Rescuing Regina Read Free

felt numb. Cole Townsend had spanked me. I still couldn’t believe it.
    My burning ass told me to believe it.
    “Now we’re going to get back in the car. We’re going to settle this mess tonight, one way or another.” He pulled up my panties and helped me up. How could hands that caused so much pain be so gentle?
    I went to pull up my jeans, and he caught my arm.
    “Leave them down.” His voice cracked like a shot.
    My face heated despite the cool night air. We were on a private road, surrounded by a pine forest, but the humiliation still stung. I tottered back to the car, jeans around my knees. My disciplinarian brought up the rear. He helped me into the car, and paused. I blinked up at him. I must have had a frightened look on my face, because he gently brushed my hair back.
    “You’re going to be okay,” he said.
    I shifted on the seat and whimpered.
    “Let’s get you home.”
     

Chapter Two
     
    I spent the car ride squirming on my hot bottom, wondering what the heck had just happened. Once again, I’d gotten in trouble. Once again, Cole came to my rescue.
    He’d spanked me, but I couldn’t think about that. I couldn’t get my pot-addled brain around it at all.
    A part of me knew I deserved it.
    Cole stayed silent, letting me stew in my thoughts as his car rolled through the night. I pressed my forehead against the cold glass and closed my eyes.
    Ever since I came to our little town, I’d been trying to escape. My parents moved here for my dad’s factory job, a job he would lose anyway when he started drinking again. I was six and the most jaded kid ever. For some reason, our new neighbor took it upon herself to drag me to Sunday School.
    The lesson was on Noah’s ark. One of the students, a little blonde girl my age, asked the teacher what the animals ate all those months on the boat.
    “Probably bunnies,” I said loudly. “They have lots of babies. Because they’re always screwing.”
    The teacher blustered for a moment. “Cole,” she called to an older boy, sitting up very straight, wearing a perfectly pressed suit. “Will you sit by Regina and help her get settled in? She just moved here.”
    The blond boy nodded, polite and stern even though he couldn’t be more than twelve. He came and sat beside me, and I tried not to look too pleased. The little girl who had asked the question shot daggers at me with her eyes. I stuck my tongue out at her and cozied up to my handsome new babysitter.
    “Hello, I’m Cole,” he said. “Welcome to Licking Hole.”
    I sniggered. “Do you know what that means?”
    “Yes.” He fixed me with a level stare. “Do you?”
    I took a moment to study him. At twelve, Cole was already a dreamboat. He was clean and serious, without a spot of dirt on him. I was wearing a little dress with no tights. The skirt had a tear in the corner and had dirt stains from when I’d shut it in the car door. I was gross and disheveled, and desperate to impress this older boy. When I had announced where I was moving, the big kids at the trailer park had told me exactly what the name of my town could mean. I didn’t quite believe them, but if it would help me make an impression on this good-looking young man, I was willing to spill the beans.
    “I do,” I said. “I bet you don’t.”
    “A licking hole is where hunters put salt to attract deer, so they can shoot them. That’s what it means.”
    “No, it doesn’t,” I sneered. “It’s when someone puts their tongue—”
    “Regina?” The teacher cut in brightly, oblivious to my and Cole’s conversation. “Do you want to tell the class where you live?”
    “No,” I said, but caved after encouragement. “Shady Park.”
    “That’s a trailer park,” the girl with blonde curls giggled.
    My cheeks went hot.
    “That’s right, Lucy,” the teacher said, oblivious to the classism going on. Lucy waited until the teacher turned her back before sticking her tongue out at me.
    I waited until we were in line to go up to