Seeing Is Believing (11 page)

There was a loud thud, and then all hell
broke loose. She heard the words police and stop as shouting and the sounds of
heavy footsteps filled the air, followed by noisy thumps as someone hit the
floor. For once she did exactly as Reed had asked her to do, staying in place
until the turmoil calmed down.

She clutched her knees and prayed that
no one, either bad guy or good guy, was hurt, and when she heard Chester softly
calling her name she peered around the desk and smiled at him.

"Is it over?"

"Yup.
Come on out, we
need a statement from you, and we want you to identify Pat as the man you saw
in the store the other night."

When she entered the back room her eyes
widened, shock filtering through her system. Men and women mulled about, taking
photos and going through boxes. She knew this was more than just the sheriff's
department, because she'd never seen these people before.

A large man stepped forward and offered
his hand, introducing himself as Mr. Baker from the DEA. Then he started to ask
her questions in a dizzying whirl that made her head spin. She answered as best
she could, and positively identified Pat Michaels as the man she'd seen taking
what she'd figured were packages of drugs from the boxes in her store last
Tuesday evening.

It all passed in a huge whirl, and when
it was over several hours later, everyone was gone but her and Chester. She
looked around, expecting to see Reed come down the stairs, or through the main
door. But he didn't appear, and Chester put his hand on her shoulder.

"He had to go with the big guys to help
put this thing in its place. This operation was huge. Our part was just a tiny
sliver of it."

She nodded, a strange feeling of hurt
passing through her because Reed hadn't stuck around to talk to her, or even
say goodbye. He'd just taken off.

He's doing his job, she reminded
herself. He'll be back tomorrow, just wait and see. Then he'll tell you
good-bye and be gone.
For good.

*****

Leslie flipped the remote control for
her TV, wondering if there was anything decent to watch. It was Halloween
night, and she'd been busy, running back and forth to answer the door and hand
out treats.

Her treats this year were coupons for
the store, offering two free cookies to the bearer. It was a win-win situation
as far as she was concerned. She'd handed out quite a few, and would give away
lots of free cookies because of it, but that was just fine with her. It got
people into the store, and hopefully buying some of the trinkets she'd bought.

Not that she needed to offer too much
incentive for people to eat, and shop, in the cafe. After news of the bust made
its way across town, the store had been busier than ever, with people coming in
to see where the action had taken place.

Sales were up, and she'd sold every one
of the trinkets she'd bought, and was now on her second batch. Things were
looking up, financially.

She wished she could say the same about
her personal life. Reed had phoned the day after the arrests, explaining he had
to go back to Dallas immediately. He was sorry he couldn't come by to talk to
her, but he'd keep in touch, he promised.

Of course he hadn't kept his promise and
she hadn't heard from him since then. Not that it mattered. She didn't care.
Not really. She snorted out a "yeah right, you don't care," then reached for a
cookie.

Why should she care?
Just
because he spanked her, and then ran.
Just because he'd brought her to
the most fantastic orgasms he'd ever had, and then ran. Just because he'd
sucked on her neck until he'd given her the first hickey of her life, and then
ran.

Tambi
had been amazed
to hear the whole story, and she'd been quick to defend Reed, saying he was
probably taking care of things and would be back.

"I saw the way he looked at you, and you
forget
,
I walked in on him spanking you, too. I'm
telling you there were feelings there. He cares about you."

"Right," she responded, "cares enough to
leave the next day, call once, and then disappear off the face of the earth."

She ate the cookie, reached for another
one. If she wasn't careful she would sit here and eat the whole plateful. If
she did that, her jeans wouldn't fit the next morning.

A heavy sigh escaped her lips as she
dropped the cookie back on the plate. She'd been dumped, yes, but she didn't
need to gain ten pounds in her anguish.

Her fingers hovered over the plate, and
she looked up as the doorbell rang out. A glance at her watched showed it was
after nine. Sort of late for trick or
treaters
, but
this was a small town, and it didn't surprise her too much.

She picked up her coupons and went to
the door, opening it without checking the peephole. Her eyes widened as Reed
turned to her and grinned, "Trick or treat."

A smile lit her face, and she quickly
tamped it down, frowning at him.

"What do you want?"

"A treat, of
course.
Isn't that how this works?"

"Go away." She walked away from him but
left the door open. She heard him enter,
then
come up
behind her.

"I'm sorry, really I am."

"Right."
She wheeled on
him. "You think you have the right to spank me not once, but twice, and then
play with me, physically and emotionally and then just leave? Go back to
Dallas."

"Why? None of my stuff is there." He
grinned at her, tried to capture her face in his hands but she pushed him away.

"What?"

"The firm's opening a branch in
Amarillo, and I'm the new director. It took me a little bit of time to find an
apartment, get moved, and then come back here. Sorry I'm late."

This time she let him cup her face in
his hands, let his lips come down on hers gently, his tongue sliding into her
mouth and tasting like heaven.

"Does that mean you're staying here?"

"Well, in Amarillo, yes, but it's only a
little more than an hour's drive. I wanted to stay here with you, in your
house, but I thought that would be a bit presumptuous on my part to just invite
myself to live with you."

"Is this a trick?" There was a tiny part
of her that wondered if this wasn't true, if he was somehow messing with her.
But the larger part knew he wasn't. That wasn't Reed's style, to get her hopes
up, and then crush them. Still, she wanted to hear it from his lips.

"No, it's a treat, or at least I hope it
is." He kissed her again, his thumb caressing her cheek as he nibbled on her
lower lip. "Are you going to kick me out?"

"No." She laughed softly. "Although I
think I should."

"No, you don't. You want me as much as I
want you."

"Maybe.
No more
spankings, though."

"Behave then." He lifted his brows and
then cocked his head playfully. "You know what? I never had the chance to
finish that last spanking. We were interrupted."

Leslie pulled free from his grasp,
putting her hands over her ass in a protective manner. "No more spankings."

"We'll see," he said with a laugh, and
then he turned her around, lifted her hands and swatted her behind. He
delivered several more slaps. The feelings were quite different from the last
ones. Somehow the fact that he'd come back made all the difference in the
world.

"Take down those jeans so I can finish
this properly. Good spankings are given on bare bottoms."

"And if I refuse?"

"Baby, I expect nothing less from you
than to not do as I ask." He turned her in his arms, held her close and kissed
her again, a lingering kiss that made the tips of her toes curl in delight.
"Now, take '
em
down."

She glanced at the door,
then
bit her lower lip. "I might get more trick or
treaters
."

He kissed her again, his tongue sliding
inside her mouth, wiggling gently until she groaned. Then he crossed to the
front door, shut and locked it, then turned off the light.

"The streets are dead out there," he
said, turning back to her. He walked back to her side,
then
took her hand. "I'm going to make love to you tonight."

"Is that my treat?"

"That's both our treats," he said,
nibbling on her lower lip. "But first I'm going to finish that spanking."

He led her to the hallway and she gladly
followed, anticipation soaring through her at the thought of taking him inside
her, of sleeping, and waking, next to him.

Once inside the bedroom he shut the
door,
then
stood in front of her. "Take down your
jeans, you naughty girl." The tone of his voice let her know this was going to
be one of the "other spankings," an erotic one that would bring them both
pleasure.

Without argument she undid her jeans,
putting her thumbs in the waistband and stopping.

"Over to the bed," he said, the tone of
desire even thicker. "Take your jeans and your panties down to your ankles,
then
bend over."

She did exactly what he asked, her
excitement growing with step. She was angry with him for not calling or two
weeks, yes, but she was thrilled with his surprise. He would be living in
Amarillo, just an hour away. Maybe this relationship would end up working after
all.

He cupped one cheek and squeezed, then
cupped the other one and did the same.
"Naughty girl."
And then he slapped her ass. Leslie groaned as he slapped her ass again, and
again.

The sting was rough, but the pleasure,
mixed with the anticipation of taking him inside her, the pleasure of being
with Reed again, was beyond anything she'd ever felt before. He delivered five
hard slaps to each cheek,
then
gently trailed his
fingers over her cheeks.

"Nice and warm," he murmured. "Are you
going to be good?"

"Doubt it." She groaned as he slapped
her ass twice more.

"I'm happy to hear that." He bent down
and tugged on her jeans, instructing her when to move her legs to help him
remove the clothing. When her bottom half was naked he caressed her, his
fingers moving over the thighs and calves, leaving whispers of pleasure in
their wake.

"You're so beautiful," he said, his
breath tickling her neck as he bent over her, rubbing his jeans against her
naked backside. "That's the first thing I thought when I walked into your cafe,
how beautiful you were."

"Yeah?"
She stood and
shivered as he lifted her sweater over her head, unhooked her bra.

"Yeah."
He cupped her breasts,
pulling her back into his hard body. She could feel his cock straining against
his jeans, but when he let her go long enough to strip, she thought she would
die.

When he spooned against her again she
felt the length of him along her backside and she groaned in pleasure, moving
her hands to grasp his hips. "Take me."

He took a step back and slapped her ass
twice more. Then he twirled her around before toppling them both onto the bed.
He was inside her in one swift stroke, her wetness paving the way for the hard
length of him.

She wrapped her legs around him as he
rocked, the contract making her clit twitch in appreciation. As his movements
picked up speed he leaned down to kiss
her
and she
wrapped her arms around his neck, holding him as tightly as she could.

The hard thrusts sent her soaring, her
orgasm slamming into her like nothing had ever done before. She felt him seize,
and release inside her and for a very few seconds she worried about babies, and
then she relaxed. She had nothing to worry about with Reed here, with her.

"I want you to live here, unless you
don't want to drive back and forth to Amarillo."

"I found a very cheap, short-term lease
apartment in the hopes you'd say that," he said, his voice still heavy with
exertion.

"Will you marry me?"

"I think that's my line." He kissed her
gently. "But yes, I'll marry you, if you'll marry me."

"As long as
there's a part in the vows about no spankings."
The grin he
gave her made her giggle.

"Oh no, as a matter of fact, it's going
to say, to love, honor and obey. Or be spanked. Understand?" He nibbled on the
end of her nose and she sighed. Then he rolled them over, wrapped his calves
around hers and slapped her ass.

"Yes sir, I understand. But I'm not sure
I can follow the obey part."

He slapped her ass again,
then
kissed her soundly, gazing into her eyes when the kiss
broke. "I'm very glad to hear that. Because I know you like being spanked."

"I do not!" She tried to push away but
he held her close.

"Bull, remember, I have to see evidence
of things, and when I spank you, I can see evidence of your arousal. Even when
you were professing your hate for me, you wanted me just as much as I wanted
you. Even when I spanked you for punishment, your nipples got hard."