Of All the Luck! by Joanne Locker

excuse us, my wife and I need to have words.  Actually, I need to do the talking and she is going to do the listening while she is bent over the bed getting her butt laced good.”
     

Chapter Seven
     
     
    Griffin pulled Victoria from her chair at the table and the pillow that she’d placed on the chair fell off the wooden seat and to the floor.  The look of disappointment in his dark eyes told her that he was upset with her for sneaking the pillow onto her chair.  She knew that she wasn’t to ease her discomfort in any way after a punishment spanking, and that is precisely what she did.  And her behavior since that spanking was that of a pouting, spoiled little girl; wanting her own way, arguing when she should have been paying attention, and throwing a tantrum when she was told to do something.  With their lives in jeopardy they couldn’t afford to have her acting this way, and Griffin needed to do something about it right now.  He knew she was already sore as could be from the punishment he gave her the night before, but by the time he was done with her now, she would be more than ready to stop testing him every step of the way.
    Victoria waited until they were in the bedroom with the door closed to speak.  “Griffin, will you calm down, please…?  I would like to talk to you.”
    “Talk?  I think that talk needs to happen with you bent over the bed with your butt bared for my belt.”  He was angry and it showed.
    “No, Griffin.  That isn’t going to happen… at least not until we have talked.  You are too angry right now, and I want to explain a few things.  Please…?” she pleaded with him.
    Griffin looked into her blue eyes and simply couldn’t resist.  “All right, Victoria.  You win.  Talk to me.”  He sat down and patted the bed right next to him.
    “I would rather stand right now,” she told him.  “My bottom is still welted from the strapping you gave me last evening, darling.”
    “If you are going to try and make me feel guilty for strapping you, Victoria, it isn’t going to work.  You earned that punishment.”
    “Yes, I did.  I was testing you, and got exactly what I asked for.  I would like for you to put it in the past, however, and not keep throwing it in my face.  I said ‘sorry’, took the spanking, and I wish you would forgive me… Please…?”
    “I do forgive you,” he said, looking up at her.  “Why do you think I haven’t?”
    “Your temper has been terrible today, darling.”
    “My temper?  Sweetheart, your temper has been horrid, and you’ve earned yourself a good spanking for that very reason.”
    “I was in pain, Griffin.  If you looked at my butt you would understand, and if you tried to sit on a butt this sore you would be in poor spirits, too.  I know I made it harder on you and Jacobson, and I am trying to say that I am truly sorry.  Sitting after a strapping is impossible for me to do, and you know that, darling.”
    “I remember your having that difficulty on a few occasions,” Griffin agreed.  “But, we are trying to keep you alive, and you aren’t listening to a thing you are told.  Arguing with every decision we make is not helpful, Victoria.  It is distracting, and you know very well that we don’t need distractions of that sort when all of our lives are at stake.”
    “I apologized, darling, and I meant the apology.  I stopped fussing then, didn’t I?” she asked.
    “Yes, until we got here and you started asking to call people.”
    “Griffin, I was bringing it into the open for discussion to see if you and Jacobson thought calling Liz to ask her to keep quiet about the cabin was a good idea.  You went all crazy and started accusing me of trying to sabotage us, which wasn’t a bit fair.  I know the drill, but I wondered if making the call would be a good idea.  You didn’t think so, and that was all you needed to say.  You made me feel like a nitwit in front of Jacobson, and it hurt my feelings.”  When he