The Obedient Wife (5 page)

“You’ll also have a lovely view of the lake and the dock since you’re on the front of the house.  You’re about as far away from the family room as I could get you, so the inevitable all night commotion shouldn’t keep you from sleeping.”

Her friend’s family was big and notoriously loud and boisterous. 
Overwhelmingly so, sometimes.

Her personal concierge then disappeared, leaving her on her own to get settled.  When she appeared downstairs, he was nowhere to be seen, until she wandered into the cavernous family room and found him surrounded by books.

Who came to camp to work or study? She wondered to herself, but the question must’ve been in her face, because he answered it immediately.

“I’m taking the sergeant’s test - I’m a cop - and I need to study, although Scott thought I needed some time off, so I’m here.”

“Oh dear. 
A cop, huh?
  Is this the part where I need to confess to all my unpaid tickets?”

Sean, for his part, was thinking she was a brat who was much too big for her britches, and he’d never backed down from a challenge, especially one that involved a taming - and his impression of her, even after such a short time, was that this young woman could definitely use one.  His palms fairly itched to deliver it, but he didn’t want to frighten her away by introducing the idea any too soon . . .

But then, what the hell.

“If you feel the urge, I’m here.  But - a friendly warning - you wouldn’t have to worry much about the judicial consequences of not having paid them because the consequences I would deal out would be much worse.”

The excitement in the air around them crackled as Ginger stopped dead in the act of walking towards the sliding glass doors that led out onto a large deck and turned to look back at him.

Big mistake.

He’d quietly put away the books that had surrounded him, and he was now staring directly at her, with every bit of concentration in his body focused on nothing but her. 

Dear God, he meant that he would spank her!  She knew it as surely as she knew that parts of her clenched as she made that discovery, parts that were making themselves as known as they could - drying her throat, quickening her breathing and making her desperately wish she could squeeze her legs together, but she was not about to do that in front of him.

Trying to lighten the mood, she laughed softly.  “Did I say traffic tickets?  I meant . . .
uh .
.  .
laundry
tickets.  That’s it.”  She chuckled uneasily when he tucked his chin to his chest and looked at her from under hooded brows.

“Really?” he asked softly.  “Because lying to me would get you into even worse trouble.”

“Because you’re a cop?” she asked, looking deliberately away from him before she drowned in those dark black pools of his.

“No, because I won’t stand for being lied to, Miss Ginger.”

That tone.  It went directly to her clit and smothered it in innuendo and sexual energy until it practically burst forth on its own, without ever being touched.

Ginger tossed her hair in a nervous habit that was left over from when she had hair down to her mid back.  Now her glorious golden locks were cut in the same short pixie style she’d had as a kid, with a bit more attitude, and the move was definitely lost in translation.

“What do you do for a living, Ginger?” he asked, and she had the thought that he wouldn’t be happy, somehow, if she decided not to answer him, but that was fanciful and frivolous.  She didn’t know this man well enough after only fifteen minutes or so to think that. 

Or did she?

His change of subject only diffused her nervousness to the slightest degree.  “I work for the same bank that Charlie does, only not in the same area.”

“Charlene works with electronic transfers, right?  What do you do?”

It was interesting to know that you were the object of someone’s attention, especially when that person looked - and acted - like he did.  She was on high alert, despite his mundane questions.

“I process Visa debit card disputes.”

“And do you like your job?”

She was staring out the window, trying to get her scattered, almost frightening reactions to him under control or she would have noticed that he had gotten up and was crossing the room towards her.

“I do.  It’s a dead end because my manager isn’t going anywhere fast, but I like the . . . well, the rhythm of it, I guess.  I do it well enough that I get a raise every year, and I’m pretty much left to my own devices to get my work done.”

“I’m glad.  It helps to like what you do.”

How had he snuck up on her like that - so silently?  He moved like a cat!  Still, when she turned to find him standing behind her, it was at a more respectful distance than she would have guessed by her rioting nerves.

Until he took those last three steps towards her.  Why she didn’t back away from him she’d never know.  Because she didn’t want to, she guessed.  She wanted to step closer to him, but didn’t at the same time, so he had taken the choice away from her.

He’d be doing plenty that in her future
;
simply removing the choice, but she didn’t know that then.

Nothing he did was alarming, in and
of
itself.  Everything was calm and controlled, just like he was.  First his hands claimed her waist, gently but firmly, as if she had tried to get away, he might well not have allowed her to go.  Then, with his eyes locked to hers, he brought them gently, inexorably together for the first time, breast to chest, package to
cleft
, thigh to quivering thigh.

She wanted to say he was going way too fast.  She wanted to push him away forcefully while saying an adamant, “NO!” like she’d been taught in all of those self-defense classes she’d taken.

None of those were even possible now that he’d touched her.  She felt lost and found at the same time, as if something deep inside her recognized something deep within him.

She felt as if she’d found her soul mate, and that more than anything made her extremely grateful when they both heard Charlene’s car roaring up the driveway.

It gave her the distraction she needed to rip her eyes from his and take a step away from him.  He didn’t - as she’d thought he might - try to hold her there, but he didn’t let his hands drop once she started moving.  They fell away from her only when she moved out of his reach, as if he wanted to touch her every second that he could.

When she took another step back, she felt somehow bereft, as if she’d made the wrong choice, until she looked up at him and he stood there, in all of his self confident masculine glory with a very small, almost imperceptible smile on his face.

“Go greet your friend.  I’ll be there in a minute.”

“You’re not coming -” 

He made a gesture towards his bulging crotch. 

“Oh.”  Now it was her turn to blush when she really didn’t need to.  It wasn’t as if she hadn’t seen a man with an erection before.

“I just need a minute to . .
.  compose
myself, then I’ll be right down.”

Ginger practically ran away from him, which was very unlike her.  She wasn’t the type to give away so much about what she was feeling, but she couldn’t help it.  If she spent another second in that room with him, she was either going to end up under him or - worse than that, somehow - over his lap.

She wasn’t at all sure which was better . . . or worse.

Her confusion must’ve shown in her face, because Charlene thought she was sick when she saw her.

“You sure you’re all right?” 

Her friend must’ve asked her that several times, even in front of Sean, who appeared out of nowhere and grabbed the bags they were both carrying.

Of course, Ginger couldn’t keep her curious eyes from wandering to the zipper of his jeans, which still looked as if it was under considerable stress, but she forced herself to look at her friend, instead, whose continued questions about her health were driving her crazy.

“I’m fine, leave it!” Ginger finally snapped.  They were all gathered in the kitchen, trying to decide what to have for snacks with the inevitable pre-dinner happy hour.  Tonight that would be steaks on the grill that Sean would cook.

“All right, all right!  Don’t be so touchy!  Jeez!”

“How about something easy - my parmesan and garlic dip with some salt and pepper chips?”  She, for one, would be happy for the distraction of having to make her latest concoction - anything to get her mind off a certain person’s bulge.  Ginger pulled one of the grocery bags she’d brought out of the cupboard.

“Well, none of us will be able to breathe on each other, but that sounds great.”

Although she could feel Sean’s eyes on her occasionally during the evening, he didn’t approach her again, and she kept her own eyes strictly to herself.

Well, maybe not strictly, but mighty close to it.

Charlene’s family was wonderful.  She’d met several of them before, and they all went out of their way to make her feel like she was part of the family.  They laughed, they talked, they ate continuously; snacks during happy hour, steaks and salad were nowhere near enough for them, so they sent some of the brothers down to the corner store for an ice cream run about eleven o’clock.

Ginger had just ducked up the stairs to use the facilities, since the downstairs bathroom
aways
seemed to be
ocupado
.  Of course, she ran into Sean there; apparently his room was right next to hers.  That made her wonder about his choice of bedroom for her, but not for long, since he had come out of his room in the worn denim cutoffs that clung lovingly to every muscular curve, with a beach towel around his neck.

Ginger stopped in the bathroom doorway, trying not to drool at the sight of him naked to the waist.

He gave her a calculating look,
then
said, against his better judgment, “I need to clear my head, so I’m going down to the water for a swim. 
Wanna
come?”

Damned if she didn’t!  She found herself nodding even before she’d even really thought of what kind of response she wanted to give to him, but by then she was committed.

“I’ll meet you downstairs by the back door.”  He then added, “Don’t keep me waiting.”

That sounded suspiciously like a command and she rankled, thinking up ways to delay, but if this man was as dominant as she thought, and perhaps even into spanking, that might not be the best idea.

Still, she wasn’t about to let him think he could order her around, so she took her time changing into her suit and retrieving a towel from the linen closet.

When she finally appeared before him, his look was
not
reassuring, as if he knew she had deliberately stalled, just to prove a point.

All he said
was,
“Follow me.”

She had never been to this lake before, so she didn’t know much about the lay of the land, and was relying on him to get her to wherever the best swimming
hole
was.  Since they had a beautiful beach right in front of the house, she figured that wouldn’t take much time.

She was wrong.

They had trekked for a good fifteen minutes before he finally said, “We’re here.”

It was a gorgeous spot.  The sky was clear and the moon was full, and it was almost as bright as daylight out, although she was glad to see that he had brought a small lantern, too, which he left on shore.  It illuminated a small sand beach where it was wonderfully quiet - away from the loud sounds of the family playing poker and drinking - but mostly drinking.

It was the height of summer, and the water was quite warm.  Sean waded right in, but then he knew what the bottom of the lake was like.

As if he sensed her hesitancy, he said, “It’s a clean sandy bottom, no rocks or anything, and there’s absolutely no seaweed or marshy grasses here at all.  There are very few spots of that anywhere on this lake.  If you feel anything plant like underfoot, it’s just leaves or twigs from the surrounding trees.  So you can walk right out, although it does get deep pretty quickly.”  He swam in a ways, and then stood with the water up to his neck.  “Another step and it’s over my head.”

Ginger loved the water; had since she was a kid.  She swam like a
fish,
only she hadn’t really ever swum at night.  Her mom was the type who dragged her kids out of the water as soon as the sun started to set.

It was intoxicating, though, however cold, she thought as she made a shallow dive to wet herself entirely.  It was so quiet - almost eerie - as
they were serenaded by the crickets and the loons
.

She floated on her back, dulling her sense of hearing, feeling as if she was in another world, with everything shaded silver and gold in the moonlight.

Sean watched her, as covertly as he could, as she floated there, staring up at the sky.  She wasn’t classically beautiful, but that was fine with him.  He’d never gone for any woman specifically because of how she looked, anyway.  And her hair was much shorter than he would have preferred.  The color was gorgeous - and he didn’t care whether it came from a bottle or not - but he preferred long hair on his woman - as long as she could grow it.