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Intimidating? Oh, yes. Infuriating? Probably.
But he always kept me wondering. Never ceasing to make me wonder what it was he had up his sleeve next. Was it mystery? Or was it something darker, deeper than that? Was it that element of unknown danger about him that appealed to me, even as I had no idea exactly why it did? He was all of that. The only thing I really did know for sure was that I was way out of my depth. At that moment, for the first time, I really did feel the difference in age and life experience, and it was the first feeling of true intimidation.
And yet you like that too. Slut.
The Audi’s wheels thumped as Ellis turned the big car into the parking lot, bringing me back to the present. It was way past closing time, and the parking lot was empty, my dirty, dented Honda alone on that blacktop, marooned in a sea of faded white lines.
He pulled in right behind my car, then put the transmission in park. We sat there for a long moment, neither one of us saying anything, and I wondered what it was I felt I had to say. What did one say after being brought back from a session of having been spanked over the lap of the man who was looking to employ you? Didanycircumstances get stranger than that?
Blowing out a breath, I opened the door and stepped out. I winced as I slammed the door harder than I meant to, looking back over my shoulder to see if he was mad at me. I didn’t quite understand why I was disappointed to find he didn’t seem to care at all.
I walked to my car quickly, intent on getting inside and driving off, and beginning the arduous task of trying to forget what had just happened.
Or more accurately, make sense of all that had just happened.
I had my door open when I heard the sound of his window rolling down. “By the way, Ms. Grant, if you don’t have that car washed and detailed by the time you come to see me on Monday morning, the spanking you just got is going to seem like a tickle. Do you understand me?”
I closed my eyes, taking a deep breath before turning to face him. “Is that a threat, Mr. Winters?”
His eyes were deadly serious as he stared at me, and while I was unsettled by the intensity of his gaze, I wanted to do nothing more in that moment than stare right back into those beautiful eyes. “I expect something for my money, Lola. And I’ll be damned if I have that ratty-looking car stinking up my neighborhood, looking like a rolling trash bin. You’re going to learn how to take better care of your things, if I have to train you every step of the way.”
That got me, my irritation surfacing in my voice. Who the hell did he think he was? “Why are you so concerned about my things? Why does it matter to you? I’m a nobody, just a stupid girl who cleans your house.”
His square jaw firmed at my tone. At first, I thought he might bark at me, and maybe even tell me to get back in his car. I wasn’t sure if I was terrified by that prospect, or turned on.
Could it be that it could be both? Did that make me crazy? I’d have to think about that one later.
“The reason it concerns me, Ms. Grant, is because how you treat your things is a reflection of how you’re likely to treatmythings. Does that make sense to you? Because if it doesn’t make sense, then I have a lot more training of you to do than I thought. Now, get it done—or else.”
I was about to snap something smart at him, but his car was already rolling away. The brilliant LED crimson of his taillights flashed once as he pulled up to the road, then the muscular thrum of his engine sounded and the Audi dashed away. I watched him until his car disappeared around the corner, and there I was, alone once more.
Sitting in my driver seat, I slammed the door, groaning at my weakness, for not telling him to fuck off. For not telling him there was no way I was going to even entertain the idea of this sort of an arrangement with him. But as I turned the ignition on, the Honda coughing to life, I shook my head ruefully and cursed under my breath.
Ishouldhave told him all that and more, and yet all I could think about, playing over and over again in my mind, was the spanking I’d just gotten from the stern, gorgeous, slightly frightening Mr. Winters.
CHAPTER10
Lola
The morning was cold and drizzly, the wind whipping up now and then too. I decided to go ahead and get the car cleaned, not because he told me—most definitely not because of that—but because, well, frankly it was way past time for it.
Of course I had passedPatrick’snumerous times before on 15th St. Now, as I sat in the waiting area blessedly warmed by a space heater, tapping away at my phone texting my friend Michelle, I thought back on Mr. Winters’ words, what he’d said to me before he’d driven off.
It wasn’t so much that it made me rethink the possibility of accepting the arrangement. In fact it probably made itlesslikely that I would accept it, but it did put a new spin on the dynamic.
Oh, you mean being bent over his lap and spanked like a naughty girl didn’t change the dynamic enough for you?
What I kept coming back to when thinking about it was that this was an arrangement that felt… transactional. That left a bad taste in my mouth, even though I knew there was really nothing particularly wrong about it; such things were done all the time.
My phone rang, the sound so loud in the empty waiting room that it echoed off the cheap plastic chairs and the chipped linoleum. I tapped the screen when I saw who it was.
“Makes more sense just to call you rather than tap all this shit out on the screen, Lola. You didn’t tell me that he fucking told you that you would be—what did you say—punished? Are you fucking this guy?”
I sighed at that. “No, absolutely not. I’m not fucking Mr. Winters, and that’s not going to change, either.” EvenIthought my denials sounded halfhearted and weak.
Michelle was definitely not buying it either. “But youhavethought about it. Don’t bullshit me, Lola. Is he hot?”
“He’s like forty-four or forty-five, I think. I mean, yeah, I guess he’s good-looking? If you like old guys.”
