Quarantined With the Cowboy Read online

“I’m anxious,” she finally said, and he knew it was the truth.

  “About what?”

  “About the news,” she gestured to her phone, which was no longer playing whatever video she’d been watching.

  “What about it?”

  “This virus stuff,” she said.

  “It’s definitely a lot to take in,” he said slowly.

  “Yeah, and now some cities are quarantining people, and closing down schools.” She shook her head and looked at him. “What if they close Alice’s school? What will she do? She loves school.”

  So that was it, was it?

  The little nanny was concerned about his daughter.

  She was worried, but not for herself: no, never for herself. She was much too kind for that. Sweet Meredith was worried for little Alice, and that kind of warmed Daniel’s icy heart.

  “Meredith, I need to tell you something.”

  He didn’t apologize for spanking her without her explicit consent. He wasn’t going to apologize for that. Meredith had needed that spanking. Hell, she’d craved it, and she was nestled up against him now like it was the most perfect thing in the world. He knew that in some worlds, what he had done had been wrong: unforgivable, even.

  He’d never promised that he was a good man, though.

  He’d never said he was a good guy.

  “What?” She instantly tensed again, which basically undid all of the good he thought he’d accomplished with her spanking.

  “I got a call from the school district on my way home from the feed store. They’re closing all of the schools down for two weeks. One of the students at the elementary school came down with the virus, so they’re sending everyone home just to make sure nobody else gets it.”

  “What?” She whispered, shaking her head. “How can that be? Are we okay?”

  “We’re fine,” he said. “But we’ve got a skeleton crew on the ranch for the next two weeks. No one is going to be up here at the main house but us, and I’d like you and Alice to stay home.”

  “What about food?” She asked. “We need groceries. We’re almost out of milk, and Alice needs her milk.”

  “First of all, Alice would be more than fine without milk,” Daniel smiled. “But I have groceries. I stopped by the supermarket after I got the phone call.”

  “Was it a madhouse?” She whispered.

  “By the time I left, it was starting to get a little crazy,” he admitted. “But I beat the rush, and we’ve got everything we need for the next two weeks. Plus, we have the pantry.”

  “What are you saying?” She asked, looking at him. “Are you telling me that we’re going to be stuck together in the house?”

  “Do you have somewhere important you’d rather be?” He asked, smiling at her. He looked at her gently even though he probably didn’t have the right to look at her that way. She wasn’t his, after all. She wasn’t his doll or his toy. She wasn’t his submissive.

  He wanted her to be, though.

  He’d wanted that for a very long time.

  “No,” she said.

  “Then what’s the problem?”

  “It’s kind of scary, don’t you think?” She whispered.

  “What? Being quarantined?”

  “Yes.”

  Only, she wasn’t looking at him like she was scared of being stuck at the house or on the ranch. They weren’t going to be locked up in the house, after all. They were safe on the ranch. They were around people. They were alone. Isolated.

  So what was she scared of?

  “Meredith, are you scared of me?” He asked gently, but he didn’t want to know. He didn’t want to know if she was afraid of him because that might completely break his heart.

  “What? No!” She sounded shocked.

  “Then what is it?”

  “Well,” she whispered, swallowing hard. She looked at him and then she jumped up and started pacing back and forth. She wrung her hands and then finally, she stopped and looked at him.

  “I let you spank me,” she said.

  “Yes.”

  “And I…I liked it, Daniel.”

  Ah, there it was.

  So she was scared of BDSM.

  She was scared of domination.

  She was scared of him.

  Or maybe, she was scared of letting go. That was probably more like it. Maybe she’d never been in this type of relationship before. Perhaps she’d never interacted with a Dom on a serious level. Was that it? Was this her first time playing with another person?

  Or was she just nervous around him?

  “What’s wrong with enjoying a spanking?” He asked her softly. He sat perfectly still, not moving. He could tell she was wildly nervous and uncomfortable. He didn’t want to do anything that was going to cause her pain or anxiety. Nope. He didn’t want to make this wilting flower feel like she couldn’t get the help she needed.

  And he didn’t want her to think he was going to hurt her against her will. That was the problem with playing in the world he liked to play in. From the outside, it was very easy to think that things looked like abuse. In some cases, they were. Not for him, though, and not with her. He would never hurt her beyond what she could handle, and he would never hurt her to be an asshole. He’d hurt her to give her orgasms, though.

  He’d hurt her to make her come.

  “There’s a lot wrong with it,” she finally spoke, but her voice was like a whisper, and he could barely hear her.

  “Are you trying to convince me or yourself, sweetheart?” He asked gently.

  “Myself.”

  “Meredith?”

  “Yes?”

  “Was that your first spanking?” He asked her carefully. He didn’t want to presume to know her history or her story. He didn’t want to act like he knew everything there was to know about her, but he wanted to get to know her better, and he wanted to know what he was in for.

  She hesitated a moment too long, and he had her answer.

  So that was it.

  She might not have been a virgin, but she was new to this world. She was new to the idea of being spanked and punished and played with.

  Dominated.

  Yet he saw something in her eyes that told him she wasn’t completely new. She wasn’t a total innocent. Not by a long shot, if he had to guess.

  “Yes,” she finally said. “Yes, it was. And I don’t think it was appropriate,” she added hastily.

  “No,” he said carefully. “I suppose it wasn’t very appropriate, was it?”

  “No, it wasn’t.”

  She looked at him and then her eyes caught the broken plate.

  “I’m sorry about the plate,” she said. “I’ll replace it.”

  “Don’t worry about the plate,” he said.

  “You seemed upset.”

  “No, I was upset that you disobeyed me and then you got snarky with me.”

  “You don’t like snarky girls?”

  “There’s a time and a place for everything, darlin’.”

  “And at the end of the day isn’t the time to misbehave,” she said carefully, looking at him. He knew what she was doing. She was trying to figure out where they stood. What was going to happen between them? Was there room for something sexual or romantic there?

  Or was the spanking a one-off event?

  Was it a one-time thing that wouldn’t happen again?

  “I’m not angry with you, but we are going to be stuck together for two weeks.”

  “Quarantine,” she sighed, and she shook her head. “Who would have thought?”

  “Nobody expected this,” he said. “Nobody.”

  “I mean, I’ve heard in the news that this thing is nuts,” she said. “But…well, I guess I didn’t expect everything to happen so fast. This morning I woke up, and my biggest concern was wondering what I was going to make Alice for dinner.”

  “Times have changed since then,” he said with a smile. “Now, what do you say we get the plate and food cleaned up? Then you can help me bring the groceries in
.”

  “Okay.”

  They worked together in silence. They picked up the large pieces of the glass and the bits of food. Then Meredith swept up the remaining shards and Daniel grabbed a damp washcloth to rub over the floor. He wanted to make sure there were no tiny pieces of glass that any of them could step on. If they were going to be stuck inside for a couple of weeks, they’d be spending a lot of time around one another. They weren’t going to have shoes on the whole time, or at all, and stepping on glass could mean a trip to the hospital.

  That concerned him since there were already rumors that local hospitals were filling up, and fast. Who knew if there would be medical professionals who could take care of smaller minor medical problems like pieces of glass stuck in your foot?

  He didn’t exactly want to be part of the problem.

  Once everything was cleaned up, they unloaded the groceries and put them away. They finished, and then he turned to Meredith.

  “Are you still hungry?”

  “What?”

  “You didn’t get to finish your dinner.”

  “Oh,” she looked toward the living room where her phone still sat on the coffee table, and where she had spilled the sandwich earlier.

  “Meredith, are you hungry?”

  She seemed distracted somehow, almost anxious, but she finally shook her head.

  “You know what? I’m okay.”

  “If you’re sure. Otherwise, I can make you something.”

  “I’m fine,” she said. “I should probably go up to bed.”

  He looked her up and down. On the outside, she was fine. On the inside, though? He wasn’t really sure what exactly was going through her head. Was she feeling anxious that he had spanked her? Was she happy about it?

  He should make her talk about it, but the truth was that he wasn’t her Dom.

  He wanted to be.

  He’d wanted that for a very long time, but tonight was the first time he’d ever crossed that line with her. Now they had some tough decisions to make, and the worst part was that they were going to be quarantined together.

  They’d have nothing to do but talk.

  Chapter Three

  Meredith couldn’t sleep.

  She just kept thinking about him.

  She closed her eyes, and he was there.

  She opened them, and he was there.

  What had happened tonight?

  Oh, she knew perfectly well what had physically happened. Her ass was still stinging, and judging by the way she felt now, she figured she’d still be tender in the morning.

  What had come over Daniel that he’d decided to just go all macho-man and spank her?

  More importantly, why did she love it so much?

  It had been everything she’d been craving from a BDSM experience. It was sexy and wonderful, but oh, it had hurt like a damn bitch. She’d deserved it, too. She had pushed him, snapped at him. Part of her had done it on purpose. She knew exactly what he got up to with his lady friends, and call it jealousy, or call it a suicide mission, she’d wanted to know what that felt like.

  Meredith had never really expected him to do it, though. He’d gone all dark and deadly on her, and he’d paddled her ass like she was a petulant child.

  And she’d enjoyed it.

  Now, she dipped her fingers between her legs and touched herself. It had been hours since it had happened, and she was still wet and achy. Needy. She wanted to be filled up with him. She wanted him to touch her and play with her. She wanted to touch him back.

  But he was her boss.

  Before tonight, she never really thought that he had ever even noticed her. She’d always noticed him, of course, but it was hard not to. He was everything she had ever liked in the way a man looked: tall, dark, beautiful.

  There was more to him than just his good looks, though.

  He was also kind, and fierce, and he was gentle when he wanted to be. He was an incredible dad, she knew. He was always going above and beyond to take care of Alice. Daniel would do anything for his daughter, Meredith knew.

  Anything.

  Now, laying in the dark, she wondered what was going to happen between them. They were essentially locked up together for two full weeks. That was a long time to sit at home and do nothing. Then again, it wasn’t like she’d actually be doing nothing.

  She’d have things to do.

  She’d have stuff.

  She’d have everything she possibly needed and more. But now there was a complication. She wouldn’t just be hanging out and knitting or crocheting things. Nope. Now she’d have him here, and Daniel made her both excited and nervous.

  And she didn’t know what was going to happen next.

  *

  When Meredith woke up the next morning, she exercised in her room for half an hour. Then she took a shower, brushed her teeth, and got dressed. Meredith stared at herself in the mirror for far too long. Knowing that Daniel was going to be home made her feel so many different things.

  She was anxious and excited and…

  Shit.

  She was so aroused that she didn’t know what to do.

  That spanking had been so wonderfully unexpected, but also so incredible. He had completely dominated her. He had spanked her hard. He hadn’t held back, and she had loved that about it. She really liked everything about their experience together, but especially that.

  Always that.

  Finally, she went to Alice’s room and knocked on the door.

  “Time to get up,” she said, turning the knob. “Alice?” Meredith stepped into the room, but was surprised to see that Alice wasn’t there at all. In fact, the room was completely empty. The bed was unmade, though, which let her know that Alice hadn’t been gone for long.

  Neither Daniel nor Meredith liked unmade beds in the house. It was probably a psychological thing, she knew, but having a made bed showed respect for your home and for your belongings. It showed that you cared enough about yourself and your personal space to take just a few minutes to tidy it up.

  “Alice?”

  Meredith checked the bathroom, but Alice wasn’t to be seen. Maybe she had already gone downstairs, but that was strange. In all of the years Meredith had been working for their family, she’d never known Alice to get up before her.

  Then again, maybe things were going to change now.

  The outside world certainly was.

  The virus that ravaged the world was scary in many ways. Perhaps the biggest problem was simply that it was unprecedented. No one knew exactly what to expect with it. Nobody really understood if it was going to die off over the summer or if it was going to come back in a year. Was it going to be seasonal, like the flu?

  There was simply no way to tell.

  No one had any answers, and Meredith found that to be incredibly frustrating. The lack of information, coupled with last-minute toilet paper buying, made her feel like the entire world was in chaos.

  That was outside, though.

  Today, she only had to deal with inside.

  She only had to deal with Alice and Daniel. She had to help Daniel come up with a plan for educating Alice at home. They’d have to create a schedule. One thing was for certain: they weren’t going to just play this out by ear. That was how fights started. Meredith had no interest in people fighting because they were bored or couldn’t get along.

  Nope.

  No how and no thanks.

  She went downstairs and found Daniel in the kitchen. Alice was sitting on one of the stools and spinning back and forth.

  “And that’s my second favorite Switch game,” she was telling Daniel. “My third favorite Switch game is Minecraft. It’s better than playing on the PC and it’s really fun to play with other people. Yesterday I built a house and today I’m going to build a castle.”

  “Wow,” Daniel said, glancing up at Meredith as she entered. She didn’t miss the way his eyes traveled quickly, yet discreetly, down her body. “It sounds like you’re quite the Minecraft expert.”
/>   “Uh-huh,” Alice said. “And my fourth favorite Switch game is Zelda: Breath of the Wild.”

  “I can’t wait to hear all about it,” Daniel said. “Why don’t you go set the table for breakfast? Then we’ll talk about it while we eat.”

  “Okay!” Alice scurried off the stool and started grabbing various pieces of flatware. Then she went to the dining room and started setting the table.

  “Good morning,” Daniel said.

  “Hello,” Meredith replied.

  She could feel herself blushing, and all they’d done was exchange greetings.

  Shit.

  Was this how it was going to be?

  Was this how things were going to go?

  Because she wasn’t sure if she could handle this. He was hot. Fuck, this guy was hot. He was standing by the stove and he was only wearing his pajama pants. No shirt. His abs were basically rippling. It was like something from a porno, and the worst part was that he seemed to know exactly the effect he was having on her.

  “Like what you see?” He asked. “I think you’re drooling a little. Here.”

  He stepped toward her. He had a spatula in one hand, and he used the other hand to gently swipe at the edge of her mouth.

  Fuck.

  Had she been drooling?

  She hadn’t noticed.

  He didn’t move his thumb, though. Instead, he looked at her right in the eyes and he traced his thumb over her lips. The gesture was, on the surface, kind of weird, but it was doing so many strange things to her body. Her pussy clenched, tightening. What was this guy doing to her?

  He paused with his thumb on the middle of her bottom lip, and she felt herself opening her mouth just a little.

  What am I doing?

  He slipped his thumb between her lips and she sucked, licking it. She swirled her tongue around his thumb. Her nipples tightened, and she started to feel wet between her legs. He wasn’t even touching her, and already, she was wildly turned on.

  What would it be like to suck his cock?

  It was a completely inappropriate thing to think. It was totally wrong to be wondering about her boss’ penis. It was Daniel, after all. He wasn’t just some stranger. He was the guy who made sure she stayed safe and that she had a place to live. He was the one in charge of paying her. And he trusted her.