He cocked his head, examining her and she shifted nervously, and then covered it by swinging the basket up onto his desk with a heavy thump.
“I brought plates and forks so we can eat here if you want, then maybe after we could…I don’t know, go back to your place?” She kept her eyes down while she talked, opening the basket and unpacking it, but as she got to the end of her little speech she glanced up with a hopeful look.
“Sothat’swhat this is about!” The look of interest dropped from his face to be replaced by something darker. He drew a long breath in through his nose and shook his head. “You’re something else, Charlie. I accept the food as an apology for the crap you pulled this morning but as for going back to my house? No thanks. Not tonight.”
She set an empty plate down hard in front of him, but otherwise kept her anger under control. “I didn’t mean to piss you off this morning. I was just trying to share some ideas with you.”
“You were trying to run things, Charlie, and you went behind my back to do it. That’s not going to fly with me.”
“I know, look, I’m sorry. I didn’t think there was any harm in just checking to see if their offer was still on the table, but you’re right, I should have talked to you first.” She made sure her voice was calm and there was no hint of an attitude in it. “I don’t want to fight, Sam.Please?”
He sighed and leaned back in his chair to watch as she went about serving out the food she’d brought. Under the tinfoil wrappings it was still steaming, and the aroma was enticing enough to dull the edge of any bad mood, she hoped.
“All right, let’s eat then.” He picked up his fork and began to shovel food into his mouth, hunched over his plate, and not looking at her.
It was like he hadn’t eaten in a week and her mouth dropped open with shock and then finally she laughed. She hadn’t taken one bite yet, and his plate was half empty already. “I guess you weren’t kidding about starving,” she commented dryly.
Sam paused, a large chunk of garlic bread almost to his mouth and he gave her a sheepish look as he slowly set the bread back down and straightened. “Sorry, until you came home, I mostly ate alone and usually it was just shoving the food in as fast as I can while trying to do other things. Still getting used to having company.”
He cleared his throat and then added, “It’s really good though.”
“I wasn’t sure you could taste it while it was going down that fast!” She was amused, and for the moment pushed aside her intense interest in getting him to take her to his bed afterwards. Despite what he’d said she hadn’t given up on the possibility.
The teasing seemed to relax him, and he gave her a smile that flashed the dimple in his left cheek. She loved that dimple and her heart did a little flutter in her chest. She dropped her eyes to her plate and concentrated on her food while she recovered her composure. “Next week I’ll make you my favorite, ginger chicken. The sauce is tricky, but when it comes out right it’s amazing and I love ginger.”
He picked up his napkin suddenly and reached across the desk, startling her. “What are you doing?” she asked curiously
“You’ve got some sauce there on the side of your mouth—come back here,” he said, laughing as he gestured with the napkin. She leaned back in and he gently dabbed at her face. “There, that’s better.” He sounded pleased and she felt oddly happy about the small action.
It was such a Daddy thing to do that she had to laugh. “What?” he asked, but she just shook her head. And then their eyes met and locked for an endless moment that took her breath away. When they finally broke the connection, she felt awkward, nervous, though she wasn’t sure why.
She tried to start a conversation about cooking to fill the silence, but there wasn’t a whole lot to be said since her menu was limited, and Sam barely cooked at all unless boxes out of the freezer counted. The talk died off and they both ate quietly. The deepening silence made it difficult to keep her mind off of him and how much she wanted him. She cast about desperately for a neutral topic.
“Sally go into labor yet?” She looked up as she asked.
He shook his head, swallowed, and then replied with “Naw, not yet. She’s fussy though; it won’t be long. I’m just hoping we can stagger out the births this year. We’ve got ten pregnant mares that are near full-term now.”
This conversation lasted a lot longer since they were both interested in horses and it continued at a nice easy back and forth pace between short pauses for chewing. They avoided topics that were likely to stir up trouble, but as the meal came to an end, she began thinking about how to change his mind.
“So, I was thinking about what you said earlier. Um, about spanking me, I mean. Maybe you were right. I did go behind your back and maybe I deserve that,” she said quietly as she poked at the last bites of lasagna.
“You do deserve it. I’ve been trying to include you in things and treat you like a partner even though that’s not what your father wanted, and you thought you’d take advantage.” He said it firmly like it wasn’t open to argument.
“Yeah, okay I admit it, but you know what this ranch means to me. I always thought I’d take over when…you know.” She sighed and took a sip of the sweet tea she’d brought along with dinner.
“I get it, Charlie, but I’m not going to put up with it. And I know what you’re doing right now. You’re telling me you deserve a spanking, but you don’t mean punishment. You mean that you want me to spank your ass until you’re all excited, and then you want me to fuck you.” He snorted and shook his head. “When I said you deserved a spanking I wasn’t talking about foreplay.”
She swallowed hard and squirmed in her seat. Her ass tingled with phantom prickles and she hesitated before she replied because she really wasn’t sure what she wanted anymore. She was tired of waffling back and forth and changing her mind, and she was tired of chasing him away too. “I know what you meant. I mean, you’ve punished me before.”
“Not hardly, kiddo. We played at punishment and maybe I gave you a few hard ones when you pissed me off, but it always devolved into sex afterwards—probably why it never did much for your bratty attitude,” he said, and then he chuckled.
“Well, maybe we should try it then.” Her voice was barely above a whisper and her hands had dropped into her lap, twisting there anxiously as she watched them instead of meeting his eyes. She couldn’t believe she’d even said that. Why would she even open up that door?
“That really something you think you want, Charlie? Or are you just saying that so you can throw a safeword at me later when it starts to hurt? Make no mistake, darlin’ if I punish you it’s going to hurt, and it won’t be sexy.”
Her stomach did the flippy thing. Low, and inside of her, her body clenched down hard. She could feel the wetness of her arousal soaking her brand-new panties, and all she could think wasyes! Yes, she absolutely wanted him to take that control away from her. “No safeword. I don’t…I don’t want a safeword if it’s for punishment. I trust you,” she blurted.
It took them both by surprise. He let out a low whistle and she looked up quickly to see what he thought of what she’d said. He looked torn, conflicted, which made sense. She felt the same way and she didn’t know how to explain why she’d suggested it, but she suddenly realized it was something she wanted.
