men he traveled with regularly during the course of his missions had started to tease him about Maura almost immediately, but he sloughed it off. He knew a damned good thing when he had it in his hands – beneath him at night, and crying out as his belt connected with her bottom or breasts for the hundredth time in a session.
He would not give that up without a fight. Although he had never admitted it to himself, much less to her, she was the most precious thing in his world. He would gladly give up all of the trappings of wealth he had accumulated by routinely risking his life for his country, but if it came down to a choice between Maura and money or houses or anything else, he would chuck it all in a second to be with her.
As a matter of fact, Simon had been seriously considering that he might want to retire. He’d not mentioned anything of it to Maura, of course. She had never said anything about his fairly frequent overseas trips, but he knew she worried. Usually when he came back, she looked haggard and worn and thinner, and would often confess in his arms in the afterglow of a rough, hard loving that she hadn’t slept much since he’d gone, and, he guessed, had eaten even less out of concern for him.
It worried him when she didn’t eat, and he hated that she looked so bedraggled when he came home, knowing he was the cause. She wasn’t truly thin by any means, though, his Maura, Simon thought as he brushed his hand down the flowing curtain of her hair, but he’d always preferred women with some flesh on their bones, and he absolutely hated it when she insulted herself by intimating - even in an offhand manner - that she wasn’t attractive. Hell, he walked around with a perpetual hard-on. How could she possibly question her attractiveness?
His lips nuzzled the corner of hers gently as his hands reached between them to cup her beautiful breasts. “You know how I feel about you making derogatory remarks about yourself, Maura.”
Maura shuddered. How she reacted to this man should be a crime. He always held both her heart and her privates in his hands whenever he touched any part of her at all, even in the most casual of caresses while they were waiting the line at the grocery store – his hand tucked into the patch pocket over the curve of her butt, or his finger looped over the edge of her waistband in the back . . . just there, subtly reinforcing their intimate connection. “Yes, Sir.”
“So when you say something like that, you know you’re gonna get a spanking. You must want it.”
Alarmed, she answered quickly, “No! I don’t want a spanking!” It didn’t make any difference how she said it, she ended up sounding like a five year old trying to whine her way out of her punishment. But it was true – no one in her right mind would consciously volunteer to take one of Simon’s discipline sessions – they were atrociously painful from beginning to end, even for the smallest of infractions.
Maura tried to pull away, but Simon wasn’t having any of it. He kept her tight against him without much effort. Simon was so strong it was scary most of the time. She knew, though, that he would only ever use that strength to protect her – spankings not withstanding.
He turned them so that he could lean back against the counter in front of the sink, his arms still around her waist, his nose nuzzling hers. “Hmmm. I think you protest much too much, my girl. You know you need to be kept in line as much as I need to keep you in line, and that’s why you have such a wonderful rounded bottom that fits my hand so perfectly as I spank it.”
Maura’s lips twisted beneath his at his words as she reached behind her to rub the part in question, remembering some of her more memorable experiences over his lap, or the couch, or the arm of his recliner . . or . . . or . . . or. “Yeah, but – “
16
“Yeah, your butt. Draped over my knee. Right now,” he said, moving to prop his booted foot on the railing