Unacceptable Behavior Read online

“Rafe, I know I really screwed up but…”

  “One…”

  She blinked. He was counting?

  “Two…”

  Max’s eyes widened and she rubbed her hands over her arms to dispel the shivery feeling that seemed to be growing.

  “Three…”

  She jumped up and hurried down the hallway to Rafe’s office. Max wasn’t exactly sure what was happening but childhood had ingrained the knowledge that anything higher than three was really bad.

  Her heart was pounding in her chest as she skidded to a stop and plopped down into the chair in front of his big desk.

  The light flickered on behind her. Max held her breath with an air of expectancy. She had no idea what she was expecting, but the way her tummy was doing flip-flops said it wasn’t good.

  Strong thighs came into view as Rafe seated himself on the edge of his desk in front of her. Max gulped.

  “Look at me, young lady.” Again with the soft-spoken command.

  Max stared straight ahead, afraid of what she’d see in his eyes if she looked up. He would surely hate her now.

  “Maxine…” he drawled slowly, as if to wring every ounce of displeasure with her he could from the two syllables.

  Max looked up to meet his eyes. The stern look that met her caused her bottom to clench of its own volition.

  “You want to tell me what happened out there?”

  “I rear-ended you?”

  One dark brow rose.

  “It was an accident…”

  “What were you doing when you had the accident?”

  “Ummm… well, I guess I was… changing the radio station… yes, changing the radio station and only took my eyes off the road for a second and…” Max was warming to her explanation.

  “You wanna try again?”

  Max frowned. “No, I just told you what happened…” Her stomach plummeted from about twenty stories when he pulled her cell phone from his shirt pocket. Please let it have gone dead… please.

  “Now it seems to me you were reading a story about a girl named Amanda getting her butt busted,” Rafe said baldly.

  So much heat filled her face, Max thought she would spontaneously combust at any moment. This was mortifying.

  “You wanna tell me what Miss Amanda did to warrant such discipline?”

  She didn’t answer but watched Rafe put a finger to the side of his face as he pretended to think about it.

  “Hmmmm, what could she have done…? Could she have been reading while driving and rear-ended Jack?”

  All that Max could manage with the huge lump in her throat was a horrified squeak and a shake of her head in response.

  “Cat got your tongue?”

  She closed her eyes as even more heat rushed up her neck and a pounding started in her ears. Max wondered if it was possible to expire with embarrassment then realized she couldn’t be that lucky. “She forgot to pay the water bill,” she said softly.

  Rafe took a minute to admire her color-infused face before getting up to get the straight-backed desk chair by the window. Setting it down a few feet from Max, he rolled up his sleeves.

  Max finally risked opening her eyes when the silence grew too long to bear. The sight of the chair and Rafe rolling up his sleeves made her shoot straight up in her seat.

  “Wh-what are you doing?”

  “What does it look like?”

  She decided to do the only sensible thing and run. Unfortunately she didn’t even make it to the door before Rafe was standing in front of it blocking her exit, so she pivoted sharply and ran to the other side of the desk to put it between them.

  “Come here, Maxine,” Rafe said softly as he stalked slowly around the desk, while she circled in the opposite direction, making sure to keep the desk between them.

  “No way, José,” she said with a shake of her head.

  “You aren’t leaving this office without the discipline you and I both know you deserve,” he said firmly just before he vaulted over the desk, landing lightly on his feet right in front of her.

  Max screamed and made another mad dash to the door in an effort to escape her fate but he caught her with ease.

  “Uh, uh, uh,” he said as he caught her around the waist and hauled her to the chair, managing to sit down and pull her down over his thighs in almost one movement. “You and I have some business to settle, little lady.”

  “You can’t!” she wailed, trying to twist away from him to no avail.

  Rafe simply rested his broad palm on her upturned bottom and asked, “Can’t do what?”

  She froze over his lap. Good night, Irene! He was going to make her say it out loud!

  “I can’t do what, Maxine?” The velvet-encased steel was back in his voice.

  “You can’t… you can’t…” She stopped, near tears, helplessly hanging over his knees.

  “Can’t what?”

  Finally she slumped in defeat, knowing Rafe would wait until she said it. “Spank me.” She sniffed miserably.

  “With pleasure,” he said with a grin and began pulling up her skirt to reveal the target area.

  “No! I said you can’t spank me!” she screamed.

  “I could have sworn I just heard your sweet voice ask me to spank you.”

  “C-A-N-T, I said you can’t spank me!” she yelled in alarm.

  “Watch me, little girl,” Rafe said, dispensing with her skirt and panties almost before she knew what was happening.

  Max hadn’t thought her embarrassment could get worse, but that was before she realized he was looking down at her humongo bare bottom.

  “No, Rafe!”

  “Yes, Maxine. I think you deserve at least as much as Miss Amanda got, don’t you?” he asked almost conversationally as he skimmed a hand lightly across her bottom almost as if he liked what he saw…

  She started squirming almost desperately, trying in vain to get away. “Stop!”

  “Stop? I haven’t even started. Don’t be so impatient,” he scolded before lifting his hand and smacking it back down on her posterior.

  Her whole body jerked in response. “Owwww!”

  Rafe tucked her in tight and began to deliver a thorough and blistering hand spanking. Max was still yelling ‘no’ into about the twentieth smack; by the thirtieth she was simply yelping in tune to whatever beat was playing in his head.

  Max couldn’t believe how much it hurt! He paid special attention to the tender area where her bottom met her thighs, leaving her wailing over his lap. He was lighting a fire she knew would last awhile.

  By the time Rafe felt she’d had enough, her bottom was a brilliant scarlet from the top of her bottom to midway down her thighs. Max was a sniffling mess when he stood her up in front of him.

  She shifted from foot to foot, trying to wriggle the awesome sting out of her behind.

  “Look at me, Maxine,” he said sternly.

  She shook her head.

  “Max… one…” Her head flew up when he started counting and she saw him bite back a smile; the brute found her predicament amusing! “What do you think about reading while you’re driving now?”

  “I’ll never do it again!” she promised fervently.

  “Hmmm… I think you should do some corner time and think about what led you to this moment,” Rafe said, standing to guide her over to the corner nearest the door.

  “I don’t want to…” A slap to her already tenderized rear stopped the small rebellion in its tracks.

  “I didn’t ask if you wanted to, young lady,” he said in a firm, no-nonsense tone.

  Max soon found herself standing bare-bottomed, nose in the corner with a flaming backside. As she stood there sniffling, she wanted to rant and rave about the injustice of it, but knew deep down the spanking was deserved. The thought of what she’d done to Rafe of all people made her want to weep anew.

  Forget dating; now he wouldn’t even be her friend. While she’d known she really didn’t stand a chance with the handsome head of security, at least until now, M
ax had been able to keep her fantasy alive. But now, she felt its loss keenly.

  Still, she knew crying over it would have to wait until she was alone in her apartment. Besides, I have enough to cry about at the moment, she realized as she reached back to rub her scorched bottom.

  Before she even touched it, her hand was intercepted and another sharp smack landed on her tender cheeks. “No rubbing.”

  She’d been so wrapped up in her thoughts that Max hadn’t even realized Rafe was still standing right behind her. Her humiliation was complete; not only had he spanked her bare bottom, he was standing behind her watching it jiggle as she tried in vain to wag some of the sting out of it. She felt her shoulders slump in defeat and a deep sigh sounded behind her.

  Max gasped when she heard the sound of his belt sliding through pant loops and she spun around to face him, pressing her belabored bottom to the corner as if to protect it.

  “No, Rafe! Please… I can’t take anymore,” she wailed passionately.

  “You can and will take every bit of what you’ve earned, Maxine. I told you I thought it would be just deserts for you to get exactly what Amanda got in the story and she finished with a taste of the belt,” he said resolutely.

  Max felt her face blanch. Amanda had finished with twenty-five licks of Jack’s belt. She knew for sure because she’d read the scene through at least eight times. It was hard to believe that earlier today she’d found it a delicious scene to read, because now Max didn’t think she’d ever read another spanking story as long as she lived. Reality had a lot more bite!

  “Bend over the edge of my desk, Maxine,” Rafe said quietly.

  She studied his face, looking for any softening of his features. There was none and Max knew she needed to buck up and take whatever punishment he gave her.

  Under his stern gaze she marched up to the desk and laid her torso across it, telling herself she was woman enough to take her punishment. A wistful little thought of what it would be like to always answer to Rafe this way made her shiver a little.

  “Good girl, I’m proud of you,” he told her after she’d positioned herself.

  Max was shocked by the swell of pride that filled her at his words. She watched over her shoulder as Rafe doubled the belt in his hand and placed a hand on the small of her back to hold her in place. “Twenty-five and we’ll be done.”

  Max closed her eyes; she’d known it was too much to hope for that he hadn’t actually read the scene. Her eyes flew back open the instant the first line of fire fell across her vulnerable backside.

  The next ten fell in quick succession; obviously Rafe didn’t want to drag this out.

  Max was gasping for air as his belt left unbelievable heat in its wake. Another ten fell rapidly across the tops of her thighs.

  Max sobbed across the desk. “I’m sorreeee… please… I’m sorreeee…”

  Rafe applied the last five to her sit spots almost one right on top of the other, then dropped the belt to scoop her up into his arms. “Shhhhhh, baby, it’s okay. It’s all over.”

  He crooned softly as he carried her to his big desk chair and sat with her cuddled in his lap. Max wrapped her arms around him and sobbed into his neck. “I’m sorry, Rafe… I know I was stupid…”

  “Shhhh… all is forgiven.” He continued to rub her back and kiss the top of her head until she calmed down.

  Max sniffed one more time and then became conscious of the fact that her skirt was still rucked up around her waist and she had no idea where her panties were. She was practically sitting on Rafe’s lap naked! Plus she was way too heavy to be sitting on him like this; had he carried her over here? Rafe let her up as soon as she tried to pull away. He watched her almost frantic efforts to pull her skirt down and reached out to help. Embarrassed, Max tried to slap his hands away.

  “Maxine.” She froze again at the warning in his tone and let him set her skirt to rights.

  Rafe tried to pull her back down onto his lap but she resisted. “I’m too heavy.”

  “I personally think you’re just right but that’s a conversation for another day; you’re tired and we have work tomorrow so I’d better run you home.”

  Max nodded and walked over to find her purse; her eyes nearly crossed when she spotted her panties by the wall where she’d apparently kicked them during the spanking. Without a word she grabbed them and stuffed them into her purse. “Could I have my phone?”

  “No. I’ll be keeping that for a week,” Rafe said as he guided her out the door.

  “I beg your pardon?” she asked incredulously. She finally looked at him with a glare.

  “Hmmm, make it two weeks,” he said as he pulled her along behind him.

  “Two weeks!” Max spluttered as she tried to keep up with his long-legged strides, feeling every step in the hot, tight skin of her roasted behind. “But it’s my phone!”

  “I personally think two weeks without it will give you a little more time to think about what you could have done differently.”

  “But it’s my phone!” she yelled again.

  Rafe suddenly stopped to look down at her with a raised brow. Max closed her mouth and covered her bottom with her free hand as if to protect it.

  He nodded and started pulling her along again. “I was beginning to think we’d left the office too soon. If you argue anymore, Maxine, I’ll keep it for three weeks. Understood?”

  “Yes,” she said softly.

  “Excuse me?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Better.”

  Max felt like she was practically trotting to keep up with him but didn’t want to complain. Rafe was justified in being angry with her.

  For the last hour she’d vacillated between guilt and outrage at his highhanded behavior. Currently her sore bottom was bringing the guilt to the fore and Max wanted nothing more than to go to bed and forget about this terrible day.

  Rafe opened the door to his big truck, picked her up, and plopped her right down on the plush seat. Max hissed and shot straight up into the air.

  “Owwww! There is no way I can sit for the ride home, I’ll walk,” she said miserably as she tried to climb down from the truck.

  “You sit your bottom right down, young lady,” Rafe said firmly. “Sitting on a well-earned sore backside on the way home will help you remember to make better choices in the future.”

  Max sniffled and sank back down onto the seat with a wince. She was too tired to fuss about it. At least her apartment wasn’t very far away.

  “Did the garage say how long it would take to fix my car?” she asked.

  “Actually the mechanic said it would only be about a week but as far as you’re concerned Maxine, your car has been impounded.”

  “Impounded! What do you mean impounded?” she screeched.

  “I mean that as soon as it’s fixed, it will be parked in the garage for the next month. You can use the time to really think about your responsibilities as a driver to adhere to rules that provide for your own safety and that of everyone else on the road.”

  “You can’t do this! It’s my car, I pay for it. I am an adult, not sixteen! You cannot just decide to take my car away from me for my own good!” she yelled, furious at the way Rafe seemed to be making such arbitrary decisions.

  Rafe shook his head. “I certainly can, Maxine, and you will follow my rules. Unless of course you’d rather I just call the police and let them handle the situation, although I’m pretty sure once they know the facts, your license will be suspended and you’ll be without wheels a lot longer than a month.”

  The beginnings of fresh tears burned at the backs of her eyes. “I can’t believe you’re doing this to me.”

  “Honey, I’m not doing anything but trying to take care of you. You are lucky you escaped with a damaged car today. What if a pedestrian was walking across the street when you hammered down the gas? You’d be sitting in a jail cell while your life fell around you in ruins.”

  The truth of his words brought a strangled sob from her throa
t. “How can I be so stupid?”

  “You aren’t stupid, Maxine. You’ve just been a little out of control and I aim to help you bring yourself back into line,” Rafe said determinedly.

  “How do you plan to do that? By beating me?” She snapped the last question.

  “I didn’t beat you and you know it. If you’re honest with yourself, you’ll admit I just did what you’ve needed for a long time now. Or you wouldn’t be reading spanking stories.”

  “That is not your business, Rafe Jennings!”

  “I’ve decided to make it my business and I’m going to tell you right now to lose the attitude. I’m beginning to think I should just pull over and spank you again!”

  “No! I’m sorry, Rafe. This has all been a lot to deal with,” Max said quietly.

  “Which is why I’m cutting you some slack, but you’d do well to remember my patience is not endless, young lady,” he said as he pulled up in front of her apartment building. “You get along inside and I’ll pick you up at seven-thirty sharp in the morning.”

  Max nodded. “Thank you for the ride.” She got down carefully from her seat to keep from jolting her bottom unduly and made her way inside. Rafe watched her until the light in her apartment came on before pulling away from the curb.

  Part of her was relieved he hadn’t walked her to the door but another part was disappointed; what if he’d walked her to the door and kissed her senseless? Then he could have rubbed the sting out of her bottom until she was purring and ready to give herself completely to him.

  Max shook her head, irritated with herself. “That’s a stupid fantasy, Max! Give it up; you will never be the type of girl a guy like Rafe would be interested in.” Feeling she’d sufficiently reined in the romantic side of her nature, Max quickly stripped her clothing and climbed into bed. It had been a very long day and all she wanted to do was sleep and escape from the burning pain in her bottom and her silly longings.

  Chapter Three

  Maxine was dressed and ready well before the time Rafe appointed for her to be waiting on the curb. As she met her own eyes in the mirror, she began to panic.

  She didn’t see how she would ever be able to face Rafe again. Not only did she rear-end him, he’d rear-ended her in the worst way by delivering a thorough spanking.