So Not A Cowboy

by Starla Kaye

  Mandy faced him, eyes wide. “What are you talking about?”

  He hadn’t thought much about it at the time when she’d told him. He’d been busy pounding into her, holding her ass. She’d gasped out the words. “You once told me that Drew disciplined you through your teenage years and still did occasionally. You said he spanked you.”

  Her face flamed. He’d wondered at the time if she’d told him the truth or if it had been some kind of odd fantasy. Now he knew. “Your brother won’t ever be doing it again, honey.” He met her wary gaze. “But I will. As needed.”

  She turned away again, shoulders stiff, head high. “I don’t want to talk about spanking. Actually I don’t want to talk to you at all. Just leave. Take your big fancy Hummer and head back on down the road.”

  He strode up right behind her, tired of these games. “We are going to talk. And we’re going to have sex. Big time. I’m going to make love to you until you can’t move.”

  She sucked in a shuddery breath. He could smell her arousal. She wanted him every bit as bad as he did her, but his impossibly stubborn wife refused to back down and countered, “Not happening.”

  “Spanking. Sex. Talk. In that order.” He gave her bottom a light pat and she jerked. “Understand?”

  She shoved the door open, darted inside, and slammed the door in his face. “Understand this!”

  Chapter Three

  Mandy stood with her back to the closed front door, head lowered, eyes closed. Understand this! Had she really snapped at her husband that way? And then slammed the door in his face? Oh God. What was she, two?

  He could have simply shoved the door open, but instead he yelled through the wood. “I’m going to count to ten and the door better be open by then.”

  “Seriously? You’re going to count to ten?”

  “Seriously.”

  She remembered other times when she’d been threatened in such a way. Mostly it had happened when she’d done something exceptionally stupid as a child and then dared to challenge her father when she faced discipline. Even Drew had given her such a threat once. She hated it.

  “One. Two. Three. Four.” Erik counted slowly, testing her.

  She detested being tested, or being ordered around, or…. She stubbornly didn’t move but her heart raced.

  “Five. Six. Seven. Eight.”

  Okay, her buttocks were starting to quiver in anticipation. She turned the door handle but didn’t open the door. Was she crazy? Or did she just want to see exactly how far he would go?

  “Nine. Ten.”

  She pulled the door open and faced her frowning husband.

  “Too late, honey. The damage has been done and you’re going to pay the price.” He glanced toward her jeans. “Those denims are coming down and anything between them and bare skin.”

  Foolishly, heat curled through her, settling low in her body. There was nothing sexy about getting her bottom bared and being taken over someone’s knee. Except this particular knee belonged to a man she found drop-dead hot. She ached for his touch…even if it meant his hand to her bottom. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

  She moved away from the door and he walked into the small entry area. His musky aftershave drifted over her; the scent of him as well. Her pheromones went nuts. Every cell in her body desired this man…her husband. She was ready to give into his promise of sex. She really, really wanted that.

  “We’re two adults here.” She swallowed a lump in her throat as he didn’t seem to soften. “There is no need for… well, you know. But I’m not opposed to the making love thing you mentioned.”

  His blue eyes darkened and she saw clear evidence of a very nice erection pressing against his shorts. But Mr. Laid-Back Surfer Boy had disappeared. He was all Mr. Serious now. He shook his head. “One of the two adults here hasn’t been behaving like one. There is definitely a need for the spanking I mentioned.”

  He reached out to gently touch her cheek. “After that I won’t be opposed to the ‘love thing.’”

  He glanced around the open living room, spotted the sofa, and took hold of her hand. She tried to halfway resist but gave in rather than tripping them both and followed him. She knew she could refuse to accept what he had planned. She could run out the door and yell for her brother or one of the ranch hands, have them escort him off the ranch. But she’d gotten herself into this situation, all of it, including the about-to-be-spanked part. She’d been a chicken about not demanding a divorce and instead taking the first flight away from the problem and heading for the safety of her family home. She’d refused to even consider going with him back to LA, where she’d been expected for work reasons as well. At that point their time together had been filled with sex, sex, and more sex. All of it spectacular. But she didn’t want him using even more sex to convince her to try this marriage thing.

  “Okay, you’re right. We should sit down and discuss this marital issue.”

  He let go of her hand and sat down on the middle of the tan leather sofa. She stood in front of him, her stomach tensing. Get away from him. Move. Don’t tempt him.

  “Pull them down, honey.”

  She gaped at him. “I don’t want to.” Why hadn’t she sounded more forceful? Why was her body acting like this was some kind of foreplay? “Are you really serious about spanking me?”

  For a couple of seconds he just looked at her. He didn’t have the same hard expression her father had worn when he was ready to physically discipline her. Or look as stubbornly determined as Drew got before he dealt out a spanking. But he finally nodded. “Yes, I’m serious about doing this.”

  She worried her lower lip and didn’t move. “Why?”

  “Because I think maybe we need to have a domestic discipline understanding between us. It’s not something I’m used to. I’ve only spanked a couple of women and it was always as part of sexual play.”

  “It might be okay as foreplay,” she offered warily.

  “Yes, it is.” He held her gaze and she saw the mixed emotions in his eyes: uncertainty, certainty, distaste, interest. “From what I gather of your history, being spanked isn’t something off the wall for you. You’ve grown up expecting to pay the price for acts of misbehavior. Right?”

  She wanted to say ‘no,’ but he already knew Drew had spanked her. She still couldn’t believe she’d let something like that slip. Heat crept up her face. “Yes.” She raised her chin. “But I thought it ended when you grew up.”

  “Has it? When was your last spanking?” He really appeared interested, not judgmental.

  Mandy looked at her scuffed boots and quietly admitted, “Last Christmas. But I’m not discussing it.”

  “Fair enough.” He repeated his earlier statement, “Pull them down.”

  Don’t do it. Walk away. He won’t come after you. She drew in a steadying breath and toed off her boots. After she kicked them to the side, she unbuckled her belt and unzipped her jeans. She glanced at him, saw Erik watching her with heated eyes, and felt less anxious. He might burn her bottom, but she knew instinctively he wouldn’t really hurt her. Mainly this was embarrassing.

  She wiggled the jeans down to mid-thigh.

  His nostrils flared at the sight of her hot red bikini panties. “Those, too,” he said huskily.

  Her fingers trembled but she pushed the scrap of lace down to join the jeans. She felt self-conscious standing in front of him exposed like this. He’d seen her naked many times, but this was way different. Deciding she wanted to move the inevitable along, she stepped to his side and settled awkwardly across his muscled thighs, a position she’d been in many times.

  “This is going to be a first for me.” He smoothed his hand over her quivering buttocks. “I don’t want to do this wrong.”

  “How about we forget the whole thing? It’s embarrassing enough having to lie like this, exposed, vulnerable,” she put in hopefully.

  “Nice try.” He tucked her closer against him and placed his left arm over her lower back. Then he raised his other hand and she held her
breath. “Time to get this done.”

  The first swats were light, hardly more than pats. She relaxed a little more. But he kept up a steady rhythm, gradually adding force.

  Oddly, she was moaning, squirming and not from the normal pain of a punishment spanking. If he kept up like this….

  He didn’t. Suddenly he spanked her briskly with firm, stinging swats. No longer were they almost teasing. Now he spanked with an open flat hand with his fingers closed. Each smack sent a sharp sting to her tender flesh and the smacks covered all of her bottom.

  “I want you to remember this spanking, Mandy.” He planted a particularly hard Swat! on one lower cheek making her yelp. “I don’t want to have to spank you very often. But know that I will if you behave like a child, which you’ve been doing for almost two months now.”

  She squirmed from the fire he’d slowly lit. “I’ll remember. I’m sorry.”

  Even she didn’t buy her automatic statement. It hadn’t been given from the heart. Clearly picking up on that, he increased the pace. Each smack had her cringing, hissing.

  “When are you going to stop?” she squeaked out, flexing her legs up. Her bottom burned enough that she would be uncomfortable sitting for a while.

  He continued on, taking the intensity up again. “When I can see that you’ve really gotten my message.”

  Dumb answer, in her opinion. Still, there was nothing she could do but stay in position and let him whack away at her poor bottom. What sign was he looking for from her? Her father had delivered his ‘message’ until she cried hard and her bottom had been on fire. Drew spanked pretty much the same way. She wished she’d never started this with Erik, especially when she didn’t know their boundaries.

  Finally a particular Swat! had her arching backward, had her kicking her legs straight out. She cried, “I’mmmm sorrrry!” Tears streamed down her face and she sobbed miserably.

  Immediately he went from spanker to soother. The hand that had burned her bottom now moved in feather-light circles over her heated flesh. “I wasn’t sure I could actually do this. Cause you pain, even if the pain will soon pass.”

  He eased his hand between her legs, urging them further apart. As she tensed, waiting, curious, he moved a finger down to briefly touch her puckered hole and slowly drew it up the crease between her cheeks. She shivered and moisture built low in her body. Moisture he went back and found with the tips of his fingers. “You’re wet for me. Ready.” His voice had deepened, dripped with arousal.

  “Yes, but I shouldn’t want you. Not after what you just did. Not when there are so many issues between us.” Still, when he eased a finger inside her, she pushed her bottom up and all but begged him for more.

  Erik added a second finger between her folds and wriggled then until she moaned and held her breath. She felt his erection solid as a steel rod next to her hip. Yet somehow he kept from taking this all a step further. He continued playing inside her body and asked, “What normally happened after you got spanked?”

  Mandy didn’t want to think about that. All that mattered now were the fingers torturing her, what her body ached for. She said nothing, just squirmed in blind pleasure.

  Those magic fingers withdrew and he lightly pinched her clit, holding it. “Answer me. Honestly. It’ll help me…us…develop our own practices after a spanking.”

  “This isn’t fair,” she complained, lying still and glancing back at him. “I need…you need….”

  His expression grew serious. He moved his hand until it rested on her stinging bottom. “Do you need me to continue with burning your butt? I want an answer.”

  She turned her head away, annoyed. Heat flamed her face and she didn’t want him to see that. “Different things happened, depending on the circumstance. Sometimes I had to stand in the corner of whatever room I got spanked in, bottom bare. I hated that, knowing someone could walk by and see me.”

  “Understandable.” He went back to caressing her bottom.

  “Sometimes I got sent immediately to bed for the rest of the day. Sometimes I just had to get redressed and go back to my chores.” That was what normally happened after Drew spanked her. He didn’t put up with pouting or babying herself even when her ass really hurt.

  “Maybe we’ll do them all, for different circumstances, too.”

  She had a hard time staying with the discussion when all she wanted to do was have him drive his stiff cock into her. Yet she managed to say in annoyance, “You make it sound like this will ever happen again. Not likely. Not if we don’t—”

  Smack! The swat that landed had her stiffening all over and crying, “What was that for?”

  “For being so damn stubborn. I am not leaving here until we have given this marriage a real try.” He shifted her off his lap to stand beside him. “I think we’ll try some of that corner time. I need to make a call and you need to think about why I spanked you.”

  She stood glowering down at him, embarrassed at his seeing her this way. “You can make your call and I’ll go—”

  To her surprise, he got up in a flash, took her arm, and forced her to scramble awkwardly over to the corner next to the fireplace. It was all she could do to move with him and not trip. She opened her mouth to protest but slammed it shut at the determined look in his eye, at the hand he lifted in readiness to swing down on her bottom once more.

  “You will stand here until I’m ready to talk to you.”

  “I hate you for this,” she muttered. Still, she’d seen his heated eyes as he’d met her gaze and then nudged her closer to the corner.

  His hand connected gently with her bottom, a finger dipping between her legs, flicking her clit. “Maybe for making you do this. But you don’t hate me, honey. Your body wants me and you can’t deny it.”

  Stupid body! Spanked and humiliated by him and yet she desired him. Unbelievable…but true. He challenged her like no other man ever had. And let’s not forget what a Class A lover he is.

  Erik took a seat on one of the over-stuffed chairs directly opposite the corner he’d chosen to put his wife in. He sucked in a breath and fought down the urge to go to her and drag her to the floor. He wanted nothing more than to put her on all fours and ride the hell out of her. But he wasn’t going to do it. He might be turned on more than he’d ever been in his life, but he was also upset with her. She had been way more than unreasonable about talking over the situation between them. She’d purposely avoided him, refused to meet him anywhere close to halfway. So she could just stand there for awhile.

  He pulled his cell phone from his pocket and punched in the number to his Think Tank office. His gaze darted back to the sweet bottom he’d turned red and hot. She has The best ass. He had to reach down and do some shifting to find any sense of comfort.

  By the time his best friend and top programmer, Allan, answered, he was almost sweating bullets in his battle to not go touch Mandy in some way. “About time you answered.” He inwardly swore at the rare sharpness in his tone.

  “What’s up with you?’ Allan questioned in surprise.

  Erik threaded a hand through his hair and blew out a deep breath. “Sorry. Just frustrated.”

  “Is your wife still giving you problems?” Allan was the only one who knew the entire story between him and Mandy, including his almost unreasonable determination to make this marriage work. He was the only one of his normally tight group who backed him taking time away from the business to deal with the issue. A limited amount of time anyway.

  Mandy shifted, reaching around to cup her sore cheeks.

  “Uh-uh. No touching,” he stated, not wanting his view of that pretty pink bottom hidden. She craned her head to stick her tongue out at him and lowered her hands before turning away again. The little act of rebellion made him smile.

  “No touching what?”

  “Never mind. Did you look at the properties the realtor found?” He really wasn’t interested in anything to do with business right now, but he tried to focus on the conversation.

  “A co
uple of them weren’t bad. We need you here, though, to see them. When are you coming back?”

  “I haven’t even been gone a day, Allan,” he protested. “I’m going to be here a week, two weeks…whatever it takes.”

  Allan grumbled about his needing to keep this trip as short as possible. At the same time Mandy looked in his direction again and mouthed incredulously, “Two weeks? No way!”

  He grinned and said, “Maybe a month. Who knows.”

  His friend knew him well and chuckled. “I take it that was said for your wife’s benefit. Not cooperating, huh?”

  “Not so much yet.” He winked at her and she hissed then faced the corner again. He was almost sure he heard her muttering beneath her breath, which made him smile. “I’d better cut this conversation short. Mandy and I are sort of in the middle of something.”

  She flipped him the finger and he laughed. “I’ve got to go. My sweet, stubborn wife is beckoning me.”

  He hung up and walked casually toward Mandy, who had stiffened at hearing him. He stepped directly behind her and cupped her butt cheeks, feeling the warmth, hearing her quiet gasp. “The bird? You actually flashed me ‘the bird’?”

  She tried to inch away from him, huffing. “You deserved it.”

  “And I’ve got something you deserve.” He put his hands around her bare stomach and pulled her against him, putting her bottom right up tight next to the hard ridge in his shorts.

  “Really? You give me a spanking like a child, make me stand here in a corner while you stare at my red ass. Now you think I’m going to let you….” She wriggled around to face him, frowning in disgust. Then she smiled sassily at him. “Let’s see who can get their pants off first!”

  * * *

  Mandy watched Erik walk off into the great room with her older brother. She hadn’t wanted to come here tonight, but Drew had insisted. He was determined to get to know her husband…grill him really. They should have been at her place talking. Somehow time had gotten away from them and talking had been the last thing on their minds. Until Drew’s phone call to join him and Tanya for supper.