The Devil's Cowboy by Kallista Dane Read Free Book Online Page A

raised a hand to her face, shocked to find it wet with tears. She stared at him. “What… what happened?” she muttered.
    “I’m sorry. I should have known, should have guessed how strongly you might be able to connect. She entered your mind, took over your body for a short time.” His voice trailed off. He shook his head. “Still, if you’d done as you were told …”
    She glared at him, suddenly furious. Who the hell did he think he was, this arrogant cowboy attempting to boss her around?
    “Done as I was told? Done as I was told! ” Her voice rose, gathering steam as she went into a tirade. “What happened to ‘I’ll keep you safe, I’m your anchor’? You were my anchor, all right. You dragged me right down into a psychotic episode with a crazy ghost!”
    “I was your anchor—until you pulled away from me and allowed her in. She’s still controlling you, Ellen.” His tone was calm, reasonable. “You felt her grief and her fear, now you’re giving voice to years of her pent-up anger. You’ve got to stop. You’ve got to fight this.”
    “Anger? Damn right, I’m angry! You come in here, drag me upstairs…” Her eyes glazed over, staring unseeing into the distance, and she went on in a leaden voice tinged with fear. “Then you locked me in that room, forced me to…”
    Her outburst was cut short when she suddenly felt herself yanked face-down across his lap, in the same position she’d seen so clearly just a short time ago. Dimly, she heard his voice.
    “I’m sorry to have to do this, Ellen, but you need to stop this temper tantrum. I’ve got to bring you back to reality… to be reminded that I’m still in control of the situation. I always have been.”
    As he spoke, he was sliding down her loose cotton pants, pulling up the long hem of her flowing paisley top. Ellen started shrieking, kicking wildly. One strong arm locked her in place across his knees and he gave her panty-covered ass a hearty smack, raising his voice so she could hear him above the racket she was making.
    “I didn’t lock you in that room. You’re not her. You’re Ellen Jacobs and deep down inside you know me. I’m the man you’ve spent lifetimes with, the man you’ve driven to distraction over and over with this stubborn insistence on doing things your way. She wouldn’t have been able to take over your mind if you hadn’t let go of my hand. That showed her you didn’t trust me enough to do as I said. She fed on your negative emotion and it made her stronger.”
    All the while, his hand was igniting a fire on her backside, spanking first one cheek, then the other. Ellen wriggled on his lap, but there was no escaping his hard callused palm cracking down on her ass. Here she was, finally in the position she’d fantasized about so often, but this was no sexually charged daydream. This was sharp, stinging, burning pain .
    “Let me go, you asshole, or I’ll call the cops. You’re as crazy as she is!”
    “You’re staying right here until you promise to listen to me next time.”
    “Next time? Screw you! There’s not going to be a next time! You’re going to jail for this. I swear I’ll press charges.”
    “Then I might as well do a proper job of it while I’ve got you here,” he replied. To her horror, he jerked her panties down around her knees, baring her ass completely. “It’s already a little pink, but maybe I need to spank it till it’s bright red before you’ll listen to reason and drive her out of your mind once and for all.”
    With a loud crack, his hand came down again. Ellen gasped. “Dammit, that really hurts!”
    “It’s supposed to hurt. It’s supposed to remind you that I’m the one in charge and if you do things I tell you not to do, you’re going to get hurt much worse than this.” He smacked her again, harder, and Ellen shrieked. She began struggling, desperate to get away.
    Rafe simply locked one strong thigh over her flailing legs, rendering her immobile, and started