A Beautiful Ranch

by Malone, Misty

  "I did have my phone," she assured him, "but I forgot to charge it last night. I thought it had enough of a charge to last today."

  "But it didn't," he concluded.

  "No."

  "Let's get home, and we'll talk about this," he said as he helped her up onto Midnight.

  It was a quiet ride to the house. He had his arm around her waist, which she usually loved. Today, though, it felt awkward. She knew he was upset with her, and the truth was she didn't blame him. She'd been anxious to finish her painting today, but that was no excuse for her carelessness. She'd run out this morning without checking things. She was upset with herself for making such a mistake.

  When they got to the house he planned on taking her to his office for their discussion, but Stella had lunch ready and was waiting for them. As he seated her for lunch he whispered, "We'll talk after lunch."

  Clay knew something was wrong, as quiet as they both were during lunch. Dalton had a grim expression on his face, while Lilly wasn't saying a word. He wasn't sure what was up, but he didn't say much, and ate rather quickly. "Dalton, I'll go get the men started in the east cornfield. We can handle it for awhile, so take your time and settle whatever's wrong between you two." He got up and left before either of them could say anything.

  "Clay's right," Dalton said as he pulled Lilly's chair out and took her hand. "We need to talk." He led them to his office, and closed the door behind them.

  He turned to face her as he sat them both on the couch. She held her hand up, and he waited, letting her talk first. "Dalton, I'm sorry. I messed up, and I see that now. My painting's almost done, I've been on cloud nine all week, and I admit I forgot to check things before I left this morning. But please, don't make the happiest week of my life end with a spanking."

  Dalton met and held her eyes. This had been a special week for her. Reaching a decision, he said, "Okay, I won't. But we need to discuss this. You made two major safety mistakes today, and I warned you about one of them just last week. If you'll remember, I told you then that you wouldn't get another warning for going out without a charged phone. I mean what I say, honey, and for you to be able to trust me, you have to know I mean what I say. Therefore, I will give you a warning, but again, this is the only warning you'll receive for not checking the gas in the Gator before you left this morning."

  "Thank you," she said, hugging his neck. "I promise I won't forget again."

  Gently taking her hands away from his neck, he said, "But we still have to deal with the lack of a working phone today."

  Her eyes got wide. "But you said you wouldn't spank me for that."

  "I won't. But you know there are consequences for your actions, especially when you've already been warned. Therefore, I want you to go upstairs to your bedroom, and stay there until supper. We'll go out after supper to bring your painting in, and you can finish it tomorrow. But this afternoon, I want you to stay in your room and do some thinking. I want you to take a piece of paper and make me a list of ten things that could happen when you're out there alone, and what could happen if you don't have a phone with you, or gas in the Gator."

  "But Dalton—"

  "Lilly, I don't want to hear you arguing. This is important. You're about to become my wife, and I don't want anything to happen to you. I think you have too many other things on your mind right now. I can understand that, but I need you to have your safety in mind, also. I think if you do this, it'll make you realize why having a phone with a full charge and gas in the Gator are important."

  He stood up and reached out to help her up. She looked away and didn't move. He reached down and gently took her upper arm, pulling her up. "Word of warning, future Mrs. Henderson, I do not allow pouting. If you disagree with me about something and want to talk about it like an adult, we can do that. But I will not allow pouting. Now come on, I'll escort you to your room. Do you understand what I expect to see when I get back?"

  She glared at him, but when he gave her a very stern look she quickly said, "Yes."

  "Good," he said as they reached her room. "I'll look at it before supper." She went into her room and closed the door without saying a word.

  He got Midnight and started toward the cornfield, but he kept thinking about Lilly. It bothered him that he allowed her to talk him out of spanking her. That wasn't like him, and he didn't want to start their relationship this way. Not only that, but if he would have spanked her, she could have gone out to finish her painting this afternoon. She may have been a bit sore, but she could have finished it. He was feeling bad about her having to stay inside after the ordeal she'd just recently gone through which kept her inside.

  He wasn't too proud to admit when he'd made a mistake, and he turned around and went back to the house. He did think she needed to think about her safety and what could happen to her out on the ranch alone, but he didn't have to make her stay inside this afternoon to do it.

  He went in the house and up to Lilly's room. He knocked on the door, but got no answer. He knocked again. "Lilly, open the door. I'd like to talk to you." Still no answer. He tried again. When she still didn't answer he tried the door, which he was surprised to find was open. He opened the door and went inside. "Lilly?" He looked around, but Lilly was nowhere to be found. He checked the bathroom, but it was empty, as well.

  He hurried downstairs as he yelled, "Stella?"

  She hurried out of the kitchen. "What's wrong?"

  "Do you know where Lilly is?"

  "Isn't she upstairs? I thought you both went upstairs after lunch. You came down and went out, but she stayed up there."

  "She didn't come down later?"

  "Not that I saw, and I would have seen her if she went out the kitchen door. The front door creaks and I'm sure I would have heard it." She looked alarmed as she asked, "She's not up there?"

  "She isn't in her bedroom or bathroom." Dalton thought back to how upset she was, and was pretty sure he knew where to find her. "I'm going to go see if she's painting again."

  Ten minutes later he found Lilly, right where he thought she'd be. But instead of painting, she was sitting under a tree crying. She looked up as he approached. As he slid off of Midnight she got up and went to him, still crying.

  She was crying so hard he was alarmed. He held his arms open to her and she ran into them, holding him tightly. "Lilly, are you okay?"

  "No," she barely managed to say through her sobs.

  "What's wrong?"

  "I'm sorry, Dalton. I let my temper get the best of me today. After you left I got out paper, but all I could think about was my painting. I wanted to finish it today. And I hated the thought of having to stay inside again. I had to be able to go out again."

  Dalton was still holding her and thinking. "So you decided to ignore what I said I wanted you to do?"

  She cried harder before answering, "Yes." After a couple sobs she said, "But when I came out here I couldn't paint."

  "Why not?"

  "Because I feel terrible. I can't paint when I feel terrible." He continued to hold her, hoping she'd keep talking. He was pretty sure he knew what he needed to do now.

  She looked up at him with the saddest eyes he'd ever seen. "Dalton, you're the best thing that's ever happened to me, and I just blew you off. All because I was being selfish. I wanted to do what I wanted to do. Then once I got out here, I realized how stupid that was. Then all I could do was cry." She looked into his eyes with real sincerity. "I'm so sorry."

  "It sounds to me, young lady, like you're having a problem with guilt."

  Her crying lessened momentarily as she thought. She sounded surprised as she said, "That's what it is, isn't it?"

  "You're not sure?"

  "I'm not sure I've felt it before. I mean, for anything big like this, anything I really cared about."

  For some reason he felt sad when he heard that. "That was before, but this is now, and Mrs. Henderson will be held accountable for her actions. Feeling guilty when you do something you know you shouldn't is a good thing, and
I know just how to get rid of that guilt for you."

  Still leaning into him, holding onto his shirt, she quietly said, "Yeah, I have a feeling I know how, too. We're going back to your office, aren't we?"

  "Nope, not this time," he said. He sat down right there, under the tree, and pulled her down beside him. Before she knew what he was planning, he had her over his lap, her head laying on the ground on one side, and her feet on the other. He reached underneath her and unfastened her shorts and pulled them down, followed quickly by her panties.

  Feeling the air hit her bare bottom seemed to bring her back to awareness, and quickly. "No, you can't do this. Not here! Someone will see us!" She was reaching back for her panties, and he easily caught her hands and held them in the small of her back.

  "I certainly can do this here. I think it's very fitting to do it here. My men are all on the other side of the ranch, so no one's going to see or hear a thing. You disobeyed me because you wanted to get out here, so I think right here is a very fitting spot for the spanking it earned you. Maybe that will help you remember that you need to trust me, and not think you have to have what you want when you want it, with no regard for your safety. You wanted to be out here so bad, well, honey, you got what you wanted."

  With those words he began the spanking. He reminded her that he was trying to keep her safe, and that she needed to listen to him and allow him to do that. He reiterated that he knew she was tired of having to stay inside, but that he was worried about her.

  Tears were streaming down her cheeks unchecked. She was crying out, but she wasn't trying to escape his hold on her. He knew guilt probably wasn't something she'd dealt with a lot in her life, but she would have to start, and no better time than the present.

  He continued his lecture as he continued the spanking. "Lilly, since you've been free to roam the ranch again you haven't been taking my rules for your safety seriously. That has to stop, or you'll stop roaming the ranch freely. I won't allow you to go out alone without a phone that works, or without enough gas to be sure you can get back to the house. The whole idea behind telling you I wanted you to write me out a list of ten things was to get you to stop and think. You've had a lot on your mind this week. I understand that, but a ranch can be a dangerous place. I'm sure that once you stop and think about what can happen out here if you ignore your safety, you'll understand what I'm telling you, and you'll pay more attention to your surroundings. All I was trying to do is reign you in a little bit, long enough for you to see the dangers that lurk out there. I'm sure once you see them, you'll see the importance of my rules."

  Lilly slumped over his lap and stopped fighting him, simply reacting to each slap. He knew then that he'd succeeded in what he was trying to do; make her see that he was simply trying to keep her safe, and help rid her of her guilt so she could forgive herself.

  He pulled her gently up and onto his lap, wrapping his arms around her as he tried to comfort her. "Ssshhh, honey, it's over now. You're forgiven, and you're safe here. I've got you, and I'll keep you safe. You go ahead and cry all you need to."

  Lilly did just that; she cried. She tried to talk, but she couldn't yet. "Ssshhh, not yet, honey. Take your time, get your breathing back to normal first. Then I'll listen to anything you want to tell me." He kept talking to her, his mouth close to her ear, using the soothing tones he knew she liked. He mixed in a soft kiss on her head every now and then, and kept his arms around her.

  When she'd calmed sufficiently he asked, "Feel better?"

  "Yes, I do. I feel a lot better."

  "Is your guilt gone?"

  "It is," she said. "That's what I tried to ask you before. Did you know that would happen?"

  "I did," he said with a chuckle. "Now that you're being held responsible for your actions, you'll feel that guilt when you know you've done something you're not exactly proud of."

  "When I screw up, you mean."

  With another chuckle, he said, "Okay. But once you've paid the consequences for screwing up," he said with a grin, "it wipes out the guilt. I'll forgive you, and just as importantly, you'll be able to forgive yourself."

  She was quiet in his lap for several moments. She looked up at him and asked, "Is that what happened; why I feel better?"

  "Absolutely," he insisted. "I've forgiven you and now we're good again, and you can forgive yourself now that you've paid for your mistake." He squeezed her in his arms a bit. "It feels good, doesn't it?"

  "It does," she said with a smile. "Like a weight's been lifted from my shoulders."

  "Guilt is a heavy burden," he said. "Do you feel free again now?"

  "I do," she said, snuggling in against him. "Thank you for that."

  "You do realize, don't you, that you just thanked me for giving you a sound spanking?"

  She giggled. "I guess I did, didn't I?"

  "Yes, future Mrs. Henderson, you certainly did." After a couple minutes of quiet time, neither wanting to let the other one go, he asked, "Lilly?"

  "Yes?"

  "How did you leave your room today without Stella seeing you or hearing you leave?"

  The minute he heard himself ask her the question, he knew the answer. She confirmed it when she looked away instead of looking at him.

  "Lillian Yvette Jamison, soon to be Henderson, tell me you did not." She buried her face in his chest, and he had to work hard to keep his serious, stern voice and expression. "Tell me you did not go out the window and climb down the tree."

  "Well," she said, no louder than a whisper, "would saying I'm sorry right now help?"

  He couldn't help the chuckle that escaped his lips. "If you hadn't just gotten spanked, I would turn you over my knee right now, young lady."

  She looked up at him with a big grin on her face. "So does that mean you're not going to spank me for that?"

  He reached around and smacked her bare bottom once. It wasn't as hard as the spanking he'd just given her, but it certainly wasn't just playing around, either. She knew he was serious. "I won't ever let that go unchecked. If I ever catch you climbing out a window and down a tree again, you'll get much more than that. Do you understand me?"

  "Yes. I really am sorry."

  "I believe you, brat." He pulled her back in against his chest, and she cuddled up against him, feeling cozy in his strong arms.

  After a few more quiet minutes, happy with simply being close, she sighed. "Well, one thing's for sure."

  "What's that?"

  She grinned. "I'm glad you took me on that wonderful picnic last weekend and didn't wait until this weekend."

  Dalton stilled. He cautiously asked, "Why? Are you saying if I'd have asked you tomorrow instead of last Sunday you may not have said yes?"

  "No, silly," she said. "If you would have waited until tomorrow it may never have happened at all. I'm sure I won't be able to sit a saddle tomorrow."

  He let out the breath he'd been holding, and laughed. "You can sure be a brat at times. I thought maybe you meant you wouldn't have said yes if I would have asked you after a spanking."

  "Nope. I just meant I wouldn't have been able to sit a saddle that long." She got serious then and said, "But I am kind of glad this happened now, too."

  "Why is that?"

  "Because now I know for sure that marrying you is a good idea and I love you enough to withstand anything."

  "What makes you say that?"

  "Because as I'm sitting here, my butt feels like I sat on a hot stove, it's so sore. I know I won't be able to sit comfortably for a couple days, but I'm still anxious to marry you. I love the idea of this becoming my home forever because it really is a beautiful ranch, but it's more than that. I guess that means either I really, really love you, or I've lost my mind."

  Dalton laughed at her words. "You really are my little brat. But for your information, future Mrs. Henderson, I agree, this is a beautiful ranch, and more importantly, I really, really love you, too."

  The End

  Misty Malone

  Writing has been a dre
am of Misty's for several years. She's finally following that dream, and began writing in 2013. She enjoys writing romance stories, with a handsome man who falls in love with a lovely lady in need of a strong man who can take her in hand. Having grown up on a farm, she especially enjoys writing about strong cowboys.

  She lives in the Midwest with her husband and son, not far from where she

  grew up.

  Misty hopes you enjoy reading her books as much as she enjoys writing them. Reviews to her books are very much appreciated, and she would like to thank you for each one of them. She invites you to leave a message for her at authormistymalone@gmail.com.

  Don’t miss these exciting titles by Misty Malone and Blushing Books!

  Life at the Ranch

  That Beautiful Orange Gown

  Not Just a House

  I’m on a Ranch?

  It's My Ranch?

  My Ranch, My Way

  Learning to Drive… Him Crazy

  The Strange Healing

  Count This Cowboy In

  Cowboy Motel

  Christmas at the Ranch

  A Quiet Christmas at Home…Kinda

  On Probation

  Ebook Offer

  WOULD YOU LIKE A FREE SPANKING STORY EVERY MONTH?

  At http://www.blushingbooks.com, we provide our visitors with a free eBook every single month! That's right, every month we choose an eBook to give to our customers at no charge, both to show our gratitude for your business and to provide a sample of the content we offer.

  Can you read this free eBook on your Kindle? Yes! Once you’re logged onto our site, it’s easy to send a book right to your Kindle.

  Can you read it on your iPad? Yes! Your Kobo? Yes! Your Nook? YES!

  We provide all of our books on BlushingBooks.com in several formats so that you can read our stories on virtually any reader! Membership at BlushingBooks.com is free, so sign up today and get your free story right now!