Little Miss and the Law (8 page)

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“Where have you been!” Mackenzie hissed. Her hands were planted firmly on her hips, her beautiful face a mask of concern and anger. She wore nothing but the night robe she'd dragged on when Jake slammed through the front door and woke her up in a panic.

Jake's shoulder's sagged in response to her Aunt's anger, letting the denim jacket slide down her slim arms, making her look like even more of a wreck.

“Out with Archer...” she began.

“Out with Archer!? Out with Archer!? I told you to stay away from that woman, didn't I?” Mackenzie growled, advancing on her unfortunate niece. “And dressed like that too? It's a wonder you made it back in one piece!”

“...Getting my ass spanked.” Jake finished the sentence, stopping Mackenzie in her tracks.

“I beg your pardon?”

“She spanked me. She said I was a silly kid and it was dangerous to have just gone out with her and she spanked me. Really, really hard,” Jake said, folding her arms across her chest and avoiding Mackenzie's gaze. “And then she said to come in here and tell you what happened and she said that I would see her tomorrow.”

“Huh,” Mackenzie replied thoughtfully.

“Except I won't because she'll just hit me again, and you don't want me to, right?” The note of hope in Jake's voice was adorable.

Mackenzie looked down at her niece and thought. So Archer had involved herself. That could be a good thing, or that could be a terrible thing. Clearly telling Jake to stay away from her hadn't worked. Perhaps it was time that Miss Jake learned that there were consequences for her actions, that making a bad choice could haunt you for some time.

“If Archer wants to see you, Archer will see you,” Mackenzie replied. “Now get to bed, before I decide to add to your punishment.”

Ordinarily, Jake would have laughed at the threat, but the throbbing in her behind let her know all too well that threats of spanking, even if you were almost 21, obviously rang true in these parts.

Without another word, Jake scuttled off to bed.

Chapter Five

Stephanie toyed with a pencil and stared at her blotter. In front of her, the computer screen was blank. Deadline was at 5 pm. The clock on the menu bar of her PC insisted that it was 4.35 pm, but Stephanie didn't see how that could possibly be true, as that would have to mean that she was about to miss a deadline for the first time in her career.

She sighed, sat back in her chair and tossed her pencil forcibly towards the cork board that held assignments and photographs. It lodged point first, testament to how much and how thoroughly it had been sharpened. Stephanie had spent a great deal of time today sharpening and resharpening her pencil. She had a drawer full of equally lethal pencils, in fact.

“It's not fair,” Stephanie muttered to herself, running her hands through her short, glossy hair.

It was most certainly not fair. What she couldn't elaborate on, even to herself was what exactly wasn't fair. The story should have been writing itself but instead only the word 'The' sat sullenly on her computer screen.

The buzzing of her phone distracted her briefly from her misery. A text message from Mackenzie flashed up on the screen and Stephanie felt a little thrill of excitement.

“Pick you up at 5.00 <3”

“Yay!” Stephanie giggled to herself like a school girl. They were going to spend the whole evening together, an evening that Mackenzie had promised would be free of any drama relating to nieces.

As entertaining as watching Jake run circles around her aunt was, Stephanie had been suffering as a result. Mackenzie had often been distracted and sometimes even distant whilst being preoccupied with Jake's antics and apparent determination to do herself serious harm. All the while, Stephanie had suffered admirably in silence, making understanding noises when Mackenzie aired her frustrations, all the while secretly wishing that she showed her the same sort of attention she was lavishing on the brat from Australia. Jake was old enough to take care of herself surely? She was a university graduate. If she wanted to go and frequent opium dens, let her.

Stephanie didn't really think that, of course, but it was tiresome the way Jake constantly managed to steal focus. The girl couldn't even get breakfast without life turning into some sort of bizarre crime drama.

But tonight, Mackenzie had promised that tonight would be their night.

“Hey you.”

Stephanie glanced up from her phone and squealed happily. “Hello!” she said, her smile plastered broadly across her face.

Mackenzie leaned against the doorway to her office, looking impeccable as always. Her hair was loose and waved down past her shoulders in a way that suggested a classic kind of glamor. The sharp suit she wore with the wide lapelled white shirt added to the classical ambiance, but it was her face, her beautiful aquiline features that were at once beautiful and powerful that made Stephanie's heart skip a beat. Every inch a business woman, and every inch a lady, that was what Stephanie thought when she saw Mackenzie.

“Ready to go?” Mackenzie asked, dangling her car keys from her middle finger.

“Yeah!” Stephanie said, shutting down her computer and leaping up from her chair. “Let's blow this cake stand!” she enthused, standing on tippy toes to kiss Mackenzie's cheek.

“Cake stand?” Mackenzie laughed.

“Yep,” Stephanie agreed, looping her arm around Mackenzie's as they made for the elevator. They were almost there when Leonard poked his head out of his office.

“Steph, have you got that copy for me?”

“Oh. Uh. No, there have been some, developments,” Stephanie lied.

Leonard frowned and pushed his spectacles further up his nose with his forefinger.

“We need that copy tonight, Steph.”

Stephanie sighed dramatically. “The story isn't done, Leonard, run something else!” She turned back to the elevator.

“Stephanie, we've had that story scheduled for weeks. You said it would be ready this morning,” Leonard persisted doggedly.

“Well it's just not done!” Stephanie replied, her tone becoming terse and tense indeed.

“Stephanie...”

This time the voice came from Mackenzie. Stephanie turned to see that Mackenzie was glowering down at her, quite unimpressed.

“Do you need to finish up before you go home?”

It was phrased like a question, but Stephanie knew very well from Mackenzie's tone that it was not a question. There was a velvet steel in her tone, and a glint in her eye that belied her intent.

“Well, I suppose I can cobble something together,” Stephanie muttered, turning quickly on her heel and making for her office. Mackenzie followed after her, a silent mass of disapproval.

Stephanie made sure that the door was shut behind them both before she flung herself petulantly into her office chair and jabbed the power button on the computer.

“Do you always talk to your boss like that?” Mackenzie inquired softly, removing her blazer.

“What?” Stephanie looked up at Mackenzie and rubbed her eyes. “No. Only when he is being a jerk.”

“I see. And expecting you to turn in assignments is being a jerk?” Mackenzie asked the question over her shoulder as she began to unbutton the cuffs of her crisp white blouse.

Stephanie looked up again. She was now thoroughly irritable and she didn't care if Mackenzie knew it.

“I've never missed a deadline, okay? So don't give me attitude.”

“I beg your pardon?”

Ice crystallized in the words as they hung in the air. Inwardly, Stephanie gasped at the way she'd just spoken to Mackenzie. Certainly they had never formalized their relationship as top and bottom, but it had been clear from the outset that Mackenzie expected Stephanie to know her place. The woman exuded authority and though she was perfectly capable of egalitarian relationships, all notion of such a thing had gone out the window the first time Stephanie had found herself bottom up over Mackenzie's lap.

Perhaps she could bluff her way out of it. Pretend it never happened. Yes. With a frown of intent, Stephanie brought up the document she'd been working on and began to type furiously. Across the room, Mackenzie settled patiently into a chair with the air of a cat watching a mouse. Slowly, she rolled up one sleeve of her blouse, then the other, revealing slim but strong forearms.

Not a word was spoken as Stephanie worked furiously, her fingers clattering over the keys at high speed. There were plenty of notes to work from and suddenly she found the motivation that had escaped her for most of the day.

She glanced up over at Mackenzie as she typed, and found her gaze met with a slowly arched brow. Oh god, she wasn't going to let that snappishness slide, was she? Putting her head back down, Stephanie focused her attention on the article, trying to ignore the way that her bottom was suddenly tingling and prickling under her sensible black skirt.

By 5.45 pm, she was done. It was a matter of moments to copy the text to an email, hit send and then push back from the desk with a triumphant sigh.

“Okay, let's go!” she said. She grabbed her jacket, hoping that the momentum of leaving and the fact that they were in her office might save her from any wrath that Mackenzie had been working on for the last three quarters of an hour.

“Let's not just yet,” Mackenzie drawled.

Stephanie's heart sank and she dropped her jacket. “Okay, I'm sorry,” she said, her tone not as contrite as it perhaps should have been.

“You're sorry? What for?”

“I'm sorry I snapped at you. I just wanted to go out so badly, you know? It has been ages since we had an evening together.” She give Mackenzie her best puppy dog eyes, hoping that the reminder of the evening they had planned would be enough to sway her out of her displeasure.

“That's right, isn't it?” Mackenzie said, the stern expression on her face not fading for an instant. “We were supposed to have an evening together. Yet someone decided not to finish her work on time and then someone decided to pitch a fit at both her boss and her girlfriend.”

“Fuck,” Stephanie muttered to herself. She'd forgotten for a moment that Mackenzie was a lawyer. Trying to verbally outmaneuver her was almost impossible. She knew all the tricks and was not about to let that thin justification fly.

With casual grace, Mackenzie unfolded herself from the chair and approached Stephanie, slipping her fingers underneath her chin, making it impossible for Stephanie to avoid her gaze. “The only question here is why a capable, professional woman is acting like a little girl.”

Stephanie felt herself pout. “Seems to be the only way to get your attention these days,” she blurted, then instantly regretted the words as Mackenzie's brows rose up in surprise.

“So you didn't do your job properly and you mouthed off at your boss in front of me so that I would pay attention to you?”

“No!” Stephanie denied hotly, crossing her arms over her chest.

Mackenzie continued to scrutinize her with that piercing gaze, a gaze that seemed to see into her very soul and find all the naughty, dirty truths that lived there. “My my, you do know how to get yourself into trouble, don't you?” she noted softly.

“Maybe,” Stephanie admitted.

Mackenzie flicked the lock on the door, then turned back to Stephanie. “I think it is time we addressed this issue.”

Stephanie's eyes widened. “Please ma'am, no, not here!”

“Oh, but you saw fit to play the brat here, did you not? You saw fit you jeopardize your professional reputation as well. What will it matter if you are also thrashed here?”

Thrashed. Stephanie gasped at the word. “M..Mackenzie, please, I wasn't that bad.”

“Oh my dear, you were worse. By my count, you've been pouting and slacking off at work, you've jeopardized the paper's print run and you've wasted almost an hour of out evening together because you wanted the opportunity to brat in front of me. Little one, you have more than earned yourself a very, very sound spanking.”

Stephanie's lower lip trembled. “Please, I am sorry. I … I missed what we had, at the beginning. Please don't spank me here.”

Mackenzie frowned. “What we had at the beginning?”

“Yeah, you know, when you, sort of cared and spanked me and stuff,” Stephanie felt her vocabulary declining into childish phrases before Mackenzie's increasingly stern gaze.