Erotica- Forever His/ Spanking (3 page)

She glanced sideways at Seth and then quietly huffed. With her, he expected obedience to his every order. His word was law. Period. About everything from when he expected meals to be ready to when the laundry needed to be done. He didn’t like excuses or her attempts to be a little less rigid with the daily schedule. They’d gone nose to nose a few times and she wasn’t sure how many more rounds of his temper she would survive without paying some kind of price. She’d seen the strain of holding back in his eyes, in the way his jaw tightened, and in the way he flexed his hands. Still, as angry as he got with her, she wasn’t afraid of him.

The silence was thick between them. Maybe she should be worried about what might happen when they got back to the house. Again, she didn’t fear him, not even facing a possible blow-up of his tightly-held temper. No, what she feared more than his emotional outburst was her growing reactions to the man himself. She cleaned the house according to his instruction, but she never made up his bed other than to change the sheets once a week. He saw no sense in straightening the covers every morning when he would just be crawling under them that night. She was okay with that little quirk of his. Changing the sheets was hard enough on her. His scent did strange things to her, made her desire him with an almost desperate ache. Battling her near-constant arousal when he was around kept her on edge. At times she wondered if that wasn’t part of his problem with her, that he felt attracted to her and didn’t want to acknowledge it in any way.

Jarring her from her musings, he pulled into the driveway of the sprawling, two-story log house and killed the engine. Tension radiated from him.  As he turned to look at her, his dark chocolate eyes mirrored frustration. “We’re going to settle a few matters,” he gritted out. “You’re not going to like it.”

Her heart pounded at his warning. So this would be the first explosion. It unnerved her a bit, but she’d known he couldn’t hold his irritation inside much longer.  For a second, she considered asking him for the keys to the old truck and grabbing her stuff to head on down the road. She’d missed her assignment at the fair, but there was always another job to land. Instead of doing the sensible thing, she gave a nod and climbed out of the truck.

He came around to her side and took her by the elbow to escort her into the house. His touch sent tingles all the way to her toes in the new boots he’d insisted she get. “I’m coming with you; you don’t have to drag me.”

Clearly not having noticed how she had to all but run to keep up with his long strides, he slowed his pace. “Sorry.” Still, he didn’t release her.

As soon as they stepped into the tiled entry area and he closed the door behind them, he dropped her arm. He hung his Stetson on a wall peg and looked down at her. All sorts of heat tumbled in his eyes. She felt heat, too, low in her body. Her stomach knotted as she waited for whatever would come next.

She watched his big, ranch-work-hardened chest rise and fall, stretching the limits of his blue chambray shirt. He appeared to be fighting his temper and something else. He released another deep breath and then growled low in his throat. The growl puzzled her in its almost animalistic sound. But she didn’t have time to think about it because he suddenly lowered his head and kissed her. There was nothing sweet and tender about it. He took her mouth with the need of a desperate man. He devoured her, forced her to respond, which she willingly did. Dominance. The word tumbled through her fuzzy brain.

It took a lot to make Teri’s knees go weak, but this man could certainly do so. Her fingers threaded into his thick, shaggy ebony hair. She balanced on her tiptoes so he didn’t have to strain his neck so much to bend down to her. Her toes were just starting to cramp when he pulled that wonderful mouth from hers.

She groaned in disappointment and eased back off her tiptoes. He was breathing hard, panting in his attempt to settle down. She was, too. But she wanted more, much more. “Why did you stop?”

He ignored her breathy question and ruined the magically hot moment. His now familiar scowl returned. Then he reached around to smack his large, calloused hand on her denim-covered bottom. “Upstairs. Now.” He stepped back and pointed toward the stairway leading to the bedrooms.

“Couldn’t we just kiss again?” Oh, please gods. Let him kiss me again. Her thoughts were still a little scattered from the onslaught to her senses. She couldn’t remember ever being so effected by a man’s kiss.

He sent another solid swat to her bottom and all the fuzziness disappeared. “That hurt,” she accused, putting her hands over the sting.

“It’s only going to get worse. I can promise you that.” He pointed at the staircase again.

She’d never been physically punished in any manner, so this was startling…and intriguing. But she didn’t think she liked the idea of it getting worse.  She’d known he was upset with her, but she was annoyed with him, too. “You know, we could talk about what happened.”

“Don’t need to,” he countered. “I know exactly what you did and so do you.” His thick eyebrows pinched together even more until they were almost one solid line. “You make me crazy sometimes, darlin’.”

A gift she’d been blessed with all these years: making whatever man she was currently involved with crazy. “I’d say I was sorry, but….” But she wasn’t.

The two snippy old widows she’d run into now and then in town, the ones who had glared at her that first day in the diner, had finally stomped all over her last nerve. They’d loudly commented about how awful it was that she and Seth were living in sin. How she’d brought this dear, gentle man down to such a low point of morality. Dear, gentle man? Really? She’d put them in their place and not too quietly. Lots of big ears had been listening in the general store where she’d let them have it. Word of the confrontation had spread faster than wildfire to the Feed and Grain Store where Seth had been buying ranch supplies.

“Understanding why you said those things is one thing, accepting it is another. We’ve talked before about your needing to work harder to get along in the community. How you need to think first before you say something.” His jaw tightened.

She tilted up her chin. “So I’m being punished because I defended our relationship.” Even as she said the words, she knew it wasn’t true. “Our living situation, that is. We don’t have a relationship.”

He hesitated and then said, “It’s not what you said that’s leading to a damn unpleasant day for you. It was the tantrum you threw when I got there and insisted you apologize.” His eyes darkened even more and he pointed toward the stairs again. “Corner. Jeans and panties pulled down. I’ll be up when I’ve cooled down a bit.”

Teri gaped at him in surprise. “Corner?” She didn’t have a clue what he meant by that. “Jeans and panties pulled down? I don’t think so, buster.” Yes, she might have acted a bit like a brat when he’d stormed into the store. She was mad at the women, irritated that so many people were listening, frustrated that he went all Alpha on her. Maybe she’d called him something she shouldn’t have, a name she’d picked up over the years. She’d slammed her mouth shut immediately after the name had slipped out. But it had been too late. His eyes had smoldered in anger.

“You will go to one of the empty corners in your room. You will plant yourself there, nose to corner.” He bristled. “And you will shove those jeans and panties down to stand there bare bottomed. If you don’t…well, it will just be worse for you.”

All of that sounded disgusting. She wrinkled her nose. “You don’t mean that.”

“I sure as hell do.”

Then she remembered how she’d knocked over a display of canned jams and jellies. “It was an accident. I said I’d pay for what I broke.” Okay, she’d tried to push the ladies backward in intimidation. They’d moved out of the way and she’d lost her balance against the display. Now she felt guilty for the mess she’d made, for the way she’d embarrassed all of them, including Seth.

With a sigh, she turned toward the staircase. “Sorry doesn’t cover it, huh?”

“Not this time. This time your pretty little butt is going to pay big time for everything you broke in the store.”

* * *

Teri stared at the corner and wondered why she was here. She didn’t have to do this; she didn’t have to obey Seth’s command. She didn’t have to obey anyone’s commands, especially not some mortal man. Yet she’d marched up the stairs and to this corner between the closet and the triple dresser. Grumbling about the stupidity of her actions, she’d yanked off her boots and kicked them out of the way. Then she’d wriggled her jeans and panties down to mid-thigh, leaving her bare bottom fully exposed. It felt strange, naughty. But then Seth evidently believed she’d been naughty.

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.