Total pages in book: 141
Estimated words: 141428 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 707(@200wpm)___ 566(@250wpm)___ 471(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 141428 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 707(@200wpm)___ 566(@250wpm)___ 471(@300wpm)
“No. What you need are more rules. Then you won’t get sick or hurt yourself. You broke one of them.” He sat next to her, glancing around almost frantically. “Too many hazards. Too many things that could harm you.”
He wasn’t even paying attention to her.
“Time for your punishment. And after your spanking, you can spend the time in the corner thinking about what you should have done differently.”
Irritation filled her and she tried to push it down as he laid her across his lap. Her arm had healed enough that he now felt like he could lie her in this position for a spanking.
But this wasn’t right. She wasn’t in the wrong!
Okay, she had kind of messed up putting a log in the fire, but she just needed to be shown what to do. It wasn’t practical to say that she could never touch the fireplace. And she couldn’t even plug anything in because those darn electrical sockets were all covered.
As he reached for her pants, drawing them down, she started wriggling.
“Hayes, stop!”
“Can’t believe you stomped on embers. What if you hadn’t been wearing slippers? You could have been seriously harmed.”
All right. So she probably shouldn’t have done that.
“No, this can’t happen again. I have to protect you.”
“Hayes, no! Listen to me. Stop!”
Shoot. How to make him listen to her?
Well, you could start by using your safeword.
“Hayes, Parsnip! Parsnip!” she yelled.
What if he didn’t listen to her? What if he didn’t stop?
She knew that it would break something between them if he didn’t listen. And she wasn’t certain if that was something that could be repaired.
Thankfully, he froze, and she managed to get off his lap and back onto the sofa. She was breathing heavily. Gathering up her courage, she risked a glimpse at him.
Oh God.
What had she done?
Why didn’t you just let him spank you? Technically, you did break a rule. Even if you didn’t think that staying away from fire rule was real, you could have harmed yourself by stomping on embers. You didn’t really know what you were doing. What if you’d set the house on fire?
Shoot.
Why did she always have to make things into an issue?
If she had just let him spank her, then everything would be done by now. And they could have carried on as normal.
Well, other than the fact that he was going a bit crazy with all this child proofing.
Be understanding, Devi. Remember that he lost his wife. He’s being overprotective because of that trauma. Not because he’s an ass.
“You . . . what happened? Are you all right? Are you in pain? You hurt yourself, didn’t you? Where?” Hayes started to frantically pat her down, as though searching for hidden trauma.
“Hayes! Hayes, listen to me. I’m fine! I’m all right.”
“Then why did you say your safeword?” he demanded.
“Because you can’t . . . you can’t punish me for this.”
“It’s a rule.”
Devi shook her head. “I don’t think . . . I didn’t realize . . .” Frustration bit at her. “Urgh. I can’t get this out!”
“Hey, take it easy,” he soothed as he kneeled in front of her. He ran his hands gently up and down her thighs. “Just talk to me. What’s going on, baby?”
He was being so sweet. What had she done?
“Did I go too far? Was I too rough? Did I scare you?”
The absolute horror in his voice made her feel terrible. Why hadn’t she just let him do what he wanted?
“I’m so sorry!” she cried. “I should have just let you do it.”
He flinched back as though she’d hit him. “What? No, baby. A safeword is there to keep you safe. If you need to use it, you should.”
“Aren’t you upset with me?” she whispered.
“I could never get upset with you for protecting yourself,” he reassured her.
There he went, being so amazing again. And she felt like such a freaking failure.
“I am not sure I can forgive myself for scaring you.”
“It’s not that I was scared, exactly,” she told him. “I know that you won’t harm me. It was just . . . I wanted to stop and talk and you weren’t listening to me.”
Hayes stared at her, then he glanced away and swallowed heavily. “Fuck. You said stop and I didn’t listen. You were telling me about your mom and I wasn’t fucking listening. My mind was . . . far away . . .”
“I know you’re so protective because you don’t want anything to happen to me. You thought I could have been harmed and it brought back those feelings of worry about May and you were thinking about how you lost her. I get it. I love that you take care of me. And I’m good with most of the rules. But I can’t live my life in a bubble, Hayes. Which is what I think you’re building here. And I don’t want to sound ungrateful or that I want you to completely stop, just ease up a bit and . . . shit . . . I should have just taken the spanking. It would have been easier.”