“True. Are you saying you'll be the head of household regardless of whether I give you my consent to be spanked?”

“Yes. Can you live with that?”

“Yes,” she said with a satisfied note. He smelled her arousal. He took it to the next level.

“All right, so listen up. Those charts that Jenny gave you? I expect you to fill one out every day. If you haven't consumed the required 75 grams of protein by midnight, I'm going to pull down your panties and spank your bare bottom raw. Capiche?”

Kate squirmed in her seat. “Okay,” she said in a tiny voice.

“Any time you make it to 90 grams, you'll be rewarded.”

She shot him a sidelong glance, her mind clearly still on the imagined spanking.

“Dom?”

“Piccolina?

“How do you feel about me still singing in the band? You know, while I'm pregnant or after I have the baby?”

He looked over at her lovely profile. There was a nervous tension coming from her.

“Singing makes you happy, amore mio. I wouldn't take that from you for the world. But if you're getting too tired or stressed, we might need to put a limit on it. Okay?”

She nodded, and he felt the tension dissipate.

Chapter Fourteen

“I think you need a little stress relief.”

“Dom, you can't spank me on our wedding day!” she said, her stomach plummeting. Not that she didn't truly deserve it. She had just been horribly bitchy to her mom and sister who had stopped over for brunch and had already snapped at Dom three times, despite the raised eyebrow “look” he kept giving her. Her mom and sister had just left the house to get their hair done and she was busy cleaning up the dishes from brunch.

She stopped what she was doing now and stared at her husband-to-be in dismay.

He gave her a slow, lazy grin. “Oh yes I can, cara mia. Leave the dishes. Go downstairs.”

She felt childish tears burning in her eyes as she threw down the dish towel and stalked to the basement door. She felt like throwing an “it's not fair” tantrum.

Dom didn't make her wait more than a minute and he didn't draw it out. He pulled her to sitting on his knee and said, “The way you spoke to your mother and sister was horrible. They flew all the way out here to celebrate with you, the least you could do is keep your temper.”

She started crying. She already knew that and she already felt badly. Dom lifted her off his lap. “Pull down your panties,” he commanded.

Her shoulders sagged. She complied slowly, feeling ridiculous. She started to take them all the way off, but he stopped her. “No, just down, not off.”

That was utterly humiliating. She was standing before him like a naughty girl with her panties pulled down to her knees. Dom guided her across his knee. She hunched her shoulders, waiting. Waiting for the first smack was always the worst part.

Smack. It was sharp. She gasped and felt the tingling burn spread across her skin. He continued slowly, deliberately, alternating first one cheek and then the other. After about ten slow spanks, he gave her twenty hard and fast smacks that made her gasp and writhe in pain. Then he stopped and rested his hand on her already blazing butt.

“I know you have a lot on your mind and a huge list of things to get done for the wedding,” he said and then launched another volley of smacks. Tears were starting to squeeze out of her eyes. “I'm going to help you relax.” She gritted her teeth and struggled against him.

“This is not relaxing me!" she bit out.

“I know, cara, I'm not finished,” Dom said as if he were being perfectly reasonable.

She struggled harder, knowing this meant it was not even close to being over. He only smacked harder and faster, not stopping to let her catch her breath, his hand slapping her again and again on her sit spots until the burning flesh started to go numb. He smarted the backs of her thighs a few times, causing her to yelp and wiggle helplessly.

“I want you to feel this spanking all night tonight and remember that you belong to me. You're my piccolina and you always will be.”

Something in her released with those words. She felt a surge of love and appreciation for Dom that made her more willing to surrender to his judgment.