Once more, he cuts off my words, this time with an index finger to my lips. “Before you thank me, open the other package.”
This one is much larger, and shaped exactly like a tennis racket. I don’t have to open it to know what it is. Especially when I see his evil grin.
“Hell no!” I squeal, letting fall the paddle with its carved inscription:Happy 19th Birthday, Crybaby.“No, no, no! You’re gonna have to catch me first!”
I run to the bathroom, trying to close the door behind me, but he follows me in, laughing. So I turn on the shower, and angle the showerhead at him, dousing him with hot water.
“Fuck, Lia!” he half-laughs, half-chokes. “You little brat, when I get a hold of you…”
Laughing just as hard as him, I run out the door. Logan’s car isn’t in the driveway, and I’m thankful he planned a day out for Dolores and Aurora—I guess he had a full day of celebrations, that is, the Logan version of celebrations, in store for me. But running after his naked captive in the woods probably didn’t figure on the list.
Though, with him, who knows?
I run out in the backyard, sprinting to the thick foliage beyond the waterfall. The forest here is much denser than the one in Wyoming. It feels like no one’s ever touched it, no one’s ever sullied its floor, and something about that makes me feel safe about running through it stark-naked.
It’s so dense, in fact, that before I’ve run for very long, I start to wonder if Logan will even manage to find me. So I stop, panting hard, because I kind ofdowant him to catch me and try my new present on me.
Regardless of the fact that my ass is still sore from the wax.
I crouch behind a large boulder, listening to every sound, feeling increasingly nervous when in the silence of the forest, every insect’s cry and bird’s song sounds much louder than it should.
And then, there’s the rustling of leaves, the crack of a twig, the quiet tread of footsteps… what other animals are lurking in this forest?
“Hi, you.”
Fuck!
“You almost gave me a heart attack!”
Logan snuck up on me, and now he looks down at me fromhis full 6 feet 3 inches, a very smug look on his face.
“Finders keepers,” he purrs.
“Asshole.”
Turns out there’s no need to rile him up. He’s smacking the birthday paddle against the palm of his hand, his eyes glinting like he’s already picturing what to do with it. I take a step back, bumping into the boulder behind me.
He’s got me trapped, and no matter how much I love him, he still has the power to scare me.
“I was going to take it easy on you, seeing as it’s your birthday,” he croons. “But I guess you’re asking for it, huh, brat?”
Yes.
“No!”
“Uh huh. Lean against the boulder, and be quick about it.”
Biting my lower lip, I do as he says, and even a bit more than he says, arching out my ass toward him. He rewards it with a little pat, before removing his hand and putting the rough wooden paddle in its place.
“Can you feel the inscription?” he gloats.
Yes.I can just imagine how my ass will look when he’s spanked those words into me.
“I think I’ll whack your right cheek harder,” he calculates. “I really want to see that crybaby nicely imprinted on your butt.”
“Asshole!”
“Careful, Lia,” he teases, lifting up my birthday present and pretending to bring it down a few times, just to make me wince and jump. “Remember who’s holding the paddle.”
