Page 226 of Wild Mustang Security Firm

She shook her head. “No, Sir. I don’t think so,” she whispered.

He held out his hand and waited for her to take it. “Come into the house with me, so we can talk.”

“You won’t spank me?” she asked, dreading the answer no matter which way it went.

“I didn’t say that. I might, and I emphasize the word might, not spank you this afternoon until after we’ve laid out your rules and agreed on what consequences you can expect when you break them.” The corner of his handsome mouth quirked when he chuckled. “But I’m quite sure you’ll break at least some of them right off the bat, so my spanking you at some point before I go is pretty much a given. Don’t you pick that gun back up, Avery.”

Might. Might meant no, he would not be spanking her. It wasn’t just disappointing, it was depressing.

Without raising her head, she did as she’d been told. When she did look up, all she saw on his face were his smiling eyes and steady countenance. He beckoned her to follow. “Good girl. Let’s go into the house.”

She didn’t resist when he took her hand and led her back to the house. For him to take her straight back into her bedroom would have been like a dream come true, but he didn’t. Of course he didn’t. If he wasn’t going to spank her, no way was he going to throw her down on her bed and have his wicked, albeit highly anticipated way with her.

Sadly, he took her straight into the living room via the folding glass doors instead.

“I’d never seen anything like these doors until I installed your security system,” he said conversationally, as if she were giving him the grand tour. “I knew you had a helicopter, but I didn’t know you were into motorcycles. You know I have one too, don’t you?”

“I… I know. You ride a Harley; I ride an Indian.”

“Is the second one you’re fixing an Indian as well?”

“Yes; a vintage one. It’s my other hobby. I find all the parts, restore them, and then auction them off.”

Walking her over to the couch, he took a seat and patted the cushion next to him. She sat. “I take it the non-motorcycle hobby is bullfighting?”

“Yeah,” she said, staring back through the house toward her bedroom. She felt foolish, first for wanting him this badly and then again for thinking there could ever be something other than friendship between them.

“Little girl,” he censored. “How are you supposed to answer Daddy when he asks you a question?”

“Oh, stop,” she cried.

Flustered, blushing hot, Avery leapt off the couch. He didn’t want to spank her; he didn’t want to have sex with her. Whatpoint was there in going through the motions of… whateverthiswas if she wasn’t even going to get her needs met? Her instincts were right. He wasn’t a dom, and although she had been intensely attracted by what he’d been saying, she wasn’t a little. She tried to walk away, but he caught her by the wrist.

“Getting spanked this afternoon is becoming more of a done deal,” he said, refusing to let go although she tugged, subtly at first, and then with increasing insistence to break free.

“Let go, Thom. I mean it, you’re being ridiculous!”

“Why, because I want you to listen to that part of you that knows who we should be to each other?”

“No, because this”—she gestured between the two of them—“can’t possibly work!”

“How will you know unless we at least try talking to one another? Tell me about yourself. Do you have any hobbies other than restoring vintage motorcycles to sell and bullfighting?”

Grinding her teeth, she stopped pulling, but she did not sit down. “If you’re looking for a girl who cooks or does cross-stitch, you’re looking at the wrong girl. Seriously, Thom, let’s not do this. Why don’t you just take your crullers and leave, and we’ll pretend this never happened. You keep on rodeoing, I’ll keep on bullfighting, and neither of us will tell our friends or ruin what relationship we already have.”

Thom said nothing, did nothing, until she’d finished.

“You done?” he asked quietly.

If anything, that heightened her embarrassment and anger just that much more. “Depends,” she snapped back. “Are you planning to get the hell out of my house and never come back without an invitation? Because that’s what I would recommend. And I wasn’t kidding about a new security system. I do plan to tell our friends about that, and you can bank on the fact that they won’t be any more thrilled about it than I was. But hey, if you give me your word that you’ll reprogram all our systems to getrid of your back-door code, I’ll add that to the lists of secrets I’m willing to keep about you.”

His grip on her flexed, but he didn’t let her go. “Done?”

Considering she’d probably said more than enough already, she nodded. “Yeah, I guess that about covers it.”

It wasn’t until his grip tightened that she realized he’d never let go of her wrist. He was still sitting on her sofa and she was slightly off balance from all the pulling she’d done. Had she been paying more attention, she would have been better prepared to resist Thom’s sudden tug as he yanked her down across his hard thigh. A quick shift of his other leg had both her thighs clamped between his own and before her mind could process her predicament, his hand came crashing down on her jean-clad rump—not once, but several times in rapid succession.

Seriously,nowhe wanted to spank her?

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