Seven Soulmates

“It is enough!” I lashed out before I realized how harsh my tone was. “If I could make this work, I would. What you’re asking for is impossible.”

“You do the impossible. You hacked my system. My system hasn’t been breached since it went live. Do you know how many hackers bounce off of it every day? You found a flaw that the best security team in the world didn’t find.” His tone was still calm, even though I was fuming.

“I’ll keep working.” I shook my head angrily. “I’ll try a few more things.”

“So, let’s talk about your motivation.” He pulled a chair from the dining room over and took a seat near my computer. “We’re on a tight deadline here, and I don’t think you’re applying yourself properly.”

“I am, Mr. Prince. I’m doing the best I can.” I let my head slump against my shoulders.

“I think it’s time I started treating you like a real employee with weekly performance evaluations and consequences when you don’t meet my expectations.” He tilted his head slightly. “I think that will help you take this a little more seriously.”

“I’m pretty sure if I was a real employee, I would have quit by now.” I sighed and shook my head. “The only reason I’m still here is because I’m praying for a miracle that keeps me out of prison.”

“Yes, but I don’t want to feel like I’m sacrificing my company so you can delay what you seem to have accepted as inevitable.” He leveled his gaze at me and his intense stare caught me off guard. “The consequence for your failure so far is going to be a trip across my knee.”

“A what?” My eyebrows shot up in surprise.

“A spanking.” He nodded and exhaled sharply. “A consequence that will be repeated each week that passes without a working prototype.”

“You’re serious?” I blinked and shook my head. “No, that’s not going to happen.”

“So, you would rather terminate this agreement and let me call my friends at the FBI?” He tilted his head and shrugged. “Your call.”

“Okay, you made your point.” I held up my hands in front of me. “You have successfully motivated me. I’ll keep working.”

“You’ve had a long time to work and you have nothing to show for it. At this point, I would be better off handing off what you’ve done to someone else and letting them try to salvage it. They may not have your brilliant mind, but at least I won’t look like a fool when I try to pass off a normal dating app as my revolutionary new idea.” He sighed angrily. “I need to see that you’re still dedicated to this project and willing to do anything to ensure it succeeds—just like you were when you were begging me not to send you to prison.”

It was true. I had been extremely motivated the first few weeks while I was building the framework of the app. I had no doubt that it would succeed back then. It wasn’t until I started running the algorithm that I realized it wasn’t quite as magical as I hoped. Nothing was working right. Mr. Prince’s patience had run its course and it wasn’t going to be as simple as I thought to maintain my freedom. I had never been spanked before. The thought of it was rather frightening. I closed my eyes and imagined myself behind bars, staring at a long prison sentence and a felony record. Even if I was a first time offender, I had done a lot of damage and it claiming it was an accident wasn’t going to erase what I had done.

“Okay.” I opened my eyes and nodded as I tried to swallow a lump in my throat. “If this is the only way.”

“It is.” He nodded and patted his knee. “It’s not like you don’t deserve a good, hard spanking anyway for all of the things you’ve done.”

Chapter 2: Ethan Prince

Earlier that week

“Come on, Ethan. You’re supposed to be naked by now.” The woman on my bed crawled to the edge and pressed her lips to my neck. “You promised this wouldn’t be like my last birthday.”

“I know.” I stared at my laptop screen and tapped a couple of keys. “I’ll be done in a moment.”

“You said that last year—a lot.” She grumbled and pulled her lips away before crashing back onto the mattress.

Regina had been my ex-girlfriend for several years and we had been broken up longer than we had even been together to begin with. We had long since moved past an actual relationship and agreed there was no way we would ever be able to make it work. I was too busy with work and she wanted someone that was totally dedicated to her. She decided that she would keep frequenting my bed until she found the right person. That made things a lot less complicated for me. I liked it that way. I wasn’t interested in settling down with anyone and Regina accepted that. Still, I had promised that I would do something special for her birthday, and I was failing miserably like I normally did when we were still a couple.

“Okay, I’m done.” I closed my laptop and turned towards her. “I think it’s time for someone to get their birthday spanking.”

“Thank god.” She rolled over and wiggled her ass at me. “I thought I was going to have to spank myself.”

“Not a chance.” I smiled and gave her a firm smack.

A playful spanking was always fun. Watching her ass bounce as I delivered twenty-five smacks got me hard as a rock. Regina and I had experimented with a D/s lifestyle when we were together as a couple and one of the things that got in the way of us actually being able to make the relationship work was her inability to truly submit. I had a naturally dominant personality and viewed the world differently than a lot of men did. Discipline, for me, was just a part of everyday life. When failure came at me, I met it head on and dealt out the proper consequences. Sometimes that meant an employee didn’t get to keep cashing their paycheck. Second chances were rare. I had a scorched earth policy when it came to failure.

THREE MONTHS AGO

“You’re all fired.” I looked around the room at my security team. “A college student hacked your fucking system? You’re supposed to be the absolute best!”

“Mr. Prince, this wasn’t some ordinary college student.” The head of the security team, a pudgy older man named Robert, stood up. “She’s brilliant. I mean, I’ve never seen anyone that could literally write code around a security system like that.”