Page 116 of Bling

He turned on his side and tickled her ribs. “Maybe now you won’t protest when I want to put a little color on that sexy ass of yours?”

She shrugged. “I still don’t like the way you spank me when I’m in trouble.”

He slapped a hand on his forehead and rolled his eyes heavenward. “That’s because you’re not supposed to like it, Doll. It’s punishment meant to discourage or encourage certain behaviors. And I would say it works too. You’ve done much better about taking care of yourself since I gave you a good blistering.”

She ducked her head into his shoulder, embarrassed to talk about punishment so openly like this.

“Alright then, Doll. Come on and get in the shower with me. I want to take you shopping.”

“I should really check on the girls.”

“Of course. But shower first. Unless you just want to walk over to the main house with my semen dripping down your thighs.”

She shook her head and quickly scrambled toward the bathroom for a shower.

In the main house, Catarina was already awake and on the phone with her cousins planning their day.

“Don’t forget to help your sister make plans, Cat,” Isabelle said as she rummaged through the refrigerator for food to cook. She pulled out eggs, bacon, cheese, peppers, and onions and set about making omelets for everyone.

“Can I help?” Garrett asked as he leaned against the bar and watched her work.

She grinned at him. “I don’t know, can you? You don’t exactly strike me as a guy who knows his way around a kitchen.”

He laughed. “OK, you’ve got me there. But I’m still willing to try.”

“OK. You can slice some avocado. I think I saw some in the bottom of the fridge.”

“Seems easy enough,” he said as he rounded the kitchen island and opened the fridge. “Which one is the avocado again?”

Isabelle turned to stare at him, wondering if he was serious. In his hand, he held an orange and a cucumber with a smirk on his face.

She rolled her eyes. “I didn’t say you were ignorant. I just said I don’t picture you doing a lot of cooking. Enough with the jokes, wise guy.”

He stuck his head back in the fridge and came out with a bag of avocados.

“Serious question, how many do you want me to slice?”

She paused dicing the onion and thought about it. “Let’s do a half for each person so start with three.”

He dug around until he found another cutting board and knife, then he pulled out his phone and started typing. Isabelle went back to her work until he set the phone against the knife block on the bar and tapped the screen.

A video instructing him on how to slice an avocado played, echoing in the loud kitchen. Isabelle stared at him incredulously, knife in midair.

He didn’t seem to notice her because he leaned into the counter intently watching the video while he held an avocado in one hand.

“What’s he doing?” Catarina whispered in her ear.

Isabelle forced herself to stop staring and hold in her snicker as she went back to her onions and peppers. Garrett followed the video instructions perfectly and soon had neatly sliced avocados on a plate, ready for the omelets when they were done.

“Very impressive,” she said as he brushed past her a moment later. He let his fingers graze her butt as he passed.

“Anything else you want me to do?”

She giggled. “No. I think that was plenty. I don’t know if I could hold in my laughter through another YouTube tutorial.”

“Hey, I got the job done, didn’t I?” he retorted coming to stand behind her again.

“In the kitchen, and in the bedroom,” he murmured against her ear causing her to blush. Luckily, Catarina had returned to her phone and wasn’t paying attention to them anymore.

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