Federal Discipline Read Online Free PDF Page A

even more confusing. He wasn't mad. He wasn't anything. He was just... him.
    “Don't do that ever again,” she said, her voice escaping her constricted throat in a way that made her sound high pitched and squeaky.
    “Don't make it necessary, and I won't.”
    “That wasn't necessary.”
    “You told me I was all talk. You were proved wrong. Now do you want to do some work, or do you want to argue with me until I spank your bottom again?”
    Jamie opened her mouth, then shut it again. In all her days she'd never met such an arrogant, insufferable... bastard of a man.
    “Threatening me with assault if I dare question you is not going to work,” she said. “I'm going to report you.”
    “You feel assaulted?”
    Jamie met his eyes for a moment, that was all she could bear. There was something about the way he looked at her, the warm gravel of his voice that soothed her very agitated feelings. She didn't feel assaulted. It wasn't violence that was making her angry. It was the feeling, no, the knowledge that she'd been taken to task with devastating effect.
    “Jamie,” he said, using her first name instead of 'agent'. “I'm not trying to hurt you. But you, Missy, tested me. And you found out what happens when you test me, didn't you?”
    That was a question she could not bring herself to answer. She mumbled something, stared at the floor and wished she could just drop right through it. This, this was almost worse than the spanking. The talking to. The slightly disappointed tone. And the admission of guilt, which he was asking her to make.
    She couldn't have felt more on the spot if she were being questioned. As the silence stretched on for painful seconds, she began to wring her hands and squirm her toes inward.
    “Yeah, okay,” she finally mumbled. “Can we go now?”
    “Watch the tone, or I'll send you to the corner.”
    Jamie looked up, her mouth opening in an 'O' of disappointment and shock. He couldn't possibly be serious. But he probably was. Jack Harley clearly didn't operate the same way other case agents operated. And he clearly didn't care if she did report him. Reporting him would probably just play into his plan to get her reassigned.
    She was about to say something to that effect, but Jack had evidently tired of her stammering. He walked out the door, leaving her to trail after him like a recalcitrant puppy.
     
     

Chapter Three
     
    By the time they got out to Jack's car, Jamie was eager to reclaim a little of her dignity. Maybe she had been testing him with the spanking thing, but the fact remained she'd had no trouble doing the work he'd asked her to do. And she hadn't just been a general dogsbody. She'd had real insight.
    Was he going to acknowledge how well she'd done? Even a little bit?
    It seemed not, as he put the car in gear and started to move off. She couldn't stand it any longer. Even though it had only been about a minute since they started driving, she couldn't stand another second of his silent refusal to acknowledge her good work.
    “So are we going to stop pretending as if I can't do this job?”
    He pulled the car back over and fixed Jamie with a hard scowl.
    She ignored it blithely. “Are we stopping for donuts?”
    “Listen,” Jack said. “So you dealt with a corpse okay. Great. But this job isn't just about dealing with corpses...”
    “...or about files, or about qualifications, or about anything,” Jamie snapped. “You're never going to be satisfied, are you? It wouldn't matter what I did. My crotch disqualifies me.”
    “Listen, my girl...”
    “I'm not a girl. I'm definitely not your girl,” Jamie corrected him, interrupting again. She was done with trying to convince him. Clearly he was done with her. Well, if that was the case, he was going to hear about it before he got rid of her. “You're a misogynistic pig. You took one look at me and decided that I wasn't good enough. Well, I've got news for you, mister, I'm more than good enough. And I'll be good enough with