Total pages in book: 71
Estimated words: 68354 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 342(@200wpm)___ 273(@250wpm)___ 228(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68354 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 342(@200wpm)___ 273(@250wpm)___ 228(@300wpm)
“Liam, please,” she says. “I’ve almost got it.” She shakes her head and reaches higher, then loses her balance, giving a little shriek. She wobbles on the ladder and scrambles for purchase, and finally gets her footing, panting.
“Now,” I tell her.
“Okay, okay,” she says, shooting me a guilty glance that says she knows she’s in trouble, and she’s barely touched bottom before I’ve got her up in my arms, over my shoulder, and I’m smacking the underside of her ass with my palm.
“If you ever do that again,” I tell her, with another resounding smack, followed by another and another. “You will do your classwork standing, because you won’t sit down for a damn month!” I give her another good, hard spank that makes her arch her back. The satisfying sting in my palm makes my anger abate a little. I slide her down off my shoulder to standing in front of me. Her cheeks match her hair, flaming red, and she rubs her ass adorably.
It’s nothing like the spankings she’s taken at Verge, but I think I’ve gotten my point across.
“Liam,” she hisses. “I’m at work.”
“And your boss is a submissive who ought to have her own ass whipped for having such a hazard in her stockroom,” I tell her, unrepentant.
“Well,” she says thoughtfully. “Her last dom actually did try to get rid of the thing, but she’s stubborn and he moved away, so…”
I give her a stern glare, lifting my phone and swiping it on.
“Hello?” Mandy answer on the first ring.
“Mandy, order the most stable stock room ladder you can,” I tell her, giving her the location while I hold Cora’s gaze. I place the order and she shakes her head, but she’s subdued after her little spanking, so she doesn’t say anything. Satisfied, I slide my phone into my pocket.
“Well,” she says. “Might want to run that by Marla?”
“Oh, I’ll run that by Marla alright,” I tell her. I have every intention of running it by Marla. Marla isn’t my sub, but she works with my woman—alright, my woman for now—and I have a few things to say about safety.
And then Cora grins and I want to pull her to my chest and kiss that mouth of hers until she forgets what she’s doing in here in the first place.
“Why are you here?” she says. “I didn’t think I’d see you until my shift was over.”
“Well, I had a change in plans,” I tell her. I pull the pair of rectangular tickets out of my pocket. “What do you think? Want to go on a real date?”
I don’t know what reaction I expected, but it isn’t what she does. I watch as her eyes fill with tears and she takes the tickets in her hand. “You got tickets to Chicago? How’d you even know? These have been sold out for months…”
I shrug. I happened to notice a post on her Instagram page about how it’s on her bucket list to go, and “sold out” is a relative term when you’ve got enough money to get what you want. The past few weeks have been… Jesus, I don’t even know.
Magical. Enchanted.
“Don’t cry, baby,” I tell her, wiping her tears with the pad of my thumb. “Your grades this semester were incredible, and I’m proud of you. You deserve a little celebration.”
“You’re proud of me?” she repeats, her chin wobbling. “Oh, Liam.” And then she dives into my chest and hugs me so tightly I lose my breath.
“The show’s at eight, so we’ve got to get going. You need to get ready, and we’ll make sure Bailey and Ben are all set for tonight. Okay?”
“Okay, yeah.”
“Marla already agreed.”
“Wow,” she says. “You really have thought of everything, haven’t you?”
I respond by pulling her to me and kissing her, then letting her go with pat to the ass. “Get a move on, woman. Broadway doesn’t wait.”
After she grabs her bag and we say good-bye to Marla, we head to her place. She chatters the whole time about the cast and story, but I don’t really give a shit about the cast and story. I care that her eyes light up like stars in a jewel-studded sky. I care that when she’s happy she gets animated like this, talking too quickly and speaking with her hands. I let her chatter on until I finally pull her onto my lap and silence her with another kiss.
“Oh my,” she says when I let her go. “Someone’s getting lucky tonight.”
I tug a lock of her hair and smile. “I get lucky whenever the hell I want.”
“This is true,” she says with a smirk. “But not for long. Soon, that contract’s up, then what’re you gonna do, big guy?” Though she’s teasing, there’s question in her eyes. But I don’t have an answer to that question.
What am I gonna do indeed?