Sinful by Carolyn Faulkner Page A

most comfortable when he was the one who would make the final decision about something that they had discussed together thoroughly. He expected his woman to voice any kind of concerns, problems, opinions she had – he couldn’t do it all by himself; he needed to know what she thought. But when push came to shove, he preferred to be the one with the final say.
    And that seemed to come very naturally to Lita. Some of the women that he’d dated had chafed at that particular personality trait, saying he was too autocratic and that he ordered them around too much. Now, some of them were saying that because they were brats, and they were hoping that he would spank them out of it. Spanking for spanking’s sake was fun, but not really what he wanted. Play spankings were fine to indulge in with someone who wasn’t interested in the deeper aspects that came into play when real discipline was introduced into a relationship.
    He wasn’t entirely sure how Lita would respond to that idea, but given her tendencies, he thought that it might also be almost second nature to her. And he intended, this weekend, to get some answers about that, too. “What’s wrong?” he asked, stopping her as she reluctantly walked towards the closet.
    She had a habit of not meeting his eyes that he was trying to change as well, but he often had to remind her with a finger beneath her chin.
    She remained silent – not quite defiantly, but close – until he decided that now might be just the time to let her know that he was going to start putting his foot down in the relationship. He was really curious about what her response would be. “Lita, when I ask you a question, I expect a prompt answer, as you already know.”
    Her eyes flew to his, large and round, her mouth open in a surprised ‘o’ at the chiding authority in his voice.
    “And if I don’t get one…” he continued, sitting down on the edge of the bed and tipping her still damp, swimsuit clad body over his lap as if it was the most normal thing to do.
    “Brandt!”
    “Oh, you’re talking to me now? Is this what I need to do every time I ask you a question in order to get a response, Lita?” She couldn’t hear any sarcasm, just again that tone of censure. He might as well have been saying her father’s favorite line when she’d done something that had disappointed him and had resulted in a punishment, “You know better than that.”
    He was still naked as the day he was born, and she was lying over his lap – quite comfortably, she had to admit, with the bed supporting her at either end, until he shifted her a little, forcing her hands to cling to those thick, muscular calves of his, and requiring her to bend down so that her tippy toes touched the thick pile carpet. She was so preoccupied with her own embarrassment at the situation that she completely forgot to answer him, and that didn’t go over well.
    Brandt reached down and gathered the bottom of her suit in one hand, just above the cleft, reshaping it into a thong that split her behind rudely in two, leaving both cheeks terribly vulnerable, then smacked her hard about ten times – crisp, stinging swats that had her even less inclined to answer him when he was finished, because she was still gasping for air at the blaze he’d lit in her behind.
    “I’m not going to wait all evening, Lita,” he warned, his hand draped casually over her backside.
    “No, Brandt, stop, please!”
    “I asked you a question, young lady.” He wondered if that might not be a bit too heavy handed, but when she began to actively try to fight to get off his lap, which she hadn’t really been doing before, he thought he might – instead – have hit on something that was absolutely right for her.
    Another round of ten or twelve or so had her very near tears and beside herself wanting to end the spanking as soon as was humanly possible. “Stop, no, Brandt – I’ll answer you, I’ll answer you!” she finally got out, although she had even