“Jake Tucker? No way in hell am I driving out to his ranch,” Callie told Noah, the owner of Beargrass Hardware, arms crossed in front of her.

“Now, Callie,” Noah said, hanging up from a phone call with Jake. “He needs a replacement part pronto. Your shift is over in ten minutes, and you can run it out on your way home.”

She cracked open a box of lawn sprinklers, tamping down on a flash of frustration. “Sorry, boss, but I mean it. I’m not going home. I’ve got plans for the evening.”

Noah pursed his lips. “It shouldn’t take you too far out of your way. It’s only fifteen minutes to his place.”

Seeing Jake face to face was the last thing she wanted. “And fifteen minutes back. I’m supposed to meet someone.”

“That’ll have to wait. His tractor broke down a few minutes ago, and he’s dead in the water until he gets it fixed. I’ve got to close the store and make a run up the canyon to help out on Tom’s spread.” He tapped the counter and locked eyes with her. “Besides, don’t you think it’s about time you two settled your differences?”

She frowned at her employer, wondering about his motives. He and Jake were old buddies. “Fine. I’ll make sure he gets it.” He’d find it on his porch. Tomorrow.

* * * * *

Callie clocked out at 7:30 and headed for her rugged, compact SUV, thinking back to how her trouble with Jake Tucker began. She’d grown up with him and his brothers, Mason, Rory, and Gage. Their adjoining ranches had been in their families for generations, and their parents were friends. Callie’s senior year of high school, their parents decided to go on a two-week vacation together after her graduation ceremony. Callie and her little brother and sister would stay at the Tucker house, and Jake would be in charge. He was twenty-four and the oldest of the Tucker boys.

“I don’t need a babysitter,” Callie had said in exasperation. “I’m eighteen, and I can take care of all three of us here at home.”

Her parents had just shaken their heads and said they’d be more comfortable if their kids weren’t left on their own for a couple weeks, so off they went to the Tucker house.

Things went fairly smoothly for a time. Even though Jake was busy running both ranches, he made sure that dinner was on the table every night and that her siblings went to bed on time. He also gave Callie a stern warning about staying out past her 11 p.m. curfew when she came home at 2 a.m. on one occasion, so from then on she snuck through the bedroom window so he wouldn’t even know she was gone.

The second weekend into the arrangement, she slipped out to throw a party on a forested area of her parents’ ranch. Her best friend, Amber, waited out on the road with a car and helped her set it up. With her parents gone, it was the perfect opportunity to invite all her friends to a blowout bash with music, dancing, and lots of liquor. She thought she’d managed to keep it a secret from the Tuckers, but around midnight, Jake pulled up with his three brothers, each in a separate vehicle, and they broke up the party. She threw a fit, and Jake sat down on log, pulled her over his knee, and spanked her butt. Hard.

She was beyond mortified. Some of her friends laughed while others tried to rescue her, but the Tucker boys kept them from interfering. She kicked and thrashed until Jake threatened to take her pants down and spank her bare ass if she didn’t stop fighting. Holy crap, no! She quit struggling and endured the spanking in fuming silence while Jake’s brothers rounded up her friends and drove them home.

Even now, six years later, her face burned at the memory. The gigantic crush she’d had on Jake hadn’t helped matters.

When he finally let her up, he told her she was grounded. Grounded! She tilted up her chin, face wet with tears, and challenged him, said he didn’t have the authority. He informed her that he did indeed have the authority, and from then on, she found herself driven to her part-time job, picked up after, and restricted to the house every evening. When she tried to sneak through the window, he threatened to give her another lickin’. Then she couldn’t behave herself fast enough. Once had been more than enough.

She’d never been happier to see her parents…until he told them what had happened, and they grounded her too. She’d been furious with him for the rest of the summer, until she went off to college.

It wasn’t until much later that she realized she could have gotten her friends killed if they’d had a car accident while driving drunk. A short time after that, she came to understand that her parents would have been devastated if anything bad had happened on their ranch while they’d been on vacation. Later, she grasped that people might have blamed Jake, because he’d been put in charge. Without a doubt he would have blamed himself, and that sent a pang of guilt through her.

Still, she couldn’t shake her resentment over the way he’d treated her that night. She steered clear of him whenever possible and treated him coldly when she couldn’t. Unfortunately, they still lived in close proximity. He’d purchased a ranch right next to his parents’ place, and Callie lived in a cabin on her mom and dad’s property. Even so, she made a point of avoiding him. She’d even stopped going to the traditional Sunday night dinner that the two families shared.

She shook her head to clear her mind. Tonight she had bigger things to deal with, and she didn’t want thoughts of Jake to throw her off track.

Her phone chimed a familiar tune. She answered with her headset. “Amber?”

“Callie Martin, where are you?”

She glanced out the window at a pair of chestnut mares beside a big red barn. “I just passed the Markham place.”

“Well, hurry your ass on over here, girl. The doors open at 9:30, and we have a lot of work to do to get you ready: shower, makeup, hair, clothes.”

“I know, I know, but summer hours at the store are late. What about dinner?”

“The take-out is getting cold. Hurry up!” Amber hollered and hung up.

The food wasn’t the only thing heading into the frosty zone. Callie was feeling the first signs of cold feet. As soon as she’d told her best friend about her problem, Amber figured that the solution might lie in their local BDSM establishment, C. Jane’s Club for Adventurous Cowhands, named after the infamous frontierswoman Calamity Jane. Although their little Montana town of Beargrass was too small to support a private specialty club, it was situated close to the city of Billings, which bolstered membership. Or so Callie had been told. This would be her first night visiting the Cowboy Club, as it was informally known.

She’d always had kinky submission fantasies, but she wondered if BDSM was a good fit for her. She glanced at her fingers trembling on the wheel. First night jitters were normal, right?