A Marriage of Convenience (2 page)

As part of the arrangement, Austin had signed a lease on a three bedroom apartment. It was nicer than anything Jillian had ever lived in, certainly nicer than the one bedroom place she’d shared with her daughter before he’d showed back up in her life. She’d not wanted to move in with him at his place; she insisted on having her name on the lease so she could not be kicked out on a whim and he’d surprised her by agreeing even though she had no money for even part of the deposit. He’s been so polite to her and Jillian wasn’t sure what to think of that. Both of them were being forced to marry the other - Austin by his mother and her by fear of homelessness. And yet he seemed less resentful and more cordial. Jillian didn’t want to be cynical, but she couldn’t help it. She feared that somehow Austin would turn on her, that the man he was pretending to be was not the man he really was.

Austin’s mother pulled him aside. Jillian could see the older woman arguing vehemently in hushed tones while cutting eyes her way from time to time. Martha Bellaford’s manicured nails were digging into her son’s arm when he finally pulled away.

“NO, Mother!” he said, and his tone was loud enough to attract the attention of everyone around them. “I’m not going to force her to do that. Now just back off, OK?”

Martha Bellaford stopped talking and looked around awkwardly. She tucked at her bun with her hand and smiled uncomfortably at the passersby who were looking at them.

“Very well, dear. Just trying to help,” she said. “As you wish. We’ll talk later, after you’ve had time to think about why you might want to think about the benefits of accepting your mother’s offer of help. If you continue to refuse I’m going to doubt your commitment to your future.” She looked icily at Jillian. “I’ll see you two lovebirds later.”

The parting shot was delivered with dripping sarcasm. The baby, which Austin had handed to Jillian before going to talk to his mother, was starting to fuss.

“What was that all about?” she asked when he walked back over.

“Nothing I can’t handle,” he replied. “Let’s go."  They signed the marriage certificate. She hyphenated her last name.

Jillian followed him to the car. A few spaces over, the couple ahead of them were standing in front of a car with the words “JUST MARRIED” painted across the back. A friend was taking snapshots of the couple and what looked to be the matron of honor and best man. All four were laughing happily. Jillian looked away as she fastened Sabrina’s infant seat into the back of Austin’s SUV. It had leather seats and a sunroof. She’d never even owned a car. His was a college graduation present from his mother.

Sabrina was sucking on her pacifier and was fortunately quiet until they got back to the apartment. She was asleep halfway through her bottle, her little mouth still working the nipple as she slumbered. Jillian carried the infant into the nursery and laid her in the crib designed to convert into a youth bed later. There was a matching changing table and dresser in the corner. The furnishings were expensive, all purchased by Martha Bellaford.

Jillian looked down at her daughter, marveling at how much the baby favored her new husband. She remembered when she met Austin’s mother for the first time. Martha Bellaford had taken one look at the infant and remarked, “Well, I was going to ask for a DNA test but that’s really not necessary.”  As much as it galled Jillian, she could only agree;  a DNA test was a waste of time.

Jillian wondered if her daughter would grow up to be as beautiful as Austin was handsome. She had this thick, dark hair, the same gray-green eyes, the same dimple in the chin. She had long graceful hands and long legs. Would she be tall like him? Or short like Jillian, who felt even tinier next to her 6’4” mate.

“Jillian.” His voice called to her from the living room. The baby was making sucking motions with her mouth. Jillian popped the pacifier in the child’s mouth and went back out of the room. Austin was on the couch. He patted the seat, indicating she should sit down. She did.

“So, we’re married,” he said.

“Yes, we are.” She sighed. “And I’ve already told you that you don’t have to pretend that this is about anything more than an arrangement to keep your mother from turning your life into a living hell, Austin. I’m going to get a job and get back in school. Once I get stabilized I can just quietly move out. We don’t even have to tell her right away…”

“Jillian, hold on…” He put up his hand to silence her. “It’s not just about my mother. Yeah, she insisted but I want you and Sabrina in my life.”

“You could have had that without marrying me,” she said.

“Maybe,” he agreed. “But not in a way that would have been honorable. I’m a very old-fashioned guy at heart. I know that most women today feel the way you feel. I was just fortunate enough to find you when you weren’t in any position to blow me off.”

Jillian raised her eyebrow. “Wait. What are you saying? That you’re glad I was in such dire straits?”

“To be honest, yes,” he replied bluntly. “I’m not like most men. I believe that the man should be the bread winner, the leader. That’s hard to do when a woman is too independent to accept his leadership. I plan to be the head of household.”

She felt herself bristle. “And what about what I want?”

“You’ll have everything you want here,” he said. “I’ll give you security, pay for your education, but I don’t want you to get a job. I want you to stay at home with our daughter, Jillian.”

Jillian sat there stunned. So many times she’d thought about how she dreaded leaving her daughter to find a job. She’d gone back early after the birth, trying not to cry when she left her week-old daughter with a neighbor. Her breasts had hurt from being bound so she wouldn’t leak milk while she took medication to dry it up. She’d wanted to nurse, but knew that she couldn’t nurse and work as a waitress. When Toby had told her she was being let go, he did not tell her it was because she was a new mother. Legally he could not discriminate. But Jillian knew how he felt about employees with kids; she’d heard him make disparaging remarks about them before. She knew he’d wanted to fire her when she was pregnant, but probably worried it would be too obvious. So he chose the morning when the cross-town bus ran late; even though she’d never been late before he’d fired her on the spot.

Now she finally had the chance to be a full-time mother. So why did it scare her? She knew. Because she would be financially dependent on Austin, and she’d never been dependent on anyone. Now, sitting in an apartment on expensive furniture that was legally half hers, she could not allow herself to accept his offer.

“No,” she said. “As much as I’d like to, no. I can’t not work, Austin.”

“I’m afraid you don’t have any choice, Jillian.”

At first she wasn’t sure she’d heard correctly. Was he serious? She looked at his face. Yes, he was completely serious. And she felt herself getting angry.

“Let’s get something straight,” she said. “When we took vows in that courthouse, I did not promise to obey.”

He reached for her. At first she didn’t comprehend what he was doing until she was facedown over his knee. His next words completely terrified her.

“You will after this,” he said.

Oh my God! I’ve married a madman!

This was Jillian’s first panicked thought as she felt herself propelled across Austin’s lap. Her second thought was, This cannot be happening!

But it was. Austin Bellaford was restraining her across his hard thighs, his long arm wrapped securely around her waist.

“I know you’ve been on your own, without guidance, since you were a kid,” he was saying. “But that ended when you said ‘I do’ to me. I’m going to give you one chance to make the right choice, Jillian. Will you obey me?”

“Fuck you!” she cried, furious beyond rational thought. Who the hell did this man think he was?

She felt his hand fall hard on her bottom. The thin skirt she wore afforded little protection against the blow. She cried out in pain; she’d never been spanked. At it hurt.

“Owww!” she cried. “You let me up, you fucking asshole brute or I swear to fucking god I will call the police!”

“You’re not in a position to do
anything
of the sort,” he said. Two more smacks fell, impacting the lower half of first her left cheek and then the right. Jillian bucked and struggled. Tears stung her eyes. She shut them tight, willing herself not to cry.

“You can’t keep me here all day, you bastard! I will get up and when I do, I will have your ass arrested!”

“Well, if you’re going to have me arrested I’d better make this worth the jail time.”

She felt him lift the hem of her skirt.

“NO!” she cried, and then repeated the word in a litany of fear as Austin methodically pulled her panties down to bare her bottom. He began to spank her in earnest, his huge hand striking her with a steady, forceful cadence. The pain grew exponentially with each spank. She could no longer stop the tears that breached her lids and rolled down her cheeks without abandon. Her bottom felt like it was on fire, and he was not letting up.

“Will you obey me, Jillian Bellaford?”

“That’s Jillian FOLEY-Bellaford!” she cried out.

“As long as my last name is part of yours you’ll obey,” he said. “Now are you ready to promise to do that, young lady?” He landed three more hard spanks on the lower middle portion of her bottom, eliciting fresh cries of pain from Jillian. She knew now that he would not stop until she promised.

“OK!” she sobbed. “I’ll do it!”

“Do what?” He landed a smack on her thigh.

“I’ll…obey you!” she cried.

She felt his hand rest on her bottom. Was it her imagination, or was the tender skin throbbing underneath his palm?

Jillian heard him sigh and then felt herself lifted up and turned around on his lap. His arm was around her.

“You can call the cops now,” he said. “You can tell them that I offered you the chance to give Sabrina the one thing every child needs - a fulltime mommy - and I spanked you for wanting to put her in daycare instead.”

Jillian wiped the tears away from her eyes, feeling hurt and angry.

“You know it’s not that,” she said through gasps for air. “I do want to be with her. But I don’t want to be a burden.”

“It’d be far more of a burden to know that she’s with strangers, Jillian,” he said. “My mother shoved me off to anyone who would look after me while she went from the bridge club to the garden club to the country club. I wasn’t prepared to learn that I’d become a father, but when I found out I was I spent a lot of time thinking about what I wanted for this child. And for you. I want to give you both the kind of relationship I never had with my mom. And I want to be the kind of father and husband who deserves you both.”

She looked at him. “Who the hell are you?” she asked. “I’ve never met a guy who talked like you." She shifted on his lap. Her bottom was sore, and it was hard to believe that the man who was speaking such thoughtful, considerate words had just spanked her to the point of hyperventilation.

“I’m your husband,” he said, tipping her off his lap. “Get used to it.” Jillian felt shaky standing in front of him, and small as she looked up at him.

“You want to call the police now?” he asked.

She shook her head and sniffed. “No,” she said quietly. “But please don’t do that again.”

“If you are true to your word and obey me I shouldn’t have to,” he said. “Go wash up your face and I’ll order us some dinner. The Thai place around the corner delivers. Sound OK?”

“Sure,” she said.

Jillian went to the bathroom. Her face was indeed a wreck. Rivulets of tears had left mascara tracks down her face. Her long brunette hair, so carefully pinned back for the wedding, hung in a messy frame around her face. But before she tended to any of that she turned, lifted her skirt and looked at her bottom. Jillian gasped at what she saw. Austin’s handprints were clearly visible over the entire surface of her bottom. She placed her hand over one of the prints. Hers was too small to cover the imprint, which was warm to the touch and extremely tender as well. She rubbed her bottom, feeling the slight ridges where a couple of blows had left little raised areas. There was something odd in the way she felt as she stood there, something unfamiliar and alien to her. She felt puzzled; she should have felt angry, but what she felt looking at her well-spanked bottom was….fascinated.

She dropped the skirt, her face flaming as red now as her backside. She’d never been spanked, so perhaps what she felt was some reaction to endorphins. It was easier to explain it away at that moment than it was to try and understand it.

Jillian washed her face and walked into her bedroom. Austin had gotten her nice furniture - a sleigh bed, long dresser with a huge mirror, an armoire with a television and DVD player inside. In the walk-in closet, what few clothes she had made the thing look empty. It was nearly as big as the bedroom in her other apartment. She selected a pair of jeans and a white pullover to wear. Mommy casual. She hoped Austin wouldn’t mind.  She winced as she pulled the jeans up over her sore butt, still half amazed that she'd calmed down over the whole thing as fast as she had.  He'd spanked her – on the bare butt – good and hard.  What the hell was wrong with her?

After washing her face and brushing her hair, she stood in front of the mirror. She’d managed to lose all her baby weight and then some, although it had been stress and poverty more than any diet plan that had gotten her back into her size four jeans. She looked younger than her 27 years, and of the few friends from high school she still kept in touch with, she realized, she now had the nicest home and the wealthiest husband. And she’d not asked for any of it.