He watched her nibble her bottom lip apprehensively, for a moment then continued, “If I catch you within the next twenty minutes or so after that, you’re going to get this paddle right here. It’s one of the ones my friend makes and I’m partial to it. It tends to be very effective.
“And if you can stay out there, for another forty minutes on top of that, and you can get back to this spot, right here,” he pointed to a small star that no one who wasn’t looking wouldn’t have seen, “then you get the ping pong paddle, which, after what you’ve already tasted, is going to feel like I’m swatting you with a Kleenex.”
She highly doubted that. He was strong enough to make any implement a misery if he really wanted to. She was thinking something else, too, wondering just how many women he’d done this with before. Not that she thought she was in a position to ask.
The man read her mind like a cheap dime novel. “Just in case you’re wondering, that star is used by my nieces and nephews. The table’s usually over it, and we use the table as base when we play hide and seek.” He moved closer to her, because she looked a little forlorn. “I haven’t done this with anyone else, Sunny. But I’m a hunter by nature, and I love the idea of going after prey that’s even more of a challenge – and that I’m very much looking forward to catching you, one way or the other. And I bet you know that, once I’ve given you your spanking, I’m going to lay you back on the ground and take you.”
His little speech didn’t seem to have eased her mind much. She was still very tense and looking worried, not at all interested in playing along.
“Tell me, honey, what is it? You can tell me anything, you know.”
“Are there going to be guns involved in all of this hunting?”
He looked appalled at the suggestion, and hauled her up against him. No wonder she’d been so apprehensive! He’d wanted this to be more lighthearted than he had turned it into with all of his blabber mouthing, he guessed. “No, sweetie. No guns. I would never, ever put you in any kind of danger like that, ever. I would never ever do anything that might make you so much as uncomfortable anywhere but your backside or your lady parts. I should have said that to you when we first made the bet. I thought you knew.
“I’m going to be as naked and vulnerable as you are. My gun collection is safely locked up, elsewhere, and my hunting rifles are in a locked gun safe in my study.” He hugged her tightly, as if trying to will her to believe him. “I was thinking more like hide and seek, I guess, really, and I explained it all wrong because the idea of chasing you gets my blood boiling even more than it already is around you. I’m so sorry.”
She caught that compliment and flushed with it. “I’m all right. I just wanted to know.” He let her go, keeping a hand on her lower back as if he didn’t want to lose contact with her. “In that case, if I can make it into home safe, I want no spanking at all.”
He chuckled. She’d always had a reputation as a skilled negotiator, and he guessed he should have expected her to come up with something like that. “All right. I’m much easier on you than I should be, but you got it. If you can make it all the way in to home without me catching you, then you get an automatic ‘get out of that spanking free’ card.”
She looked much more relaxed now, and as if she could get into the spirit of the game, competitive sort that she was – despite that it was outdoors and involved running.
Suddenly, he couldn’t deny the impulse any longer and he reached down and lifted her up in his arms against him, leaving her feet dangling in mid air as he merged his mouth with hers in a manner that was exquisitely gentle, whispering once he’d ended the kiss, “God forbid I should ever seriously hurt you, Sunny.” He had been about to say that he didn’t know what he’d do without her, but didn’t want to get too heavy too soon, not that it wouldn’t have been true, but it just didn’t need to be said at this juncture in their budding relationship. “I’d cut my arm off before I let that happen.” Although it killed him to say it, he wanted her to know: “And if any other man ever does, you just come to me and I’ll personally see to it that he pays dearly.”
She drew back a little and looked into his eyes, seeing the absolute, unflinching truth of what he said there, then hugged him tight.
“Well, let me set you down and we’ll get this thing started.” He stood, facing away from her, right on top of the star. “Oh, one more thing. The playing field is just the back yard here, not the side or front yards, and the woods are strictly off limits. They would be too rough on your exposed skin and feet anyway.”