Deathless Discipline by Renee Rose Page B

anxiety. Finally he spoke. “You should have called,” he said blandly.
    The brevity of his lecture disconcerted her. “I know, I'm so sorry.”
    “You really didn't look at your phone at all?” His eyes were narrowed, suspiciously.
    “Not till I was in the car and then…” she trailed off, not wanting to tell him that she was too chicken to call him back. “Then I was already home,” she lied.
    To her horror, Dom's fangs shot out and he jumped to his feet, looking down at her with blazing eyes. Then he turned and walked quickly away from her, as if realizing that he needed to get his temper under control. He paced around the room for a few moments and then finally stopped in front of her again. The fangs were back where they belonged, but his voice was deadly. “Do you lie to me because you're that afraid of a spanking or because you have so little respect for me?”
    She was taken aback. “Afraid of a spanking,” she managed to say, her voice thin.
    Dom's face was stone. “Then I won't spank you,” he said firmly. “Go to bed. We'll talk about this tomorrow.”
    “No wait. Dom, please.” The thought of going to bed with him angry at her was too terrible. She needed the spanking. She needed to be taken to task and then forgiven. She needed Dom to help her heal this. “Dom, please,” she caught his arm, pleading. “Please spank me,” she said, tears rolling down her face.
    Dom looked at her. His face was still stony, but she knew him well enough to recognize indecision there. “Please, Dom,” she begged.
    In a smooth series of movements, Dom sat down on the bed and pulled her across one knee. Then he adjusted her so that his knee parted her legs, as if she were riding it, her torso bent over with her head resting on the bed. “All right,” he said grimly. “I'll spank you tonight for your irresponsibility and I'll spank you again tomorrow for lying to me just now.”
    He spanked her hard and fast with a force of impact that rivaled a paddle. As a vampire, Dom had incredible strength, which he never used on her. She wondered, with a jolt of fear, if she shouldn't have pushed him into this when he was clearly still angry with her. But then he stopped and rubbed, and she knew that he was in control. He pulled her torso up and looked at her tearful face.
    “Tell me what you should have done differently,” he commanded.
    She drew in a choppy breath. “I should have called to tell you where I was going,” she offered, just barely managing to lift her eyes to meet his. He nodded, but seemed to be waiting for more. “I should have come home before Luci got hungry. I should have had my phone out where I could hear it. And I should have called you back as soon as I saw you'd called.”
    Dom nodded. “Why didn't you?” he asked.
    Her face crumpled. “I don't know,” she said with a hiccupping breath.
    “I mean, why didn't you call me back when you saw I called? And why did you just lie to me when I asked you about it?”
    She drew in a shuddering breath. “I'm a coward—that's all. I already knew you'd be pissed and I was delaying the inevitable.”
    “And why lie?”
    It was clear that the lie had offended him deeply. She had no idea how he knew with such certainly that she had lied. One of his mysterious vampire senses, she imagined. And it had been such a small lie, really. More of an exaggeration than a true lie. What difference would it have made if he'd heard from her fifteen minutes earlier than when she got home?
    She shook her head miserably. “I was just ashamed, that's all.”
    His face softened at that. He picked her up and repositioned her so that she was lying over both his knees, her hands catching her weight on the floor. He adjusted her so that her butt was perfectly angled and then began again to spank her upturned bottom.
    She welcomed the pain. She breathed it in, submitted to it, knowing this would be her salvation. She cried and cried.
    He stopped and rubbed again, then