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“So generous.”

“I know, perhaps too generous. I’ve been told that’s one of my biggest flaws.”

“You have not,” she said.

He had to hide his smile at the outrage in her voice. But he thought he’d let her get away with too much. And that had led to her sending him away. And getting into real danger. That couldn’t happen again.

“This is going to be quite a firm spanking,” he told her. “Because I want you to think twice before you either send me away again or disobey me.”

“That doesn’t seem very nice,” she said.

“It’s not meant to be nice.”

“What if Kevin gets upset by all the yelling?”

“I’m sure Kevin will be fine,” he told her, glancing over at the rat who was currently in his cage. “If it becomes too much, you can say a safe word. All right?”

“A safe word?” She gave him a look of interest. “What kind of safe word?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know. You can choose it.”

“I can choose it?” she said with a look of delight. “Ooh, fun. What should I choose?” She tapped at her chin.

He had the feeling that she was procrastinating, but that wasn’t going to be allowed.

“Think quick,” he told her. “Because I’m not waiting all day. I’ll just give you one myself.”

“Well, that’s not very nice,” she told him.

“I think we’ve established already that I’m not very nice.”

“What if Webb comes home and hears us? What if he comes running inside to see what’s going on? He might think I’m being murdered or something.”

“I’m sure Webb will understand what’s going on since I texted him to let him know.”

“Oh my God, you didn’t.” She put her hands on her red cheeks. “You really texted and told him that you were going to spank me?”

“Yep.”

“I can’t believe you did that.” She stomped her foot down on the floor.

“I can’t believe you tried to get rid of me in order to keep me safe, knowing that you were at risk. So here we are.”

She huffed out a breath. “Fine. My safe word is going to be Cincinnati.”

“Cincinnati?”

“Yeah, I always liked the sound of that word. Cincinnati.”

“It’s kind of long,” he told her. “A safe word is generally nice and short, easy to say.”

“Cincinnati’s easy to say.”

He gave her a skeptical look.

She let out a sigh. “All right. How about Odie?”

“Odie? Yeah, all right.”