Page 27

“Kitten. Come on now. If you come out, I will just give you ten spanks. One for each time you were rude to me today.”

Gideon creeps right up to the opposite side of the tree on silent feet. Nix is thinking so hard about how many times he’d been rude—obviously on purpose—that he doesn’t suspect Gideon is right there.

“Ten?! I was only rude…five.”

He steps out from behind the tree to call Gideon on his poor estimate—shrieks in surprise, spins on his heel, and gets two steps before Gideon has him around the waist.

“Nooooooo. That’s cheating. You were sneaky. No fair.”

Nix’s squeal and wiggles are even more incendiary when Gideon smells his omega’s aroused musky-vanilla slick.

“Be still,” he commands.

It only makes Nix push harder until his cold, bare toes catch Gideon hard in the shin.

“That is it.”

Gideon sits in the wet dirt, putting him over his knee. He yanks Nix’s pants down to his knees, so he can run icy hands up his silky smooth thighs.

“No! Holy fuck, your hands are cold.”

“Color, Kitten,” Gideon drawls, barely able to hold back his anticipation.

Nix prefers the color system and says he doesn’t have a safe word because he’s always safe with Gideon.

That’s not how it works, but Gideon isn’t in the mood for that conversation now, and it’s unlikely Nix will listen any more now than he did the last twenty times.

The color system has worked well so far, and Gideon has made sure that his kitten can call out “red” or even “yellow” unprompted if anything changes.

“Fuck you,” Nix growls, so Gideon pinches the inside of his smooth thigh.

“Ow. Sorry! I meant to say fuck you, Gideon.”

Nix scrambles on his hands and toes to get off Gideon’s lap.

“Oh no, you don’t. Color, or I stop.”

Nix freezes and then lies still on Gideon’s lap. Resting before his next surge of brattiness, no doubt. There’s never just one.

He’s not surprised when Nix’s body tenses again, and he mutters, “Green. Now fucking give me five.”

The first spanking is loud in the quiet of the glade, and Nix bucks his hips forward in surprise. Gideon guesses kitten was waiting for him to argue about the number.

He rubs his hand over the soft skin and moans under his breath. There is slick between Nix’s cheeks and coating the inside of his thighs, making Gideon’s mouth water, and he has to catch the drool when he opens his mouth to speak.

“You’ll take as many as I give you. Then you’ll say sorry and maybe—if you’re good—I’ll teach you something new today.”

“Fine.” It’s sassy, and Gideon has to add three more spanks in a row on the juiciest part of Nix’s ass, right where the cheek meets his thigh. The flesh jiggles and bounces, and Gideon is mesmerized by the lift and fallevery time.

“Fuck, Kitten. Your cute little ass is a thing of beauty.” Two more in succession, and he hears Nix’s breath catch and feels his hard little dick poking into his thigh.

“Fuck you,” Nix snarks.

Smack. Smack. Smack. They’re easy spanks, just enough to hear the sound and for his omega’s ass to be a pretty shade of pink. Enough to warm his cheeks and make that slick run.

“So mouthy.”

“I’m m-mouthy because you are n-never here.” Nix shivers then, and his words stutter out with the cold.