Chapter Twenty-One
Charlotte
Tobin followed me without another word, but I could feel the tension radiating off him as we entered my apartment. I kicked off my shoes and went straight to the fridge for a bottle of water.
“Where do you want your bag?” he asked flatly.
“Just leave it there. I’ll unpack later,” I replied without looking at him.
My guts were doing cartwheels about what I planned to do next, even though I’d spent all last night thinking about it, and most of this morning talking it over with my friends. I had a plan. I just needed to summon the courage to execute it.
“What’s going on, Charlie?” Tobin asked. “What do we need to talk about?”
I blew out a breath and joined him in the living room.
“Let’s sit down.” I gestured to my small sofa, and we sat on opposite sides, at an angle so we were facing each other. “I did something not great over the weekend.”
Pain washed over his face before he blew out a breath and cleared his expression.
“What did you do?” He kept his voice even and calm, which allowed me to continue. I’d worried he’d explode, even though my friends insisted he wasn’t like that. He didn’t know it, but he’d just earned a lot of my trust back.
“I went shopping on Saturday. And went over my budget. By a lot.”
I braced as I watched him and waited for his reaction. First was confusion, then relief, and then more confusion.
He blew out a breath and shook his head. “Okay. That’s good. Well, not good that you went over budget but good that you’re not breaking up with me.”
It took me a minute to understand what he was babbling about.
“You thought I was going to leave you?”
He shrugged. “I didn’t know what was going on, but I was worried you had some time away from me and decided you were done.”
I shook my head as I gathered my thoughts. “No. Definitely not.” I paused and looked him in the eye. “In fact, I want the opposite. I want more.”
“What do you mean, Charlie? We’re together. Dating.”
I remained silent, unable to get any more words out.
“Do you want to live together?”
I shook my head.
“If it’s not that, then it’s certainly not marriage.”
I shook my head again while he inspected me.
“I think you need to tell me what you want from me, so I don’t make any incorrect assumptions.”
I blew out a breath and scowled. He knew what I wanted, and he was going to make me say it.
“I want you to punish me for going over my budget. I’ve felt terrible about it all weekend and I need to get rid of the guilt.”
He didn’t respond immediately. Instead, he studied me with an indecipherable look, leaving me hanging in limbo waiting for his answer.
He took a deep breath and released it slowly, and I braced myself for whatever he was about to say.
“Are you ready to follow the rules again? Because I’m not willing to enforce them only when you want me to. I may regret saying this, but either we go back to the way we were or we don’t do any of that. I don’t need or want more than we what we had, and if you say you never want that again, I will accept that. I’ve realized over these last few weeks that I want you with or without the discipline aspect of our relationship. But if we’re going to have discipline, it needs to be consistent and what we both agreed on.”
It was his turn to brace, but it was unnecessary. Layla warned me this morning that Tobin would probably not relieve my guilt without re-instituting the rules, so I was prepared.
“I agree to put the rules we had before back in place.”
He tensed at my words. “You trust me?”
I nodded. “I do. You’ve shown me you respect me and my feelings. And as much as I was against the rules at first, I’ve missed them. I’ve missed the accountability and the structure they give me.”
“I appreciate you giving me another chance, Charlie. I won’t let you down again.” He gave me a wry grin. “I’m sure if I do, you’ll give me another kick in the ass. But I’ll do my best to make sure you won’t have to.”
“That sounds good.” I returned his smile but a second later he grew serious.
“Take off your clothes, Charlotte. It’s time to go over the rules and for you to tell me about your weekend.”
His dark tone made my body shiver in anticipation, with just a hint of fear. I knew Tobin wouldn’t really hurt me, but punishment was never fun. Still, I jumped to do his bidding. When I stood naked in front of him, he shifted to the middle of the couch and patted his lap.
“Come get into position over my knees. You know what to do.”
I sucked in a breath and let it out while he waited patiently for me to comply. After another breath, I lowered myself down until I was prone with one of the throw pillows under my head and my butt centered over his thighs.
He placed one hand on my lower back and the other on my leg, the warmth of his skin reassuring.
“What’s rule number one, Charlotte?”
“Don’t speak badly about myself.”
The hand on my leg slid up and rested on my ass, making me clench.
“Correct. And what’s rule number two?”
“Follow my budget.”
The other hand slid around and over until it grasped onto my hip.
“Right. And number three?”
“Be respectful.”
“Very good. Now it seems you had an issue with our second rule this weekend, huh?”
“Yes.”
“Tell me what happened.” A light smack landed on my left butt cheek, making me jump. “Don’t make me drag it out of you.”
“We went shopping Saturday and there were all these little shops that had handmade stuff, and it was all so nice. But so expensive. I was just going to treat myself a little, but before I knew it, I’d spent four hundred dollars.”
Tobin let out a soft whistle and I cringed. “That is a lot of money, Charlotte. Where did it come from?”
“My savings.”
“Your savings that you’re trying to build up in case of an emergency?”
I blew out a breath. This was the problem with having him help me with my finances. Tobin knew exactly how much money I had and what my savings goals were.
“Yes.”
“Well. That is definitely a violation of rule number two. Do you think I should punish you for breaking the rule?”
I rolled my eyes, thankful he couldn’t see me since I was facing the room, but I answered, knowing this was part of it. “Yes, I should be punished for taking money out of savings and going over my vacation budget.”
“Good girl.” He stroked my behind softly and then lifted his hand and began spanking me. Not too hard at first, but he quickly ramped up the intensity. It wasn’t long before I was fighting to stay in position and whining from the sting of his hand meeting my ass. Over and over, he spanked, until I couldn’t help but beg him to stop.
“Please, Tobin. I won’t do that again. I’m sorry!”