Page 5 of Taming His Brat

Besides, he liked to make private bets with himself on how long she’d hold out before finally giving in. Charlie was stubborn.

But then so was he.

Chapter Three

She really had thought he was going to let the packing slide. She should have known better. Sam didn’t like changing his mind, even when she was mad at him. Then they’d had dinner, and eventually she’d realized pouting wasn’t going to do any good, so she’d given it up. Besides, she liked their homey little meals together. It was so domestic and relaxing to catch up on the news of the day while they ate.

The food had even been decent. The chicken was a little dry because she’d overcooked it by a few minutes while distracted with the boxes, but it had been passable. The pie had been excellent, and more than made up for it anyway. She couldn’t take the credit for that though. It came from the market stand a mile down the road and they never disappointed.

She shouldn’t have been surprised by his support. Sam had always encouraged her to do whatever made her happy … as long as it didn’t involve driving him insane. It was her father who had always been stuck on her doing something unrelated to the ranching life.

For a man who’d loved the family spread with all his heart, he’d had a confusing amount of trouble understanding that his daughter felt the same. He’d decided she was too good for such a rough life and that was that.

So now she had a Master’s in business that she didn’t really want, but if she could use that to complete a doctorate in animal sciences it would be worth it. And she could use both degrees to really put a shine on the old place.

She could see herself and Sam running the place together then. Partners. She didn’t hate the idea, though the fact that she’d nearly had a full-blown panic attack when he’d mentioned a different kind of partnership told her she still had some work to do on her relationship issues.

She’d deliberately put that ridiculously old-fashioned codicil out of her head for a reason. There was no way she was marrying Sam to skip ahead and get her share of the ranch. She resented having to slog her way through a degree to get there, but at least that would be through her own hard work and not because of catering to some ridiculous medieval clause.

If—whenshe married Sam it would be because she was ready and wanted to. Someday she’d be there, maybe not any time soon, but someday.

Sitting in his lap as he fed her pie had gone a long way towards soothing those frayed nerves. She’d been relaxed and happy right up until he’d reminded her about the punishment and sent her to the corner. She sighed and kicked the wall with her toe, frustrated and embarrassed to be standing there with her pants down.

She snuck a look back over her shoulder as she fidgeted and waited for it to be done, but he caught her immediately. She muttered something rude about him under her breath as she snapped back around. She had an active mind and standing there staring at the wall was torture. Well, maybe not torture exactly, but she hated it.

Why couldn’t he just spank her and get it over with?

She knew the answer to that, of course, but that didn’t stop her from being annoyed about it. The Daddy thing had settled into their relationship and although it had thrown her in the beginning, she’d really come around. But it had since grown beyond a sexy bedroom thing. Sam had a strong Daddy Dom side. He’d been trying to take care of her since they were both kids, and now she’d given him license to be the boss full time.

Part of putting him in charge had been accepting that punishments that weren’t fun would come along with it. She’d been prepared for that. What she hadn’t expected was howyoungsome of them would make her feel. The embarrassment, the knowing what was about to happen, they combined to give her this nervous little girl feeling that she had trouble shaking off.

She’d never really understood the DD/lg dynamic, but the simple Daddy kink had grown into something closer to that kind of relationship when they’d started playing again. In the beginning calling him Daddy had felt weird and awkward, but now it felt normal.

At times with the punishment and caretaking, it felt more parental, and she was surprisingly okay with that because it came with a feeling of being safe and secure in his arms. She liked being taken care of and spoiled a little bit. It was the humiliating punishments she didn’t like.

Well, at least she told herself she didn’t like them. She was far too aware of the very different feelings under the surface. Sometimes those punishments were a turn on, sometimes the embarrassment factor added to that to make her wet and needy for his touch. But aside from that there was something cathartic about a punishment that pulled up a whole range of emotions.

It started with nervousness, dread, frustration, and even anger. Then once they moved onto the spanking part of the cycle it became sadness, regret, guilt, sometimes there was still lingering frustration. It could take a while to get past it sometimes, but then, finally, there wasn’t room for any of that. There was just the pain and the tears until it was over.

The best part came once they were finished with all of that. The part when he soothed her and made her know she was forgiven. Then she felt like his good girl again and could let go of the guilt and self-critical thoughts and just be his as he wrapped her in his arms and rocked her.

It was worth all of the rest of the cycle but remembering that as she stood there waiting could be hard sometimes.

His voice came out of nowhere, sounding loud in the silent room. “You let me know when you’re ready for your spanking, Charlie.”

She’d known that was coming, but it had the same effect as always. Two seconds before she’d been bored to death and ready to get out, but as soon as he said that she changed her mind. Stubborn determination set in and she remained there, silently glaring at the wall in front of her.

She shifted from one foot to the other and counted the cracks in the wooden planks in front of her to kill the time. Every time she thought about telling him she was ready, her butt would start to tingle and tense, and she’d put it off for another minute or so. But that could only go on so long and the night was passing.

She knew that Sam wouldn’t budge until she did what he wanted. She also knew that morning came early on the ranch; if she wanted any chance for a little fun after the punishment she had to give in before it got too late. Punishment, before it started and once it was over, tended to arouse her. And like getting a lollipop after a shot, sex could soothe the sting.

Usually Sam refused to allow her pleasure after a punishment; he thought it blurred the lines too much. But she had a feeling he’d bend on this one. He was just using his hand and that meant he wasn’t too mad about things. It was pretty obvious she’d made an attempt to obey even if she hadn’t quite finished, so he’d probably decided to be lenient with her.

With that in mind she let out a long, overly dramatic sigh, and turned around. “I’m ready.”

“You sure you don’t want to stand there another ten minutes and break your record?” He looked amused, sitting back in his chair with his legs sprawled out in front of him and his arms crossed over his chest.

She scowled, but when she spoke, she was careful to keep her tone polite. “No, thank you. I’d like to get it over with so we can get on with our night. I’d like to spend a little time not being punished before you have to go to bed.” She let a little bit of seduction creep into her voice.

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