Page 2 of A Little Atonement


Font Size:  

“Y… ye… yes, sir.”

“And how is your daddy going to do that, Elena? How is he going to help you be the very best little girl you can be?”

She lifted her eyes to find his blue ones and seemed to accept her fate. “You are going to spank me, Daddy.”

“That’s right. Daddy is going to spank your little bottom.” He straightened. “Come here, Elena.”

She was the picture of a naughty little miscreant as she stood and slowly walked toward him. He patted his palm against the surface of his desk. “Put your hands right here.”

She obeyed, bracing herself against the wood. She mewled when he lifted the back of her skirt to tuck it into her waistband. Putting his hands on her waist, he could feel her tremble beneath his fingertips as he slowly stroked along her skin a moment before he hooked them in the fabric of her white panties. As he peeled them slowly down, he said, “Daddy is going to spank your naughty bare bottom until you are one very contrite little one indeed.”

“Yes, Daddy.” She couldn’t contain a soft moan when his hand caressed her flesh, rubbing across the pale hillocks that he would soon turn crimson. When he lifted it, he heard her catch her breath. It was time.

Chapter One

Three months later

Yanking the strap of the duffle higher on her shoulder, Elena used the tip of her boot to kick over yet another rock. Seeing nothing but little multi-legged bugs immediately rolling into tight black balls, she huffed.

“Yes, it is freaking cold, isn’t it? At least you’ve got armor to keep you warm,” she mumbled, her windbreaker doing next to nothing to keep the chill caused by gusts of frigid wind from seeping into her bones.

Damn it, where the hell was the key? The fake rock holding a spare key to the cabin was not where she’d been expecting to find it.

The light was beginning to fade fast and she was running out of rocks to kick over. Glancing up at the cabin, she pondered how difficult it would be just to break in. Sure, it might be considered breaking and entering, but really, who would blame her? At least a jail cell would be warmer. As it stood, she would soon be nothing but a frozen corpse anyway.

When a shriek rent the silence, she jumped two feet into the air and echoed the unholy sound. Okay, that did it. While it might be acceptable to be found, covered in ice crystals, a frozen statue as testament to her law-abiding ethics, she was not the least bit willing to be found… in pieces, scattered across the forest floor by some creature with pointed teeth and sharp claws that was stalking her just out of sight.

“Stop it!” she softly chided. “You are not some kid who is afraid of the dark. You are a grown ass woman.” The words meant to steady her only served to have her turn toward the woods and yell, “Stay away! I’m a pissed off girl with a gun.” When that didn’t sound very threatening even to her own ears, she added, “And a very itchy trigger finger!”

Not sure if the fact that there was no reply, nor the sound of anyone or anything retreating, meant her threat had been taken seriously or if some mysterious menace was simply attempting to keep amusement from being heard before calling her bluff, she cursed beneath her breath and kicked another rock. Instead of barely moving as the multitude of others had done, this one took off as if she were some football player trying for the league record in field goal distance. Elena knew it was the fake rock as it was so much lighter than the rocks it had been surrounded by. She watched it arc up and up and up, flying toward the trees before it disappeared from sight.

“Fuck!” Finding the expletive wasn’t quite enough, she felt it necessary to repeat it. “Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! This entire idea is fucked.”

Dropping the duffle, she dug her cell phone out of her pocket. Enough with this shit. She wasn’t going to freeze or find herself the tasty delicacy of the day. How many signs did a girl need to understand this was the stupidest thing she’d ever done… or tried to do? Cold fingers began typing in the search field of Google. She’d find the name of the nearest taxi service and get the fuck out of Dodge. Shit, she’d even push aside her apprehension of climbing into some car driven by a stranger who’d decided to earn a few bucks by joining the Uber network.

Oh, that’s a great idea. If he finds out you did, your ass is grass.

“Shut up,” she said to that little voice in her head. “He’d have to actually care about my ass to get pissed off.”

Isn’t that why you’re here? To find out?

“Yes, but since I’ve decided this whole plan is insane, his caring is a moot point, isn’t it?”

When no voice answered, she shook her head. “Great, even you agree this is dumb.”

It didn’t take her but a few keystrokes before she realized that the little wheel that continued to rotate on her phone’s screen was yet another obstacle in her ever worsening life. When even that disappeared and she saw that she didn’t have as much as a single bar, she almost threw the phone to follow the rock’s path. Only the fact that her ring snagged in her hair as she pulled her arm back kept her from following through. Gently untangling the strands of auburn tresses from the prongs of the ring she wore on her right hand, she bit her bottom lip and blinked hard, feeling defeated. She was not only frozen; she was hungry, thirsty, she had to pee, and exhaustion was threatening to drop her to her knees… in the snow.

What? Fuck! It was snowing… of course it was snowing! Though the last of the light was dimming through the trees, she could see big fat, wet, cold snowflakes. From the speed at which they were falling and the rapidness of the accumulation, she feared this wasn’t some little flurry. Nope, this looked like the beginning of what would likely become a thick white cloak covering every inch of her surroundings.

“Okay, think. What would he do?” She snorted at her question. “Fuck him. You saw what he would do… he’d put the spare key in some stupid rock a gazillion paces away from the freaking door. No, the real question is what would MacGyver do?” Picturing the character who managed to escape some pending danger or save the world from everything from floods to the apocalypse with nothing more than a paper clip (that he, of course, had to fashion out of some found piece of wire), she closed her eyes. “Mac, don’t fail me now,” she said. “Show me that you’re more than some hunk with a brain.”

A face popped into her head and it wasn’t that of Lucas Till, the actor chosen to reincarnate the once very popular television series. No, while the man belonging to the face was a hunk of the highest order and had the intelligence and quick wit that had made for some very interesting conversations, Elena was pretty sure he wouldn’t lift a finger… well, not one intending on helping her escape.

“Look, it took a lot of courage to get my ass here. Can’t a girl get one little break?” No answer was audible and yet, when a swirling leaf fell onto the surface of her phone, she grinned. “Right, a bit obvious, but thanks anyway.” There might be no service in these godforsaken woods, but she still had battery power. Though she was sure that MacGyver could have had the iPhone dismantled and turned into some sort of luxurious RV where she could spend the night in warmth, with or without the benefit of strong arms wrapped protectively around her body…

Funny choice of word. You didn’t seem to consider it as protection before. No, as I recall, you found it restrictive…

Forget the fact that she was standing in the middle of the woods in a snowstorm; even if she’d been standing on some sunny beach in the Bahamas, she’d still have felt the shudder as it ran through her body as the words seemed to float on the air. She’d spent months attempting to forget that face, that voice, those arms and yet here she was.

Source: www.allfreenovel.com