Taming Megan (13 page)

She stared up at him when he took her face into his hands.

“I love you. Get it through your thick, stubborn head. I love you and that’s that. That’s all.”

She laughed and cried at once, reaching to touch his face. “Jake.”

He glanced at the note on the table and reached for her rings. “Put these back on where they belong and you’d better never take them off again.”

He slid the rings onto her trembling finger. “I won’t, I promise.”

“I’m tired, Meg. Let’s go to bed. We can talk some more tomorrow but I’ve got a headache and I just want to hold you and our baby and just forget today.”

“Me too,” she said, nodding. They walked up the stairs and for the first night in a week, Megan slept through the night while Jake held her tight to him.

* * *

The next morning, the doorbell rang early. Jake was up, but Megan was still sleeping. He went downstairs and opened the door to find Gray Manson standing outside in the rain. Jake looked at him, surprised to see him.

“I’m getting soaked out here, Jake,” the man said.

“I’m sorry,” Jake said, stepping aside. “Come in.”

He stepped inside, closing his umbrella and taking off his raincoat. “Christ, rain won’t let up.”

“What are you doing here, Gray?” Jake asked.

Gray looked at him for a minute before they both turned to watch Megan come down the stairs, wrapping a robe around her. “Good morning,” she said to them.

“Did this stubborn husband of yours tell you what he did last night?” Gray asked.

She looked at Jake, confused.

“Come into the kitchen, let’s get some coffee,” Jake said.

“What happened?” Megan asked when he passed her.

Jake turned on the coffee machine as Gray took a seat at the table.

“He turned down the bid, that’s what!” Gray said. “What the hell are you thinking, Jake?” he asked.

“Jake?” Megan asked. “You got the bid?”

Now Gray looked from one to the other. Jake pushed the button on the coffee machine and they were all quiet while he made three cups of coffee and brought them over to the table.

“Sit down, Meg,” he said, taking a seat himself. “I’m sorry, Gray, my decision is final.”

“Well, I’m sorry too, Jake, but I don’t accept that, not without a hell of a good reason.”

Jake felt Megan’s hand on his arm. “Jake, you don’t have to turn it down. What happened…?”

“Is none of anyone’s business,” Jake said, not looking at either of them.

“Jake,” Gray said, leaning across the table. “You’re making a big mistake.”

Jake leaned back in his chair and set his coffee down. He exhaled a deep breath. “Gray, I appreciate your coming out here today. I appreciate all you’ve done for me, I know how much you helped with the others.” He took a sip of coffee, buying himself some time, before facing the man. “This involves my family now and I can’t work with a man like Sean Connelly on the board. I’m not going to go into specifics and I need you to respect our privacy. I’m sorry, Gray.”

Gray looked at Jake, then at Megan, then back. “Well, then you’ve got no excuse to turn it down because as of last night, Connelly is no longer a member of the board.”

Both Jake and Megan now looked at him.

Gray smiled. “I say good riddance to the son of a bitch,” Gray said, then looked at Megan. “Pardon my language, young lady.”

“What happened?” Jake asked.

“Well, just as you can’t go into specifics, neither can I, and I hope you’ll respect that. All I can say is he and his wife have decided to spend more time at their home in Florida and he won’t be a part of the project. That said, I firmly believe you’re the best man for the job.” He took a sip of his coffee. “Jake?” he asked. “What do you say?”

“Jake, you have to do it,” Megan said to him, her hand on his arm. “This is too important.”

He looked at Megan, then at Gray. “So he’s gone?”

“Yep.”

Jake nodded and smiled, patting Megan’s hand. “All right, Gray,” he said, standing and holding out his hand.

Gray stood and the men shook hands. “Congratulations, Jake.”

“Thank you, Gray,” Jake said. “For everything.”

Gray only nodded.

* * *

“You had turned down the project?” Megan asked when Jake came back into the kitchen after seeing Gray out.

Jake made himself another cup of coffee. “That can’t surprise you,” he said, leaning against the counter.

“Did you do something to him? Yesterday I mean, when you were gone.”

“I only told him to stay away from my family.”

She nodded, bringing the now cold coffee to her lips, the silence heavy in the room. “Jake,” she began a moment later.

He looked at her, waiting for her to go on. She set her mug down on the table and turned to him.

“I think I want you to punish me.”

He dumped his freshly made coffee into the sink. “No, Meg. It’s not your fault. I chose to turn down the job. It doesn’t have anything to do with you.”

“I think it has everything to do with me, Jake.”

He inhaled deeply and exhaled. “Well, it’s over now anyway. The project is mine.”

“Jake,” she stood and almost went to him. “I don’t want this to be us now. I don’t want us to not talk. I don’t want us to… I don’t want there to be anything between us.”

“Meg, the thing with Connelly,” he began, walking to her, placing his hands on her shoulders. “I don’t blame you.”

“I know,” she said, reaching up to touch his face. “But I blame myself, at least a little. I want this gone; I want to just be back to us again before any of this happened. No, I want it to be even better, even more. Punish me Jake. I want you to.”

Jake looked at her but he didn’t quite meet her eyes. He brushed the hair back from her forehead. After a moment, he squeezed her shoulders tight. “You don’t have to do this,” he said.

“I know.”

“Go upstairs and get ready then,” he said. “Everything off and bent over the foot of the bed.”

Megan noted how his tone had changed. She almost smiled a little, but nodded instead and slipped out from beneath his arms and headed up to the bedroom. Once there, she made the bed which she’d not yet done, knowing that once this was over, it would be really over. She stripped off her robe and nightie, pushed her panties down and off and sat on the edge of the bed. She braided her hair down over one shoulder, very aware of every movement of her fingers, of every twisting of every lock of hair. She then took both pillows and stacked them on the foot of the bed and draped herself over them. She lay her torso down on the bed, her arms tucked underneath her, her hips raised high, her legs straight, standing on the balls of her feet. She waited like this for him, her every emotion level. This was different from other times in the study. She wasn’t nervous or anxious or dreading. And she certainly wasn’t aroused. She just simply waited for Jake to come.

* * *

Jake gave her some time to prepare, then went into the study, picked up the cane and climbed the stairs to the bedroom. He opened the door to find her just as he’d asked, naked and bent over the bed. He swallowed, taking in the lines of her body, the curve of her uplifted bottom, round and soft and waiting. His grip on the cane hardened when he met her eyes. Her face was soft, her expression neutral, neither afraid nor anxious.

He came to sit on the edge of the bed and touched her face. “Ten with the cane. No counting. They’ll be hard and fast and we’ll just get this done and over with. All of it, all right?”

This time when she glanced at the cane, there was a momentary flash of anticipation, but then she looked up at him and nodded. “Over and done,” she said. She attempted a smile but it faltered as Jake stood and she looked fully at the cane he held.

They hadn’t used it yet. He had planned on using it only for the most severe punishments. In this instance, even though she had been the one to ask for it, and perhaps because of that, this punishment warranted the cane. She needed it and in a way, even though he had forgiven her, so did he.

She tucked her arms more tightly beneath her and turned her face so she looked straight ahead at the headboard. He moved to stand behind her and to the side, taking in the sight of her, her legs together, hips lifted. She offered herself to him for punishment and in some way, Jake felt a connection to her in that moment he’d not felt before. He loved her, always had, always would. But today, that love somehow went deeper, the bond between them fused more solidly than before.

He set the cane against her bottom and tapped. She stiffened but then relaxed her bottom. He raised the thing and brought it down fast, the sound it made as it traveled through the air filling the room, the space around them. It was the only sound aside from her gasp when the cane struck and he held it there, watching the slight change in color already beginning to form beneath the thing.

He placed it just a hair above the first stroke and tapped again, lifted it and brought it down for the second stroke. She exhaled and a small sound escaped her as she buried her face in the comforter. He didn’t wait, instead, he took his mark and brought it down again where for one moment, the only sound in the room was that of the cane moving through air.

She turned her head a little, bending her knees for a moment, reaching one foot upward to rub against the thigh of the opposite leg. He tapped it with the cane softly and she set it back down. Jake measured the next stroke and brought it down, paused for a moment when she reached back to cover herself, momentarily unable to hold her position.

She glanced at him, her eyes wet, and touched both hands to her bottom.

“Six more, Meg,” he said, waiting. “Do you want to safe word?”

She shook her head and removed her hands, repositioning herself. He tapped the cane against her sit spots and struck once, held there for a moment as she sucked in a breath and shifted her weight from foot to foot, again bending her knees as she absorbed the pain, then straightened, ready for the next.

* * *

Somehow Megan managed to remain in position throughout her punishment. The pain of the cane was worse than anything she’d felt. It stung upon contact, then it seemed to spread beyond the point of impact, and burned deep. The one thing she took some comfort in was her sentence of ten. There was an end and as painful as the process of getting there would be, it was within reach and then it would be truly over.

When she’d offered herself for punishment, she had known she herself needed it. But even more so, even though she knew Jake did not hate her, did not hold anything against her, in a way, he needed it too. They would both remember this day for a long time. She only hoped the events leading up to it would be forgotten as she knew they had been forgiven.

“Ten,” he called out once he’d landed the final stroke.

Megan moved her hands to wipe her face. The tears were caused purely from the pain of the thing and she was glad to have done it, to have asked for and taken her punishment. It was what she owed to them both.

The cane landed on the bed over her head and she turned her face to Jake. He touched her bottom, feeling the welts and she had to flinch with even the lightest of touches. He then turned to meet her eyes and smiled a small smile.

“You ok?” he asked.

She nodded, remaining as she was when he sat on the edge of the bed next to her. He touched her back softly, following her spine from the top of her neck down, softly caressing. When the next time his fingers reached the top of the cleft between her bottom cheeks, he looked at her, holding his hand there, then allowing it to dip lower.

Megan widened her stance, a heat building between her legs. She loved how he looked when he was aroused. His eyes darkened a little, became more shiny, and his whole expression changed.

“Jake,” she whispered when his fingers dipped between her folds.

He stood and stripped off his clothes, then came to lay beside her, turning her to lay on her side. He touched her face, the soft scent of her arousal between them. He then brought his mouth to hers. The kiss was by no means chaste but neither was it erotic. It was entirely different; it was all consuming, not a taking, but simply a consuming. She opened to him, her hand coming to the side of his face as his traveled down over her arm, her waist, the swell of soft hip. His cock pressed against her belly and she reached for it, light fingers just making contact with his chest, his stomach, as they kissed, both with eyes wide open.

When he touched her sex, it was soft and slow and deliberate to start, but as his cock swelled in her hands, his own touch became more urgent and he moved, turning her back onto her stomach so she lay flat against the bed. She lifted her hips and widened her legs when he knelt between them. His hands touching her bottom made her flinch for a moment as he spread her open and pushed into her pussy from behind, bringing his body to lay over hers, his weight on his elbows, his mouth at her neck, her ear, the side of her face. Their breath was soft while he moved inside her and he snaked one hand down her front to cover her clit when his movements came faster, his thrusts deeper, harder. Their breathing shortened as she lifted her hips higher to meet him. She watched when he closed his eyes, nearing the end, feeling the change in rhythm, the slight swelling of his cock inside her before he stilled completely, his hand on her clit pinching hard so even as he came in silence, she called out, pressing her pussy into his hand.

He didn’t pull out of her but instead wrapped an arm around her and drew her to his chest when he came to lie on his side. He held her tight to him, neither speaking, and she wrapped her arm around his, intertwining her fingers with his.

It was true what they said: after holding your baby, the pain of the delivery is somehow forgotten. Megan would have said that was entirely untrue when her own delivery, although two weeks late, had happened within a few hours. She had somehow survived the worst of it and by the time she had arrived at the hospital, she had been too late for the epidural.