Page 59 of Dirty Discipline, Vol. 1

Troy and Hallie’s eyes meet across the coffee table between their couches, and he can see happiness in her eyes for her aunt and uncle.

Troy decides to jump in with the next gift giving opportunity. “I’ll go next. I hope you like what I got you, Traci.” He gets up to hand her the rectangular box wrapped in silver paper. Everyone watches with interest as Traci opens the box and squeals.

“Troy, this is awesome, but you spent too much!” She pulls the Macbook Air out of the box, showing the slim laptop off to everyone in the room. Her eyes seek out his own. “Seriously. You need to take this back. This is too much.”

“Trace, I know your old laptop died and you’ve been getting by with an old desktop, but that’s crazy. You need this for your work. I know you’re still working on the paper to present at next year’s conference and going to the library in Denver for research. You need a laptop.”

Troy doesn’t miss the look of panic on his sister’s face before she replaces it with a strained smile. He’ll have to ask more about that later when they are alone.

“I’m not taking it back, sis. It’s all yours.”

She launches herself up and into his lap, hugging her brother tightly. “You really didn’t need to do that, Troy, but thank you. It is an awesome gift.”

When his sister heads back to her own love seat, Troy gets up and walks to Hallie to give her the gift he had wrapped for her in the same silver paper. He had briefly considered taking it back this morning because after last night, it seems a bit much, but he knows it is the perfect gift for her and he just can’t miss seeing her face light up like he knows it will when she opens it.

She looks confused when he holds out the gift to her. She looks up at him from her perch below. “What is this? You never should have gotten me a gift… I mean… I didn’t have time…”

“Hallie, it’s okay. I didn’t expect to get a gift from you. I just saw this while I was out shopping for Traci, and I knew the second I saw this that I had to get it for you.” She still hasn’t reached to take the gift so he leans down to place the package in her lap before returning to his own seat on his couch to watch her open his gift.

It takes her Uncle Adam urging her on to get her to pick up the package and gingerly start to unwrap it. He knows the second she realizes what she holds because her eyes fly up to meet his own. As if she had been mistaken, she peeks under the wrapping again, before raising her surprised eyes to his.

All she can say is “No way.”

Troy smiles broadly. “Yes, way.”

Traci is curious. “What is it Hallie? He wouldn’t tell me what he got you.”

She repeats with an extra flare. “No. Fucking. Way.”

It’s Uncle Adam’s turn to inject. “Hallie Marie Boudreaux. I am not going to have that kind of talk in this house. I’m about at the end of my patience, young lady.”

“Sorry, Uncle Adam.” But Troy doesn’t think she looks very sorry. A quick vision of draping Hallie across his knee to make her sorry invades, but he tamps it down quickly. The fact that can never happen is reason number one on the list of twenty reasons why Hallie is off-limits for him.

Aunt Gina prods her, trying to smooth over the unwelcome tension in the room. “Show us what it is, honey. We all want to see.”

Hallie opens the box in her hands and takes out the iPad tablet. Troy had made sure it was charged and he can see her slide to unlock the front screen. She sits there silently flipping through apps and screens for a few minutes, telling Troy she’s obviously used one before. He wishes he could see what she is looking at on the tablet, because when she finally does look up, he can see tears streaming down her face. He smiles a supportive smile.

“How? I mean…” A true sob escapes while Gina gets up to get a tissue for her niece, delivering it to her and sitting next to her to look over Hallie’s shoulder.

It’s Gina who looks up with tears in her eyes next. “Oh Troy. This is a priceless gift. When you called and asked me if I had any old photos of my sister and mother, and of Hallie when she was a little girl, I had no idea what you were going to do with them. What a thoughtful gift.”

Troy had spent hours tracking down photos of Hallie’s life, converting them to digital photos for the iPad. Other photos he had downloaded from her old school on-line yearbooks and against his better judgment, The Kings official website which had many photos of the band. He had intentionally left off any photos that included Eddie the Asshole as he likes to think of him, but considering managing the band had been such a major part of her life, he didn’t feel it was right to leave those photos off completely.

She had gone back to playing with her new toy when her eyes fly to meet his again, total surprise. “Troy, there is even music already loaded on here. How the hell did you do that? Please tell me you didn’t buy all of that music.”

“There’s not all that much, but since we both attended the Matchbox 20 concert together, I’m taking a guess that we might share the same taste in music. I just thought I’d give you something to get you started. There are a couple books on there too, but I’m not sure if we share the same tastes in those.” Glancing at his sister, he teases her. “I know Traci wouldn’t really care for the books I read.”

His sister gives him a threatening glare to keep his mouth shut about her addiction to erotic romances.

Hallie has gone back to looking at her new gift, but when he sees her shoulders shaking, he feels bad because he can see his gift has upset her. He is just about to get up to go to her, when she launches out of her seat, rushing around the coffee table and throwing herself into his lap, burying her head against his chest.

He should regret making her cry, but he can’t. She feels too perfect in his arms. So small… fragile in so many ways, and yet oddly strong in others. She is different than any other woman he has met, and twenty reasons or not, the bottom line is he wants her… and bad. He wants to comfort her… protect her… spank her until she moans with desire and then… fuck her long and hard until they are both spent.

“Shhh. Don’t cry, Hallie. I never wanted to upset you. It was supposed to make you happy, not sad.”

Her face is mashed against his chest so her reply is muffled. “I am happy.”

Troy chuckles. “Well, you could have fooled me. I’d hate to see you if you were sad.”

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