My shoulders caved forward as I looked up into his steely eyes.
He spanked me.
I still couldn’t believe it. And I didn’t want to think about it, but I kept replaying it over and over in my head. He seemed contrite afterward, but now he wanted to dole out more punishment? I couldn’t make sense of this guy.
I was tired and admittedly on edge, and I didn’t want to test the boundaries anymore today. He’d already proved that he wasn’t past touching me, and if he could spank me, there was no telling what else he might do.
I slumped into my seat at the kitchen table, and Lucian grabbed a plate of raw vegetables and sliced chicken from the fridge, setting it in front of me. I stared up at him incredulously. Surely, he didn’t expect me to eat this.
“Finish your plate.” He issued the command without a hint of the remorse he’d shown earlier. “Or you’ll be eating the same thing for the next week.”
I held my tongue and glared at the offending food. So much for pasta. The vegetable selection went from bad to worse. I crunched every baby carrot as loudly as I could manage while he tore into his salad quietly. Who knew what he had planned for tonight, but it couldn’t be worse than this.
It took me thirty minutes to finish, but I did finish. As usual, Lucian cleaned up the plates and then gestured for me.
“Come.”
He issued orders as though he expected people to obey them. Most of the people in his life probably did, but I didn’t want to be one of them. I hesitated for too long, and he sighed. “We can do this the hard way, if you’d prefer.”
I still didn’t move. But in one swift motion, he had me tossed over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.
“Let me go,” I demanded.
He didn’t. Instead, he carried me down the hall to the guest room and set me down at the small desk.
“I punished you at the office for your words,” he began. “I was angry, and I shouldn’t have done it without your permission. But you still have repercussions for your behavior today. When I bring you to work, I expect you to work.”
The problem was, I didn’t want to work with him. But I wasn’t going to say it out loud. I’d learned the hard way he did not take lightly to criticism of his job.
“Here.” He offered me a pencil and shoved a pad of legal paper in front of me. “Write this down.”
I aimed my pencil at the paper but not before glaring at him.
“From now on,” he recited as I scratched the words into the paper, “I will be a good girl and do what Lucian says.”
I paused to look at him. “Are you for real?”
“Do I look like I’m joking?”
He didn’t look like he even knew what a joke was. But that was beside the point. I wasn’t doing this. I unlocked my fist, and the pencil clattered against the desk. Lucian didn’t even blink when he opened the drawer beside me and retrieved a pair of handcuffs. That was when the air in my lungs changed tide.
“What are you doing?”
He slapped the cuff around my left wrist and locked it onto the metal drawer handle. “You can stay here until you finish. One hundred lines, nice and neat.”
“You’re psychotic,” I shot back.
“Maybe.” He offered me a grim smile. “Or maybe I’m the best thing that’s ever happened to you.”
ACE KICKED OFF HIS MOTORCYCLEboots and left them at the door while he surveyed my living room. “So you just need me to chill here?”
“Yes.” I grabbed a jacket from the hall closet and shrugged it on. Even though it was still hot outside, I was feverish. “If you hear any suspicious noises coming from the room, go ahead and check on her. If she needs the bathroom, she can use it, but she goes right back to the desk until her lines are finished.”
He bobbed his head and took up residence on the couch. “Man, you gotta get Netflix or something in this place.”
“I like the quiet.”
“It’s cool,” he grumbled. “I’ll just raid your fridge and take a nap.”