AN: I dont even know. You should still review, though.
Oh, and special thanks to Science-Fantasy93 for helping me decide to post this.
He doesn't know what makes him say it. Oh, he knows why he's frustrated, she's been a brat lately. Well, fine, not so much a brat as a teenager who is just as snarky and challenging as she's always been, but now has things to do like 'date' and 'socialize' and 'not hang out with James', only now she doesn't, because she's grounded. She's grounded and her mom had to go somewhere (it's possible that he was not listening) and asked him to watch her for the weekend (because Kendall's on vacation with Jo and she'd chew Logan up and spit him out and Carlos is not allowed to be in charge of anything, ever) and it is the first time he's been alone with her in months and she would rather go to a party than stay here and break the rules with him.
So, yes, he knows what's upsetting him, even if he doesn't really know why it's upsetting him, but he honestly has no idea how he got from frustrated and upset to
"Katie, you're not going to escape this time, okay? And if you keep being such a brat about it I will pull you over my knee and spank you, because you are seriously starting to piss me off."
but there are a whole host of reasons why he should not have.
Reason #1: She's sixteen. There is no situation or relation that makes threatening to spank a sixteen year old girl not-weird.
Reason #2: Even when she was younger his threatening to spank her would never be not-weird. He's unrelated and not that much older and if there aren't laws about that, there totally should be.
Reason #3: It's utter bullshit. He has no right and no desire to hurt her (understatement), or overpower her (and he'd damn well have to if he didn't want to get his ass kicked), or humiliate her, and any sort of spanking scenario that involved him and her and none of those other things would be something else entirely (and there are definitely laws about that.)
Reason# 4: There's a split second, before her face settles in to that familiar 'bitch, please' expression where she looks like she'd be very much open to exploring something else entirely, and before he can stop himself, he does that thing he does when a hot girl (wait, what? when did that happen?) looks open to exploring with him.
"What? You like that? That why you've been so bad, you wanted me to punish you? All you had to do was ask"
The frozen in place, helplessly turned on look she's giving him as he moves in closer is pretty much the hottest fucking thing he's ever seen, because this is Katie 'piss me off and say goodbye to your balls' Knight and she could stop him with nothing but a glare, but she isn't. She's letting him say these things and invade her personal space and pin her against the wall with his body, silent, wide-eyed, waiting to see what he'll do.
But she also looks sort of, not scared exactly; because she is still Katie and he is still James and she pretty much (read: totally, completely, utterly) owns him, and she damn well knows it; but maybe nervous in a not-entirely-positive way, and that's not what he wants at all.
He's still working on instinct, obviously, there's no way this would even be happening if his brain had any sort of control right now.
He pulls her even tighter into him, dropping a kiss to the top of her head and running a soothing hand up and down her side.
Instinct.
"It wouldn't really hurt, we both know I'd never hurt you. Start out nice and easy, not too hard, just enough to sting a little, make you all nice and pink and sensitive for me."
His voice is softer now, seductive and comforting instead of mocking and predatory, and if he could purr at the way she melts into him in response, he would.
"Wouldn't go harder until you needed me to, until you're little body was begging me for it, and trust me, it would. You'd start arching up, meeting my hand half way, and you'd be so wet for me, and I wouldn't be able to resist touching you there, but I'd keep spanking you, harder and harder as you got closer, spanking you just right and rubbing your little clit until you were begging me for just a few more, just a little bit harder until you finally came for me, harder than you ever have."
At some point during his dirty monologue, his handed had drifted from her hip to her ass and begun to absentmindedly (really!) rub and squeeze at her, and he can't seem to stop. He can feel her breathing hard against his chest, hands bunched up in his shirt and god, he's missed her. He sees her almost everyday, but he's missed her, missed the way they are when it's just them, not that it's ever been anything like this, but it has sort of always been exactly like this.
It's always been her, trusting him, following his lead, hugging him for things that would land other people in the Emergency Room; and it's always been him, protecting her, teasing her, knowing damn well that no matter what she lets him do, or what stupid plan she goes along with, he is never actually the one in charge.
She lifts her head from his chest and looks up at him, eyes full of mischief and lust and any traces of anxiety have been replaced with an open, comfortable vulnerability that makes his chest feel almost half as tight as his jeans.
"That doesn't sound like a very effective punishment."
"Mmm, I don't know, you're not trying to leave anymore."
She smiles playfully.
"Well, now I kind of have to try again, don't I?"
He chuckles and leans down until his lips are just almost touching hers.
"Don't you remember, baby? You don't have to go to all that trouble. I'm more than happy to give you whatever you need."
She actually moans a little at that, before putting both hands an his face and pulling him that last inch or so, until his lips are crashing hard against hers.
And then, right when the kiss starts to unfold into one of those epic, defining moment, replay-it-when-you-die kisses, a bunch of things happen at once.
Katie pushes him away, the door opens, and his brain comes moseying in all casual, before looking around at the damage he's done while it was around the corner getting donuts, and starts cursing at him in languages he's fairly certain he does not speak.
So, she decides, after she regains the brain power to decide things, she absolutely cannot be held responsible for whatever it is that just happened.
Because, okay, one minute they were doing the power struggle thing (and she was maybe, possibly, in retrospect, pulling her punches just a little teeny tiny bit, escape wise, but that is really beside the point) which has been happening a lot lately (and may or may not lead to steamy angry sex fantasies, but this, again, is really neither here nor there) and then he'd started with the whole spanking thing out of nowhere and she'd been too startled by her initial response to hide it from someone who knew her so well.
But she had been prepared to file the whole thing away for later analyzation, like a normal, sane person. She would've eventually come up with something snarky to say that would set them back on track, before he had gotten all confrontational and freaked her out. The only reason she hadn't punched him in the solar plexus and been done with the whole thing right then was because well, it was James. She could stop him anytime she wanted and she was maybe a little bit curious about where this was going. Hey, she'd keep her guard up and everything, but yeah, this was totally fine. Weird as fuck, but fine. Mostly?
The whole guard up thing is easier said than done, though, because, again, James. Her response to his proximity (safe, protected, exasperated, amused, kind of weirdly fluttery) is pretty deeply ingrained at this point. His presence is a huge part of her whole concept of comfort and security and it's not like she can just undo that.
So when he gets all touchy-feely-cuddly, she's pretty much screwed, and when he gets all deep and rumbly and descriptive she- she needs a minute, please and thank you, because asdfghjklholyfuckyesplease.
After that, it's all kind of a blur of hands and banter and oh god that voice again and lips and tongue and oh he's good at that and jangling keys and panic and hating Logan and Carlos with the fury of a thousand burning suns, those cock blocking mother fuckers-
So, yeah, not her fault.
It is also not her fault that she has to seduce him now. For the greater good.