Jackie Draws A Straight: The Journey Series Book 5 (8 page)

Even the cards weren't going his way. She won hand after hand, beating him three games in a row rapidly. He began to get suspicious when she quickly took the lead in the fourth game. To his casual observation, it looked like she was shuffling and dealing the cards the same as any other person, but on careful examination, he realized she was cheating. The little minx had marked the cards with a thumbnail and was stacking the deck with careful shuffles, keeping the melds together.
Damn, she was good at it too.

He reached out and took the deck from her hands as she made to shuffle again. "That's about enough of that, young lady."

Frowning, she tried to take the deck back. He held it away from her. "Enough of what?"

"You're cheating."

"I am not!"

"You are. Don't lie and compound it."

Her eyes narrowed and, after a moment, dropped toward her lap. "Sorry. I hate losing."

"You amaze me, Miss Journey."

Pink suffused her cheeks. "Are you very mad at me?"

Irked was a better description of how he felt. "You really are a naughty woman." Perfect brown eyes with long dark lashes looked up into his and Pete wanted to kiss her so badly that he had to look away. "I ought to spank you again."

Her breath stilled for a moment. "Yes, you should."

Frowning, he tried to comprehend what game she was playing. She had a boyfriend and yet it seemed like she wanted Pete's attention, even negative attention, in a very intimate way. Was she l
o
ose? Did she intend to cheat on Bud Ramirez? Was she using Pete to get back at her
surly boyfriend? "Sometimes, I think you're goading me to spank you, Jackie. Why not turn to Bud if you want to be disciplined? Why me?"

"Bud is not my boyfriend! He's not!" Her voice was strident, and Pete was on the verge of believing her. "Besides, he's crude and illiterate compared to you."

If Pete had been inclined to believe her, the fact that she was making a comparison between the two of them strongly suggested to him that she was simply trying to raise her status with regard to men in her life. A doctor must be more prestigious among her frien
ds. It pissed him off royally to think she'd used him like that. "You shouldn't be making those comparisons, Jackie. I'm not your lover or even vying for the position."

"I'm sorry," she whispered. "So, you're not going to spank me for cheating?"

"Damn it, Jackie!"

"I deserve it, don't I?"

She did deserve it, but every spanking he delivered brought her closer to his heart. Every time he
thought of
her
little
round butt getting red from his hand
,
his ape ancestors—driven to frenzied lust by the red behinds of their females in heat—nearly overcame all the evolution from that point forward. Her lovely heart-shaped face was turned up to him, her lips trembling
, and her breath shallow. Resistance was impossible, but this time, he took it a step further.

"No panties this time. Bare your butt and put yourself over the arm of the sofa."

"Bare?"

He nodded. "Or I take you home to your father right now.
"

Slowly, she shook her head. "I don't want to go home."

"Then do as I say."

Without a word, Jackie rose from the sofa and started unbuttoning her jeans. She snaked her hips to peel down her tight jeans and reveal her tiny, string-sided pink panties. Pete almost called it off when she glanced up at him, but the need was almost palpable between them. She needed this spanking and he needed to deliver it. It was as simple as that.

The panties, barely more than a bright scrap, slid down her slender thighs to meet with her jeans at her knees. Shuffling a little, she positioned herself over the padded arm of the sofa, offering up her pale bottom as a perfect target.

Pete's hand itched. Not with the urgent need spank so much as the desperate urge to touch in any way he might. However, this was a spanking
.

He positioned himself at her side and raised his hand. She was thoughtless and bratty. She had no self-discipline and barely any morals. Punishment was appropriate. The thought spurred him into action and he gave her a hearty swack right in the middle of her cheeks. She cried out and tensed. Pete delivered several more hard spanks before he tried to make the lesson clear to her.

"Cheating is wrong, Jackie." He pounded her bottom with the flat of his hand six or seven more times and listened to her shocked cry with each one. "You shouldn't cheat at cards. You shouldn't cheat at anything." Another half dozen smacks and her bottom was glowing. His
dick got hard and he used every ounce of self-control he could muster to hold himself back from taking her. His desire for her could go nowhere.

"I'm sorry!" Her breath caught and she started crying after another few spanks.
"Oh! Ow!"

"
You make me crazy, Jackie Journey. Why can't you behave?" The spanking continued and she was sobbing and scissoring her legs, trying to mitigate the pain of her bright red rump.
Her jeans and panties came off in the commotion, landing several feet away.

"I'm sorry! Oh, God! I can't help it!"

"You can help it. You can. You will." Gasps and moans were her response and the percussive beat of his hand on her butt
was
a
martial
cadence. "Are you going to cheat again?"

"No! No sir! Please. I won't. I won't do it. Please stop."

He delivered another six spanks, the last one on the perfect cross where her bottom and thighs met, just above that place his ragi
ng erection wanted to explore. His hand was stinging furiously and he told himself that he'd have to use his belt the next time. Frustration swept over him as he realized that he couldn't think of next times. These were isolated incidents. It couldn't become a habit, though he was smart enough to realize that that's exactly what it was becoming.

Jackie's tears wet the sofa, moistening his jeans as he sat down and took her in his arms
.
With her
lower half exposed, h
er lightly-furred mound was visible, and he tried with all his might not to look.
Pete wanted to scream with frustration.
"You're killing me, Jackie," he whispered against her hair. He didn't think she could hear him over her sobs and hiccoughs.

He handed her a hankie from his back pocket and after a while she calmed. They snuggled and rocked and eventually, she fell asleep.

Chapter 4

Jackie
was dazed, awakening
to an insistent knock on Pete's front door. The doorbell rang in accompaniment.

"Dr. Kaminsky!
It's Ace Journey here!"

Pete's eyes shot to Jackie. "Put your pants on," he said softly, then turned to the door. "On my way!"

Moving as quick
ly
as she could, Jackie looked around on the floor for her jeans and squirmed into them. Her panties were nowhere to be found.
Ace was going to have her head on a platter. Who knew what time it was and she hadn't called home. All
her family
knew was that
she’d
planned to have dinner in town.

Pete smiled as he opened the door, and Ace stood there, his posture straight, unsmiling. "Good evenin', Doctor. I'm plumb sorry to come callin' so late at
night." He offered his big hand. "Ace Journey."

Pete shook with him and gestured for the tall man to enter. "Pete Kaminsky. Please come in."

Ace spotted Jackie across the room and nodded to her, but turned back to Pete. "Wally at Carlos' told me I'd find Jackie here.
I found her car in Carlos' parking lot and was a mite worried.
" His gaze traveled back to his sister, and then his eyes darted down to a spot on the carpet a foot from her. It was her bright pink panties.

Face flaming, Jackie scooped up the
panties and quickly put them behind her back. Ace didn't miss it, however. His dark eyes met hers and exchanged a clear message,
you're in trouble now, li'l girl
.

"You should have called home, Jackie," Ace told her.

Pete spoke up. "I'm sorry. I should have reminded her. The time got away from us."

Ace gave him a direct look. "
Ain't your responsibility, Doc. Jackie's full grown."

What could Pete say to that? Jackie certainly was full grown, and she knew it. "I'm sorry, Ace," she said. "I got carried away. I was havin
'
a good time."

"A real good time, by the looks of it," he responded with a frown. "Them's your panties in your hand, ain't they?"

Oh no, his drawl was deep and thick. Jackie knew that spelled doom. "I…uh…"

He turned to Pete. "I hope your intentions are honorable
. We Journeys don't brook no
disrespect
of our women."

Pete frowned a bit, but was undaunted. "Nothing happened here. She's my employee."

Jackie thought that was putting quite a fine point on it. Ace was no country hick who
was going to miss the evasion. "Pete and I…we were…" She sighed. There was nothing she could say. Her pa
nties were in her hand. "Nothin'
happened, Ace."

His frown was deep. "We'll talk about it on the way home. Get your thin
'
s." When he turned back to Pete, his frown hadn't
eased
. "I don't know what your usual employment practices are, Kaminsky, but I reckon we can have a few words about how they apply to my li
'l
sister." His posture got a little menacing. "I've a mind to take you to task."

"Nothing happened," Pete repeated, his demeanor equally rigid. "I don't have to explain myself to you."

"If you want to hold your head up in this community, Doc, you're gonna have to consider your neighbors—and their
values with regard to their women."

"Ace!" Jackie was deeply embarrassed. She stuffed her panties into her purse and confronted her big brother. "Nothin
'
happened! There's nothin
'
to talk about. Are we goin
'
or what?"

Ace snorted and backed away from Pete. "
Dad's got a few thin'
s he'd like to say to you. He was so pissed off that he couldn't come collect you directly. March yourself out to my truck and get in. I'll be there in a moment."

Jackie eyed the two men. "Ace, really," she tried,
trying to placate his ire
. "Nothin
'
happened. This isn't Pete's fault."

"Get. In. The. Truck."

Huffing her displeasure, Jackie headed for the truck, leaving the two men to have their conversation. She only hoped it wouldn't turn to a fistfight. Pete was a strong, capable man, but Ace was a former bull rider who had him on reach and weight.

As she settled in the big truck, she heard the door close and Ace com
e
down the gravel pathway. He got in
quietly
and
reached for his cellphone, dialing and putting it up to his ear.
Jackie noted that his knuckles looked normal, no fistfight scrapes. It was a big relief.