Free Everything Gained by Carolyn Faulkner

Chapter One

    "No. Gain, no." Nina backed up as steadily as he advanced, but she knew she was going to run up against a wall at some time and had to keep glancing behind her so that she didn't run into anything or over anyone of the four-footed variety. He was calculatedly stalking her; looking for all he was worth just like the big cat she always compared him to in her mind. Well, except for the paddle in his right hand. That kind of dispelled the predatory cat image and replaced it with an annoyed husband image that was getting closer and closer, and looking madder and madder.
    She gulped as he lowered his chin, keeping those steely gray eyes on her, pinning her with that God awful look that screamed that she was in deep, deep trouble. Nina put her hands up, knowing as she did it that they were going to be absolutely no defense against him whatsoever. Marrying a man who was more than twice your size and then agreeing - agreeing! - that he should have disciplinary discretion over her wasn't the smartest thing she'd ever done.
    But then again... she thought with a fleeting smile.
    She'd certainly seen that look enough before in the past years to know that it - he - meant business. Man, she hated it when he looked at her like that. It made her bottom start to tingle before he'd so much as laid a finger on it, but that face was telling her that he intended to do a lot more than just that.
    Gain was never going to be a typical husband, though. The fact that he was the size of a house, had a full head of wavy black hair and a lantern jaw of granite drew female eyes like a lode stone and set him apart from most men immediately. Add to that the fact that he very firmly believed in precepts about women that were right out of the Age of Chivalry, and had a tendency to spank first and ask questions later, and wrap it all up in a package that was both muscle bound and brainy, and you had a true picture of Gain Sinjun Decker.
    And he rarely, if ever, even had to raise his voice - just his eyebrow. It wasn't his way to get all het up, which was probably a good thing considering his size. Usually, all he had to do was make an appearance and whatever situation had arisen would calm down immediately. Nina had felt safe with him from the moment she'd met him - which she didn't rightly remember, because it was before she'd become sentient. He was two years older than she was, but they were the closest kids in the neighborhood in age. They'd grown up together as neighbors, and he'd been the same kind of person even before he'd attained his size - never the type to shy away from a fight, but also not one who would ever start one.
    Gain had known what he wanted to be since he could remember. He'd always tinkered with cars and could do basic maintenance on one before he hit double digits. By the time he'd earned his license, he'd already rebuilt an old jalopy his father had given him from the ground up, and was the only kid in town with a tricked out Chevy Nova in cherry red with mag wheels and orange flames licking along the sides.
    He'd gone to business school because he knew that eventually he was going to want to open his own shop. It wasn't a glamorous business, especially in the first years they were married, right after college. He came home every night sweaty and dirty and covered in grease, working long hours even on the weekends in order to make his business a success.
    Nina wouldn't have cared if he'd come home covered in manure, as long as he came home to her, and their little two room apartment where they were excruciatingly happy even without the proverbial pot.
    Those early years were extremely lean. They were deeply in debt, and quite often dinner was not a lot more than ramen soup and off brand soda, if that. But neither of them cared one whit. They had each other, and reveled in what time they could eek out together.
    Back then, they didn't have the money to buy fancy implements for those times when he'd decided she needed a