Chapter 5

Nick had been looking forward to Cowboy Days for multiple reasons. The rodeo, of course, was on his mind. He'd been planning for it all year, paid his entrance fee for the events he'd chosen, and gotten on the lists early, before they filled up.

He'd been tempted to enter three competitions, but his wiser side prevailed and he'd kept it to a more reasonable two. A good idea, since he was bound to get at least a little roughed up riding the bull. No sense pushing fate.

He was a good rider. Maybe one of the best in the area, and that meant he was bound to take at least one of the prizes. It didn't hurt that he'd done the rodeo professionally for years either.

While he no longer traveled the circuit for a living, he still had that experience going for him. He wouldn't be the only one there who was a professional (or former pro) though. Cowboy Days lured the competition in from all over, but he'd still be in the upper tier and with some luck he'd place well.

The cash prizes were decent and the top three who placed in each event would receive a payout. But Nick also had some bets going on the side. Not on the events he was competing in, of course, that was a good way to get disqualified, but on some of the others.

He had an eye for seeing a winner. If everything went well, there was a good chance he'd be walking away with enough cash to last him awhile. Working on a ranch didn't pay nearly as well as the rodeo did, and he was tired of being broke.

Even though his expenses were low, he had a girl now and he wanted to be able to spoil her. His rusty old truck was always one mile away from needing a repair, and he had a strict policy of stashing a certain amount of every paycheck in the bank. He'd need it when the work dried up, and it always did.

In some ways, he regretted leaving the circuit behind. The wear and tear had been too much to keep going, and come winter, his body would be reminding him about every injury he'd sustained during those years. Eventually he'd made the decision to quit, but he still missed it.

Changing his path had been a smart thing, but the extra income boost from a once-a-year event wasn't worth passing up, and it was well worth the risk.

But that wasn't the only reason he'd been looking forward to Cowboy Days. Towns that celebrated the holiday tended to go all out for the three-day celebration. Everyone was excited and Main Street had been thoroughly scrubbed and decorated for the rush of visitors.

Best of all, the local ranches gave everyone the time off, aside from a rotating skeleton crew who handled the necessary daily care and feeding. All the major work was set aside, and Nick had most of four days off in a row. That was a rare event.

He was looking forward to spending as much time as he could with Katie. When he found out she had an extra day off too, well, that just made it all perfect. Dating was hard when they lived on opposite schedules.

She worked late into the night bartending, and he had to be up before dawn most days. He didn't mind sitting in the bar while she worked on the weekends, but real dates took some effort. An event like Cowboy Days gave him a lot more flexibility.

They'd made plans and everything seemed to be on track… until it wasn't.

He had no idea what had upset her, and Katie wasn't big on talking through her feelings when she was hurt or mad. Hell, he wasn't either but as the dominant partner, he did make the effort. And if he was going to make an effort, then so was she.

Probably shouldn't have laughed though. He'd known it was a mistake immediately, but it was more from relief than anything else. He'd thought he'd done something to scare her, and the idea of his Katie being scared of him… well, that was unsettling, especially when he'd been so careful to do everything right with her.

Worse would have been if she'd meant she was nervous about being with him, about their relationship, because that was something he worried about. She wasn't just new to the life, but new to even considering it as something she might want. She'd taken to it all beautifully, but this was all new ground as he'd guided her.

It had been such a relief to find out that she was worried about his safety and not about him, that the laugh had just burst from him. A mistake, and one that had sent her storming off. He was trying to rectify it, but she wasn't making it easy on him.

He settled on the couch, and finally got her to join him, but only after he'd had to resort to using her full name. "I'm sorry I laughed at you, darlin'. I wasn't making fun of you. I promise."

She shot him a narrow-eyed look but didn't say anything.

"I was relieved. When you said you were nervous about me… well, my head went in another direction." The silence continued, so he added, "I thought you were saying you were nervous about us, about us being together."

Some of the tension went out of her shoulders and she drew in a deep breath. After a few seconds she let it out slowly. "Sorry. I overreacted."

"Maybe just a little bit." The corner of his mouth twitched a little. "Want to tell me why?"

"Not really."

Of course she didn't. "Okay, will you tell me why anyway?" As much as he wanted to force the words out of her, he was very aware that he didn't have the authority to do that—yet. All he could do was coax her gently.

"You're a cowboy." She said it like that meant something specific.

"Yes. You've known that since we met."

"Cowboys get hurt all the time. Especially in competitions. Broken bones, cuts, worse sometimes."

"You're not wrong, Katie, and I get why that would make you nervous. It was my misunderstanding in the truck and I'm sorry. But I'm not sure why it would make you feel dumb, or cause you to overreact."

She worried at her bottom lip and her gaze skipped across the room, pointed in every direction but his. The silence lengthened until finally she gave in. "It's just that I didn't really think about that part of it before. And then I started thinking about how many people get hurt doing those events and—" She cut herself off.

He considered what she'd said, trying to give it context. "Did it freak you out a little?"

A short hesitation, and then she nodded once.

"It's normal to worry about someone you care about, especially when they have a dangerous job, Katiegirl. Nothing dumb about that."

"It's just that you act like it's not even a concern. Like you don't even think about it."

He chuckled, "Well, I don't mostly. I mean, I'm aware injuries happen. I've been hurt often enough, but if I sit around worrying about it every day, then how am I going to do my job?"

She huffed out an exasperated breath. "The rodeo isn't even your job. I get that you have dangerous things you have to do on ranches, but this isn't your work. This is for fun."

He took a second to decide how to approach this. "It's not my job now. It was for a long time though. But, darlin', where do you think the events come from?"

Her head tilted and finally her eyes came to rest on him. "What do you mean?"

"Rodeo events all come from things cowboys are supposed to know how to do. I've done every single one of those events while working on a ranch. This is kind of our way of… honing our craft."

"But it's different…"

"Sure, more stress obviously, since you're competing instead of working as a team. The timer adds a level of difficulty too, but that's important ‘cause sometimes in an emergency you gotta move fast. Training for these events makes us better at our regular job—but you're right it is more dangerous. They make it that way on purpose."

"That's stupid." Her lips pressed tightly together, thinning, as if waiting for him to argue.

He wasn't going to, because she was right. "It is… but people want a show. The element of danger adds to everything, and that's why rodeos are big business. It's why the sponsors are willing to put up nice big cash prizes."

"Well, you don't work in rodeos anymore and you don't have to have that extra risk, so why are you entering?" she demanded.

"Mostly the money. This might not be my job anymore but it's still a way to earn some extra cash. But…" He shrugged. "I'd be lying if I said I don't enjoy the competition. It takes skill and I've got it. We all like to show off a little, don't we?"

Her brow was furrowed as she worked through what he'd said. He could tell she was thinking it over.

"I… guess. I mean, not that I have anything to show off, but I suppose if I had a skill, I'd want people to see it," she said finally.

He frowned but wasn't sure how to reply to that. She was a great bartender, but her skills weren't showy, and he had a feeling she'd find it patronizing if he mentioned them. She hadn't, as yet, really shown him enough of herself to be able to call her out on specifics, but he was sure she had plenty of talent lurking.

Nick didn't like the idea of anyone dismissing Katie, not even herself. "I hope you're not putting yourself down, lady. I don't like hearing that." It was close to crossing a line he'd set about not domming her until she asked, but he couldn't help it.

Katie rolled her eyes. "Just stating facts. I've never been awesome at anything. Nothing special here."

His hand itched to smack her ass until she took it back. "Even if that is true, there's nothing wrong with being a Jack-of-all-trades. It's probably a lot more useful actually."

"I'm not sure I qualify for that either."

One eyebrow went up and he tilted his head to the side as he looked at her. "Seems like I remember you telling me you got great grades in school, and ended up with a bunch of scholarships."

"Yes, but—"

"And then you went to college and studied web design, which you said you were really good at."

"Well, yeah, but I never graduated." She looked away from him.

"Because your mom got sick, not because you couldn't handle the coursework," he reminded her.

"I didn't finish, so I don't know if I even would have been able to keep up. Things get harder as you go along," she said. "I probably wouldn't have made it to graduation anyway." She still wasn't looking at him.

At first, he'd thought maybe she was still upset at him for laughing, or still worried about the rodeo. She was being unusually contrary, but there was something not quite right. He narrowed his eyes, examining the little bit of her expression he could see—and then it hit him. She was riling him up on purpose.

He wasn't sure exactly why, but the itch in his palm was getting worse. He pictured himself sweeping her across his lap and smacking the arguments right out of her.

You're not her Dom… yet, he reminded himself. There would come a day when he had the authority to discipline her, but that day hadn't come. He tried giving her a bit of her own medicine instead.

"Well, at least you got most of a college education. The honor roll never knew me and I sure as hell didn't get any scholarships from my grades. Just a dumb cowboy."

Katie's head snapped around and she glared at him. "You're not dumb! You read all the time, and grades aren't everything anyway. You can do all kinds of practical stuff, like fix cars."

Nick shrugged. "I'm nothing special. Just another ranch hand."

"That's not true! You take that back." Her voice got louder as her cheeks blossomed with red spots.

He cleared his throat. "Not very nice hearing someone you care about put themselves down. Is it, Katiegirl?"

Her eyes widened and her mouth hung open for a long moment. "You… you said that stuff on purpose to upset me."

The accusation was true, and he wasn't going to deny it. "Just showing you what it feels like."

"But that's not fair. It's… it's…"

"It's exactly what you were doing to me. If I was your Daddy, I'd probably tan your hide for talking about my girl like that, but it's not my place to discipline you. So, I tried a different tack."

"Jerk." Her mouth snapped shut and her bottom lip jutted out as she breathed heavily through her nose. It looked like she was about to have a full-on tantrum.

"For giving you back what I was getting?" He waited, letting her think it through.

Her eyes narrowed, but her mouth remained shut. It was clear she didn't have any kind of argument about that. He'd have been surprised if she could have come up with anything that seemed remotely reasonable.

"If you'd prefer to be punished for bad behavior, you know how to make that happen." He dropped the reminder casually. A slight grin tilted his mouth up at one side.

"That's not—that's not what I was doing," she blurted. Something in her expression gave it all away.

She'd been acting up on purpose to try to get him to punish her. That was interesting. Not entirely unexpected, but interesting.

Nick wasn't going to cave. If she wanted punishment added to their growing relationship, then she was going to have to commit. Part of committing was making the choice to fully submit and ask for it.

He wanted her to participate in their relationship fully, not just allowing herself to be dominated, but showing that she wanted it too. Maybe he was being too stubborn. Maybe he should just pick up the cues she was laying down… but he didn't think it was a good idea.

There had obviously been plenty of women in Nick's life before. No one serious. No one that he thought would last long term, but women whose company he'd enjoyed.

Being a Dominant was who he was, and he made it clear from the start. He didn't date women who had no interest in kink, but sometimes being interested and actually being kinky were two very different things.

He'd played in clubs with some of his old buddies, and women there were experienced in BDSM. They knew the role and they enjoyed it. He rarely worried about any submissive that he met in the scene, but outside was a whole different story.

Sometimes women would express an interest, and when he told them he was a Dominant they would be excited to try new things. He thought of them as vanilla with an itch to scratch. Their interest rarely lasted long. It was surface level and submitting eventually started to grate on their nerves.

They thought being submissive meant being passive, so they would let him call all the shots—even though he never demanded that. Being bound while he did things to their bodies was exciting and they craved his control. They assumed that giving up all choices was the price they had to pay to get that spice.

It didn't matter what he said or how many times he told them otherwise. They had an idea in their head about what a dominant man was, and they stuck with it.

For a while they'd be good together, which is really all Nick expected most of the time anyway. He never used to think of himself as the settling type. Soon enough they'd move on, or he would. But he'd learned the hard way that vanilla women who made themselves be passive to get into his bed, ended up resenting it and him.

The ending of those relationships wasn't amicable, and there was usually a lot of shouting about how he was a chauvinist. They acted like he'd forced it all on them. It messed with his head, and it just wasn't a fun scene to be involved in.

The funny thing about all of it, was that Nick wasn't even a fan of passive women. He liked sparks and fire. A woman who would stand up to him, sass him, and then take the punishment for it—that was his real love. A Daddy with a side of Brat Tamer was his niche.

He'd learned that making them ask, very clearly, for what they wanted saved him a lot of trouble in the long run. If they weren't willing to ask, then it was probably ‘just an itch' and if they were, then it was a lot harder for them to flip it around and blame him later. It had become part of his rules for dating anyone that wasn't experienced already.

Katie was as green as a sapling. Before him, she'd never even thought about indulging in the kinds of games they'd been playing together. Nick wanted to think he'd just given an outlet to desires that she'd buried deeply, and she'd taken to everything so well that he was pretty sure she was born to be a bratty submissive.

But she refused to ask him to be her Dom, and that worried him some. The last thing he wanted to believe was that she was a kinky tourist, who was going to get bored of the ropes and spanking and want him to stop.

As deep as he was… that would be a real problem. Nick had caught feelings hard for her. She wasn't like any other woman he'd ever been with. She wasn't his ‘just for the moment until he moved on'.

It was way too soon to be thinking about forever, but the thought did slip in now and then, when he wasn't vigilant. She was the perfect match for him. They shared a surprising number of thoughts in common, and the places where they were opposites… worked.

There was only one stumbling block at the moment, and that was her stubborn refusal to state what she wanted from him. "You know," he said, "if you want to be punished..."

"I don't want to be punished," she said firmly, but her expression said otherwise.

"Really?" He fixed his eyes on her, narrowing them as he stared.

She refused to meet his gaze, but the way she squirmed in her seat made it clear she could feel the intensity. "Yes. Besides, I did say I wanted to try punishment. You said no."

He snorted. "That's not what I said. Try again, Katie."

Her fists balled up in her lap, probably out of frustration. She didn't answer and after a minute he decided to do it for her. "I told you that until you ask me to be your Dom, I'm not going to make rules for you outside of scenes. So, obviously I can't punish you for breaking rules you don't have."

"That's…"

"I also said something else. Do you remember what?"

Her head came up, finally looking at him. She frowned. "You did?" He nodded, but after a few seconds she shook her head. "I don't remember."

"I said that I'd consider any bad behavior deliberately directed at me, to be initiating a scene." He let her take that in.

"I'm not sure what that means." Her tone said otherwise, but he played along.

"It means I think that deliberately trying to goad me into spanking you… counts as starting a scene. So…" He wrapped a hand around her arm and yanked her face down across his lap.

The motion startled a shocked gasp out of her. "Wait—what are you doing?" she demanded.

"Giving you a spanking."

She bucked hard, nearly rolling herself off his knees, but he was expecting it, and pinned her down with one arm braced across her back. "I never said I wanted that!" She wasn't quite shouting, but her voice was definitely raised.

"No, you seemed pretty fine with lying about it, but I think we both know the truth, don't we?"

"No, no, no." She shook her head hard enough that her hair whipped around.

He stifled the urge to grin. "Yes, yes, yes. You were trying to earn a spanking, and you're getting a spanking. I don't know what you're upset about. You should be happy."

"I was n—"

He cut her off in mid-sentence. "And since we're now in a scene, if you lie to me again, well, that will just add to it."

There was a frustrated sound, but no words followed.

The silence drew out between them, and he let it, giving her a chance to complain or protest, before he reminded her, "Don't forget you have a safeword, Katie. If this is really something you don't want, you can stop this." He let amusement color his tone deliberately, because they both knew she wasn't going to end the scene.

Katie made a small huffing sound and kicked her legs again. The over the knee equivalent of stomping her foot, he supposed.

"That's what I thought." He let his right hand come to rest on the seat of her denim skirt. She'd dressed up for their date, country girl style, and the easy access pleased him to no end.

It was bending his rules, but only a little. He did consider bratting to be initiating a scene, and trying to manipulate him was bratty by any definition. He wasn't actually going to give her a real punishment spanking. She was going to get the same kind of funishment she always got when they were playing, minus the sexy parts he usually included.

Of course, the sexy parts really did make a difference in how a spanking was received, as she was about to find out. It wouldn't be the punishment she wanted, but it would be punishing enough to make her think twice in the future.