Not Really the Outdoor Type (3 page)

She frowned. “Why didn’t you tell him they were priced incorrectly?”

“Because it’s bad for business. Besides, he’s a good customer.”

Kendall sighed. “I said I was sorry.”

He tossed the gun cases back on the shelf. “Yeah, I heard.”

She put her hands on her hips. “Jason, it was an honest mistake. It’s not like I did it on purpose. Anyway, it’s as much your fault as it is mine.”

He folded his arms across his broad chest. “My fault? How do you figure?”

She lifted her chin. “You shouldn’t have assumed I’d know the difference between the cases. Maybe if you’d explained yourself better, 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.

“Just fix it,” he growled.

Kendall bit her tongue to keep from saying something flippant as he stormed off. Pissing off her boss even more than she had already would get her fired for sure. And while it really had been an honest mistake on her part, the only reason she’d screwed up was because she’d been gazing at Jason’s gorgeous mouth when he explained which gun cases were on sale instead of listening to what the hell he said.

She grabbed one of the plastic cases and slapped a sale price on it. Working with Jason might do wonders when it came to making her forget about Keith, but she was going to have to stop ogling him or she was going to wind up getting her butt canned.

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. She tried not to let it, but her gaze kept straying to Jason as she filled the bins with more of the floaty red and white balls used for fishing. God, he looked hot even doing something as simple as standing at the counter going over the day’s receipt. Stifling a moan, she bent to pick up another handful of floaty things and inadvertently bumped into the metal rack, knocking the whole thing over. She instinctively reached out to grab it, but it fell anyway, hundreds of red and white balls rolling across the floor and going every which way.

Crap
.

Hoping Jason hadn’t seen, she snuck a glance his way to find him glaring at her, his jaw tight. He slapped the pen he’d been using down on the counter. “That does it. I’ve had it!”

Her face coloring hotly, Kendall hastily bent down to start picking up the balls when she felt Jason grab her arm. She didn’t know what she expected, but it wasn’t for him to haul her to her feet and glower at her.

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

She stared up at him, mouth open. “Wh-what? No!”

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

What the heck was he talking about? “You really need to get over yourself.  I barely even remember you from high school, much less anything you might have done.” She tried to yank free of his grip, but his hand only tightened on her arm. “Let go of me. Unless you don’t want me to pick up these stupid things.”

“Oh, you’re going to pick them up, all right,” he growled. “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.

She craned her neck to look at him. “What the hell are you doing?”

“Helping you focus on you work,” he ground out.

“Focus? What?” she began, only to let out a startled little, “
Oh!
” of surprise when she felt him give her ass a hard smack. “What are you
doing
?”

“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 you didn’t make all those mistakes on purpose, I have to assume that means you’re not paying attention to your job. Maybe a spanking will help you keep your mind on what you’re supposed to be doing.”

Jason punctuated every other word with a sharp slap. 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 he was actually spanking her. She was adult, not some child he needed to discipline because she’d been bad.

She squirmed in his grasp. “Let me go, damn you!”

She didn’t know if it was her shrill demand, or if he simply thought she’d been sufficiently punished, but just as quickly as the spanking had begun, it was over, and she was upright again, Jason’s tall form looming over her. Speechless, Kendall cupped her stinging derriere in her hands and stared up at him in disbelief.

“Remember that spanking when you’re having trouble keeping your mind on your work next time, or I’ll do it again” he warned.

Kendall opened her mouth, then closed it. Great. Now, she probably looked like a Copper Canyon river trout. Dammit.

As if the spanking had never happened at all, Jason picked up the rack she’d knocked down, then began scooping up the little floaty things and putting them back in the correct bins.

Kendall stood where she was, watching him work and trying to decide if she should leave. But for some reason, her feet wouldn’t move. After a moment, she kneeled 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 plastic balls and pelting him with them instead. Then again, maybe not. That’d probably be a spankable offense in Jason’s book. Not that he was ever going to get the chance to spank her again because right after she finished picking up these stupid little balls, she was quitting.

* * * * *

What the hell had he been thinking, spanking Kendall like that? He’d be lucky she didn’t run to the cops and report him for assault.

Knocking over the rack of floats was the last straw, though. Between coming up short on the register, arguing with a customer about hunting and marking the leather gun cases with the wrong price, he’d had enough of her incompetence.

But a spanking? What was he, a damn caveman?

No, just a guy who’d had a girlfriend in college who liked him to spank her for being “naughty.” Yeah, well warming a woman’s ass during some roleplaying fantasy was completely different than doing it for real, especially when it was one of his employees.

He stole a look at Kendall as he fished for a float that had rolled under a shelf. She was focused on picking up the red and white balls, her face unreadable. He knew he should apologize for spanking her, but right now he wasn’t sure he trusted himself enough to speak. He was still too pissed off.

Thankfully, the phone rang. He normally wouldn’t have answered it since it was after closing, but he practically vaulted over the counter to grab it before whoever it was hung up.

“Outdoor Outfitters.”

“I was afraid you’d already be closed. A few of my buddies and I are looking to sign up for one of your fly-fishing tours.”

Jason reached for the mouse and opened the computer’s calendar program. “Um, yeah, sure. When are you looking at going?”

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Kendall drop the last of the floats into the bin, then carefully step away from the rack so she wouldn’t knock it over again. She glanced over at him, chewing on her lip as he explained to the man what kind of tours they offered. He had the feeling she was debating whether to hang around and talk to him before she left. She must have decided she didn’t feel like waiting because a few moments later, she went into the back and grabbed her purse, then left.

Jason followed her with his gaze. Or more precisely, followed her tight, little jean-clad ass. Spanking might have been one of his more stupid moves, but seeing her heart-shaped derriere wiggle had sure as hell been fun to watch.

Chapter Three

Kendall was still in her bathrobe the next morning when someone knocked on the cabin door. She hoped it was Jason coming to apologize. Though considering he hadn’t seen fit to do it last night at the store, she doubted he’d drive all the way out here to beg her forgiveness this morning. Even if he had, it wouldn’t change her mind about quitting.

Setting down her mug of coffee on the kitchen counter, she went to answer the door. Relief coursed through her when she saw Gabby standing on the doorstep.

“Hey!” Her friend breezed past Kendall into the cabin. “I wasn’t sure if you’d left for work already or not. How are things going at the store? Isn’t Jason just as gorgeous as you remember?”

Kendall opened the cabinet and took out another mug. Actually, Jason was more gorgeous than she remembered. More of a Neanderthal than she remembered, too.

“So?” Gabby prompted when she didn’t answer.

Kendall shrugged as she poured coffee into the mug. “I’m not sure if retail work is my thing.”

“Even if it means spending time with Jason?”

Setting the mug down on the table in front of Gabby, Kendall sat down across from her friend. “Jason’s part of the problem.”

Gabby frowned. “What do you mean?”

Kendall told her friend about coming up short on the cash drawer, followed by her argument with a customer about the evils of hunting, then her subsequent error regarding the gun cases.

“And as if that weren’t enough,” she added, “I knocked over a whole rack of those red and white floaty balls you use for fishing right in front of him. The damn things went all over the place.”

Gabby laughed as if it were the funniest thing in the world.

Kendall made a face. “Jason certainly didn’t think it was very amusing.”

“I don’t imagine he would. He didn’t fire you, did he?”

“No.” Kendall stared down at her coffee. “He didn’t have to. I quit. Well, I’m going to quit when I go in this morning.”

“Quit.” Her friend frowned. “Wow. Jason must have really said something to upset you.”

“It’s not what he said,” Kendall muttered. “It’s what he did.”

“What did he do?”

Dammit. The words were out before she could stop herself. There was no way she could tell her friend about getting spanked. That would be beyond humiliating.

She gulped her coffee. “Nothing.”

“It’s obviously not nothing if you’re this upset about it.”

“I’m not upset.”

Gabby lifted a brow.

Kendall got up and dumped what was left of her coffee in the sink, then rinsed out the mug. “Forget it. I shouldn’t have said anything.”

“But you did, and now I’m curious.” Gabby came over to lean against the counter. “I’m going to keep bugging you until you tell me what it is, you know that.”

Kendall groaned inwardly. She knew it. Her friend was like a dog after a damn bone sometimes.

She put the mug in the drying rack with a thud. “He spanked me, okay? Jason spanked me.”

Gabby stared at her for what must have been a full minute before she burst out laughing. “Spanked you?”

Kendall glared at her. “Yes. And it’s not funny!”

Gabby immediately made a straight face. “It’s not. You’re right. It’s just that I can’t believe he spanked you right there in front of everyone.” Her brow furrowed. “I can’t believe it’s not all over town already, either.”

Kendall leaned back against the counter and folded her arms. “He didn’t do it in front of everyone. The store was already closed. We were the only two there.”

“Oh. Well, that doesn’t make it quite as bad.”

Kendall fixed her with a hard look.

Gabby had the grace to look chagrined. “Okay, it’s still pretty bad. But from the sounds of it, you probably deserved it.”

Kendall stared at her incredulously.
“What?”

Her friend shrugged. “Sometimes that LA attitude of yours can be pretty hard to take. It’s no surprise that Jason doesn’t have the patience for it.”

“I don’t have an attitude.”

“Yes, you do. You were halfway to becoming a snob back in high school, and it’s only gotten worse since you moved to LA.”

“Thanks a lot.” Kendall walked to the table and picked up Gabby’s half full mug, dumping her coffee in the sink. “God, Gabby, I thought you were supposed to be my friend.”

“I
am
your friend. Which is why I didn’t say anything to you.” She frowned at the empty mug. “I wasn’t done with that.”

Kendall ignored her. “I have to get ready for work. I’m sure you can find your way out.”

But Gabby followed her down the hallway and into the bedroom. “I thought you were going to quit.”

“I am, but I can’t very well give Jason my resignation in my bathrobe, now can I?”

Gabby didn’t answer. Instead, she leaned against the doorjamb, looking thoughtful.

Kendall frowned as she pulled on her jeans and buttoned them. “Do you really think I’m a snob?”

“Sometimes,” her friend admitted. “Like when you look down on Copper Canyon because we don’t drive fifty-thousand-dollar cars and live in multi-million-dollar mansions like people in LA.”

Kendall grabbed a navy blue T-shirt from the drawer, scowling when she realized it was from Outdoor Outfitters after she put it on. “Not everyone in LA drives ridiculously expensive cars and lives in a mansion. And I don’t look down on Copper Canyon.” She started to pull off the shirt, then hesitated. “Do I?”

Gabby nodded.

Kendall flushed. “I don’t mean to. But even so, that doesn’t give Jason Maxwell the right to spank me whenever he wants. He even had the nerve to accuse me of deliberately doing all of that stuff—coming up short on the cash drawer and knocking over the rack of fishing stuff—because I was trying to get back at him for something he did in high school.”

“Were you?”

Kendall picked up a pair of hoop earrings from the dresser. “Of course not. What would I want to get back at him for?”

Gabby shrugged. “For never asking you out, maybe?”

“That’s not only ridiculous. It’s petty.”

“That doesn’t mean you weren’t subconsciously doing it.”

Kendall put on one earring, then the other. “High school was a long time ago. And even if I did still have a thing for Jason, I certainly wouldn’t go out with him after he spanked me.”