Page 106 of Graciously His

“You tell that fucker I want double or nothing. Even if it takes until next quarter, we’re not settling for half-assed shit for our users. They’ll walk, brother, if we give them anything less than excellence.”

Nate still hasn’t noticed me even though I’m only about three metres away. He takes his key out of his pocket, fumbling when he realises the door is unlocked.

“The fuck…?” he snarls, then he tilts his head to one side. “No, not you, man. I’m home, okay? Fucking off.”

He takes the earbuds out and he turns his head, dark grey eyes landing on me almost immediately.

I can’t help it—I burst out laughing.

Shep takes that as his cue to jump off the swing. Forgetting his manners completely, he goes up on his hind legs to give Nate kisses, which Nate accepts with a laugh of his own.

“All right, you big baby,” he says, “sit down so I can say hello to my wife.”

Shep obeys and Nate is in front of me a second later, holding his hand out. I hesitate, biting my lip a little.

“How was your day?” I ask, ignoring his beckoning hand.

His brows go up. “You already know how it was, Grace. You stayed here. So it sucked.”

I shake my head, leaning back into the swing, but keeping it still with the tips of my bare toes. “You’re not allowed to guilt me into going to Auckland with you every week, Nate.”

“Oh, this isn’t guilt.” He lowers his hand but widens his stance. “This is me, coming home to a girl who clearly needs some… correction.”

I tuck my foot up and Nate is forced to back away as the swing resumes its slow parabola. Looking down contentedly, I watch my black Australian opal flash turquoise, blue, and yellow from its place on my left hand. It took Nate ages to find one without any orange.

“I don’t know what you mean,” I say, though I can’t quite hide my smile.

“What to do with a wife who needs correction,” he muses, and I hear him loosen his tie. “Three things come to mind.”

“As usual,” I murmur.

He throws first his tie, then his suit jacket onto the other end of the swing in a huff of silk.

“First option, Grace: we go inside and take a shower together. I make you come until you cry, then I fuck you in the sauna.”

A nervous sound comes from my throat but Nate ignores it, unbuttoning his shirt cuffs.

“Second option,” he continues, “I put you over my knee in the bedroom and spank you good and hard. Dealer’s choice where I put my cock after that.”

I already know exactly what he’ll do to me if I end up with the second option. He’s shown me—recently—and I was too sore to sit for a delicious couple of days afterwards. My stomach swoops when the swing suddenly halts. Nate’s caught it with his foot, and he bears down on me, fastening his eyes to mine as his voice drops low and dangerous.

“Final option. I put Shep inside the house. Then I count… to ten.”

My breath stops as I look into his eyes, flat and grey. I know exactly what’ll happen if I take that third option, though we’ve only ever done this once before. And it’s exactly what I want after such a relaxing day of quiet design work, punctuated by a lovely visit with Mihi.

Nate sees my answer in my eyes.

“One,” he begins, not taking his foot off the swing. He starts rolling up the sleeves of his shirt.

“Fuck,” I mutter, bolting down the front path as he gives a quiet chuckle.

I don’t bother to look back as he pauses the count to order Shep into the house. He’s at ‘four’ by the time I hit the woods. I’m barefoot, which isn’t great, but there was no time to get shoes. There are paths here, winding ways that lead to little huts and firepits Mihi and her brothers built decades ago.

I skip past a hut, checking over my shoulder. I can’t hear Nate anymore, which means he’s already in the woods with me. I head west, jumping over a creek that runs towards the cliff about twenty metres off. The slowly setting sun is just beyond the edge of the treeline when I begin to circle back along the paddock, as quietly as I can.

I get to the deer fencing that demarcates the western side of the woods, and put my back to it. I listen hard, but blood surges through my ears.

A crunch of leaves to my left. I turn that way, fear making it hard to catch my breath.