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“I’m not going to punish you for the lie,” he repeated. “But I need to be very clear with you, now, Dee. I can tell when you’re lying, and it’s not going to be tolerated in this house—or whatever house or apartment or anything else we end up in.”
I shuddered at the sternness in his voice, at the implication of more old-fashioned discipline.
“Is that clear, Mandy?” he asked, his tone severe.
“Yes,” I said, and then I felt my brow crease because theyeshad come out differently than what I had intended—very differently. Thatyeshad sounded reluctant, resentful, and…bratty.
He’s not going to do anything about that, though, is he?my brain demanded.If he’s not going to punish me for lying, he’s not going…
“I’ve had all I can take of that bratty attitude, though, Dee,” he said, finally loosening his arms and moving me so he could look down into my face with an expression that froze my blood. “Go into the bedroom and take off all your clothes, then wait for me. I’m going to whip you.”
CHAPTER15
Mandy
I stared up at him, my mouth and eyes wide.
Don’t sayWhat?If there’s one thing you’re not going to do now, it’s sayingWhat?
I knew what Rick had said: he had said it very clearly.
“You can fucking forget that idea,” I told him, fixing him with the iciest stare I could muster.
That’s right,some insane voice inside my head said.Forget it, but with extra spice.
My brain, however—the thinking part of it anyway—had begun to play a desperate game of catch-up. The words that came out in response to the unyielding expression on my husband’s face seemed to come from a very different place thanYou can fucking forget that idea.
“I mean…” I heard my voice saying. “I mean I… I decided I would give you… I decided I would give you another chance, when you… you… did that… in the… the room in the…”
I had started to babble. My breath came raggedly between my lips as my words trailed off. My heart raced as I looked into Rick’s dark eyes. He gazed at me as if he meant to look into my soul and find something there, inside me, that I had tried to keep hidden from him.
My tummy filled with butterflies. The worry that Rick might actually follow through on the terrible threat he had just made, to make me take off my clothes and then to whip me that way, seemed to give way to the greater fear that he would figure out how that threat had affected me.
No, not even a threat. Not even a promise, really. Just a thing my husband had said about what would happen in the next few minutes, here in this gorgeous house in this pretty little town. An assertion of fact about what I would do, and he would do.
The resistance inside me organized itself, suddenly. I made my face go hard again, and I stopped the babbling.
“I gave you a second chance,” I said. “After you…”
I hesitated. I couldn’t help it, but I made certain the pause lasted only a fraction of a second. If I couldn’t say the word, I couldn’t refuse it convincingly, could I?
“…spanked me. I gave you a second chance, to show that you weren’t really like that.”
“Oh, Dee,” Rick said, his eyes narrowing. “I’m really like that.”
A wave of mortifying arousal traveled through my whole body at the sound of his words. I took a gasping little breath as I used all my will to keep any sign of it off my face, and I tried to make it look like horror, rather than need.
“Well,” I retorted. “Whatever, I guess. You can forget about—”
Rick interrupted me without words. He pulled me toward him, and past him, toward the hallway and the enormous master bedroom I had only gotten a glimpse of. I hadn’t wanted to spend any time in there, or even look at the incredible bathroom with the Jacuzzi tub and the double-headed shower—the thought of what Rick might want to do in there, of Mrs. Purdy’stonight, had made me leave almost as soon as we had entered the master suite.
“What are you doing?” I demanded as Rick marched me in front of him down the hallway. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”
“Dee,” he said, “I’m pretty sure you know. Itoldyou what’s going to happen now, and I’m going to do exactly what I said I would. It seems like I have to make your position a little clearer, though.”
I hadn’t really tried to get away yet—not since Rick had said I would have a whipping in the nude. My muscles had been exhausted by my attempt to escape his hug, but I could feel my strength returning a little. When he saidyour positionmy body seemed to react on its own; I twisted and pulled against Rick’s grip on my upper arm.
For a moment I thought I would escape. I even started, for a microsecond, to picture myself bursting out the front door and running down the street. The horrifying thought that the neighbors in this lovely subdivision might well stop me and return me to my husband for punishment rose to my mind and drew a sob from my chest, but fight-or-flight took hold and made me try it anyway.
