So Not a Cowgirl (9 page)

Pursing her lips, she wadded up the note and tossed it into the trash can beside the desk. Fine. She’d talk to him later about Peter.

She sank down into the big leather chair and spun slowly around a few times. Finish the month’s bookkeeping. She was already up to date with that. She’d already straightened every darn file, too. Thanks to her disastrous project of searching for a certain invoice the other day. She had time on her hands. Time Mr. Stubborn Cowboy was paying highly for.

On a final spin of the chair, the IRS notice that she’d dropped on the desk snared her attention. She couldn’t resist such a chance to prove her worth. She couldn’t allow him to fumble his way through finding the necessary information and communicating reasonably with the agent in charge of the case. Still, as she reached for the notice, she realized her actions would be seen as rebellion, as going against his orders. He’d no doubt come up with
consequences
, just as he’d mentioned, for her disobedience.

Tough! This job and proving herself was worth whatever he’d deal out later.

She scooted the chair back and determined where to start looking for the information.

The light in his office was still on as Drew drove into the driveway near midnight. He frowned as he drug himself wearily out of the truck. His headache had stayed with him all day. As had thoughts of Tanya. And memories of overhearing her conversation with that Townsend character. A partnership. In Sacramento. Halfway across the country.

He slammed the truck door. He’d spent way too much time fretting over her leaving the ranch, especially since he wanted her gone. At least that’s what he’d told Greg, told her, too. But as he’d sat through one frustrating meeting today after another with his lawyer and some foundation contacts, he’d realized that he wasn’t so sure he really wanted her gone.

Bone dead tired, he headed up the porch and into the house. He needed to fall face down on his bed and sleep about ten hours straight through. Wouldn’t happen. He’d need to get up in about six hours in order to get ranch chores done before another busy day ahead. His lawyer had another meeting set up for this afternoon. And his banker wanted a piece of him as well.

Closing the front door, he remembered the lights on in the office. Tanya. What the hell was she doing still working at this hour?

Drew strode down the hall, struck halfway by the smell of her special scent again. Struck, too, by immediate awareness of how close he was to her. Struck by a powerful need to touch her, to kiss her, to…

To spank her good.

Stopping in the doorway, Drew gaped at the piles of files and papers on the middle of the carpeted floor. He didn’t need to look closer to know which files they were. She’d gone against his wishes and dived right into the audit project. A part of him realized he should be glad for her help and what she’d found. The other part of him was royally pissed off.

She hadn’t heard him enter the house, or even come into the room. She was bent over, sorting through some files spread out on the sofa. In a perfect position.

It didn’t take him two seconds to cross the room, stop beside her, and plant one butt-burning Swat! on that tempting backside.

“
What are you doing?” she snapped, bolting upright and turning to glare at him.

He stood rigidly, anger threading through him. “What did I tell you before?”

She rolled her eyes. “You’re being unreasonable about this.”

“
My choice.” He pinned her with a steely gaze. “I repeat. What did I tell you before?”

Pink tinged her cheeks, but she raised that stubborn chin. “I had time to kill. The bookkeeping is already caught up. You can’t pay me for just sitting around.”

“
Trust me, sweetheart,” he said, walking toward the closet and the paddle he’d warned her about. “You won’t feel like sitting around when I get done here tonight.”

“
Spanking me is just silly. I’m helping you here. Why can’t you see that?”

When he faced her again, he noted how her gaze had locked onto the worn foot-long paddle. Her stance had stiffened. He could see her chest rapidly rising and falling. She knew what he planned to do, and yet she wasn’t running screaming from the room. Once again, he admired her strength of character.

He walked back and took her arm, pulling her with him to the desk. She had hesitated only an instant.

“
Drew…” She saw the determined look in his expression and gave up.

“
I specifically told you
not
to work on this audit stuff.” He blew out a breath and added, “Even though I admit that was a pigheaded decision on my part. Although I had my reasons.”

“
Had?”

“
I may have changed my mind about your working on this matter.” When she looked relieved, he lifted the paddle. “That doesn’t mean I’m not going to toast your butt. You purposely defied me.”

“
But—“ She paled at the sight of the raised paddle.

“
You disobeyed me, didn’t you?”

He could see that she wanted to object, but then she gave a small nod without voicing admission.

“
Let’s get this over with then. I’m tired. You’re tired.” He turned her toward the desk.

She looked at him over her shoulder. “Tomorrow…”

Drew shook his head. “Tonight.”

Without direction, she leaned over until her forearms rested on the desktop. Her skirt-covered bottom faced him. For a second, Drew was caught up in the sweet view of that heart-shaped bottom, those trim legs on killer heels. Instincts for a completely different activity threatened to take over, but he resisted. Another time he’d act on those instincts.

His hands shook just a little as he lifted the flippy hem of the skirt and shoved the fabric up onto her back. Then he sucked in a surprised breath when he gaped at the sweat-inducing sight of her firm bottom and the wisp of lace thong she wore. He nearly dropped the paddle.

“
I’m not sorry,” she stated quietly. “Even if you’re going to punish me for what I did.”

Defiant to the end. His heart pounded and his determination returned.

She tensed. He centered the paddle over her taut buttocks, and then lifted it shoulder-high only to bring it swiftly down.

She yelped at the force and vigor, arching up.

He pushed her down, and kept his left hand there to ensure she stayed in place. “I’m going to make it painfully clear what happens when you blatantly disobey me.”

Proving his intent, Drew spanked her methodically, powerfully, giving her no break to recuperate between each firm stroke of the paddle. His wrist hurt after the first couple dozen swats. Her blazing butt had to hurt even more, although she’d done little more than squirm on occasion and hiss out once in a while.

“
Are you going to defy me again?” he questioned, holding the paddle up and waiting for her response.

Stubborn female that she was, she glanced back and countered on a sniff, “Are you going to give a stupid order again?”

He couldn’t believe she’d said such a thing. And yet he could. “Don’t you know when to quit?”

Seeing him begin to lower the paddle again, she quickly faced away, dropping her head to the desktop. “Not really.”

The Swat! he gave her this time sent her pressing even further against the desk. Had her grunting, “Ohhhhhhhhhh!”

He concentrated on impressing her with what would happen each and every time she chose to go against his orders. The sharp popping sound the paddle made as it connected fiercely over and over with her fleshy bottom filled the room. He’d paddled Mandy a half dozen times in her life, but she thrown a hissy fit through every paddling. Tanya yelped and gave involuntary short screeches on particularly hard whacks, but she took her punishment otherwise. Which was probably why he paddled her long and harder than he’d originally intended.

Finally she reached her breaking point. She arched upward, back stiff, burned bottom trembling and cried out, “Ohhhhhh pleaseeee! Please stop!”

The paddle fell to the floor as he looked almost regretfully down at the fire engine red bottom. He’d gotten carried away, but she hadn’t attempted to really resist. He liked the pinkness of a spanked woman’s bottom. He liked the heat from it. But this was a red, red bottom. One that had to be blazing like hell.

Then he did something he’d never done before. He leaned down and ever so gently kissed one fiery cheek.

She tensed.

He dared to move a hand to carefully caress those hot cheeks he’d just lit on fire. Slowly. Gently.

The moan she gave now was far from the pain-filled ones of only moments ago. The quivering of her body was far different from when she’d squirmed at each strike of the unrelenting paddle.

“
Drew,” she gasped as he massaged her again.

Her need snared his attention. He felt an equal, probably greater need. If he didn’t pull away now, grasp onto the last of his shreds of sanity, he would take her right here. Right now. And he’d take her hard.

He forced his hand away from that tempting flesh. Forced his feet to step away from the woman he wanted more than his next breath. His voice was gruff with arousal as he backed toward the doorway. “Go to bed. We’ll talk tomorrow.”

“
Drew?” she questioned, standing awkwardly. She looked at him through tear-filled eyes, gingerly rubbing her bottom.

“
No,” he gritted out and hurried from the room.

Chapter Five

Tanya decided to take the day off, even if it was Monday and would normally be the start of another work week. She hadn’t had a real day off since she’d started working for Drew ten days ago. Besides, she wasn’t all that happy with him at the moment. He had paddled her, after all, for “blatantly disobeying him.”

She eased out of bed, mumbling to herself about some men just being… well, men! What she needed was time away from the too handsome rancher with the wicked right arm. Boy, could he swing a paddle or what! She’d ended up sleeping on her stomach, which she didn’t like to do.

Rubbing the sleep out of her eyes and ignoring the clock which told her she was over an hour late for work, she headed for the bathroom. A nice long shower sounded good. Then she’d go into town, if she could talk Greg into letting her use his truck. It hadn’t occurred to her until now that she didn’t have her own transportation. She’d just been too busy working to even think about it, and she’d no real reason to leave the ranch before today.

Almost an hour later she finally emerged from her little house. The shower had helped wake her up and improve her mood. However, her more upbeat mood dimmed as she spotted Greg working with Drew in the corral. Greg was riding a very skittish looking mare that had arrived the other day. Drew seemed to be offering words of wisdom, or something. Darn it all, she really hadn’t wanted to run into her boss. She’d called and left a message on his cell phone earlier about taking the day off, and he hadn’t called her back…which she’d considered a good thing.

She sucked in a breath, raised her chin in determination, and headed toward the corral. Her stomach knotted tighter with each step closer. Both Drew, now more or less glowering at her approach, and the nervous mare made her uneasy.

Drew faced her as she stopped a good twenty feet away. “Greg’s got her under control. You don’t have to worry about SallyAnne.”

“
SallyAnne?” Then she remembered seeing the papers that had come with the too-thin buckskin—Drew had told her—when she’d been delivered to the ranch. “Oh, the horse.” Still, Tanya was hesitant to go any closer.
Her
idea of “under control” and Drew’s were completely different.

Below the brim of his wide-brimmed hat, Drew’s eyebrows were drawn together in annoyance. “What do you want? I thought you were taking the day off. Not that I’m all that happy about it,” he added sourly.

“
And it’s all about keeping
you
happy isn’t it!” The words were out of her mouth before she could censor them. His jaw tightened. “Okay, I’m sorry about that. It’s just that I’m caught up on the bookkeeping. I haven’t had a day to myself since I came here. You don’t want me—“

He cut her off, “All right! Take the day off.”

“
I intend to.” The conversation was frustrating.
He
was frustrating. Added to the awkwardness of the situation, Greg appeared to be watching their exchange even as he carefully controlled the mare, who clearly wanted him off her back now.

Tanya switched her focus to him, smiling pleasantly, she hoped. “Can I borrow your pickup today?”

Before Greg had a chance to answer, Drew pressed, “Do you even know how to drive one?”

“
If it’s automatic, I’m sure I could drive it. Unless there’s some unwritten law about women
not
being able to drive a pickup truck.” Why was he being so annoying this morning? You’d have thought he’d be glad to see her off the ranch and out of his sight today!

“
It’s fine with—“ Greg started only to have Drew interrupt him.

“
If you’re going to Dodge City, you can ride in with me. I can drop you off wherever,” Drew stated and shifted away from the corral fence. “I’ve got to go talk to my lawyer again.”

His offer seemed to surprise Greg, who gave a helpless shrug in her direction. She’d really wanted to have time away from him. This was so not what she’d wanted. But how could she refuse? She nodded, wondering if she should just stay here and work after all.