HIS By Design -Coveting Claire by Helen Karol

wear a
light foundation to cover her untanned complexion.  Blusher,
eye shadow and lip-gloss completed her toilette and she joined
Julian in the living room, who, despite her duplicity, had managed
to dress ahead of her.  He’d changed into beige slacks and a
button down shirt of a deeper shade of green than her own clothes.
 A shade, she couldn't help noticing that exactly matched the
color of his eyes. He stood up when she entered and looked at her
in pretended fierceness.
    "Minx.  I ought to take you across my
knee."
    "Huh!  You and whose army." She threw at
him saucily to combat the hot flood of desire that coursed through
her at his threat.
    When he advanced purposely towards her, she
gulped, her bravado deserting her. Squealing, she turned tail and
fled in an attempt to reach the relative safety of his car. She
wasn’t quick enough. His arms were around her before she was even
halfway up the dining room steps. Lifting her off her feet, he
pulled her back against him, his lips just behind her ear.
    She felt his hot breath and heard his sexy
growl mixed with amusement. “An army, huh? That’s big talk for a
little minx. A very naughty, little minx who needs a lesson in fair
play. You really shouldn’t throw out challenges like that, Claire.
You ought to know it'll only get you in trouble.”
    Claire squealed even more at his words.
Partly with laughter, partly with a thrill of fear and definitely
with a liberal dose of desire. Her whole body felt hot, her pulse
throbbing at how much more closely this fit with her thoughts over
dinner the night before. Not just a few swats this time, but a
proper spanking across his knee. When other men threatened her
teasingly this way, the result was a chase similar to this. None of
them ended with the promised spanking. Instead, the roughhousing
moved on to tumbled laughter and kissing. She enjoyed the kissing
and what it led to, but always felt deflated when the desire
aroused by the threat of the spanking was unfulfilled. She wasn’t
sure if she’d feel the same desire if she was actually very soundly
spanked, but as Julian held her close in his powerful arms, her
heart pounded desperately with the hope that she was finally about
to find out. Were those few smacks last night as far as he’d go?
Would he follow through or would he just end this in laughter and a
few kisses like the others?
    Typically, Julian didn’t let her down. Before
she knew it, he’d hoisted her over his shoulder and was carrying
her purposely towards the couch. Remembering her feisty statement
earlier, she figured she really should put up a bit of fight.
Punching his back and kicking her legs, she berated him. “Julian
West, don’t you dare! You can’t spank me again. Not like this.
Don’t you dare put me across your knee. I'll never speak to you
again! Not ever!”
    He laughed outright as he sat down and
arranged her across one knee, stilling her flailing legs by placing
his leg across them. “Come on, Claire! We both know that's an idle
threat. We're too solid for that.”
    Lying prone across his knee, her body
effectively under his control, Claire suddenly felt outrageously
vulnerable. It was not at all the same as when she was standing
against his car’s solid support for the smacking last night. She
looked at the plush carpet beneath her gaze and wanted to be facing
upright. Fantasy was one thing, reality quite another. She pushed
upwards, trying to rise up from over his powerful thigh. Despite
her sudden ambivalence, she found herself baiting him by throwing
out another challenge guaranteed to seal her fate. “Julian! No!
Don’t you dare! I mean it!”
    “Too late, Claire.”
    Claire tried another tactic. “No fair! This
breaks our ‘no sexual stuff yet’ truce.”
    “Give it up, Claire. You’re getting a
spanking. I’ll take it easy seeing as how this is your first time
across my knee.” His tone was still amused, but his arm across her
back was intractable, his determination