Frowning, she merely nodded, but her silent acquiescence wasn’t enough for him. “I asked if you understood, young lady.”
She shivered again.
“Yes. I get you.” She didn’t say she agreed, but she at least understood his reasoning.
“Good then. I’ll see you in a little while.”
When he left the room, her phone buzzed. She glanced at the screen and swiped quickly when she saw the word Malcolm flashing. Had Shane seen that, too? But her thoughts of what Shane saw quickly vanished when she read the text, a cold, sinking feeling in her stomach making her breakfast churn.
You know what I did. Just like we talked about last night. I’ll have it all back before your sister and Clay get back.
She closed her eyes and sank back under the covers.
What had she done?
Chapter Five
Shane wiped his hands off in the kitchen before making his way up to Daisy’s room an hour later. She’d looked so sick, her pale face even paler than usual, as she sat in bed.
Served her right. She ought to feel the aftereffects of her choices.
His daddy would’ve whipped his ass for getting plastered on moonshine on a sibling’s wedding day.
Still, she was sick, and he couldn’t help but feel a little bad for her. Maybe he’d been a little too harsh.
He took the stairs two at a time, eager to see her again. Maybe she felt a little better than she had this morning. He hoped she did. If she was feeling better, he’d let her get up and maybe have a good walk or something, maybe look in on the stalls and see how the rest of the horses were faring this morning.
He knocked on the door, but there was no reply.
He gently pushed the door open, and when he entered her room, she was gone.
Was she in her bathroom? “Daisy?” But only silence met him. He knocked on the door to her bathroom, but when he pushed it open, he found it vacant as well.
Son of a bitch. An hour was too much to ask? He’d only wanted her to rest a bit, and had never expected she’d disobey so soon. He ran a ranch with a dozen men who worked under him. As the eldest in his family, he was used to his siblings obeying, so it surprised him to find Daisy had gone against a direct order.
“Daisy?” He tried again, his voice louder this time.
Still, no answer. Where was the little brat? She was sick, hungover, too tired to work, but well enough to take off?
He called her name as he walked down the hall. “Daisy!” Still nothing.
With every moment that passed, his anger grew. He swept the upstairs, then went back down to the kitchen, but she was nowhere to be found. His phone buzzed then, and he answered on autopilot.
“Yeah?”
“Shane, Clay here. Just wanted to tell you we arrived safe and sound. Everything good at home?”
He moved with purpose up the stairs, two at a time, as he once again scoured the upstairs. But it was of no use. She was gone.
“Doin’ fine,” he lied, not wanting to put a damper on his best friend’s honeymoon because his new sister-in-law couldn’t do as she was goddamned told.
“Good to hear,” Clay said. “I can relax knowing the ranch is in good hands. How ‘bout Daisy? She behaving herself? She gave me and Abby a hell of a time last month.”
She had? Where’d he been, that he’d missed this? But Clayton wasn’t one to talk, and Shane had been busy working.
“Yeah, she’s fine,” he said, his lips turning down into a frown. “Gotta get back to work here. You two have a good time.” He truly did want them to have a good time. They deserved it.
“Thanks, Shane.” As Shane disconnected the call, something outside the window in the hallway caught his attention—a cloud of dust behind his pickup truck. He couldn’t see the driver, but could hazard a guess who it was. And he narrowed his eyes at the billow of curly blonde hair that trailed out the window of the passenger side. Malcolm had to be the driver. With grim determination, he marched downstairs, grabbed his keys, and jogged to Clay’s new car parked in the garage outside the door.
He could tell where they were going by the way his truck veered left. He flinched as the driver plowed right through a mud puddle, splashing his truck liberally with mud before careening off at an even greater clip. What had gotten into them that they thought they’d actually get away with stealing his truck? Hadn’t they known he’d be back and would notice her absence and his missing truck?
In front of them loomed a large, wide-open prairie. He gunned the engine of the sedan with greater conviction, sure now that they would see him pursuing in their rear mirrors. He scowled as he closed in on them, and to his chagrin, he saw a mud puddle the size of Texas ahead of them.
“Brake,” he muttered. “Goddamn brake!” He flinched as they plowed head on into the mud puddle, effectively stopping their getaway short. He parked his car as close to them as possible. There were two of them, and one of him. How would he wrangle them both? But the dilemma ceased to be a concern when Malcolm flew out the door and took off running in the opposite direction. Daisy remained, however, looked sheepishly at him and then at the fleeing form of Malcolm, before looking back at him again. He stood in front of the truck, his chest rising and falling with the deep breaths he took, trying to quell his temper. Without breaking eye contact, he merely lifted one finger and beckoned for her to come to him. She looked at Malcolm’s now-distant figure and swallowed.
“I don’t have a choice, do I?” she asked in a little voice.
Something pulled at his heartstrings, though he was still fuming. He exhaled sharply. “You always have a choice, Daisy. You could have chosen to stay put and take care of yourself as I asked you to. You could have chosen not to take property that didn’t belong to you. And even now, you can choose to face me and own up for what you’ve done, or you can run.”
She hung her head in shame and wrung her hands. “I… I don’t know what to say. I didn’t mean to take your truck. I had something to discuss with Malcolm, and the next thing I know, he was gunning the engine.” Her eyes filled with tears as she looked to him.
He nodded, and pulled his phone out of his pocket. Jeremy, the most recently hired help, answered on the second ring. “Jeremy, got a bit of a situation here. Can you grab one of the hands and head out to the old McDonough farm?” He made arrangements for Clay’s car to be returned back to the ranch.
After disconnecting the call, he placed his phone in his pocket and gave Daisy a pointed look.
“They’re on their way. Now what will it be?”
With a heavy sigh, her eyes cast downward, she trudged over to him with a forlorn expression, softening his heart a bit. She was a naughty little girl in need of a firm hand, and it pleased him that she was not going to fight him.
“Get in the cab,” he said, jerking his finger to the door. Obediently, she stepped up into the truck and took her seat. Moments later, they were heading back to the ranch.
As the wheels rolled over the knobby ground beneath them, she held her head in her hands.
“How’s that headache?”
“Better, but still not good,” she moaned. He merely shook his head. If she’d stayed in bed like he’d instructed, she’d have been well on the way to recovery here. “I know, I know,” she said. “It was stupid of me. I’m stupid.”
“You are not stupid, and I do not want to hear you talk about yourself like that again. Your choice was stupid, and I’ll do what I need to do make sure you don’t make that mistake again. But you are not stupid, and I won’t allow you to say such things.”
“I am, though, Shane. I ruined my sister’s wedding, and I—” She stopped short of finishing her sentence.
“You what?” What was plaguing her conscience?
But she merely shook her head. “No. I don’t want to talk.”
How could she be so damn stubborn. “A little girl on the brink of getting punished for misbehaving ought to know better than to be
stubborn,” he scolded.
She froze in her seat. “What do you mean?”
He barely tempered a growl. “You know exactly what I mean.”
They pulled into the long driveway that led up to the ranch, and when he stopped, her hand reached for the handle.
“Don’t you dare.” Now that she was safe, his truck was recovered, and Clay’s car was on its way back, he had more control over the situation. He’d told Clay and Abby he’d watch out for her, and two weeks loomed in front of him. No way in hell was he going to spend two weeks with a girl who thought it fitting to steal his car, hang out with a loser who gave her moonshine, and get herself plastered to boot.
No way.
“This is what’s gonna happen, young lady. You’re going up to your room. You’ll get back in bed, and wait for me there. When I come up, you and I will have a talk about what my expectations are for the next two weeks, and you’ll have a chance to talk about whatever’s eatin’ you. I will lay you across my knee and spank your little ass for what you did, but when I’m done, this will be over and done with, and we’ll start fresh. You got that?”
Her eyes were round as saucers as she turned to look at him. “You’re gonna spank me?” she whispered.
“Don’t you think you deserve it?”
She squirmed and looked out the window. “But I’m—I’m a woman, Shane. A full-grown woman. I’m an adult.”
“You sure as hell ain’t actin’ like one.”
She turned to him and looked thoughtfully at him, worry and apprehension written on her features. “And if I say no?” Her voice had dropped to a whisper.
Shane reached for her chin, holding it firmly between his fingers, making sure her eyes did not leave his. His voice matched hers, their whispered voices in the truck sealing the intimacy of the moment. Some women needed a firm hand, and in his heart of hearts, he knew Daisy was one of them.
“What if you say no?” he asked, keeping his gaze on hers.
Her eyes watered looking at his, and his heart went out to her. He had no idea what went on in her mind or why she’d made the choices she did, but he knew that he wouldn’t spend one more minute fighting her, or chasing or, or letting her make silly, foolish choices that would harm her.
“You tell me, honey. What if you say no?”
“I don’t want to say no,” she whispered back.
He released her chin and pointed wordlessly to the stairs. “Then go, now.”
Ducking her head as she walked to the stairs, she looked so much like a little girl, so sweet and tiny and innocent, that he wanted to cuddle her up on his lap on the porch swing and sit with her till the sun went down, holding her in his tight embrace while she told him her hopes and dreams and fears. He shook himself a little when the door to the house slammed. It wouldn’t do to start letting his mind wander, to soften too much. He knew the girl was Abby’s sister, and the two of them had been raised in foster homes, lacking the stability and safety of a place to call their own.
Abby had thrived under Clay’s loving guidance. Would her sister be the same?
He did not know what tomorrow would bring, but he knew that for now, his purpose was decided: the morality code of Shane Weston was clear as day. She’d done wrong, and he was older than her, more experienced, and her ordained guardian for the time being. Granting her leniency once had backfired.
Clenching his jaw, he looped his thumb through his thick leather belt as he took the steps two at a time to the doorway. Though a part of him yearned to take his strap to her pretty little ass, he’d go easy on her. He well remembered the sting of his daddy’s belt on occasion, and though it sobered him, he didn’t want to scare or harm her. He’d also never spanked a girl as little as she was. He’d taken his last girlfriend over his knee a time or two, but she’d been a sturdy, strapping girl, not a little wisp of a thing like Daisy.
The door banged shut behind him as he mounted the stairs to her room. She’d left the door open, the glow of her desk lamp casting a half-moon yellow light on the floor in front of the stairs. Had she waited for him? Was she prepared to face the consequences for her actions? As he turned at the top of the stairs, from where he stood he could see the very tips of the toes of her shoes.
She was sitting on the bed, and she was waiting for him.
With a deep breath, he steeled himself and marched into her room.
Chapter Six
Daisy’s hands shook as she heard the hard clomp of Shane’s boots on the hallway outside her door. What was she doing here? Why hadn’t she refused to be taken over his knee and spanked like a naughty little girl? But the better question was, why did a lump rise in her throat and tears fill her eyes as he approached her? She looked up as his large frame filled the doorway, his rugged, sturdy hands on his hips, his bearded jaw clenched, those blue eyes of his piercing straight to her soul.
His jaw was set, his footsteps firm, as he grasped the curved edge of the wooden chair by her desk, pulling it toward him, the sound of the feet scraping along the hardwood floor making her jump.
He sat down and looked at her, beckoning. “Come here, please.”
He wanted her to come to him? How could she trust herself to walk? When she hesitated, he tipped his head to the side and his brows rose, a silent question. Was she really going to disobey him now?
Daisy pushed herself to her feet, her knees wobbling as she dragged her feet across the floor to him. Malcolm was a juvenile compared to this man who now sat in front of her, and she fairly quaked in his presence. By some miracle, she made it to within a foot in front of him as where he sat, legs spread wide apart, his large hands resting gently on his knees.
“Come closer, please,” he said, the deep vibration of his voice making her insides quiver, and to her shock, her pussy clenched in response.
“I can’t,” she whispered. Her limbs were ice.
Shane’s eyes narrowed a bit and she jumped as he shot a hand out and wrapped it around her waist, yanking her toward him so that her legs brushed the inside of his. He flicked a finger under her chin and his eyes met hers, the blue depths so serious, so dominant, yet somehow kind.
“What’d I tell you about obeyin’ me when I’m in charge here?” he asked, dark brows furrowed over eyes as blue as the fathomless sky.
Tears threatened to spill as she responded. “I have to obey you.”
He nodded. “You lied to me. You disobeyed me. You took what didn’t belong to you, and you’ve not taken care of yourself.”
Sorrow filled her as she stood in front of him, facing the man who would punish her, the balance of power hanging between them…
His head tipped even closer to hers as his eyes darkened. “Daisy, this will not happen again. Do you understand me?”
She’d been punished before, slapped in anger by one foster mother and pushed around by another, given detention at school by a teacher. But never had anyone in authority over her spoken with such kindness, such calm, his gentle reprimands drawing repentance from her in a way anger could not.
Daisy could only nod, as he clipped a finger under her chin and one lone tear rolled down her cheek unhindered. “If this happens again, young lady, you will find yourself not only over my knee but bared, those jeans of yours down around your ankles. Do you understand that?”
Her heart skipped a beat. The thought of him spanking her bare…
“Yes,” she gulped. “Yes, sir. I understand.”
It came naturally to her to call him sir. Where she came from, it was expected, but here was a man who was not her elder, but… something else? It felt good to call him sir.
It felt better to call him Daddy.
His penetrating gaze met hers for one more second before he nodded, satisfied, then gently pushed her back so that she stood on one side of his right leg, and before she knew what was happening, he’d pushed her down straight over his lap. Her legs flailed, her belly pressed up against the warm, rough fabric of his jeans.
He tucked her into him with one hand, while the other rested on her bottom. She was secure, held fast, and utterly vulnerable.
“You’ll take a dozen licks for what you’ve done, Daisy. I’m bein’ merciful. My daddy would’ve have taken his belt to my ass.” He leaned in, and to her surprise, he grasped a fistful of her hair in his large, strong hand, pulling just a bit so that his mouth reached her ear. “Does your daddy need to take his belt to your ass?”
A warm, sensual fire licked through her, and she closed her eyes. “N-no,” she stuttered. “I-I don’t think so!”
Without another word he released her hair and fastened his hand around her waist once again. He raised his arm and brought his hand down, hard, on her upturned and very vulnerable backside. She gasped from the shock and pain of it, and before she’d recovered, he’d walloped her again, a sharp, stinging swat that took her breath away with the intensity. Another one fell, then another, and she lost herself in the intensity of her punishment. After half a dozen smacks, her ass stung, and she could barely register his words.
“Will you be a good girl, Daisy?”
Three more smacks landed sharp and fast when she failed to answer right away.
“Y-yes!” she spat out. “I-I’m sorry. Please, Daddy!”
She closed her eyes. She could not believe she’d called him Daddy, and this made twice. She’d never called any man Daddy, and the fact she’d done so embarrassed her even more than being over his lap for a spanking.
“That’s a very good girl,” Shane said, administering another hard smack, seemingly unperturbed by the name. “A good girl apologizing to her daddy for misbehaving. Two more, and your punishment will be over.” He spanked her again, and now the tears flowed freely. He hadn’t mocked her. He hadn’t laughed.
He’d called himself her daddy.
She cried without reserve as he gave her the last stinging spank, then in a whirlwind of limbs and tears and movement, she found herself snuggled up in his lap and up against his chest. Her hands wrapped around his neck on impulse, and she buried her face on his white t-shirt, quickly soaking the shirt clean through.
Cowboy Daddies: Two Western Romances Page 10
