“Is there any reason I shouldn’t spank you?” he asked suddenly, surprising her.
“Because I’m a grown woman who doesn’t need to be
punished?”
He snorted. “No. We both know that you’re in dire need of discipline. You’re going to start obeying the rules, little girl. Or you’ll spend a lot of time with a red bottom.”
She didn’t know how to feel about that. Horrified and intrigued? Except they were only here for the night and then they’d go back to the ranch.
“Rules? What rules?”
“My rules for my Little girl and my big girl. They’re actually the same.”
“But I’m. . .I’m not yours.” It hurt her to say those words. And his hand stilled. Shit. She’d ruined things. Why couldn’t she have just kept quiet and taken what he was offering?
He leaned in, his mouth brushing her ear. “You think you’re not mine.”
She didn’t answer. She couldn’t.
“But you’re wrong.”
She shook her head. “I’m not.”
“Oh, baby. I’m going to have so much fun proving you wrong. You’re a challenge. But I always win.”
“You’re so arrogant.”
“I’m just a man who knows what he wants. I want you. Growing up in foster homes, you learn fast to defend what’s yours. To hold onto it. That’s what I’m going to do. You belong to me, Eden.”
“I can’t be yours, Zeke.”
“You can,” he said fiercely.
“You don’t understand. You deserve so much better than me.”
“So much better than someone who is loyal, smart, kind, and sweet? So much better than someone who trusts me enough to show me parts of herself that she has never shown anyone?”
“There’s so much more that’s hidden,” she warned him.
“And I’ll reveal each layer as slowly and as patiently as you need me to. But you will show me those parts.”
“You’re starting to sound like a stalker,” she snapped at him.
“You can snap and snarl all you like, princess. I’m not going anywhere,” he said calmly. Damn him. Why wouldn’t he bite back? That would make this so much easier. “I know something pure and good and sweet when I see it.”
God, those words. They were killing her.
“There’s no way I’ll ever be yours.”
“Challenge accepted.”
She groaned. Was he for real?
He ran his hand down her ass. “Is there any physical reason you can’t be spanked?”
“N-no,” she told him, unsure she should admit that.
She blushed as a wave of heat flooded her. Having him touch her was enough to have her nipples hardening. Shit. What was wrong with her? She didn’t want a spanking. That would be humiliating. She was a grown woman.