Page 7 of Bling

In the conference room, Garrett did his best to leave his dominance at the door. That wasn’t what she needed right now, and he needed some answers.

“I’m so sorry, Isabelle. I assume the job you lost today was at the Colorado Logistics fulfillment center?”

She nodded as she lowered herself into one of the office chairs and curled her legs underneath her.

Garrett sat as well and buried his face in his hands. “Doll, I’m so sorry.”

“Don’t call me that,” she said harshly.

“Isabelle, I’m not going to try and make excuses, but I swear, greed had nothing to do with my decision to let people go. If I had known you were on the list of employees my people wanted to lay off, I would have stopped them.”

“What about the four other members of my family? Would you have stopped them from being fired too?”

Fuck, five people in one family?Garrett had no idea how the fuck his managers had let this happen, but he knew heads would roll over this mistake.

“Jesus, Isabelle. I’m so sorry. I’ll call tomorrow and get this fixed.”

“Don’t bother. My family is proud. They wouldn’t take anything else from you at this point.”

Garrett swore. “Look. I know you’re pissed at me and clearly you have reason to be, but I need you to answer a question. What did you mean when you said you didn’t get severance pay?”

Her head flew up, her hazel eyes shooting daggers at him. “What kind of business owner are you if you don’t know the ins and outs of your own damn company?”

He sighed and dragged a hand through his hair. “I have to delegate, Isabelle. My company is global. I can’t pay attention to every single detail or I would get nothing done. That’s what I pay executive staff for.”

“Well they suck at their jobs then. We all got our last paychecks with whatever vacation time we had left added to it. I’m lucky I still had all of mine since I don’t take days off.”

Garrett clenched his fists. Apparently, his decision to spend some time in Colorado was necessary.

“That was not the deal I approved. I may not have hand-picked the people I was laying off, but I damn sure signed the approval for a better severance package than that. I’m going to fix that, I don’t care if your family will accept it or not, it’s happening.”

Isabelle shoved her chair so she spun around. If her eyes weren’t filled with anger, it might have seemed cute and childish. “I’ll definitely take it. I have two teenage nieces to feed and a lot of bills to pay.”

Garrett knew her family situation was complicated, but he never pried.

“How do I make this right, Isabelle? I don’t want you angry with me. I was looking forward to our weekend together.”

She blew out a lengthy breath. “I don’t know, Sir. I think I just need time. Is that OK? I can admit that I might have overreacted out there, but I don’t know if I can continue being submissive to you after this. I need to think. Maybe I should just leave for the weekend. I want to be a house sub. I’m just conflicted.”

Garrett steeled himself for the next part. It was going to be hard for both of them.

“I’m glad you still want to be a house sub. You’re a wonderful addition to this club, and I’m OK giving you as much space as you need. However, I can’t let your outburst go unpunished, Isabelle. I think you know that.”

Her eyes grew large and her lips parted in protest, but he held up a hand to stop her.

“I can see that the idea of me spanking you is not something you can deal with right now, so I’m going to give you another option. You can let Hunter or Patrick handle your punishment.”

“Does it have to be a spanking, Sir?” she whispered.

Garrett wanted to pull her into his lap. This conversation would be so much easier with physical contact, but he knew he couldn’t do that. “When we discussed your limits, you agreed to being spanked for two reasons. One of those was blatant disrespect for the dynamic we have at this club. This fits, wouldn’t you agree?”

She gave a sad nod and looked to be on the verge of tears.

“So yes, Doll. You’re getting a spanking. If I do it, I have a good mind to wash your mouth out with soap before I take a belt to your ass for speaking to me that way. If you choose someone else, your punishment will be up to them.”

Isabelle shuddered. He knew spanking was not something she got enjoyment from. Not the way Austin and some of the other subs did. It was purely used for discipline in special circumstances with Isabelle.

“I’ll let Master Hunter do it,” she finally whispered.

---