Life Match

Day Two

I don't make it the car ride back. I fall asleep on the way back. When I wake up, I see Riah carrying me up the steps to our room.

"Sshhh!" He says, "It's alright."

Too tired to argue, I close my eyes and drift back to sleep.

When I wake up it takes me a moment to remember where I am, and why.

I'm married to Azariah Daniels. I remind myself. I sit up and throw my legs over the edge of the bed. I'm wearing cotton shorts and a v- neck. Both of which are blue and definitely not what I was wearing last night. I look at Riah, who is topless. He looks kind of adorable asleep, but then again, I'm sure that grizzly bears do too. He opens one of his eyes.

"Am I in heaven? Cause I'm looking at an angel," He yawns and sits up, stretching, revealing just how toned to perfection he is.

I glare at him, "No, you're in hell, because I'm about to give you some for looking at my naked body while I was unconscious. I don't care if we're married. I don't know you, trust you, or like you."

He grabs my arm, "Well I like you, and as my wife, you are to do as I say, or else. And considering that you are already in trouble, I'd be nicer to me."

I hit him and he lets me go, "Screw you. We won't be officially married until the week is up and I don't have to do a thing for you."

He glares at me with those green eyes of his and I glare back with my icy blue ones.

"That's it," He gets up and digs in his nightstand. He pulls something shiny from it and quickly grabs me, slapping one cuff around my wrist and the other around the bedpost. He closes the door, which I'm assuming is soundproof, and goes to the closet.

"Seeing that you've disrespected me about ten times since we were announced as matched, I'll do six for each infraction. That totals sixty," He pulls out a paddle and returns to me, pulling down my shorts in one swift motion. It is apparent that he did not get me any underwear when he was dressing me last night.

"I'll give you one last chance to apologize, and I won't use the paddle," Riah says, rubbing it over my ass.

Even though I'm terrified, I shake my head. In my mind, if I give in now, he will boss me around the entirety of our marriage. The first hit hits me with enough force to knock me forward slightly. I cry out in surprise at how much that hurt.

"Count them," Riah orders. There's another hit.

"One!" I cry out. Another hit, this one almost causes me to fall over. "Two!"

By the time we get to twenty, I'm crying my eyes out.

"Forty more to go," Riah teases. I have a brief flashback of us as second graders and him lying on me for throwing food on him. In reality, he'd dumped it on himself after I'd refused to go to his birthday party. I got a paddling for it, and I remember Riah standing in the corner, watching me, enjoying it even.

"Please, stop!" I sob, "I can't do forty more. You're hurting me."

He doesn't even flinch. Instead, I'm rewarded with five consecutive hits. I slide onto the ground. I don't have the strength to stand back up. Riah sits next to me and holds my head in his hands. He looks me in the eyes, and for a moment I can see a flicker of the playground bully who's tormented me for years. But I also see the man he's trying to become, one he thinks I will want to love and give my heart to.

He contemplates for a moment, then unlocks the cuff from me, but leaves the one attached to the bed there.

He sighs, "If you're good today, I'll wipe the slate clean. But if you aren't good to me, or disrespect me again, I will not hesitate to bring you back in here and give you a proper punishment that you deserve."