EXCERPT

Sam Caldwell looked down at the cup of coffee slowly growing cold in front of him. Growing cold, like his marriage of late. It was his own damn fault, too. He used to be able to handle everything pretty much on his own. Well, with his handful of reliable ranch hands who he guided along with little or no instruction most of the time. They knew what to do and he trusted them to do their jobs. But he was the man in charge around the Circle C.

He took a sip of the cool coffee and grimaced. Should have taken a drink sooner. He shouldn’t have spent all this time sitting here fretting about the problems in his life like some old woman. Instead he should have more than half-listened to two of the neighboring ranchers with him in the booth of the town’s favorite diner.

Saturday mornings generally had him sitting here chatting and b-s-ing with a few of the ranchers in the area. This was their time to catch up on not only what was going on with their ranches, but also with the sad state of affairs for ranchers in general. He usually chimed in with his opinions.

But today he hadn’t said much. He wasn’t even all that interested in what was being said. His thoughts kept wandering back to how his wife had stopped smiling around him lately, how she had begun keeping her distance from him. Truth was, his ranch hands were starting to avoid him as well.

“When you going to snap out of this blue funk you’ve been in?” Pete asked from across the table. “You’ve been grouchier than a wounded bear the last month.”

His other friend nodded agreement. “You and Katie aren’t having problems, are you? I’d sure hate to hear that.”

Were they? No, he was the problem. Sam shook his head and abandoned holding onto the cold cup of coffee. He offered a weak excuse for his behavior of late. “If a man had a snippy time of the month like a woman does, then I guess that’s what’s happening with me. Hell, even I can’t stand to be around me right now.” That was the truth, too.

His friends chortled and took off talking about the horrors of dealing with their wives when they were PMSing. Sam wasn’t up to listening to that. He stood to dig coffee money out of his jeans’ pocket and set it on the table. They went right on with the current subject of their conversation, how Pete’s wife turned into Dragon Woman once a month. Sam counted himself lucky in that moment. His Katie got a little testy at that time of the month and sometimes he even had to warm her backside to straighten her out, but, all in all, it wasn’t so bad.

He grabbed his Stetson from a hook on the wall beside the table and planted it on his head. “See you next week, boys.”

“Kiss that sweet wife of yours, let some of her cheery disposition rub off on you,” Pete teased as Sam walked through the half-full diner toward the door.

He caught a few more comments about his sour mood of late from some of the other ranchers hanging around and drinking coffee. One man even called out that he needed a swift kick in the butt or something. If he didn’t know that the men taunting him actually liked him, he might have stopped to snap at them. But he managed to take their ribbing in stride and headed out to his pickup truck. If he wasn’t in a better mood by next week, even his old friends might start steering clear of him. He needed to work through whatever had him going around in a crotchety mood, complaining when there wasn’t anything to complain about, snapping at others for no reason. Especially at his wife.

By the time he pulled onto the gravel road leading to his ranch, the sun was high in the sky. It promised to be a real burner for late in May, but then this was Kansas. It could be a burner one day and plumb cold the next this time of year. All you could really count on was the wind, which never seemed to stop. But, as he drove past the heart of the ranch buildings and to his driveway, it wasn’t the heat of the day that had him feeling cantankerous and sweaty. No, it was the strange turn of thoughts he’d been mulling over for the last few miles. Really strange. Never would he have imagined himself thinking along this line.

Spanking. He never really gave it much thought except when it was necessary that he turn his wife over his knee for a sound walloping. She had a tendency to get over-tired and then cranky, so he burned her bottom to get her refocused. Sometimes she failed to follow through on a promise she made to him or to one of the community groups she was involved with, so he heated her backside for letting whoever it was down. He’d been spanking her, with her acceptance, since before they’d married. After a spanking her attitude definitely improved, even if she might not sit well for a day or two. The fact that he spanked her for discipline wasn’t an issue between them. He loved her and she knew it, even when he reddened her butt.

He pulled into the driveway and turned off the engine. It really hadn’t been spanking Katie that he’d been thinking about these final miles. He gripped the steering wheel for a second to rein in his thoughts again. Can I really do it? Can I humble myself enough to tell Katie I need a spanking?

******

Katie hummed along to the country music coming from the radio on the counter across the kitchen. Her heart wasn’t actually into the music, though. She’d been worried about Sam when he sped out of the ranch yard this morning on his way into Haverty to have the usual Saturday morning coffee with his buddies. Actually, she’d been worried about him for a while now. He’d gotten this surly and stayed that way for this long one other time in the six years that they’d been married. She’d almost considered leaving him then. She wouldn’t consider it this time, she loved him too much. She just needed to find out how to help him out of this mood. If only he’d talk to her about what was bothering him. If only she knew how to ask him about it, without having him snap at her.

She had decided to bake him an apple pie, his favorite dessert. The timer went off on the stove at the same time she heard the familiar sound of Sam’s heavy footsteps headed in her direction. Uneasiness flitted through her. The need for her husband to walk into the room, pull her to him, and kiss her silly also filled her. But she doubted that would happen today. It hadn’t happened in too long.

She pulled the sizzling pie from the oven as he walked into the kitchen. She heard his appreciative deep inhale of the spicy scent and the way his stomach rumbled. He’d refused breakfast before he’d left for town. It sounded like he hadn’t eaten at the diner either.

“Something wrong?” she asked warily, setting the pie on a hot pad on the counter. She knew that he wasn’t around the house this time of day, except on Sundays for their usual big noon feast with the ranch hands. She couldn’t imagine what had brought him here now, unless…. No, it couldn’t be for that reason. She’d been on her best behavior lately.

He met her gaze, looking even more serious than normal. It took him a few seconds, but he finally blurted out, “I need your help with something.”

Katie gaped at him, confused. She could count on one hand the number of times he’d asked her for help since they’d said their I-dos. “Sure, of course.” She tried to study his expression but he was even harder to read than usual. “Does this have anything to do with how…with how…well, with how disgruntled you’ve been lately? With what’s bothering you?”

Sam took off his hat and set it brim up on the counter. “Disgruntled, huh? Don’t you mean acting like an ass?”

******

He thrust his chin out, straightened his shoulders, and stated grimly, “I need you to help me with my attitude problem.”

She blinked. “I don’t understand.”

His expression mirrored frustration. He shifted awkwardly. “What happens when you have attitude issues?”

Katie felt quivers of knowledge in her stomach. Her buttocks tingled in memory. Her cheeks grew heated again and she said quietly, “You spank me.”

“Bingo!” He looked almost joyous that she understood without his having had to come right out and say it.

She still didn’t fully comprehend what he was getting at. “You want me to spank you?” Surely she was misunderstanding him.

He glanced away and she watched color creep up his face. Embarrassed?

******

“Hell, Katie, I don’t really know anything except I can’t keep going around growling and snapping at everyone. Including you.” He looked up and she saw his incredible love for her in his eyes. “Especially you.”

That roundabout apology warmed her. He didn’t say he was sorry easily. This had to be tough on him, this humbling himself to come to her with this bizarre request. She chewed her lower lip for a second and finally said, “I’m not sure I can do it, spank you. It even sounds strange. I get spanked, not you.”

“Until now.” His jaw was set in determination, although his eyes hinted at his wariness.

It was so hard for her to comprehend what he wanted done. Spanked. He wants me to spank him. He would never want any of his ranch hands or his friends finding out about this, just as she preferred her being a spanked wife kept private. He was pure Alpha male, dominant, a leader, the head of his house. He turned her over his knee and reddened her bottom when he felt she needed it, not that she’d ever really fought him about it. This talk about punishing him was well beyond “thinking out of the box,” as far as she was concerned.

“You love me, right?”

“Of course I do! Maybe you’ve pushed my nerves lately, but I love you anyway.” She knew he wanted an answer, but she couldn’t give him one right now. “I need to think, Sam. You can’t just spring something like this on me.”