Chapter One

Sean McDonough’s office was on the second floor of the Biology annex—an old house that sits just off Campus Drive. The heating system pounds as the house wakes up each winter morning, the floors creak with even the lightest footfall, and every door in the ancient old building squeaks when it’s opened or closed. Rather than be a bother for the Professor, the distractions were a sign of home—much like the one where he grew up in an Irish Catholic neighborhood of Boston. He could sit back, close his eyes and think of those delightful days, miles and years from his California office, to the quaint, aging brownstones wedged side by side. The annex also gave him a way to stay clear of the inane banter in the Winfield Natural Sciences Building where the rest of his department was located. His specialty being Marine Biology rarely required him to be part of the department’s regular hoopla, politics and gossip.

His desk sat beside a large window in the front of the house. Looking down on the street below he could easily see who was coming or going—making it a good way to avoid students and other callers he didn’t particularly want to meet. It wasn’t hard to lose oneself in the old house, if being lost was more convenient than some drawn out and useless conference. But on this particular day, seeing the sprite looking shape of a young woman approach the building and mount the stairs, he was initially interested. From above, he could see her curly brown hair and lithe form as she took the steps with a gentle grace. Long before he had a chance to see if she had an attractive face or ample chest, he noted her ass encased in a pair of tight blue jeans. By the time he had the opportunity to make a more thorough examination, she’d disappeared inside. Sean McDonough had many reasons to admire a female derriere, not the least of which was to imagine what it might look like when it was naked and freshly spanked.

Sean McDonough was a replica of a man long since gone the way of the dinosaur, who believed women needed to be quiet, subservient, put in their place, and spanked if they got out of line. He had a long and very arbitrary list of grievances that would warrant punishment by such antiquated means. But the bottom line, so to speak, was the fact that he could never entertain a relationship with a woman unless she agreed to his strict rules for appropriate female demeanor—and the discipline that was certain to follow when his rules were violated. By this description Sean should have been in his sixties or seventies, but instead, he was just thirty-eight