“Sure you can,” Tamsan pressed a kissed to the same cheek, replacing the tears with the butterfly soft touch of her lips. “And if you don’t, well I’ll whip your behind until you do.”

Anna looked up to see if she was joking. The kindly look in Tamsan’s eye told her that she was.

“You’ve had enough for one day,” she said reassuringly. “Let’s just go inside, actually eat something and talk, okay?”

That sounded good, which made Anna burst into tears.

“I don’t deserve you to be so nice!”

“Yes, you do,” Tamsan reassured her. “You’ll feel better once you eat. You barely touched dinner.”

Anna ate sitting in Tamsan’s lap. Tamsan had her arm wrapped around her waist, holding her close. The belt had left a welt on her butt which kept on stinging as she scooped up forkfuls of leftover spaghetti. The impulse to cry had not abated, though she couldn’t say why.

“Let it go,” Tamsan said, rubbing her back. “It’s okay to be upset. You got your butt smacked. It hurt.”

“It did hurt,” Anna agreed. “That wasn’t nice at all.”

“Not nice, no, but necessary.”

“Necessary to whack me with a belt?”

“I tried talking you down, you didn’t want to hear it. If I’d let you carry on like that, we would have ended up fighting. And you would have figured that our relationship would work with you acting like a little brat.”

“Our relationship isn’t going to last,” Anna said morosely. “Relationships never last.”

“Bullshit.” The word was accompanied by a sound smack to her rear. “I’m still here. I’m not going anywhere.”

“You say that today, but what about in six months time?”

“In six months time, I’ll love you all the more.”

Anna froze. Time seemed to hang as she turned to look Tamsan in the eye with a gaze that was quizzical and a little afraid. “You love me now?”

“Yeah,” Tamsan said, pressing a kiss to her lips. “I do.”

“Why?”

“Why?” Tamsan laughed. “That’s not the usual response to being told you’re loved.”

“I just…” Anna bit her lower lip. “You love me?”

“Why are you so surprised?”

“Nobody ever loved me before.”

“I’m sure that’s not true.”

“It is, actually. I mean, people said they did, but that was to get into my pants, or to get me to rent an apartment with them or something. Nobody ever said it… like you just did.” Anna cocked her head to the side and and looked at Tamsan with a certain amount of amazement. “You actually love me, don’t you.”

“Yes, I do,” Tamsan chuckled, kissing her. “And you?”

“Do I love you?” Anna’s mouth hung open. “I… You’re…”

“It’s okay, you don’t have to say it if you don’t feel it.”

“You’re everything,” Anna said, finishing her sentence. “You’ve become my world.”

“Oh sweetheart.”

“I mean it,” Anna said. “Since we met, there hasn’t been a moment that hasn’t been about you. I haven’t slept, eaten, dreamed…anything… without thoughts of you.”

Tamsan’s smile was broad. “I haven’t been able to get you out of my head either, not that I’ve wanted to.”

“I’m so fucking scared…” Anna whispered. “If this goes wrong… I don’t think I’ll be able to survive.”

“Trust me,” Tamsan said. “You can survive more than you think.”

Those simple words reminded Anna that Tamsan had lost too, just not in the same way. In a deeper, more profound way that made Anna rather ashamed of her own relatively petty concerns. What were a few betrayals of the heart compared to the complete loss of one’s mate?

“I deal with fear by trying to control things,” Tamsan admitted. “It’s probably why I enjoy being the top.”

“And I deal with fear by acting like an asshole,” Anna replied. “It’s probably why I enjoy being… an asshole.”

Tamsan’s lips quirked in a smile. “You’re not an asshole. You’re just difficult sometimes. It’s not always a bad thing.”

“Just like you being a top isn’t a bad thing.” Anna shifted to the side and wrapped her arms around Tamsan’s neck. “I love you too.”

Tamsan kissed her and smiled. “I know – and that’s why I’m going to spank you.”

“Spank me?” Anna threw back her head and laughed.

“You need a good spanking,” Tamsan purred, lidding her eyes. “You need a hot bottom. You need to know that when you’re completely out of line, I can bring you back in.”

Anna’s hips started moving in a slow squirm of anticipation. “Will it hurt?”

“Hurt? No, not like you’re thinking. It will sting. It will heat your little ass. It will take you to a place you’ve never been before.”

“A place I’ve never been before?”

“Mhm. A place where you surrender to me completely and relax totally.”

“So… like a massage.”

“Of sorts.”

Anna gave Tamsan a playfully skeptical look, but she knew she was going to agree. Whatever Tamsan had in mind was going to be good. Everything Tamsan did was good.

“Okay,” she said. “You can spank me.”

“Of course I can. Now take your pants and panties down, young lady, and get your butt over my bed.”

“My butt isn’t big enough to go all over your bed. Or is that a yo momma joke? Your momma so big her butt get allll oovverr her bed?”

“Smart ass.” Tamsan swatted her lightly over to the bed where Anna laid down obligingly.