Free Time to Control by Marie Pinkerton

you can find   those straw piles?”   I pulled his head down to kiss him and
show him what was on my mind.   He
inserted two fingers in me, and I gasped as I immediately came.
    We waited a few minutes for me to
compose myself, then went off in search of a place a bit more private.   I didn't object when the sweats came
down this time, and in fact found that the sensations were rather increased due
to the earlier activities.
    When we were lying on the straw
basking in the afterglow, I brought that up to him.   “I don't think you'd be able to do that
again.”
    “Sex?” He asked, confused.
    “No, before.”   I blushed, hesitant to talk about
it.  
    “Baby, I promise.   I won't spank you again.   I crossed the line, and I'm sorry.”
    “No, it--” I bit my lip.   “It wouldn't have the same effect.”
    He lifted up on one elbow,
interested.   “What are you saying?”
    I turned away.   “Never mind, it's nothing.”
    “Schroeder,” he growled, his deep
voice sending tingles throughout my body.
    I rolled back over towards him, but
still didn't look him in the eye.   His chest was a much safer place to look.   I chose my words carefully.   “In private, it might have some....it
wouldn't discourage behavior in the future.”
    I could almost hear the gears
clicking into place in his brain.   “That bears investigating.”
    “Yeah?”
    “Yeah,” he said, and rolled back on
top of me.
    After another energetic workout, I was even less enthused to go back to
work. “I just want to stay here. We can make a little nest out of the straw,
and never leave.”
    He chuckled and pulled a piece of hay out of my hair. “It might get a
bit messy.”
    “So?”
    “So you need to go back to work,” he said firmly.   
    “You do realize I just quit, right?   And after chewing out my CEO, I’m
doubting they want me to stick around like I offered.   Heck, they don’t normally even let
people do their two weeks.”
    “Well, they don’t have to, legally,” Eddie pointed out, then shut up at
my glare.   “Baby.   You’re indispensable.   Joseph knows and recognizes that, even
if Alan didn’t.   Frankly, I don’t
see how or why you’ve put up with Alan for this long.”
    I sighed, and snuggled closer to my husband.   “Yeah, he’s a jerk.   An asshole.   Really.   But it’s not written anywhere that you
have to like your boss.   I’ve cooled
down, thanks to your...um...insistence...and if I could take back quitting, I
would.”
    “Wait, what?”   Eddie sat up,
dumping me off of his shoulder.   I
pushed him back down and cuddled again.  
    “I like my job.   I like the
work I do.   If I have to put up with
an overbearing, assholish, jerk of a boss, that’s life.   What was that line I heard in a musical,
‘it’s not so much do what you like, as like what you do’?”   I shrugged.   “I’m doing better than a lot of people
in liking what I do.   And it’s not
Alan’s fault he’s the way he is. “
    “Schroeder, you’re seriously going to make excuses for him?   It doesn’t matter if he was dropped on
the head as a child, or whatever it was.”
    I bit my lip.   While Alan
wasn’t dropped, he was abused.   Matt, a co-worker who I was friendly with, had gone to high school with
Alan, and had given me the scoop one day when we were ranting over
margaritas.   Alan’s stepfather had
beat him on several occasions, and when Alan stood up for himself and fought
back, the broken leg he had received in the fight cost Alan his college
football scholarship.   Ten years
later, Alan was still bitter about that, and woe to the person who wore a Texas
A&M jersey in Alan’s presence.
    “People in your life influence you, that’s all I’m saying, “ I finally
answered.  
    “We’ll have to agree to disagree for now.   You have control over your own
actions.   You can’t control what
someone else does, but you can what you do.”
    “Heh.   I learned that last
night.