by Misty Malone
“No, Garrett, you can’t do that. No man has—”
She froze, and he stopped, as well. His voice lost the stern edge, and his hand went back to pat her bottom. “Mindy, I’m not sure what you were about to say, and I can tell you’re embarrassed, so I won’t ask you to finish your sentence. Let me say one thing, though, that you should know if we’re going to have a relationship, and I was completely serious when I said I hope we do. I am a gentleman. I know that may be considered old fashioned these days, but I think you’ll find I’m an old fashioned man in several ways. As you’ve noticed, I believe a man should treat a lady like a lady. That includes holding a door for her, watching out for her, and keeping her safe. I take that seriously. I would never force a lady to have sex in any way. If you want to save yourself for your wedding night, I will honor that. I will respect that wish, and have respect for you.”
“Thank you,” she said quietly.
“However, you will still be getting a spanking tonight, over your panties. So there are no misunderstandings later on, I’m also telling you now that if I give you another spanking it will be on your bare bottom. I will pull you over my lap before I take your panties down, but your next spanking will be on your bare bottom.”
He reached underneath her again and quickly unfastened her jeans. He was pulling them down as she whispered, “But it might hurt.”
He heard the desperation in her voice and knew she was just beginning to come to terms with what was about to happen, and was scared. As long as she was scared of the spanking and not him, that was okay. He saw no reason to prolong her stress, so he quickly pulled her jeans down to her knees and rested his hand on her cute little pink panties.
“Okay, honey, keep in mind that I wouldn’t do this if I didn’t care so much about you. Because I do care, I will not stand by and allow you to keep ignoring your safety.” With that, he started the spanking. After six or eight swats, which he felt were hard enough to get her attention, but actually pretty mild for a spanking, he slowed the spanking and started talking. “This is the second time now that we’ve all held up our supper because you weren’t at the house and we couldn’t reach you on the phone. I know my men, and I know that not one of them are complaining. They all know how important it is to find someone that’s missing. They all know firsthand that there truly are dangers on a ranch.”
“Garrett, stop.”
He stopped for a moment, but only to ask, “Why?”
“Because it hurts!”
He started spanking again as he answered. “As it was meant to. I’d be disappointed in myself if it didn’t hurt. This is a spanking. The whole idea is to make your bottom, as adorable as it is, hurt. The next time you go out for a walk or a ride, remember this, and how your bottom feels right now. Maybe that will remind you to make sure your phone is charged and that you have it with you. While you’re out, the next time you come to a gate and consider opening it, think back to right now, and hopefully you’ll reconsider and leave the gate closed and fastened.”
He was watching her closely, and wasn’t happy with the way she was thrashing around, and not breathing. He stopped for a few moments to allow her to catch her breath. “Take a breath, honey. Relax, and breathe.” He was rubbing her back as he was talking, and it seemed to be helping her calm. “That’s it; breathe.”
When she had her breathing somewhat back to normal, she tried pushing herself up off his lap, but he held her firmly. She tried harder to get up, and whirled her head around to look at him. “Let me up, damn it.”
His eyebrows flew up to his forehead. He hadn’t seen that coming. He tightened his hold on her and gave her three smacks that were harder than any she’d had yet. “Cursing while you’re over my lap getting a spanking is not a good idea, young lady.”
She slumped back over his lap, and this time the tears started flowing. “Ow! Garrett, I can’t believe you did that. That really hurt!”
“What really hurt; the spanking, those last three swats, or your pride?”
“All of it,” she admitted quietly, still slumped over his knee. She was still crying, trying to get control, and obviously trying to say something. He was going to start the spanking again, but waited until she was able to say whatever seemed so important to her. Eventually, she gained enough control to talk. “I’m so sore, and so confused.”
“I understand being sore, but what are you so confused about?”
She looked down at the ground, hanging limply over his lap. “About us.”
That sounded serious. Although he didn’t feel the spanking was over yet, if they were going to talk about them, he wanted her in his arms while they did. He gently picked her up, then settled her on his lap. She wasn’t very receptive. She resisted sitting on his lap until he pulled a little harder, and she refused when he tried to guide her head to his chest. He wrapped her in his arms, both in an effort to soothe her while they talked, but also to be sure she didn’t jump up and run. When he had her settled in, he kissed her hair. “Now, what is it about us that has you so confused?”
“That,” she said, shaking her head. “Before you started beating me you said you care a lot about me.”
“I do,” he assured her. “I spanked you, I didn’t beat you. I would never beat you or any other woman, or hit you with a fist, or slap you. The only thing I will ever do like that is to spank your bottom, like I just did. But to get back to your real question, Mindy, I care a great deal for you. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t have done this.”
“That doesn’t even make any sense.”
“Yes, it does, if you think about it. If I didn’t care this much for you I wouldn’t be so concerned about your safety. It’s that protective thing I told you about. I protect the people who are important to me. That includes my parents, the men who work for me, Maria, and you.”
“You have a funny way of showing me you care about me.”
Chapter Nine
Garrett tightened his hold on Mindy and reached down to kiss her hair. “That’s not the only way I’ll be showing you I care about you. Anytime you need me, I plan on being here for you. If you need to talk about anything; your New York City experience or anything else, I will always be here and willing to talk to you. Sometimes you just need someone to listen. I’ll be here. No matter what happens, good or bad, I’ll be here. I’ll help you celebrate the good, and help you through the bad. But part of that includes keeping you safe. When I tell you something to keep you safe and you ignore it, I will do whatever I have to do to get your attention and make sure you listen to what I’m telling you so you’re safe. I do that because of how much I care about you.”
She reached back and rubbed her sore bottom. “It still doesn’t seem like you can tell me how much you care, and then turn around and hurt me like that.”
“I don’t know, let’s think about this a minute. If you were someone else staying on the ranch, someone I didn’t care this much for, what would I have done? I would have told you the rules, just like I did. Then the first time you were late for supper and didn’t have your phone with you I would have talked to you again. I would have told you if it happens again you’ll lose the privilege of roaming the ranch.”
“Would you have meant that?”
“Absolutely. I can’t have someone getting lost on the ranch. It worries me because I know they could be hurt. It also ties up my men while they’re out looking for that person. To avoid that worry and time, man hours, the easiest thing to do would be prohibit them from roaming the ranch alone. I tell them that, and I’m done. Pretty simple and quick. I walk away a minute later. But I’m not doing that with you.”
His words were starting to make a tiny little bit of sense to her, and she looked up at him to see his face. His expression was serious, and also very caring, as he continued. “I care too much about you to do that to you. I can see how much you enjoy taking your walks and going for four wheeler rides. But I can’t let you continue doing them in an unsafe manner. So instead, I elected to spend
the time and energy to make you see how important what I’m telling you is. You have to see the importance of safety. If I have to do this every day for a month to get you to take your safety seriously, I’ll do it.”
“I don’t think I could take that.”
“I don’t want to do it, either, but I will if that’s what it takes. You’re a smart lady, though, and I’m sure you’ll catch on way before that.”
“I think I’ve already caught on,” she said, rubbing her bottom again.
“Good. I’m glad to hear that,” he said with a bit of a grin. “I hope you have learned your lesson already. If you learn all of them with one session, we’ll both be doing good.”
“Wait a minute. What do you mean all my lessons? You’re not planning on doing that to me again, are you? Because I didn’t like it at all.”
He chuckled once again. “Baby, I never liked it, either. As far as if I’m planning on doing it again, that’s entirely up to you. I will be protecting you while you’re on this ranch, and as long as we’re in a relationship. If you listen to what I say about staying safe, then this will be our one and only spanking. If you keep ignoring my warnings, thinking you survived New York City, you can certainly survive this since it’s just a ranch,” he said, looking at her with his eyebrows raised in warning, “we’ll be back here again. Again, how often we’re here depends completely on you and your actions.”
He could tell she was thinking, and he gave her the time and quiet she needed. Finally, she looked up at him. “So, you’re saying you like me, but in spite of that, you’ll still do that again if I forget my phone again, or something like that?”
“I do like you, you’re right there, but I’ll do that again because I like you, not in spite of. There’s a big difference there. Do you understand that difference?”
He watched her carefully, and could tell when she did, in fact, get what he was saying. She nodded her head and a small smile came to her face. “So you really do like me.”
She said it as a statement, not a question, and he was glad. She did see what he was saying. “I do indeed,” he said as he reached up to gently take her face in his hands for a kiss to show that he meant what he said. When he pulled back from the kiss, he liked seeing the smile on her face. He pulled her in against his chest, and this time she laid her head against his chest on her own.
He simply held her a couple minutes, giving her time to digest what they’d been talking about. She looked up at him with what he thought was a rather impish look. “If I ever mess up again, do you suppose you could not like me quite that much?” She reached back to rub her bottom again, as he laughed out loud.
“Afraid not,” he said. “And adorable little comments like that are just going to make me like you a little more.” He laughed at the shocked look on her face. “I should probably explain a little bit here. I meant what I said, and you can expect to be spanked again if you ignore what I’m telling you to keep you safe. I won’t look for things to spank you for, so don’t worry about that. But I won’t overlook things like not having your phone with you, or driving that cute little orange bug of yours in an unsafe manner. I want you safe so we can spend time getting to know each other better. This today was a pretty light spanking, just so you know.”
“I beg to differ with you, but no, it most certainly wasn’t light. It hurt like hell.”
He quickly reached back and gave her one more swat. “Language like that is very unbecoming, especially from a pretty little lady like you.” She started to argue, but he stopped her short. “I said I will protect you, and I mean that. A pretty lady using language like that is hurting herself. I won’t allow you to hurt yourself.”
“Wait. You aren’t going to spank me every time a bad word slips out of my mouth, are you, because—”
He saw the anger building in her, and cut her off before she got to a tantrum. “No, of course not. But I will warn you about it, and if it gets bad, yes, after a warning or two I will take you over my knee for it. Language like that during or right after a spanking will always be addressed. That is definitely not the time for it. Now, getting back to what we were talking about, yes, that was a pretty light spanking. I knew it was your first spanking, and I knew you had to be nervous, or worried. Therefore, this first one was pretty mild.”
“But it still hurts.”
“But it won’t for long, trust me. You should feel a good spanking for at least a few hours. That will give it time to sink into your head and hopefully help you remember it the next time you think about doing the same thing. I believe a punishment needs to fit the crime, so the first time I spank you for something will hopefully be enough to help you learn that lesson. If not, the second spanking you get for the same thing, like if you’re out here without a charged phone again, the spanking you will get then will be harder than this one was.”
Her eyes widened as she reached back to rub again. “But I don’t think I could stand it any harder.”
“Oh, you certainly can. You won’t like it, but you certainly can stand it. A good hard spanking will leave your bottom sore for several hours, maybe even a little tender the next day, and although you won’t like it, it won’t cause you any permanent harm, either. I would never do anything to actually harm you, baby.” He leaned down and kissed the top of her head. “I do things to protect you, not harm you. But I will warn you, a good hard spanking for a serious safety failure will hurt, so get that in your head now, and do what you have to do to avoid them.”
“I will do my best to avoid them, then, because I think that one really hurt.”
He grinned at her. “Think of it as proof that I like you.” She chuckled and leaned against him again.
They sat like that, talking casually about anything that came to mind, when he thought back on what brought them to this point. “Did you know the steers were out, or had you already gone when they made their escape?”
“No, I definitely knew they were out. It was scary when they were chasing me.”
He tried not to chuckle. “They were chasing you?”
“Yes. They were running, coming after me. I didn’t know what to do. I saw the lane, or path going through the woods over there, so I took it, hoping they would stop at the woods and go back, or the woods would at least slow them down.”
He stopped playing with her hair. “You went through the woods you knew you weren’t supposed to go past?”
“Yes, but I had to. They were chasing me.”
“You could have followed the path beside the woods. Do I need to take you over my knee again, Mindy? Were you told not to go beyond the woods?”
“Yes, I was,” she admitted, “but please don’t do that again. I went through on that path, intending to stay on the path so I wouldn’t get lost. I was scared because I thought they were catching up to me, and I thought maybe they would stop or at least slow down when they got to the woods.” She looked up at him with sad eyes. “Please don’t spank me again.”
He frowned, but sighed and pulled her back in against him. “Okay, I will let it go this one time, but only because I can understand what you’re telling me. You were scared, I get that, and it made sense that the woods would stop them or slow them down. But I don’t want you going beyond them because it’s easy to get turned around over there.”
“I understand. I don’t even really know what the other side looks like over there. I assumed it was someone else’s land, so I didn’t go far at all.”
“Why did you assume it was someone else’s land?”
“Because of the motorcycles. The cows all turned around and went back the other way, so I stopped and came back over on this side of the woods, too, after I saw the cows all going back. But I really think that what scared them and made them turn around was the noise from the three motorcycles.”
“There were three motorcycles over there?”
“Yes. That’s why I figured that must be someone else’s land, and they were out riding motorcycles on their land. I figured maybe
they use motorcycles like you and your men use four wheelers. I was going to apologize to them for going onto their land, but they left. I don’t think they even saw me. They were leaving when I came through the woods.”
Garrett was quiet, and Mindy became concerned. “Did I say something wrong?”
“What? No, of course not. I was just thinking. That is our land on the other side of the woods. It’s our land for quite a ways, in fact. I wonder what someone was doing riding motorcycles over there?”
“I don’t know, but I think they were on this side of the woods, too. That’s what I was doing when I saw you. I was looking at the tracks in the dirt. I think it looks like tracks from motorcycles.”
“Let’s go look at them,” Garrett suggested, lifting Mindy and pulling her jeans back up. She gasped when he pulled them over her bottom, but didn’t say anything. He took her hand in his as they walked over to the area she was in.
After looking in the dirt a few minutes, he nodded his head. “Yep, those are from motorcycles. It must be some kids from the neighborhood. They probably think this is a good place to take dirt bikes. We’ll have to watch for them.”
“Do you allow them to ride on your ranch?”
“No, we don’t. We don’t want anyone getting hurt on our ranch, especially if we don’t even know they’re on it. But we don’t want them riding in areas that might scare the cattle. They’re not thrilled with the four wheelers. They’ve gotten used to them enough by now that they don’t bother them too much, but the cattle are not used to motorcycles. I don’t want them spooking the cattle.”
“So what do you do about it?”
“If we catch them we’ll talk to them, tell them we’d rather they not come around the cattle. If they don’t stop to talk to us, we’ll chase them off the ranch, and they usually get the message that we don’t want them on our land. If we recognize them as neighbors’ kids, if they keep it up we’ll talk to their parents.”
