Free My Charming Valentine by Maggie Ryan

Chapter One
     
    “A game? You want to play a game on
Valentine’s Day?” Phoebe gave her husband a suspicious look. “What kind of
game? Don’t think I’ve forgotten the last game we played. Every time I pass a
tree, my butt twitches.”
    Patrick grinned. “I promise, this one you
will enjoy and technically, Valentine’s Day isn’t until tomorrow.” He reached
over and pulled her onto his lap. “Besides, I’m thinking someone protests too
much. As I recall, your beautiful bottom wasn’t the only thing twitching by the
time the game was over.”
    He loved her blush as it moved up her
body to color her cheeks. They had played hundreds of games during their
relationship. An entire shelf in their closet was stacked with board games of
every kind. Not having had a great deal of money during their first few years
of marriage, they’d often made an evening of playing games, eating popcorn and
drinking cheap wine instead of going out.
    Their kids had continued to look forward
to game night, often inviting their friends to join in the Friday night
tradition until they had gone off to college. Now both Katy and Sam had married
and moved to different parts of the country. Both had been a bit shocked when
their parents had sold the home they’d grown up in to move to a spanking
community in Colorado.
    Patrick and Phoebe had always had a
traditional marriage, where he was the head of the household. They’d not kept
it hidden from their kids, but they didn’t advertise the fact that their mother
got spanked when she broke a rule, either. When Katy figured it out, she spent
months trying to convince her mother that it was the twenty-first century and
not the 1950’s. Even though her mother was patient and would sit for hours and
reassure her daughter that this was the life she wanted to live, it had been
Sam who'd reminded his sister that their parents were grown-ups and had the
right to make their own choices. Still it had taken a visit to Corbin’s Bend to
convince Katy that her parents had not joined a cult and that both appeared
even happier and closer than before.
    Though those years of watching every
penny were long gone, Patrick and his wife still enjoyed playing games
together. However, one evening about a month ago, she had been getting
grouchier with every roll of the dice during a game of backgammon. When he kept
rolling double after double, sending several of her pieces to the bar, she’d
thrown a fit as well as the dice.
    She had been almost as shocked as her
husband. He might have been able to forgive the tantrum, but he certainly
hadn’t been about to forgive the colorful words she'd screamed as the dice hit
the wall. Before she knew it, she was outside selecting the switch that would
soon be searing her backside. After choosing one and breaking it off, she’d
cursed again when it snapped in two, neither piece long enough to be
acceptable. He hadn’t hesitated to move from where he’d been leaning against
the tree to deliver a sharp swat to the seat of her pajamas. She’d yelped
loudly and thrown the switch away, only to see their neighbor’s dog attempting
to pull his master into the yard so he could play fetch. Though the neighbor
didn’t say a word, Patrick had been able to tell from Phoebe's blush that she
knew the man could easily figure out what she was doing and why. He’d remained
silent as she cut a proper switch. Back inside, he’d bent her over the arm of
the couch, divested her of her pj bottoms and panties, and given her a dozen
licks of the switch. After she'd spent a half hour in the corner with her
striped rear on display, he’d forgiven her—as well as comforted her in a
far more pleasant game.
    “Are there going to be any switches
involved in this game?” she asked, as she trailed her finger down his naked
chest.
    Patrick patted her hip. “Babe, that would
depend on you.” He captured her hand and brought it to his lips, pressing a
kiss against her palm. “I promise that