Keely wanted something.

Rick hid his grin as she sparkled her blue eyes at him and perched herself on his knee. At five foot four and a solid build of 116 pounds, all muscle, Keely still felt only like a feather on his knee. She cocked her head and let her warm brown hair fall into her eyes to disguise her nervousness.

When she bit her lip and started to remove his tie, he finally let out a chuckle. "What is it, Keely?"

She shyly glanced towards the floor, and her tanned face blushed.

He grinned. "How is it that someone who will skydive from insane heights, kayak down dangerous rivers, and bungee jump without batting an eyelash, can be so shy about asking for anything that has to do with sex?"

Keely's lips parted in surprise. "How'd you know?" Before he could answer, she said, "It's not exactly that."

"No?" he asked suspiciously, raising an eyebrow at his little adventurer. "My little wildcat isn't going to ask about diving with sharks again, is she?"

Keely braced at his stern tone and shrugged. "You gotta die sometime."

He felt his temper rise at the phrase she too often spoke for his taste. "Not on my watch, wife."

She stuck her tongue out at him. "But that's not it. I want you to..." She shook her head and took a deep breath. Then she leaned in close to his ear, her hair tickling his chin. "...spank me," she whispered.

"Spank you?!"

She pulled back and looked around self-consciously at his loud tone, as if someone could overhear their conversation in the privacy of their living room.

He narrowed his eyes at her. "Have you done something wrong?"

She shook her head, her eyes crinkling up in little wrinkles at the corners. She braced a hand against his chest and toyed with her straight, soft hair with the other hand, like she was trying to curl it with her finger. Her short, sassy cut wasn't made for curling--more for teasing.

"You want a little bottom-warming in foreplay?" He put his hands around her little waist and pulled her towards him. Keely had lost the ability to surprise him as soon as he accepted the fact that everything she said or did would not be what he expected.

"Yes," she smiled, and then shook her head. "No."

Rick threw his head back and laughed. "Which is it, wildcat?"

"Both."

He saw the concern and even the fear in her eyes. "What's going on, sweetling?"

The phone rang, and Keely, who usually ignored its ring, jumped up so fast that Rick didn't even have a chance to grab her hand. "Stop right there," he commanded with a sharp edge to his voice that usually made her listen.

She slowly turned back to him, staring at the floor as the phone rang on and finally stopped as the voice mail picked it up. Gentling his voice, Rick beckoned to his lap. "Come back and talk to me."

"It's nothing, never mind." At his skeptical look, she added, "just another one of my crazy adventures."

"Keely." He sighed. "If it's nothing, why are tears filling up your eyes?"

"They're not!" But they were.

"Come here."

She came to him obediently but pouted about it. "I'm not a child, I'm an adult."

"Who wants me to spank her like a child." Rick wrapped an arm around her waist to keep her safely on his lap. "And you've always got one foot in danger. You need someone to pull you out of trouble."

He squeezed her in an overprotective hug, an urge he had to quell too often in her adventurous lifestyle. "What kind of spanking do you want?"

"I don't want one." She stared forlornly out the window at the thunderstorm, wishing she could be outside kayaking instead of inside talking to her husband about embarrassing subjects. "I mean, maybe a little one, for foreplay."

She practically choked on the word and Rick chuckled. "That's it?"

"Yes." Her blue eyes watered again. "No."

"You want one when you cross the line?" Though she was a wild spirit, Rick held her safely in check as much as he could. She'd needed and craved that security as much as she needed adrenalin-pumping adventure to feel alive.

He'd established early on in their relationship that behavior he disapproved of came with consequences: sometimes he'd cancel an excursion out, or lecture her until she was reduced to tears, or--in the worst cases--give her the silent treatment.

She'd responded well to their order of things, even though she pushed against the boundaries often enough to exasperate him at times. It didn't surprise him that she wanted to add spanking to the mix. She'd been attracted to his solid strength--she called it hard-headed stubbornness--in the first place. Where Keely embraced adventures with a wild and free spirit, Rick considered them a tool in self-mastery. Though they enjoyed the same pursuits, they were definitely a case of opposites attract.

"Keely, are you saying you want a spanking when you misbehave?"

Keely pertly stuck her chin in the air. "I don't misbehave."

Rick laughed. "Oh yes, you do. What do you call sneaking out in the middle of the night to go kayaking alone?"

She pointed her finger at his chest. "That is not misbehaving. I merely felt like kayaking under the full moon, and I didn't want to wake you."

Rick sighed in exasperation and gently pulled at her hair. "You know better than to kayak alone."

"Kayaking alone on a small, calm lake hardly compares to the dangers of Class IV rapids."

He was quiet, so she thought she'd won, and they were enjoying a companionable silence. But she felt his strong hand cupping her chin and forcing her to look into his dark brown eyes.

"You're right, but that's not the point. I want to be able to trust you."

Keely pulled back in shock. "You can."

"I can't. You have no qualms about lying to me if you think your lie will make me happier than your truth."

She couldn't say anything to that.

"I think spanking is a good idea. You need discipline in your life. Goodness knows, you didn't have enough of it growing up."

Suddenly it didn't seem like such a good idea to Keely. "Well, I turned out just fine."

Rick watched her naturally childlike red lips pout and couldn't help but agree. With her high cheekbones and strong, pert jaw, she had turned out mighty fine, in both body and spirit. "You've turned out to be the cutest--" at her frown, he added "--sexiest girl--" at another reproving look, he chuckled "--woman I know.

She relented and absorbed the compliment enthusiastically. Rick had never known anyone to love compliments so much, but Keely lived for them.

Knowing and enjoying the fact that it would rile her a little, he teased, "I think it's a great idea. I can think of more than a time or two that I've wanted to turn you over my knee and give you a good seeing to."

He'd expected her to get her back up, but instead she blushed and squirmed a little. He decided to dig a little deeper. "Can you?"

She glanced up quickly at the question. "Can I what?"

"Think of a time when you deserved a good old-fashioned spanking?"

She shrugged.

"Keely, if we're to do this, then I need to know which behaviors you think warrant a spanking. If you thought things were perfect, you wouldn't ask for this change."

He could tell she'd rather eat dirt than talk about it. She gazed out the window in desperation, and Rick knew she was itching to go outside. Keely had never learned that after about age twelve or thirteen, one doesn't ask if 'you wanna go outside and play?' At twenty-eight, she still asked him that question on nearly a daily basis.

She took a deep, slightly shaky breath, but once she spoke she talked in fast, direct sentences. "I don't mean to fight you all the time. I know I don't act like it, but it's okay if you don't always let me win."

A lick of anger rose in him. "You don't stop. You won't back down, and you have an answer for everything. What do you expect me to do, debate with you until I'm tired and hungry and blue in the face?" The bitterness that crept into his voice surprised Keely--and even Rick himself.

She dissipated his anger with a coy challenge. "Are you saying you're not man enough for me?"

Rick tapped her nose affectionately. "I'm saying that a cat--especially a wildcat--is almost impossible to train."

She pouted, but by the glimmer in her eyes Rick knew she wasn't really hurt. "'Almost impossible' is still not impossible." Keely's blue eyes sparkled with her dare. "You man enough for the challenge?"

Rick sighed, knowing that he'd grant almost anything Keely wanted, even this. "Only a few conditions, sweetling."

She raised her eyebrows.