Sydni Davis was late for work again. Not that being late was unusual for her. She usually showed up ten to fifteen minutes later every morning. It wasn’t that she was lazy or anything, but simply that her boss didn’t mind what time she came in. And if he didn’t mind, then she sure didn’t. In fact, he was so casual about her work hours that he didn’t mind if she left the office early, or took extra long lunches so that she could run a few errands, or even fit in a Pilates class. She probably should have felt a little guilty about taking advantage of him, but if anything, he was usually the one that always motioned her out the door early, or suggested the long lunches.

Which was one of the reasons that she loved working for Robert Willis. A sweet, older man, Bob wasn’t like the other executives at the software company where she worked. In a way, he kind of reminded her of her grandfather, which was how she’d come to think of him over the past eight years she’d been his secretary. Executive assistant, she reminded herself with a smile. Secretaries weren’t paid the money that she was making.

Pulling into a parking space, Sydni grabbed her purse from the passenger seat and opened the door of her dark blue Mini Cooper. Because she always got to work after everyone else, she usually had to park a good distance from the building, but she didn’t mind the walk. Unless it was raining, of course, and in Seattle that could be an everyday occurrence. But today, the summer sky was a beautiful, clear blue without a cloud in sight.

Her office was on the fourth floor of the very modern-looking software firm, but rather than wait for the elevator, Sydni usually found it easier to take the stairs. Giving the receptionist seated in the lobby a smile, she walked across the atrium and up the steps, her high-heeled sandals echoing on the tile floor.

Upstairs, Sydni was surprised to find half a dozen people standing around the outer atrium. Her brow furrowed. There must be a big meeting going on, she thought. Which was strange, because she hadn’t seen anything on the calendar. Seeing her friend, Erika, among the group, Sydni made her way over to the other girl. Dark-haired and pretty, Erika was also an executive assistant at the company, and as they were the same age and shared a lot of the same interests, she and Sydni had become good friends.

“Hey,” Sydni said, giving her friend a smile. “What’s going on?”

Erika shrugged her slim shoulders. “It seems that the big cheeses in Dallas weren’t too happy about us being way over budget on that government contract,” she said. “Pink slips have been flying since the door opened this morning.”

Sydni’s eyes widened in surprise. One of the things that she liked about Design-Tech Software was that it was a very stable environment. Most of the people working there had been with the company since its start in the late eighties. “They’re firing people just because we’re a little over budget?”

“Apparently, they’re mad because it’s more than just a little over budget,” Erika said. “Rumors has it that our software part of the contract is over budget by ten million, just by itself. Congress is threatening to cancel the whole program unless it can be fixed quickly. So, heads started rolling. Those who aren’t getting fired are being forced to retire.”

Sydni frowned. “Anyone I know?” Silly question, she thought, considering that she spent about as much time socializing with her coworkers as she did actually working, which meant that she knew just about everyone who worked there.

Her friend glanced over at the door to Sydni’s office. “Bob’s in there packing up his desk right now,” she said quietly.

Sydni blinked in disbelief. Bob had gotten canned? But he had been with the company for years and years. She couldn’t believe it.

Telling her friend that she would see her later, Sydni walked past the crowd still gathered in the atrium and slowly walked between the cubicles to the corner suite. The outer office, which was hers, looked the same as it had the other day. The desk was tidy and free of clutter, the computer turned on and waiting. The magazines were neatly stacked on the table, the coffee already made. The only indication that something unusual was going on was the noise coming from Bob’s office.

Sydni stood where she was for a moment, listening to her boss pack up his desk, frowning as she pictured the poor old man stacking the precious, framed photos of his grandchildren neatly into a cardboard box. What was she going to say to him? she wondered.

With a sigh, she walked across the room and into Bob’s office. At her entrance, the older man looked up from what he was doing and gave her a small smile. His usually jovial expression was gone though, replaced by something that made him look twice his age.

“You heard?” he asked, reaching for another photo that was on the desk.

Sydni nodded. “I can’t believe they did this to you,” she said quietly. “It isn’t fair.”

His smile was bland. “One of the drawbacks of being a Senior VP, I’m afraid. The project’s over budget and the head office needed someone to blame.”

It still didn’t make it right, Sydni thought. “What will you do now?” she asked.

He shrugged and put another photo in the box. “The wife has been wanting to move to someplace warmer,” he said. “Maybe we’ll give Arizona a try. We were looking at retiring soon, anyway.”

Bob fell silent after that, and not knowing what else to do, Sydni walked over to the bookshelf and began to take down the photos there. Walking back over to the desk, she placed them in the box with the others.

“Do you know who your...” she almost said replacement, but stopped herself, thinking that she should come up with more tactful way to ask Bob if he knew who she would be working for now. “Do you know who the new VP is going to be?”

Sydni really hoped it wasn’t that jerk from down the hall, Andrew Conrad. He’d been sucking up hard to get Bob’s job for the past year, and if she had to work for that pig, she’d probably throw up.

Bob shook his head. “No, but I’m sure it will be someone from the Dallas office.”

That was even worse, Sydni thought, but made no comment. In the past, the executives that had visited from the head office were usually staid, boring little work, work, work, drones that made no secret of the fact that they didn’t care for the laid-back attitude of the Pacific Northwest. She could just imagine some stereotypical businessman in a thousand-dollar suit and a cowboy hat running the department. Oh, God, she hoped not. She might actually have to start working for a living.

Bob left around mid-morning amid tearful hugs and lots of good wishes. Sydni helped him carry the boxes to his car, and then went back up to her office to wait for the new VP to arrive. No one showed up, however, so when Erika came by a few hours later to ask if she wanted to go out to lunch, Sydni thought, why not.

As the two girls ate, they speculated on who they thought the new VP might be. Though Bob had told her he was sure his replacement would come from the Dallas office, Sydni was still hoping it would be someone from the Seattle office. Which prompted a whole discussion on which good-looking guy Sydni would prefer to have as her new boss. After a lengthy conversation, however, they both came to the conclusion that all of the nominees were much too young to fill the position. Too bad, really. It wasn’t that she hadn’t adored Bob, but she certainly wouldn’t mind if her new boss were a bit younger.

Figuring that there was no need to hurry back to the office, especially since the new VP probably hadn’t shown up yet anyway, Sydni decided to stop by the mall on the way and do some shopping. She had only intended to go to one or two places, but then spotted some sales at a few more of her favorite clothing stores, and before she knew it, it was almost two o’clock. If she were still working for Bob, then she wouldn’t have thought much about it, but it would be just her luck to have the new VP show up while she was out shopping.

Gathering her shopping bags in one hand, Sydni quickly left the mall and hurried back to Design-Tech. Once there, she ignored the impulse she had to stop by Erika’s office and tell her about the great bargains she’d gotten. Erika was the only person who knew about her flexible work schedule, but that didn’t mean she liked to rub the other girl’s nose in it. Besides, it was likely that whole part of her benefits package was going to come to a stop now anyway. So instead, she went directly to her office, only to halt inside the door when she heard sounds coming from Bob’s old office.

Had the new VP arrived? she wondered. Fearing that he had, and hoping he wouldn’t notice she’d taken an extra-long lunch, Sydni took a deep breath, smoothed her skirt over her curvy hips, tucked a strand of dark hair behind her ear, and walked through her office and into the one that now belonged to her new boss.

He was standing behind the desk, his head down as he read something from the manila folder in his hand, completely unaware of her presence, and Sydni paused in the doorway to study him. Since his head was down, she couldn’t see what he looked like, but it was obvious from his dark hair and broad shoulders that he was a lot younger than her previous boss. And since he had his suit jacket off and his shirt-sleeves rolled up, not to mention the fact that he’d been going through the files, she could only assume that he was the new VP. Then again, she thought, after the shake-up that morning, maybe she shouldn’t assume anything. He could be an auditor or something, for all she knew.

Sydni cleared her throat. “May I help you?” she asked, coming into the room.

The man lifted his head, his dark eyes meeting hers, and Sydni caught her breath. When she’d been hoping that her new boss would be younger than Bob, she hadn’t expected him to be so gorgeous as well. Tall and well-built, he had an angular jaw and rugged-looking features to go along with those penetrating dark eyes, a combination that had her pulse suddenly fluttering. Please, let this be her new boss, she prayed.

He closed the folder he’d been looking at and set it down on the desk. “I’m Blake Daniels, the new VP,” he said. “And you are?”

Sydni didn’t think she’d ever met a guy with a sexier voice. Nothing like the usual loud-mouth cowboys that had shown up from the Dallas office before. Deep and velvety smooth, with just the barest hint of an accent, his voice seemed to caress her every inch of her, and she got so caught up in the sound of it, that it took a moment for her to find her own voice.

“I-I’m Sydni Davis. Your sec...” she said, then corrected herself. “Your executive assistant.”

Blake Daniels said nothing for a moment, his dark eyes coolly assessing as they took in her long dark hair, blue eyes, form-fitting, above-the-knee skirt, and silk blouse. “Tell me, Ms. Davis, do you always take so long for lunch?”

Sydni felt herself flush. Damn, she thought, so he had noticed. “N-no, of course not,” she stammered. “I mean, I didn’t take a long lunch. I just got out late because of all the work I had to do this morning. I took a normal lunch.”

His mouth tightened. “Really? That’s strange. Since I’ve been here for over two hours.”

“I was down in Accounting before I left for lunch,” she lied smoothly. “That’s probably why you didn’t see me.”

He looked skeptical. “I see,” he said. “In the future, I suggest that you check with me before you actually head off to lunch. I wouldn’t want to think that you were slipping out early.”

Her color deepened. “Of course, Mr. Daniels,” she murmured, and then added, “However you want to handle it.”

Sydni gave her answer sweetly, but what she really wanted to say was, “How the hell was I supposed to check in with you when I didn’t even know you were here?” But of course, she couldn’t say that, even though the possibility of making a good impression on her new boss was pretty much shot anyway.

But Blake Daniels was already moving onto something else. “Now that you’re back, I need you to do a few things for me,” he said. “I want you to set up a staff meeting for ten tomorrow morning. I’m also going to need you to pull the personnel files and evaluations for everyone in the department, as well as the minutes from the past half a dozen staff meetings. I don’t have time to go through all of them, however, so I need you to do it and extract out everything that’s important. Type it up in report format. Oh,” he added, “and I’ll need this all before you leave tonight.”

Sydni nodded, hoping she could remember everything. She wondered if she should repeat it back to him, but he had already turned his attention back to the files on the desk. Taking that to mean she’d been dismissed, she went back into her office.

Setting up the staff meeting took more time than Sydni had expected, with everyone still running all over the place from that morning’s pink-slip parade. That being the case, she didn’t get down to Human Resources until after three, where it took her almost an hour to pull all the files Blake Daniels had requested. And even then, she wasn’t sure she’d gotten them all. To tell the truth, she wasn’t sure exactly who was actually in their department. Bob had always taken care of stuff like that. Realizing that she still had to pull all of the minutes from the previous staff meetings, and then type up the report, Sydni hurried back up to her office.

Blake Daniels was on the phone when she walked in, talking to someone at the Dallas office from the sounds of it, so she simply set the files down on his desk and went back to her own. Copies of personnel evaluations were on her computer, so getting them was easy to do, and after printing them out, she immediately brought them into Blake.

He was just finishing his phone call, and motioned her to wait. Sydni did so, taking the time to study her new boss. As she watched him make notes on the pad in front of him, she couldn’t help but notice that he had extremely nice hands. Like the rest of him, they looked strong, she thought, and as her gaze settled on his long, tapered fingers, she abruptly found herself wondering what it would be like to feel those hands on her skin.

Shocked at the direction of her thoughts – Blake Daniels was her boss, for heaven’s sake! – Sydni blushed and looked away. A moment later, Blake hung up the phone. Picking up a stack of papers, he held them out to her.

“Here’s the basic agenda for the staff meeting,” he said. “I’ll need you to type it up and make copies for me before you leave. There’re also some basic slides I want you to put together. They’re scratched out here in draft form. Make sure I approve them before you leave, though.”

Sydni’s eyes widened a little. There had to be at least ten pages, front and back, of handwritten notes. The agenda would be quick, but putting the slides together would take forever. It would take her at least an hour to type all of it, she thought, and then at least another half hour to make copies. Plus, she still had to go through the minutes. Sydni had never worked late in the whole time she’d been at the software company, but tonight, she’d be lucky to get out of there by six or seven.

Papers in hand, Sydni went back out to her desk, and was just opening her word-processing program when Erika walked in.

“Hey,” she said, giving Sydni a smile. “You ready to go?”

Sydni made a face. “I wish,” she muttered, lowering her voice to make sure that her new boss wouldn’t overhear. “But I have a ton of work to do.”

Her friend gave her an understanding look. “Anything I can help you...” she started to ask, but her voice trailed off when Blake came out of his office.

Erika’s eyes widened at the sight of the handsome new VP, and Sydni almost smiled at the look on her friend’s face. Just because Erika was madly in love with her boyfriend didn’t mean she couldn’t still drool over a gorgeous guy.

Blake glanced at Erika. “Excuse me,” he said, and then turned his attention to Sydni. “I’m going to need this typed up as well.”

Handing Sydni the paper, he gave Erika a nod, and then disappeared back into his office without another word. The dark-haired girl watched him go, her eyes approving.

“That’s your new boss?” she asked incredulously. “He’s totally hot!”

Sydni glanced warningly at his office. “Shhh!”

But Erika only laughed. “Hey, I’m just saying what you’ve probably been thinking,” she said, and then looked down at the stack of paperwork on the desk. “I’ll let you get back to work. It is actually work that’s keeping you here late, right?”

“Very funny,” Sydni muttered.

Her friend laughed again. “Have fun,” she said. “See you tomorrow.”

As the other girl left, Sydni turned back to her computer and began typing. Though she tried to concentrate on what she was doing, every so often her gaze would stray to the door between her office and Blake’s, Erika’s words echoing in her mind. “Hot” was definitely the word to describe her new boss, Sydni thought. Even though she had been sorry to see poor, old Bob go, she had to admit that her new boss wasn’t too bad, if you didn’t count all the work.

With a sigh, Sydni turned her attention back to her typing, finally managing to finish up the report and the slides a little after six-thirty. Doing a quick spell-check, Sydni wondered if she should print everything out and give it a once-over for grammatical errors that the word-processing sometimes didn’t pick up, but then decided against it. Reading through everything would only mean that she’d get out of there that much later. Besides, she was confident that she hadn’t made any mistakes.

Taking everything to the copy room, Sydni ran the agenda and the handouts through the copier, glad that it did the collating and stapling for her. Hoping her new boss didn’t have anything else for her to do that evening, she brought everything into Blake, including the slides, and almost sighed with relief when he said she could go home.

More exhausted than she’d ever been after a day of work, Sydni went home to her apartment, where she made something easy for dinner before watching a little television and falling into bed.

Despite having a gorgeous new boss, Sydni was still so tired from the previous day’s work, that she dreaded the thought of going back the next morning. But knowing that if she didn’t get up soon, she’d only be late, she forced herself to get out of bed.

After a much-needed shower and a quick bowl of cereal, Sydni managed to put on her make-up and get dressed in what was for her, record time. She even surprised herself by getting to work earlier than she’d ever done before. She wasn’t on time, by any means, but she wasn’t more than a few minutes late.

However, it was late enough for her new boss to notice. The moment she walked in, he scowled at her.

“You’re late,” he said.

Sydni flushed. “I...” she began, but he didn’t let her finish.

“I read these over after you left and found a ton of mistakes,” he said, tossing the stack of collated and stapled documents onto her desk.

Sydni’s brow furrowed as she recognized the things she’d typed the night before. The meeting agenda, the handouts, and the slides. There must have been problems with all of them. Her frown only deepened when she saw the corrections he had made. And with a red pen, no less. Guess she should have proofread them after all, she thought.

“I’m sorry...” she began, but he cut her off before she could continue.

“Just get it fixed before the staff meeting!” he ordered gruffly, then turned on his heel and went back into his office.

Sydni sighed. “Good morning to you, too,” she muttered, pulling out her chair.

Knowing that she was going to have to get fresh copies made of the agenda and handouts, she worked on them first. Hurriedly making the corrections, Sydni ran off the copies, and then got the slides corrected just in time to bring everything to the conference room. Blake was deep in conversation with another executive when she walked in, so she simply set them down on the table and went to get herself a desperately needed cup of coffee.

To Sydni’s surprise, the staff meeting took up the whole morning. When Bob had held the meetings, they usually hadn’t lasted more than a half hour. By the time Blake returned, however, it was almost noon, and she looked up, startled, as he stormed into the office.

“When I asked you to get me the personnel files for everyone in the department, I meant everyone,” he said.

Sydni almost groaned. She’d been worried that she hadn’t pulled all the files. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I thought that was everyone.”

At that, his brows drew together. “Well, it wasn’t, and I ended up looking like a complete idiot in there!” he snapped. “You’re supposed to be an executive assistant, dammit! Start acting like one!”

Sydni’s face burned with embarrassment, but before she could say anything, her boss turned on his heel and strode into his office. She’d only been working for Blake Daniels since yesterday, and already she’d made two huge mistakes, not to mention a whole handful of smaller ones. Her new boss probably thought she was totally incompetent.

Telling herself she needed a break, Sydni went to lunch with Erika, careful to make sure that she was back as close to being on time as she could manage. Which was a good thing too, since Blake made a point of looking at his watch when she walked in. Glancing at her own watch, she saw that she was a few minutes late, and braced herself for another lecture, but though her boss frowned, he made no comment. Instead he gave her another task to do.

This time, he had her constructing a report detailing the status of the government contract that Design-Tech was working on. Blake wanted everything – department responsibilities, budget and expenditures for every department and sub department, subcontractor listings, and work completion schedules. And he wanted it before she left for the day.

Sydni wasn’t stupid. She had graduated from college with a degree in business and had a background heavy in accounting, so she certainly had the knowledge to compile a report like the one her boss wanted. Plus, she had worked at the software firm long enough to understand how all of the departments and subcontractors worked together, so she knew what she was supposed to do. It was just that she’d never been asked to do a report like this before, and with calls to make and telephones to answer in between, it took her the rest of the afternoon and most of the evening to complete.

It was after seven-thirty when she finally finished. It was tough work, but she actually felt kind of proud about the job she had done. It had been years since she’d used any of her college education, and it was nice to know it was still there. The work was hard, she thought, but she might actually like doing it. Going into Blake’s office, she placed it on his desk.

“If it’s all right with you, I was going to go ahead and go,” she said quietly.

He reached for the report. “Actually, I’d like you to wait while I look this over.”

Sydni almost groaned. Besides the apple she’d brought with her to snack on, she hadn’t eaten anything since lunch, and she was starving. Not to mention exhausted. Nevertheless, she waited while he read through the report she’d written.

When she saw Blake frown, she hoped it was because of the data and not because of her work, but when that frown shifted to her, she knew better.

“Would you please close the door?” Blake said.

Sydni hesitated for a moment. At that time of night, no one else was there except the cleaning crew, but she supposed he didn’t want anyone hearing the lecture he was probably going to be giving her. Walking over to the door, she pushed it closed, and then slowly came back to stand before the desk again.

“How long have you been an executive assistant, Ms. Davis?” Blake asked.

She shifted nervously. For some reason, standing in front of the desk like this made her feel like she was in the principal’s office back in high school. “Eight years,” she said quietly.

He lifted a brow. “Really? Well, I’m surprised to hear that, because your work is shoddy at best. This report is very poor.”

Sydni flushed. “I-I must have been in a hurry, I guess,” she stammered. “My work is usually exemplary.”

Her boss frowned. “Really? Unfortunately, I haven’t seen that. By itself, your sloppy work would be enough to get you fired down at the Dallas office. But on top of your work performance, Ms. Davis, there is also the fact that you seem to think nothing of showing up late on a consistent basis.” He paused. “Put both of those shortcomings together and it’s easy to see why I thought you should be fired. But the HR department says that you have an outstanding personnel file, and since there are other departments in need of a secretary, I’ve decided to have you transferred to one of them. I doubt that you’ll be filling an executive assistant position, but at least you’ll have a job,” he said. “When you come in tomorrow, go to human resources and they’ll place you.”

With that, Blake Daniels turned his attention back to the report she’d written, effectively dismissing her. But Sydni didn’t leave. Instead, she stared at him, her stomach in a knot and her eyes burning with unshed tears, unable to believe what she’d just heard. She was the executive assistant to the vice-president of the company. Any other job would not only mean less money, but less prestige as well. She simply couldn’t be demoted.

She swallowed hard. “Mr. Daniels, please,” she pleaded.

He looked up at her, his dark eyes cool. “I’ve already made my decision, Ms. Davis.”

“But...” Sydni’s voice trailed off and she took a step closer to the desk. “Couldn’t you just put a letter of reprimand in my file instead?” she asked.

He was silent a moment, as if considering her words, but then shook his head. “A letter of reprimand would not deal with the primary issue at hand here, and that is your work performance. Punishing you is only half the issue, Ms. Davis. Just as important, is that I simply must have better performance from my assistant. Besides, a letter of reprimand would go on your permanent record, which would only hurt your chances of getting promoted in the future in one of the other departments,” he said. “I think a transfer to a less demanding job would be best for everyone concerned.”

Best for everyone concerned, Sydni thought. How could he honestly think that a transfer to a lower paying job be best for her? He might as well just go ahead and fire her right now! She took another step closer to the desk, her blue eyes pleading. “Mr. Daniels, please,” she said, her voice trembling a little. “I really love this job and I don’t want to work in another department. I have the skills to do what you need. They’re just rusty because Mr. Willis didn’t require as much from me. If I promise to work harder and do a better job, don’t you think you could come up with some other form of punishment? Something that would just stay between us.”

Blake sat back in his chair to regard her in silence. He couldn’t deny that the beautiful Sydni Davis was a welcome change from his previous executive assistant, but he couldn’t simply ignore her poor work habits, even if she was sexy as hell. This job was too important. If he did well here, he could pretty much write his own ticket in the company, which was why he needed someone competent working with him.

But if she were willing to work harder, then perhaps he could give her another chance. According to her personnel file and evaluations, Sydni did have the qualifications, he reminded himself. However, she needed to learn that he wouldn’t tolerate her lackadaisical attitude. And she had asked him to come up with some other form of punishment. He supposed he should try something practical and boring, something the HR department would approve of. But having a woman as sexy as Sydni in front of him led his mind in another direction.

“I do have something in mind,” he finally said. “It’s rather unorthodox, though, so I would only consider it if you were in full agreement.”

She nodded, relief coursing through her. Whatever it was she knew she would agree to it. She loved her job that much. “Of course,” she said. “Anything.”

He regarded her for another long moment, and she thought he might change his mind. “Rather than have you transferred to another department, I could give you a spanking instead,” he said softly.

Sydni blinked, not sure if she had heard him right. “A sp-spanking?” she stammered.

He nodded. “In my experience, a spanking can be an excellent method for adjusting a poor attitude,” he said. “But you would have to fully agree to it, of course.”

Sydni chewed on her lower lip. She had gotten spanked a few times by an old boyfriend, but it had been during sex, so it had been fun. However, she didn’t think a spanking administered by her boss as a form of punishment would be very much fun at all. In fact, it would probably hurt quite a bit. Still, she admitted, getting spanked would be better than getting demoted. It would also probably be a lot better than getting yelled at, she thought, remembering how Blake had shouted at her that morning when he’d come back from the staff meeting. She really hated getting yelled at. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she wondered if his offer to spank her instead of demote her could be considered sexual harassment. Probably, she thought, but a spanking was still a whole lot more acceptable than a pay-cut, especially since her lousy performance justified the demotion.

“Well, Ms. Davis?” Blake prompted quietly. “What’s it to be – the transfer, or the spanking?”

Swallowing hard, Sydni lifted her chin and met his gaze. “I-I’ll take the spanking,” she said softly.

“Are you sure?” he asked.

She nodded. “Y-yes.”

If he were surprised by her answer, Blake Daniels gave no indication of it. In fact, Sydni thought she saw the corner of his mouth quirk, but it was gone before she could be sure. Nervously, she watched him get to his feet and come around the desk. How did one usually get a punishment spanking? she wondered. Having only been spanked during sex, she honestly had no idea.

“Bend over and put your hands on the desk,” he instructed her.

His request sounded so polite that Sydni hesitated for a moment, but then did as she was told. She had agreed to this, she reminded herself as she bent forward and put her hands on the desk. The position made her curve-hugging skirt cling to her bottom, and she blushed as she felt it ride up a little higher on her thighs to reveal even more of her slender legs than it already did. Had she known she was going to be bending over for a spanking, she thought wryly, she would have worn slacks. Strangely, that thought almost made her laugh. That’s okay, she thought. It was completely natural to be unsure of the proper etiquette when it came to spanking in the workplace.

Blake Daniels took a step closer so that he was standing right beside her, and Sydni tensed when she felt him put a hand on the small of her back. Oh well, she thought, here we go. A spanking in the office. If she wasn’t so nervous, she’d probably be laughing right now.

“Are you ready, Ms. Davis?” he asked.

Was she ready? What kind of question was that? Sydni wondered. Of course, she wasn’t! But she had agreed to take this spanking, so she couldn’t very well change her mind. So, telling herself that it would just be better to get it over with, she nodded.

The moment she did so, Sydni instinctively found herself holding her breath. But despite giving him permission, Blake didn’t begin administering her spanking right away. And as the seconds lengthened, she had to wonder what he could possibly be waiting for. Getting impatient, she glanced at him over her shoulder, only to let out a startled little gasp when he brought his hand down on her bottom.

Smack!

Shocked at the sting that was spreading across her ass from just that one spank, Sydni bit her lip as she waited for the next one. Wow, had that stung! How many of those would he give her? she wondered.

But before she knew it, his hand was connecting with her bottom again, this time even harder, and she let out a yelp. Apparently, Blake must have been prepared for such a protest because he didn’t even pause. Lifting his hand, he smacked her again, and then again, falling into an easy rhythm as he moved from one side to the other until he had covered her entire bottom with stinging spanks.

Common sense told her that her skirt should offer some protection, but it sure didn’t seem like it. Of its own accord, one of her hands reached back from the desk to feel her stinging bottom. She just had to know if it was throbbing as much as it felt like it was.

He stopped momentarily. “Please keep your hands on the desk, Ms. Davis. I wouldn’t want to strike your hand by accident.”

Feeling slightly chagrined, she quickly put her hand back on the desk. “I-I’m s-sorry,” she murmured, not knowing what else to say.

Her boss picked up his rhythm again. Not too hard, but not too soft, either. Smack! Smack! Smack Smack! Smack!

And she protested after each and every one. “Owwww!...Owwww!...Owwww!...Owwww!...Owwww!”

Thank God, everyone else had already left for the day, she thought, or they would have been getting an earful!

Then, finally, much to her relief, Blake Daniels announced that it was enough.

Pushing herself upright, Sydni reached back to cup her bottom with both hands. No, it wasn’t throbbing, she thought. But it sure stung. She’d had no idea how hard he would spank her, but that had been pretty hard! But then again, now that she actually evaluated it, she realized that he hadn’t really hurt her that much, she supposed. She doubted she would even feel it by the time she got home. As punishments went, it was certainly much better than getting demoted.

Standing in front of her, her boss folded his arms and gazed down at her. “That should be enough to get you to improve your work habits,” he said. “Wouldn’t you agree, Ms. Davis?”

Still cupping her stinging bottom, Sydni nodded wordlessly.

Blake inclined his head. “Then I’ll see you tomorrow,” he said, and then added, “On time, for a change.”

The promise of what he would do if she weren’t hung in the air, and Sydni felt herself blush as she hurried from the room.

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