Total pages in book: 83
Estimated words: 75898 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 379(@200wpm)___ 304(@250wpm)___ 253(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75898 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 379(@200wpm)___ 304(@250wpm)___ 253(@300wpm)
I had no idea, really, what had gotten into me. And it actually felt like something had gotten into me. On one level, sure, I understood that it probably had a lot to do with the stress and the disorientation involved in my forced resettlement in Grasskiln—and, right at the moment, my forced ‘date’ with Cal.
Gorgeous, easygoing, apparently kind and gentle Cal.
But I could also feel that I had overreacted in a major way. I couldn’t stop it, it seemed like, but I could definitely recognize it, and, worse, I realized that a similar feeling of being out of control had led to me going into the department store and swiping the earrings.
What had he said, just a few minutes ago in the truck? A ‘handful’ is a girl who’s got too much going on for her own good?
To my dismay, I suddenly felt like a handful. Of course, rather than helping me calm down, the realization made me furious. Also, I could tell that Cal wouldn’t do anything about it really—especially not what I had already learned Jake would do. Maybe it would make me feel better to show this clearly weak man that I could think for myself, and though I might not know about steak and ranchers and whatever, I had gotten by in the city for almost a year on my own, and I didn’t need any of this shit.
As I looked up into his blue eyes—he still loomed over me despite the height of his truck—and watched them narrow, I suddenly understood how badly I had judged Cal’s character. He might have a relaxed demeanor, but what I saw in his face then told me that it came from an absolutely secure command of his emotions. A thrill of terror went through my body, confusingly mingled with a surge of wayward, absolutely unwelcome need between my legs.
“Get out of the car, Grace,” he said. His voice sounded perfectly even. Dangerously calm.
“No,” I told him flatly. “You can… you can take me back to…”
I swallowed hard. Going back to Jake and Shelly’s didn’t represent an attractive option.
Cal looked at me, his face hard, for a moment, before he spoke, as if he felt the need to quiet his anger before proceeding.
“You don’t want that,” he said.
“I…”
No, I definitely didn’t want that. What the fuck did I want?
“What… what are you going to do?” I demanded, hearing my voice alternate between fear and anger just in those few words.
“I’m going to discipline you, Grace,” he said calmly. “You need to learn some boundaries, and I don’t mind teaching them to you.”
I felt my eyes go as round as saucers. I hadn’t expected him just to say it like that.
“Get out of the car,” he repeated, in a much more matter-of-fact way than the last time he had said it. The smoldering wrath I had seen, for a moment, in his gorgeous blue eyes, had gone away, as if he had recovered full mastery of his emotions.
I knew it was stupid even as I did it, but I couldn’t help myself. The urge to test him just got too strong, and the words came out before I could even think about them.
“Or what?” I asked. “You’ll get me out yourself?”
“If I have to,” Cal replied, and reached into the cab, his huge hands headed straight for the buckle of the seatbelt.
CHAPTER 19
Cal
“Wait!” Grace yelled. “Wait!”
I’d had enough, though. She tried to cover the seatbelt buckle with her hands, but I pulled them both away with my right hand and released the belt with my left. Then Grace tried to wrap her arms around the shoulder belt itself to keep me from pulling her out of the seat, and I had to put my left arm around her waist, then take one of her wrists in each of my hands and separate them while I started to haul her out of the car.
She was yelling the whole time, and writhing in my grasp, but even if I hadn’t had all the information from the New Modesty Authority about how badly this girl needed discipline, I wouldn’t have had the slightest doubt about my decision to put her over my knee right away. Grace had shown me, just in the ten minutes we’d spent in the truck together, not only what a lovely, sweet young woman she could be, but how thoroughly she could cover that up with her immaturity and her crying need for boundaries.
Crying. Well, she had certainly started to cry now.
“Please… Cal… don’t… y-you can’t…” I thought I could feel the conflict in her little body, as I held her with one arm around her back and the other across her waist. She had the shoulder belt in her hands now, over her head, as I held her three quarters of the way out of the truck.