Page 48 of Undone

Ford chuckled. “You know what I mean. Welcomed pain can be very pleasurable, as you know.”

“Just ask my ass cheeks,” she teased and pulled out of his arms. “Okay, I think our time is up for this room. We can’t continue to hog it.”

Plus, the cleaning crew would need to come in and do their thing before the next guests used it.

The extensive cleaning crew was just one “department” at the resort giving locals much-needed jobs. Employment around the area was limited and nobody liked to drive an hour to State College if they could avoid it, especially in winter, unless the position paid extremely well. Not even professors wanted that kind of commute to Penn State University’s main campus.

In the short amount of time between conception and opening, the ranch was definitely helping out the local economy. A positive in Ford’s view but, no surprise, not to everyone. Some of the more prudish residents of Fisher Falls were vocal aboutthe resort being immoral once they found out the truth behind the all-adult “vacation” destination.

Ford unlocked the door and swung it open. “I can walk you to your car, if you—” He swallowed the rest of his offer the second he spotted his boss leaning against the wall nearby.

Waiting.

With his face unreadable and his arms crossed over his chest.

Erin went up on her toes, kissed his cheek and whispered, “I’ll talk to you later.” She stepped out into the hallway, gave her former high school sweetheart a nod and a calm, “Dylan.”

“Erin,” he ground out in response, but that was all. His eyes landed on Ford and stayed there.

When Ford began to follow Erin out, Dylan stopped him with, “Ford, you can wait. I need to have a word with you.”

Was their plan working, or would it backfire, and he’d end up with a fist to the face?

“Sure,” he murmured and noticed Erin gave him a quick, wide-eyed glance before heading outside. He turned his attention back to his boss. “What’s up?”

Dylan’s nostrils flared as he tipped his head toward the open doorway. “In there. Where no one will overhear us.”

This definitely could go either way.

Ford turned and headed back into room six. The lingering smell of sex, as well as the ointment, filled his nostrils. It was almost enough to make him hard again.

While he expected Dylan to shut the door, what he didn’t expect to hear was the turn of the lock. He turned to face Dylan. “So, what’s up?”

“You really have to ask that?”

Ford shrugged. “You’re already aware that Erin and I hook up, so it can’t be that.”

Dylan’s jaw shifted. “I discovered something else today.”

“That having the playrooms will help make your resort a success?” Ford didn’t bother to hide his sarcasm.

Neither did Dylan. “Not if my employees use them instead of the guests.”

“I waited until the last minute to book this one.”

“I’ll take it that you had Erin on standby, then.”

“We were at her place when I pulled up the schedule online on a whim.” Of course, that wasn’t quite true. Booking the playroom was hardly an impulse, it was part of the plan. However, he did wait to make sure a guest didn’t want the room first. “What did you discover?”

“You like beating a woman’s ass.”

Why did he make that sound like a bad thing when in reality, done right, it was the opposite?

Ford shrugged. “Man. Woman. Doesn’t matter to me.”

“Are you saying that Erin isn’t special to you?”

“Erin’s very special to me. As I am to her. I didn’tbeat her,as you put it, or force her onto that spanking bench. As you witnessed, she’s into it.” She was into a lot more than that, but he’d let Dylan find that out for himself. “And as you saw, she walked out of here satisfied.”

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