AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter One
Hannah
“Take off your panties and hand them to me.”
“What?”
“I have absolutely no doubt that you heard me,” Brett said.
“Are you serious?”
“As a heart attack. I don’t know what got into you, but it ends right now. Perhaps sitting on your bare ass will remind you that we made a commitment. You to obey and me to enforce that obedience.”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Couldn’t process what he’d just asked me to do. We were seated in a restaurant, one filled with people, and while, yes, there was adequate space between the booths and tables, it was still a very popular choice on a Friday evening. I could hear people laughing, see them enjoying chips and salsa or sipping on jumbo margaritas. True, no one was staring at our table or appeared to have any interest in what was happening, but I was suddenly positive that every ear in the place had just turned toward us. I could feel my entire body heating, knowing my face had to be the same shade as the red booth we were seated in.
“For God’s sake, lower your voice!” I hissed softly. “There are people here! They can hear you.”
His dark head nodded, though his eyes remained fixed on me. “True, and I’m sure that if they’d heard you this morning, they’d understand exactly why I’ve given you the command.”
Command?
Before I could wrap my mind around the fact that he had indeed just said ‘command’, he leaned back in the booth and continued. “Did you or did you not sign an agreement this morning?”
“Yes, but—”
“An agreement that detailed quite explicitly the rules and consequences for the breakage of those rules, correct?”
Unexpectedly, a memory popped into my head. Brett had taken me fishing when we were dating. It had been a beautiful day, the sun shining, causing the water to sparkle like diamonds where it cascaded over the rocks upstream. I’d been startled when I’d felt a hard pull on my line, sure I’d done something wrong. Brett had smiled, pointing toward the water where the red and white ball he’d attached to my line was bobbing up and down in the river.
“Good job. You’ve caught your first fish, babe.”
I’d tried to hand him my pole, but he’d shaken his head.
“No, this is your catch. Just give a yank to set the hook.” When I’d given a little tug, he’d laughed, put his arms around me, and with his hands covering mine on the pole, he’d given it a much harder yank. Stepping back, he’d said, “Now, just reel it in.”
While I cranked the reel, the fish had wiggled and jumped, trying to break free. When it was close enough, I pulled the line out of the water, landing my catch on the riverbank. It was a great memory.
But that had been then. Right now, sitting across from my husband, I wasn’t thinking about how proud he’d been that day. I was thinking that I most likely looked just like that poor trout, my mouth opening and closing as if unable to garner enough oxygen to breathe, let alone speak.
Brett evidently decided he didn’t need to hear a response as he nodded again. “Precisely, so there is no reason for you to be so shocked, now is there?”
A burst of laughter had my head whipping around, sure I’d see every customer in the restaurant agreeing with this man seated opposite me. Realizing the amusement came from children seated around a large table witnessing a waiter plopping a ridiculously large sombrero down on an elderly man’s head before wishing him feliz cumpleanõs, I found my voice.
“Look, you might be a major, but that doesn’t mean you can just… command me to do something.”
“Wrong. It means exactly that. The moment you put pen to paper and signed, you gave me that right.”
“I’m your wife, not one of your recruits!” I hissed, wondering how he could be so calm when I felt as if my entire world was careening out of control.
Leaning forward, he reached to cover my hand that was clenching the edge of the table as if to anchor myself in place. “You understood the consequences and, frankly, Hannah, wife or not, consider yourself enrolled in my own special boot camp. Your choice of behavior has brought you to this point, and the longer you take to obey me, the longer you’ll be across my knees getting your ass heated.”
Boot camp? What did that mean? I gasped as I zeroed in on what else he’d just said. “Wait… you think… you think you’re going to… spank me?”
“No. I know I’m going to spank you.”
Who was this guy? Granted, he appeared to be my husband, his hair the same ebony black. Eyes of the deepest green, flecked with hints of gold that had always reminded me of the tranquility of an ancient forest were locked on mine. But it was the slight quirk of his eyebrow, the absence of even the tiniest upturn of his lips, the total lack of humor in his expression that had my entire being questioning who had taken Brett’s place. Yes, I’d seen him direct a gaze at some poor soul who’d done something Brett considered the epitome of stupidity, making the poor soldier shake in his boots, but I’d never seen my husband look so… so… what? Nothing in his expression or body language telegraphed that he was angry. It was like he’d lost any indecisiveness. He continued to look at me with a self-confidence that was both reassuring and unnerving.
Taking a deep breath, I started backtracking as fast as I could. “You’re right.” At his nod, I shook my head. “No, I mean, not about the span… well, you know. I just meant that you’re right that we both vowed to start fresh. I admit I was being a little bitchy, and I apologize, honey.”
