Jackie Draws A Straight: The Journey Series Book 5 (6 page)

"You disrespected me, too," Pete pointed out as he whaled on her behind. "I've treated you with nothing but respect." Whack, whack, whack. "Respect that you are not reciprocating."

Her rear was on fire, and his hand was traveling down the tops of her thighs making them spark with heat and pain, too. "Please forgive me! I was mad. I didn't mean it."

"Grow up, Jackie! If you don't start acting like an adult, no one is going to treat you like one."

"Ow! Can't you stop, please? Ow! Owie! Ow!" The last few spanks landed on the juncture of her butt and thighs and hurt worse than anything that came before. She squealed with the
blows. When he stopped, she was gasping and sobbing, tears streaming down her face. Her rear felt like
raw
hamburger.

"
You can sit up now."

Remembering how good it
was
to be comforted after her first spanking, she
kicked off the scrub pants that hung around her ankles and
curled into a sitting position straddling his thighs, with her face on his shoulder. He made a thick noise in his throat and shifted in his seat, his arms going around her.
"I'm sorry," she blubbered against his neck. "I don't want to be a brat."

He rubbed her back, sliding his hands down to her throbbing rear and then quickly back up to her waist as though the fire in her butt would burn him, too.

"Okay, Jackie. You need to think before you talk. You can't treat people so badly and expect them to keep forgiving you over and over again. Eventually, their patience is going to run out."

She nodded. He smelled so good and felt so firm against her hot face. His shoulders were broad and strong. Jackie thought about the strength in his spanking arm and imagined how sexy and taut his thick biceps must be. She wished she could see.

"I'm sorry, Pete. I'll try. I promise."

"Apologize sincerely to your father, Jackie. He didn't deserve your bad behavior."

"Yes, sir. You're right. I feel
bad about it."

"Good. Then we've accomplished something here." He gripped her hair and raised her head so that she'd look into his eyes. "Don't make me spank you again,
miłość
."

His expression was stern, but his eyes searched hers. Jackie couldn't tell wh
at he was looking for, and wasn't sure he found it
but
he released her head. She snuggled back against him. "What does
miłość
mean?"

"It's not important. No more bad behavior, though. Got it?"

She squirmed against him and he
grimaced
, taking her firmly by
the waist and putting her next to him on the couch. Jackie's eyes were drawn to the thick bulge in his jeans. She knew what that meant and a
trumpet
of triumph pealed in her head. Trying to act nonchalant, she got off her sore behind and pulled on her scrubs. If she happened to wiggle her nearly bare rear in his general direction
, well, that couldn't be helped, could it?

"You'd best get on home," Pete told her, his voice low and strained.

"Okay. I'm sorry about dinner…and everythin
'
."

"I'm sure it'll go better next time," he told her, rising from the couch. He made a little grimace and a tiny frown remained behind
though
his face cleared.

"Next time?"

Pete cleared his throat. "Yeah, well…we'll see."

Jackie put a hand on his chest to see how he'd react. She was being an awful flirt, something she was good at with younger guys, but it felt dangerous and titillating with a
n older man
. "I'd like to have dinner with you, Pete."

He gently set her away from him and turned toward the
kitchen
. "
Go home and get some rest. Tomorrow will be another busy day, Miss Journey."

Apparently, that was it for the night. She gathered u
p her purse. "I really am sorry
."

He nodded, one side of his mouth quirking up in the hint of a smile. "Be good. Drive safely. Don't be late tomorrow!"

She smiled. "Yes, sir."

Chapter 3

After apologizing to her daddy back on the ranch,
Jackie spent a few minutes talking with a friendly nurse at the main nursing station at the twelve-bed Hudspeth hospital in town. Sonora didn't need a bigger hospital and it was a warm and caring place to go
if
you had to be hospitalized. Jackie had brought files and x-rays to the hospital as part of her job and stayed a little while to talk to
one of Pete’s
patient
s
. Mr. Nesbit was grateful for the company, thanking Jackie profusely before encouraging her to go enjoy her Friday night in town.

Knowing that she was going to be in Sonora that afternoon, Jackie had brought a little bag of clothes to change into so she wouldn't have to
appear at the local tavern in her scrubs. She changed in the hospital restroom before she left and drove the short distance to the popular cantina, Carlos' Carniceria.

It had been a year since she'd been there, and remembering her twenty-first birthday party, spent drinking beer in the bar
,
brought a smile to her face. She recalled how her big brother, Ace, had cautioned her about alcohol, but didn't make it sound like she should become a te
e
totaler either. He was known to knock back a few beers
if
the mood struck him, too, but he wasn't a person of excess and cautioned her to be in control of herself as well.

Since then, she'd been out with her
college
friends at clubs in Austin
during the school term, and she'd found she had a taste for bourbon. She intended to have a couple of shots in the bar before ordering her dinner and enjoying some fajitas.

The tavern was beginning to get busy when she strolled into the dark, cool interior. The local ranchers tended to knock off work a little early on Friday nights and make for the only watering hole in town for a bit of fun and a good meal.

It was exactly as she remembered it—Sonora was always so reliable that way. The highly polished wooden bar spread out on the left of the big room, with gleaming brass rails picking up the light from
the neon beer signs along the walls. The smell of beer was strong,
with a tiny, acrid odor of left
over cigarette smoke, though smoking in the place had been forbidden for a while.

Jackie walked by the round wooden tables and lightly padded chairs
,
and bellied up to the bar a seat away from a middle-aged couple nursing
Corona
s.

The bartender, an older man with heavy jowls but a friendly smile came right over. "
I'm Wally, welcome to Carlos'.
What can I get you, Miss?"

She remembered him from her birthday, but didn't remind him of their last meeting.
"Jack Daniels, straight up, with a chaser of ginger ale."

He nodded and asked her for ID. She was ready for him, her
identification in hand.
After examining the birthdate on her license carefully, Wally nodded and handed it back. It only took him a minute to pour her beverages and set them down in front of her on the age-scarred bar.

There was country music playing on the jukebox, and Jackie recognized a song she liked
. She smiled a bit before she knocked back the Jack and took a quick sip of her ginger ale.

A shiver raced through her middle, followed by a sense of muscles relaxing slightly. She adjusted her seat on the barstool and reached for a menu. As she was trying to decide among the fajita choices, there was a raucous commotion from the doorway.

She glanced over her shoulder and immediately recognized the four men who had entered. They were ranch-hands, from the Bar-O, Rafael Ramirez's spread on the other side of town. Jackie had gone to school with three of them, and had dated the pack leader, Bud "The Stud" Ramirez, Rafael's son, while in
h
igh
s
chool. God what a fiasco that had been.

They weren't interested in her as their eyes adjusted to the dim lighting, but
when Bud saw her, his smile was feral. He pointed and the group laughed and nudged each other.

Bud nodded toward the jukebox, and he and his friends went to it and started feeding in quarters. Jackie released a small breath of relief. Apparently, Bud had better things to do than pay attention to her.

One song ended and another began. "Good Girls Go
t
o Heaven," by Brooks & Dunn started with a guitar riff and Jackie ordered another shot.

"On me," said Bud from behind her.

She'd never forget that voice. Smooth as silk, deep and sexy as sin. Unfortunately, Bud was a bully of the first order and all that was good about him was his voice.

"No, thanks," she replied immediately, not turning toward him. Maybe if she didn't pay him mind he'd go away. She tensed as she realized she wouldn't be that lucky. He scooted into the space between where she sat and the next barstool to her left.

Leaning his arm against the bar, he regarded her slowly, his eyes traveling over her from the top of her head to the length of her denim-clad thigh on the barstool. "Come on, Jackie. For old time's sake."

"I don't want anythin' from you, Bud. Not a shot of bourbon or your time. Why don't you go sit with Matt and whoever else those guys are and leave me alone?"

The bourbon was set before her and Wally
eyed Bud for a moment.

"The usual," Bud told him succinctly, and Wally moved off toward the tequila selection. "I ain't seen you in town lately, Jackie. You finally finished up with
that fancy
college
up north
?"

She ignored him. It was rude but she really didn't want to open up that old wound.

He sung softly, like a dark angel, to the refrain of the song. "Good girls go to heaven, bad girls go anywhere."

Jackie shot her bourbon and tried to pretend he wasn't there. She knew why he'd picked that song a
nd
his scorn bit her like a viper
.

Bud's
tequila arrived and he made short shrift of the salt, lime and golden liquor, then turned back to her. "You still got it, Jackie-honey? Or did you find someone to give it to, finally? Someone better'n me, in your high-and-mighty estimation
?
"

Finally, she turned her head to look in his
dark
eyes. "Ain't none of your business, Bud. And it wouldn't take much to be better than you."

He laughed. "
Holy shit!
You still got it
!
What a prick-tease you are, Jackie."

She glared.
They'd grown up together, but didn't have the same interests as kids. He was a jock, and she was more interested in clothes and movies. High school had been an eye-opener, though. S
he hadn't realized what flirting meant. She'd been trying out different ways to get a boy's attention like any girl would do. When the captain of
both
the football and baseball teams asked her out, of course she'd agreed.
She knew Bud had a reputation among the girls, but he'd asked her and her ego couldn't resist accepting. Right away, she knew it was a mistake; he put a lot of pressure on her to have sex. She kept saying no, but he got more and more insistent and belligerent as they dated. Why she'd stuck with him so long, she didn't rightly know. Maybe she'd
believed
he'd learn to respect her over time. Maybe she wanted to one-up the other girls by having Bud "The Stud" panting after her. Her motives hadn't been noble, and she wasn't proud of them, but she'd been a teenager and hadn't known any better.