Most of her friends back in LA would probably have gone running to a therapist if they had gotten royally dumped by their boyfriends and lost their jobs all in a three day period, but Kendall Merriweather wasn’t like that. She thought that going back home to lick her wounds in the small rural town of Copper Canyon, Idaho where she had grown up would somehow be more therapeutic than talking to a shrink that would charge her two-hundred-and-fifty dollars an hour. Especially since she couldn’t afford that kind of money. Then again, she thought, taking a sip of her iced tea, maybe she should have dipped into her savings and gone to a therapist, because she had been in town less than a week and was already going stir crazy.

When she had called her parents to tell them that she was coming home for a visit, they couldn’t have been more thrilled. In fact, they had been so excited that she almost hadn’t told them the reason behind her visit. But they loved her, and so there was no reason to hide the fact that she had been “let go” from her marketing exec job because the agency had downsized to “meet current market conditions.” They knew that she would be going back to LA eventually, as soon as she got her feet back under her, but until then, they were happy to have her around. Which was great for them, but she was already starting to get bored in this Podunk town that she used to call home.

She wasn’t ready to back to California just yet, though. Not until she had gotten over the break-up with her boyfriend, Keith. Ex-boyfriend, she reminded herself. Even after two weeks, it still hurt to think about it. Perhaps because she had been so blindsided by the whole thing. One day, Keith was asking her to move in with him, and the next, he was telling her that things were moving too fast for him and that he needed “space.” Where the heck that had come from she still didn’t know. But that, combined with getting fired, had been enough to send her running home.

Her parents had been more than supportive, even offering to let her use one of the cabins they rented out to tourists because it would give her more privacy. The only problem was that all she seemed to have been doing since she got there was sit in that stupid cabin and pine over Keith.

Maybe if the town had more than a mini-mart, hardware store, and coin laundry, she’d have something else to occupy her time. Okay, so maybe that was exaggeration, she thought. After all, the town did have a bowling alley, too.

As she sat in the town’s lone diner, Kendall watched the waitress pour more coffee for one of the tourists seated at the counter, her brow furrowing as a thought suddenly occurred to her. Tucking a strand of long blond hair behind her ear, she looked across the table at her two friends.

“Do you think this place might need some extra help?” she asked. “I mean, do you think they might need another waitress?”

Across from her, Gabby Ryan stared at her in surprise. Dark-haired and petite, the other girl had been her best friend since kindergarten, and even though Kendall had left Copper Canyon and moved to LA right after they had graduated from high school, the two had kept in touch over the years. Kendall had even been Gabby’s maid-of-honor at the other girl’s wedding to her high-school sweetheart. So, if anyone knew Kendall, it was Gabby, which was probably why the other girl was looking at her like that.

“Why?” was all her friend wanted to know.

Kendall shrugged. “Because I’m thinking of getting a job while I’m here.”

Gabby lifted a brow. “You, a waitress?” she asked.

Kendall frown deepened. “Why not?” she said. “I did it in college...”

“And hated it, from what you told me,” her friend pointed out.

Kendall only shrugged at the reminder. “Well, yeah, but I need something to do with myself, or I’m going to go crazy,” she said. “Besides, I could use the money.”

“Outdoor Outfitters is looking for help, if you’re interested.”

Kendall glanced at the other girl sitting in the booth beside Gabby. Maryann Conners, a tall, athletically-built brunette, had moved to Copper Canyon with her family during the girls’ freshman year of high school, and they had all become fast friends.

“Outdoor Outfitters?” Kendall asked. She’d seen the town’s newest store, of course, but hadn’t gone inside yet. No reason to, since the great outdoors really wasn’t her thing. And Copper Canyon was smack in the middle of the great outdoors. Yet another reason not to like the town.

Maryann nodded. “I think it’s pretty much just stocking shelves and working the register, but at least it’s something to do.”

“You left out the best part Maryann,” Gabby said with a smile. “That Jason Maxwell is the owner.” She gave Maryann a sidelong glance. “Kendall had a huge crush on him in high school.”

Maryann looked at Kendall in astonishment. “You did?” she said. “I never knew that.”

“Kendall was very good at hiding it,” Gabby continued. “From everyone but me, of course. Every time Jason walked by, I’d look over at Kendall, and there she’d be, gazing at him longingly over the pile of books in her arms.”

Kendall felt herself blush. “I did not!” she protested.

Across the table from her, Gabby lifted a brow in reply. “Come on, you positively drooled over the guy!”

Kendall said nothing to that, mainly because Gabby was right. Despite the fact that high school had been a lifetime ago, thoughts of Jason Maxwell still had the ability to bring a rush of color to her cheeks. Tall, with dark hair and the most beautiful blue eyes she’d ever seen, Jason had been the best looking guy in school, not to mention one of the most popular. And though Kendall had always hoped that Jason might ask her out, he never did, and by the time senior year had come around, she had been too preoccupied with college and the prospect of getting out of Copper Canyon to think about him much.

Over the years, she had always wondered what he’d done after graduation, though. Now, she knew.

“Soooooo,” Gabby drawled, her eyes twinkling. “Are you going to go over to talk to him?”

Kendall thought a moment, and then shrugged. “Maybe,” she said noncommittally, ignoring her friends’ all-too-knowing smiles.

But after the other women had left - Gabby to pick her two sons up from school, and Maryann to take her youngest daughter to piano lessons – Kendall’s thoughts turned back to Jason Maxwell. From the diner, she had a clear view of Outdoor Outfitters across the street, and as she watched a steady stream of tourists go in and out of the store, she began to think that maybe getting a job there might be just the thing to help take her mind off her ex-boyfriend.

The decision made, Kendall grabbed her shoulder bag and slid out of the booth. Leaving the diner, she made her way across the street and walked into Outdoor Outfitters behind a heavyset man and his wife.

The store was bigger than she had thought it would be, its wide array of clothing, fishing gear, and skiing equipment encompassing not one, but two floors. She shouldn’t have been surprised by that, Kendall supposed. With its crystal clear lakes and snow-capped mountains, Copper Canyon, though small in size, had always been big with the tourists. Obviously, Jason Maxwell was benefiting from that.

Rather than wait in the long line for the register, Kendall stood for a moment and looked around, hoping to spot Jason Maxwell somewhere in the store, then wondering if she would even recognize him after all this time. They had been out of high school almost ten years, she told herself. For all she knew, Jason could have a sizeable paunch and a receding hairline by now. For some reason, the image made her frown.

“Can I help you find something?”

Kendall turned to find that a teenage girl had come up beside her. Petite, with curly red hair and freckles, she wore jeans along with a navy blue T-shirt that bore the name Outdoor Outfitters in the upper left-hand corner.

“I’m looking for Jason Maxwell, actually,” Kendall said.

Kendall had half-expected the girl to ask why she wanted to see the store’s owner, but to her surprise, the girl simply announced that Jason was, “in the back,” and that Kendall should “follow” her.

The girl led her through the store and to a door marked, “Employees Only,” at which point, she asked Kendall to wait while she went to get Jason. Kendall did as the girl had asked, and as she stood there looking at the racks of fishing poles, she suddenly realized that she was a little nervous about seeing Jason again. Would he recognize her? she wondered. Would he even remember her?

Before she could speculate on an answer to either of those questions, the door opened and the girl came back out, followed by a tall, well-built, and even-better-looking-than-she had-remembered Jason Maxwell. One look into those gorgeous blue eyes and she felt like she was back in high school again. She didn’t think jeans and a plaid shirt had ever looked so sexy on a guy!

As his gaze took in her long, blond hair, gray eyes, and slender figure clad in jeans and a curve-hugging tank-top, Kendall thought she saw a flicker of recognition in his blue eyes, but she couldn’t be sure.

“Can I help you?” he asked as the other girl walked away to leave them alone.

Kendall wet her suddenly dry lips. “I don’t know if you remember me, but we went to high school together – Kendall Merriweather.”

He hesitated a moment, as if trying to remember her, and then nodded. “Oh, yeah. Your parents own the campground near the lake, right?”

A little hurt that the only thing her high school crush could seem to remember about her was that her parents owned a campground, Kendall nodded. “I heard that you were looking to hire some extra help, and was wondering if the job was still available,” she explained.

Jason folded his arms across his broad chest and regarded her speculatively. “It is,” he said slowly. “But I usually hire high school kids for this kind of thing. I mean, it pays okay for what it is – stocking shelves and working the register – but it’s not like you’re going to make a career of it or anything. And there aren’t any benefits to speak of, unless you count all the live bait you can use.”

Kendall smiled as she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. Make a career of it? Perish the thought! “Actually, I’m just back in town for awhile and could use the extra money. You can keep the live bait.”

He laughed. “Have you ever worked in a store before?”

“Does the college bookstore count?” she asked, giving him a small smile.

Jason laughed softly. “That’s good enough for me.”

Her smile broadened. “So, does that mean I got the job?”

“If you want it. Besides,” he added with a grin. “I could use another actual adult around here. My other employees are great, but being teens, they’re guaranteed to come in late any time we open before eight, and they’re always begging to leave early on Friday and Saturday so that they can go party.”

After filling out the usual employment paperwork, Kendall left the store with a stack of navy blue Outdoor Outfitter T-shirts in hand, and a smile on her face. Well, she knew one thing was for sure. If working at the store didn’t help get her mind off Keith, then having a boss as gorgeous as Jason Maxwell would sure go a long way to achieving that end!

Jason couldn’t believe it when he’d walked out of the back to find Kendall Merriweather standing there. He had heard she was back in town, had even been trying to figure out a way to run into her without looking like he’d meant to, but then there she was in the middle of his store. He’d been even more surprised to learn that she’d come asking for a job. The last he’d heard, she was working at some big-time advertising agency in LA, and he couldn’t help wondering what had brought her back to Copper Canyon.

Not that he was complaining, though. He’d been hot for Kendall ever since high school, but had never asked her out because he’d always been too chicken that she’d turn him down. He might have run with the popular crowd, but the way he had looked at it then, she had been in a class all her own. Then she had left to go off to college in California and it had been too late. Since then, he must have kicked himself a hundred times for letting her get away.

Jason’s mouth quirked as he walked back into his office and over to his desk. Damn, but Kendall looked good, he thought. With her long blond hair and full, pouty lips, she had always been pretty, but with her tall, slender figure now having just the right amount of lush womanly curves to it, she was a real knockout. And he would get the chance to spend a lot of time with her now. But he had to play it cool, he told himself. He didn’t want to come on too strong right away, but he definitely planned on getting to know Kendall a whole lot better while she was in town. Who knows? he thought. Maybe she might not want to leave this time.

Her blond hair pulled up into a ponytail, and dressed in jeans and the standard-issue Outdoor Outfitters T-shirt, Kendall arrived promptly for work the next day. The red-haired girl whom she’d met yesterday was behind the counter, and Kendall was about to ask the younger girl where she could find Jason when he came walking out from the back. He was dressed much the same as he’d been yesterday, in jeans and a button-up shirt, only today the shirt wasn’t plaid, but a chambray blue that brought out the color of his eyes. He grinned when he saw her, his eyes flickering over her curvy figure before going back to her face, and Kendall smiled. It was obvious that he found her attractive, and that made her feel pretty good about herself.

“Ready to get started?” he asked.

For some reason she couldn’t explain, she felt almost as giddy as a schoolgirl. Seeing Jason again made her feel like she was back in high school, and suddenly she wanted to make a good impression on him. An impression that had absolutely nothing to do with their new employer/employee relationship. Maybe she was on the rebound from Keith, but she decided that Jason was the perfect man to help her forget her ex. He was absolutely gorgeous and obviously not married. Apparently, he wasn’t involved with anyone either – he had been checking her out rather blatantly, after all. And just like that, she decided that she would be sleeping with this guy in the very near future. She didn’t necessarily need another boyfriend, just someone to put her in a happy mood. And Jason definitely fit that bill.

With those lusty thoughts in mind, she didn’t quite trust herself to speak, so she simply nodded in answer to his question. Good heavens, she thought, her pulse racing as her gaze focused on his butt as he walked ahead of her. With thoughts like that, she’d almost think that she really was back in high school! Or college, maybe. She’d never really had such lusty thoughts like that in high school.

Calm down, Kendall told herself. She might want to sleep with him, but in the meantime, she still had to work there. Trying to focus on the real reason she was there, she followed Jason into the back of the store and through the door marked, “Employees Only.” As they made their way down the hallway, her new boss pointed out the different rooms on either side of them. Among them were a restroom and an employee break-room, as well as his office. Beyond that, was the stock-room, which was filled with boxes and boxes of the various items that Outdoor Outfitters carried.

After that, he took her back into the store itself, where he spent some time taking her through the different areas to familiarize her with what types of things the store sold. Though Kendall really did make an effort to pay attention to everything that he said, especially since she didn’t know the first thing about most of the stuff, most of the time, she found herself simply enjoying the sound of his sexy voice. His rough, husky voice seemed to have established a direct connection with her erogenous zones, and the more he talked, the more excited she became. Sort of like a verbal vibrator, she thought.

After Jason had showed her around, Kendall fully expected him to palm her off on one of the other employees so that they could train her on the store’s computer system and cash register, but to her surprise – and delight! – Jason took on that task as well. Though perhaps it would have been better if he hadn’t, because a few minutes into a discussion about the inventory software the store used, she once again found herself paying more attention to him than to what he was saying. A few days around him, Kendall thought, and she’d be saying, “Keith who?”

Jason supposed that he could have had one of his other employees show Kendall around and teach her how to use the register and credit card machine, but doing it himself gave him a good excuse to hang around her. Though it was almost impossible to concentrate on what he was saying most of the time because all he could seem to think about when he was near her was how much he’d like to kiss her. And God, did she smell good! He found himself leaning in close to her whenever he got a chance, trying to catch a deeper whiff of her intoxicating scent. Which only led to even more erotic thoughts. He almost let out a groan as he watched her bend over to pick up something from one of the lower shelves. Wow, he thought, what an ass! Having Kendall around might be fun, but it was also going to be complete torture, he thought.

Though Jason didn’t know it, Kendall was equally as aware of him as he was of her. Having him hovering near her elbow while she was taking care of customers was almost more than she could take. In fact, she’d already short-changed one and given another too much money back. If she kept it up, Jason was probably going to think that he’d hired a total idiot!

But apart from a slight frown both of those times, Jason made no comment about her math skills – or lack thereof, she thought wryly. In fact, after a while, he announced that he had some things to do and asked her if she’d be okay on her own.

“If you need me, just give a yell,” he told her in between customers.

Assuring him that she would, Kendall let her gaze follow his tall form as he made his way into the back. As she watched him go, she couldn’t help but think how different he was from her ex-boyfriend, not only in looks, but in personality as well. Whereas Keith always had to let people know that he was in charge, Jason just seemed to have that confident, take-charge kind of aura about him that made her think he’d be just as at home in a corporate world as he was in Copper Canyon.

Thoughts of Jason kept her preoccupied for the rest of the day. It didn’t help that he came out to work the other register that was beside her when things got busier toward evening. Not only did that wreak more havoc on her already wildly fluttering pulse, but it also caused her to give another one of the customers too much change, and as a result, come up short on her cash drawer when the store closed that evening.

Though it was only a couple of dollars, Kendall still felt really awful about it. In fact, she wouldn’t have been at all surprised if Jason chose to fire her, but much to her relief, he only gave her a frown and told her not to worry about it, but to be more careful next time.

When Kendall went into work the following day, however, she noticed that Jason didn’t put her on the register, but asked her to do inventory instead. Though she was a little hurt, she told herself that she couldn’t really blame him. Besides, she thought, as she surveyed each shelf and made notes on her clipboard, being out on the floor only gave her more time to look at Jason.

In fact, she was so mesmerized by her boss that a customer had to call her twice before she heard him. Shaking herself out of her reverie, she gave the man a smile and asked what she could do for him.

“I’m looking for Buck Lure, and I can’t seem to find it,” he said.

Her brow furrowed in confusion. “Buck Lure?”

The man nodded. “You rub it on when you’re out hunting and it makes you smell like a deer in heat. That way, your prey can’t pick up your human scent.”

Kendall looked at the man in horror, disgusted by the idea. “As if you hunters don’t have enough of an advantage already,” she said, unable to hide the contempt she felt. “You already have guns, what more do you want? But then again, I guess you’ll do just about anything to get a trophy for your wall, wouldn’t you? What do you want to go along with your Buck Lure? A bazooka?”

The man’s face flushed, his voice rising angrily as he spoke. “Now, wait just a minute...”

“Is there a problem here?”

Kendall jumped at the sound of Jason’s deep voice coming from behind her, and she half turned to find him regarding her questioningly. Before she could answer Jason, however, the man spoke.

“I asked her where I could find Buck Lure and she went all Green Peace on me about hunting,” he said. “I don’t know what kind of employees this store hires, but...”

Jason’s mouth tightened. “I’m sorry for the confusion, Sir,” he said smoothly. “The Buck Lure is in the hunting section, on the shelf with the rest of the accessories. Right back there,” he added, pointing toward the back of the store.

The man drew himself up, gave Kendall a glare, and then stormed off toward the hunting section. Kendall watched him go, her hands gripping the clipboard. Jerk, she thought.

“What the hell was that about?”

Kendall whirled around to face Jason, surprised by the sharpness in his tone, and she lifted her chin.

“I just told him what I thought about him using something as underhanded as that Buck Lure to kill some poor, unsuspecting deer for the sole purpose of putting some trophy on his wall.” She gave Jason a shrug. “I guess he got offended.”

Jason clenched his jaw. “Dammit, Kendall!” he swore. “I hired you to stock shelves and work the register. Just keep your opinions to yourself.”

She felt herself flush. “But...”

His eyes narrowed warningly. “I mean it, Kendall!” he told her. “This town survives on the tourist dollars of the hunters and fishermen that come in here. If you’re going to have a problem with them, then you’d better tell me now.”

And if she did? she wondered. He’d what - fire her? Kendall swallowed hard. She really did like working at the store. Couldn’t she ever learn to keep her mouth shut? “I don’t,” she said softly. “It’s just that I don’t like hunting, that’s all. I guess I saw Bambi too many times as a kid.”

Jason regarded her for a moment in silence, and then nodded. “Okay, don’t worry about it. Just don’t let it happen again,” he said. “Look, when you’re done with the inventory, I need to you put sale prices on some of the gun cases.”

His mouth in tight line, Jason waited for her nod before turning on his heel and walking away. He was lucky that he’d been in the area when Kendall had been with that customer, otherwise who knew how far their argument might have escalated? Especially since Kendall looked like she had no intention of backing down from the big man. What the hell had she been thinking? he wondered. He didn’t really care that much if she didn’t particularly like hunting - in fact, he much preferred fishing himself – but that wasn’t the point, dammit! Hadn’t that girl ever heard the phrase, “The customer is always right?”

Jason came back out of his office an hour later to find Kendall dutifully reducing the prices on the gun cases like he had asked her to do. She glanced up as he walked by, but didn’t say anything, and though he thought about stopping to talk to her, he continued on up to the register instead. His temper hadn’t quite cooled yet.

At the counter, he took over working the register for Nicole while the red-haired girl went on her break. He hadn’t been there more than ten minutes when Clyde Appleton, one of his regular customers, came up to the counter with a stack of rip-stop nylon rifle cases. Surprised that the older man would buy so many of the more expensive cases at one time, Jason was shocked to hear him comment on what a “good buy” they were.

His brow furrowing, Jason glanced down at the tag to see a sticker reflecting the sale price covering the original amount. His jaw clenching, Jason swore under his breath. How could Kendall have made such a stupid mistake?

However, since they had been marked with the sale price, Jason had no choice but to give the gun cases to the man for that amount, even though it meant he would be selling them for half price.

Still seething about what Kendall had done, Jason handed the register over to Nicole when she returned, and made his way across the store to where the pretty blonde was sitting on the floor beside the gun cases. Kendall looked up at him, her gray eyes questioning, and Jason’s brows drew together when he saw that she had just finished putting a sale sticker on yet another one of the more expensive gun cases. Maybe she had simply misunderstood, he told himself, dropping down on one knee beside her.

“I didn’t want you to put sale prices on all of the gun cases,” he told her, trying to keep his voice level.

Kendall’s brow furrowed. “I know,” she said. “I’m only putting them on the ones that you told me to put them on.”

Jason looked down at the ones she had already priced, his jaw clenching as he saw a mix of both types. Swearing under his breath, he grabbed one of each and held them out. “Do these look like the same kind to you?”

Her frown deepened. “Aren’t they?”

His mouth tightened. “One is imitation leather, i.e. plastic, and the other is rip-stop nylon, i.e. damn expensive.”

Kendall looked more closely at the cases he was holding, and then shrugged. “Oh yeah, you’re right. I was just thinking of them as shoes. Even imitation leather is expensive. And you have to admit, they do kind of look a little alike. Sorry. Just a little mistake.”

Jason clenched his jaw. “Well, you’re little mistake just cost me a lot of money, Kendall.”

Kendall blinked in surprise. He was really angry about this, she realized. Couldn’t he see that it had been an honest mistake on her part? To look at him, you’d think she had done it on purpose or something! “I said I was sorry,” she snapped, and then added, “And anyway, it’s as much your fault as it is mine, you know.”

He lifted a brow, incredulous at the idea. “My fault?”

She lifted her chin. “Yes,” she said. “You shouldn’t have assumed that I would know the difference between the cases. Maybe if you had explained yourself better, then I wouldn’t have made the mistake in the first place.”

Jason’s eyes narrowed, but he said nothing. Probably because he couldn’t refute her logic, she thought, more than a little pleased with herself at that. After a moment, he shook his head. “Just fix it,” he growled. Then, without another word, he got to his feet and stormed off.

Kendall let out a sigh of frustration as she watched him go. Yesterday, she had come up short on her cash drawer, then that morning, she’d argued with a customer right in front of Jason, and now she’d screwed up yet again. He really was going to think she was an idiot! Well, she chided herself, maybe if she weren’t so busy thinking about other stuff, she would be able to concentrate on what the heck she was supposed to be doing. By “other stuff” she meant she’d been thinking about sex with Jason, of course. Did the man even know the kind of effect he was having on her?

Picking up the pricing gun, she sighed again. Daydreaming about her boss might be doing wonders when it came to erasing Keith from her mind, she thought, but doing it too much was only going to wind up getting her fired from her job. She just got canned from one job, losing another after only two days would be too much.

With that thought in mind, Kendall tried hard to focus on work the rest of the day, but that was easier said than done, especially after closing time. By then, the other employees had left for the day, and it was just the two of them in the store.

Kendall had stayed to fill the bins with more of the floaty red-and-white balls used for fishing, and as much as she tried not to, her gaze kept straying to Jason. God, she thought as she added more floaty-things to the rack, he looked hot even doing something as simple as standing at the counter going over the day’s receipts.

In retrospect, Kendall realized that she should have been paying more attention to what she was doing because when she came up with another handful of red-and-white floaty-things, she inadvertently bumped into the metal rack and knocked the whole thing over.

To her credit, Kendall instinctively tried to reach out to grab it, but it fell down anyway, hundreds of red-and-white floaty-things rolling across the floor and going every which way. Unable to do more than stand there and watch, she finally snuck a glance at Jason to find him glaring at her, his mouth set in a tight line.

“That does it!” he finally growled, slapping the pen he’d been using down on the counter.

Her face coloring hotly, she hastily bent down to start picking up the balls when she felt Jason’s hand on her arm. She didn’t know what she had expected exactly, but it certainly wasn’t for him to haul her to her feet so that he could glower at her.

“You’re doing this deliberately, aren’t you?” he demanded.

She blinked in surprise, completely taken aback by the question. “Wh-what?” she stammered. “No!”

He lifted a brow. “Really? No one could screw up this much unless they were doing it on purpose. So, I have to assume that this is your way of trying to get back at me for something you think I did to you in high school.”

She gasped, confused. What was he talking about? “You really need to get over yourself, you know that!” she snapped. “I barely even remember you from high school, much less anything you might have done.”

As she spoke, she tried to yank free of his grip, but his hand only tightened on her arm. “Let go of me,” she told him coldly. “Unless you don’t want me to pick up these stupid things.”

His mouth quirked. “Oh, you’re going to pick them up, all right,” he said. “After we get something straight.”

Kendall frowned, about to ask him what he meant by that when Jason suddenly bent her over at the waist, his strong arm holding her in place.

“Wh-what are doing?” she stammered, craning her neck to look at him over her shoulder.

“Helping you focus on you work,” he replied.

Her frown deepened. “Focus? What...” she began, only to let out a startled little, “Oh!” of surprise when she felt him give her bottom a hard smack.

Kendall froze. “What are you doing?” she shrieked.

“I told you,” he said, giving the seat of her tight jeans another smack, harder this time. “I’m helping you focus. Since you said that you didn’t make all those mistakes on purpose, I have to assume that means you’re simply not paying attention. Maybe this little spanking will help you keep your mind on what you’re supposed to be doing.”

As he spoke, Jason punctuated every other word or so with another sharp smack. Even through the jeans, the spanks stung, and Kendall found herself letting out a cry of protest after each and every one. She couldn’t believe that he was actually spanking her! She didn’t think that she had ever experienced anything so humiliating in her whole life!

Then, as quickly as the spanking had begun, it was over, and she was upright again, Jason’s tall form looming over her. Speechless, Kendall could do no more than cup her stinging jean-clad bottom with her hands and stare up at him in disbelief. She’d never been caught at a loss for words before in her life, but she was now.

Jason, however, seemed to have no trouble finding his voice. “Remember that spanking when you’re having trouble keeping your mind on your work, Kendall.”

Kendall opened her mouth, though to say what, she didn’t know, so she closed it again. Not that it mattered much, because nothing would have come out anyway. She felt like a fish, a Copper Canyon river trout!

As for Jason, he picked up the rack that she had knocked down earlier, and then began scooping up the little floaty-things and putting them back in the correct bins. Kendall stood where she was for a moment, watching him, trying to decide if she should leave. But for some reason, her feet wouldn’t move, and she ended up kneeling down to help.

Not that she could think of one good reason why she should help him. After what he’d just done, she felt like picking up the little floaty-things and pelting him with them instead. Then again, maybe not, she decided, thinking that such an act might be a spankable offense in Jason Maxwell’s book, and she didn’t ever want to give him another reason to spank her again!