Page 90 of Giddy Up, Daddy

A loud belly laugh burst out of Nick. “Hell yeah, I do.” There was a strong note of approval in his voice. “Alrighty, have it your way boss, but don’t put things off too long, eh? Doesn’t do any good to let things fester with these fillies. They work themselves up, and then you’ll have a real fight on your hands.”

After barely a second, he added, “Besides, if Charlie stays mad at you, she’ll eventually rope Katie in, and then it will be my problem too.”

They obviously weren’t talking about horses anymore and Sam laughed. “Ain’t that the truth. Don’t worry, soon as I get Jewel here settled in, I’m going home to fix things.”

Nick slapped him on the back and then moved to the next stall to start unsaddling his own mount. After a second, his voice came from the other side of the wall, asking, “Decided how you’re going to handle it yet?”

“Not a fucking clue, but I’ll figure it out. With Charlie, sometimes it’s best to just play things by ear.”

“Good luck, partner.”

Sam took that to be approval of his plan because his friend had zero trouble speaking up when he didn’t agree. With years of experience, his hands worked without thought; getting the saddle off Jewel, brushing her down, checking her legs and hooves carefully for any damage from the hard crust, and finally, settling her in with some extra feed.

But while he worked on autopilot, his mind was on Charlie. Nick was right, again. Putting it off wouldn’t do either of them any good. And it was entirely possible it was just an innocentsurprise, as she’d claimed. Which made him a dick for jumping on her.

By the time he got back to the house, he was ready to apologize for overreacting. Charlie hadveryobviously been hamming it up, exaggerating her hurt, but still, he had no reason to think she was up to anything awful. Even in a D/s relationship people were entitled to the occasional little secret, as long as it wasn’t harmful and didn’t break the rules.

He wasn’t entirely convinced that her mystery did meet those requirements, but for now he’d accept her explanation. Both eyes were going to be on her though.

The second he opened the back door, the sweet smell of banana bread hit him, and he stopped to take a nice long sniff. Charlie baked when she was nervous or upset. And the fact that she was baking his favorite, meant she was making a peace offering.

The rush of cold coming in from outside must have warned her, because she was already turning as he closed the door behind him. “Well, that smells amazing. Is that banana bread, Charlie girl?”

She started to smile, stopped to search his expression, and then finally let the smile slide into place. “It is! With chocolate chips. I thought…” She hesitated and then took a deep breath and plunged in, “I thought maybe it might make up for my attitude this morning.”

“That so? You think you can buy me off with baked goods?” He frowned and began to shrug out of his coat.

“Maybe?” Her voice lilted upwards.

He hung the coat on the hook by the door, and crossed the kitchen to take a look at the results of her work. There were six loaves in all—sixso far, sitting on the wire racks cooling. The oven was still on, and he was pretty sure there was at least one more baking.

That… was a significant amount of bread and implied she’d had a lot of feelings to work through. He wondered how much was guilt about the argument, and how much was stress about keeping a secret.

“You think I’m controlled by my stomach or something?” He leaned down and inhaled. His mouth watered and his stomach reminded him that he hadn’t eaten all morning.

Charlie snorted. “You’re a cowboy.”

He held back a laugh. “Good point, but that doesn’t mean you can get out of trouble by bribing me with banana bread.”

“Doesn’t it?” Her mouth tilted up at one side and she fluttered her lashes at him. “I guess I could come up with another bribe, if necessary.”

“Girl, I swear.” He growled and pulled her into his arms. His mouth came down on hers hard. Charlie melted into the kiss. Her body softened against his, pressing close, and he finally felt like everything was fine again.

He’d kissed her simply because he’d wanted that reassurance, but as usual, the feel of her body against his shifted his priorities. He forgot about the banana bread for a second, and focused on her soft lips, her warm mouth, and the way her tongue teased as it explored.

Things might have ended up in the bedroom if his stomach hadn’t chosen that moment to make a series of loud growling noises. Sam could have waited for some of the bread, his stomach wasn’t having that.

They laughed as they pulled apart. “I’m pretty sure I won’t need any other bribes,” Charlie commented as she slipped out of his arms and turned to grab plates out of the cabinet.

Sam gave her a good hard smack on the ass. He had the urge pretty much any time he saw Charlie’s ass cupped in tight jeans, but because he wanted her to know she was still in a little bit of trouble, he added some emphasis.

His palm stung and she yelped.

“Daddy!”

“That’s my name,” he agreed, blank faced.

She screwed up her face, narrowed her eyes, and scowled. “Rude. Maybe you don’t deserve this bread I spent all morning making.”

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