Page 39 of Snowbound

Too late.

Owen growls low in his throat when he eyes my barely there shorts clinging to my thighs.

“You’re freezing your arse off in here?” he asks, his voice all rough Irish edges.

I shrug. “Not under the blankets.”

“Aye,” he growls again, his eyes glinting. He points to his thigh. “I’ll warm you up good too. Now come here. Don’t make me say it again.”

God. The version of me from back then—the young woman who had just barely tipped into adulthood, clinging to her childhood daydreams—she’sflipping outinside. Screaming. Spinning.

I don’t know how to deal with this moment. It’s too much.

So I do the only thing that makes sense.

I put myself over his knee.

My belly presses against his thigh, and my hair falls over my face, dangling toward the floor. My hands flail until I find the edge of the bedspread and grab it, holding on tight.

And then I feel it—his arousal, hard and unmistakable beneath me. Pressed right up against me.

I squirm.

“Good girl,” he murmurs with a low growl. “That’s a good girl.”

Mmm. Say it again.

He fingers the edge of my waistband, sliding it down just enough to expose the curve of my ass.

“Owen—no!” I gasp, half-panicked.

The thought of getting spanked bare suddenly feels too real. Too vulnerable.

Why does it scare me so much? This isOwen. He would never hurt me.

But still…

“Maybe you should’ve thought of that when you decided to disobey me,” he says, a wicked lilt to his voice. And then—his hand comes down hard.

Smack.

The sound ricochets through the room. His palm covers both cheeks, heat blooming instantly across my skin.

I arch, yelping. “Ow!”

“Ow, indeed,” he says smugly, clearly pleased. He tugs my tiny shorts the rest of the way down until they dangle at my ankles, forgotten.

His warm hand settles firmly on my bare ass.

“You’re going to be a good girl now, aren’t you?”

I nod quickly, not trusting myself to speak.

“Good,” he says. “You get three more.”

I bite the blanket to keep from moaning, not from pain but from how badly I want him to do it all again.

Each smack lands harder than the last. My skin burns. Mynerves spark. I’m on fire, nerves singing, every cell tuned to him.