Page 23 of Ranch Rules

But once the idea had occurred to her, she couldn’t seem to stop. She would be quick... unless he had a password. Her teeth worked her bottom lip as she thought, her eyes glued to the door.

He’ll be back fast. Better not risk it, the angel on her shoulder said.

Yes, he’ll be back soon, she agreed. But before her guardian angel could so much breathe a sigh of relief, she sprang into action. Which means I’ll have to act fast.

Moving at a quicker pace than she normally did, she sprinted to his desk, tapped the mouse to wake up the screen, and frowned at the lock screen. She hit the enter button, hoping maybe he didn’t have a password after all, but only the appearance of one.

No such luck. It bounced back with incorrect password in yellow lettering.

Hmm. Well, that was that. There was no way she could guess and she was smart enough than to keep trying so that she’d be standing here and get caught when Lora came back. Unless...

Knowing it would never work, Natalie typed Lora onto the white box and hit enter. To her utter disbelief, the lock screen disappeared and the desktop appeared. She let out a shocked laugh, then quickly moved the mouse to the Mail icon, clicking twice to open it. Not only did Nate have Wi-Fi, but he had a pretty quick connection considering they were out in God-knows-where.

With lightning speed, she typed in the web address of her law firm and in a few quick clicks was in her email account. Her eyes scanned quickly as she took in the last fifty emails. She opened the three most important, took in the messages, and typed out speedy replies before she closed down the browser and locked the screen once more. She had been back at the filing cabinet for a solid minute when the door to the office opened.

But it wasn’t Lora who entered, but Thomas. When her heart began to pound, she couldn’t help but wonder if it was guilt over her recent naughtiness, or if she was just happy to see him.

“Hey. I thought you’d still be working.”

“Oh, uh... we finished a few minutes ago, actually.” Was it possible that her voice only sounded squeaky to her own ears? God, she hoped so.

“Great. Well, since you’re free, do you want to go out with me?”

“Go... go out?” There was no doubt she had squeaked like a mouse, but Thomas, ever the gentleman, pretended not to notice.

“Yeah. I was thinking we’d go for a horseback ride and maybe have a picnic lunch?”

Natalie was sure she hadn’t had a more wonderful offer since her firm had made her a junior partner. She couldn’t have hidden the smile that spread across her face if she’d wanted to. Thankfully, doing so was the last thing on her mind. “Yes! I mean, that would be great, but Lora went to find Nate and see if there was anything else we needed to do. Maybe I should wait here and...”

Thomas smiled at her enthusiasm. “That’s mighty nice and polite. Looks like a bottom warming and a good night’s sleep is just the thing to bring out the best in you.” He winked.

She didn’t have to have a mirror to know that she was turning red from the tips of her fingers to her flaming face.

He only chuckled. “C’mon, I already cleared it with Nate.”

But she couldn’t move. She was humiliated at the blunt reminder of what had happened only hours ago—especially since they were in the very room where she had been made to bend over the desk, her pants pulled down and her bottom soundly spanked. Her cheeks tingled in remembrance, which didn’t do a thing to help her stop blushing.

“I was just teasin’, Natalie. You can take someone pokin’ fun at you from time to time, can’t you?”

“Of course. I just...” She found that her embarrassment didn’t stop at the horrifying blushes, but included being tongue-tied to boot. She hung her head, even though she knew he’d already seen her face ablaze.

Thomas strode toward her and out of the corner of her eye she saw him reach for her hand even before her fingers jolted with the sensation of his fingers on hers. “I really wasn’t tryin’ to upset you. I was just tryin’ to play around a little, show you that there are no hard feelings.”

She lifted her eyes to his face tentatively. She knew what she should say. Well, first things first, she should yank her hand away, then tell him in no uncertain terms that just wasn’t good enough. She had hard feelings. She didn’t think it was funny, or whatever else. Maybe she had felt that way too, a few moments ago, before he walked in and looked at her with that heart-stopping gaze. But just now, she couldn’t see the point in staying mad. After all, the past was in the past, right? And Thomas had been nothing but kind to her ever since, so maybe it was an isolated incident they could put behind them, a one-off, a fluke.

“Listen, I’d really like it if you chose to have lunch with me, but if you need some space after—”

“No. I... I’ll come.” After all, it wasn’t possible that a man could so cruelly force a woman to submit to a spanking one day and sweetly ask permission to take her to lunch the next day, right? Besides which, she really wanted to see the horses.

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