Sweet Surrender

Sweet Surrender

By

Maddie Taylor

Copyright © 2015 by Stormy Night Publications and Maddie Taylor

Copyright © 2015 by Stormy Night Publications and Maddie Taylor

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Published by Stormy Night Publications and Design, LLC.

www.StormyNightPublications.com

Taylor, Maddie

Sweet Surrender

Cover Design by Korey Mae Johnson

Images by 123RF/ Blueskyimage

This book is intended for
adults only
. Spanking and other sexual activities represented in this book are fantasies only, intended for adults.

Prologue

Feeling as if she was walking on air, Jessica Swanson rushed down the stairs toward the gym where her first practice would take place. She couldn’t believe she’d made it. Her months of hard work, the hours of tumbling to perfect her back handspring, the miles of running to lose those stubborn last five pounds and the ass kissing of the senior members of the squad had all paid off. When she saw her name on the selection list, she had been ecstatic. Although she felt sorry for her friend Rachel who’d been cut, her sympathy didn’t deflate her own happiness one bit. She had wanted this so badly.

Giddily, she hopped off the last step and turned down the main corridor. She hadn’t taken more than two steps before her body jerked and her books went flying through the air. Off balance, she lurched forward, arms whirling to keep from falling. When the world righted, she glanced around, stunned. She looked from her purse, which was swinging by a strap from the handrail—the obvious culprit in this fiasco—to the mess on the floor. Textbooks lay open with bindings strained and pages bent, several tubes of lipstick still rolled slowly across the slick floor, papers sailed through the air, landing everywhere, and much to her mortification, two of her tampons touched down smack dab in the middle of the hall floor. Finally, to her utter humiliation, on the edge of the chaos was a pair of sneakers. As her eyes tracked upward, she groaned as she saw that the sneakers were attached to the legs and tight Levi’s of none other than Brandon Joseph.
Please, God, take me now!

“Jessie?”

Suddenly breathless, Jessie stared up into the long-lashed, green-eyed gaze of the cutest boy in school. A wealth of silky brown hair framed his gorgeous face, which was merely the beginning of all that was Brandon. Student body president and star running back for the Stephenson Spartans, Brandon was also the most popular boy in school and had been Jessie’s crush since eighth grade. She had no idea he knew she was alive, let alone knew her name. As she stared dumbly up at him, he scanned the floor and then bent to start scooping up her belongings.

“Let me help you with all this.”

The thought of him picking up her tampons snapped her out of her daze and she dove to the floor reaching for them. Ignoring his soft chuckle, Jessie snatched up the two plastic-wrapped tubes, along with her hairbrush and lipstick, and stuffed them into the pocket of her jeans. Her face heated to scorching as she scooped up her books and papers. As she gathered a pile of loose papers and her physics textbook, a large masculine hand appeared in front of her face, her handbag dangling by the strap from one long finger. She almost laughed aloud. What was it about men and purses that made them act as if they had cooties or something?

“What happened?”

Her eyes flew up to his face, realizing that she hadn’t said a word to him yet.

“Are you all right, Jessie? Can you say something?”

“I, um—” She stammered, trying to put together some sort of intelligent response.
Great, you sound like a moron, speak in real words, maybe a phrase or two, a complete sentence might really impress him.

“Uh, what would you like me to say?”
Oh, yeah, real smooth, Swanson.

“I don’t know, how about ‘Hey, Bran,’ or ‘Great game last night, Bran,’ or ‘Kiss my ass, Bran’… something.”

She wanted to flirt or say something witty, but that sexy dimple appeared in his cheek and distracted her. Wow! No wonder every girl in school drooled over him.

He handed her a stack of books and a tube of lipstick. “Passionate Pink, I like that.”

She gazed at it blankly. Her brain froze, but her heart urged her to say something.
You’re blowing it, dummy!

“I don’t think pink is your color.” Where had that tease come from? Some part of her brain must still be functioning. She held up the other lipstick tube, adding, “You seem more like a Peach Bellini kind of guy to me.”

He appeared puzzled for a moment before he tossed his head back and laughed.

“Thanks for helping me, Bran. I was rushing and the rail reached out and grabbed my purse.” She glanced at her watch and frowned. “Speaking of rushing, I’ve got to go. I’m late for practice.”

“Yeah, congrats on making the cheerleading squad, by the way, that’s a big deal for a sophomore.”

Jessie flushed with pleasure. It was true; she was the lone sophomore on the squad. It wasn’t a big deal; it was a huge
honkin’
deal. Some of the upperclassmen were pissed that she’d taken a senior or junior girl’s spot, but she’d earned it and totally nailed her tryout. Overnight, her social status had risen. People she barely knew were coming up to her with congratulations and now popular kids like Brandon Joseph were talking to her.

“Thanks, Bran. I’m sorry. I’ve really got to go.”

“I get it, what if we finish our conversation this weekend? We could get something to eat and go to the movies—there are a few comedies out I haven’t seen.”

“I’d like that,” she said hesitantly, with a small smile. What was going on? She’d never had this much good fortune. At least not in the past few years since her family life had fallen apart. Maybe her luck was turning.

“Great.” He wrote his number on the outside of one of her folders. “Call me when you get home tonight and you can give me your address.”

Nodding, Jessie felt her stomach clench as he walked away and then took the stairs two at a time. She stared after him for a moment. Her address… Oh, God! He couldn’t come to her place—no way! She’d simply die!

“Jessie! Are you coming?”

She looked up and saw one of the co-captains waving at her. She’d have to worry about Bran and this weekend later. With her purse, a stack of loose papers, and textbooks in her arms, she hurried to the gym for her first practice.

* * *

Sitting on her bed in her room, Jessie pored over the papers the faculty sponsor had given her as she left. Expecting to find a practice schedule and permission slip, she had been stunned to find an extensive uniform and equipment list for the varsity squad. Her eyes watered as she scanned over the prices.

2-Uniforms including liner/briefs/sports bra $400

Skills and choreography camp $250

Practice/Camp wear $100

Shoes $75

Warm-ups $125

Bows $15

Tote bag $50

Poms $35

Fees $50

Competition registration fee $75

Holy crap! The total was over $1000 and that didn’t include basketball season expenses. She had no idea it was going to be so much. She had $250 of babysitting money saved; that was all. She couldn’t ask her mom. As it was, she was working two jobs, double and extra shifts when possible just to make ends meet and keep a roof over their heads in the dump of a trailer they called home. Living paycheck to paycheck, it seemed something was always coming up or breaking down. Only last week her mom had to put the car in the shop for a fuel pump or something like that. Whatever it was, it had been costly and wiped out what little savings she had.

Jessie’s hands shook and her stomach churned as tears rolled down her face. It wasn’t fair. Ever since her dad up and left them a few years back, her life had turned to crap. Her mother had been devastated and had walked around like a zombie for months, going through the motions in order to put food on the table for her daughter.

Three years later, she was still in a funk, although who could blame her. She had tried to salvage their floundering diner, but it had been impossible by herself, even with Jessie helping when she could after school and on weekends. Filing bankruptcy and selling the business that was drowning in debt had been her only option and had left her with nothing. Now her mom worked two waitressing jobs, leaving one around three o’clock each afternoon and arriving at the other by four. When possible, Jessie would meet her for supper, not only to catch up on school, Jessie’s friends, and what was happening in her life, but because she got an employee discount. For all her hard work, Lillian Swanson had nothing to show for it, except more debt.

The door slamming caught her attention. Glancing at the clock, she saw it was 4:30 and her mom was home on a rare evening off.

“Jessie! C’mon, baby, I brought dinner.”

Wiping her tears, she took in her weepy appearance in the mirror. No way would she be able to hide her bloodshot, swollen eyes from her mother. Even though she knew it would do little good, Jessie stopped by the bathroom and splashed cool water on her face. After blowing her nose, she took a steadying breath and headed for the kitchen.

“There you are, sweetie. Tips were great today so I brought home Chinese, shrimp lo mein and sweet and sour chicken, your favorites.” Her mother’s smile faded when she caught sight of her tear-stained face. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing important,” Jessie sniffled as she went to get plates.

Her mother stopped her with a hand on her arm. “Come on now, you don’t cry, so when you do it is always something important. Tell me about it.”

“It’s cheerleading…”

“Oh, baby, I’m so sorry. I know how badly you wanted to make it.”

Jessie observed her mother closely. She was only thirty-five and had a head full of gray hair. She also had dark circles under her eyes from working from the ass crack of dawn to past midnight most nights. She couldn’t ask her to pull another shift to buy pom-poms or work another double for a cheerleading uniform. Tears of disappointment welled up.

“Sweetheart, don’t cry. There’s always next year. You said making it as a sophomore was a long shot.”

“Yeah,” she agreed. “That almost never happens.” Her voice broke and she sobbed into her mother’s shoulder.

The following day, she gave up her position on the squad. Too embarrassed to admit she couldn’t afford it, she made up some lame excuse about it being too much of a time commitment and not being able to keep up with her studies.

From there, things got worse. She went back to being a nobody, her one claim to fame that had set her apart from the other two thousand kids in her high school now gone.

Brandon Joseph showed his true colors and cancelled their date. She hadn’t really been surprised. Not that day or two weeks later when she saw him making out with a girl in the main hallway, his tongue down her throat as he plastered her up against his locker. He proceeded to grope her right there in front of everyone and Jessie wondered how far they would have gone if one of the teachers hadn’t come along and separated them. When they were peeled apart, Jessie saw that it was Rachel. Not only had she taken her place on the squad, she’d become her replacement with Brandon as well, proving the rumors true that he only went out with cheerleaders.

Rachel had no time for her after that since she didn’t run with the ‘in crowd.’ Not surprisingly, she now spent all of her time with her new friends who lived in the more affluent neighborhoods and drove fancy cars. Rachel had always been a climber, although it hurt that she had abandoned Jessie after years of close friendship. It worked out for the best, Jessie told herself, because Rachel fit in where Jessie never would have.

Walking away from something she wanted so badly was a difficult decision; even so, she’d made the sacrifice for her and her mom. She’d learned that altruistic lesson from her mother, who did that for her every day.

Her father was a different story entirely. When Jessie was little, he’d seemed so tall, strong, and protective, standing head and shoulders above other men. He was her hero, so special in her eyes that he could do no wrong. She’d thought that he loved her and her mother more than anything, that he would make any sacrifice for them out of that love. Now she wondered if he had ever really loved them.