Kayla & the Rancher Page 6

  “Abigail?”

  Kayla lifted her head to find Cord regarding her in concern.

  “I didn’t mean to upset you by mentioning Boston,” he said gently. “It’s natural for you to miss your home there.”

  She shook her head. “Oh, but I don’t. Not really.” At his surprised look, she hastily explained. “I’ve discovered that I’m a lot more independent than I thought I’d be.”

  “You’re a lot more independent than I thought you’d be,” he laughed.

  She tilted her head to look at him. “Does that bother you?”

  He thought a moment before answering. “As long as you don’t get yourself

  into trouble, then I don’t mind it a bit. Truth be told, I think I kind of like it.” He regarded her for a moment, his golden brown eyes warm. “As a matter of fact, there are a lot of things I like about you.”

  Things he liked about her, or Abigail, Kayla wondered, and she felt a sudden pang at the thought that he could be referring to the other girl.

  They ate in silence for a few minutes, both of them watching the horses

  grazing nearby, before Cord finally spoke.

  “I saw you sketching the other day,” he said, drawing up one leg and resting his arm on his knee. “You didn’t tell me that you could draw.”

  Kayla shrugged. “It’s always been a hobby of mine,” she told him. “I didn’t think to mention it in the letters.”

  “What do you like to draw?”

  “Dress designs, mostly,” she admitted, and then, picking up a strawberry, she gave him a shy smile. “Actually, I’ve always wanted to have my own shop.”

  Cord lifted a brow, clearly surprised by her admission. “Really? Is that why you learned to sew, then?”

  She nodded. “Part of it, yes.”

  He thought a moment. “You know, you should ask Rachel if she’d be willing to sell some of your dresses at the store. There aren’t as many women here as there are in Boston, of course, but more move out here every day. Who

  knows? You could get so many orders that you might even have to open your

  own shop.”

  Kayla looked at him in surprise. “You real y think I could do that?”

  “I have no doubt,” he said. “You certainly seem to have the gumption to do whatever it is that you set your mind to.”

  She smiled. “Are you sure you don’t think I’m just a little too spirited at times?”

  she teased, gazing at him with mock innocence in her eyes.

  He locked eyes with hers and the corner of his mouth quirked slightly.

  “Actually, I find that spirit to be extremely sexy.”

  The words made her catch her breath, and she abruptly realized that their

  light conversation had suddenly become flirtatious. Not knowing what to say to his comment, she took a bite out of the strawberry. A small amount of the juice squirted out and began to run down her chin, and as she started to lift her fingers to catch the liquid, she saw that Cord was looking intently at her lips.

  Cord suddenly leaned in, and she thought he was simply going to wipe the

  juice from her chin with his fingers. But instead, he cupped her face with his hands and gently kissed the juice off her chin before slowly finding his way up to her slightly parted lips.

  Kayla had been kissed before, but it had been nothing like this. Those other kisses had been cool, almost chaste, the men barely brushing their mouths to hers. But Cord’s kiss was neither cool nor chaste as his mouth explored hers.

  His kiss was tender, and yet demanding at the same time, and she felt

  lightheaded from it. She realized that she hadn’t taken a breath from the

  moment his hands had touched her face.

  She felt him slide the ribbon off her hair, felt his hand delve into the thick waves. His mouth moved more insistently over hers, and she instinctively

  parted her lips, only to sigh with pleasure when his velvety tongue dipped into her mouth to glide along her own.

  Cord ran his free hand down her back and over her hip before settling on her curvy bottom. As she felt the heat of his hand on her skin through the thick material of her riding skirt, she found herself wishing he’d give her a few light spanks. But he didn’t, of course. Instead, he gently lowered them both to the blanket. Still kissing her, he moved his hand up her bodice and along the

  curve of her breast to slowly undo the buttons on her blouse.

  The material parted easily at his touch, and she gasped as he gently cupped her breast through the thin undergarment that she wore. Kayla let out a soft sigh of pleasure that quickly turned into a moan when Cord began rubbing his thumb over her sensitive nipple. She should have been shocked, but she

  realized that she felt very comfortable with everything he was doing.

  Cord abruptly lifted his head to gaze down at her, his breathing ragged. “We’d better stop before we get carried away,” he said hoarsely.

  Kayla didn’t want him to stop, though, and as she lay on the blanket panting, she wanted to tell him so. But somewhere in the back of her mind, she

  realized the wisdom of what he was saying, and so she reluctantly nodded. “I suppose you’re right,” she agreed, giving him a shy smile.

  His mouth quirked. “I was hoping you’d disagree with me,” he said, lightly running a finger down her cheek before gently kissing her on the mouth

  again.

  If he only knew, she thought as she buttoned her blouse. Cord put what was left of the food back into the basket while she folded the blanket they’d been sitting on. With both the basket and the blanket safely stowed in one of Cord’s saddlebags, he pulled Kayla close for another kiss before helping her to

  mount her horse.

  Giddy from Cord’s kisses, Kayla gave him a dazzling smile. “I’ll race you

  back.”

  Before he could answer, she gave her horse a nudge with her booted foot

  and, with a quick glance over her shoulder, galloped away before Cord had

  even mounted his own horse.

  Grinning, Cord swung up into the saddle and set out after her. Willing to let her stay in the lead for a while, he followed more leisurely.

  He began to turn his horse back the way they had come, expecting Abigail to do the same, but she continued to ride toward the tree line that topped the slope that led down into their ranch’s valley. That wasn’t the way they had come.

  “Shit,” he muttered.

  Gripping the reins tighter, he kicked his horse into a gallop and raced after her.

  Up ahead, Abigail threw a quick glance over her shoulder, and seeing that he was closing the distance between them, urged her horse into a run.

  Cord did the same. “Abigail, stop!” he shouted as he raced after her. “Abigail!”

  But she ignored him, continuing to ride toward the trees. He put his spurs hard into his horse and gained on her quickly. Racing ahead of her, he

  brought his horse around in front of her, forcing her to bring her own mount to a sharp halt.

  “Dammit, Abigail, I told you to stop!” he said. “Couldn’t you hear me?”

  Her brow furrowing, she shook her head. “No. What’s wrong?”

  He gestured with his arm in the direction she had been headed. “You can’t go this way. It’s too dangerous,” he told her. “I want you to promise that you’ll never even try to go that way.”

  He saw that she was looking toward the tree line in confusion. “Isn’t that the way down to the house?” she asked.

  “Yes, it is, but you’d be lucky to live through it if you went that way,” he said.

  “The slope turns into nothing but loose rock halfway down. Once your horse goes into that, you’ll slip and slide al the way to the bottom, probably bringing half the slope with you. If that isn’t enough, the walls start to rise up tight on either side so that you couldn’t turn around even if you wanted to.”

  “I didn’t know,” she apologized. “I thought th
is was the fastest way back to the house.”

  He shook his head. “It’s my fault, real y,” he said. “I should have pointed it out to you when we rode out here.”

  They rode back to the house the long way around, and at a much more

  leisurely pace. In the barn, Cord unsaddled both horses, and then brushed

  down his big bay while Kayla did the same to her mare.

  “You ride very well for a beginner,” Cord said, glancing at her as he brushed down his horse.

  She didn’t answer for a moment. Abigail might not be a horsewoman, but

  Kayla had ridden all of her life, and was quite comfortable in the saddle. She couldn’t admit that to Cord, though. “I love riding,” she said simply, running the brush over her horse’s glossy coat.

  “You can ride any time you’d like, you know,” he told her. “Just let any one of the hands know, and they’l saddle your horse for you.”

  She gave him a smile. “I don’t need anyone to saddle my horse. I can do it myself,” she said, a chal enge clear in her voice.

  He lifted a brow. “Really? Well, that might be the case, but ask for help

  anyway.”

  After giving the horses both feed and water, they made their way to the far end of the barn. In one corner, several of the hands were seated around an old crate, and as she and Cord drew nearer, Kayla could see that the men

  were playing poker.

  One of the hands, a stocky, blond man named Joss, looked up from his cards as they approached. “Want to join us, Boss?” he asked Cord.

  Beside her, Cord shook his head, declining the offer, but he must have seen her look of interest because he leaned close to whisper in her ear.

  “Don’t even think about it,” he warned softly.

  Cord’s words sent a delightful little shiver through her, and for the next few days his warning not to play poker with the hands was all she could seem to think about. What if she deliberately defied him and played cards with them?

  Kayla wondered as she lay in bed one evening. Would Cord real y give her

  another spanking? And would she get aroused from it again? Though she

  was almost certain that he would indeed spank her, she finally decided that the only way to know for sure if it would excite her would be to try out her theory. The thought that she was going to intentionally provoke Cord into

  spanking again her made her pulse race excitedly and she had a hard time

  getting to sleep that night.

  Since it wasn’t unusual for the hands to play cards after finishing work for the day, Kayla found a game going on when she walked into the barn the

  following afternoon. The men looked up at her entrance and greeted her

  warmly. Having met all of the hands by now, she knew most of them by

  name, and smiled at the group seated around the makeshift card table.

  “Are you looking for Cord, Ma’am?” one of the men asked. His name was

  Harold, and he was tall and thin with a mop of curly red hair.

  She looked at each of the men in turn before answering. “Actually, I was

  hoping to play cards,” she said with a smile.

  Harold blinked in surprise. “With us?”

  She laughed lightly. “That was the idea, yes.”

  The other men laughed, but looked at each other uncomfortably. Putting his cards face-down on the table, Harold hastily got to his feet. “Uh...Ma’am, I’m not sure if that’s such a good idea. I’m not sure the boss would like us playing cards with you.”

  “Of course he wouldn’t mind,” she assured them. “He just didn’t want me

  playing cards in town because it was not safe. But I’ll be perfectly safe playing cards with you gentlemen, right?”

  The men nodded at the logic of her words. And besides, she knew the men

  would enjoy her company. All of them were unmarried and didn’t often get a chance to spend much time with a beautiful woman. She thought they would

  be willing to take a chance for the privilege of her company.

  Harold must have thought so, too, because he said, “I’ll get you something to sit on.”

  Kayla didn’t know if Cord would come in before the men finished playing, but she was pretty sure that at least one of them would mention to their boss that she had played poker with them that afternoon. As it turned out, however,

  Cord walked into the barn after they’d played only a few hands.

  She wasn’t aware of his presence behind her until the men she’d been

  playing cards with abruptly got to their feet in the middle of a hand and

  excused themselves with a polite, “Good day, Ma’am.” As one, they hurriedly left the barn.

  Suddenly realizing the reason for the men’s hasty getaway, Kayla felt her

  pulse quicken. Just how furious was Cord?

  “Care to explain yourself, Abigail?”

  Cord’s voice was soft, but there was a hard edge to it, and Kayla wet her lips nervously as she got to her feet and turned to face him. His arms were folded across his broad chest and he was glowering at her. “I...I don’t know what you mean,” she said, smoothing her hair back from her face and looking up at him innocently.

  He clenched his jaw. “I told you that I didn’t want you playing cards.”

  She smoothed her skirts with suddenly trembling hands. Could she really go through with this? she wondered. “Actually, what you said was that you didn’t want me going to the saloon to play cards,” she pointed out. “If you look

  around, you’ll notice that this is not the saloon. You real y should be more specific next time, you know.” She realized that she was pushing it a little bit, but she wanted to make sure that this whole thing would result in a spanking.

  He scowled. “Are you trying to provoke me?”

  She blushed and looked away, but not before he saw the slight curve of her lips.

  “Is that what you’re doing, Abigail?” he demanded angrily. “Trying to see how far you can push me?”

  Before she could answer, Cord took hold of her arm and dragged her over to where several bales of hay had been neatly stacked in the center of the barn.

  Her heart beating wildly with excitement now, Kayla tried to dig in her heels, but it did no good.

  “What...what are you doing?” she asked, her voice suddenly trembling. She

  knew what he was going to do, but she didn’t think he’d do it here! She

  thought they would go back to the house. Anyone could come in the barn and see her getting spanked!

  He spun around to glare at her, his golden eyes glinting in the afternoon light coming in from the barn’s high windows. “Maybe you don’t think I’m serious, Abigail, but I intend to show you that I mean what I say.”

  Kayla expected Cord to sit down and put her over his knee, like he’d done

  before. But instead, he surprised her by bending her over one of the hay

  bales. It was exactly the perfect height for her to lean over comfortably, she noticed. Her heart hammering in her chest, she looked over her shoulder at Cord to see him grab a leather strap from a nearby hook. Though it looked

  soft and supple, it was also about two and a half inches wide. He doubled it, making a loop and slapping it against his palm. It made a sharp slapping

  sound, and her eyes widened at the sight of it. Surely, he wasn’t going to spank her with that!

  She started to push herself upright, but a firm hand on her back bent her over the hay bale again.

  “I told you that I didn’t want you playing cards, didn’t I Abigail?” he asked, slapping the strap against his open palm a second time.

  Looking over her shoulder at him, she stared at the leather strap as if

  transfixed by it. “Cord...” she began.

  “Didn’t I?” he demanded, his voice harsh.

  She hesitated for a moment before answering, and when she did, her voice

  was soft. “Yes
.”

  He slapped the leather against his palm again. “Lift your skirt, Abigail,” he ordered, and when she hesitated, he added, “Now.”

  Reaching back, she slowly pulled up her skirt until it was bunched around her waist.

  “The petticoat, too,” he told her.

  Again, Kayla hesitated, and was rewarded with the feel of leather slapping against her right cheek. The thin material of the petticoat offered little protection and she gasped at the sting left by the strap.

  “The petticoat, Abigail,” Cord said again.

  Kayla’s heart was pounding so loudly now that she was sure Cord could hear it. She couldn’t have imagined this scene better if she’d made it up herself, she thought. She’d deliberately not worn pantaloons beneath her petticoat for just this moment, but now that the moment had come, she didn’t know if she could actual y be bold enough to go through with it. Then there was that