"I'm going to fall off!"
"Ye aren't going to fall off." Mitch smiled patiently, his hands around her waist.
Carly looked over her shoulder, up and down the beach, "I'm going back inside!"
"No yer not."
"Yes, I am!"
He cleared his throat, "And I quote, directly from the text of the note... "Good fer One (1) day spent doing anythin' you wish.""
"Yes, a DAY, not the middle of the night in the hammock!"
"Well, darlin' on this planet, a day is twenty-four hours and since tis my gift, I say the twenty-four hours started at exactly," Mitch looked at the illuminated dial on his watch, "12:07 AM, that's seven minutes ago by my watch. Twenty-three hours and forty-three minutes to go and yer already givin' me lip. Now, unbutton that nightshirt, s-l-o-w-l-y."
"Oh my freaking hell, no. What would your mother say?"
"You mean ye've not even given the thing a proper christening yet? Son, I raised ye better than that." Mitch squeaked out in falsetto.
Carly shook her head and managed to sound offended.
"I can see the smile, right there, here it comes."
Carly pressed her lips tightly together in mutiny, jerking as his hands tickled across her ribs. "Stop!"
Mitch slid his arms around her back and pulled her down to his chest, working his knee between hers until she straddled his hips and finally lay slumped on his chest. He flipped a thin blanket over her bare legs and set the hammock to a gentle rocking with a light shove off the tree.
"What's wrong darlin'?"
Carly rubbed her cheek on his chest, "Why aren't we in Scotland?"
"Have ye any idea how cold it is in Scotland in December?"
"I thought you'd want to be with your family."
"I am with my family."
"You know what I mean."
"Do ye have any idea how cold Scotland is in December, darlin'?"
Carly laughed, "Yes, I have some idea, I think."
Mitch sighed and shifted under her, "I'm tired of other people, girl. I am tired of having dinners to stroke egos and agreeing with studio heads because otherwise I do not get to do what I love. I'm tired of coming home after you're asleep and sitting out on the deck until I can unwind and go to bed."
Carly kissed his chin, "I didn't know you sat out on the deck."
"I could light M-80's on the deck and you wouldn't know it. You sleep like a bear in hibernation."
"Don't be jealous, it's not my fault I don't have a prostate that won't let me sleep for more than three hours."
Mitch pulled her shirt up and slapped her silk covered bottom.
"Ouch! Oh baby, do it again," she sassed, wiggling against him.
"Brat."
She giggled at his neck, rubbing her still stinging bum. "Damn it, that really hurt! Was that on your list of things to do today?"
"No, that was just a warm up, you know, before you really spank someone you have to warm up the area." He smiled in the moonlight, listening to the wheels turning in her brain.
"Hm, my mom never did that," she finally replied.
"No?"
"Nope, just sent us out to get our own stick."
