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ever walked this planet.
"Patience," he said.
"Mmm?" she moaned, still kicking her legs frog-
like in a desperate attempt to ease her fiery
torment.
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"I think we'll stop at five with the branches. It s
more than enough. Instead, I ll give you five with
my hand. Please count.
 Yes, sir, she sobbed.
He cracked his palm dead center in her sit-down
spot. Her body jerked as if a shock went through it.
 One. Oh, that stings.
He spanked her again in the same central area.
She cried,  Two.
Again he whacked her hard.
 Three!, Oh, no, she cried.
He finished the spanking with two of the hardest
smacks he could deliver. Patience bore them with
loud sobs, but she never forgot to count.
That really pleased him.
 Stand up," he said. Once she did, he pulled her
to him. She pressed herself against his chest,
sobbing, "Rafe, Rafe, Rafe."
What could he do but enfold her in his arms?
"It's okay now," he whispered. "You're forgiven."
***
Finally, he'd said the words she longed to hear.
Patience lifted her head from his muscled chest to
meet his eyes.
"I am so, so sorry that I did the things I did, and
upset your life. Thank you for telling me you forgive
me. The words you just spoke were ones I've been
longing to hear from you."
"In that case, I have three more for you. I love
you."
What?
Her mouth fell open, staying that way until she
stammered, "Yuh-you duh-do?"
"I do. I was an idiot in the elevator. I had to
figure that out for myself." He rubbed the back of
his neck with one hand while she leaned into his
strength. "Sometimes I place too great a premium
on always telling the truth and never breaking my
word for anyone or anything. But "
He stopped talking, so she prompted him. "But?"
"But sometimes, love is more important. You re
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the woman I ve waited for. You re the one I want
for my wife, forever."
She nearly swooned as he pulled her into him,
kissing her deeply, trailing his lips down her neck to
the spot near her collarbone that drove her wild.
He lifted her in his arms. "Will my bed do? Do
you forgive my stupidly turning you down?"
"Oh, Rafe," she breathed as he carried her.
"Yes, and yes. I love you, too. I've loved you from
the moment you first spanked me."
"I think that's when I fell for you, too." He
placed her gently on the bed, and Patience knew he
was trying to avoid hurting her sore bottom further.
But she was having none of that gentle stuff. She
grabbed him tightly, murmuring her need.
She felt his mouth everywhere at once, with his
hands in all the places his mouth somehow missed.
She made good on his request in the car, but
almost as soon as she'd begun, he pulled her mouth
off him. The coupled with energy and passion and
sweet, sweet love.
It was a long time before quiet overtook the
room.
Later, they lay entangled with each other, happy
weariness making them lazy.
"So," she said, tracing patterns in his chest hair,
"what do we do now?"
"Well, for one thing, we decide what to do with
my inheritance," he said.
"Do? You mean, invest it?"
"That, too. But I was thinking that we might
take a small amount of it, and, when we're ready,
take the honeymoon to end all honeymoons." He
smiled down at her, a lock of hair falling over his
eyes, and Patience's heart melted once more.
I m the luckiest woman in the world. I finally
found The One.
"The only honeymoon I need," she said, "I'm
having right now. But we should put a lot of the
money away. Heaven knows how much college will
cost in twenty years."
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He propped himself on one elbow. "What do you
say we try making a baby immediately?"
"As long as I can continue working as The Wife,"
she said. "At least until the kids come."
"Honey," Rafe said, patting her bottom, "you
can be The Wife as well as my wife the rest of our
lives, as long as you present your cute bottom for
discipline whenever and wherever I say."
He enforced his words with two crisp smacks,
one on each buttock. Despite the sting, she smiled
and arched her backside into his palm.
"Ready any time you are. Sir."
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