For a moment, they both sat in silence.
“He made me dress like a whore tonight,” Lily Mae said sadly. “At first I was disgusted. But then I realized it was no better than I deserved for what I’d done. I’d acted like a whore, dangling the promise of sex to a man I knew was dangerous just so he’d pay off my car.” Lily Mae buried her face in her hands and wept. “Now I’ve lost the best thing I’ve ever had because I was so shallow and stupid.”
Jace stood and moved over to the sofa. “Whoa, whoa,” he said. “Who says you lost me?”
She looked up, her face tracked with mascara. “You did,” she replied. “Just a few minutes ago when you put our relationship in the past tense.”
Jace reached into his shirt pocket and pulled out a tissue. “No, Lily Mae,” he said. “I put the situation in the past tense. But make no mistake, sweetheart. I mean to take you home.” He paused. “But I also mean to make sure you understand there are very serious consequences for both putting yourself in danger and making me worry like you did.”
He could see both relief and apprehension on her face.
“What are you going to do?” she asked.
“I’m going to punish you, Lily Mae,” he said. “But it’s going to be a punishment unlike any I’ve given you before. I know you’ve heard the expression ‘this is going to hurt me more than it hurts you,’ but that’s the kind of punishment I’m talking about. Do you understand, Lily Mae?”
She nodded, staring down at her hands where they sat folded in her lap.
“You sure?” he asked.
Now she looked up. “I’m more than sure, Jace,” she said. “I want you to. Even if you take me back, I don’t ever think I’ll feel right about us until I’ve been punished for what I’ve done.”
Jace felt his heart swell with love for Lily Mae. He reached out his hand. “Stand up then,” he said.
She took his hand and rose. Jace walked her wordlessly to the back of the sofa. Moving behind her, he reached around to untie the terrycloth bathrobe. He slipped it from her shoulders. She was naked underneath. Jace pushed her over the sofa.
“Wait here,” he said. “Don’t move a muscle.”
She didn’t protest. She simply obeyed. Jace left her where she was and went to the kitchen, hoping he’d find what he was looking for. He opened and closed several cabinets, coming up empty in his search. Then he opened the refrigerator and found what he was looking for in the back of the crisper drawer.
Jace found a cutting board propped by the bread machine on the counter. Now he laid the ginger root he’d found on top of it and used a paring knife to slice a three-inch piece from the end. Working carefully, he removed the hard outer skin, carving the section of root until it was a narrow cylinder about a half inch in diameter.
Jace tucked the carved section of ginger root into his shirt pocket and walked back into the room to find Lily Mae still in position. He stood on the other side of the couch, watching her watch him as he slowly undid the supple leather belt and pulled it from the loops of his blue jeans.
“You’re getting a licking, Lily Mae,” he said, doubling the belt. The he laid it on the arm of the sofa next to her head. “Now, it’s important that you not clench your bottom cheeks when you’re being strapped with a belt, so I’m going to do something to make sure that doesn’t happen.”
“What do you mean? What are you going to do?”
“You still have time to change your mind before we begin,” he said, ignoring the question. “This all comes down to whether you trust me. Do you?”
She nodded, and Jace reached into the pocket of his shirt for the ginger root. He didn’t offer an explanation as he stepped behind Lily Mae and parted her bottom cheeks to expose the dusky crinkle of her anus. The freshly peeled root oozed with its own juices, and now Jace pushed it against her bottom hole, noting how Lily Mae’s eyes widened as she looked back at him. Still, she didn’t resist, but allowed him to continue to push until the tip of the root had made its way past the resisting ring of muscles. Jace continued to work it in until only an inch protruded from between her cheeks.
Now he picked up the doubled belt and stepped to the side, eyeing her delectable bottom.
“How many?” she asked.
“Enough to teach you a lesson,” he said. “I’ll decide when you’ve had enough.”
He drew the belt back then and brought it down hard across the center of her bottom, and he could tell immediately that whatever Lily Mae had expected a strapping to feel like, she’d not expected that. She howled aloud, sinking to the floor, her hands cupping her freshly welted bottom.
“Stand up,” Jace said, and he was surprised at the lack of mercy in his voice. But he’d not been exaggerating when he’d told Lily Mae she was in for it. She’d put her very life in danger, and his, too. He was determined she’d never do anything like that again.