She pulled her tears back under tight control. “I am not talking about it and I am not apologizing. Let me go, Zane, this is not your concern.”
“Nope, we need to figure this out and it is important you let me help. When my woman is involved, you will find that it includes me, always. And my best friend’s best girl is crying her eyes out. This is not a request young lady, move it. Let’s go somewhere quiet to work this out.”
“Like hell. I am going home. I am no longer your problem. You don’t get to be in my life when you want to and drop out when you don’t. You should have at least had the common courtesy to tell me you had better things to do than spend time with me. You promised you were a man of your word. You are no better than Bret.” she struggled harder.
Shanna’s voice had risen to an octave she saved for life-changing moments such as finding out your husband is cheating. Or when your heart was beginning to experience that familiar feeling when it was given to a person who did not cherish it. Once again.
“That’s it. Give me your keys.” Shanna hesitated. “Now.” Zane’s face was grim and determined. However, if Zane thought that would intimidate or change Shanna’s mind, he was dead wrong. Shanna was just as determined not to give into him, as he was that she submit.
“There is no way in hell…” Smack. Smack. Smack.
Shanna went silent as she digested that Zane was slapping her ass. It was just as though he had the right. His hand came down again hard on her jeans-clad bottom. God, her stomach clenched and her core was beginning to dew up. But this hurts. How can I be turned on?
“Zane, stop, please stop.”
Several more whacks rained on her pliable lower cheeks.
“Zane, that hurts. We are out in the middle of everyone! Ow! Ow! Okay, please stop. Ow! Damn, that hurts!” Several hard swats bounced off her bottom before she fully capitulated. “Here are my keys. Please, Zane, stop.” With a final two hard swats, he led her over to the passenger side of the car, opened the door, and buckled her in. The tears had started again and Shanna was trying to decide whether she was more angry or embarrassed and then decided it didn’t matter.
“Zane, that hurt, dammit.”
“Supposed to, watch that mouth,” was his clipped answer. “I am pretty disappointed so no talking would be the better part of valor right now until I get us someplace private. Then, young lady, you are going to start from the beginning and fill in the missing pieces. Afterward, we will talk consequences.”
“What do you mean? You already smacked my ass in front of everyone. Which, I might add, you said you would never do. Some gentleman you are. Not really a man of your word, are you? But nothing new there, I guess, huh?”
“Oh, honey, I didn’t spank you nearly enough if you’re still talking. Hush, sunshine, I need to concentrate.” He knew something had her tied up in knots. He needed to be somewhere quiet to untangle this mess. Something sure had upset her and his protective side was assaulting his logical side for dominance. He would get to the bottom of it soon. He needed to teach her better ways to deal with irritation, especially with him.
Shanna heard his tone, firm and yet so comforting. Her tummy was rolling. Her core was clenching. Her mind was racing. Her butt was tingling. Silence fell until they pulled up to a meadow that looked to be near Zane’s family land. He turned the ignition off, pulled the e-brake. He unbuckled both of them before crawling out and pocketing the keys. Shanna sat in the seat, refusing to get out until Zane called her name in a warning. She got up to stomp over a distance from the car, arms crossed.
With a sigh and a small suppressed smile because it looked so cute, Zane came up behind her and said, “C’mon, honey. What’s going on?”
Silence. “Now you decide to quit talking.”
With another sigh, Zane snagged Shanna around the waist, turned her around, and began to kiss her, slowly, tenderly, demanding. He was expecting some resistance, but he knew she was a softie inside and this could grab her. Instead of resisting, he felt her release and she met his kiss with one of her own. Her kiss was so soft and yet so needy. It was wet, salty and filled with so much aching and melancholy. With the release came the tears again.
The tears flowed again in earnest. He let her cry for a bit and as she began to wane, he started to walk her to the log bench he and his brothers had built. They created it so they would have a place to go to be alone. Zane knew his brothers had used the spot for some of the same things he was using it for now, to settle their women.
Sitting her down, he put on his best, I am the boss tone and said, “Now, sunshine, start from the beginning. What happened this week that got you this deep into the muddy swamp?”
The quiet was filled with a couple of hiccups and then she started with a shaky voice that had an element of ‘little girl lost’. There was also a cute quality of ‘oops, I’m in trouble’ to it. Zane loved it, but made sure he was firm until the whole story was out even as he tried to suppress his urge to take this woman now and possess her utterly.
“You were supposed to take me riding Thursday.”
Zane did not dare look at Shanna because she had the pout in her voice down perfectly and he was afraid her face matched her tone. If it did, he would have lost it and laughed. He knew how well she would receive that.
“You were supposed to call me, but you never did. And not Friday either.” Her tone had gotten stronger and accusatory by the end of her answer, all sign of pout gone.
“It appears that you believe I stood you up. Wrongly assumed, I might add. You think that I stood you up because I did not call you. I called you. You didn’t return the call.”
“You did not, I checked my phone.” Indignation coupled with a confidence born of believing she was right made Shanna’s voice antagonistic in response to Zane and carried a bit of haughtiness with it.
“I did. Did you check the messages?” Zane calmly replied with a lifted eyebrow for effect. His confidence showed in his relaxed manner as though it were not a concern at all.
Shanna was equally confident. “I did check and there was no message. Here I’ll show you. No calls in the log and no messages.”
Shanna went to the pickup, grabbed her purse to retrieve her phone, marching back to Zane. She unceremoniously sat back down on the bench, showing a slight discomfort, but she chose to ignore it.
She thumbed through the call list and said triumphantly, “See, nothing from you.”
“Hmm. Check my home phone number because that is what I called from,” calling out the number and the approximate time he had phoned on Saturday evening.
It was quiet for a moment and then she said, “Oh.”
Shanna‘s sudden placid demeanor was evident.
“Found it, huh? What about my message?”
“I didn’t get a message from you. Honestly, I didn’t, Zane.” While Shanna was confident, she was not forceful any longer. Her anger without a cause now made her start rehearsing her apologies. She began to count how many she would need to make based on that one missed call.
“You didn’t get a message that said something like, “Hi, it’s me. Call me when you get this?”
Shanna jumped up from the bench and stepped away from Zane, but he wasn’t having any of it and grabbed her wrist before she was out of range.
“Shanna, did you get a message like that or not?” up went the eyebrow again, sending a clear signal that Shanna was learning quickly was not good news for her.
“Um, I might have,” and she rushed on, “but I didn’t know it was you. The voice didn’t sound like you. It was a bit muffled so since I didn’t know the phone number and I didn’t know who was calling me, I thought it was a wrong number.” Shanna was biting her lip.
“Hmm, so instead of calling me when you thought you had not heard from me, you got angry. Then jumped into the snake pit of venom when Missy tried to put you at my table because you thought I had disregarded you. How close am I?”
Zane’s tone had firmed up and elements of omnis
cient foreboding were strongly adding flavor to his words. Shanna knew it was not a good sign and she needed to explain herself. Knew she had to show she had a reason for being so rude, as well as accusatory to Zane. That is if she could find one.
“I, um, thought that if you said you would call, then I was going to wait until you did. And when you didn’t, I just went over to Sandra Davis’ house and rode with her today.”
By now, Shanna was feeling repentant of her actions and sorry for herself because she knew she would be apologizing to lots of people. That included apologizing to her friend Sandra because she had said some rather suggestively rude things about Zane, as well.
Zane waited for the rest of her explanation, having pulled her back to his lap and securely anchored her there.
“You know, actually going to Sandra’s was not such a bad idea. I was able to catch up with everybody and I learned what everyone was doing since I was last here. By then it was getting late, so I decided to go and get some ice tea before I went home. I was still feeling rather sorry for myself. Then you walked in and didn’t even look in my direction. I know it is unrealistic for you just to know I am there, but my car was parked out front.”
She looked at Zane for effect and sympathy. She was not getting any.
“Anyway, Missy had already taken my order and while I was waiting and after you had walked in, I became increasingly angry watching you sit over there and not even notice me. Actually, I even began to start thinking that you saw me, but you were ignoring me.”
Indignation began to rise again, bringing up her volume, which was immediately shut down by the raising of Zane’s evil eyebrow again.
“So when Missy came out with my tea, she automatically started taking it over to where you were sitting. I panicked because I was afraid I was about to have to go over to your table and retrieve it. Since I thought that you did not care anything about me, I was not going to be embarrassed come hell or high water. I was mad because you treated me that way. I actually thought that you meant what you said about liking me. I was angry because I knew I was already into you.”
Shanna risked a glance his way. “You can stop me at any time.”
When Zane just waited until she finished, she added with a touch of self-pity, “Maybe it was not such a good idea for me to move back. I can get a job almost anywhere. I just thought it would be somewhat comforting. You were kind of interesting.” Her voice trailed off with the last vestiges of her confidence. “I have messed it up, huh?” She started to get out of his lap as though she would leave, which was not possible without Zane driving her. He pulled her into him tighter.
It was quiet for a few more moments, as it seemed Zane was trying to put his words in order. He reached over and put a kiss on Shanna’s temple, then leaned back with a sigh as she stopped herself from leaning into his kiss but not before he saw her move. He knew he had her.
“Sure sounds like you are trussed up nice and tight. It appears to me as though you are throwing yourself a pity party. What I hear throughout this whole thing is that you did not take me at my word. You did not trust that I would do what I said. You did not follow up because you were waiting for me to make the first move. Even though you believed you had the right of it, you turned into a brat of the first order. How close am I?”
“I would like to plead the fifth. Actually, I have been rather hard to live with most of this week. You know though, Zane, this wasn’t entirely my fault. You should have called me from your cell phone. That is what comes up on my phone as you, and your message didn’t contain your name. I don’t know any other number.”
“Okay, the first order of business is to fix this issue. You are going to put my home number in your phone and it is going to come up with my name on it. In fact, you are going to put in every house phone I might call you from so you won’t ever be able to misunderstand again. We are not, cannot, have this happen again.”
Zane was precise in his addressing of the phone dispute and he waited until Shanna had taken his brothers’ numbers, cell numbers, and his own home number down in her phone.
“Next thing we need to deal with is your trust. I thought we had pretty much decided that you considered me a man to be trusted, trustworthy. How am I doing so far?"
Zane was grave and his look was intense and expectant of an answer. Shanna shivered slightly because she already knew where his logic was taking them and Shanna well knew it was not going to be a smooth ride for her. She lowered her head and nodded. When prompted, she spoke her answer. She was learning him fast and while he loved her doing what she did best in the rest of the world, he did expect respect and decorum.
“Yes, sir, you are right.”
Zane nodded his head in agreement liking the addition of ‘sir’. He continued his logic.
“So by you not trusting me, and you know me, it begs the question, and I need to ask it, why didn’t you call me. Why didn’t you trust that if I hadn’t called something was wrong and cared enough to call and check on me? You are an intelligent, take-charge woman, who is a nurturer by nature. It simply does not make sense.” Zane was silent again waiting for Shanna to respond.
“Zane, I trust you. Honestly, I just didn’t think that you called. I told you it was the phone number thing. You did not leave your name in the message, and your voice was different. Plus, I don’t like to take charge with us. I like it when you do it. Well, most of the time.”
Zane nodded his head. “Okay, that number is an explanation I can accept—no penalty, but it is in your phone now. From this moment forward, if I call from anywhere, I will try to remember to leave my name, but if I forget and you are unsure, you need to call me and find out. Honey, it isn’t the same as taking charge. You won’t be chasing me if you call me, if that is running through your mind. Adults call back or they check on the other person with no penalty, no foul. Sometimes I am a long way from one of the cell towers. You might not quite understand what is being said, that means call me and to keep calling me until you get me. Do you understand that? Because, sunshine, I am not going to have this happen again.”
“Yes, Zane, and I’m really, really sorry. I screwed up.”
All the fight seemed to have been sucked out of Shanna by this point. She lowered her head again and Zane lifted her chin with his index finger, placing a soft, gentle kiss on her lips before he continued with purpose.
“Right, the next thing is your behavior. You are a grown woman, Shanna. You ought to have better coping skills than that. In fact, I am positive you do have better coping skills than that because I have had the pleasure of seeing you in action.”
“I know, but when it comes to us, when it comes to you, I lose all of my ability to see straight. God, I am a lost cause.” The emotional tide in her was turning.
“Honey, there is a little part of me that gets kind of tickled that you got upset about not hearing from me and that I can influence your whole week. That is just a little part, not the part of me that is in control. The part of me in control says you are a brat of the first order. This is an excuse and that is not going to be acceptable. Poor, Missy. I had to leave the guys there to try to make her feel better.”
“So I get that, you are right, poor Missy. Nevertheless, what gave her the right to start taking my stuff over to your table? She does not even know whether we see each other or not.”
Shanna’s voice went sullen laced with that pout again and Zane didn’t miss the tone change. Her insecurities were pushed to the surface and he could deal with her like this. The over analyzing adult was receding and the hurt little girl was pushing forward. He would bet she didn’t hear the change but felt it.
“Listen, everyone in three counties knows we see each other. They all know you belong to me. This is not Seattle, where you don’t know what is going on except in your little corner of the world, a tiny corner of the world. This is East Texas, honey, where every gentleman will stop to help you fix a tire and lineup to do it. It’s where every man’s woman is going to te
ll everybody that you had a flat tire and who stopped to help. Now I know the concept is a rusty one for you. I know that it can be irritating, but it is what it is. So the fact that you were upset and had a temper tantrum in the café just now became front-page news for twenty miles in every direction.”
“Well, I think we can extend that area. I was kind of mouthy with Sandra early this morning.”
Now he could hear acceptance that she was wrong. As soon as she had uttered the words and his words had sunk in, Shanna realized what she had done and what had been done to her outside the diner.
Her eyes got wide, her hand flying to her mouth, “Oh, my Lord, Zane. That means everybody knows you spanked me outside the diner just a bit ago.”
Zane chuckled. “Yes, ma’am, I bet you are absolutely right. Well, the good thing is since everything is talked about and life continually goes on, by the time you get back to town you’ll be old news. And it wasn’t a true whipping, just a britches dusting.”
“Zane, that is not funny. How am I ever going to hold my head up?”
Zane could see the horror on Shanna’s face, but was not concerned about gossip, only that she was getting the point. And here we are. Now I have you thinking in the right direction.
“Which is why I am about to tell you what to do to fix your problem. A problem, I might add, you created by jumping to conclusions, not trusting me, and losing your temper without getting the facts. I do not want us to have to deal with these issues again.”
Zane’s tone had taken on a sternness again as he relived the scene in the diner a little bit ago. His girl needed some refresher on how to behave.
“So,” he instructed firmly, “what you are going to do when we are done here, is walk into the diner and find Missy. You are going to apologize publicly to her just where you publicly embarrassed her. You are not to take it to the back room, not talk to her in the corner you’re going to talk to her wherever you find her in the diner. You are going to do it appropriately, and with humility, like the lady you are. It will fix the problem with Missy, save me a long chat with Colton, her husband, and go a long way in stopping the bad gossip, making it good gossip.”
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