Discipline Down Under (16 page)

Tripp slid his cock home.

“Yes! It feels so good!”

The horse hoofed the side of the stall, the rhythm a counterpoint to their lovemaking.

“Yeah, luv. Me, too.”

“Oh, God,” she cried, arching up against him, pressing him as deeply as he could go. In this instance, they came at the same time. Her body pulsed in time to the horse’s thumps, until, gasping, they rested there for a little while, touching foreheads together, their breaths mingling.

“Thank you,” he said, and though she didn’t say it, Peg was giving her thanks to him as well, with kisses and whispered praise.

* * *

The next day, Peg found her phone on the dining room table next to her place setting, but she kept it on mute through their hearty breakfast. Once they went outside to explore a little more, she turned the chimes back on. Tripp’s father, Emmett, walked up and stood at the corral where Peg was watching the horses, while Tripp saddled a pair.

“Going riding?” Emmett asked.

“Yes. Tripp’s saddling the horses.” Her phone chime went off. “Excuse me.”

Although she saw Emmett’s surprised look as she turned to her phone, Peg ignored it. She’d only be a minute. But when she looked up again—had it been more than a minute?—Emmett was gone. Peg shrugged, though she felt a little guilty, and went on with her phone exchange.

Unfortunately, Tripp found her there, thumbs poised over the virtual keyboard.

“I thought you’d done with that.”

Peg knew she was in the wrong, but she felt defensive. “You were busy. I didn’t think it mattered.”

“Normally, I wouldn’t mind, but I saw ya talking to my father, and then turning to yer phone. Judging by the look on his face, I’d say he found yer behavior rude.”

“He did? I said excuse me.”

“It’s one thing to play with yer phone when yer alone, Peggy, but another to diminish real life relationships and prefer text messages.”

Okay, maybe he was right. She’d regretted it yesterday, but she was so drawn to this contact with her friends. She was like Pavlov’s dogs when her phone chimed.

Tripp held out his hand. “Turn over the phone. No more texting until you’re in yer room tonight.”

“Tripp!” She put the phone behind her back. If she gave it to him, she wouldn’t even know when friends were trying to contact her. It was bad enough that she couldn’t return their notes, but not to even hear them call?

Frowning, Tripp gestured with his hand. “Give it over.”

“No. I can’t.”

“Of course ya can. Do it now, or you’ll be in serious trouble.”

“Tripp, don’t make me. They’re my friends. They won’t understand.”

“Explain it to them later. Right now, yer here with me and my family. Focus on that.” His hand was still out there, palm upturned.

What could she do? Maybe she could run back to the house and close the door to her room. He’d not barge in there, for fear his family would get mad. But Tripp would be furious. Still, he was being bossy and demanding, and Peg felt cornered. She ran.

Unfortunately, she didn’t run fast enough. Tripp caught her by the wrist only a few yards away.

“Let me go!”

“I warned ya, Peggy.”

“I don’t care. This is
my
phone and I don’t have to give it to you.”

He muscled the phone out of her hand and put it in his back pocket. “You deserve another spanking.”

“No, I don’t!”

Dropping her wrist, Tripp gave her a puzzled look. “Last night, ya said ya were going to stop all of this. Ya said you were sorry for doing it. What changed?”

“I’m sorry. I can’t help it. I’ll get bored without my phone.”

“I think ya need to rely on yerself to make life more interesting.”

“Please don’t spank me.”

“I don’t think yer learning, luv.” He started pulling her toward the stable, but she dug in her heels.

“Don’t call me that,” she shouted. “I’m not your love. You don’t know what love is or you wouldn’t make me give up my friends!”

They stopped before the entrance to the stable. There were station hands doing chores inside and moving in and out. Peg was embarrassed by their altercation, but she was also angry that he was turning to spanking again to curb her unwanted behavior. There had to be a better way.

“I’m not asking ya to give up yer friends,” he ground out. Peg could see anger glittering in his green eyes. “I want ya to confine yer interactions with them to more appropriate times.”

“Let me go!”

He did and Peg stumbled back a pace from the sudden change. “Yer free. What do ya plan to do?”

Completely torn, Peg didn’t know what to do. She was in love with Tripp, that much she was sure of, but she needed to think about how their relationship was structured. His dominance and the way he dealt with her mistakes and tantrums made her feel cared for because he wouldn’t even try to help her behave better if he didn’t care. But maybe there was a limit. Her friends didn’t have relationships like that. Maybe the whole thing was skewed and wrong, and maybe she’d done the wrong thing by letting it get this far. He was the man she’d fallen in love with, however, with the spankings and all. It was part of what made them special together. But was it sustainable?

Peg had to think about it all and here, where his family could give him support but she had none, was not the place. “I’m going to Perth to be with my father.”

If Tripp was surprised by her declaration, he didn’t show it. His lips compressed and he still looked pissed off, but he reached for her phone and handed it back to her.

“If that’s the way ya feel…”

Peg softened a bit, thinking about how it would end their relationship, because she had no doubt that Tripp would sever their ties because of her decision. But maybe that was for the best. He confused her, made her feel things she didn’t understand. “Yeah, I do.”

“I warned ya, Peg, about how it would be with us. Ya know yer behavior warrants some attention.”

She didn’t miss the fact that he was now calling her Peg, and her heart took a downward lurch. “Yeah, whatever. I have to think about it. It’s been too fast. Try to understand.”

Tripp nodded. “Ya do what ya need to do. And so will I.”

That sounded so final. “Where will you be?”

“In Katherine, working.”

“I’ll text you. I mean, I’ll call you.”

“Don’t think ya can tie me up in knots, Peg.”

Suddenly, she was tired. It was hard to figure this stuff out on her own. “I won’t.”

He strode away into the stable, leaving her to stand there, alone among the busy workers, until she finally turned away and went back to the house.

It took her only a few minutes to pack up her things. The house was quiet so she didn’t have anyone to say goodbye to or to whom she needed to explain her sudden departure.

She got into her Rover and turned on the GPS. It would lead her to Alice Springs, which was the nearest airport. She’d leave the rented Rover there and be in Perth in no time. It was far away from Tripp. Peg’s heart wept at the thought, but she had to go. Her relationship with Tripp tore her in two. If she was lucky, he’d take her back if that’s what she decided she wanted. There were no guarantees. She might be blowing her only opportunity to be with the man she had fallen in love with.

* * *

Tripp’s mother asked only one time where Peggy had gone. He told her they’d decided that she should go back to Perth to be with her father. Apparently, that was enough to say, because there had been no more questions.

He worked around the station that day, doing chores his father usually did, giving the older man a break to pursue his hobbies for a day or two. On the second day, Tripp decided he needed to get back to Katherine. There were tourists who needed his guidance, and always something related to the business that needed his attention. Victor was a jolly partner, but Tripp needed to throw himself into the work he loved and try to get Peggy out of his head.

It seemed like a long drive back to Katherine. There was too much time to dwell on Peggy and all that she meant to him, all that he’d lost. She had some problems, but he wanted to help her with them. It seemed possible, however, that the spankings hadn’t been the right thing. They’d seemed to work initially, but the mess with her phone had thrown him for a loop.

Once he got back to Katherine, he worried over their behavior, specifically his demands on Peggy. He thought he’d been on the right track when he’d taken the phone from her, but then they should have sat down and talked about why it was so important for her to be in constant contact with her friends. It was good to have friends, of course, but to be at their beck and call all the time was something to make a person insane. There had to be a compromise in there somewhere.

It looked like he was faced with two choices, give a little on this issue or stay away from her. Unfortunately, Tripp still cared. He cared too damn much.

Chapter Ten

Peg worked feverishly on her photos and wrote two more articles. It seemed like she had so much time on her hands. She did a little shopping and spent time on Facebook and Twitter, but no matter how many things she found to occupy herself, memories of Tripp haunted her.

As she went through her photos, every so often she’d find one of Tripp doing something. She remembered his strength, not just his physical strength, but his strength of character. How she envied that dedication to his family and his job.

She tried to be like him. But there was a big hole in her life where Tripp should have fit in. Even the spankings were looking better and better. Peg felt out of control too often. Her efforts to at least notice her own behavior was a step in the right direction, but she also thought she needed a little external guidance. It was a matter of incentives. She had no incentive to behave when she was alone. With Tripp, both her sense of guilt at being foolish, and her desire to avoid the spankings kept her in line.

Of course, some of the spankings were rather nice. That took some contemplation to deal with. Peg worked at accepting that part of her nature, of her sexuality, and had a measure of success. Lots of people were a little kinky. Although her friends might be shocked, she knew that they might have some kinky secrets of their own. She wouldn’t ask. She didn’t need to know, just as they didn’t need to know about her proclivities.

Where would she find another Tripp, though? How could she ever know another man who turned her on and toned her down at the same time? She was so in love with him. Tears were her bedtime companion almost every night since she’d come back to Perth. Peg felt like a fool for leaving him, even while she told herself that she’d needed the space.

A week went by, and then another. It should have gotten easier, but it didn’t.

The seasons began to change, but Peg’s heartache remained the same.

* * *

It was rainy and gloomy that night. Her father was at work. There were plans afoot that he was trying to find the answers to, or so he said. Peg felt in the dark about it, but that was nothing new.

She opened her laptop and started working on another batch of photos.

The phone rang and she picked up the cordless.

“Hello?”

“Peggy, it’s Tripp.”

Peg’s heart hammered in her chest and a spike of adrenaline made her stand up straighter. “Tripp?”

“Yeah. I’m uh… downstairs in the lobby. Can I come in?”

“You’re here? In Perth?”

“Right downstairs. If this is a bad time—”

“No! No, it’s not. I’ll ring you in.”

Peg hit the entry key on the phone and waited. She fussed with her hair, wishing she had time to take it out of pigtails, and looked at her clothes: sweats. At least she had makeup on and her nails were polished. Her pink-lacquered toes peeped out from under the hem of her pants.

Why was he here? Had he missed her, too? That was the only answer she could come up with, the only one that mattered. Peg waited by the front door. Anxious, hoping, feeling like she was on pins and needles.

The doorbell rang and Peg jumped. She took a deep breath and opened it.

There stood Tripp, tall, broad-shouldered, wearing a striped broadcloth shirt and his ever-present jeans and hiking boots. He looked absolutely scrumptious. And his eyes, they glittered like emeralds, his expression uncharacteristically unsure. How she wanted to draw him close, mess up his tidy brown hair and kiss him silly. But she didn’t. She needed to know first, before she put her heart on her sleeve again.

He stuck out his hand and gave her a small bouquet of daisies.

“Oh!” Peg took the flowers and gestured him into the foyer. “Come in.”

“Thanks.”

Peg showed him to the formal living room and asked him to sit while she put the flowers in the kitchen for the maid to put in a vase.

“This is so unexpected,” she said. “I’m really surprised.”

“I’ve been thinking about ya. How have ya been?”

“You came all the way to Perth to ask how I’ve been? Did you have other business here?”

“No. I came just to see ya.”

“Really?” That news made her heart sing.

He nodded. “I missed ya, Peggy-girl.”

Exactly the words she’d longed to hear. “I missed you, too.”

Smiling, he took her hand as she sat next to him. “I—”

Before he could finish his sentence, her father walked in. “Peg, we need to pack.” he said. “Oh, you have a guest.” His gaze went to Peg’s hand clasped in Tripp’s. “Who is this?”

Peg squeezed Tripp’s hand, then let it go. “This is Tripp Ruf, Daddy. My bush guide.”

“Right!” He approached and stuck his hand out. Tripp rose and gave it a shake.

“It’s nice to meet ya, Mr. Fisk.”

“Winston,” the older man corrected, looking from Tripp to Peg and back to Tripp again. “Why are you here?”

“I came to see Peggy.”

Peg saw that her father was distracted by something. “Well, that’s great. It’s nice for Peg to have friends here in Australia, but I’m afraid it’ll be a long-distance friendship soon.” He turned to Peg, who was beginning to feel a knot in her belly. “We have to go to Canada. The company is transferring me there.”