Noah clears his throat. “If it’s all the same to you, no offense, I’d prefer to stay back in town at the hotel. Garret vouches for you, Dexter, but in all honesty, I won’t get a bit of sleep here. Sorry. Nothing personal.”
“No worries,” I tell him. “Meet us here around four in the afternoon.”
“Will do.” He bids us all good-night and departs.
Eilidh looks at Chaldis. “Remind me to tell Jarred in the morning that Noah’s okay after all. I might have given him shoot-to-kill orders. I’ll tell them he’s an old friend of Corbin’s.”
Chaldis laughs. “I shall remember that.”
After Eilidh shows John and Mark to their guest rooms, I pull her into her room and close the door. “About that spanking, love.”
“Can we do it later? I want to get these arrangements nailed down while you’re still awake.”
I kiss her again. Icannotstop kissing her. “Do you haveanyidea how worried I’ve been?”
* * *
Eilidh
“Yeah,well, I do feel a little guilty about that.”
I really do. But hey, this works out all right, if we have a chance of solving my phantom dog problem.
And if we can get Chaldis to Corbin’s side.
“Neverrun from me again, Eilidh,” he growls. “I willalwayschase you, love.” Dexter sits on the side of my bed. Before I can even process it, he’s unfastened my jeans, yanked them and my panties down, and pulls me face down over his lap. “For starters, I love you.”SMACK!
“Ow! Motherfucker!” That was no playful swat. I try to sit up, but it’s like pushing against a damned glacier. “That hurt!”
“It was supposed to, love.”SMACK!That one hurts nearly as much. “Either take it, or safeword. You scared the hell out of me. I love you, and apparently I need to do a better job of showing you.”SMACK!At least he rubs that one in.
I twist around enough so I can stare up into his eyes. “You…love me?”
“Yes. I thought I’d made that clear to you, but apparently, I didn’t.” He meets my gaze with a steady one of his own. “So, either safeword and tell me I completely misread you, or settle in,girl, and take your spanking.”
Epic.
Stare-down.
I break first. “I love you, too,” I whisper.
He flips me over and sits me upright, so he can kiss me again. “I don’t know what part of ‘I am sinfully rich and will figure this out for you’ didn’t clearly come through in my actions before, but I am, and I will. Do youwantto be mine?”
I nod. “I don’t want anything to happen to you, though.”
“That isnotyour worry. It’s mine. Step one is you stop running andletme take care of you.”
“What’s step two?”
His gaze narrows as his lips curve in a very predatory smile. “We’re going to finish this spanking. Which, to be clear, is only the first of many. This is a ‘fuck I’m glad I found you and you’re safe’ spanking. And youwilltake it.”
“So, I just, what, let go and let Dex be Dex?”
“Exactly, sweetheart.” His gaze softens and I realize he’s listening to my pulse.
To my fear.
“Are you scared of me?” he softly asks.
