Seeing Is Believing (8 page)

She saw Reed boxing up rolls and pulling
small cartons of milk from the refrigerator to sell to those who'd placed an
order. She had to admit he cut a very fine figure of a man, standing there
laughing and chatting with everyone as if nothing had just happened, as if she
hadn't swatted his behind, and he'd spanked her in return.

He teased the children, handing them an
extra cookie, with their mother's approval, and then flirted with the mothers
and talked to the fathers about the ball game last night. The longer Leslie
watched him, the more her stomach churned. He fit in perfectly here, as if he
were a permanent part of the community.

Leslie didn't know how long she'd been
staring at him when she realized someone was staring at her. She turned her
gaze to
Tambi
, who winked and Leslie gave her a small
smile. Leslie returned it, trying to make it seem like everything was perfect,
like nothing was wrong. But deep down inside, Leslie knew something was wrong,
terribly wrong. Despite her trying to convince herself otherwise she was
falling for Reed Jacobs, spankings and all, and that was a very, very bad
thing.

*****

At five minutes to five the door to the
cafe opened and Chester stuck his head inside. Leslie waved at him and he
winked,
then
motioned to Reed. The two of them walked
out the front door and stood just outside, their heads together as if they were
planning something huge.

Leslie watched them with interest until
Tambi
tapped her on the shoulder.

"I'm leaving. I'm glad to see you two
aren't fighting anymore." Leslie turned to her friend, whose face glowed with
approval.

"There is no couple, no us."

"Right.
A man doesn't
spank his boss unless they're part of a couple. It's interesting, really,
you're in charge at work and he lets you know he's in charge in other parts of
the relationship. I think it's perfect."

"You think spanking is perfect?"

"Yeah, I've been spanked, and I loved
it."

"I didn't love what happened to me
today."

Tambi
took a step
forward and gave Leslie a knowing grin. "Maybe not today, but I bet you enjoy
the other spankings, a lot."

Before Leslie could ask what the "other"
spankings were,
Tambi
had picked up her purse and run
out the front door, at the same time Reed came back in.

"What are you still doing here? Go on,
get out."

"Testy, aren't we?" He pushed in a
chair,
then
glanced at the watch. "Lock up. We can
stop by your house to let your change into warmer clothing. That's one thing I
love about this area, did I tell you that, fairly nice days and cool nights in
the fall. It's a great mixture."

"Why do I need to change? I'm not going
anywhere with you."

"Sure you are. Nancy packed us a nice
dinner, and the two of us are going to Blade, to explore and have a little
picnic." He held up his hand when she opened her mouth to object. "Before you
say anything, remember Nancy went to a lot of work to make this food. It's
fried chicken."

"Then you can go eat it yourself."

"Fine, I will. I'm doing some scouting
anyway, and you'd probably just get in the way."

Leslie could tell a line when she heard
one, and she was shocked when she heard herself say, "Scouting for what?"

"We're pretty sure our drug smugglers
are selling their goods, in bulk, to a dealer on Tuesday night in Blade. I want
to scope things out, and you'll just get in the way."

Leslie was pretty sure he wasn't
bluffing, and she wanted to tell him to go to the devil, that she didn't want
to go on his scouting trip. But her curiosity was piqued. She was interested in
the case, and she could control herself in his company for one evening.

"No kissing."

The smile he gave her for an answer made
her toes curl.

"I mean it, Reed."

"I know you do." He winked at her. "But,
like someone else we know, I'm not very good at following orders."

Chapter Five

The night was cool, but not cold. Still,
they'd stopped by Leslie's apartment so she could change into heavy jeans and a
sweater. It said something about her mixed emotions about Reed that she'd
changed sweaters four times, each time looking in the mirror and wondering how
he would look at that particular article of clothing.

Would he think she was trying to be sexy
by wearing the fairly low cut V-neck sweater? Or would he think she was trying
to hide her looks by wearing the turtleneck? The second V-neck she tried on
wasn't that low-cut, but it was pretty tight, and it hugged her curves,
probably just a bit too much. She wasn't sure that was the signal she wanted to
give off.

She finally settled on a square-necked
sweater that didn't show too much cleavage. Then she'd selected her heaviest
pair of jeans, in case Reed went into spanking mode again.

Of course she figured that really didn't
matter, either. She knew he'd find some way to get her jeans off her if he
wanted to spank her tonight.

Thinking about that brought
Tambi's
comment about "the other spankings" back to her
mind. Leslie knew exactly what her friend was talking about. She was pretty
sure erotic spankings were nothing new, having been around probably since the
dawn of time. After all, they featured heavily in Victorian erotica.

And since
Tambi
thought Reed and Leslie were lovers, it was no small wonder she would make the
leap from the spanking she'd seen that morning to the idea it was something
Reed and Leslie practiced in their sex life, when in actuality there was no sex
life.

"Are you just itching to be at the ghost
town with me after dark?"

Leslie whirled toward Reed, who stood in
the doorway, leaning against the doorjamb. He had his arms crossed over his
chest and the look on his face was smoldering as he let his gaze roam over her.

"What are you talking about?"

"I thought that's why you were taking so
long, because you wanted to get there after dark. That way you can tell me
you're scared and rush into my arms for me to save you."

"In your dreams.
I've been out
there lots of times, and I'm telling you
there's no ghosts
out at Blade.
Just a bunch of old buildings.
I'm ready
to go." She stared to push past him but he put out his arm, blocking her exit.

"We could just stay here, and eat the
dinner Nancy prepared.
Or not."
His voice had dropped
to a low level, and from his tone she knew exactly what he would like to do
rather than eat dinner. And she had no doubt it would involve erotic spankings.

"No, you haven't been out there yet, and
you want to scope it out, remember? You need to see what's what before your
sting goes down on Tuesday."

An emotion she couldn't read passed over
his face and she frowned. "Is there something you're not telling
me.
"

"No." The seductive smile was back. "We
can always go out to Blade tomorrow. Why don't we stay here tonight? I notice
you have a fireplace. I'm good at building fires."

As tempting as the offer was, Leslie
knew it would get her into nothing but trouble. She shook her head and pointed
toward the street. "Do you want to drive, or should I?"

They ended up with Reed driving his
truck. As the sun began to set, the night turned decidedly chilly. There were a
few picnic tables in a rest area near Blade, and Leslie mentioned those as
places they could sit and eat.

Reed had nixed the idea, however, saying
he wanted to experience the atmosphere in the ghost town, even if it meant
eating in the truck, since there were no picnic tables or businesses in the
town.

There was very little light left when
they rolled into Blade. Since she'd been here many times before, Leslie sat
back and tried to gauge Reed's reaction. There were no lights, and in the
wane
of the day the town looked very eerie.

The county had torn down the buildings
in the worst shape. But, there was one long set of buildings still standing,
even though they had all seen better days. Windows were boarded up, and large
signs warned that the town was abandoned, and in disrepair. Visitors were told
to stay outside the buildings, or to enter at their own risk.

Leslie had often wondered exactly why no
one had bought the old buildings from the county,
then
tore down everything but the old saloon. Then they could build a hotel, and a
general store and gas station to accommodate the many tourists who visits just
to see where the old outlaws had roamed.

"Somebody could make a killing off this
place," Reed said, parking the truck near the old saloon. "It would take work,
and lots of cash, but it could be a gold mine."

"There weren't any gold mines around
here, that
I know of. Those were in Colorado, or Arizona,"
Leslie said, fighting a grin even though it was dark and he couldn't see it
anyway.

"Very funny, Miss Smarty Pants." He
turned to her and shook his head in mock disgust. "Shall we eat then explore,
or the other way around?"

"You want to move around out here, in
the dark?"

"Yeah.
What's wrong, are
you chicken?"

She sat up straighter,
then
huffed out a laugh. "No, I'm not chicken. But I've been
here millions of times. There's nothing here to see except rotten buildings."

"And maybe the
ghost of a gunslinger, or two."
He studied her intently,
then
wiggled his eyebrows.
"
Bawk
,
bawk
,
bawk
."

"No more chicken noises." Leslie reached
for the door handle. "And if you fall down and go boom, I'm not kissing your
boo-boo."

She opened the door, and in the
illuminated light of the cab she saw the amusement in his eyes. "If you want to
talk about kissing, we can stay in here. I like kissing."

"Let's go, buster." She exited the cab
and shut the door soundly behind her, hoping he hadn't seen the smile that had
lit up her face. Whatever happened tonight, she was sure she wasn't going to
leave this ghost town without being
kissed,
and kissed
very soundly.

She barely heard him as he came up next
to her, putting his arm around her shoulder and pulling her close.

"Scared?"

"Doubtful." She pushed against his chest
just for show, then relaxed a little, letting the warmth of his body seep into
hers. "Did you bring a flashlight?"

He held up his hand and after a loud
click, a bright beam appeared.
"Heavy-duty."

"I love a man who comes prepared."

"Really?
Cause I have a
condom, too.
Several of them as a matter of fact.
Bought them this afternoon at the drug store."

"Not that type of prepared. I don't know
you well enough for that." She huffed out another laugh. "And you're quite sure
of yourself aren't you, bringing several of them along."

"I am indeed," he said, leaning closer.
His breath warmed her cheek and made her nipples tighten. "Ask away, I'm
willing to answer any question you put before me."

"Very well, why did you spank me?"

"You know the answer to that one. Next."
He stepped in front of her, turning off the flashlight and setting it on the
cab. Then he put his hands on her hips and pressed against her.

She could feel his obvious arousal
pressing against her stomach and her insides clenched. "Don't. Please."

He pulled back a little, keeping his
hands tight on her hips. "Do you really hate me for spanking you?"

"Yes. No. I mean,
no I
don't hate you
. But you shouldn't have spanked me." She grinned at him,
and, in the soft moonlight, could just make out the return grin he gave her. "I
don't want to like you, because of the spankings. But I do like."

When he leaned over to kiss her she put
her hands on his chest, pushing him back. "That doesn't change the fact that I
live here, and you live in Dallas, and long distance relationships do not work.
If I allowed myself to give in to temptation, I'd only end up getting hurt in
the end."

"It doesn't have to be that way." He
caressed her cheek, his touch light. "There's a definite attraction between the
two of us."

"Yes, I agree. But I'm not ready to have
sex with you. Not yet."

"Okay." He continued to stroke her
cheek. "I know the ground rules now. Can I at least kiss you, and have you kiss
me back?"

Another thrill shot through her and she
nodded. "Yes."

Reed cupped her head between his hands,
his thumbs stroking her lips gently before he leaned over and claimed her lips.
The kiss was gentle and sweet. He pressed several small kisses around her lips,
licking the corners of her mouth before wrapping her in his arms and claiming
her lips in a demanding kiss.