Julianne's POV
I slip into leggings and sit on my bed, picking up my copy of Iron Flame that I haven't gotten to yet because I keep rereading Fourth Wing.
How am I gonna be away from Xaden for two whole weeks?!?
To keep my mind off of my impending doom, I pick up Fourth Wing once more and flip to my favorite chapter, Chapter 13, and reread what I already know by heart.
Holden raps on the door. "You dressed?" He asks, his voice muffled slightly.
"Yeah"
He comes in and frowns when he sees my book opened. "Hand them over. I mean it, you're grounded from recreational reading for two weeks."
Shoot! Hopefully he doesn't look these over because I'm positive he won't let me read them.....and if he takes away my books for good I'll probably die.
I reluctantly hand them to him and he puts them on Tate's bed, and then sits on his bed and brings his elbows to his knees. "I'm sorry you're having such a hard time with this. But you will not skip school again, or go anywhere alone until the person is caught. I clear?"
"Yessir"
"Please do your presentation tomorrow."
At my silence, he sighs and sits next to me on my bed, kissing my temple softly. "I'm glad you came home, and told me the truth. I love you."
I don't say it back, but I don't think it really bothers him as he pats his lap silently, and I know my time is up.
I wonder if Gage gets spanked too. Hopefully not, because I don't want him getting one because of me.
I go over Holden's lap without a fight, because I'm in enough trouble without tacking on more.
Plus, I'm trying to get him to go easier on me. I really don't want anyone at the school being able to tell what my punishment was.
I haven't had a ton of these, but I can tell Holden is getting more confident as he pulls me against him tighter and tips me lower so I'm at a better angle. When the first slap lands, I bite my bottom lip.
He's definitely getting more confident
Tears begin to pool in my eyes after only ten sharp slaps to the meaty parts of my bottom. The way he is going slow, yet making his smacks stingy only gives the burn more time to sink into the deeper layers of my poor skin.
I can't help myself after smack number fifteen, and start to fidget, grabbing ahold of his black dress pants and fisting the soft cotton in my hand, pulling on it slightly.
"Ow! Holden please!"
"Julianne....." He starts, but stops so he can catch my flailing legs and traps them with one of his heavy ones.
He brings a couple harsh ones down on my thighs, and I can't help but wonder if he did those on purpose, or if he just has bad aim.
Ouch
"You need to keep still, young lady," he scolds as he smacks again, and waits at least two seconds before he smacks the under curve of my left cheek.
As if he's keeping tempo in his head, every two to three seconds he sends another harsh slap down on my bottom.
"No!!!" I gasp as I try to wiggle free, and I can tell from his body language that he's getting frustrated.
"Ok, last chance before I make you change into shorts."
"What?!?" I wail as I keep thrashing.
"Quit fighting me, Julianne!"
I grab the hem of his pants once more and rest my head on my comforter as the worst of the smacks get administered.
"Holden, stop! I've learned my lesson! I won't skip school again!"
"You have no idea how worried I was when I couldn't find you," he growls as he ups the intensity and starts spanking fast, effectively taking my breath away.
"I'm sorry," I beg, going limp over his lap and succumbing to this spanking.
His hand stills and moves to my back, softly rubbing soft circles into it as my shoulders continue to heave and my breathing begins to slow.
When I finally calm myself down, he helps me off of his lap and then pulls me to a sitting position on his right thigh. He brings me in against his chest and I start to cry all over again.
"I don't wanna lose my books," I sob.
A low chuckle erupts from his chest as he kisses my tear-soaked hair. "That's what hurts you the most, huh?"
He continues stroking my back until my cries finally turn to sniffles.
"Oh, this hurt plenty."
He brings me back into him and as I shift my weight on his thigh, I'm actually pleasantly surprised. I'm sore and my butt feels like I sat on hot sand, but...I think this was actually my least painful spanking.
I'm confused.
"What's with the face?" He asks as he studies me, and then puts his thumb gently on my brow, tracing what I'm assuming are the deep lines I get when I'm thinking.
"That wasn't that bad...."
Surprise etches his features and an amused grin starts to spread.
"Would you like another one?"
I give him an incredulous look and he snorts before smoothing out his face and getting serious again.
"I get why you left, Jules. I still had to punish you for it. You could have skipped school and went home, but you didn't. You chose to do the two things you weren't allowed to do. Just because I felt like I needed to spank you, doesn't mean I can't tweak how intense it needed to be."
At my silent nod, he pats my hip and lets his hand rest on my hipbone. "If you ever go off on your own again with this person still out there, you will not get the same kind of spanking."
"What if I don't present tomorrow?" I ask after I process.
Holden runs his hand up and down my side for a second as he sighs. "I will not spank you if you don't present..."
"Will I be in trouble?"
"Jules....I really think you can do it. Will you just try once more? Please?"
"And if I try and I can't?"
He blows out another breath and kisses my temple again. "Then we will figure it out... together."
~*~
I wake up the next morning, and I'm super thankful that I'm not sore....But I'm still not sure if I'll be presenting. Even after the chat with Holden, I'm not sure what I'm going to do.
I'm getting books out of my locker when someone leans against the one next to mine. When I look up my breath catches.
Gage
When our eyes meet, he smiles and looks hard at me. "You survived?"
"Yeah. Did you get in a lot of trouble because of me?" I ask, carefully trying to be discreet as I assess him for obvious discomfort.
"I got in a lot of trouble because of me. Not you. But I'm fine. I'm grounded for a month though, but when I'm free I want to take you out officially. Are you grounded?"
"Two weeks," I sigh as I grab my history book.
"Mr. T isn't as strict as my parents, then. That's good!"
"He'll probably be mad if I don't present."
"What do you mean?" He asks as he tilts his head and looks deeper into my eyes.
"I'm still not sure if I'm going to do it."
He nods slowly as his face turns serious. I figure he will start lecturing me, just like Holden, Tate, and Kenna all have, but he doesn't. He simply nods as he brushes some hair off of my face. "Hopefully you do. I really want to hear about Mrs. Mike."
And with that, he turns around and walks in the opposite direction.
~*~
When I get to Holden's class, I really start to wish that I did it yesterday so it would be over. I ignore the stares from a few people as I find my seat, and I ignore the relief on both of my brothers' faces when they see that I actually showed up to class.
"Alright, we're going to start with Hannah since we left off with her."
Woah. I figured I would be first!
I can tell that Holden reads my face, but he ignores me as he turns to Kenna. "You won't be last after all."
Shit
Apparently if you skip, you lose the luxury of your number order. Noted.
I sit back and watch all of the other presentations, still truly not sure if I'm going to do it or not. What does 'figure it out together', mean?
When Kenna does hers, my tummy feels like butterflies are going to escape. I just wanna go home.
"Alright, last presentation and then it's over, guys. Go ahead, Jules," Holden says softly, slipping a little by calling me that. He normally calls me Julianne here. Maybe he actually feels bad for me.
Gage turns in his chair and winks at me. "Tell me about the book, Julianne," he whispers, but it catches Tate and Holden's attention and they both look at us funny.
I decide to go ahead and try it, and if I run away again, I'll make sure I go to the nurse this time.
When I get up there and everyone is once again staring at me, I start to panic and look to the door. But as my gaze shifts, I catch a glimpse of Gage, watching me so intently that I pause to glance at him.
And when he smiles at me in encouragement, my whole body eases just a touch and I nod.
I look at my notecards, back at him, and then I tell him all about Mrs. Mike...My favorite book in this whole world.