Nosy by Nature Page 5

  What she saw made her eyes go wide.

  John wasn’t beating Claire. They were making love! He was lying back on the couch while she rode up and down on him wildly, all the while making those high-pitched little yelping sounds Daphne had heard earlier. Far from being in pain, Claire looked like she was definitely enjoying herself. For a moment, Daphne wondered why anyone would make noises like that during sex, only to then quickly find herself wondering if she sounded the same way.

  Her face red with embarrassment, Daphne turned away from the window to find her husband glowering down at her. “I know what you’re going to say.”

  Zak’s voice was curt when he spoke. “Do you?”

  She looked up at him from beneath lowered lashes. “But it was an honest mistake,” she said in a small voice. “One anyone could have made.”

  Zak clenched his jaw. “Let’s go.”

  Taking Daphne’s arm, Zak marched her back over to their own house. Having no desire to discuss this with him out in the yard, she went meekly, but the moment they were inside, she turned to face him, determined to talk her way out of the spanking she knew she had coming.

  “Honey,” she said, when he had closed the door. “It really was an honest mistake. You heard the noises Claire was making. And if I had been right, then it would have been a good thing.”

  Zak folded his arms in that way he always did when he lectured her about something. “But you weren’t right, Daphne, you were wrong,” he pointed out. “And if I had gone busting in there with my weapon drawn like you wanted me to, it would have been a disaster. Not only could there have been legal ramifications, but it would be likely neither of them would ever want to talk to us again.”

  Daphne said nothing. He was right, she supposed. She could only imagine how embarrassed she would have been, not to mention Claire and John. Realizing Zak was waiting for her to say something, she gave him a small shrug. “I guess I shouldn’t have jumped to conclusions.”

  “No, Daphne,” Zak said harshly. “What you shouldn’t be doing is sticking your nose in the neighbors’ business.”

  She opened her mouth to tell him that she had only wanted to help Claire, but he cut her off.

  “Dammit, Daphne!” He ran his hand through his hair in frustration. “Do you want the same thing to happen with John and Claire that happened with Jim and Susan?”

  Daphne felt her face color at the reminder. She and Zak had been good friends with Jim and Susan, the couple who had lived down the street, until Daphne had stuck her nose into their business. She hadn’t meant to, really. She had gone to visit with Susan on morning, only to find Jim in bed with his secretary instead. Shocked, not to mention angry with Jim for cheating on her friend, Daphne had immediately wanted to tell Susan what she had seen, but Zak had talked her out of it, telling her it was none of her business.

  Looking back at it now, she realized he’d been right. But in the end, she had ignored his advice and told Susan everything. A messy divorce had soon followed. Daphne had expected Jim to hate her for exposing him, so the fact that he did hadn’t bothered her much. She hadn’t expected Susan to hate her, too, however. She thought she had been helping her friend, but Susan only blamed her for the divorce. Not only that, but Susan had painted Daphne as a nosy busybody to anyone in the neighborhood that would listen. Daphne’s friends had started pulling back from her ever since. The invitations to parties and cookouts had stopped, and she noticed that many of her former friends went out of their way to avoid her when they saw her at the grocery store. Despite her good intentions, most of her friends blamed her for what had happened between Jim and Susan. And they let her know it by refusing to have anything more to do with her and Zak.

  “Well, Daphne?” Zak demanded.

  She shook her head miserably.

  “Then why do you keep sticking your nose in places it has no business being?”

  She stared down at the floor and shook her head again. “I can’t seem to help it.”

  Zak said nothing and when the silence stretched between them, Daphne stole a glance at him. His arms were folded across his chest and he was studying her with dark eyes that were full of disappointment. That hurt worse than anything else.

  She chewed on her lower lip. “You’re going to spank me, aren’t you?”

  “Yes.”

  She looked away, knowing it would do no good to argue with him. “What about dinner?”

  That was a stupid question. As if she could eat anything with a discipline spanking hanging over her head. As much as she was dreading another encounter with the hairbrush, she knew it would be better to just get her punishment over with.

  Obviously, Zak must have thought so, too, because he shook his head. “Dinner can wait. The spanking can’t.”

  Daphne nodded, but said nothing.

  “I want you to go upstairs and take everything off, but your bra and panties,” Zak said. “Then I want you to stand in the corner until I come up.”

  Daphne blinked. Stand in the corner? Remembering the extra spanks she’d gotten for refusing to stand in the corner the night before, however, she bit her tongue to keep from saying something she shouldn’t, then turned and left the kitchen.

  Upstairs in the bedroom, Daphne slowly took off her shorts and tank top as Zak had instructed, then went to stand in the corner.

  Standing there before getting a spanking was even worse than standing there after getting one. After a discipline spanking, at least she could focus some of her attention on her red-hot bottom. Before, all she could do was stand there and think about the discipline spanking she was going to get.

  And about the good-girl spanking she wasn’t going to get. That made it even worse. Dammit, why didn’t she ever consider the consequences of her actions? Zak had warned her before he’d left for work what would happen if she snooped on the new neighbors again. And what did she do? Go right next door and steal a box of photo albums out of their garbage. Thank goodness Zak didn’t know about that or she was sure she would be in for an even harder spanking.

  She nibbled on her lower lip. Surely Zak wouldn’t spank her as hard as he had the night before. He must know she’d only been trying to help Claire. But then again, she’d only been trying to help Susan, too, and they both knew how that had turned out.

  Her thoughts were suddenly interrupted as Zak walked into the bedroom room. As much as Daphne wanted to turn and look at him, she didn’t. She might be new to this whole discipline thing, but she knew enough to know she wasn’t supposed to move from her position until her husband said she could. So, she obediently kept her nose in the corner as she listened to him move around the room.

  Behind her, she heard him open a drawer and rummage through it. Her brow furrowed as she realized that he was looking through their “toy: drawer. They had dubbed the top drawer of the night table on her side of the bed that when they’d decided to keep all the spanking implements in it. If he was looking in there, then that meant he was looking for something special to spank her with. She didn’t know whether she should be relieved that he wasn’t going to spank her with that awful hairbrush he’d used on her last night or not. Though she loved every one of their spanking toys in that drawer, some of those implements would probably be really wicked for a discipline spanking.

  “Come here, Daphne.”

  Her heart pounding, Daphne slowly turned around to see that Zak was already sitting on the straight-backed chair. That wasn’t surprising, since it seemed the best place to administer a discipline spanking. Her eyes widened when she saw the implement he had picked out for that spanking, however. The paddle-ball paddle. After reading that the children’s toy was ideal for spanking, she’d immediately had to get one, and though she loved it for good-girl spanking, she also knew it could set her bottom of fire like no other implement they had. She couldn’t imagine getting a discipline spanking with it.

  “Daphne,” Zak said softly.

  Swallowing hard, Daphne slowly made her way over to where her h
usband sat. He didn’t guide her over his knee immediately, but instead, looked at her with resignation in his dark eyes.

  “You deserve this spanking,” he said. “You know that, don’t you?”

  Daphne lowered her gaze to stare down at the floor. As much as she hated to admit it, on some level, she knew he was right. She did deserve this spanking. Not for making the mistake of thinking Claire had been in danger, but for going back on her word and snooping on her new neighbors again after Zak had told her not to. Knowing it and admitting it out loud were two entirely different things, however, and she could do no more than give him a small nod.

  That must have been enough to satisfy Zak though, because he took her hand and guided her over his knee. Daphne tried to force herself to relax, knowing that tensing up would only make the spanking that much worse, but she couldn’t seem to help it. The minute her husband began to lower her panties around her thighs, she felt herself stiffen. If Zak noticed, he made no comment, but simply wrapped his arm around her waist to hold her in place.

  Daphne held her breath, waiting for him to begin, wishing he would just get it over with.

  When he did, it was with a resounding smack.

  “Owwwww!” she cried.

  Without a warm-up, the paddle stung even worse than she could have imagined. He’d just given her the one smack, and already her bottom felt like it was on fire. She’d never be able to take a spanking like the one he’d given her the night before with the hairbrush. She just knew she couldn’t.

  But she had no choice. With Zak holding her captive against his thighs, there was nothing she could do but lay there and take every smack he gave her.

  Within seconds, she was squirming and kicking and crying out so loudly she was sure the whole neighborhood heard her. But no matter how much she begged Zak to stop, he continued to spank her, bringing the wooden paddle down over and over on her poor bottom. When he spanked her like this, it was so completely different than her good-girl spankings. There was no time to even have erotic thoughts. All she could focus on was the fire covering her bottom.

  “Honey, p-please...” she begged him. “I...Owwwww!...I’ll be good...Owwwww!...I p promise...Pleeease!”

  But Zak ignored her, instead bringing down the paddle on her very tender sit-spots. With a shriek, Daphne automatically reached back to shield her ass with her hand. But Zak only caught her wrist and anchored it against the small of her back, before giving her another series of hard smacks on the very spots she had been trying to cover.

  Then, after another dozen or so spanks, it was over. Gasping for breath, Daphne lay limply across her husband’s thighs, her ass feeling as if it were on fire. That had to be the hardest Zak had ever spanked her. She wasn’t going to be able to even sit down after this one.

  Taking her hand, Zak stood her on her feet and led her over to the corner.

  “I want you to stand here until I come get you,” he told her firmly. “And no rubbing.”

  Daphne didn’t say anything.

  “Is that understood?” he prompted.

  Face coloring, she nodded her head. A moment later, Zak walked out of the room. Several moments after that, she heard him moving around downstairs.

  Standing in the corner with her panties still banded down around her thighs was as humiliating as it had been the first time her husband had made her do it. Her bottom throbbed so much that it was all she could do not to reach back and rub her ass cheeks. But after the spanking Zak had just given her, she didn’t dare disobey him on that. More importantly, she didn’t want to disobey him. She wanted these spankings to work. Being a busybody had caused so much trouble for her before and she didn’t want it to happen again. So, she just stood there, staring at the blue paint and telling herself she would never, ever snoop again.

  Daphne didn’t know how long she’d stood in the corner before Zak came back upstairs. One minute, she was staring at the wall, and the next she was in his arms, promising she would stop snooping once and for all. He held her tenderly, smoothing her hair, whispering comforting words, and telling her that he loved her. After a moment, he lifted her chin and gently kissed her on the mouth. Then he stood waiting while she put on a robe before taking her hand and leading her downstairs to have dinner.

  Chapter 4

  Daphne knew sitting down to dinner at the kitchen table after a spanking like the one she’d just gotten was going to be more than a little uncomfortable, so when Zak softly suggested that maybe they should take their plates into the living room, she eagerly agreed.

  Curling up beside him on the couch as they watched television later that evening, Daphne once again promised herself that she was going to change her nosy ways. If she didn’t, not only was she going to lose Claire’s friendship, but she was going to end up having a very sore bottom all the time. And as much as she liked getting spanked for fun, getting spanked for snooping in other people’s business was no fun at all.

  Determined to stick to her promise, Daphne busied herself with housework the next day. Though cleaning wasn’t her favorite thing to do, it did keep her from spying on her neighbors. So what if Claire and John were hiding something, she told herself as she folded the laundry that afternoon. It wasn’t that unusual to have secrets. She had some herself. Like her love of spanking for one thing. That was one secret she definitely wouldn’t want anyone to find out.

  Over dinner that night, Zak casually asked what she’d did that day. Though he nodded when she told him, she had a nagging suspicion he was checking up on her. It was like he was just waiting for her to mess up. Well, she wasn’t going to. Besides, if she had been snooping again, she certainly wouldn’t have admitted to it. But he would see. She would prove to him that she was done with snooping for good this time.

  The next morning, Claire came by to ask Daphne if she wanted to go shopping with her. Daphne had a hard time looking the other girl in the eye at first because every time she did, all she could think about was seeing Claire riding up and down on her husband, making those funny little noises as she cried out in passion. But once she managed to firmly put the image out of her mind, Daphne readily agreed to go with her. Any excuse to go shopping, after all.

  “I realized that we don’t even have curtains up on the windows,” Claire said as they drove to the mall a few minutes later. “Anyone could look right in and see us...” She hesitated, blushing as she lowered her voice. “Well, you know.”

  Daphne glanced at the girl sharply, wondering if Claire had seen her and Zak peeking in their living room window the other day. But the woman gave no indication she was referring to them, thank goodness.

  “There are a couple of really nice home décor stores at the mall,” Daphne said quickly. “I found some beautiful curtains for our house.”

  “Great!” Claire smiled. “We need some throw rugs, too. The place where we lived before had wall-to-wall carpet in practically every room, but this house has hardwood floors throughout.”

  As it turned out, they found not only some curtains that Claire loved, as well as several beautiful wool rugs, but also a bunch of colorful throw pillows she thought would look really great on their couch, along with a myriad of cute knickknacks she couldn’t resist. In fact, she and Claire were having such a good time they decided to stop for lunch before they went home.

  “I told John that I was just going out for curtains,” she laughed as they sat down to lunch at one of the restaurants near the mall. “Wait until he sees all the stuff I come home with.”

  Daphne grinned. “I do the same thing when I go shopping,” she told the other girl. “But instead of stuff for the house, it’s usually clothes and shoes. I’ll tell Zak I’m going shopping for a new pair of shorts and come home with half-a-dozen skirts and a new pair of sandals. Of course,” she added. “I always soften the blow by buying at least one new piece of lingerie. He can never stay mad at me for long if I’m standing there half naked while I show him what I bought.”

  Claire laughed at and they ended
up having an entire conversation about how much both of their respective husbands hated to go shopping. As she and Claire shared stories, Daphne realized just how much she’d missed having a girlfriend to hang out with. She was close to her sister, of course, but Chloe was still in college, so she had her own group of friends and things she liked to do. Since Daphne’s disastrous snooping episode with her former friend, Susan, she hadn’t had a single day out with the girls.

  “So, how did you and Zak meet?” Claire asked, moving the conversation away from shopping as she sipped her iced tea.

  Daphne smiled as she poured fat-free dressing on her salad. “He was in uniform back then and pulled me over for speeding,” she explained. “I thought he was absolutely gorgeous, so I told him that I’d go out on a date with him if he didn’t write me up.”

  The other girl blinked. “And it actually worked?”

  Daphne put on an affronted look. “Of course it worked! I’ll have you know that I can be very persuasive when I want to be.” She grinned. “I suppose it helped that I’d just been at the beach, so I was wearing shorts and a bikini top at the time. It kind of made Zak powerless to resist me.”

  Claire laughed. “I’ll have to remember that the next time I get pulled over. On second thought, I’d better not. I don’t think John would be too thrilled with the idea.”

  Daphne giggled. “What about you and John? How did you two meet?”

  Claire picked up a French fry and dipped it in ketchup. “We bumped into each other at a gallery opening. Literally.” She smiled. “I had seen him across the room and was trying to figure out how to meet him, so I sidled up next to him while he was looking at one of the paintings, but he turned just as I did and I embarrassed myself by spilling my entire glass of wine all over his suit. When I kept apologizing, he told me that if I really wanted to make it up to him that I’d go out to dinner with him. We got married a year later.”