He got to his feet, a tower of rock-hard muscle that reminded her how easily it was for him to hold her down and redden her ass a minute ago. Her pussy quivered at the memory.
“And I’ll keep doing it until you do your job better,” he warned.
She lifted her chin. “You don’t have to worry about that anymore because I quit.”
Jason recoiled as if she’d slapped him. The stunned expression on his face floored her. He couldn’t really be surprised, could he?
Kendall didn’t know why she kept standing there. Was she waiting for an apology? Or hoping he’d beg her not to quit? Neither would make her change her mind.
Her face as red as she was sure her freshly spanked ass must be, she turned and walked down the dock with as much dignity as she could muster.
Jason swore as he watched Kendall go. What the hell was wrong with him? He’d promised himself he wasn’t going to spank her again, but between lying to a customer about being out of live bait and stepping on those damn nightcrawlers, he’d lost it. And now he’d lost her.
Shit.
He’d never met anyone who could push his buttons like she could. At first, he’d been amused by the story of the crickets attacking her, but then she’d knocked over that damn bucket and not only sent nightcrawlers everywhere, but stepped on them, too. Before he knew it, he’d put her over his knee and was spanking that cute ass of hers. His cock went hard all over again.
He closed his eyes with a groan. He only hoped Kendall hadn’t felt his hard-on while he’d spanked her. No way. If she knew he got turned on by warming his ass, she probably would had more than a few choice words for him, then slapped his face for good measure before she took off.
Maybe he should go after her and apologize. Then again, he thought when he heard the sound of her car throwing gravel as it sped away, maybe not. She clearly wasn’t in the mood to listen right now. What would he say anyway? Yeah, sorry about dragging you over my knee and spanking your ass, but I thought you really deserved it? Like that’d go over well. As pissed off as she was, she’d probably say something bratty and he’d end up giving her another spanking.
Swearing again, he walked back to the hothouse and knelt down to pick up what was left of the nightcrawlers.
Chapter Five
Kendall didn’t sleep well. No surprise there. How could she sleep when all she could think about was the spanking and her body’s reaction to it?
She’d heard about women who got turned on by spanking, of course, but she’d never been one of them. How could any woman like getting manhandled like that? When Jason had held her down and spanked her, she’d felt helpless and submissive, like he could do anything he wanted to her and she’d be powerless to stop him. There was nothing sexually exciting about that.
Heat pooled between her thighs, making a liar out of her.
She ignored it and leaned back in the wooden Adirondack chair, propping her feet on the railing as she gazed out at the lake. It had been a mistake to come back to Copper Canyon. This wasn’t her home anymore. It was past time she stopped running away from her life and went back to Los Angeles.
Even though the decision was the right one, she felt a pang of regret. Not at the thought of leaving Copper Canyon, but at the idea of leaving Jason. She’d only been on the one date with him, and yet for some ridiculous reason, breaking up with him was even more painful than breaking up with Keith had been. Maybe because she knew what she could have had with Jason would have better than anything she’d ever had with Keith.
She gulped her coffee, not caring that it was still too hot. God, she sounded stupid. Jason had spanked her not once, but twice because she’d done something he didn’t like. But he was also sweet and funny and gorgeous a sin. Not to mention one hell of a good kisser.
She groaned. No doubt about it, she was definitely making an appointment with a therapist when she got back to LA.
The sound of footsteps on the wooden deck made her jump, and she quickly sat up to see Jason standing there. He was wearing jeans and an Outdoor Outfitters T-shirt today, and she bit her lip to keep from moaning at the way the material stretched across his muscular chest. Dammit, why did her body always betray her every time she was around him?
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to startle you,” he said. “I knocked on the front door, but I guess you didn’t hear me. I saw your car out front and figured you might be back here.”
Kendall got to her feet, tightening the belt on her robe with suddenly trembling hands. “What do you want?”
“About last night. I wanted to—”
“If you’re going to say you wanted to apologize for spanking me, forget it. I don’t want to hear it.”