Tears welled in her eyes and her arms clung tighter around him. "Yes. I would like that." A single tear dripped down her cheek. "Does it make me an awful person because I want that?"
"No, Elodie." He hugged her so tight he worried he may actually break her fragile frame. "You are not an awful person. We will take this very slow. So slowly that we don't have to search for the answers… they will just find us."
She nodded in agreement. "So now what?"
He kissed her softly, but for longer this time, and then he begrudgingly pulled away. "We go on another date to the movies. One date, one step at a time." He kissed her one more time and wiped the tears in her eyes. "Goodnight, Elodie."
"Goodnight, Clay."
Chapter 7
They'd met for the movie just as he'd wanted. He'd stopped and picked her up, then they'd gone to the theatre. But in the parking lot, he turned off the engine, and swiveled in his seat to look her straight in the eye. "You didn't buy the coat, did you?"
Elodie looked down, suddenly finding the third button on his flannel shirt to be infinitely fascinating. "How did you know?"
Clay snorted. "You're not wearing it."
Elodie guffawed. "Even if I'd bought it, I could have chosen not to wear it."
"Not if you realized you were going to be spanked for not wearing it when it's cold. Do you have a good reason for not buying a coat?"
This was her out. She could just explain that the price of buying a coat didn't fit in with her monthly budget, but her pride got in the way. She had no choice but to lie. "I just didn't feel like it," she said, jutting out her chin. Lying to Clay didn't feel good, but at least she still had her pride.
"Well, then." He paused for a long moment. "I believe a spanking is in order."
"You are not going to spank me, Clay Carver." She said it aloud for the first time, after having said it in her fantasies for almost the past decade. It came out firm and strong, just the way she'd intended.
He didn't say a thing. Nothing. Elodie didn't take that as a good sign. Instead, he got out of the truck and came around to her door, since she'd made no move to get out at all. He opened the door and stuck his hand in at her. "C'mon. Do you think I'm going to spank you in the theatre?" he asked as a young couple was walking by. They turned and laughed, then walked toward the cinema.
If only to shut him up, Elodie got out, refusing to touch the proffered hand. "Will you please keep your voice down!" she growled.
Clay merely smiled, reaching for and capturing her hand to tuck it into his elbow and escort her into the movies. Elodie was quite efficiently trapped. She desperately wanted to continue their conversation and strengthen her objections; her refusal to let him discipline her in any way whatsoever. But she did not want to get into that kind of a discussion in the middle of a public theatre. So, after he insisted on buying the tickets, she grudgingly ate the extra-large popcorn he'd gotten, and dutifully gnawed on the hard Milk Duds—which, in truth, were her favorite movie treats—all while being transported into a land of elves and fairies and magic spells that completely absorbed the both of them, even though it was an extraordinarily long movie.
When it was done, however, and they were back in his truck, she deliberately picked up the conversational thread. "So. No, I didn't get a coat. But you are not going to spank me for not having done so."
Elodie peered closely at his face, but Clay merely continued to stare straight ahead as he drove, smiling slightly.
She paused for a moment, but he apparently wasn't going to say a thing.
"Clay?"
"I have to admit that I like the sound of my name on your lips."
"Clay…"
"Yes?" he asked, as innocently as was possible for him.
It was then that Elodie noticed that he wasn't taking her home to her house—he was heading to his own place.
"Take me home, Clay." A flat, hard statement that left no room for doubt.
"Okay. I'll spank you there," he agreed all too readily, putting on his blinker to change directions.
"No! No—not there!" She was getting so flustered that he might see her dilapidated living conditions that she started to forget the original threat. "You're not going to spank me at either place, Clay."
He stopped at a red light, considering her for a moment. "Well, you seem to be very vehement about not wanting me to see your apartment. I'll have to investigate why at a later date."
That pronouncement sent a chill down Elodie's spine.
"But right now, I am going to spank you, and I think it should be at my house. I'm a man of my word, Elodie. I told you what I would do if you didn't buy a coat. I'm not about to become a liar now."
"Are you crazy? You can't spank me! I'm a grown woman!"
Clay's response was annoyingly laconic. "So was April. And she got her butt blistered whenever I felt it was necessary."