Chapter 3

Allison sat next to Nick in stony silence, eating her supper. He made sure she got the best of what cook had to offer, but she clearly didn't appreciate it as she shoveled food down her throat.

"I'm done," she said after a few minutes.

"Can I get a thank you?" Nick asked, for some reason wanting her to acknowledge his effort.

"Why should I thank you when you are the one who kidnapped me?" Allison had been like that for the three days she had been on his ship, unduly contrary, Nick felt, for the amount of consideration he had shown her. He had even given up his bed and slept on the floor, due to the fit she had thrown when he tried to climb in next to her.

"I have put up with your attitude for long enough, Allison. You have done nothing but complain and sulk since you got here and frankly I'm sick of it," Nick said, demanding she get over her anger so they could get on with their lives together.

"Oh, I'm sorry that I've not been in such a pleasurable mood. I hope that you can forgive me, seeing as how I have just been forcibly dragged out of my bed in the middle of the night and onto a ship, and then told that I was to marry a complete stranger," Allison's voice dripped with sarcasm. Nick longed to shove it in her face that she was only being made to fulfill a promise that she herself made, but still wanted to keep his anonymity.

"Well whether you like being here or not, you are at least going to act civil. Now I want you to thank me for your supper," Nick said in a voice that brooked no refusal. Allison however, ignored the warning in his voice.

"I shall not, you miscreant" Allison said, crossing her arms and sitting back in her chair, ready to sit there all night before allowing a "thank you" to escape her lips.

"You will say thank you, or I will take you over my knee and blister your backside so bad you won't be able to sit for a week." Nick was also ready for a fight, but was not willing to have it take all night.

"If you even dare, my fiancé will track you down and kill you for touching me," Allison once again used her fiancé to hopefully scare him from carrying out his threat. Little did she know, she had said the one thing that would actually make Nick put her over his knee.

"That's it," Nick said, bodily picking her up and sitting down on the chair. Allison struggled as much as she could, but was no match for his strength, and in a few minutes he had her laying face down over his lap, with an arm on her back, anchoring her to the spot. She hit his leg with her fists and yelled at him to stop, but stubbornly refused to say she was sorry or beg.

She was utterly humiliated at the indignity of her position when he lifted up her dress and pulled down her pantalets, exposing her bare bottom. She cried out more from surprise than pain when the first smack came. It was immediately followed by a second smack, and a third, and a fourth.

"Are you going to say thank you?" he then asked, but Allison stubbornly kept her mouth shut.

"I guess you haven't learned your lesson then," he said as he continued to spank her. What hadn't hurt so much the first time, now was horribly painful, as he continued to smack her already stinging bottom. Allison felt tears roll start to roll down her cheeks and let out small cries with each smack.

Nick's anger had faded by now, and he longed to end the punishment, but was too stubborn to be the one to give in. He tried not to look at her rosy backside, for fear that he wouldn't be able to continue beating the sore flesh, and he hardened his heart against her pitiful whimpering.

"Say thank you," Nick said again, letting his hand slow, and allowing longer pauses between each smack.

"No." Nick wanting to end this, allowed his hand to fall much harder than the couple previous times, and his heart nearly broke at the painful cry that escaped her.

"Say it," he practically begged.

By this time she was crying her little eyes out, "Thank ... you," the words were wrenched out of her between sobs. Now that she had finally said it, Nick felt no happiness at having won; he didn't feel like he had really won at all. He allowed his grip on her to loosen, and he pulled her undergarments up, and her dress down. Allison scrambled off his lap as soon as he let her go, and huddled in the corner of the room. She put her face in her knees, and cried and cried, and when she was finally out of tears, she stayed there, refusing to look up or move.

Nick didn't know what to do now, he didn't want to leave her, but she probably would rather be alone. He walked over to her huddled form and picked her up, she stayed wrapped in a tight little ball, and he carried her like that over to the bed, gently laying her down before quietly leaving the room.

After the day Nick spanked her, Allison started acting exactly as he had told her to act. She hid her displeasures, and acted polite. Though only now, Nick would have preferred her the way she was, rather than the cold and distant way she acted now.

She said a polite "thank you" for pretty much anything he gave her. Answered his questions with cool impersonal responses, while asking none of her own, and instead of the varied insulting names she was wont to call him before, now restrained to calling him captain, like the rest of the crew.