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  For as long as Kirsty had known she was into spanking, she had found it both fascinating and arousing that men would routinely wear such a perfect spanking implement casually around their middles. Kirsty’s eye was drawn to a man’s belt the same way it would have been if he were openly carrying a whip or a paddle while going about his daily business. She found herself feeling vaguely disappointed whenever an otherwise agreeable looking guy had a disappointingly flimsy looking belt – or worse still, no belt at all. As though they were deliberately passing up a great opportunity.

  She knew that most men wouldn’t have guessed what she had in mind and didn’t think of their belts in that way. They probably just thought of them as a convenient way to hold their trousers up.

  The exciting thing about living in Corbin’s Bend, she thought, was that all the men here probably would know what she had in mind if they caught her looking. Someone who chose to live in this place would be all too aware the pain and pleasure that a well-aimed belt could bring.

  All three belts on display here were very satisfactory. All leather. All sturdy looking. Chocolate-eyes’ belt was particularly pleasing to look at – a wide brown leather belt that looked slightly worn and well used. She found herself imagining what that belt might feel like snapped across her bare bottom and felt a delicious shiver of excitement at the thought.

  Happily, the group of guys seemed to be headed for the bar where she was sitting. As she watched them approach, she saw the thin one say something quietly to the muscular one who then turned towards him and put his hand lightly on the first guy’s back as he responded. His hand then traveled downwards to the other man’s backside which he swatted with a light touch that was both proprietorial and very romantic.

  Gay, then. Ah well, thought Kirsty. Best just stick to admiring them aesthetically. She wondered briefly if she had maybe stumbled into a gay bar. Was Corbin’s Bend even big enough to have a gay bar? Given that where she was sitting only had four bar stools, if it was one, it would have to be the smallest gay bar in existence.

  Kirsty was sitting in one of the middle stools. The two who were obviously a couple took the two stools on her right while Chocolate-eyes slipped into the stool on her left. Kirsty wondered if she should have moved so that they could all sit together, but it seemed a bit weird to suggest it now that they had all sat down.

  “Hi,” said the tall, thin one of the group. “I’m Jonathon.”

  “I’m Kirsty.”

  “Ah I thought so. Our new British resident.” He held out his hand which Kirsty took.

  “That’s right. Does everyone know who I am here?”

  “Probably,” he said. “Of course, I definitely ought to since I work for the Housing Board with Brent Carmichael. I process the residency applications.”

  “Thanks for processing mine then. I’m really happy to be here.”

  “We’re happy to have you,” said Jonathon. “This is my partner Benjamin,” he said, introducing her to the short-haired, well-muscled guy on his right, “and over there, is Logan.” Chocolate-eyes – Logan – gave a small wave hello. “Logan’s a newbie too. He moved into Corbin’s Bend just two months ago.”

  “Benjamin’s my mentor,” said Logan. “He’s showing me the ropes.”

  “What – literally?” joked Kirsty, raising an eyebrow.

  Logan and Benjamin laughed. “He wishes,” said Benjamin. “Can I get you another beer, Kirsty?”

  Her Upslope almost finished, Kirsty happily accepted another one.

  “How are you finding Corbin’s Bend so far?” Logan asked her.

  “Well, I’ve only been awake here for about two hours, so it might be a bit soon to say. It seems pretty good so far. Nice lager. I may have to take back everything I ever said about American beer.”

  “You’ve been bad-mouthing our country’s beer?” asked Benjamin, passing her another can.

  “Mate, I don’t know how to tell you this, but everyone bad-mouths American beer. Whole countries make unflattering comparisons between it and certain bodily fluids.”

  “Hey, I’m glad we’ve managed to disabuse you of that so quickly, then,” laughed Benjamin.

  Kirsty enjoyed chatting to the guys. They seemed very welcoming. Benjamin and Jonathon had been residents at Corbin’s Bend since the very beginning, she learned. They seemed very proud of the whole development.

  After a while, the conversation broke into two separate groups as Jonathon and Benjamin chatted together and Kirsty spoke to Logan.

  “So, Logan,” she asked. “What are you into?”

  “I never know how to answer that,” said Logan. “If someone just asks me what I’m into, my mind just goes blank. I’m either going to end up saying that I’m not into anything or just blurt out something completely random.”

  “Ooo-kay,” laughed Kirsty. “Let’s make it easier. Do you play any musical instruments?”

  “Nope. No sense of rhythm whatsoever.”

  “Play any sports?”

  “Does hiking count as a sport?”

  “Sure – why not?”

  “Then yes. Oh – and mountain biking. That’s definitely a sport.”

  “Okay. Do you prefer tea or coffee?”

  “Coffee.”

  “Star Trek or Star Wars?”

  “I refuse to answer that question,” said Logan. “I am happy to live in a world that has both. I don’t think they should have to compete just because they both start with the word ‘Star’.”

  Kirsty nodded approvingly. “Excellent answer,” she said. “The world’s a better place with both Star Wars and Star Trek in it.”

  “Okay, my turn now,” said Logan. “Who’s your favorite Star Trek character?”

  “Jean Luc Picard,” said Kirsty without hesitation.

  “Ah. You’re a ‘Next Gen’ girl then?”

  “Definitely. Why? Do you prefer the original series?”

  “Nah. I like Voyager best.”

  Kirsty almost spat out the mouthful of beer she was drinking. “What? That’s a ridiculous answer. No one likes Voyager best.”

  “Sure they do. It’s great. It had Seven of Nine in it. And Tuvok.”

  “No they don’t. It’s just you. Nobody else in the world has ever said that Voyager is their favorite Star Trek. Except maybe the actors’ mums and then they were probably just saying it to be nice.”

  “Hey, everyone’s entitled to an opinion.”

  “Well sure they are. I could express the opinion that Three Men and a Little Lady is a better movie than Three Men and a Baby, for example. And I would be entitled to that opinion. However, you would be entitled to mistrust absolutely everything I said afterwards though. Because I would clearly be crazy and wrong.”

  “So you’re saying, you have no confidence at all in my judgment at all now?” laughed Logan

  “Nope. None at all. You probably prefer The Phantom Menace to Return of the Jedi as well. I bet Jar Jar Binks is your favorite Star Wars character.”

  Logan stopped laughing and frowned, looking incredibly stern, shooting Kirsty a reprimanding look. She was pretty sure he was teasing her. “Now you’ve gone too far,” he said firmly. “You better watch what you say, little girl. This is Corbin’s Bend. People get spanked for less than that.”

  Kirsty knew he was joking, but that stern, dominating look and scolding tone totally turned her insides to jelly. God, that was sexy. Too bad he was gay. She so wasn’t his type.

  “Okay I’ll bear that in mind. Do you want another beer?” she added as Marie came round the other side of the bar.

  “No, I’m good. I’ve still got most of this one left.”

  Kirsty ordered herself another.

  “So, is this your first visit to the States?” asked Logan.

  “Not exactly. I was born here. Well, in San Francisco. My mum’s American. We lived here until I was three and then my dad persuaded her to go back with him and live in London. She lived in London for the rest of her life. She liked England. Even if
she never really liked my dad.”

  “She’s no longer around?”

  “No. She died six years ago. Cancer.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “Thanks.”

  “Why’d you decide to come and live in Corbin’s Bend?”

  Kirsty raised her eyebrows. “The spanking, obviously.”

  Logan chuckled.

  “I mean,” continued Kirsty, “I could pretend that it’s for the clean mountain air, or the climate or the handy proximity to the Dinosaur Quarry, but you know lots of places have those things. I think Corbin’s Bend must be the only place on earth with an official spanking policy.”

  “It’s pretty unique. How’d you find out about it?”

  “There was an item about it on the news about a year ago. One of those joking little ones at the end basically saying ‘Look how crazy those Americans are!’ You know the sort of thing.”

  “Yeah I think all ours tend to be about Japanese culture.”

  “British telly points and laughs at Japanese people too. But this one was definitely all about how crazy Americans were. That they could allow this crackpot group to set up this housing community in the mountains where these weirdoes could spank their partners like it was a totally normal thing to do.”

  “And you thought ‘That’s a bunch of weirdoes I could totally get on board with.’”

  “Exactly that! I couldn’t get the place out of my head after that. It just sounded so amazing. They didn’t have anybody from Corbin’s Bend actually on the news report. Just some people who lived nearby and didn’t really approve by the sounds of it. But I found the Corbin’s Bend website and, well, spent a lot of time thinking about how wonderful it would be to live in such a place. It was just a pipe dream really. Only then my dad died at the end of last year.”

  “Your dad too? I’m so sorry to hear that, Kirsty.”

  Kirsty shrugged. “Believe me, I was a lot less bothered about my dad dying than my mum. My dad was always a bit of a waste of space to be honest. He walked out on my mum and me when I was eleven. But, amazingly, when he died, he had quite a bit of money in the bank – loads – and he’d left it all to me. Suddenly, the Corbin’s Bend idea wasn’t just a crazy idea any more. It was something I could actually afford to do. So I contacted Brent Carmichael and six months and several million hoops later, here I am.” She raised her beer can in a toast. “Living the dream.”

  Logan raised his beer bottle in response. “To the dream,” he toasted.

  Kirsty swigged down more beer. She was beginning to feel more than a little light-headed. Not that surprising after three and a half beers on an empty stomach she figured. She was always a talker, but she suspected she might be even more garrulous than usual at the moment.

  “I always knew that I was into spanking,” Kirsty said, her voice picking up speed as she got chattier and chattier. “I was way too excited every time someone got threatened with a spanking in Enid Blyton books. My last serious boyfriend, Ryan, we really got into the whole spanking thing. It was great. Except that he turned out to be a fucking liar and every time he said he was working late, it turns out that he was doing a totally different job from the one I thought he was doing. He’s inside now, serving time for aggravated burglary. I knew we were over the moment the police showed up. I had enough of that bollocks from my dad. He was always up to something dodgy. I wasn’t going to go through that with Ryan. I miss the spankings though. I’ve tried to get other guys to get into it, but it’s surprising how hard it can be to get guys to want to give you a spanking. It’s all a couple of light taps and they’re all ‘oh, I didn’t want to hurt you.’ Thing is,” her voice was beginning to slur, but she took another swig of her beer anyway, “the thing that I never thought anyone else would understand until I found out about this place is that the spanking is really important. I couldn’t have any kind of serious relationship without it. If I had to choose between just sex or just spanking, I’d choose the spanking. I mean, I’d rather not choose. I’d rather have both. Sex and spanking just go together, you know? Like, like…”

  “Peanut butter and jelly?” supplied Logan.

  “Peanut butter and jelly!” she agreed enthusiastically and somewhat loudly. “Exactly! That’s totally fitting given that I’m an American now. I’m sorry. I’ve really rambled on. So where are you from?”

  “I’m from Iowa.”

  “Iowa, Iowa… my US geography is terrible. Is that another one of the square-y looking states in the middle?”

  “Not that square but yeah. It’s one of the ones in the middle. There’s just Nebraska between Iowa and Colorado.”

  “And are you here for the spanking?”

  “Guess that’s one way of putting it.”

  “So do you like to spank guys then? Or do you prefer to be spanked?”

  Logan laughed. “Neither.”

  “Huh?”

  “I like to spank. But I don’t spank guys.”

  “But you’re gay.”

  “No, I’m not.”

  She motioned towards their drinking companions. “Jonathon and Benjamin are gay!”

  “It’s not contagious.”

  “I know that! Oh my god, I thought you were gay. I never would have told you all that stuff about my sex life if I’d realized. I thought I was talking to a gorgeous gay guy about stuff! And you’re not! Well, I mean you’re still gorgeous… oh fuck! I am not helping myself here. Fuck, fuck, fuck. I’m sorry!”

  Kirsty could not remember the last time she had felt so flustered. It wasn’t so much the fact that she had got it wrong about Logan being gay so much as every single thing she had said after realizing had just made the situation worse. Jet lag and the four beers she had just drunk probably weren’t helping either.

  “Um, excuse me. I need to go use the toilet.” Kirsty jumped down from her barstool and headed towards the ladies.

  Logan watched Kirsty rush off with a bemused look on his face. Still ‘gorgeous’, hey? He’d take that. That’s always a nice thing to have said about you by a pretty girl. Even if it was a pretty girl who seemed inordinately disappointed that he wasn’t gay.

  “So how are things going with the new girl?” asked Benjamin. “You two seemed to have a lot to talk about.”

  “She seems nice,” said Logan noncommittally.

  “We figured we’d leave you two to it since you seemed to be getting on so well. Didn’t want to cramp your style, man,” said Benjamin.

  Logan shook his head. “Hey I know there aren’t that many single people in Corbin’s Bend, but you can’t just assume that the few there are, are going to immediately hook up together.”

  Logan thought about it. Did he like her? He’d enjoyed talking to her, but she was really nothing like the kind of girls he was usually attracted to.

  He liked an old-fashioned kind of girl. That was why he had come to Corbin’s Bend. He had grown up in a house that had always practiced domestic discipline. Where men took charge of the household and the women deferred to their authority. Kirsty didn’t seem like that kind of a girl at all. Logan tried to imagine one of his sisters sitting in a bar on her own, swearing and chugging beers at the rate that Kirsty had been. He was willing to bet that his brothers-in-law would have a few words to say about that and that they’d have got those words across with the help of a stout wooden paddle.

  Kirsty might be into spanking, but he was willing to bet that she only liked the kind of spanking that she could control in the bedroom, rather than being prepared to submit to a domestic discipline lifestyle.

  She certainly looked like no girl he would consider dating. Her choppy hair was dyed black and purple and she clearly took a ‘more is more’ approach to her make-up. She was definitely cute though and the lacy top and tight black jeans she was wearing showed her tiny waist and surprisingly full butt off to their best advantage. As she had been leaning forward, his eyes had been drawn to checking out her gorgeously shaped rear and it was impossible to miss the butterfly t
attoo that poked above the waistband of her jeans. A ‘tramp stamp’ his sisters would have called it. He wondered if it was appropriate. Hey, back up, man, he warned himself. You have just met the girl. You can’t be wondering whether or not she’s a tramp. Not cool.

  “You guys heading off soon?” asked Logan.

  Benjamin swigged down the last of his beer. “Reckon I’m ready to go now,” he said. “How about you, Jon?”

  “Sure. We’ve all got work in the morning.”

  “I’m going to wait for Kirsty and see that she gets home safely. You don’t need to wait though. She said she’s at Heather Drive. That’s the opposite direction from your place.”

  “I’m sure that’s the only reason,” said Jonathon. “Maybe you just don’t want a couple of spare wheels tagging along while you’re walking the lady home.”

  “Can it, Jonathon,” said Logan, pinching the bridge of his nose. “I’m not trying it on with Kirsty. I just want to make sure she gets home safely.”

  “Mm hm. I’d say don’t do anything we wouldn’t do, but that might be a bit restricting,” said Jonathon.

  “Come on, you. I think you’ve pissed Logan off enough for one evening,” said Benjamin, grabbing hold of Jonathon and propelling him towards the door. “Tell Kirsty it was nice to meet her and we hope to see her again soon.”

  “I’ll let her know.”

  When Kirsty came out of the bathroom, she saw that Jonathon and Benjamin had left and that Logan was standing slouched against the bar, he looked like he was waiting for her. She noticed that all the drinks had been cleared away even though she knew that her beer was half-full. She wondered if she should read anything into this. Was she being told that she had had enough? Normally, such an action would piss her off, but she couldn’t be bothered to say anything about it. She felt pretty woozy – it probably would have been a good idea to have eaten something before she started on the beer, she conceded to herself - and the thought of just getting home and crawling into bed was an attractive one.