Chapter 11 - The Rules

“Hey. Buddy,” Dunk poked his head around his bedroom door frame and whispered to Jason who was setting up the TV to play his Xbox. Dunk was being careful that Dalia wouldn’t overhear. Dalia hated Dunk betting or encouraging Jason with such things.

“You wanna make a little wager? You do the dishes if your grandpa comes back here wrapped around Amanda’s little finger. Or Emily’s. They’re gonna tear him apart and put him back together with his head up one of their asses, I reckon,” he quietly suggested so that only Jason could hear.

“After today? Are you serious? No effing way! Those bitches are toast, Dunk!” Jason whispered back, feeling very confident in Brian’s spanking lesson from earlier.

“So you game? Dalia’s using the big damn pots and they suck to get clean,” Duncan grumped. “And they’re making me fucking help too. I burn damn water,” he laughed.

“Throw in five bucks and you’re on,” Jason whispered back.

Betting with Duncan was kind of a one-way deal for Jason because Duncan always said he’d pay up, ‘tomorrow’ or ‘after payday’, but Jason loved to play the game anyway. He seldom lost on bets with Duncan and if Duncan ever paid his markers, Jason would probably have $50 or more. He’d stopped keeping track.

Jason had only ever had to pay Duncan twice and even then, Duncan shared the spoils of a rare win with a little something for him and Dalia anyway.

Amanda was surprised when Brian slowed, turned, then stopped the car. She had avoided looking around to the point that when Brian turned off the engine, it came as a shock that they were back at Dunk’s and now she’d have to go inside wearing nothing again.

Being nude in front of her mom had been okay. It was her mom. Being nude in front of Dalia had been a little more difficult, because she’d treated Dalia so poorly and now Dalia had an opportunity to get her back. She wondered how Dalia would do it and if Dalia even would. She knew for sure that if the situation was reversed, she’d absolutely make the most of it. She mostly didn’t want to be naked in front of Jason and Dunk. Both had looked at her hungrily even though in Duncan’s case they were blood related.

Amanda had talked to Brian the whole way home about how she’d come in and taken over and now a feeling of guilt and regret had found a place inside her to take root and grow. She had begun to appreciate all the fucked up things she’d done, that she’d never thought twice about until this drive. Her biggest regret was that Emily had spent the trip making faces at her and giggling, totally missing the point of the discussion. Emily hadn’t seemed to feel the slightest trace of guilt but rather, appeared proud of the things she and her had done.

They’d also talked briefly about Tough Love and The Hard Way plan, although Brian had reached a point where he simply refused to discuss it any more. He’d been adamant that Emily have as much say in what she was letting herself in for as Amanda had. Brian had said that while Amanda was Emily’s mom in name, that for the duration of the Tough Love, Emily would be considered by Brian to be Amanda’s equal, not her daughter - so Amanda could not agree to anything that commited Emily. Emily would have to agree or bargain for herself.

Duncan answered Brian’s knock on the door and still managed to do a double-take when he saw Amanda kneeling naked on the porch next to his brother in law. “Shit, I didn’t expect to see that,” Dunk said, referring to Amanda who was blushing furiously, outside in broad daylight as naked as the day she was born. “Just come on in. You don’t need to knock. The door doesn’t even lock, I don’t think. I sure don’t know where the key’s At. Sorry, I’m helping Ann and Dalia in the kitchen. One of Dalia’s mystery lunches,” he noted, before heading back in, without another look at Amanda.

Amanda was torn. After his initial surprise, her uncle Dunk hadn’t even glanced at her, as if he thought so little of her that she wasn’t worth looking at. In a way that relieved her but in another, SHE WAS FUCKING NAKED! Guys should be falling over themselves to get a good look.

Duncan knew he’d see plenty more of Amanda if she was already okay with kneeling at the front door naked and he didn’t want to be thought of as a pervert for staring. He didn’t even ask about Emily. He just wanted to get Dalia’s honey-do stuff in the kitchen done, so he could get back to the living room - to discreetly feast his eyes.

“You’ll wait here, Amanda,” Brian said, instead of leading the way inside. “You and Emily are a team now. When she does something, you’ll be doing something similar. Since she’s outside, you’ll wait outside too.”

Amanda began to say something but Brian shushed her with a look, then addressed her kneeling position. “Even kneeling, you look ... I don’t know ... messy, maybe? There’s nothing precise in the say you’re positioned. Turn yourself around so you can see the car. Okay, but spread your knees more. Yes, that should be fine. Now put your palms flat on the decking. Lock your elbows so that your arms are straight,” he demanded, adding step by step instructions as she reluctantly followed the last one.

“Okay, now take that ugly bow out of your back. You might not like being out here, but you look like a baby humpback whale. Your back should be straight, your shoulders back. You’re not a hunchback, Amanda! Good, much better. I want you holding your head up and looking straight ahead, not studying your kneecaps - and stay like that until Emily’s done. You should look pretty, not pretty ugly, kneeling there. We’ll call this the Ready Position and Emily will learn it too. Are you comfortable?”

“Right now, I’m fine, daddy. But it’ll get uncomfortable soon, I’m sure. How long is it going to take before Emily’s done? I really hate being outside, naked, daddy,” she said to Brian quietly, feeling strangely submissive in the pose.

“Just until Emily’s done, Amanda. Maybe a minute, maybe an hour. I’ll keep watch over you through the window. Wiggle your tits if you need something and wiggle both your tits and your ass if it gets urgent. I want to learn what you might consider an urgency anyway,” Brian told his kneeling step daughter, then waited for her to respond.

Amanda knew better than to talk without being asked something. She’d once had a dominant boyfriend that taught her about submissive behavior. That had been an interesting relationship mistake, Amanda thought as she recalled Dante.

“Did you hear me, Amanda?” Brian asked after a few moments, in a slightly louder voice.

“Yes, daddy. Um. Thank you?” Amanda replied, not knowing exactly what Brian was wanting from her.

“You are SUPPOSED to confirm your clear understanding that you know what is expected of you, slut!” Brian said in a snippity voice.

“Sorry, daddy. I didn’t know. Um, I’m going to stay here until Emily’s done. Wiggle my tits to get your attention and if it’s urgent, wiggle my ass as well?” She repeated back.

“Is that a question or a statement, Amanda? It sounded like a question but I don’t know what question was hidden in there. You’re obviously not thinking too well right now. Maybe you need some clothes pins on sensitive spots to help you focus better? No. Scratch that. This can be your freebie. Just remember not to answer my directions with questions unless they’re real questions - something you’re not sure about. When you think you have something correct, like you just did, say it clearly and decisively. It’s a useful life lesson.”

“I’m sorry, daddy. It wasn’t a question. I’m just trying to show I’m really trying,” Amanda assured Brian.

Just as Brian walked through the front door, Ann came out of the kitchen. “Oh good, it WAS you,” she said, not bothering to ask where Amanda or Emily were. “Sooooo ... I’ve been thinking while you were gone, Brian. Come and sit,” Ann said.

Brian hated it when Ann began a conversation like that. It usually meant she either had a major renovation in mind or he’d done something and now she wanted him to undo it. He’d once promised his buddy a fishing weekend and the day before they were due to leave, Ann had canned it for him - simply called his buddy and cancelled for him - so Brian could take her to a craft festival instead. She had no interest in crafts either - the festival had been payback for some perceived slight weeks and weeks earlier. Brian sat, then just looked at Ann expectantly.

Ann didn’t seem to care where Amanda and Emily might be at that moment. Her attention was focused solely on Brian. “I think what you’ve done so far, is wrong,” Ann whispered to Brian as he glanced over her shoulder and through the picture window to be sure he could see Amanda on the porch. Ann stage whispered even though she knew Dunk was back helping Dalia in the kitchen and Jason was in his parents’ room on his XBox.

“You made my daughter and granddaughter act like sluts. Dalia and I were talking in the kitchen while you were gone. She thinks this whole thing is a good idea and for whatever reason, so does Duncan. But I can tell that Jason is embarrassed by it and well he should be! Boys his age shouldn’t be exposed to nudity and you know what an obstinate fool Dalia is anyway. I told her I thought this was too much and as soon as I said it, she automatically pushed the idea, just to be contrary. There’s just no reasoning with her, Brian! Amanda hasn’t changed one iota and she can’t come to my house. Period. You tell her, or I will.”

Ann was feeling a tiny amount of guilt and shame about the way she’d treated both Amanda and Emily, but that wasn’t what made her change her mind. Brian had seen the cunts naked and he’d no doubt want them like that the entire time they were at her house. They aroused him - she knew it and she would NOT tolerate competition.

Ann had already made up her mind she was NOT going to let him ogle teenaged and close-to-teenaged flesh. He’d COMPLETELY lose interest in her and she was ALREADY finding it hard enough right now, to get her snuggle time with him.

He’d been getting more and more distant in the last few months and him doing this would break the camel’s back, she just knew it. It’d be practically impossible for her to take Brian’s attention away from young, vibrant, naked girls if she allowed those sluts into her house. It was time to put her foot down.

“No,” Brian simply replied.

“What do you mean, no? Did you not hear me? I will NOT have those two harlots in my house!” Ann said, unintentionally raising her voice.

“You’re jealous of your own daughter and granddaughter, Ann. You may as well be holding up a sign!”

“Of course I am! I’m your wife and you’re not supposed to be looking at anyone except me!” Ann was indignant that Brian could even say such a thing.

“Think about this, Ann. I’ve committed us to this and the only thing remaining is to finalize the rules. If you don’t like it, you are free to spend all your time except for meals in the guest bedroom. I plan to have Amanda and Emily earn their keep by doing housework, so your burden is removed and if I have to take a month’s leave from work because you won’t help, it’ll hurt us financially, but I WILL do it.”

Brian knew Ann’s arguments for why she was a jealous woman, forward and backward. She’d so often accused him of looking at a pretty girl in the supermarket, that he’d become immune to her outbursts. Her real problem was that she felt inferior and jealousy was her go-to emotion.

“We can’t afford for you to have that much time off!” Ann gasped, horrified by the suggestion. “We’ve got my ghost hunting course fees to pay at the end of the month and that’s a thousand dollars! How would we cover it?”

“As I said, you should be thinking about this, Ann. I’ve made a commitment. If Amanda and Emily agree to the terms of my commitment, they ARE coming to OUR house. You can either support my commitment or move into the guest bedroom so you don’t have to interact with them. I’d PREFER for you to support me and help them adjust to a lifestyle that’s completely new to them but I guess I won’t rely on you. That’s a shame too. You’ve always been my rock until lately. I simply don’t know anymore.”

Ann heard what Brian said as a challenge for her to make Amanda choose to decline Brian’s offer. If being nude wasn’t enough to make her wayward daughter see reason, then Ann would just have to make it impossible for Amanda to agree. Whatever rules they’d come up with at Starbucks, Ann would simply have to make them seem like they were too easy to follow to be of any value, so that she could suggest outlandish rules Amanda would never agree to.

Maybe Ann could do what Amanda was an expert at? Scam her! But that didn’t help much with Brian right now. If he was looking at other women, she knew she had to do something. Maybe she could redirect Brian’s lust away from the younger sluts by offering to take their place? That would work, she knew it. Could she, though? She asked herself. Yes. She certainly could. But first, she had to deal with the competition.

She’d have to make Amanda think that her and Brian’s home life was nothing like it used to be when Amanda lived there last. It was her only hope of saving her marriage to Brian. She didn’t need to be a rocket scientist to know that. That he no longer thought of her as his rock was like a klaxon blaring in her ears. Brian NEEDED to need her as much as she relied on him. He’d just been getting too independent in the last few months, is all. She just had to make him see that - and see that he couldn’t live without her. And make him see that it was a waste of his time to have a couple of no good, lying cunts under his roof, too. Even pretty, naked cunts who made her feel so old and dowdy.

“They’re going to rob us blind and a whole lot of good, later telling you that I told you so, is going to do,” Ann predicted, shaking her head. “Since you won’t listen to reason, at least tell me what some of the rules you three dreamed up at Starbucks, are,” Ann demanded, thinking she could at least expose the rules as subtle manipulations by Amanda, the master manipulator herself.

“Emily’s still working on a hard copy. She’ll be in with them when she’s in,” Brian assured his wife.

“Is Amanda helping her or did she slink off somewhere else to make mischief?” Ann asked, a heavy note of disgust in her voice.

“Amanda is practicing what I call the, Ready Position, right outside the front door. I got the idea from that yoga video you absolutely had to have a few years ago, then never followed through with,” Brian gently chided Ann.

Ann spun around and saw Amanda out the window, naked on all fours, looking straight ahead at something Ann couldn’t see. “She looks ridiculous out there! And I see she’s naked again. Someone might see. Is that REALLY necessary?”

“She hasn’t even learned the waterslide position yet, although I can’t really call it that. Yes, it most certainly IS necessary. She’s learning patience, teamwork and humility. She’d learn nothing if she just sat on the couch eating bon-bons.” Brian asserted.

Ann was angry that Amanda, not even in the room with them, was capturing at least some of Brian’s attention. Even while talking with her, he’d been spying on her nude daughter! She was glad Amanda hadn’t heard Brian tell her that if she wouldn’t put up with either Amanda or Emily in the house, she was welcome to move into the spare room - Ann would have been mortified. But this tension between her and Brian was all Amanda’s fault too! How dare Amanda be causing so much trouble just by virtue of being there? She had one last chance to guilt Brian into stopping this madness before she had to resort to her last ditch effort to rid herself of Amanda again.

That thought brought her up short. Did she really want to rid herself of her own daughter and granddaughter? No. She just wanted Amanda and Emily to abide by HER rules. To be polite, respectful and honorable, not trashy whores who’s only interest in anyone else was in how much they were worth to the pair. Maybe just asking Brian would be enough?

Ann sat back and looked at Brian again, as if defeated. “Be honest, Brian. Why are you doing this? It’s either that you really want to help them or you just want to humiliate them after everything they’ve done. They certainly deserve the humiliation but you can’t fix what’s broken with them. I couldn’t, so no one can. If that’s the reason, just give it up. If you can’t be honest about your own motives, how are you going to teach those two to be honest either?” Ann argued.

“Ann, have you ever stripped, spanked and explained what Amanda was being punished for? Have you ever taken the time to understand them? Have you ever given Amanda real support and a real opportunity to fix what she already knows is wrong with her?” Brian asked

“You know...” Ann began but Brian cut her off.

“I’ll answer those questions for you and the answer is, no. You’ve always just expected them to understand why whatever they did was wrong and you actually enabled them to keep doing it,” Brian suggested.

“Any NORMAL person WOULD understand right from wrong!” Ann defended herself.

“You expected them to be sorry when you lectured them and for them to learn from their mistakes. That model will never work with either of them. This idea is new and actually has a chance of succeeding, Brian insisted then thought of an example. “Would Amanda be on the porch holding a position of YOUR choosing because you told her to? No, she certainly would not be. Your way doesn’t work, Ann. This way has a chance,” Brian insisted, wondering if Amanda had just shaken her tits or if the jerky motion was due to a fly or something.

“You really think so? No matter what rules you came up with at Starbucks, I doubt a single one of them will force a change on those two ... cunts,” Ann replied, although she added the last word in her head.

“Amanda has years of poor decision making and poor choices to atone for. This is merely an opportunity for her to begin all over again,” Brian assured his wife. “Wait until Emily comes in with the rules. We’ll all sit and discuss them, okay?” Brian offered the carrot to his wife.

“Well I just know your big plan won’t work, Brian. You’re too soft. And you didn’t answer my question anyway. WHY are you doing this?” Ann pressed, refusing to be sidetracked by Brian.

“Amanda is family. Emily is family. Before I met them, I had no family. For nearly 20 years, I’ve lived by YOUR rules and I’ve seen Amanda and Emily ignoring your rules without consequence. For the most part, I’ve watched Amanda use the skills she picked up while growing up under your roof, to ruin countless lives. Today I was gifted an opportunity to try something with MY rules - with or without your support.” Brian admitted.

“It was NEVER just MY rules, Brian. It’s always been OUR rules,” Ann corrected him

“No, Ann. I have acquiesced to your way for 20 years, just to keep the peace. Today I’d had enough. Your daughter is the product of her upbringing and as much as you don’t want to hear this, you need to. I will NOT BE stopping. I WILL keep my word and if you aren’t with me on this, then I’ll just have to do it without your input. Of course you could walk. I don’t want you to, but I’m giving you the option. What’s more important to you?” Brian suggested then asked quietly.

Yes, Brian said to himself. That really is what Amanda calls wiggling her tits. She looks more like a dog drying itself now, he smiled as she began to shake her butt too. Brian suddenly understood why Amanda was trying to get his attention. Brian now saw that a naked Emily was furtively creeping towards her.

“That’s what I was SAYING, Brian!” Ann hissed, seemingly ignoring Brian’s threat but addressing it at the same time as she hurried to change tack yet again. “I need to see the rules because I don’t think they’ll be stringent enough!” She said in a whiny, begging voice.

A hard, urgent banging at the door stopped further discussion abruptly. Brian knew it was only Emily, outside unhappily naked but with the paper he’d made her rewrite. Amanda had turned around, but was still kneeling.

Ann harrumphed like only Ann could. “Sounds like the Sheriff has arrived to arrest Amanda or Emily, or maybe both. They’re going to have a field day when they see that cunt, naked!” Ann proficided. After a couple of seconds, she added,” Are you going to answer that, Brian or are you suddenly having second thoughts about making Amanda wait outside naked, now that the consequence to your own silly game seem to be knocking?” She asked, a malicious smile creasing her features.

“Why should I answer the door? For one, you have perfectly good legs that will carry you from here to there, and secondly...” Brian was interrupted by an urgent banging again that caused Dunk to run out of the kitchen, worry written all over his face.

“Is that the law? We haven’t done anything this time!” Dunk complained.

“It’s okay, Dunk. It’s Emily. I told her she had a job to do before she could come in.” Brian assured Duncan, who instantly calmed down.

“Shit, that knock rattled the fucking house!” Duncan claimed, but with a laugh this time even as he began to cross the room to the front door.

Brian had wanted Ann to answer the door but he was too slow to stop Duncan from reaching it and pulling it open.

As soon as the door was cracked, Emily burst in, almost knocking Dunk off his feet in her hurry. She didn’t even apologize, as if it was him at fault for being in her way.

“Here you are, Sir,” Emily said, stopping in front of Brian’s seat and holding out her hand with a sheet of paper in it. Ann snatched the paper and began to scan it before Brian could stop her, either.

“You! Kneel!” Brian spoke sharply to Emily while pointing at her, anger obvious. “As for you, Ann. Emily didn’t offer YOU that sheet and it was the height of rudeness to snatch it like that! You’re showing exactly the same sort of behavior that you condemn in them! Now give it back to her!” Brian demanded.

Ann blushed. Ann, who considered herself a paragon of virtue, a church-going Christian and model of self discipline and control, couldn’t help herself. She blushed, both from what she’d already seen on the page, but equally as much from Brian’s admonition. Once again she felt that tingle in her own nether region, her own ‘privates’, as she called them, while she submissively handed back the sheet to Emily who looked at her wide eyed.

Once Emily was once again in possession of the paper, Brian addressed her. “We were in this living room, maybe 8 feet from the door. Your mom was right outside and yet Dunk came running from the kitchen to see what was going on. He thought someone was trying to batter down his door, Emily!” Brian berated the teen.

“Ah, Sir? YOU try being nekked outside and see if you don’t want to get your ass inside as quick as you can!” Emily defended herself.

“You hit my funny bone with the door,” Duncan complained, still rubbing his elbow even as he motioned Amanda inside so he could shut the front door.

“So you’re saying that being outside naked made it okay to injure someone?” Brian asked Emily.

“No, I mean it’s not MY fault uncle D was in the way, Sir!” Emily tried.

“Yes, actually it WAS your fault. Hammering on the door like you were the law raiding the place, was entirely your fault. You could have knocked politely. You could have scratched at the door like the animal you are! Yet you hammered. You didn’t even check with your mom, Emily. Then you didn’t await an invitation to enter. Then you didn’t wait inside the door for permission to come over to me and present your paper. Then you allowed someone else to snatch that paper out of your hands,” Brian said, glancing at Ann to ensure she appreciated the gravity of what she had just done, too.

“Hey, I didn’t know! Those rules aren’t ON the paper! You said we have to do the rules that were on the paper and those WEREN’T, Sir!” Emily argued.

“So because rules relating to human decency aren’t on the paper, they can be ignored? Is that what you really think? You might not have much of a life, Emily but the rest of us do. I am simply not going to spend a month sitting on this couch adding every single life rule to a list that will turn first into a book and then into an encyclopedia. There are simple right and wrong things that you need to learn and I will ensure you learn them without having to refer to a book first. Understand?”

“Okay, I get it. But grams snatched that paper off me. THAT wasn’t MY fault. What does SHE get for doing that?” Emily demanded, trying to deflect the attention off herself and back onto Ann.

“It’s none of your business, what she gets, Emily. We’re talking about YOU now. YOU’RE the one who’s beginning the Tough Love. You should be focusing on what YOU need to do, not what your grandmother needs.” Brian assured the teen.

“I’m not going to send you outside to practice patience, Emily. I know I should, however your betters are preparing lunch,” Brian said, glancing at Duncan who shrugged and turned back towards the kitchen, still rubbing his elbow.

When Duncan had left the room, Brian once again focused on Emily. “You were wrong to do what you did. Do you understand that?”

“If’n you say so, Sir,” Emily put on a country girl accent that she couldn’t hold back the grin from.

“Then what did you do wrong?” Brian asked bluntly, which caused Emily to roll her eyes before responding.

“I didn’t scratch at the door like an effing dog, Sir. I didn’t wait like that effing dog to be let in then I didn’t effing wait to be granted an audience with your esteemed self, Sir,” Emily listed off, just reflecting back what she’d already been accused of, but managing to make it sound like Brian was totally in the wrong for demanding such trivial things.

“And you didn’t effing apologize for hurting Dunk either, you ungrateful little cunt!” Brian stormed, truly pissed off at the girl and making her draw back an inch at his ferocity. “As for you, Amanda, you’re supposed to be on team Emily and instead of stopping her, you just went ahead and let her step in shit up to her eyebrows.”

“Team Emily? I kinda like the sound of that,” Emily replied, before adding, “Okay, that was bad too, Sir. Won’t happen again, okay?” She admitted.

“I did try to get your attention daddy,” Amanda quietly replied, somehow managing to keep the accusation that it was partly Brian’s fault too, out of her voice. Brian admitted to himself that she had a point.

“Hey, lunch is ready, y’all!” Dalia said, appearing in the kitchen doorway. “We only have four dining chairs, so we’ll eat on our laps. You guys can take the table if you want?”

Brian told Emily that she was to reflect on this and that before they entered his home, she’d be getting another spanking right on the driveway even if the neighbor was watering his grass again.

“I don’t have a driveway, Sir, so you cain’t spank it, but mom’s sure been ridden hard? I know there’s a joke in there somewhere,” Emily smirked at her mom before adding, “So maybe she should volunteer for a tune up instead,” she laughed at the confused looks she was getting.

Brian wasn’t impressed with Emily’s flippant behaviour but hoped she’d begin taking things more seriously after her third round of spankings in one day. Brian kept his promises and by the time they reached home, he was sure Emily would have forgotten his promise. It’d prove to be a nice wakeup call for her, he decided.

Instead of responding to Emily’s silly question, he switched his attention to Dalia and his expression softened almost immediately. “Thanks’s Dal. Would it be okay to bring the food in here? These two don’t deserve to sit at a table and they won’t be eating until they’re given permission anyway. I thought we could all go over the rules? I really value your input.” Brian asked.

“Um, you sure? It’s really got nothing to do with us,” she admitted, in a way seeming to be trying to distance herself from things again.

“Yes, I’m certain. Jason too, of course, if you’re still okay with that.” Brian assured the nervous woman.

Even as Brian was asking permission for Jason, he was coming out of his parent’s bedroom. “Mom?” he asked.

“Ah, okaaayyy. Dalia hesitantly replied.

Lunch was fajitas - sort of. Brian moved Emily to a position parallel to her mom and in the same ready position her mom was holding, this time inside the house. Emily giggled a little at the absurdity of it but complied. Then Dalia was back with a tray containing paper plates and the food. Other than Amanda and Emily, everyone grabbed some and found a seat.

Brian had never had something quite like what Dalia called a fajita though. It was fried white bread with refried beans and cheese and some sort of white sauce wrapped inside. Because Dalia was a vegetarian, they didn’t even get chicken or beef, but Brian thought the cheese was an interesting addition. He’d thought that vegans wouldn’t eat cheese either.

Ann hardly touched hers while Dalia, Dunk and Jason devoured theirs. Brian didn’t care what was on offer. He was always interested in trying something new but when he encountered the cheese, he did ask Dalia about it. She explained the difference between being a vegetarian and being a vegan. She considered vegans to be pompous assholes - not her exact words, but close.