a deep breath and released it on a long exhale.
“You’ve been doing this a lot longer than twenty minutes.”

“I wasn’t watching the clock. You were really tight.”

“I know. But it feels much better now. How do you feel?”

“Arms ache a bit,” she admitted. “I’m not used to that…
Oh—you mean my bottom? It’s fine. I barely feel anything there now.”

He turned to look up at her. “We need to warm it up again?”

A flush spread across her cheeks. “Um…not sure.”

Kyle levered himself up to a sitting position. “Sounds like
a ‘yes’ to me.”

He grabbed her wrist and pulled her down over his lap,
bottom up, but he moved back far enough that she actually lay on the bed. The
skin of her lovely, shapely ass showed only the faintest tinge of pink
remaining from the earlier spanking. The color deepened the first time he
slapped his hand down on it, sharply but not hard. Meg jumped and moaned, but
that sound didn’t suggest pain.