Bourbon & Branch Water by Patricia Green Read Free Book Online Page B

too?”
    “Oh God, Jeff, I wouldn’t do that.
You have me all wrong. I’m sorry.”
    The Randolphs came to mind. It was a fleeting notion, but he spoke with growing confidence in
his new idea. “How sorry?”
    Stormy stepped back a pace. “ Wh -what do you mean?”
    He smiled, though he didn’t feel
particularly amused at her innocent act. “How sorry are you? What would you do
to convince me?”
    “I’ll leave,” she whispered. “You’ll
never have to see me again.”
    “We’ll meet during negotiations,”
he pointed out. “But you said you were sorry.”
    “I am. I really am. You can’t
forgive me?”
    “Even if I believe you on the brief
issue, you should have known you’d be invading my privacy by rifling through my
desk, and that you’d be treating me rudely by just dropping me a note and
running off as if I have leprosy or something.”
    Her eyes were troubled, regret
shone in the sparkle of burgeoning tears.
    Jeff stroked her trembling arms,
fleetingly wondering what had gotten into him. He ought to take her up on her
offer to get out. But he was so damned attracted to her. A part of him wanted
her story to be true. That wouldn’t forgive her for pawing through his desk;
that was rude under all circumstances—but it would preserve his first
impression of her as a good girl who was barely coming out of her shell. He’d
liked the Stormy he was getting to know.
    “You want me to forgive you?” He
cupped her jaw and tilted her face up toward his. Her eyes closed, her lips
parting slightly. She was so fuckin ’ sexy. Acting
without thinking, Jeff took her mouth with his own . He
was rough. He wanted to punish her for getting under his skin. She was
breathless as he lifted his mouth from hers, and that breathlessness reminded
him of the Randolphs again and their way of
harmonizing. “I’ll forgive you-”
    “Thank you, thank you-
    “ If -
    “If?”
    He nodded and stepped back a pace. “You
agree to let me punish you. Spank you.”
    A tiny frown built between the dark
arches of her eyebrows. “Punish me?”
    Jeff nodded. He wasn’t sure how
viable this solution might be, but he was more and more comfortable with it as
he went along. “Yeah, I’ll spank you and we’ll call it even.”
    She looked truly puzzled. “But
spanking is…it’s… I don’t understand.”
    “Not for fun, Stormy. A real
spanking, you might even cry.”
    “What will you do if I don’t go
along?”
    “Nothing but show you to the door.
That will be the end of…of whatever was going on between us. Terminer , no mas , finito .”
    Her lip went between her teeth—those
beautiful lips that could bring him so much pleasure, now swollen and full from
his rough kisses. He hated what had happened, wanted to reverse the situation
and go back to where they’d been. Could she be telling the truth? If she was the ruthless tart he’d assumed upon finding her rifling
through his things, why would she even be considering his suggestion? A
spanking like the one he’d described wouldn’t be pleasant, and what would she
get out of it except a red butt and some sort of forgiveness from him? Why
would she care about his forgiveness if all she wanted was to win? It didn’t make sense.
    Her breath was shallow, quick, but
her whispered words were clear. “Okay. I’ll take the spanking. I didn’t mean to
make you mad. It was thoughtless of me to go through your things. I could
have…I dunno , done something else.”
    He nodded, watching her carefully. “Look
at me.”
    Slowly, her eyes moved to gaze at
his. Their darkness was infinity and he was lost, pulled into the twin black
holes of the Stormy universe. There were tears in those eyes and Jeff was
nearly undone.
    “Okay. I’ll spank you and we’ll
call it even. The whole thing will be forgotten. Is that fair?”
    She nodded.
    “Say it.”
    “Yes. It would be fair.”
    With a brief nod, he gestured. “Take
off your clothes.”
    “All of them?”
    “Yeah, all of