Page 50 of Her Rugged Guardian

“I’m a big girl. I know what we shared wasn’t about making love or starting anything, but I didn’t think you’d shut me out completely after that.” The air between us was thick, my nerves on edge.

“Do you want to know why I did?” he asked softly.

“Why bother?”

He yanked me around so fast I stumbled against him. When he fisted my hair, cocking his head, I could tell he had no intentions of releasing me until I listened to him. Fuck that. I wasn’t going to be humiliated any more than I had been.

“Stop acting this way,” he growled. “I have my reasons.”

“Uh-huh. Like another girlfriend and let me go.”

“I’m not going to let you go. I was trying to protect you by backing away. The woman you saw is nothing more than an old friend.”

“Please just don’t lie to me.” I was still exasperated, wanting to believe him but the ache from the past was preventing anything logical to pass through my brain.

“The woman you saw is Millie’s daughter, Becca. I grew up with her. She was like one of my best buddies. Okay? Nothing more.”

Becca. Oh, shit. Was it possible? “I know what I saw.” God, I hated the sound of my voice, like a pitiful child who’d had her lollypop taken away from her. Maybe it was all the anger from before bubbling up inside.

“You’re not going to calm down and listen to me, are you?”

I could swear his tone held a hint of amusement when nothing about this was funny to me. “No!”

“Well, then I’m going to give you exactly what you need to calm you down.” One of the kitchen chairs was in easy reach and he yanked it from underneath the table, forcing me back by a couple of feet.

When he sat down with a hard thump, releasing his hold, I almost managed to jerk away, but the man was too fast and too strong.

“Let go,” I snapped, trying to keep my hands free while he reached for them. Yet he managed to snag both wrists in one hand, using the other to fight with the button on my jeans. I wanted to scratch out his eyes as well as tell him good luck trying to yank the tight material down my legs.

But damned if the man didn’t accomplish that within a few seconds, the yank so hard I was pushed into him all over again.

“You’re going to learn that reckless behavior isn’t good for you. And you’re going to stop acting as if you know me when you don’t know shit.”

“I know enough.” He tossed me over his lap so fast I almost felt whiplash, yanking my panties down with that brute strength of his, the sound of seams ripping forcing a moan past my lips. “What are you doing?”

“This seems to be the only thing that gets through to you.” Jake didn’t hesitate to bring his hand down in rapid succession, moving from one side of my bottom to the other.

I was mortified, wiggling and bucking as I flailed my arms. Who in God’s name did that man think he was? My master? My keeper? He certainly wasn’t my boyfriend. “Ouch. That hurts, you Neanderthal.”

“Yeah? Well, naughty women who accuse men of fucking around on them and ignore rules of common sense deserve a spanking that hurts like hell. Now, take your punishment like a big girl.”

“To hell with you.”

“For that you’re getting more,” he barked, but I could swear he was loving every second of being in control, every smack of his huge palm harder than the one before.

I refused to stop fighting him, almost managing to dump off his lap. At first, he grabbed my arm, holding it behind my back at an awkward angle but I had agility that obviously confounded him by the series of growls he issued. After almost falling onto thefloor a second time, he snaked one leg around mine, stopping me in motion altogether.

“Oh, I will get you for this.” Jesus. Now I was acting like some misbegotten child who deserved to be punished like a bad girl. I slapped my hands on the floor, noticing Moose had come in for water, studying us for a few seconds then walking out. I didn’t blame him. We were both acting like children.

When he stopped the spanking, I breathed a sigh of relief but the way he kept his hand pressed on the small of my back gave a clear indication that he wasn’t finished just yet.

“That woman you saw me with is one of my closest and oldest friends. She’s Millie’s daughter and I went to school with her. She’s like a sister to me.”

“That’s not what I saw.”

“What you saw was a woman concerned about me telling me I needed to move on.” He resumed the discipline, the swats raining down on me like wildfire.

I couldn’t believe there could be this much pain from the use of his hand or how much fire would tear through my system, rising across my bottom. I was hot and wet, which was just as disturbing as what he was doing. “I don’t believe you.”

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