She tossed her head back and thrust her hands on her hips. This was going to be ugly no matter what. Might as well go for broke. “Butt out and stop acting like you’re my father.”
He stilled. “That’s one role I will never fill, but I have no problem putting you in your place.”
Callie didn’t even have a moment to wonder what his silky vow meant before he hauled her into his arms and dragged her, kicking and screaming, back to her bed. He sat, wrangling her with embarrassing ease, then spread his long legs and laid her over his lap, face down.
“You are not going to spank me!” she insisted.
Thorpe didn’t hesitate for an instant. “I am. I told you there would be consequences. You should know I always keep up my end of a bargain.”
He planted his huge palm in the small of her back, silently telling her how futile her struggles were. With his free hand, he slid the silk of her robe up and over her bare ass. Her entire body tensed. What was he seeing? Thinking? And why was the thought of his discipline so damn arousing?
There was definitely something wrong with her.
“Don’t I get a safe word?” she demanded.
“I’m not strapping you to a cross and unleashing a single tail on you, so don’t insult me. I know you. I’ve spanked you before.”
For demonstration purposes, yes. In fact, the first time, she’d giggled—until he landed a single smack on her ass. Then it hadn’t been funny anymore. By the fifth swat, she’d been uncomfortably wet. By the tenth, she’d had to bite back a plea to come. Thorpe had some mysterious effect on her that she didn’t understand.
“I’m not afraid. Last time you did this, you couldn’t get my clothes off fast enough. When you did, you couldn’t wait to run away. You’re not going to do anything to me now.”
Thorpe’s grip on her tightened.
Crap, she was taking a huge chance by throwing that night in his face. No doubt, she was pissing him off. She suspected she was also arousing him, because as she wriggled on his lap, Callie couldn’t miss the fact that he was hard as hell.
“Wrong,” he quipped in her ear. “I’m going to spank you until you answer my question and apologize for your disrespect.”
“You’re not my Dom.”
“But I am a Dom, and this behavior is unbecoming. Start counting, pet. Don’t stop until I do.”
Callie tried again to squirm away. She rubbed against his cock, and he hissed. Then his palm landed on her ass in a blistering blow.
“Ouch!” she protested, resisting the urge to rub her right cheek.
“Yes, that’s why it’s called punishment.”
“This is Sean’s right, not yours.” She grasped at straws.
“Not if you’ve rescinded his collar. Since you said you had, I’ll remind you that you live here, you work for me, and you’re being very bratty. That’s three strikes, pet.”
She had no chance to scrape together a reply before he hit her again. Her left cheek stung, but not as much as her pride. And it didn’t take long for tingles to dance across her skin. Her blood heated, and her body melted under his touch.
Damn it.
“You haven’t counted yet,” he pointed out. “Shall we start over?”
“I’ve never understand a Dom’s fascination with a sub counting. You’re educated. You can get to ten without me.”
“You think I’m stopping at ten?” he drawled.
Callie drew in a breath and tried to calm herself. “Thorpe, please . . . Can’t I have a little privacy? Isn’t it enough for you to know that Sean didn’t mean to upset me?”
“No. As long as you’re at Dominion, that’s my call. I’ve protected you for years and I don’t plan on stopping.” He paused. “It pleases me to know you’re safe, but I find all this defiance when I’m trying to help you deeply disappointing.”
The fight went out of her. Callie hated to let Thorpe down. Most everyone else could blow it out their ass for all she cared. But the big Dom mattered too much to her—and he knew it.
“You’re being manipulative,” she grumbled. “One. And two.”