by Skylar Faye
She shifted from one foot to another in growing annoyance. She wished Seth would get done with his “calming down time” and just come up here to do whatever he was going to do. The longer she stood here, the more her stomach fluttered with nerves.
She tried to think of something besides how much she didn’t like staring at the corner of the pale green walls. What was she doing here on a ranch, of all places, in the middle of the Kansas plains? Thinking of Kansas…hadn’t she passed through here on a wagon train a hundred or so years ago? She really tended to lose track of time.
Time seemed to be dragging while she stood in this dumb corner. She was bored. She had other things to do, including making dinner, which would be late because of this little situation. And Seth would be unhappy with that, too. But it would be his fault, because he had the old world view where the man was in charge. He’d mentioned that belief one day when she’d been a half hour late getting the evening meal on the table. In his opinion, a woman suffered the consequences when she forgot that or when she misbehaved. She’d misbehaved today, in his opinion.
Well, she had opinions, too. And right now she decided this whole situation was stupid. She was too old for this kind of nonsense. Far too old. She’d never been punished. Faery parents didn’t believe in such a thing. The thought of her parents, her family, the Faery band she’d been part of so very long ago mad her sad. She tried never to think about any of them or what had driven her from her home because it hurt too much.
Hurt. She shifted again. The incredibly stubborn man currently in her life planned to do something that was going make her “pretty little butt”—what a nice thing to say—“pay big time.” While she was curious about this whole punishment idea, she didn’t particularly want her butt paying. That didn’t sound good at all. But maybe with her being a Faery and able to heal quickly from anything this wouldn’t be a problem, other than embarrassing.
Heavy footsteps on the staircase snared her attention. Seth. She tingled all over with sensual intensity and her buttocks clenched and unclenched in anticipation. Desire thrummed through her. Need. Desperation. She felt almost dizzy with the emotions swirling through her. The most that had happened between them so far was the kiss he’d given her earlier. It hadn’t been enough, not nearly enough. Soon they….
“Okay, darlin’,” Seth said calmly from outside the room. She heard him stop in the doorway, heard him suck in a breath as he must have looked at her. Good. Maybe the sight of her bare bottom would change his mind about his plan. But then he added grimly, “It’s time to get this nastiness over with.”
Her lower lips quivered in response to the deep, ultra-sexy tone of his voice. His threat/promise meant little to her. She would let him do anything to her as long as it eventually led to something pleasant, something she hadn’t experienced in too long a time.
* * *
Seth battled down the urge to drag Teri out of the corner and take her down to the floor right there. He wanted her on all fours with her nose to the carpet, instead of to the corner. He wanted that sweet ass thrust up high so he could ram his stiff shaft deep. He’d been thinking about taking her for days…no, from the moment he’d seen her in the diner. And it angered him. He didn’t want to touch her, didn’t want her around here at all. So why the hell haven’t you made her leave? Why the hell did you kiss her? Because I lose my freaking mind whenever I’m around here.
He adjusted his package and frowned. After the mess Sarah had made of his life, he’d sworn off women. Okay, he’d been celibate for almost six months. It was killing him. Soon he would have to go into Topeka or some other town and find a willing woman. A woman that didn’t really tempt him to forget his vows of not getting involved again, not risking his heart. You’d think he would have learned that by now. Teri was too damn tempting.
She’d also embarrassed both of them in town by taking on those two old biddies. The elderly ladies were always watching him, as did a number of women in town. Yes, he wasn’t a homely man, but he didn’t really want to attract every woman he crossed paths with. Had to be the sense of danger they felt from him, the bad boy image. If they only knew….
He pushed that annoying thought aside. It hadn’t been the first time Teri had stepped over the line and acted inappropriately in public. She had a mouth on her at times; spoke her mind a bit too forcefully. And she’d been testing him, pushing at the boundaries of his rules and challenging him. His alpha side had wanted to take charge long ago. Today he would.
“So I can leave this corner now?” She craned her head around and he saw the clear annoyance on her pretty face at having been ordered to stand there.
For her attitude alone, he should make her stay there longer. But he had other chores to get to and this unpleasant one came first. He headed for the bed and sat down. “You’re that anxious to get your butt burned? Okay, come on over here.”
He watched her gulp when he patted his leg. She didn’t move.
“Ummmm…Getting my ‘butt burned’ doesn’t sound good.” Her face flamed. “Couldn’t we talk about the problem? We’re two adults. Surely…”
Two adults who could do some serious adult things. No! Stop thinking about sex! There was just something about her, something more sensually alluring than any other woman he’d ever known. It was in the way she looked at him sometimes. In the scent of her, soft, tempting, all woman. But he had to resist all of that. He didn’t want to want her. His life couldn’t take on more complications. So send her away. Now.
Instead of doing that, he blew out a breath, resigned to not being able to get rid of her…yet. He gave her a stern look and patted his leg once more. “One of us didn’t behave very ‘adult’ today, did she? Come here. Now.”
Still, she didn’t move for several seconds. Then she faced him, naked between her short red T-shirt and the lowered jeans. His gaze immediately went to the patch of curly blond hair at the apex of her shapely legs and he fought to calm the beast in him. Want. Need. Mine. No!
He glanced up and saw her watching him, noted her gaze had landed on the thick erection pressing painfully against his jeans. A wisp of a smile teased her mouth. She walked slowly toward him because of the awkwardness of her lowered jeans. In spite of that, she looked confident in her womanhood, certain he’d changed his mind about punishing her. He almost did. Almost.
When she stopped in front of him, he noticed that her nipples had hardened. She breathed shallowly. Turned on. She wanted him and that knowledge nearly undid his resolve. But he held to his decision and pulled her to his side. Then he took hold of her arm and tugged her over his lap. Her left hip butted against him, making him grimace.
She gasped as she landed and then squirmed until she found some kind of comfortable position. But she didn’t just accept this. Her head craned back; her ponytail moved silkily over her shoulders, revealing her slender neck. A neck he wanted to nuzzle, to lick.
“This isn’t necessary. Really. Whatever you have planned.” She met his eyes. “I’m sorry. I acted…acted…”
Grateful to be distracted from where his thoughts had headed, Seth slammed his open hand down on her creamy bottom leaving a handprint. “Acted like a child, letting those two old women get to you.”
“Yeeouch!” She scowled at him, a crease pinching her forehead. “That hurt.”
He swatted Teri’s tightly clenched cheeks a dozen times, making her yelp. She clearly wasn’t going to be a woman who took her correction stoically. Not that she fought him, but she was vocal. Which made him wonder if she would be a loud, vocal lover too. More dangerous thoughts.
She had dropped her head after the first couple of swats and wriggled her butt in an attempt to avoid his hand. He stopped to judge the color, to determine how she was handling the situation. As she unclenched her buttocks, he rested his hand on the heated flesh. “Spankings are supposed to hurt. They’re given so you will think about misbehaving like you did again.”
He heard a quiet sniff and it sounded sexy to the non-s
mart side of him. He smoothed his hand over the reddened skin and she quivered. “Sometimes spankings are given before…” He nearly bit his tongue in two as he realized where his thoughts had gone, especially with the way his cock pressed against her side.
Again she glanced back at him, tears in her eyes, as well as heat. “This isn’t that kind of spanking, is it?”
At her hopeful look and the scent of her arousal, he almost gave in to what they both desired. When had he become so weak, so easily distracted from what needed to be done? With his mate—the woman who should still be with him today but wasn’t, he’d never balked when she’d earned a trip over his knee. He’d spanked other women over the years and always grimly delivered it. Even with Sarah, who he’d only spanked one time, he’d not held back. All of those women were familiar with being punished, but he didn’t think Teri was. Oddly, he liked the idea of being her first, of her submitting to him and trusting him.
“You’ve never had a hand applied to your bottom before, have you?” He lightly swatted one cheek and then the other. “And, no, this isn’t that kind of spanking.”
“No,” she admitted shakily. “Are you done yet?”
Since she’d been a spanking virgin he probably should be, but she hadn’t demanded he stop. She hadn’t tried to get up. With her sense of independence and love of challenging him, he hadn’t seen her as a submissive…until now. She was a natural at it. And that certainly pleased him. An alpha dominant like him needed a woman like her. At least for now.
He pulled his mind back to the present. “I don’t think you’re ready for this to end yet. You know you did wrong. You want to be held responsible.”
“That’s silly. Of course I want this to end,” she protested. “I don’t need--”
He cut her off by spanking her in earnest. His hand rose and fell in hard swats over every inch of her bottom. It turned crimson, heated all over, and she wiggled the delicious butt back and forth, side to side. All the time she cried out, sobbing. Still, he had a strange feeling that she believed she’d needed something like this for a long time. But he wouldn’t be cruel, not really hurt her.
Breathing hard and struggling not to take this intimacy in another direction, Seth finally eased her off his lap. He found he hated letting her go, but he needed distance from her now. A lot of distance. The instant she stood before him rubbing her sore bottom, he stood. As she looked at him with a trembling lower lip and tears trickling down her face, his arms ached to pull her into his embrace. He couldn’t do it. Wouldn’t do it.
With a bare glance at her, he headed for the door. “I’ll expect dinner on the table at 5.”
“Maybe I won’t feel like it.”
Even after she’d been spanked, she dared to sass him. He should turn back and spank her again. But a smile sliding onto his face surprised him and he continued walking away. “Five o’clock, darlin’.”
Chapter Three
“What ya grinning like a fool about?”
Seth froze and instinctively bristled at being startled out of his thoughts as he walked into the equipment building. His foreman and friend, Walker Fremont, leaned against the seat of Seth’s four-wheeler. Clearly he’d been waiting for him and he didn’t look happy. No doubt because of Teri. His friend had a huge chip on his shoulder when it came to women, for damn good reasons. Even more so because he’d been around Seth through all of the crap Sarah had dumped on him. The man was fiercely protective of him.
“Nothing.” Seth forced the all-too-rare smile from his face. He hadn’t realized he was still smiling since walking away from Teri. She frustrated him on many levels, but her spunk had lightened his spirit for the first time in months. Which was dangerous. He couldn’t let himself have feelings for her, certainly nothing soft and warm, and nothing even hinting at getting romantically involved. But, damn, his body wanted her, bad.
“She’s bad news.” Walker stood, stretching to his full 6’3” height, his shoulders stiffened. “I don’t understand why she’s still here.” He reeked of intimidation, threat, but not to Seth. No, Walker, owed him for giving him a chance at a decent job. Ex-cons didn’t usually get so lucky. But Seth had enough dark secrets and problems in his past. They trusted each other, respected each other, and would have each other’s backs without question. Both men knew it without ever having had to speak the words.
“I need a housekeeper who can cook. She does okay at both.” He didn’t particularly like being questioned about the situation. “I’ve been too busy to run an ad. And Teri needed a job temporarily.” Even though he knew it would be best for them all if she moved on, the mention of ‘temporarily’ rubbed him wrong.
Walker moved away when Seth walked to the four-wheeler. “I can put an ad in the local paper, even one in the Topeka paper. Find some older woman…”
Seth ground his jaw to keep from yelling at his friend. He didn’t like to be pushed about anything, even a decision that made sense. His last housekeeper had been a grandmother who had tended her business, took care of his needs, and kept her distance from his private life. He’d told Walker that was the kind of woman he wanted around here again. Then he’d shown up with Teri. A woman pretty enough to tempt any man with breath still in his body. A woman who took care of the household chores, but who rebelled a bit against his idea of the proper schedule for things. She could cook okay, but, again, she didn’t like being held to an exact schedule. She hadn’t pried into his personal life and he hadn’t pried into hers. But he’d seen her watching him curiously now and then, seen a hunger in her eyes…sadness, too. Sometimes she seemed far older than in her early 20s.
He shoved the thoughts aside. “Maybe next week. For now, there are chores to get to. That fence on the north range needs looking at again. We might have to replace it.”
“I’ll get the work pickup and follow you out there.” Walker sounded disgruntled. He wasn’t satisfied with putting off looking for a more suitable housekeeper, even if he didn’t personally have to deal with Teri. But as he headed for the battered Ford truck nearby in the building, he said over his shoulder, “There’s something off about that little gal. Can’t put my finger on it. But she’s….well…different.”
Seth straddled the four-wheeler he used for riding his ranges. He wasn’t a horseback-riding cowboy except on rare occasions. Most horses shied away from him, sensed his inner wolf. But a lot of ranchers worked their ranches on four-wheelers or trucks these days. None of his men questioned his preference.
He pondered Walker’s “she’s different” comment. He’d felt something odd about her, too, from the beginning. With his kind of secrets, he wasn’t about to press her about anything. Especially when his secret would be driving him to take off to stay in the small line shack on the far western edge of his land tomorrow for a few days. Piss poor time to have to leave. Nothing he could do about it, though. He just prayed Teri would stay out of trouble and stay away from Walker. He trusted the man, but with Teri… Mine. As the declaration popped into his head, he frowned. She wasn’t his. Couldn’t be his.
The disturbing idea only added to the growing urgency within him. Maybe he need to leave today instead of tomorrow.
* * *
Teri rubbed her tender bottom beneath the jeans she’d reluctantly pulled back up. She couldn’t believe she’d actually let Seth spank her. It hadn’t been a pleasant experience, nor was standing in a corner. With her healing abilities, even the slight hint of sting would be fading away shortly. But the embarrassment would stay with her. Turned over his knee, her bare bottom up. What he must have seen! Talk about awkward. How would she face him again?
Leave. Now. No. She wasn’t ready to leave here yet.
She looked out the window in her bedroom toward the equipment building where she’d seen him heading. Big, irritating, dominating man. But instead of being disgusted with that description, tingles of excitement fluttered through her. Although he was a head taller than her and twice as big, she liked his size. A lot. Yes, he was irritatin
g when he held steadfast to his rules for running his household…and how she should behave in public. Yet she did have a tendency to believe everything should go according to her likes and dislikes, get things done when it pleased her. And she did feel badly about throwing a bit of a tantrum in front of the local people who knew and respected him. As far as dominating…she kind of liked that side of him. Never before had she put up with for even a second someone taking command of her. This was a new experience. No, she wasn’t ready to see it end just yet.
He drove out of the metal building on the four-wheeler she’d seen him ride many times since she’d been here. It fit him. Still, she wondered why he didn’t work his ranch from horseback, like most of his men did. Except Walker, who drove out behind Seth in the old ranch truck. He didn’t ride a horse often either. Curious, both of them. And Walker didn’t seem to like her, always had a scowl of displeasure for her. Why? What could she possibly have done to him? Or did he just not like women?
The phone rang in Seth’s bedroom, jarring her from her musings. She jerked and wondered if she should answer it. She’d never answered the ranch phone before. Normally he got calls only on his cell phone. But…
It rang over and over, persistently, without going to an answering machine. Did Seth even have one?
Finally she hurried into his room, inhaling his musky, all-man scent, and tried not to look too long at his rumpled bed. Heat pooled low in her body anyway. Desire, too. Irritated with the unwanted feelings for her boss, she snagged the cordless phone and breathlessly said, “Double S Ranch.”
A woman’s haughty, unhappy voice asked, “Who are you?”
Teri didn’t like the woman’s attitude and bristled. “May I ask who is calling?” She did her best to keep her temper.
