Leyla was dancing on the couch of her new flat, singing along at full volume to the music as she shook her tail enthusiastically. Once or twice, she even came close to hitting the right note. Suddenly, she became aware that someone was knocking at the door. She opened it to find a tall, middle-aged man with a grumpy look on his face.
"You're Leyla, right?" he said, speaking loudly to be heard over the music. "I'm Dwayne. I live below you." His voice was surprisingly deep.
The student smiled. "Nice to meet you, Dwayne. How can I help you?" she said brightly.
"You can turn that music down," he responded calmly.
Leyla stared at him. "Hey! I don't turn my music down for ANYONE, mister!"
"It's late, and I have work tomorrow," he said with a sigh, his voice revealing how tired he was. "Is this your first time living in a flat, with neighbours above and below you?"
Before starting college, Leyla had been living in her parents' farmhouse – where the closest neighbours were hundreds of yards away. However, she had no intention of admitting that to a man who'd just shown up at her door. "I'm not turning the music down," she said, folding her arms in front of her chest.
"You need to learn respect for others, young lady," the man scolded as he pushed past her, finding the volume control on her stereo and turning it down.
Leyla gaped at him, wondering what offended her more – that he would lay a hand on her stereo, or that he'd call her "young lady" like she was some misbehaving child. She was twenty-two! "Y-you ca-can't…" She discovered that right now, she was too indignant for words.
She reached for the volume control to turn it back up, but he grabbed her wrist. His hand felt like steel. "Young lady, I have half a mind to put you across my knee and tan your backside," he growled. "I suggest you don't provoke me any further."
Leyla stared open-mouthed at him. Had he just threatened to spank her? Had she suddenly ended up in the eighteenth century? As she looked at him, she became acutely aware of the fact that the stern-looking man was more than a foot taller than her, and probably twice her weight or thereabouts. She suspected that if he wanted to take her over his lap, he could easily do it.
A spanking! Her mouth was dry, and her heart was trying to beat its way through her chest as she pictured herself bent across his knee with her bottom in the air. He wouldn't actually do it, would he? These days, you didn't spank women you'd just met. As a blush spread across her cheeks, part of her wanted to apologize to him, another part wanted to give him attitude and see what he would do, and the rest of her wanted to run and hide in the bathroom.
Before she'd made her mind up, he'd left her flat, closing the door quietly behind him.
Leyla spent some time sitting on the couch, his words replaying in her mind repeatedly as she pictured his bearded face glaring down at her. There was fascinating about her big, stern, scary neighbour, and she wondered what it would feel like to be punished by him…
