Chapter 1
Chapter One
It was a bitterly cold winter day, and the clear skies and sun overhead just made it worse somehow. Everything was covered in a thin layer of white, from the recent snowfall, except the ground around the barn and paddock. There the snow had been worn away by the tromping of boots as the ranch hands did their morning work on the Long Shot Ranch.
The snowfall hadn’t been heavy or thick, but the dropping temperatures had turned it into a hard coating that had stuck around for several days. The sunlight reflecting off the ice had everyone wincing and wearing sunglasses. Sam had left his back at the house, so he had his hat pulled low, and was trying not to look directly at anything but the ground, as he did a circuit around the outside of the barn to see that everything was in order.
A glint of metal caught his attention anyway, and out of the corner of his eye, he saw a flash of bright cherry red up by the house. It probably wouldn’t have been so glaring, except it stood out against all the white. He stopped short. “What the hell is that?”
He hadn’t realized anyone was behind him, but Nick, vision mostly blocked by the two heavy cutting saddles in his arms, had just enough time to say, “Huh? What?” before he barreled right into Sam’s back.
Sam was shoved forward onto an icy patch, and he went into a frantic dance as he tried to stay on his feet.
His foreman looked torn between dropping the saddles on the frozen ground so he could help, or just watching as Sam windmilled desperately.
Saddles were expensive, so it was never really a choice. He shifted the weight in his arms, seemingly so he could get a better view of Sam’s acrobatics. Knowing Nick, he was probably making bets in his head on whether Sam would land on his ass.
It was a near thing. Sam almost went down twice, before he finally stumbled off the ice. A stream of curses exploded into the air.
“You alright there, boss?” Nick asked casually, once Sam had finally stopped flailing. He received a glare for his trouble.
“I’d be just fine if people looked where they were going.” Sam couldn’t help the snap in his tone, as he looked for the cause of his distraction. The color had been so vivid, and he could have sworn…
There was nothing there now, except his battered old pickup and Charlie’s car. Neither of them was red. Maybe someone had been visiting, but if so, they hadn’t stayed long. Sam had only left the house an hour ago.
Nick snorted. “You’re the one who stopped short. What did you expect me to do? Levitate over you?” His mouth twitched, as if a grin was lurking just out of sight.
Sam narrowed his eyes. His mouth opened to tell Nick off, but he forced himself to take a deep breath instead. “Smartass,” he muttered under his breath.
“Well, yeah. But you knew that when you hired me,” Nick pointed out.
That was true enough. Sam and Nick had been friends for years. They went way back to Sam’s rodeo days, although Nick had stuck with it long after Sam had returned to the ranch where he’d grown up, to take over as foreman.
Things had changed. Now Sam owned the ranch with his wife Charlie, and Nick was their foreman. But above that they were still friends, and it wasn’t Nick he was mad at. So rather than snarl at him, he stalked into the barn, muttering under his breath as he looked for some work that needed to be done.
He was trying not to be too hands-on. Nick didn’t need to be micromanaged. Sam hadn’t hired him just because they were friends. His foreman was about the most experienced cowboy around.
Aside from that, the whole idea of Sam hiring a foreman was so that he could focus on other parts of their business, but when he was stressed, he tended to find himself down in the barn getting his hands dirty. He was, at heart, a blue-collar man.
Hard work was a distraction, and he needed it. The problem was… he also needed his men to have confidence in Nick. There had to be a clear chain of command, otherwise drama crept up. Men could talk about women gossiping all they wanted, but ranch hands were like a flock of hens when they had a story to share.
Any question about whether Nick had real authority would spread across the ranch like wildfire. He knew full well that working in the barn too often would raise that question, so just inside the doors he stopped short. Again.
This time Nick managed to avoid crashing into him. “Damn, Boss, what’s got into you this morning? These aren’t exactly light, you know.” This time it was his temper that seemed to be fraying.
Sam quickly moved out of the way, rubbing his forehead. “Sorry. Tired, I guess. Didn’t sleep much last night.”
Nick’s tight expression eased, and the lines around his eyes smoothed as he moved over to settle the saddles on a handy rack. He brushed his hands off on his jeans, and turned back to Sam. “Well, why don’t you hit the hay and catch some winks then? I mean what use is it being the owner, if you can’t take a little snooze when you feel like it?”
“I’m tired but wired. You know? My mind’s spinning.”
One black eyebrow shot up. “School wearing you out already?” Nick leaned against the wall and crossed his arms over his chest, inviting Sam to talk.
“No, it’s not that.” He paused, then added, “Although it’s a hell of a lot harder than I expected. Too many years since high school, I guess.”
Nick laughed. “You won’t catch me trying it. Though I’m beginning to feel left out, with all the rest of you taking classes.”
Sam snorted. “It’s a pain in the ass. ‘Sides, I’m only trying it out. I don’t know if I’m going to keep going.”
Taking classes had been Charlie’s suggestion. At first Sam had dismissed it. He had enough to do and, as he’d told Nick, it had been a long time since high school. But the more he thought about it, the more interesting the idea became.
He’d always regretted not getting to go to college. Truthfully, he’d been kinda jealous when Charlie had been shipped off to school. He wouldn’t have fought it the way she had, but life had other plans for him. She’d gone and he stayed, giving up on furthering his education.
But that had been years back, when they weren’t much more than kids. Now that they were married and owned the ranch, different opportunities had opened up. They had money, and he had more time on his hands than he used to.
That hadn’t been the convincing factor though. Truthfully, Charlie was learning a lot of interesting shit. She loved to talk about her classes and everything she was learning. Sam had started to realize that there was so much more out there, so, as of the fall semester, he’d joined her in taking online courses.
He still wasn’t sure it had been a great idea. It had been a hell of a long time since he’d had to memorize facts and do homework. Still, he didn’t like to walk away from a challenge, and he had to admit he was enjoying some of it.
“So, if it’s not the classes…” Nick trailed off as one eyebrow rose in question.
Sam hesitated. He didn’t really like to talk about marital problems, but Nick was probably the one person he did feel comfortable talking to. “Having a little trouble with Charlie.”
The second eyebrow rose to join the first. “Well, hell, boss. Should have just said it was woman trouble from the start. Don’t tell me the honeymoon’s over already?”
“Not… not that kind of trouble. At least… I don’t think so.” Sam frowned.
They’d only been married a year and most of it had been blissful. They’d done some traveling, before returning to the ranch to settle into the routine of married life.
The benefit of living together before getting hitched was that not too much changed after, at least in theory. Only… there had been changes. He couldn’t really pin them down or explain. It just felt different, but not in a bad way.
Their connection was closer. And in a macho bullshit kind of way, he felt like she belonged to him more completely. More permanently. It had all been wonderful, until very recently.
Until last week, when he’d noticed that Charlie had begun acting shifty. It was nothing major, just a few odd things, like phone calls that ended as soon as he entered the room, or her sudden need to make extra trips into town.
His local classic-car-swap paper, the only one around that was still printed and delivered, had been cut to pieces. Whole pages were missing.
Charlie had admitted to that. “I’m so sorry, honey.” Her bottom lip pouted, and she gave him doe eyes. “I thought it was an old one and I needed to make a collage for an assignment. It’s so hard to get print magazines and papers anymore,” she added.
Which was why he’d subscribed in the first damn place. A cowboy didn’t like to be tied to digital all the time. Sometimes he wanted to sit on the porch with a real newspaper in his hands, while he looked at the old cars and fantasized about buying one someday.
But that was a momentary irritation. Another one would arrive in a month or so and he was often behind on reading them anyway. It was more the oddness of it. She was working on a doctorate in Animal Sciences, what kind of assignment was she doing that needed pictures of old cars?
He didn’t want to quiz her about it, not when she seemed to feel bad about the mistake, but tied in with the other stuff it made him curious. There was nothing he could specifically call her out on, but his Dom radar was pinging hard.
Even putting it into words with Nick was making him feel silly. “I feel like she’s hiding something from me. I don’t know what it is but… it’s driving me crazy.” He wouldn’t have said that to anyone else, but Nick was not only his friend, but also a Daddy Dom in his own marriage.
He’d understand things that other people wouldn’t, like how to balance a marriage, a business partner, and a D/s dynamic. Sometimes making all those roles work could be a little overwhelming.
“You think she did something wrong and is hiding it?”
Sam shrugged. “I don’t think so. When she’s feeling guilty about something it’s usually pretty obvious.” He took a second to think about it and then shook his head. “Definitely not. But Charlie likes to make plans without talking to me first, and they aren’t always well thought out. You know we’ve had some struggles over ranch management before?”
“I’ve heard a few stories, yep. Kind of thought you guys had worked that out by now. What with you being the Dom and all.”
“It’s not quite that easy. I mean, it’s been a while since there was a major problem, but now and then things still pop up. I’m sitting here like a nine-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs, waiting.”
Nick threw his head back and laughed. “Man, that’s what keeps it fun though. Right? What would we do without them keeping us on our toes all the time?”
Okay, maybe Nick didn’t entirely understand. Their dynamic was different. Nick’s wife was a real handful and was known for getting in trouble for the sole purpose of earning a spanking.
Nick loved catching Katie in trouble. For the two of them it was about the game, and it tended to end with funishment more than anything meant to teach a lesson.
With Charlie things weren’t like that. They kept punishment and fun kink pretty separate, and she actually tried to avoid getting in real trouble for the most part. Not that it kept her from stumbling over his knee from time to time, but discipline wasn’t usually her goal.
She just sometimes decided she wanted to do something regardless of what would happen as a result. And sometimes… what she wanted involved business decisions for the ranch.
Sam was half-owner of their spread, and had been since before they were married. It had been easier then, because he’d been the one in charge of all the business decisions. Charlie hadn’t liked it much, but she’d had to accept it.
The terms of her father’s will had changed that. Once Charlie got married, she became a full partner, with an equal say legally. And they didn’t always agree on how things should be done.
As her Daddy, he could still overrule her, but it was complicated. Juggling their D/s dynamic and their business relationship, and keeping both healthy, meant that he couldn’t just lay down the law all the time.
He still had the final say, but he didn’t like to use his veto without them talking things out first. He’d promised her that much when she went back to school. And she was learning a lot of new and useful things that could be applied to the ranch, so it was worth listening.
But too much change, too quickly, could throw everything out of balance. So when she wanted to rush ahead, he often had to hold her back. Moving slower, cautiously, when implementing new things was more his style.
Which is why, now and then, Charlie would go around him and present a situation after it was too late for him to do much about it. It didn’t always turn out badly, but that wasn’t the point. As his sub and wife, she shouldn’t be sneaking around him like that, and as his business partner… it was just plain rude.
It had been a while since she’d done something like that. He’d taken a switch to her after the last time, making his displeasure about being blindsided known. She’d felt it every time she sat down for a day or two after, but that didn’t mean it would never happen again.
It left Sam frazzled and worried about what she might have done this time.
Of course, for all he knew, it had nothing to do with the ranch at all. His gorgeous wife was perfectly capable of finding trouble pretty much anywhere she looked.
“Suppose you already considered putting her over your knee and spanking it out of her?” Nick’s mouth tilted up at one side, not quite a grin.
“Oh, believe me, I’ve thought about it.” Sam sighed. “I called her on it this morning, when I got tired of her acting shifty. And…”
“And?” Nick waited.
“She admitted to having a secret, but swears it’s nothing bad. It’s a ‘surprise’.” He used air quotes around the last word. Surprises were not his favorite things. “And it’s come down to whether or not I trust her.”
That was the part that had him gritting his teeth, because normally he would just spank her ass until she confessed, but he’d feel like an ass if he did that over something completely innocent.
“Ahhh. So, if you rush in all Domly and force a confession, you’ll show you don’t trust her, and she’ll be hurt. But if you don’t… you’re going to drive yourself nuts worrying about what she’s got cooking?”
“Yep.” That was basically the problem in a nutshell.
Before they could say anything else, two ranch hands strolled in through the open barn doors. One was pushing a wheelbarrow— soon to be full of soiled hay and manure. The other had a pitchfork slung over her shoulder as they went to clean out the stalls.
Seeing the foreman and the owner together, looking tense, their laughter and teasing trailed off. They went quiet, picking up the pace and getting the heck out of Dodge before whatever was going on had a chance to spill over onto them.
Smart.
Nick smirked and straightened. “We should take this to the office. Otherwise the work won’t get done, because they’ll all be hiding.”
Despite his mood, Sam had to laugh. He remembered what it was like, being a regular ranch hand and trying to stay out of the boss’s sight when it seemed like he was grouchy. “Fair enough.”
Nick led the way, which still felt weird to Sam. The office had been his domain for so many years. Turning it over to Nick and getting used to working up at the house had been an adjustment. He wasn’t entirely sure he preferred it, though there were a lot fewer interruptions.
He entered the small office just after Nick, and closed the door behind them. Out of habit he started to move around to the boss side of the desk. He stopped himself, snorted, and dropped into the guest seat instead.
“You know I don’t care which chair you sit in, right?” A grin tilted his mouth up at one side, having seen the sudden jerk and change of direction. “You’re still the boss anyway.”
“I’m the owner. It’s best if the hands are clear that you’re the one to listen to. I don’t want any confusion.”
Nick shrugged with his usual elegance and took his seat. He looked like a rough cowboy, but he’d always been uncommonly graceful in his movements, like some large predator. “If you say so.”
Sam had no interest in being led into a debate. He knew Nick couldn’t care less about protocol and formalities. But Nick was also new to being foreman, and didn’t yet grasp how complicated it could be when cowboys weren’t sure who to look to. He’d learn.
When Nick realized that Sam wasn’t going to reply, he swung his legs up on the desk, leaned back in his chair, and returned to the previous topic. “You know, we’ve got V-day coming up soon, and then your birthday after that. Maybe she’s just working on a present for you.”
The fact that Nick even knew his birthday was a shock. “I thought about that. It’s another reason not to push her to confess. I’m just going to have to wait and see how it plays out, but meantime… I’m stressed.”
“I can see that.” Nick started to say something and then stopped and shook his head. “So, this have anything to do with why you came down here to freeze your ass off, instead of staying home where it was warm like a sane man?”
In all fairness, Sam hadn’t realized how low the temperatures had dropped overnight. He probably would have rethought things, but once he’d stepped outside and slammed the door behind him, it was too late to go back.
Nothing felt sillier than storming off in a snit, and then having to come right back. So, he’d pulled up his collar, shoved his hands in his pockets, and gone off to find something or someone to take his mood out on.
“Yeah. If I’d stayed home, we would have ended up arguing about it.”
“You know you’re most likely overthinking this, right? I mean, even if she is getting up to something, how bad could it be?”
It was beyond Sam’s imagination to even guess. Nick was trying to look sympathetic, but his mouth kept twitching like he wanted to grin. Sam’s eyes narrowed. “I’m glad you find this so amusing, pal .”
Nick snorted a laugh. “I’m not amused you’re having problems and stressing yourself out. I just think it’s funny how these gals can stir up so much mischief when they aren’t even trying.”
Sam grunted. That was true enough.
“Anyway, I think you should just head home and spank her. You don’t have to spank her for ‘this’ in particular. Just… you know… do the Dom thing. You’ll both feel better,” Nick advised.
Maybe, but Sam wasn’t ready to head home yet. “I need to work off some of this energy first. I was looking for something to do, but you seem to have everything under control here.” That was a sign that Nick was doing a good job, but this morning, when Sam needed a distraction, it was annoying.
Nick’s broad grin flashed white teeth. “I can put you to work. There’s always things needing done around here, Boss.”
“Yeah, but I don’t want the hands to think I’m…”
“Trying to take over?” Nick suggested, when Sam didn’t continue.
“Yep.”
“Don’t worry about it, bossman. Trust me. Why don’t you saddle up and meet me out front. I was going to ride a circuit out around the north pasture to make sure the water wasn’t frozen over. You can come with.”
Sam hesitated, frowning. It was bound to be chilling out there. The north pasture had no tree line to cut the wind, which is why the water tended to freeze up there first.
“Unless the mighty ranch owner is too good to get his ass in the saddle, of course.” One eyebrow went up as Nick shot him a look. His mouth twisted into a taunting smirk.
“Too good? No. Too underdressed…” He tugged at his coat, which wasn’t thick or warm enough for a ride. He’d left his gloves at home besides.
“We’ve got plenty of spares around here. C’mon… it will do you good. Cool you down, so you can head home and deal with your missus.”
Nick’s black eyes seemed to glint with good humor, and Sam found himself agreeing. Half an hour later they were both saddled up and heading out.