“Here we go,” Cliff sighed, as he lifted Patty’s nude frame to stand with him. Their embrace was short. “No more acting out, understood?”

Patty smiled and nodded her head. “That all depends on you too Mr. “No fair ignoring me and giving me all the scutt work to do.”

“Get dressed. Let’s go,” Cliff said. They wasted little time dressing, and in only three minutes, they were on their way back to the tower.

“It’ll be hard fast work for the next day or so, and if that blaze gets a foot hold, we could face a major situation,” Cliff explained to Patty as they double-timed it up the trail. “There will not be any time for me to waste worrying that you haven’t had the right number of pats on your behind. You need to pull your weight, and do what you’re told to do.”

They jogged together for several hundred feet. Patty absorbed what Cliff said. She couldn’t help the gremlin of irritation that his words woke up in her mind. “…do what you’re told to do…” It just sounded so officious.

“Don’t I always?” Patty spoke after a minute or so.

“Always what?” Cliff answered, as if his mind had already moved on, and he’d forgotten what was just said.

“Pull my weight?” Patty filled him in.

“I didn’t say you don’t. I just wanted to make sure you knew it was expected now. Maybe more than ever,” Cliff explained.

“You don’t have to tell me. I’ll work hard. I always do,” Patty said as her irritation clawed its way up to the surface.

“Good,” Cliff acknowledged. “Keep it that way.”

They picked up the pace, as sounds of activity began to be heard in the distance.

“Just don’t stick me with tower duty. I won’t stand for it,” Patty warned after several more minutes. That made Cliff stop in his tracks and turn to give her his undivided attention.

“You will do what you are told to do, and pull the duty you are assigned. If there is an argument, or you pull another stunt like today, I swear I will skin you alive,” Cliff warned. The tone of his voice was hard, and with the set of his jaw, he communicated that his resolve on the matter was as hard as granite.

“I can do more than man a radio and plot coordinates, and you know it. I won’t put up with any sexist crap either,” Patty answered his warning with one of her own. She didn’t want to fight with him, but she was damned well not going to just let things go the way she feared they would. She was the only girl in a camp full of men, and she did not want to get stuck with the “girl” jobs, because some man, even a man who knew her strengths and loved her, went with his “default” male programming when it came to making assignments.

“You should know better than to even think that! Most of these men have more experience in their baby finger than you and Paul have in your whole lives put together! The work we have in front of us for the next while is damned serious business. You will get the assignments that best match your skills, and so will everyone else,” Cliff stood stock still, his face turning ruddy with frustration. “You will not endanger the crew quibbling about what’s fair or not fair when it comes to the work we have to do. Do I make myself clear?”

Patty stepped back a little. She was surprised by the strength of Cliff’s reaction. At the same time, she felt, more than knew, that he would not be fair with her. Her instincts told her that he had already lost his objectivity when it came to her role in the camp and on the team.

“If you say so,” was all she chose to say, when in reality her mind churned over annoyance with suppositions that he would deliberately keep her out of the action and out of harm’s way.

Cliff heard the doubt in her tone, and he was in no mood for it. “Do I make an impression on your backside right now to drive my point home?” he asked.

Instinctively Patty’s hands moved back to cover and rub her bottom. It still burned and itched from his earlier efforts. “No,” she spoke quietly, subdued by embarrassed introspection. None of the other team members would ever have to worry about that kind of a threat from him if they objected to their assignment.

“Good, now let’s go, we’re wasting daylight,” Cliff turned back up the trail.

One other tower had also called in smoke, and three others were still under the line of storms. It would be at least 5 hours before a full plan could be coordinated. In the meantime, four teams were organized from the manpower assigned to their tower, three immediate work details and a back up. The work details were dispatched, and the back up was ordered to get whatever rest they could.

Cliff took the tower for the night. Patty and Paul were both assigned to the rear abatement crew. They were to work around to the furthest point out, down wind of the fire, and work to clear what remained of the growth. As well as relay data about the soil and fuel moisture. The other two work crews were to flank the fire from either side, and if necessary start a back burn.

Fire fighting in the wilderness was a very risky business at the best of times. The mountainous terrain compounded the dangers and the challenges that the teams faced.

For most of the night, the teams relayed information back to Cliff. He fed the wind, fuel and moisture data into the “BEHAVE” software. At least for the present, the burn model coming out wasn’t as dire as was predicted before the rain. At dawn, one of the forward crews came in, and was replaced by the relief crew. A relay set up after that with each crew taking a four-hour break, and then going out to spell the next. The relay evened out the load and would eventually rotate each crew through all of the posts.

By noon it looked like they might have the fire under control. The west winds were pushing it up the mountain where the fuel was sparse. The only downside might be that they had to split the forward teams, and work both flanks of the fire as potential new fronts. A shift in the wind to the north or south would create a new front wall. That would leave half the man power behind, and lose valuable time. It was a risk that would have to be taken, because the weather model prediction for wind shift was equivocal.

Cliff was frustrated, and needed to blow off steam. He called in one of the senior men to relieve him at the controls, so he could get his hands dirty.

When their turn came to take a break, Patty was reluctant. She could see that progress was being made, and felt that pushing harder might mean the difference between complete containment and losing control. She expressed that to the man Cliff had appointed leader of their team. The man listened, and noted what she had to say with a nod. Without agreeing or disagreeing verbally, he repeated the order to break up and return to camp.

Resentment of the order flashed up in Patty’s mind. “How dare you just dismiss me like that!” she thought.

“Ass hole!” was what she said, although the only one who heard it was Paul.

“Whoa there kiddo. Don’t go getting all worked up. You’re tired, we’re all tired,” Paul responded quickly.

“Oh come on Paul! You know I’m right. Digging back another 40 feet is probably all we need!” Patty retorted.

“Maybe so, maybe not. These guys have been doing this for years. Doing it and reading about it are not the same things,” Paul reasoned.

“Bull shit! Is a 40 foot break better than a 20 foot break or not?” Patty turned on Paul, and put her face within inches of his to emphasize her challenge.

“Damn it Patty,” he answered. “40 is better, but there is another crew here now. We don’t have to be the ones who cut the next 20 feet.”

“No, but it’ll be done sooner with twice the manpower!” Patty countered.

“And if it gets ahead of the crews who are too worn out to get a head of it?” Cliff’s voice boomed from behind her.

Patty jumped in her skin. She had no idea Cliff was even down out of the tower, never mind that anyone but Paul was close enough to hear her. She turned quickly to face him, very aware of the stern edge his voice held. “If we get it contained we won’t have to worry about worn out crews will we?”

“Fires have their own lives and personality; we’ll stick to the plan. You watch, do as you’re told, and learn. Is that clear?” Patty blushed with the tone of Cliff’s voice. Feeling self conscious, she shifted her eyes toward Paul in a furtive glance.

“Fine,” was all she said, as she turned away and headed for the tower.

“I asked you a question,” Cliff reached out and stopped her by tugging on her shoulder.

“What?” Patty’s question was exaggerated.

“You know damned well what. I want you to tell me you understand what I just told you,” Cliff spoke with cool authority. Patty felt its chill pulse through her.

“Yes I understand,” she responded with a half-hearted acknowledgement.

“What do you understand?” Cliff was not about to leave any room for doubt.

“You know I heard you!” Patty played it stubborn.

“Do I?” Cliff argued. “Humor me then, and spell it out.”

Paul sighed behind the pair and leaned up against a tree to wait for his partner to finish her ‘discussion’ with the boss.

“You said I should watch and learn,” her tone was haughty and she punctuated it with a flip of her long braid as she turned to walk up the trail.

“Hold up there! That’s not the part I wanted to hear you say,” Cliff chuckled and reached out to catch her hair before she could get very far.

“Ow! What else?” Patty hissed as she whirled back to face him. “I’m not a recorder! I can’t recall what you say word for word.”

“I know you remember this one little girl. If you didn’t you wouldn’t have such a bee in your hat. Spit it out now,” he warned, and then his voice dropped so that only she could hear him. “Or would you like me to give Paul a demonstration of what happens to Firewatch interns who won’t do what they are told!”

“You wouldn’t dare!” Patty hissed as she pulled her hair out of his grip.

“Try me,” Cliff’s voice was smooth as polished stone.

Patty’s temper boiled. Her right foot lifted and her hands pulled up into fists. Everything in her wanted to coil up and launch a roundhouse kick to his shin. “You just said it yourself again!”

“Good, now I know we’re on the same page. Say it and then do it,” Cliff’s expression was a mix of frustration and amusement.

The amusement was what Patty sensed most, and it threatened to make her reckless.

“Bastard!” she complained.

“Nope that’s not it,” Cliff warned. “Last chance. Waste it at your peril.” The last words were spoken in a tone of voice that brought Patty back to reason. It was as if Cliff sensed that he was pushing her buttons in a way that was guaranteed to end badly. He made sure that it was clear he would spank her now, and that he didn’t want to.

Patty blinked, and saw the resolve in his eyes, along with genuine affection and concern. It melted her instantly.

“You said do as I’m told,” she sighed.

“And will you?” Cliff said as he put both hands on her shoulders and looked into her eyes. Patty nodded. “Good!” he said, and as he did he turned her and launched her toward Paul with a swat to her backside.

Patty yelped, and tripped forward. When she recovered, she looked up to see Paul doubled over laughing.

“God damn you Cliff!” Patty screeched her whole body flushed hot with embarrassment. “You stop laughing!” she kicked dirt toward Paul, and stomped up the path.

“See you later Boss!” Paul laughed and waved to Cliff, as he headed off behind his haughty little partner.

“Whatsa matter Patty?” Paul teased when he caught up to her.

“Just shut up,” Patty spit back.

“Come on babe, lighten up. Get some sleep and we’ll get back to it before you know it,” Paul tried to be conciliatory.

“Yeah right! You watch. I’ll end up in the tower, or on some other rear job,” she couldn’t help but to pout, and give voice to her insecurities. It was as close to sharing the whole dynamic between Cliff and herself as she dared to get.

“The man’s got it bad for you my dear, and you do for him,” Paul laughed.

“What are you talking about?” Patty stopped in her tracks and looked intently at Paul. She needed to know how much he really had figured out.

“Patty, you know it’s clear to everyone here you two have the hots for each other! If you don’t know it you’re a fool! The man loves you, and I’m pretty damned sure you love him,” Paul pulled no punches.

“How would you know?” Patty grumbled, and started walking again. There was no fooling Paul. They were as close as two people could be without being related or in love.

“Has he kissed you yet?” Paul grabbed and tickled her.

“Yes he has! And it’s none of your business,” Patty stopped the tickling with a sharp elbow to Paul’s middle.

“Thought so! So what the hell is all the tension about between you then?” Paul’s question was no longer teasing.

“He’s an ass sometimes is all,” Patty answered.

“So are you, and if I were him I’d whack yours, but good too,” Paul grinned and picked up his pace to walk directly beside her.

“Well you aren’t him, and it’s not your affair,” she grumbled. “You men!”

“Whatsamatta, don’t like being called on being a brat?” Paul teased again.

“Paul! Will you just shut the EFF up!” Patty retorted. She wanted the conversation to end. It was getting uncomfortably close to things she did not want to share with Paul, no matter how close he was as her friend.

“OK,” Paul laughed.

When they got back to the tower, Paul challenged her to a race to the top. Patty smiled. She felt a brief clench of guilty fear in her groin as she remembered the last time she’d raced the clock to the top.

“I better not,” she thought. Cliff was well away and thoroughly occupied at that moment though, and she wanted an outlet for all of the raw irritation and defiance she had been unable to release earlier. “Me first!” she laughed, as she took hold of the ladder and waited for Paul to signal. He hit the timer pin on his wristwatch and tapped her bottom.

Patty laughed, and took the rungs two at a time. She was winded and doubled over with a stitch in her side when she reached the trap door, and pulled the supply rope to let Paul know she was up.

Patty pulled herself out of the entrance, and turned to watch Paul’s assent, as she nursed her side and caught her breath.

“What the hell’s the emergency?” came a booming voice from behind her. It made her squeal, and startle so it felt like her heart was pounding right out through her throat. For a split second she thought that Cliff has somehow doubled back. It was Jim, one of the more seasoned forestry rangers.

“Oh Jesus! You scared the shit out of me!” Patty laughed, when she realized she was in the clear.

“How do you think I felt with you barreling up here like a bat out of hell? Holy Hell who’s that now?” Jim exclaimed, the look of confusion and interest on his face changed to irritation when the tower began to shake with Paul’s weight and effort as he took his turn in the race up the ladder.

“It’s just Paul, he’ll be up in under another minute,” Patty chuckled, not really attentive to the man’s aggravation.

Jim moved over to the trap door, and looked down to see Paul working the climb. The whole tower shook, and the computer array flickered. “God damn! If that program quits now we’ll loose three hours of work!” Jim howled.

“Hey! You! Kid! Quit that now!” Jim’s bellow down to Paul was deafening. It startled Patty, and made her blood run cold. She cringed, realizing that if the power did cut, or if the flicker had already caused data corruption, that she would answer to Cliff for it.

Paul would too, but he had no way of knowing Cliff had forbidden the racing. She immediately regretted not telling him the way she should have.

The sudden booming voice startled Paul also. His attention distracted momentarily, his hands slipped and his left foot hit the rung just an inch to far in. His boot heel grazed, but did not catch on the metal tread. In a split second, Paul’s upper shin hit the rung above his foot as his heel slipped over and down behind. His momentum and weight conspired to violate his body, because the laws of physics would not yield.

He heard more than felt his femur and jaw fracture as both parts finally found the inertial solution to the formula that had just worked out of his mass, and momentum. He also heard Patty scream, before he lost consciousness.

“He didn’t fall!” she cried out, when she saw Paul’s body come to a stop. From above it looked like he was straddling the rung he’d slipped on. His armpit rested over another higher up, and his head was slumped down on another. He’d stopped moving.

After a minute or so, and no movement from Paul, Jim stepped out on the ladder carefully. “Hey Kid! Can you hear me?” he called down. There was no answer.

“Get some rope, and bring it here,” Jim growled at Patty. She didn’t blink; she just did as she was told. Her heart was pounding so fast, she thought she’d pass out any second.

“Stay here! Watch for my signal. Don’t you move until I tell you to, is that clear?” Jim’s order left no room for confusion or question. Patty simply nodded, and moved over to crouch above the ladder as he started his descent to where Paul was.

Before Jim reached him, Paul started to regain consciousness, and he started to move.

“Stay still Kid, if you know what’s good for you,” Jim called down with a stern but calm warning. Paul wasn’t able to fully comprehend what was said, but between pain and the vague awareness of how high off the ground he was, he had enough presence of mind to tighten his hold on the ladder.

A terrible searing fire shot through his face, when Paul attempted to answer the command that came from above him. His jaw seemed like rubber under his tongue, and the grinding sound of bone rubbing bone was deafening inside his head. Paul realized he’d been seriously hurt. Instinct made him begin to try to control his fears.

Jim was able to assess the damage quickly. Paul’s thigh hung at an odd angle over the rung. As gruesome as it looked, its weight and position had probably helped keep Paul from falling to his death. One thing was certain; it was going to have to be splinted before Paul could be lifted down.

“Kid, you’ve messed yourself up badly here. If I move you like you are, you’re apt to loose that leg or worse,” Jim finally gave voice to his conclusions. “You’re going to have to sit tight here for a bit. Can you manage it?”

Paul grimaced when his jaw would not cooperate so that he could answer. The searing pain from the effort to talk made him reel. Waves of nausea surged into his throat. Closing his eyes, the young man made a conscious effort again to get control of his mind. Taking deep breaths in through his nose, he was able to quell the nausea, and then nod his answer to the man who was there to help him.

“You sure don’t look like you’ll last kid,” Jim spoke gently. “That sure was a damned fool thing you were up to.”

As he spoke, Jim used the rope to secure Paul’s torso to the ladder. He wished he could get down past the kid and get something that he could splint the leg with. Dangling the way it was, there was too much risk that the raw end of the bone would sever the artery. If that happened loosing the leg would be the least of the Paul’s worries.

“Can you feel that foot?” Jim asked.

Paul grimaced, and nodded.

“That’s one good thing I guess. Now you hold tight here. I’m going to radio for help, and we’ll see about getting you down from here,” Jim tried to be reassuring.

He made the climb back up into the tower. When he got to the top, Patty moved over out of his way.

“You go down there and keep him company. Don’t move him. Don’t upset him. And damn well holler your head off if he starts getting in a bad way. Alright?” he spoke with a gruffness he didn’t feel.

Patty wanted to cry, but she controlled herself. She nodded, and started to ease down the ladder as soon as Jim was out of the way.

*********************

In the next six hours, the fire crews were able to get the fire under control and start the mop up procedures. And Paul was rescued from the ladder. As dusk fell, Patty sat with Paul who was bundled on the dock waiting for the Med-Evac team to get his birth on the seaplane sorted out and ready to go.

The guilt she felt was overwhelming and Paul spent more energy trying to console her, than she did for him.

He couldn’t speak, so he wrote his exasperation with her down.

“not your fault! my idea!”

“But Paul he told me not to do it. I should have told you!” Patty objected.

“bull! would have done it anyway. Smile for me.”

Tears trickled down her face, but Patty did smile. She knew Cliff would not see it Paul’s way, and in the back of her mind she was almost glad for that. It might be a good thing if someone whaled the tar out of her. Anything would be better than feeling the way she did now.

Paul was airlifted out within the next hour. By then Cliff was back in from the clean up site. He met Patty and Jim as they reached the halfway point on the trail back to the tower and the camps.

Jim filled Cliff in on the rescue, and gave him more explicit details about how the accident had happened. Patty felt her stomach lurch. A wave of nausea and fear shot through her body. Her hands buzzed with pins and needles, and her groin clenched and spasmed, as she saw Cliff’s back muscles stiffen and ripple. He didn’t speak to her until they were back in the tower, and all of the e-mail and voice communications with the command center were finished.

“Now that your partner is out of commission, there’ll be no vacation for you,” was how he chose to break the silence.

“I figured that,” Patty answered. “At least you haven’t fired me.”

“I’m giving it serious thought,” Cliff said. His back was turned part way to her, and his face was hidden in the shadow cast by his torso in front of the kerosene lamp. Patty couldn’t read the tone of his voice. She said nothing, and made herself useful by cleaning the dishes that had accumulated over the past several days.

Two days passed, and the camps of firefighters slowly dwindled as their work was done and air transports came for them. Cliff kept Patty busy with the routine work of her watch. After all of the activity and excitement of the alert and the fire, the regular work felt empty. Patty tried to immerse herself in the work, so that time would pass more quickly, but she couldn’t keep her mind off of Cliff and Paul, and what the rest of the summer was going to bring.

The evening before, Cliff spent almost an hour on the radio with the command center trying to work the assignments so that Patty could have a new partner. It didn’t look promising by the time he shut down the link. Vacating the station and reassigning her was also not an option. The fire danger was still on the high end of moderate. A week of dry weather and it might well be back to serious. By the end of summer, if the weather models held, the danger could approach extreme. This station was considered essential and strategic on the grid.

It was beginning to look like Cliff would be taking on the job of regional team leader and relief Firewatch intern for the rest of the summer. He definitely did not seem very happy about the prospect.

Patty was down at the lake with the four-wheel drive when the last transport touched down. It brought two weeks of supplies for the tower, and collected the last of the firefighters. The men helped her load the small trailer, and then she watched as the turbo prop plane whirled out and around to start its take off.

“Alone again,” she thought, and she closed her eyes to take in the peace. The low rumble of the plane’s engines faded slowly. Within minutes the solitude was back with all of its music. The ginger ale smell of the water beckoned Patty. She decided the supplies were secure so she quickly stripped to her underwear.

The water was cold, but it only took a few seconds for her skin to adapt. For a little over ten minutes, Patty let herself revel in the quiet comfort of the place that she now felt she was part of. The air on the dock was warm and still so that it felt like a blanket around her skin after the silken cold of the water. The wood surface of the dock radiated the heat from the sun too. Patty found herself seduced to lie down, and in no time was sound asleep.

Cliff knew Patty should have been back to the tower with the supplies by 3PM. When there was no sign of her, he reasoned that she was holding back. “Afraid to face the music are you,” he spoke to her effigy in his mind.

Cliff had more in mind than taking her to task for her part in the game that resulted in Paul’s injury. That little chore needed to be dealt with so that more important things could be brought up. Once it was out of the way, Cliff wanted to get the little brat focused on the rest of their lives together. The way things were, this discussion would have had to wait until fall, but now, with another 8 weeks in front of them, most of it alone, there was no sense putting it off.

“First things first,” Cliff growled as he headed off down the path to the dock.

************

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Cliff stomped the dock just a foot from Patty’s sleeping frame.

“Hey!” she screamed, and quickly rolled away from the foot that so rudely woke her up.

“Get up now,” Cliff ordered. “No more of this lazing around. Get that stuff up to the tower. Now!”

“What’s your problem?” Patty scooted over to her clothes and boots. It only took her a minute or so to pull her jeans on, and then her boots.

“You’re my problem,” Cliff spoke in a matter of fact tone. “Now get your ass in gear and get those supplies up to the tower. You have exactly 45 minutes. If they’re not up and put away when I get there you can tack on one hundred with my belt for shirking to what you already have coming.”

“What?” Patty exclaimed. She had an idea he would get around to letting her know how he felt about the illegal race up the tower, but this was a pretty blunt way to do it.

“No arguments. Just do as you’re told,” Cliff pointed to the four-wheel drive machine.

“Can’t we at least…” Patty shrugged and started to plead.

“How’s 50 now for arguing?” Cliff warned, his hands moving deftly to the buckle of his belt, and he tugged the tongue away from the metal. The tooth released the leather so that it was cinching, before Patty skipped by Cliff. She watched his hands warily until she was well out of his reach.

“I’m going!” she snapped. She stomped her feet, and tossed her head.

The saucy gestures only made Cliff smile and chuckle.

Taking her lead, Cliff stripped down quickly as soon as Patty was out of sight, and dove into the water for a vigorous swim. The cold water worked wonders relieving the painful erection that started bulging as soon as he saw his pretty intern sprawled on her stomach in her skimpy white underwear. The sight of the athletic round curves of her bottom clenching when he startled her awake almost did him in. He’d have those curves in hand before much longer he thought. And if all went as planned, they would be his for the rest of their lives.

Patty noticed the bulge in Cliff’s jeans. There was no mistaking it seeing as his hands were like beacons pulling her eyes there. The thought added something to the electric sensations she felt in her groin, because of the spanking she had coming. This time she knew she was going to get a hard serious spanking, and she also knew there was a good chance that there would be more than that after it was over.

Fear and arousal whirled in her mind. By the time she was packing the canned goods away in the cupboards and could feel the tower quiver with Cliff’s weight and the effort of the climb, Patty was trembling with the power of her emotions.

When the trap door lifted, Patty turned to look at Cliff as his head cleared the floorboards. “I’m sorry,” she whimpered.

“I’ll bet you are,” Cliff nodded. “Maybe next time I tell you something is dangerous, you won’t have to see someone maimed before you let it sink in?”

“I believed you,” Patty objected. “I was just so pissed off with you, when Paul wanted to I just went along…” As soon as the words were out of her mouth, Patty realized they had been a mistake. She hadn’t just ignored a directive not to do something that she’d already been spanked for doing, she’d done it deliberately as an act of defiance because she was mad at him.

Cliff did not miss the wash of realization that claimed her face. He let himself indulge in a secret inward smile. “Yes you are, aren’t you?” he thought. “You’re just the gal for me. All spit fire and hell cat with the soul and body of an angel.” He would keep that observation to himself until she’d had a more proximate reminder of what being his spitfire-hell cat meant.

“Are you finished?” he asked her, looking at his watch.

“Almost,” Patty answered, quickly bending to retrieve some of the last of the supplies from the box at her feet.

“Four minutes,” Cliff spoke quietly. As he did, he unbuckled his belt, and slipped it from its loops. He folded it, and laid it on the table. With that little act done, he turned and went to the computer array, and busied himself with the quadrant scan and log.

Patty’s hands trembled, and she could barely contain the whimper that came with the electric surge of arousal and fear. She gave some thoughts to putting up a fight, and even to making a bolt for the ladder, but she vetoed them herself. This time, if she could steel her fears, she would submit to him, and take the spanking she had coming. She wanted Cliff to know she would accept his discipline.

“Finished,” Patty voice squeaked when she put the last of the supplies away, and finished stowing the box so that it could be taken back down for the next delivery in a few weeks.

“Go stand over there in the corner. Take your pants down to your knees and wait there until I tell you, you can come out,” Cliff instructed. He pointed her toward the corner where the western bank of windows joined the northern bank.

Patty flushed, but did what she was told to do. Waves of panic welled up in her throat as her fingers fumbled with the snap and zipper of her jeans. When she stood up after pushing her jeans and underwear down, her shirt fell to cover her bare backside. For a moment, Patty was grateful. Even though they were way up above the tree canopy, and there wasn’t a living soul around to see for hundreds of miles, Patty did not like the exposure in front of two full walls of windows.

“Tie that shirt up around your middle, so your butt shows,” Cliff took away her relief.

Tears escaped, and washed down her face. She did what he told her.

“Fold your hands together on the small of your back. Feet apart like a soldier at ease,” he added. Patty complied. More tears slipped down her cheeks. He made her stay like that for almost thirty minutes, while he finished the reports and logs for the day.

Patty’s knees and shoulders ached, and she was well past her fear and worry into boredom. If he’d left her there much longer, she might well have found her way to angry, but this time he called her out before that happened.

“Over here,” he said quietly.

Patty turned to the sound of his voice and the clink of the buckle. Cliff had the belt in his hand and was standing by the table. The chairs were moved out of the way. He motioned to her to come there. She staggered a little with her pants acting like a hobble around her calves.

“Keep your hands behind your back,” he instructed when she instinctively brought them forward to cover the triangular thatch of reddish blond curls between her legs.

Patty flushed hot. Embarrassed by her predicament, and afraid of what was coming. She was also intensely aroused, a reality that added a confusing sense of intimacy to the whole situation.

“Bend over,” he tapped the table top. Patty balked, and sagged a little at the knees. Her fear intensified and threatened her resolve to take her spanking without fuss. Cliff seemed to notice the conflict she was dealing with, and lifted his left and up to her shoulder to give her a gentle nudge forward.

“Reach over and hold onto the edge, keep hold, do you hear me?” he instructed.

“Yes,” Patty’s answer was half whisper, half whimper.

“EIY!” she yelped. Cliff did not make her worry any longer about what was coming. He set to lacing her backside with full strokes of his belt. He started the rhythm slowly with several seconds between licks so Patty felt each one fully, the flaming brand of one, just beginning to ease when the next one struck. Patty closed her eyes, and winced with each lick. Her knuckles whitening as the pain became more and more unbearable. She kept her hold on the table edge, and it took all of her grit to do it. She lost count after twenty, and Cliff showed no sign that he was going to let up.

He was going to see to it she thought long and hard about defying him out of temper next time the opportunity came up. By the time he’d landed sixty licks, Patty was crying out with each one, and she couldn’t help that her hips were sifting and twisting as each one landed. A couple of times her hands let go and moved to cover her bottom, but she caught herself and pulled them back. Cliff knew she was going to loose her battle for control soon.

Partly to reassure her, and partly to assert control, Cliff placed his hand on Patty’s back to help hold her. At the same time he picked up the pace of the spanking, bringing the belt down about once every second. Patty could not adapt to the pain at that rate, and she began to squirm and struggle under his hold.

“Stop! Please stop!” she cried out after the first few fast licks.

“Getting through to you now?” Cliff asked her.

“Oh God yes! Yes! Please stop!” Patty agreed, praying that would stop it.

“Sorry little one, but you have a serious lesson to learn. You have a long way to go,” Cliff answered. His hold on her back became firmer.

Patty was crying, struggling and begging within minutes. Panic that he was never going to stop began to take hold. Cliff was prepared for her increased struggles though. When her hands finally swung back and in the way, he captured them, and resumed the whipping.

“You’re killing me!” Patty screamed, when her intensifying struggles got her nowhere.

“Hurts a lot does it?” Cliff responded as though it was exactly how things should be.

“YEEESSS!!!! Stop! Oh Please, please stop!” Patty cried. Cliff didn’t seem to hear. Not only did he continue to spank, the force of the licks seemed to become harder.

Patty’s howling and cries became whimpers and sobs. “Oh Please! Oh Please! Oh please! Please stop. Please, oh please. Oh PLEASE! Ow! Oh Please! Please stop. Please stop!”

Finally Cliff did stop, but he did not let Patty get up.

“How long before you do something I ask you not to do again?” he asked.

“Never! Never! I’ll never do it again!” Patty gasped, and twisted under his hold.

Cliff chuckled. He knew better. He also knew that in that moment, Patty couldn’t even fathom getting into another situation like she had.

“We’ll see,” he said, and he let her go.

Patty eased herself to stand. Without any shame, she rubbed her bottom. The stinging welts felt rough and swollen. The ones on her legs were itching around the edges.

“Pull up you pants and start supper,” Cliff told her.

Wincing as she did, Patty obeyed.

She lost herself in thought while she made supper, and Cliff did the same. The hurdle of her last defiance was past. “Now what?” Patty thought. She found out when they sat down for supper.

At first the only words between them were focused on passing plates and dishing up vegetables and bread,

“Feel better?” Cliff asked.

“Some,” Patty shrugged. It was a stupid question she thought. Her backside throbbed, and it stung each time she shifted in her seat.

“You had it coming,” Cliff smiled when he saw the expression of irritation wrinkle around her eyes.

Patty swallowed, and looked into Cliff’s eyes. She shrugged again, and then nodded. She only had it coming if he still had a vested interest in her behavior. If he didn’t, then what he’d just done to her was a violation. What she saw in his eyes reassured her.

The affection she saw in his eyes, made tears well up in hers.

“You’re awfully cute when you’re bad, but would you mind letting me know the good girl too?” Cliff smiled.

Patty hiccupped with the sob welling up in her throat. “OK,” she answered.

“I think you’re stuck with me kid,” Cliff’s voice was soft. “You OK with that?”

“Huh?” Patty thought she understood what he’d said, but it was so off hand she wasn’t sure.

“I think I’ll keep you,” Cliff answered.

“Keep me?” Patty whispered. Her mouth had gone dry. His intent was becoming clearer.

“Yep. Marry you maybe?” he added. “OK with you?”

Patty’s mouth dropped open. She was stunned, and overwhelmed by waves of sexy arousal, excitement and disbelief. She just nodded.

Cliff laughed. They finished their supper, cleaned up the mess together, and then went out on the catwalk to watch the sunset. Hours later cuddled together talking about their future, they were treated to a gift of one of nature’s most mystical sights. The Aurora Borealis lit up the sky. Waves of color danced above them in a seductive rhythm.

The fire in the sky was the perfect backdrop for the lovemaking that ended that day for them.

It was a perfect ending to a day and a remarkable beginning for their lives together.

THE END