Page 1 of Taming His Brat

Chapter One

Settling into his home had been easier than she’d expected. Maybe the sweet memories she had from their previous attempt at a relationship had helped to ease the way this time. It certainly wasn’t because of some mythical honeymoon period where every problem was easily solved, and they didn’t get on each other’s nerves.

No, with Sam there were always going to be sparks and moving in together didn’t erase the fact that they tended to rile each other up. She wasn’t even sure she’d want to lose that. Some of their hottest nights had come after long days of snapping at each other until they both had enough.

But still, moving into his small cabin and getting used to living with someone intimately was new for her. She’d thought there would be more issues. So far things seemed to be going surprisingly well. Well,shewas surprised anyway. Sam had been telling her all along things would be fine and she was overthinking.

That was her gift, overthinking a problem until it ended up ten times worse, but for the first time in her life she had real incentive to avoid that path. Things were good with Sam and she didn’t want to mess them up this time.

Never once had she thought they’d end up back together. And they probably wouldn’t have, if her dad’s will hadn’t forced the issue. They’d fought a lot. But now… now things were working.

His strong need to protect and nurture had always been there, they’d just never had a name for it. But once she’d gotten used to calling him Daddy, at least when she was in trouble, she’d been amazed at how comfortable it felt. It filled a need for both of them and she’d grown to love the way it felt to snuggle in his arms and whisperDaddyin his ear.

Sam was reasonable and was willing to let her have a say in things. That helped. The change in their relationship helped more. She’d willingly given him control over her and he’d stepped into a new role as her Daddy. She honestly found that easier than letting him run the ranch, but with him bossing her somehow it helped to deal with that too—a little.

There was still conflict. She’d spent years planning what she’d do once the ranch was hers and seeing him making all the big decisions grated sometimes. He was only a couple of years older than she was, but he’d been the ranch foreman for years when her father was alive, and he knew what he was doing.

Once her emotions had calmed down and she left them out of the equation, she had to admit he knew a lot more than she did about how things were run. But he was old school, like her father. He kept to the way things had always been done, whereas she thought the ranch could do with a few modernizations and they’d clashed over it a few times before she’d finally backed down.

She was no longer sure which of them was more stubborn. But she did know that committing to a relationship with him meant she had better watch her tone when she made suggestions. When she kept her temper under control, did her research, and discussed it with him reasonably, she was more likely to get him to bend.

When she didn’t, she was likely to be the one bending. As in bending over the nearest piece of furniture so he could paddle her ass. Working with a Dom wasn’t easy, at least not for her. She had trouble with her mouth when she got upset and Sam had taken to the role of Daddy like he’d been born to it.

She got away with exactly as much as he felt like letting her, and then he tugged those reins tight and pulled her back into place. Sometimes she wondered if he considered her some unbroken filly that he needed to train to the saddle. A lot of times she wondered that actually, especially when he got out the crop and placed a few dozen red welts across her ass because she didn’t obey him.

And she loved it. It was what she’d asked for. He’d been the one to hold back in the beginning. At first convinced she shouldn’t be making important decisions while grieving. Later he had his own conditions, but they’d worked it out finally.

She’d gotten everything she needed, most of what she wanted, and it was all going perfectly. It worried her a little because in her experience things didn’t go well for long before something messed them up. But until that happened, she was just going to try to enjoy what she had.

She looked up at the clock and winced. It was nearly quitting time on the ranch. The hands would be heading home, and Sam would lock the gate behind them. Then he’d come to check on her and enjoying what she had might become a problem. Because what she had was a strict Daddy, with a hard hand, who had told her that he wanted the last of her stuff unpacked before he got home.

He probably thought she was delaying because she still had doubts, but the truth was a lot simpler. She hated unpacking and organizing things. He’d made as much space as he could for her stuff, but the place was small and there just wasn’t going to be enough room. So, part of unpacking was deciding what she needed and what could be stored for a while.

It was a lot of work, and some of it was emotional so she’d put it off. But she’d been living in his house for almost two months now, while they tripped over boxes and bags every time they moved. Sam liked things neat and uncluttered so that didn’t work for him and her ass was on the line if she couldn’t get it done.

He’d reminded her, then he’d warned her. Finally, he’d put his foot down and given her a deadline of a week to sort things out. She’d worked on it a little, but it was easy to get distracted and drop something she didn’t want to be doing. Now it was coming down to the wire and she was out of time.

There was always that urge to test him. She liked bringing out the Daddy side of him by disobeying, but she had a feeling he was already at his limit with this one. Besides she was getting a little tired of bruising her shins every time she bumped into something.

There was a specific muscle in his jaw that jumped visibly every time he came home and tripped over something. That meant there was a good chance it wouldn’t be just a short spanking, or one she could nudge over to sexy times. The part of her that wanted to see what would happen, was quickly stomped down by the part that enjoyed sitting comfortably.

She came to the decision that she definitely didn’t want to be in trouble when Sam walked in the door. Which made it all the more unfortunate that she’d put things off for too long, and she simply ran out of time to finish. She’d planned to make a real effort that day, but something had come up and distracted her. She’d gotten back to it much later, but she was still working on the final box when she heard him cleaning off his boots on the porch.

The thudding of work boots as he used the bristled scraper outside was all the warning she had before the door flew open.

Sam was never quiet when he came in from work. He stomped and banged things around as if the job had him set in a more aggressive mode. Everything was rougher and louder until he started to wind down.

But the sudden clatter in the formerly silent house startled her and she dropped the hardcover book she’d been shelving. The thump caught his attention.

He folded his arms over his chest, one eyebrow going right up as he looked from her to the open box on the floor. “Thought you were going to get this done before I came home?”

“I was. I mean I am—I’m almost done. It just took a little longer than I expected.” She avoided meeting his gaze. It wasn’t a lie. It just wasn’t the whole truth. It took longer because she’d put it off for most of the day. She did have a reason, but she had a feeling that wasn’t going to fly after so much procrastination.

“Charlie…” There was a warning tone in his voice.

She knew that tone and decided to give her excuse a shot. At this point it couldn’t make things worse and it was a fairly decent reason to put things off; at least she thought so. She picked up the book she’d dropped and put it on the shelf. “I was looking over the online classes for the winter semester. I thought I’d see what was available. I mean, there’s still the will to deal with.”

She was referring to the codicil in her father’s will that said she had five years to get a doctorate, or else the ranch would remain under Sam’s complete control permanently. If she wanted to be an equal partner she was going to have to put in the work.

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