Dark Favors

“But right now, we have another problem,” I told her.

She sighed heavily, and she stilled. I wondered if she realized she’d been wiggling her ass against my cock. Maybe she did. Probably, she didn’t. My body was reacting to her like she was fire and I was ice. I wanted to melt, covering her. I wanted more.

“What?” She finally whispered.

“Tell me what the problem is,” I said. She wasn’t an idiot. She was no dummy. She was clever and shrewd, and she could tell me herself exactly what was wrong. I trusted her to do that for me. I believed in her to tell me what the issue was. This was also a sort of test, though. Was she going to play coy? Was she going to act dumb? She wasn’t dumb. Not at all. I needed her to show me that. I needed her to show me that she could be a good girl when she needed to be.

“I was disrespectful,” she said.

“Tell me how.”

“I questioned you.”

“You questioned me in a way that was rude,” I said, correcting her. She was allowed to question me. That was part of how we learned and grew. What she wasn’t allowed to do was be rude when she did it. She wasn’t permitted to be impolite. I didn’t let my employees act that way. I didn’t permit my tenants to act that way. I certainly wasn’t going to let Paige act that way. Not when I needed her.

“I know you care about respect,” she said slowly.

“It’s the most important thing in the world,” I said.

“I think love is the most important thing.”

“It’s a close second,” I said dryly.

I wasn’t really sure if I believed that though. Arguing about love wasn’t going to get us anywhere, though. The only person I’d ever loved before was dead. Talking about love wasn’t going to make me feel any better. It wasn’t going to get us any answers or help us figure anything out.

“What do you want?” She whispered, her voice husky and aroused.

“I want your respect,” I told her.

“And ho

w are you going to get that?” She asked boldly.

“Well, I’m going to start by punishing you.”

“Punishing me?” She half-laughed, half-snorted, but that only lasted until I pulled her skirt up and bunched it around her waist. She started to move. “What are you doing?”

I grabbed her by the hips and held her in place.

“Hands on the desk,” I said.

She complied.

“Paige, where I come from, there are certain rules that need to be followed. If you break those rules, you pay the consequences.”

“So you’re...what? You’re going to spank me?”

“Yes.”

“What?” She said, shocked.

“I’m going to spank you.”

“But I don’t want a spanking.”

“Then you shouldn’t have been rude.”

She held perfectly still, not moving. I looked down at her tight little panties. Pink. Of course, they were pink. They matched her bright spirit, and I kind of hated that a little bit. Why did everything about Paige have to be so damn perfect and sweet? She really was an innocent sort of person. She really was sort of wild and wonderful.