Erotica- So Not A Cowboy/ Spanking (6 page)

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 couple 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.

“Sorry about this,” Tanya said as she checked on the baked potatoes in the oven. “But you know your brother, once he decides something….”

“He’s determined to butt into my business.” Mandy leaned against the counter, grimaced, and noticed Tanya watching her. She knew her friend enough to know she would press her for an explanation if she didn’t just tell her. With a put-upon sigh, she said, “Yes, he did.”

Tanya’s eyes widened in surprise, then she reached back to lightly touch her jeans-covered bottom. “Ditto. Men, they can be such trials sometimes.”

They’d both been spanked and both been well pleasured after it. From the soft look in Tanya’s eyes, she knew her brother had made up with his wife. She, too, had been supremely well pleasured, even if she’d resisted for about a half second. She needed to work on her resistance to Erik.

“After he dealt with his frustration, did you two start talking?”

“Well, not exactly. But we were going to, then Drew called.”

Tanya giggled. “Sometimes getting spanked is worth it. Make-up sex can be amazing.” She patted her small rounded stomach. “Even when you’re looking blimpy.”

Mandy felt a moment’s envy. Would she ever have a child? Did Erik want children? She didn’t even know if he had family now: parents, siblings. It saddened her how little she knew about the man she seemed sexually unable to resist.
Pitiful. I’m soooo pitiful
.

“What am I going to do?” She voiced the question she’d meant to keep only in her thoughts.

* * *

“What are your intentions toward my sister?” Drew asked pointedly, scowling at Erik. He stood tall and intimidating in front of a stone fireplace that covered one side of the large great room.

Erik couldn’t help grinning at the gruff rancher. They had nothing in common…except Mandy. He respected the man for trying to protect his baby sister, even if she didn’t need his protection. He sat in one of the pair of plush leather chairs opposite the window overlooking the ranch yard and purposely took a couple of seconds to respond. Finally he said, “I’ve already done the honorable thing. She’s my wife.”

“She’s always been somewhat impulsive.” Drew shook his head, clearly struggling with her behavior. “But getting married the way you two did, it boggles my mind.” He looked grimly at Erik. “Needs a good butt walloping.”

“Taken care of, but for other reasons.” Erik wasn’t sure he should have admitted that, but the first hint of acceptance showed in his brother-in-law’s troubled eyes.

Drew nodded. “Maybe there is hope for you two yet.”

“I don’t give up easily. She’s going to take some convincing, but I wouldn’t have married her—even in that spur-of-the-moment wedding—if I hadn’t wanted to.” He hadn’t been
that
drunk. She’d been pretty tipsy, but he had a gut feeling that she wasn’t really opposed to their marriage. She was scared she’d made a mistake, but he intended to prove her wrong.

“Mandy hasn’t had much luck with the men in her life, romantically speaking. I don’t know how much you know.” Drew looked uncomfortable with the subject, but determined.

“Well, the night we met in Maui she was telling everyone in the bar that men were scum. I knew right then that someone had hurt her.” He met and held Drew’s gaze. “I’m going to do my best not to hurt her. But she’s got to give me…us…a chance. And, just so you know, I’m planning to be here until we work this out.”

Approval flashed in Drew’s eyes. He gave a half-smile. “As much as she’s avoided this confrontation, I’m thinking you’re going to need the patience of a saint.” He smiled even more in sympathetic understanding. “Probably a good, hard hand, too. She can be sort of pigheaded about things.”

Mandy stepped into the doorway, cheeks pink, obviously having overheard her brother. She leveled a killing look on him and said huffily, “Supper is ready.” She didn’t even spare a glance at Erik, but he understood her embarrassment.

“You’re not helping,” Erik grumbled and got up to follow his irritated wife. He’d be lucky if she didn’t try to slam the door in his face again when they got back to her house. Then he smiled to himself. It would be “Ground Hog’s Day” all over again. He’d go in and find her, warm her sweet bottom, and then they’d have wild monkey sex again.

The meal started off awkwardly silent as the platters of baked potatoes, green beans, smothered steak, and homemade rolls were passed around. Mandy was still upset with her brother about the ‘good, hard hand’ comment he’d made to her husband. And sitting on these hard chairs wasn’t a joy, even if the sting from her earlier spanking had faded. Her butt cheeks still remembered. She tried to focus on filling her plate and nothing else.

“Are you one of those vegetarians?” Drew questioned, sounding disapproving.

“Drew!” Tanya hissed beside him. “That’s not polite.”

Mandy looked from her frowning brother to Erik’s plate. No meat. Yet another thing she hadn’t known about him.

His left hand had been resting on her thigh, something she’d been extremely aware of. He gently squeezed her leg. “It’s not a deal breaker, is it?” he teased.

“No, but—”

He glanced at Drew. “More meat for you. More vegetables for me, since I see that you didn’t take a very big helping of the green beans. Works out, don’t you think?”

Drew relaxed, moved his gaze toward Tanya in apology. Then he noticed her shifting around on her chair and chastised her automatically, clearly forgetting the others at the table. “Stop fidgeting.”

Her face reddened and she focused on cutting up her steak. Drew seemed to realize his error and concentrated on his food as well. Mandy was mortified on her friend’s behalf. But Erik distracted her by sliding his hand up her leg, slipping it between her legs, palming her mound. Even through the thick layer of denim she felt him, felt her body’s reaction as her lower lips quivered. She sucked in a breath and reached down to attempt to move his hand away.

Of course, stubborn man that he was proving to be, he simply trailed a finger up and down her crotch area. She immediately squeezed her legs together and looked sideways at him. Through gritted teeth she said, “Could you please pass the butter?”

The devil grinned at her, pulled his hand away, and smiled at Tanya. “My wife would like the butter.”

Tanya gave it to him and looked at her, a flicker of amusement in her gaze. She knew—or thought she knew—what her husband had been doing.
God, how embarrassing!
Thank goodness Drew was oblivious now to all around him. Eating was a serious thing for him.

Mandy waited until Tanya returned to cutting her steak then leaned close to Erik. “You’ll pay for that later.” Then seeing both Tanya and Drew focused on their plates, she quickly reached down between Erik’s legs. Just as he’d done to her, she ran a finger in his private area, stroking his balls beneath the thick denim shorts.

He froze for a second. Then he reached down to capture her hand and draw it back on top of the table. His voice was a rough rumble as he whispered, “And
you
, my naughty wife, will pay for
that
.”

“So, Mandy, did you tell Erik that you were planning to quit your flight attendant job? That you’re planning to take over as the manager of the guest ranch?” Drew asked, pointedly looking at her.

Chapter Four

“I'm not ready to talk about it.” For the next two days this seemed to be the common statement each of them said any time the subject of her future came up. Neither of them was ready to dive into that potentially explosive problem area. Instead they had talked about everything but the differences in their day-to-day jobs. She'd thrown herself into working with the ranch guests most of the daytime hours, letting him join them or not. So far he'd only shown up to eat lunch with them in the bunkhouse. The rest of the time he'd holed up in her house using her computer and phone to deal with some “pressing business issues.” The evenings were spent watching whatever old musical they found on NetFlick—who knew they had that odd interest in common. But she knew they couldn't avoid the subject forever.

With those troubled thoughts in mind, Mandy glanced back at Erik sitting on the sofa with his laptop firing up and punching in a number into his cell phone. “Riding lessons today, if you're interested.”

He wore what she considered his “anti-cowboy” outfit again: cutoff shorts and a muscle T-shirt that showed off some impressive upper arms. She still had trouble getting used to the difference in his attire from the ranch hands. He could care less about blending in with everyone else; including the ranch guests who donned generally expected Western clothes. But, actually, she liked the way he looked. Even more so when he was her naked, outstanding hunky surfer stud. She couldn't imagine ever thinking of him any other way. She'd definitely gotten used to spending long nights heating up the sheets with him and she would miss him when…. No, don't think about it. He had to leave sooner or later and she didn't want to face that yet.

“I think we're both pretty good in the 'riding' department.” He winked at her, flashing the dimpled smile that made her knees weak. “At least you were a little while ago.”

She rolled her eyes, although heat started pooling low in her body. She forced down the spark of desire. “Horses, Surfer Boy. Horses.”

One of his thick light-brown eyebrows lifted. “Give me a wicked wave and a surf board and I'm there. Give me a ton of smelly, sweaty beast and I'm not.”

Annoyance made her testy. “Then maybe you don't belong here. This is a ranch. We ride horses.” She snagged her straw wide-brimmed hat from a peg by the door. “We're teaching the new batch of ranch guests the basics of riding today. Tomorrow we're going on a trail ride and an overnight camp out.”

“You're going?” His brow furrowed at clearly having forgotten that she'd already told him about it. “I thought maybe you and I could go into Dodge City, find a nice restaurant. Maybe see a movie.”

She blinked at him. “Like a date?” They were so far past such a thing, but she kind of liked the idea. Except she already had a commitment, especially if she was serious about taking over as the guest ranch manager. “Never mind. I can't go.”

At his irritated look, she added, “But you're welcome to join us on the trail ride and camp out.” Never in a million years would she expect him to go.

Just as she'd suspected, he shook his head. “As tempting as that sounds, I'll pass.” He returned his focus to the laptop.

Blowing out a deep breath of frustration, she put on her hat and strode from the house. She all but slammed the door, remembering at the last second how opposed her husband was to slamming doors. She wasn't in the mood for another spanking.

The morning was already sweltering hot without the hint of a breeze. Perfect. She missed staying inside with air conditioning or lazing about the pool, which they had here on the ranch, too. But the days of just taking it easy around here when she bopped in for a few days off from her airline job were gone. At least they would be completely when she finally gave her notice instead of taking time off. She hadn't always led a pampered life here. She'd grown up with chores and still could pull her weight. When she fully took over the guest manager role, her life would really change.
What about Erik? How does he fit into my life?