Page 14 of Keeping His Brat

Her frown didn’t disappear, if anything it grew deeper, but then she sighed. “Yes Sir. I’ll use an alarm to keep track.”

“Good girl. I’ll see you later.” He kissed her forehead gently, filled a thermos with the rest of the pot of coffee, and was out the door before she could find something to argue about.

Chapter 4

She waited until after he left to let out a little show of temper at the punishment. It wasn’t that she hadn’t expected it. Scaring the hell out of Sam was the fastest way she could think of to get herself in hot water.

It was just frustration, mostly at herself. She was busy enough without adding extra chores into the mix. The spanking, as much as she’d hated it while it happened, as usual had aftereffects that she didn’t mind so much. The hot throbbing at the center of each cheek was a constant reminder of the scene and it left her squirmy and wishing he’d cancel the no sex after punishment rule.

And of course, there was also the catharsis of the spanking itself, which always left her feeling clean and new. In a weird way she liked to be spanked until she cried. Not physically, because ouch! But the tears washed away all the emotions and left her feeling guilt free about whatever she’d done. And it meant Sam didn’t stay mad at her for days, which he probably would have if he hadn’t had that outlet.

But the other assignments he gave her didn’t have any of those benefits. There was no catharsis in scrubbing a toilet. No subtle arousal once she was done mopping a floor. Just the ache in her back and shoulders from working all day.

She knew, logically, that this was the whole point of giving her punishments that weren’t spanking. The lesson stuck longer that way. She had to admit if all he ever did was put her across his knee, she’d probably be a lot more inclined to repeat mistakes.

She wanted the spankings, even if they weren’t fun ones, even if she didn’t enjoy them when they happened. Something inside of her just needed them to happen. Sam knew her too well to try to hide that.

Besides a week or two later it was hard to remember how painful a not-fun-spanking had been. After a little time had passed, she would start thinking it wasn’t such a big deal and then it stopped being an incentive to be good. At least when it came to smaller things that didn’t hold a ton of guilt.

She never wanted to scare Sam like she had the night before. She didn’t like that he’d been so upset, but it would be easy enough to say ‘I’ll grab it later. It’ll be finethistime.’ when she forgot her phone once the stinging in her rump had faded. It was still hard to believe such a small mistake had gotten her into so much trouble.

But since she didn’t want to hear another lecture on how she’d put her life at risk by breaking the rules, or be reminded of how terrified he’d been, she waited until the front door closed before she kicked a shoe across the room, and then followed it up with a pillow that had fallen to the floor.

It didn’t hurt anything and made her feel a little better. She let out a long sigh and started to plan her day. At least he’d backed off some when she reminded him about her schoolwork. They were still getting used to the amount of work she had added to her life by taking on a full class schedule.

When the syllabus came at the beginning of the semester, with all the assignments and due dates listed, it was easy to put them off. It seemed like there was plenty of time to get them done, right up until you actually started to work on them. Luckily, she’d always been good at planning out her time when it came to classwork, even if the skill didn’t cross over into the rest of her life.

She wasn’t behind, but only because she was putting in a couple hours on her days off. If she’d had to skip that because she was cleaning all day, it would have set her back. Catching up was hard because she seemed to only have a couple hours of good focus time in her most days. She could push if she had to, every student learned how to cram; she was just glad it wasn’t necessary.

Not that she’d tell Sam, but she was happy to have a Dom who would change plans as needed. That kind of flexibility might not be what every girl in a relationship like this wanted, but for her it was essential, especially now. He could be a hard ass sometimes, but most of the time he was understanding.

Not that he’s going to be very understanding if he comes home to check and I’m still just standing around doing nothing, she thought to herself with another long sigh. She looked around and tried to decide where to start. In the end she headed for the bathroom since it was the smallest room, and she could knock it off her list fast.

She set the alarm on her phone for an hour and went to work. To her surprise the schedule he’d given her seemed to work perfectly. Just when she was getting worn out from the physical labor, she could settle at the table to rest as she studied. And just as her mind was starting to drift it was time to get up and get back to scrubbing. She’d have to try it sometime when she wasn’t in trouble.

There was no skimping on the cleaning. Sam was too much of a stickler and she didn’t want to end up doing it all over again while he watched with a belt in hand to encourage her—which was what happened the last time she did a half-ass job with punishment chores. No way was she tempting that again.

But once she got into the rhythm things went well and mid-morning, she decided to throw together a pot of soup that could simmer all day. It didn’t take much prep time and she had a feeling that having a meal ready to go at dinner time was going to be a gift after her busy day.

Soup on a cold day just felt right, and after the ice-cold soaking she’d gotten the night before she felt like she could do with some extra warmth in her body. Despite wearing her warmest fleece-lined sweats, she was still chilly, except for when she was cleaning. She didn’t want to go to the trouble of starting a fire during the daytime, but just the thought of a good thick soup made her feel better.

By the time Sam came home to check on her she had everything in hand. The house was half clean, and she’d made inroads on the research needed for one of the papers she had to write. She barely paid attention to him while he was there because she’d reached an interesting place in the article she was reading, but he seemed okay with her progress and didn’t stay long.

Not long after he left the alarm went off, but she wasn’t ready to switch, and she hit the snooze without noticing—more than once. It wasn’t until she finished reading the article and making notes on the material that she realized almost two hours had passed since she was supposed to go back to scrubbing.

Charlie was pleased with how much work she’d gotten done for school. Sam would be less happy with the house if she didn’t get back to cleaning. Her ass was going to pay for losing track of what she was meant to be doing, if she couldn’t get it all done. She frowned as she checked the clock, and then got up in a hurry.

There was a kind of zen in the physical labor. Once she got past the boredom and monotony her mind could drift. It was a time for daydreaming and fantasizing about whatever popped into her head.

She avoided anything of a sexy nature because every time she stretched and the skin of her thighs and ass pulled tight, she was reminded of the spanking. Those flashes tended to make her wet and squirmy. That was no fun when she couldn’t do anything about it.

The ‘no sex after punishment’ rule had been expanded to cover masturbation when she’d jumped on that loophole. But he’d added a twist. She could touch herself. She just couldn’t come.

Since Charlie wasn’t interested in edging herself without a reward at the end, she didn’t bother. She was a masochist but not to that extent!

Instead, she thought about how nice the big house was going to look when everything was done. She’d gone a little over the top in a few details, especially with the Master suite, but it was going to be perfect. She considered the choices for decorating. Everything would be freshly painted, along with the structural changes, but there was still the matter of new furniture, rugs, curtains and she had been playing with some ideas for a while without making any decisions.

When she got tired of considering those possibilities, she found her thoughts naturally settling on Sam, like they always did. Whenever she had a moment to think, no matter where she started, somehow it always came back to him. And there they stayed until she realized she was running short on time.

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