"Thank you."
He did exactly as she suggested, and Anna gathered his things and popped them into the dryer.
Unfortunately, although breakfast was ready, his clothes were not, by the time he finished, and he stepped out of the bathroom, unapologetically wearing just a towel.
It wasn't as if she hadn't seen him like that – and in much less, actually.
He sat down at the head of the table as if he ate there every day, and she gave him the bowl of fruit, granola and plain yogurt he liked, while she was going to tuck into bacon and eggs.
As she handed him a bowl, he noticed a huge bruise on her arm. "What's this, baby girl?"
She didn't bother to object to his use of that nickname, which she happened to particularly like.
"Oh, I fell down the stairs the other morning when it was wet. You know how clumsy I can be."
Suddenly, she found herself sitting on his lap, his lips pressed very gently to the huge black and blue. "I'm sorry. You need to be more careful." Then he caught her eyes and said, "The only bruises you should ever be sporting are from a good, hard spanking."
Anna's breath caught audibly in her throat at his words and the blatantly sexual look in his eye.
His mouth found hers, then her cheeks and neck and ears, as if he was starving for her as he muttered, "I told myself I was going to wait for you. That I wasn't going to push myself on you or make you uncomfortable or do anything that would drive you away from me again."
Dev stood with her in his arms and headed for her bedroom, keeping his eyes on hers the entire time as he lowered her feet to the ground right next to the bed, sliding her body down his at the same time and making them both shudder violently. His eyes were wet and his voice was husky as he said, "If you don't want this, if you don't want me to make love to you twenty times a day for the rest of our lives. If you don't want me to spank you when I think you need it or worry about you all the time or apologize to you five hundred times a day for ever having hurt you in any way, then tell me now, and I'll do my best to respect your decision. Because your happiness is everything to me, Anna, I would be a completely happy man to spend the rest of my life trying humbly to prove that very thing to you. I never believed in love until you, and now that I know what it is, I want it so badly with you. I know I've hurt you horribly, but is there any feeling for me left in you, besides hate?"
"I don't hate you, Dev. I never have. Oh, I wasn't very fond of you there for quite a while, but I've never hated you."
His mouth claimed hers desperately as his hands sought and found the openings to her garments and, soon, she was naked in his arms, where she belonged, looking soft and small and more hesitant than he would have liked at the prospect of making love with him.
And then she sealed his fate to hers, by looking up at him with those crystal clear green eyes of hers and saying what he'd been drying to hear her say but had pretty much given up hope of ever hearing.
"I love you, Dev. I think I always have, even when I propositioned you and did my best not to, I loved you." Anna reached up and put her arms around his neck, asking softly as her fingers found the short hairs at the back of his neck, "Make love to me, please, Dev."
But he surprised her by leaving her at that crucial moment to run out of the house, then back in again – naked, having long since jettisoned the towel.
"What was that?" she asked, just a bit peeved at having been abandoned.
Until he showed her what he had retrieved from the car.
The ring box.
"Tinkerbell Valente, will you be my wife?" he asked, holding up the ring to her.
Anna bit her lip and waited a beat that nearly gave him a heart attack before saying, "Yes, please!"
Afterwards, when he had her clamped up against him again where she belonged, he asked, trying to be casual about it, "So, who did you go out with?"
Playing coy, Anna fluffed the bedclothes and said, "Go out with?"
"Yeah. I asked you out for Friday night, but you said you had other plans. Plans with whom?"
Anna tried not to laugh and snorted instead. "No one."
Dev, remembering the hell he'd gone through, sat up and leaned intimidatingly over her. "No one?"
She shook her head, still giggling. "Nope. I said I had plans. I didn't say 'with someone'. I stayed home and binge watched Breaking Bad on Netflix."
And that was how she ended up over his lap that morning, getting her bottom swatted.
The End
Carolyn Faulkner
The words “spanking” and “discipline” have always sent a shiver up Carolyn Faulkner's spine. She knows she's not alone.
Writing started as a way to explore her feelings. Soon short stories flowed from her pen featuring reluctant heroes taking the leading lady in hand, but always for her own good.
Today Carolyn is the author of dozens of books. She writes from her home in Maine, where she lives with her husband and leading man.
You can read an interview with Carolyn here:
http://www.blushingbooks.com/blog/?p=175
You may check out her website while it’s under construction here:
http://www.carolynfaulkner.com
Don’t miss these exciting titles by Carolyn Faulkner and Blushing Books!
Series books
Adored series
Adored, Book 1
Tessa’s Wedding, Book2
The Red Petticoat Saloon Series
Grading Garnet
Thornton Brothers Trilogy
AJ’s Hope
Beau’s Desire
Cade’s Wish
Thornton Brothers, Three-Book Set
Prima
Tria
Priceless Love Series
Priceless, Book 1
Love’s Possession, Book 2
Dangerous Love, Book 3
Mistress Mommy Series
Alicia, Book One
Vlad, the Vampire Series
Tears of a Vampire
Vlad’s Story
Two-Book Set
Single Titles
Only Her
The Alpha’s Woman
The Power of Love
Forever in Love
Under the Cover of Love
Never Say Never
Man and Wife
The Sister and the Sinner
Amanda and the Stable Master
Lion
The Banished King
Northern Belle
The Cherished One
Forever Wife
Grace’s Demon
Beauty’s Beast
Captured by the Count
Male Order Bride
Sinful
Packed: The Enforcer
Submissive Love
A Heart Full of Heaven
Daddy’s Girl
To Love a Man
Etta’s Surrender
Her Secret Submission
Make Me
Let Me In
'Til Death Do Us Part
Promises Kept
The Obedient Wife
Old enough to Know Better
To Trust Her Heart
Naughty Girls: Brynn and Kim
After Hours: A Medical BDSM fantasy
Droit de Seigneur
Under the Lash
The Rogue and the Rose
Submissive Bride
The Unrequited Dom
Three’s Company
The Reluctant Bride
His
Embraced
Attentions Throbbing
His Little Miss
Submissive Desires
Kept
A Hard Man is Good to Find
The Spoils of War
Gilded Cage
Second Chances
Patriot Bride
The Boss of Her
Forever and Always
Tribute
Caged
Jake Ryan’s Wom
an
Soulmates: Backside of Love
A Good Man
Depths of Desire
The Substitute Wife
Princess Slave
Against Her Will
Body and Soul
Two True Loves
Captured by Time (w/ Alta Hensley)
A New Forever (w/ Alta Hensley)
Under the Cover of Love
Her Guardian Don
Her Knight in Faded Denim
The Rod of Correction: Taken and Tamed
Taken by Force
Skye’s Submission
Sheik’s Desire
Reject Ranch
Nola
Generation Stables
The MacNaughton Bride
More Than a Man
Man of Her Dreams
Love Will Find a Way
Fools Rush In
Everything Gained
Blood From a Stone
Angel of Sudden Hill
All of Her
A Piece of Heaven
Grace’s Demon
Sold!
The Centurion
Cherished
The Little Miss
Holiday Stories
A Holiday to Remember
Griff’s Christmas Angel
All Hallow’s Eve
Anthologies
Blushing Cheeks Vol. 1
Love of a Cowboy, Vol. 1
The Dark Forest
Thornton Brothers: 3-Book Collection
Bound by Love: A Carolyn Faulkner Trilogy
* * *
Audiobooks
Rod of Correction: Taken and Tamed
Sky’s Submission
Generation Stables
Spoils of War
www.carolynfaulkner.com
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