Page 6 of Keeping His Brat

But even if he hadn’t been her Dom and Daddy, she would have been in trouble with Sam for not having the phone on her. He had a rule that anyone working on the ranch, and out on their own, had to have a phone on them for emergencies. She couldn’t even argue that it wasn’t a good common-sense rule.

It hadn’t been but two months back that one of the hands had broken his ankle and had lain helpless in a field for a whole day before someone found him. His battery was dead so he couldn’t use it to call for help. He might have been stuck out all night if Mike hadn’t noticed his truck was still there at the end of the day and gone looking.

After that Sam had lectured them all about safety and tacked on a bunch of new rules; that was one of the big ones. Since then, he’d warned her numerous times, and she’d made more of an effort when he saw his patience wearing thin. But she still forgot it almost as often as she remembered.

“Please, please. It was just an accident, Daddy. I was running late and rushed out the door. It won’t—ow, please!”

“You might as well save your breath, darlin’. I’m not even close to being done. When I think of what might have happened …” He trailed off and growled as his hand moved down to target her thighs again.

Her yelps turned into high pitched squeals. She began to thrash wildly across his lap as she tried to avoid those burning swats. He couldn’t pin her down with one leg, and still target her lower thighs so she hoped it would force him to move back up to a less tender spot.

Instead, she found herself being hauled to her feet. She gave him a bewildered look. Sam wasn’t likely to give up just because she was struggling, which meant he had something else in mind—and that was never good.

“Apparently you’re in the mood to fight your punishment, but I’m not going to wrestle you down to give it to you.” He pointed to the antique saddle stand that he’d rescued from the barn when he’d replaced them all. “Get your butt over there.”

It was a sturdy piece of furniture from her grandfather’s time, when they’d made things to last. He’d hauled the heavy wooden piece over to the cabin after it had been a major part in an intense punishment scene they’d done in the tack room. They’d found a number of uses for it since then, which made the fact that it took up half the living room worth it.

With its rounded top it wasn’t too different from a vaulting horse and seemed almost designed to bend someone over. Since it had moved in, she often found herself in that position. For fun scenes and sex, she loved it. She was well aware that it could make punishment a lot less fun.

Her bottom lip pouted out. “I won’t struggle anymore. We don’t need to use that,” she insisted.

“Too late. Strip off your pj bottoms. I want you lengthways across the top and you better hurry up because I’m going to get my belt,” he warned her. He turned on his heel and headed for the bedroom without giving her a chance to respond.

She took a long breath and let it out in a sigh. She wanted to yell about it being unfair, but it wasn’t. With her pajama bottoms down to her knees already it only took a second to kick them all the way off and then she approached the stand reluctantly in just the shirt, which didn’t even reach her thighs.

Having to bend over it was bad enough. It was just a little too tall for her and that meant her toes were left kicking just above the floor when she settled over it. It felt awkward and vulnerable, but that was nothing compared to the way she felt when she was straddling the top of it. Unfortunately, that’s where Daddy expected her to be when he came back.

She carefully crawled on top and arranged herself the long way. It took her a minute to get comfortable on top of the wide barrel, wiggling against the smooth polished wood until she found the right position and could settle. The width caused her legs to be spread wide enough that Sam would get a good look at all her secrets when he came back.

Even in trouble the position made her feel sexy. Knowing she couldn’t hide even the most private places from his gaze was a turn-on.

She let her arms and legs dangle down, knowing they’d probably be cuffed or tied to keep her in place. Bondage was almost always part of things when he had her straddle the top, because it was a long way to fall if she slid to the side.That would be another safety issue, she thought, and then snorted a laugh.

“Something funny, girl?” Sam didn’t sound amused.

“I was just—no Daddy, nothing is funny.” He probably wouldn’t get the humor in it, and she didn’t want him to think she wasn’t taking things seriously.

He moved next to her and began to adjust her body the way he wanted it spread across the rack. Moving her back a bit, he positioned her so her ass was jutting out past the end of the wood. He wrapped cuffs around her ankles and fastened them to the eyebolts on the legs of the rack, and then did the same to her wrists.

“That should cut down on the struggling.” He fiddled with her position a little more and then stepped back to look her over.

She twisted to look back at him over her shoulder and could easily see the satisfied look on his face. A shiver went through her, but not from the cold this time. She wasn’t scared of what was about to happen; in some ways she was actually looking forward to it.

The burning had started to die down during the brief break. Having her legs spread open and tied, with the smooth wood pressing up against her body had started to change her reactions to more sexual ones. She was getting wet and the tickling of arousal as it soaked the short thatch of hair was probably too obvious for him to miss. It wouldn’t last long, not unless he wanted it to, but for now it was helping to settle her mind into an excited place full of eagerness.

The shiver was a symptom of that excitement. She wanted the scene to begin even though she knew she wasn’t going to enjoy it. “Would it help if I said I was sorry for worrying you? I really am. I never meant for that to happen.” She couldn’t even begin to imagine how scared Sam had been.

“I believe you, Charlie, but no, it’s not going to help.” Almost as if to contradict that he reached out and ran his calloused palm across her heated skin, soothing it. His hand tightened, squeezing one cheek gently. “I know that you never meant to scare me and by then you had no other choice. That’s the problem with breaking rules though, once you do, you can’t really predict the consequences.”

She bit her lip and let her head drop back down so she couldn’t see the look on his face. “It didn’t seem like a big deal at the time and then suddenly …” She trailed off into silence.

“Suddenly you were in over your head, right? That’s how emergencies work, once they pop up, you’re stuck. All you can do is prepare in advance and be ready if something happens. That’s why I make these rules, Charlie.” He sighed as his hand moved to the other cheek, caressing and rubbing.

“Punishing you because you’ve been a brat is easier than this. I know when you act up that it’s what you need, and that on some level you’re pushing for it. I really don’t like punishing you for safety issues like this. All I can think of is the danger you put yourself in and how easily it could have been worse. We’re both lucky that you’re here tobepunished right now, because if that walking side of beef had rolled over on you …” He growled and gave her a stinging slap as if just the thought of that upset him all over again.

“Ouch! I know—I know I’m sorry.” It seemed wrong to be turned on by her predicament and the sternness in his voice, but her body hadn’t yet connected to the guilt she was feeling. She tried to close her legs to hide it but, of course, that was useless.

“Not as sorry as you’re going to be. It’s my job to keep you safe, Charlie. You disregarded two rules in one day and nearly got yourself killed because of it—that means I’m not doing my job. So, I intend to make my pointsveryclear this time,” he said ominously.

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