“Take me home, Anthony.” A flat, hard statement that left no room for doubt.
“Okay. I’ll spank you there,” he agreed all too readily, putting on his blinker to change directions.
“No! No—not there!” I was getting so flustered that he might see my dilapidated living conditions that I started to forget the original threat. “Wait! You’re not going to spank me at either place!”
He stopped at a red light, considering me for a moment. “Well, you seem to be very vehement about not wanting me to see your apartment. I’ll have to investigate why at a later date.”
That announcement sent a chill down my spine.
“But right now, I am going to spank you, and I think it should be at my house. I’m a man of my word, Raychel. I told you what I would do if you didn’t buy a coat. I’m not about to become a liar now.”
“Are you crazy? You can’t spank me! I’m a grown woman!”
Anthony’s response was annoyingly curt. “And I’m in charge of you.”
“What? You are not!”
He smiled and chuckled. “I’m your guardian now. That means that ass of yours is mine to do with as I please.”
“Anthony! You can’t be serious.”
He glanced over at me with a wicked gleam in his eye. “My ass to do with as I please,” he repeated.
He didn’t say anything more, even though my pleas became more and more fervent. When he drove through the large gate and finally pulled into his driveway, he stopped and turned to me. “I care about you, and I can see that you’re not taking care of yourself the way you should. It’s been relatively balmy around here lately. But we’ve had some snaps of cold weather too. I can’t bear the thought of you walking around shivering in that kind of weather. I want you to have a winter coat. I don’t think it’s too much to ask. And your stubborn ass is about to pay the price. You know I’m a man not to mess with, and though I have a gentle heart for you, I still expect an order to be followed. Especially an order for your well-being.”
“I wasn’t being stubborn… I…”
“What then? You just said you didn’t feel like it. Well… after I’m done with you, you will feel something far worse.”
Anthony reached out and tugged gently on an errant lock of my hair. “And, when I ask you to do something, I expect to be obeyed. You’re going to learn that very, very quickly.”
It was on the tip of my tongue to confess, hoping that would help me get out of a spanking. Pride be damned—I didn’t want anything to do with being spanked by this man. He was too darned big, and too determined by far. If I had to cry poverty, I would. Now that my little fantasy was actually becoming a reality, it didn’t sound so sexy anymore.
But while I was pondering what to do, he got out of the car, came around to my side, and opened the door, putting his hand out to me much more imperiously than he ever had. I huddled back in the car as far away from him as I could. “I am not going to get out of this car.”
“You would prefer that I reach in there and haul you out over my shoulder, in bright daylight? You know my neighbors could be looking out their windows. I’m sure they wouldn’t mind getting a show. And can you imagine how fast the news that Raychel Polov got her butt blistered by Anthony LaSalla will spread?”
It wasn’t the first time I’d cursed living in a tight-knit community. The dark underworld of this town hung together. My father had introduced me into this world whether I liked it or not, and the last thing I wanted was there to be talk about Dasha’s daughter being spanked by Anthony LaSalla.
But I knew that if I found myself in that house, I’d end up getting spanked. He didn’t look like he was going to back down in any way, shape, or form, and knowing Anthony for as long as I had, I knew he wouldn’t budge an inch.
“I’m not going to wait forever, young lady.” His voice was as calm and patient as if he were telling me he was going to go out for a stroll.
Finally, as slowly as I dared, I scooted out of the car. Anthony took my arm and escorted me into his house.
It had been a while since I had been to his home. I could remember the first time Father had shown it to me. I had been positively glowing. It was a white house with a round portico in the front. In the olden days, they used to call it a center hall colonial, because the front door opened into a center hall, a foyer, with a formal parlor along one whole side of the house, on the right, and an informal parlor—that Anthony used as a study—and dining room along the left side of the house, with the kitchen and an added bathroom along the back. The beautiful, winding mahogany staircase in the hall led to the bedrooms and another two bathrooms upstairs.