The Brothers Rule - Carolyn Faulkner Page 0,44

mean to do that!" Laurie sniffed when she realized what they were doing.

She heard three different answers from behind her.

"We love you."

"We intend to keep you safe."

"We expect you to obey us."

Ryan went first. He put his big hand on the small of her back before he began, saying, "I love you very much, Laurie. And I—we—just want to keep you safe."

He delivered ten heavy slices across her cheeks as she screamed and kicked and tried to heave herself away from that vicious leather.

Almost without missing a beat, Adam stepped up. He put his hand on the small of her back, rubbing gently. "We love you very much, Laurie. And we hope you remember this the next time you decide to disobey us."

It was unbelievably bad—well beyond anything she'd endured from them before, beyond anything any of them could have done on their own.

By the time Jace took his place behind and just to the left of her, his belt was doubled over in one hand as the other came to rest on the small of her back while she sniffed and snuffed and breathed raggedly, begging him not to do this to her.

"When we tell you not to do something, Laurie, we're not saying it to be mean to you. And there are always going to be very strict repercussions, from now on, if you decide not to do as you're told."

With that, she was subjected to his ten strokes—yelling so hard each time that unforgiving leather welted her butt that her throat was sore when he finally finished.

She didn't stay there for more than a second between the last stripe and the time Ryan scooped her up and brought her to sit on his lap, wrapping himself around her as much as was physically possible.

They all ended up on the couch again, with Ryan sitting in the middle seat, holding her tightly and murmuring soft, loving things to her as she quickly wet the front of the same shirt she was clinging to as if it was the only solid thing in her world.

"It's all over, honey. When I thought about you going into that building by yourself—you could have gotten hurt in so many different ways doing that!" She was still weeping uncontrollably, but she felt the shudder that ran through his big body at his own words, and he clasped her to him fit to break her ribs as he buried his lips in her hair.

Adam was next, taking her from him as he reluctantly gave her up, surrounding her with his strong arms and big body. "I'm so sorry we had to punish you, Laurie-girl." His fingers brushed down her hair. She heard him swallow hard. "But we'll do it again anytime we think you've been naughty and have disobeyed us."

Jace retrieved her from Adam and tucked her into his arms, rocking them both just slightly and rubbing her back. His voice sounded as constricted as hers did, but she was too distracted by her own misery to notice. "It was a hard lesson, darlin', but that's all you'll hear from us about it. It's over and done."

He pressed his lips to her temple, closing his eyes as he did so and continuing to rock and rub her soothingly. "But we mean what we say—especially that we all love you to distraction. And as I mentioned, you can expect something like this anytime you do something that warrants that all three of us address it with you. I think that—together—we'll definitely be able to provide you with the structure you told me you were looking for before. It'll take some fine tuning, but I think it's safe to say that, in living with us like this, your bottom isn't likely to get much recovery time. And I think that might be just what you need to be really happy, anyway."

Each of the guys put a hand on her back, just for the connection's sake, but they also patted her gently, too.

"There are going to be six eyes on you most of the time."

"You're not going to be able to get away with much, if anything."

"And I'll bet time will tell that's really the best thing for you."

She rotated through them again, and each of the brothers was amazed and touched when she wrapped her arms around their necks and kissed their cheeks, clinging to them, and murmuring a halting, "I love you, too," to each of them.

When she got to Ryan, though, he prompted with