Thank you all so much for your patience. Thank you also for all reviews and reminders regarding this story and some of the others. I'm trying to do better.

One moreIG thank you to everyone who bought my new book My House, My Rules. It is on the Ho new reads erotica list on Amazon. It also made it into Amazon's erotica top 100. So if you haven't grabbed a copy, you might like to. I think it's the closest so far to my writing on here.

Drop by my website you'll find most links there to my stories. Or come and say hello on my blog at creatively constance.

I hope you all enjoy this chapter :)

Chapter 36

"I can't believe you tricked us like that Harm!" Mattie said with as much petulance as she dared. "That was underhanded and sneaky and, well, just plain old mean!"

"Don't even go there." Harm said. He held his hand up to stem any further protests. "And don't go the whole 'I was so embarrassed' route either. If you were, it's your own fault."

"Mac?" Mattie whined. "We were just having some fun. You remember what it was like to be a kid don't you."

"You did the wrong thing Mattie. We were worried." Mac said.

"You don't understand. Neither of you understand."
"No Mattie you don't understand that you can't just stay out all night and worry us like that."

"It wasn't all night." Mattie whined. "You two are just too old to remember what it was like to be young and free."

"Is that right?" Mac said closing the distance between her and the young teen. "Well I'll tell you something Miss, by the time you get out of this house THIS time you are going to be OLD and GREY!"

"Harm!" Mattie wailed switching to Harm to try and find a more sympathetic ear. "PLEASE!"

"What She said." he answered. "Now go up to your room and we'll talk about this tomorrow."

Mattie rolled her eyes dramatically as she gave Mac a wide berth as she headed for the stairs.

"I can never do anything fun." she grumbled.

"Go." Mac said pointing to the stairs.

"I'm going." Mattie said. "Geesh."

Mac crossed the room in a second and slapped Mattie's rear end hard. "Enough backchat Miss."

Mattie rubbed her bottom as her attitude slipped away.

"Sorry." she said softly. "But it was soo embarrassing."

"We weren't the only parents there and you weren't the only one that would have been embarrassed." Mac said a little more gently.

"And you won't be the only kid in trouble." Harm said pointedly.

"Go on to bed." Mac said. "Don't make things any worse for yourself."

"Yes Ma'am." Mattie said with resignation.

JAGJAGAGJAGJAGJAG

"So what do you think?" Mac asked Harm later as they cuddled in bed.

Harm ran his fingers lightly along her arm. "I don't know. I was mad before, and she did worry us..."

"But it WAS Halloween."

"Exactly." Harm said. "I say we ground her for the weekend and if she keeps her attitude in check then we leave it at that. Agree?"

"Yeah." Mac said. "Sounds good."

"Besides, we did have our own Halloween fun." Harm added with a smile in the dark.

"Yes we did. That was SO fun."

"Uh huh." Harm chuckled. "The looks on their faces."

"Priceless."

JAGJAGJAGJAGJAGJAGJAG

Mattie woke feeling tired and banged her alarm to shut it up. Her head was foggy from lack of sleep but as she blinked a few times, her head started to clear and she winced. Damn. It had seemed like SUCH a great idea and well worth the trouble she was going to get in, until said trouble was looming. She blew out a frustrated breath and dragged herself out of bed and headed for the shower.

"Where'd you go?" Chloe asked as she was just about to disappear into the bathroom.

"Haunted house." she muttered.

"No WAY!"Chloe said. "And you didn't share?"

"I knew I would be getting myself into trouble Chlo, I didn't want to get you into trouble too." Or risk getting caught before we even started, she added silently.

"That's never bothered you before." Chloe said. "Where's your candy? You still wanna swap?"

"Didn't get any candy." Mattie said. "Sorry Chloe."

"That's ok." Chloe said. "I think I got the better end of the deal. I got to eat whatever I wanted and have the TV to myself and my weekend is probably wide open. Not to mention that I'm not getting spanked."

Mattie sighed. "What can I say, it seemed like a good idea at the time."

"Yep, always does." Chloe said.

"Yeah." Mattie said a little sadly.

"Never mind Mattie, I don't mind sharing my stuff with you."

"Thanks." Mattie said trying to smile. Candy was the least of her worries.

JAGJAGJAGJAGJAGJAGJAGJAG

"The Old's caught you I take it?" Josh said as he met Mattie on the stairs. "Don't wanna say it...but..you know what, I DO wanna say it. I told you so."

"Save it." Mattie said. "I'm tired and I'm trying to stay nice so I don't end up in even more trouble."

"Ok. Fair enough." Josh said. "Was it worth it?"

"It would have been. I mean it was fun, until Harm and Mac and a bunch of other parents turned up. They hid all around the house so they could scare the crap out of us."

"Oh." Josh said. "So I guess you kind of won."

"Huh?" Mattie said. "What?"

"Well, I'm guessing that you went there so you could all be scared. You GOT scared..."

"Yeah, I guess we did at that." Mattie said. "Although facing Harm and Mac feels scarier."

"I know what you mean. It's fear of the unknown."

"It's not the unknown I'm worried about. It's the KNOW."

Mattie?" Harm called from the bottom f the stairs. "Family room now! Josh and Chloe go have your breakfast in the kitchen."

"I'm not that hungry." Chloe said.

"Uh huh." Mac said. "Try giving the candy a rest for a little while Chloe."

"I still have a lot left."

"Good. You can have more later."

JAGJAGJAGJAGJAGJAGJAGJAG

"So Miss." Harm said. "What have you got to say for yourself?"

Mac came in and sat on the edge of the sofa next to Harm. Their usual united front seats.

"I'm sorry." Mattie said. "I should have told you up front what I wanted to do. I shouldn't have worried you like that."

"Right." Harm said.

"But I thought you might say no." Mattie said.

"Right. That's always going to be a risk you have to take."

"I guess." Mattie said.

"No guess Mattie." Mac said. "That's the way it is. For the record, we know you didn't mean any harm."

"I didn't really." Mattie said, seeing a little light at the end of the tunnel. "I promise I'll be more thoughtful next time."

"Don't get ahead of yourself their Mattie." Harm said. "You're still going to be punished."

"Aww come on!" she whined.

"HOW you are going to be punished is up to you." Mac said. "This is a test."

"A test of what?" Mattie asked.

"Honesty, self control...respect." Harm said sternly. "Here's what's going to happen. You're grounded through to the end of this weekend."

Mattie sighed.

"Respect, remember Mattie." Harm reminded her. "Listen."

"I'm listening." she said, sitting up a little straighter. She wasn't keen on being grounded but she knew things could get a lot worse than that. She WOULD avoid a spanking if possible.

"If you can hold yourself together and stick to your grounding...without whining, moaning or begging. AND if you can show US respect...especially Mac, then we'll leave it at that."

"Really?" Mattie said with surprise. "What's the catch?"

"The catch is that if you DON'T handle this punishment with maturity and you don't show the respect that we expect, not only will you get a spanking but you will be grounded for another week."

"No way!" Mattie said.

"So...what's the verdict. Can you be good?" Mac asked.

"I can be an angel." Mattie said sweetly.

JAGJAGJAGJAGJKAGJAG

"You think she can do it?" Mac asked.

"We'll see." Harm said with a chuckle. "I know it'll be a stretch."

TBC