She lowered her gaze. “I know, and I’m sorry,” she said in a small voice.
Cord lifted her chin to gaze down at her. “Even so, you should be punished for lying to me, don’t you think?”
She blinked, her pulse suddenly racing. “Punished?” she said softly.
He maintained a serious expression. “Indeed,” he said, his own voice equally soft. “A long, hard spanking should do it, I think. Bring me your hairbrush, Kayla.”
She obeyed without a word, walking across the room to retrieve the brush
from the vanity table. When she turned back around, she saw that Cord had
taken the straight-backed chair from beneath the desk, and placed it in the center of the room, where he now sat waiting for her. She had already begun to get that tingling sensation between her legs, and he hadn’t even started spanking her yet.
Taking a deep breath, she slowly walked over to stand beside the chair and wordlessly handed him the wooden hairbrush. She watched as his hand
closed around the brush’s handle, waiting in breathless anticipation for him to pull her across his knee. But he didn’t. Instead he gazed up at her.
“You know that you deserve a spanking for what you did, don’t you, Kayla?”
he asked softly.
Just hearing him say the word was enough to arouse her, and she felt herself blush. Mutely, she nodded.
“Then ask me nicely,” he commanded.
Her color deepened. It wouldn’t be the first time she had “asked” for a
spanking, but just the first time she had done so with words, and her voice was barely above a whisper when she spoke.
“Please spank me,” she said looking at him from beneath lowered lashes.
Cord felt himself go hard at the words. He should have done this instead of walking out on her earlier, he thought as he gently guided her across his lap.
Reaching down, he lifted her skirt and petticoat very slowly, and was just deciding whether to give her a warm-up over her pantaloons or whether to
pull them down and start right in on her bare cheeks when frantic shouts
could be heard from outside.
From her position draped over Cord’s knee, Kayla tensed and lifted her head.
“What was that?” she asked, craning her neck to look over her shoulder at
him.
He helped her to stand. “I’ll go check it out,” he said, handing her the
hairbrush. “Stay here.”
Kayla watched him go, and chewed on her lower lip as shouts came again.
Hurrying to the window to see what the shouting was all about, she was
shocked to see flames rising up from the barn.
Despite Cord’s warning, she ran from the room and headed for the steps.
With the barn on fire, the horses were in danger, and she was not about to wait inside the house when she could be helping lead the animals to safety.
Outside, however, it was mayhem as Cord and the ranch hands tried to save
the horses while at the same time trying to put out the blaze. Not only that, but she could have sworn that she heard gunshots coming from behind the
barn. She stood for a moment, looking frantically for Cord in the darkness, and she spotted him highlighted by the flames coming from the barn. She was about to go help him when a man on horseback galloped from around the
back of the barn. At first, she thought the man was one of the ranch hands, and was shocked when she saw him aiming a pistol at Cord.
“Cord, behind you!” she shouted.
She didn’t know how Cord managed to hear her over the confusion, but he
turned in time to pull his own gun and fire several times at the man. The
stranger slid slowly from the saddle as the horse kept on running past Cord.
Kayla almost stopped breathing; she had never seen a man get shot before.
She couldn’t stop staring at him, but when she lifted her gaze, she saw Cord running toward her, his face darkened with a mixture of anger and concern.
She knew she was going to be in trouble for disobeying him again, but before Cord could reach her, someone shouted his name, and he turned back to the
barn.
Kayla would have gone to him when all of a sudden, the sound of hoof beats came pounding from behind her. She turned, but barely had time to glimpse
the horse and rider bearing down on her before a strong arm scooped her off the ground and threw her face down over the saddle.
She gasped as she recognized Dalton Jeffries, and would have raised her
fists to strike him if she could have reached him, but the pressure of his hand on her back kept her in place.
“Let me go!” she shouted. She pushed against the horse, to no avail. “Cord!”
she yelled. “Cord, help me!”
At her cry, Cord turned, and she could see the shock on his face when he
realized what was happening. She was so focused on Cord running toward
her that she didn’t understand why he suddenly stopped until she heard the sound of a pistol going off over her head.
Cord’s hand flew to his head, and she could see blood beginning to flow
before he dropped to the ground, motionless.
Kayla screamed, fighting to free herself from Dalton, but the man only
tightened his hold on her as he screamed at the other men attacking the
ranch to finish up and follow him. With the sound of gunfire increasing, Dalton turned his horse around and kicked the animal into a gallop. From her
position draped over the horse, Kayla could only stare through the tears in her eyes as Cord’s still form receded behind them.
Go to Chapter Seven
Kayla and the Rancher
Chapter Seven
By Paige Tyler
© copyright 2005 By Paige Tyler and ABCD Webmasters
Kayla stared out the cabin’s small, dirty window, unseeing.
