by Kira Barcelo
Crap! She knew better than to toss out that word and bit her lower lip.
He went on, speaking without even a trace of anger in his tone. “I’m faithful to you, Jenna. You know we’re in for some more long stretches of time when I’ll be gone, filming, if this show’s picked up. But I’m going to respect your wishes and I’m going to ask you now, and I want the truth. Do you not want me to do this?”
Gazing at him, she gave a confused blink. “You’re—what do you mean?”
“I mean, I need to know if you’re not happy with me doing this, if it’s going to hurt our relationship. I don’t need to act, Jenna. Not as long as I have the ranch. If you don’t want me to be in the show, I need to know now. My agent will have to get me out of the contract—”
“But I thought you loved doing this, Stone. I thought you were so excited about it.”
“I was. But it’s tougher than I thought, being so far away from you, Jenna.” His arm wrapped around her waist and he pressed her up against him, gazing back at her with a half smile. “And I don’t want you to think I’m off somewhere, cheating on you with some actress.”
Now she felt a wave of guilt go through her. “I won’t think—oh, I don’t want to see you give up doing what you love.”
“Well, I don’t want to lose what we have together, Jenna.”
“And I don’t want you to ever be resentful that you gave up doing something you love.” Smiling, she curled her arms around his neck. “I love you, Stone. You go on and do what you love to do. And when you come back, I’ll be here, waiting for you.”
Though he grinned and kissed her, he still looked doubtful. “Are you sure?”
“’Course I’m sure!”
“Because I love you, too, Jenna. And it’s just a show. I have the ranch to keep busy. Never have to leave this place at all, in fact—”
“Oh, now it’s not just a show. People love to watch you, Stone. You may not be the star, but you have people who recognize you and who think you make whatever show you’re in better, just by being there. They watch the show or the movie and they forget about this real world and all its troubles for a while. At least for a little while, they forget. You make them forget, Stone.” She smiled, beaming proudly at him. “And as for the ranch, it’ll be waiting here for you, too. I’ll take care of everything until you come back.”
Taking her chin in his hand, he tipped her face up for their gazes to meet. “Think about this now, Jenna. I’m ready to walk away from all that…if it’s going to cause any problems between us.”
“And I don’t want you to give up anything that makes you happy. I’ll—I’ll do my best to understand. Besides…” Her face beamed with a big smile. “The way you were all talking about Secrets of the City, I hope it does get on TV. I want to see it, too! And so do Jake and your sisters.”
“Heck, it sounds like I have my own fan club,” Stone teased. “Well, we’ll have to celebrate big it it does get picked up.”
“How about a party? We’ll invite everybody. Tom will want Ashley there, you know. And you can even invite that—Lacey-whatever-girl.”
“Geez, you’re inviting a lot of people. I was thinking of a more private affair. Something preferably involving adult beverages and the two of us naked.”
“Oh, that could be arranged, too.” Stopping only for a kiss, she started rising off his lap. “But it’s getting late. It’s all back to business as usual now, Stone. We need to get up early tomorrow.”
“Sounds good. First, though…” He stopped her from moving any further with both hands firmly set on her waist. “You deliberately disobeyed my orders today. Now you know I can’t let you get away with that, Jenna.”
That was precisely what she’d thought. Since he hadn’t said a word up until now, she thought she’d gotten away with it.
“Well, I was just upset over what that stupid actress said, and I had to do something to work it off—”
“Very creative little excuse. If you needed to ‘work off’ being upset, you could’ve gone for a walk. You could’ve used my treadmill in the exercise room. Taken Midnight out for a ride, anything.”
“Oh, but—but it’s late. And you’re tired, Stone.” She leaned into him, pushing his hat back far enough to run her fingers through his hair and to kiss his forehead. “You had that long, long flight home and all.”
“Well, I appreciate your concern, Jenna. But I’m never too tired to teach you a lesson.”
Ohhhh, noooo! He wasn’t taking “no” for an answer, turning her to face him fully. He unbuckled her belt and fought a bit with those tight jeans, finally getting them down over her hips and letting them pool at her knees. The cool night air went right through the thin fabric of her panties.
Her red panties. Hot red. A sultry lace number that was also…a thong. Stone paused to admire them.
“I liked Ashley’s,” she said, feeling the hot blush in her face from the embarrassment. “So I ran out and got a pair something like them.”
“Hmmm. They’re sexier on you,” he growled.
“Yeah?”
“Absolutely.” Without delay, he positioned her across his lap, letting her hair dangle over to the ground. “They’re so convenient, too. Perfect spanking undies. Maybe they should market them that way. I bet their sales would go up.”
Even though she knew it was futile, Jenna wriggled on his lap, trying to free herself. Absolutely no chance of that, with his left arm securely grasping her by the waist.
“Please, Stone!” she tried wheedling him, even though she knew that was useless, too. “I didn’t even do that much. It was no big deal—”
“It’s not what you did so much as the fact that you willfully went against my orders. How do you think that comes across to your brother and the hands? You need to set the example, Jenna, that I’m to be respected. You should also know by now that I won’t hesitate to spank you when you need spanking.”
Groaning, Jenna looked back over her shoulder at him. “I guess I should consider myself lucky that you left that hairbrush back at the house.”
“Actually…” To her dismay, she watched Stone reach his free arm back, then wield the dreaded antique hairbrush in the air. “You’re not that lucky. I had the foresight to tuck it into my pocket before heading out for our walk.”
“B-but it’s not fair! I didn’t do that much! I just—owwwwwwch!”
That rigid hairbrush brought a hasty halt to her protests. Each stinging swack that rained down on her unprotected butt cheeks drew a startled “Ohh!” from her. His hand had hurt enough—but this? She could only imagine how much longer his arm could swing, now that the hairbrush was doing the work the back of his hand had done before.
The whacks targeted her bottom like a bullseye. Jenna tried to take the spanking quietly at first, but as soon as it got too hot in her nether parts she was yelping and bucking wildly. Desperate to get her tail away from that rock-hard brush, she kicked her legs in the air. She moaned miserably when all that got her was whacks aimed directly at the tender flesh between her thighs and her behind.
Luckily, they were out in the woods. Jenna was grateful that no one could hear her out there. She could almost picture herself running down to the nearly lake and jumping in, hoping the water would cool off her bottom. With her luck, there’d be some paparazzi hiding behind a tree, looking to get a picture of Stone and taking snapshots of her scorching red behind instead!
With her jeans bunched up around her knees, he was doing a thorough job of spanking just about every inch of naughty backside. Jenna squirmed, alternating between hollering and moaning, until she resigned herself to the fact that she wasn’t getting off his knee until he decided she’d had enough.
“Yeee-ooowww!” she growled with that last one, which he seemed to have packed with even more heat.
That…last one. Was it over? She rested, catching her breath and pushing strands of her long hair behind her ears. For those minutes, her bottom felt like a neon sign that had caught fire
, and it must have been beaming like one, too. If nothing else, her misery was over. Stone rested his hand on the small of her back, giving her muscles a soothing rub.
“Okay, baby. So…” He helped her back to her feet, grinning at how quickly her hands, smaller and daintier than his, flew back to rub her well-spanked behind. “Do I have your word? You promise I can trust you, too? While I’m gone, you’ll maintain the ranch and do things my way?”
“Y-y-you have my word, Stone.”
“Good.” Rising from his seat, he reached back and placed the hairbrush handle back into the rear pocket of his jeans. “Now let’s get back to the house. Get you to bed…okay, Jenna?”
She wasn’t giving him the cold shoulder; she was a bit preoccupied at the moment, trying to tug those tight jeans back over a backside that had just received a sound paddling. Stone watched on with a smile, wincing when he heard her hiss as her sore bottom made contact with the hard denim of her jeans.
Before she did, his gaze lingered on her bare flesh. Damn, those were some hot panties. Sexy, naughty, yummy panties, with only that single line of red going up between—well, now her bottom matched her tantalizing little silk drawers. It took some effort for him not to take her, to make crazy, spur-of-the-moment love with her, right there in the woods.
“I hope I’m the cowboy you’ve always dreamed I’d be, baby,” he said, speaking his mind on a whim.
“You sure are the cowboy I dreamed of.” Jenna glanced ruefully at him over her shoulder, again trying to rub away some of the heat in her rear end. “And you spank like a cowboy, too. That’s for sure!”
CHAPTER TEN
It had rained the night before, lending crisp breezes to an already cool autumn morning. No matter how many times Stone had taken on the view, he never tired of seeing the mountains of Wyoming, especially when that view was shared with people he loved.
He was a big fan of summer, though autumn had to be his favorite season. Just being back in sweaters and jackets, which shielded against the chillier temperatures, brought back a cozy sort of feeling. Considering how many times they’d stopped so that Jake and his friend from school, Evan, could snap pictures with their handy digital cameras, he was glad to have been dressed as warmly as it was. Stone couldn’t blame the kids, either; that mountain trail was worthy of camera-ready, breathtaking sights.
Jenna stood at his side, sharing a smile with him when his arm circled her waist. They’d started off early that Saturday morning, having already determined it would be a do-as-you-please day. Other than tending to the horses and cattle, they’d set out for a long, leisurely drive. Before their hike they’d stopped off at a small town’s rustic restaurant for a hearty breakfast seasoned with conversation. It amused him, how much everyone—even the boys—had to talk about when the usual, day-by-day routine wasn’t getting in the way.
That was the day. He’d decided that as early as the week before. Jenna had no idea how nervous he was; then again, that was the benefit of being an actor. To some extent he could mask his true feelings, appearing—even if nowhere but on the surface—confident in that turbo-macho manner, even though on the inside, he had a case of the jitters.
Because there was always the chance, however remote, that things wouldn’t work out as he’d planned. Stone knew that if that happened, there was no way around it: He’d be heartbroken.
Yet that morning, the hours of which easily rode in the afternoon as they returned from their hike to the SUV, he was in good spirits, enjoying the company of a woman and her young brother, both of whom had become family to him. Dinner would be at his sister Melanie’s home, where Robyn and her family would be meeting them, too. That would be around seven o’clock, a big, wonderful Farrell family gathering, filled with great food, fun conversation and catching up, and lots of love.
All things that were priceless, that he’d missed during all that time he’d been away, chasing the stars.
There was much to be said for the rancher life. And he was hoping to be able to make a very special announcement that night at dinner.
“C’mon—I’ll take a picture of you three,” Evan said as he eased Jake’s camera from his hands. “You, your sister and Stone, with that view behind you…”
As he was getting in position, with Jake standing and smiling between him and Jenna, he heard a familiar ringtone and recognized it as his.
“Anything important?” Jenna asked.
Stone glanced at the screen but slipped it back into his jacket pocket. “My agent. Haven’t heard from him in a while.”
“Shouldn’t you get it?”
“It can wait till we get back to the bottom. It’s probably about some movie that needs a bad guy to get beat up again.” Jovially, he laughed and was already smiling when Jake’s friend snapped the picture.
Weeks had passed since he’d last gotten a call, any call at all, from Hollywood. Usually, it was him calling Darryl Smart, opening the conversation with what he hoped sounded like a carefree question: “Got anything new for me, Max?” It was an old joke, one Darryl had told him he’d heard since he was a kid, when his classmates had teased him about sharing a name with the character of Agent 86, aka Maxwell Smart, in the old TV sitcom, Get Smart.
For once, the tables were turned, with his agent calling him, most likely to briefly touch base or to enthusiastically pump up some minor/sort-of major role in a film that could be of interest to Stone. At last, je had reached a point in his career—in reality, he’d reached it a couple of years ago—where he no longer took whatever part that came his way, for as much the sake of keeping in the public eye as for money, but rather what he thought would be fun and worth doing. Darryl had told him he’d never get rich that way, but Stone, stubborn as ever, had stuck to his guns.
Somewhere along the way, he’d realized that if he should die unexpectedly, he wanted it to be in the middle of doing something he’d looked forward to doing, something cool and fun and awesome, rather than something he’d look back at with embarrassment and regret.
In other words, something he’d been a part of only because someone else had told him it would advance his career. He’d done that a couple of times and felt trapped in the roles, and he wasn’t doing that ever again.
Now that he was a rancher, the game had changed even more…and in his favor.
In the past, he would have been going stir-crazy while those weeks went by without any word from Darryl. Now it wasn’t that he didn’t care if he never worked again as an actor; but his work wasn’t the most important thing in his life anymore.
Still, curiosity got the best of him. Having trekked back to the trail’s starting point, he whipped out his phone at Jake’s urging and hit the button that speed-dialed his agent’s number.
“See, now I thought you lost your cell phone. That’s the only reason you wouldn’t have called me,” he joked.
“You kiddin’ me, Stone? I’ve been trying to reach you all morning.”
“On a Saturday, no less. I’ve been up on a mountain.”
“Hey—me, too! Only we call it New York!” Darrell’s laugh made him smile. “I called because I wanted to be the first one to ask this question…”
“What’s that?”
“How’s the weather up there in Wyoming?”
Stone coughed out a laugh as he pulled his keys from his pocket. He glanced at Jenna, whose arm was hooked through his, looking on intently during the call.
“It’s autumn and we’re up in the mountains. Cold, man. How would you think it’d be? Balmy?”
“Ah, that’s what I thought. Ready to go back to the Sunshine State?”
With only a few feet to go before reaching his car, he stopped. “I thought—isn’t the series dead in the water?”
“It just got picked up. Mid-season replacement.” His agent waited for a response, but when none came, he prompted, “Well?”
Stone swallowed. To Jenna, he relayed the message, “Secrets of the City just got picked up as a mid-season replacement.”
“Yes!” Her response was instant and jubilant. Behind her, the boys whooped in unison.
“Now I don’t have to tell you,” Darrell cautioned on the other line, “because I can hear the crowds roaring over there, that there are no guarantees. The public is outrageously fickle.”
“That’s true. But this is my first series, so—”
“So celebrate! Yeah, absolutely, man! But also, on the upside, there’ve been mid-season replacements that have gone on to more success than the series they replaced. Hopefully this will be the case with Secrets of the City.”
Nodding to Jenna, who made him chuckle with her almost childlike exuberance, he asked Darrell, “So when do we go back to Florida?”
“Looks like in a couple of weeks.”
“A couple of weeks?”
“Yeah. Were you planning on an extravagant European vacation or something? Hell with that. You’re workin’!” Darrell sounded as tickled as Jenna by the news. “Keep in mind they’ve ordered up the first ten episodes, not including the pilot. The series debuts in January. There’s filming, there’s promo. Oh—and I’m showing you the money, my friend. Ashley’s the star; she’s getting a hundred thousand. You, Mr. Chief of Police, are getting seventy-five grand per episode.”
“Wow. I think I can make do with that pittance.”
Darrell laughed. “I’ll fill you in on the other details on Monday. Right now I’m on my way to the airport. I always get lost on the way to JFK, never fails. Damn New York highways. Anyway, start packing your bags. Congrats, my friend.”
“Thank you. And good work, my friend. I appreciate it.”
“And I’m proud to say I work for you. Careful getting off that mountain, now. You need to be in good shape to go crime-fighting with Little Miss Shape-Shifter.”
Stone chuckled and returned the cell to his pocket. As they reached the car, he heard a ringtone and started reaching for his phone again, thinking it was his. To his side, Jenna was consulting her cell.
“That yours?” he asked.
