Page 34 of On His Ranch

“What’s gotten into you, little girl? Just the usual pre-spankin’ jitters?”

Even being calledlittle girldidn’t do anything to improve her mood. She scowled, her expression hidden from him, and refused to answer.

“Alright, have it your way. Which one was it, Piper?”

When she didn’t answer that either, he tapped her bottom menacingly. She could only hope he missed her flinch.

“If you need a reminder, I don’t mind givin’ it, but it’s gonna cost ya.”

“No, thanks,” she mumbled, glowering.

“Well then, in that case, I’m all ears.” He didn’t seem deterred one bit by her petulance.

When she kept quiet, the air whistled again as he brought the switch down. The sting was unbelievable! A line of burning pain was left in its wake. Piper clenched her teeth and refused to cry out. He wanted to play the hard way? Fine, let him, but he was going to play all by himself. She wasn’t going to apologize and she certainly wasn’t going to beg anymore.

“What’s goin’ on with you, little girl?”

“Who said anything’s goin’ on with me?” she snapped. As soon as the words were out of her mouth, her tummy twisted into knots. She was a smart girl—normally—and while talking back was definitely a big no-no, she suspected she’d probably made a bigger mistake by mimicking his accent on top of it.

“Alright then, I reckon you need a reminder of who’s in charge here.” He sounded almost amused before he brought the switch down two more times right on top of the previous stroke.

Knowing that he was enjoying himself at her expense made her anger surge and was just the motivation she needed to stay silent despite the scorching blows. She breathed through the pain with gritted teeth.

“You in a talkin’ mood yet?”

She turned her head to give him her best ‘eat shit and die’ look. He couldn’t make her, damn it!

Chase arched his brows. “Somebody really got up on the wrong side of the bed this mornin’.”

The next thing she heard was the whistle of a switch cutting the wind. The stroke fell against the top of her tender thighs, quickly followed by a biting sting unlike anything she’d ever experienced. Before she could find a way to deal with the pain, the thin stick landed again and again on her upturned bottom.

“Now,” his deep voice rumbled. “You wanna try again?”

“Yes, please,” she whispered, her lips trembling both from the pain and the sting of defeat. It looked like she was never going to win a battle of wills with this cowboy, and the thought was more than a little humbling.

“Good girl.” The words were spoken roughly, but no less welcome. “Now, think. What rule did you break?”

Piper tried to remember their conversation, but even though it had only been a couple of days, so much had happened that it felt like much longer. Add to that the fact that her skin was flooded by an ache that seemed to reach deep down inside her buttocks and thinking about anything else felt impossible. She could remember bits and pieces—especially the details of promised punishment—but the rest just kind of ran together.

She thought of tossing out a guess, but quickly discarded that idea. It would just draw things out longer than they needed to be. She might as well just be honest with him. When she gathered her courage, Piper’s head hung as she whispered, “I’m sorry, sir, but… I’m not sure. I really don’t remember.”

“Piper.”

There was something about his voice, something powerful and earthy and strong that just wouldn’t be denied. She knew he wanted her to look at him—that was a big thing with Chase she was learning—and she felt her eyes drawn to him like magnets. Damn it, even just the sight of that painfully handsome face made her heart flutter. Especially since, even now knowing she was in deep trouble, her pussy clenched, juices pooling, secretly hoping that he would decide not to punish her but to turn his attention to something more pleasant instead.

“Okay, here’s what I’m gonna do.” He brandished the switch in the air.

She swallowed hard.I have a feeling I’m not going to like this.Her ass cheeks clenched in anticipation.

“I’m gonna tell you all over again.”

“Oh,” she murmured, surprised. “That… that’s… very kind of you.”

His smile flashed—a shark smile if she’d ever seen one. “I’ll tell ya again,” he repeated. “And for every five seconds it takes for you to figure it out, you get a swat with the switch.”

“Hey!” she objected. “That’s not fair.”

He shrugged a broad shoulder. “You don’t think so? I mean, I guess I could just switch you until you remember but I figured this would at least give you a shot.”

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