He gave her a light slap on the side of her thigh that had her stilling. “Sit still.”
“I’m on your lap.”
“So you are,” he said in a lighter voice.
“Why?”
“I wanted you close.” He reached over and pulled her plate towards him. He’d eaten everything on his plate. He started cutting up her steak.
“I can do that,” she said quickly, reaching for the knife and fork. He gave her hand a light slap.
“Put your hands down.”
“But—”
“I caused you to get upset so you lost your appetite, now it’s my job to settle you down so you can eat.”
She wasn’t sure how she felt about that statement. Except, if he thought holding her on his lap would settle her down, he was delusional.
“I can sit in my own chair,” she said a little desperately.
“Nope, you can sit right here.”
Her temper stirred. “Anybody ever tell you that you’re far too bossy?”
“Yep,” he said with a grin. “Now, open up.” He held up a fork with a small piece of steak and some potatoes on it to her mouth. Now this was going too far. She reached for the fork and he drew it back with a sigh.
Then he stood and set her down on her seat. “Okay, this is the way it’s going to go. You’re going to keep your hands palm up on your thighs while I feed you dinner. Each time you move your hands, it’s
two spanks.”
Umm, what? Seriously?
“You’re joking.”
“I’m not. You up for it?”
She just stared at him. He didn’t smile or wink like it was a joke and she remembered what he’d said last night. “Do you like doing that, spanking women?”
“Sometimes, I do.”
“And you think I need that? To be. . .spanked.”
“I think for too long you’ve been the one in charge. Doing everything. Making the decisions. For right or wrong. And now you’re on your own. And you need watching over so you don’t eat yourself into a sugar coma or go out with complete strangers to dangerous bars. Remember how I said there was gonna be rules? Well, with rules there are always consequences for breaking them, otherwise what’s to hold you to them, right? And the consequences have to be such that it will make you think twice before breaking those rules.”
“And the consequence is a spanking?”
“You ever been spanked?”
“No. Never.” Her mother would have had to notice her to do that. “I don’t think there were ever any rules, other than don’t interrupt her while she was working.” She made a face.
“There were rules for your siblings, though, right? That you made.”
“Yeah.”
“And you enforced those rules.”
She wrinkled her nose as she thought back. “Not very well.”