**********

Interning on the fire watch towers was a coveted post, although few applicants made it through the screening. A barrage of testing preceded selection of candidates during the last months of the winter term. Fitness and endurance tests were only a small part of it. Each candidate was put through three levels of psychological tests that included a weekend in which they were subjected to sensory deprivation and isolation and another weekend testing the effectives of wilderness survival training.

Patty was elated and amazed when she made the cut. She knew she had the right stuff, but had harbored fear through out the process that Cliff Williams might have tried to keep her out. Getting her spot made her give second thoughts to how she had behaved towards the man. But not too many, she knew she got her spot on her own merits. She did worry some about how angry she made him the few times they’d really been face to face. He was not one of her fans. And he had expressed archaic and frightening ideas about how he ought to manage her.

She felt she had made him dislike her from the first intake seminar. He was sitting at the registration table when she arrived. She was out of breath after running from her anthropology lab across campus. She was not late. In fact she was 15 minutes early. His first words to her although clearly good natured, could have been interpreted as an admonishment about lack of organization. Patty chose to take it in the negative, and scowled at the man giving him a sharp derisive look as she stood to enter the auditorium after signing in. She knew it was rude, but at least initially, she didn’t care about first impressions. Very shortly she was unnerved to find that he was more than a lackey manning the sign in table. He led the seminar and was one of the program team leaders.

As it turned out he became her team leader.

Patty’s first real one-on-one encounter with Cliff left her angry an even more unnerved. It came during the weekend of survival testing. She and three other candidates were assigned to Cliff’s group. They were out trekking in the wilderness near the Kananaskas pass. The terrain was rocky, thickly forested and still blanketed under deep snow cover at the higher elevations. They were allowed only what they could carry, in pockets, and fanny packs. And were expected to secure shelter and fend for themselves for seventy two hours. Cliff was their back up. He was to intervene only if safety became an issue. His main function was to observe and evaluate the students.

The trek started out well. The candidates were all friends. They were competitors for a few spots in a coveted program, but they could all conceivably make the cut. So, rather than approach their challenge as adversaries, they agreed in advance to pool resources and form a team. Each of them would take turns leading the group. And they all agreed up front, to accept and follow the decisions of the nominated leader in turn without question. Cliff had not been included in, nor was he apprised of, this arrangement.

Patty was nominated to lead for the first leg of the trek. In four hours she was easily able to lead them to a spot they could use for a camp. It was a gravel stream bed that spread out into a clearing, in front of a rock wall, that had been etched by time into a hollow. The hollow was sheltered from the wind and would make a good place to sleep once a front covering could be built. The natural gravel clearing was an ideal fire bed. It was close enough to the shelter to provide heat, and far enough from the canopy of trees that a fire would be safe. After articulating her choice and the reasons behind it, she opened the door for discussion. The group agreed with her and an exchange of authority took place.

Cliff observed quietly as the group set up their camp. He noted the group’s consensus and then the subtle shift in power. It took several exchanges of the leadership role for him to understand that there was a plan and a strategy being used. He was impressed by it. This group knew that team work was the true focus of this test. No one of them was going to try to be a star. Each was going to show their stuff independently, by design of the team. Impartiality aside, he found he took an interested in the five foot three bundle of energy and efficiency, Miss Patty Malloy. She kept up with the three male team members with ease. Next to any one of them she seemed tiny and in among them she looked fragile, but there was nothing tiny or fragile about her confidence and skill.

Cliff found her attitude a bit haughty though, at least in her dealings with him. There was a sarcastic edge to just about everything she said to him. Yet her manner with the other three men was easy and collegial. He had to remind himself to stay objective. Still, it bugged him a bit that she seemed to dislike him.

Patty felt watched. Cliff Williams seemed to spend more time watching what she did than he did watching any one of the others. At first it didn’t bother her, but after they’d gotten a fire going and the shelter up, she started to notice that he would frown each time she caught his eyes, even though it seemed he was the one watching her. He seemed to be annoyed with her. She wasn’t going to let it get her down. But it bugged her that the man didn’t like her. She set her mind to the task of showing him that she could handle herself in the outdoors.

The interactions between the two remained cool through the whole weekend. By the time they were cleaning up camp and Cliff was starting on the group debriefing discussion it was obvious to everyone that Patty and Cliff were oil and water. So much so that the walk out, one of her team mates asked her what was up, and suggested that needling one of the bosses might not be a good success strategy. Patty let that sink in and it began to make her mad. Selective memory and her natural defensiveness channeled her thinking so that she began to construct a very articulate ‘out to get me’ argument against the man.

By the time she sat across from him in the one-on-one debrief, it was all she could do to hold on to her temper. She was ready to blast him for not being fair to her. Cliff stole her thunder with his evaluation though. He coolly told her how competent he found her and how impressive her leadership and survival instincts were. He told her she performed well as a leader and as a team player. His tone of voice did not go with the words. There was an edge to his voice that suggested he would rather be bawling her out.

"You don’t have to sound like you’re choking on it," she said, her attitude shifting from anger to distain. She liked hearing what he said, and got a small charge of satisfaction at the thought that the words might be leaving a bad taste in his mouth. At the same time she was ever so slightly annoyed that she now had no reason to launch the tirade she had brewed and ready for him.

The cocky look on her face flicked the trigger on his temper and Cliff let go of his professional restraint. He had written his evaluation and signed acceptance recommendations for all four of this weekend’s candidates. It didn’t matter now. If she washed out it would not be on his call.

"You know kid, it’s been real hard for me to be objective about you. Your performance with those guys was great. Your behavior toward me was childish and immature. It’s a good thing for you that I wasn’t supposed to be part of the equation this weekend and that I know how to filter my personal feelings and stay on point with my assignments and my assessments." His tone was icy and his dark eyes locked onto hers.

Patty returned his glare with a defiant smirk. "Is it just me? Or is it all girls you don’t like?" She went for an easy dig that she knew intellectually had no bearing or merit.

"What!" Cliff was surprised by that. It was way off base, and out of left field. ‘Shit! Gender bias. She wants to play dirty…’ He thought with a grimace. ‘OK let’s really load the sling shot.’ The grimace curled up into a wry smile.

"You don’t like me. That’s obvious. Since I haven’t done anything to you, I figure it’s got to be something about me in general." Patty’s expression remained defiant.

"I don’t like you because you’re sarcastic and rude. Your gender ain’t part of the picture here kid! But it could be!…. Let me tell you." His tone was still like ice, but there was a flicker of a flame in his eyes. The smile on his face was electric with challenge.

"It could be!? What’s that supposed to mean?!" Patty reacted to the warning in his tone and the challenge in his expression. Her hackles went up immediately.

"I doubt I’d enjoy spanking a guy as much as I’d enjoy spanking you." Cliff leaned forward, his smile turned evil.

For a split second Patty cringed. ‘No way! He could get fired! He’s just needling me. Pay backs for the way I needled him.’ Those and several other thoughts buzzed through her mind in the moment after he spoke. What made her nervous was the twitch she felt deep in her groin when he said the word spanking.

Cliff watched her expressions flicker. For a second he thought she looked like she’d been gut punched. As if he could read the uncertainty from her thoughts, he raised his eyebrow, his smile still flashed with danger, and gave her a nod that said, "TRY ME."

Patty read his face. She was less sure he was just needling and that made her feel nervous, angry, embarrassed and angry again. She stubbornly glared back at him for nearly a minute. Ultimately she decided not to take the bait. She gathered her parka and bag from the weekend and said, "Are we done here? I have to get home and get down to my course work." Her face became flat with indifference, her voice deceptively calm, and her attitude all business.

Cliff gave a nod that she could go. When she was gone he smiled and shrugged. She was kind of cute even if she was a brat. The palm of his right hand started to itch. He cupped it slightly and hefted it up to position over his right thigh. He winced as he felt the sting as it came down on his leg. "Lucky for her," he said to his leg, "not so lucky for you," he said to his palm.

********

Cliff Williams invaded Patty’s mind just about every day during the month after the survival weekend. The comment he’d made about spanking her, and the look on his face after he said it, kept coming back to her, and with it came a surge like electric shocks through her body. Seeing him again during orientation had the same effect. The sensation was similar to the waves of fear she’d felt before being punished as a child, but now there was something else. Something about the though of being spanked by him made her feel turned on as well as frightened.

Fire watch orientation began the week after finals in mid April. Patty was partnered with a Guelph University student named Paul McDonald. They hit it off right away. He was just like her brothers......funny, easygoing and not the least bit intimidated by her brains and physical skill. An instant shorthand communication developed between them so that they were able to excel at each of their assignments. Having Paul around helped her stay grounded when interaction with Cliff became necessary. And that was a good thing, because Cliff seemed to be deliberately goading her.

Paul teased her a bit about the tension between Cliff and her. He suggested that she might have a crush on the man. Patty threw a good natured punch to his arm, saying that it would be a cold day in hell before she would even like the man, never mind have a crush on him. Paul laughed and told her there was a Shakespeare line about protesting too much that he could use, but he would spare her.

Fortunately there were a lot of detailed and complex technical lessons to cover during the orientation. Cliff was a good teacher, very controlled and professional when he was in that mode. And there were two other team leaders who shared the job of mentoring each of the interns, so they got to the point that they could function independently with the job and course assignments they faced over the coming four month term.

When it came down to placement, Paul and Patty were assigned to Cliff. The last two days of orientation were spent in close contact with him as communication schedules and expectations for assignment formats were laid out and negotiated. The tension that had been kept in check by the sheer volume of the work to be done during the first six days came to words several times in those last days.

Cliff was the boss. He fit the role naturally and was not accustomed to having to assert his authority. Normally his interns and his peers fell into step with his direction without any need for him to assert control. The guidelines and simple expectations for performance that he set rarely met resistance from his team. When Patty seemed to challenge or question things that just made sense, he bristled. He found himself struggling not to turn ideas and recommendations into inflexible directives just because she questioned them. Patty found she bristled at his recommendations is if they were already directives that she felt were inflexible. Paul was mostly patient. He thought Cliff was a pretty fair guy and was pretty good at rephrasing ideas so that Patty saw their merit. The last thing he wanted was to be seen to take sides.

The first weeks Paul and Patty spent in the tower were great. Their first assignment was to hike a circuit around their post and refresh the trails that had been created over the years by prior teams. The watch was really a once every two hour survey of the terrain from the tower and a lot of field work on the ground. The tower was actually a really nice cabin, fully self contained with all of the amenities of a summer cottage. There were a few amenities no cottage would have like a state of the art communications system including computer and satellite transmitter. Electricity was supplied by a large fuel tank, and a generator.

Once a week, supplies were flown up to them and carried in on a one mile trail by a small four wheel ATV. The ATV was for supply transport only. All of their treks doing field work within their territory were done on foot. The climb up and down the 210 foot ladder from the ground to the cabin was initially hard, but after doing it six or seven times a day for the first week, they both got used to it. They even started a friendly competition with a stop watch. Paul was winning, able to make the climb in just under two minutes. Patty enjoyed the game, but knew she didn’t stand a chance of beating him.

They had course work to do in addition to the job for the forestry service. By the end of the four month term they needed to complete a catalogue of old and new growth in their territory. Regular evaluations of the status of the under growth and its potential as fire fuel were required to be sent via satellite link weekly. The work to get the data was actually pretty complex chemistry. Patty developed a knack for it, but both of them wasted some time repeating their work until they mastered the steps.

The terrain was beautiful. In spite of the work they had to do, both of them took every opportunity to explore and enjoy it. They established sunrise and sunset as sit-down-and-drink-it-in-time. In the evenings they talked a lot, and both wrote letters. Paul had a girl friend back in Ontario. Her name was Susan. It was pretty clear from the way he talked about her that Susan was less than thrilled that he drew a female partner. It made Patty smile to think about someone being jealous of her. She and Paul had become very comfortable together, but his girl friend had nothing to fear from her.

"You’re cute in a blond bushman kind of way, but sleeping with you would feel like sleeping with one of my brothers." Was what she’d said when they’d talk about it. Paul faked disappointment and told her he wasn’t happy that it was so easy for her to resist his male charms.

"Yeah, well you might not be safe from me though. I might have already jumped your bones except for the knowledge that you prefer the big dark haired types," he teased.

"Big dark haired types? What’s that supposed to mean?" Patty was a bit confused.

"Come on now kiddo. I know you’ve got it bad for our good old boss." Paul rubbed her head when he said that.

"I can’t stand the man Paul! Besides he hates me," Patty protested.

"Yup, I can tell. That, my friend, is what the poets call sex-u-al tension," Paul joked. Patty laughed at the way he drew out the word using a thick cowboy like drawl.

Before they knew it six weeks flew by. Paul drew first break. Fourteen days in civilization. He couldn’t hide his excitement. Patty was going to miss him, but she was also looking forward to her own break two weeks later. She helped Paul carry his gear down and took the wheel of the ATV. The supply plane was his transport out and Paul’s relief would be coming in on it with the supplies.

When the plane taxied in off the lake Patty wasn’t surprised to see Cliff get out of it. He usually came out with the supply flights, using the time to go over their work and provide support where he could. She got a bit worried when only he and the pilot got out to off-load the supplies. At first she wondered if they were going to leave her out there on her own. The idea didn’t upset her. Paul tossed his kit bag into the plane and then helped pack the supplies onto the ATV’s trailer.

"Hey boss, where’s my relief?" Paul asked the obvious question.

"You’re looking at him," Cliff answered. Paul’s expression went from surprised to amused.

"Um um Um um Ummmm….." Paul winked at Patty and hopped up into the plane.

Cliff looked at Paul with a confused look, when he turned to look at Patty, she had her mouth open and looked surprised.

"What?! Don’t you guys think I know how to work? I’ve been doing this for a lot of years now." Cliff said.

"Oh no boss I know you can do the work, I guess I just expected it was going to be another one of us grunts." Paul responded.

Patty just turned back to the ATV and stepped into the driver seat. She was cursing under her breath. Cliff reached into the plane, pulled out his pack and tossed it into the trailer on top of the supplies. The pilot fired up the propeller on the left engine, and the plane started to pull away and turn out into the lake.

"See you both in two weeks," Paul called out as he waved. He laughed as he watched Patty get out of the driver’s seat after Cliff waved an arm. He couldn’t hear what was said, and couldn’t see Cliff’s face, but when he saw Cliff hop behind the wheel he guessed what the jist of the conversation was. Patty looked like she could spit nails. There should be a really interesting story to wrangle out of her next moth.

‘Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit!’ Was all Patty could think as she climbed the ladder with some of the paper supplies in a pack on her back. Cliff was down loading the rest onto the pull-lift. The ride in to the tower was accomplished in silence after they argued about who would drive. Cliff said he was pulling rank, and started right in on her with a crack about ‘not wanting her to think he had a thing about women drivers.’

"How am I going to get through two weeks with that man," she asked herself just as Cliff’s head popped up through the floor.

"We’ll get along just fine if you can learn to control your sarcasm and behave yourself," he said answering the question she had asked herself.

Patty didn’t say anything to him. She was preoccupied by the now familiar wave of electricity that surged through her when he said the words ‘behave yourself.’ She clenched her fists and rubbed her fingers together to wipe away the pins and needles sensation that had settled in them. The question of getting through the next two weeks went back through her mind. She was going to have a hard time controlling her temper and an even harder time trying not to act as nervous as she felt around him.

Cliff saw her blush when he spoke up. He figured she was embarrassed that he’d heard her thinking out loud. He was thinking he was actually going to enjoy the two weeks. Not just because he was out here in the field getting a hand into the part of his job he loved most. But he was going to have some fun teasing this little brat. She looked like she was thinking about punching him there for a minute the way she balled up those fists. She was awfully cute when she was mad.

Patty watched him settle in out of the corner of her eye as she went through the motions of scanning the horizon and logging the all clear checks for each quadrant. At least he hadn’t moved her out of her claim on the bottom bunk. He was big and dark as Paul had put it. Six foot four at least, not ‘brawny’ but well built, maybe two hundred thirty or forty pounds. Big enough that she could feel the cabin move when he walked across the floor. She guessed he was in his early thirties making him about ten years older than she was. He was actually pretty nice to look at. Too bad he was such a jerk. She’d never really been one to think about men in terms of ‘her type,’ but if she had one, he might fit into it.

Almost an hour passed before he broke the silence. By then Patty was engrossed in work drawing diagrams for the catalogue. "Want some lunch?" She turned around to see that he had laid sandwiches and milk out for both of them.

"No," she said as she examined the table. "We usually just graze on fruit or trail mix for lunch."

"Come here and sit down then, time to start a new routine." Cliff smiled. "Mmmmmm, peanut butter and jam. My favorite." He bit into his sandwich.

"Not mine," Patty said gritting her teeth and turning back to her drawing.

"Come here and sit down anyway," Cliff issued a directive.

"Are you ordering me to eat peanut butter sandwiches?" Patty stayed on the stool and looked up and out over the vista.

"No. I’m telling you to come over here and sit down," Cliff said with out inflection his voice muffled by the food in his mouth.

"Not likely." Patty picked up her pencil and tried to focus on the drawing in front of her.

"Don’t start," Cliff warned.

"I’m not the one starting anything." Patty looked up and threw her pencil at the window.

"Come over here and sit down." Cliff put his sandwich down and leaned back against the back of his chair. He crossed his arms over his chest. His face was calm and smooth, his eyes twinkled with interest in what she would choose to do.

"Why?" Patty growled as she turned to level her gaze at him. She didn’t like his calm expectant manner.

"Sit! Here! Now!" He pointed to the chair across the table from him.

"I’m not hungry!" Patty leaned back on the stool her side resting against the counter she’d been working on. She crossed her arms in a mirror of Cliff’s posture.

"Don’t care," Cliff said quietly, shaking his head and still pointing at the chair.

"What’s with you?!" Patty argued.

"Five." Cliff’s tone was a warning. He turned away from the table toward her. Patty’s eyes wrinkled in confusion. "Four." The warning was stronger. Patty didn’t move. "Three..."

"What are you….?" Patty unwrapped her legs from the legs of the stool and stomped her feet down on the rung. Cliff cut her off.

"You don’t want me to get to ONE, young lady." He kept the same warning tone.

"You’re counting down till I come over there?!" She her question was rhetorical.

"Two…." Cliff uncrossed his legs, put his feet firmly on the floor one in front of the other ready to step forward if he stood.

"Jes- U- Christopher!" Patty exclaimed as she stood down off the stool. It scrapped the floor behind her as she pushed forward toward the table. She slumped down angrily into the chair Cliff had pointed to, just as he said, "One." The cabin shook with her movements.

"Do that again and you’ll be sorry." He turned back in toward the table and picked up his sandwich.

Patty glared at him and reached for a sandwich wedge. She peeled the crusts off of each slice of bread and then started breaking the lengths into cubes. She eyed Cliff expecting him to say something. Several minutes passed. He said nothing.

"Well?" Patty said expectantly. He said nothing. "What did you want me here for?"

Cliff raised his hand with his index finger up as if to say ‘just-a-minute,’ as he took a swallow of milk. He pointed to the milk in the glass he’d poured for Patty.

"No." Patty shook her head, leaning back in her chair. She tossed pieces from the crust she was cubing, one at a time, onto her plate. She could feel herself pouting and it made her want to scream.

"Don’t tell me you don’t like milk," Cliff said when his mouth was empty.

"No, I like milk fine. I like it best when I choose to drink it," she sighed as she answered.

"Just humor me this time then. We won’t waste milk, and next time you can pour it yourself." Cliff directed her to drink the milk.

"Why don’t YOU drink it then?" she argued.

"Are we going to do this again?" Cliff sighed as he put his palms against the table edge and his back against his chair. Exasperation clearly evident in both his voice and the cat like way he stretched his body. His hazel eyes reflected the deep green of his forestry denim shirt, making them almost glow with the determination he was mustering.

Patty couldn’t help notice the power of the man’s body language and facial expressions. His face was an open book. Something she had been told about herself many times.

"Do what again?" she asked.

"Drink the milk please and let it go," Cliff sighed and directed her again.

Patty picked up the glass and swallowed a mouthful, glaring at him as she did it.

"Ground rules." Cliff leaned forward placing his hands flat on the table, his eyes fixed on hers.

"Give me a break!" Patty choked and sprayed milk across the table onto his fingers and shirt. She brought her hand up to her mouth to wipe the dribble off of her chin.

"Ground rules!" Cliff was firm. "You answer to me. I don’t answer to you. I say drink milk. You drink milk. You argue…….. I punish." He watched her face.

"Excuse me?!" Patty wrapped her right hand around the milk glass, tipping it toward him as if it were a pointer.

"You heard me." He was firm.

"Touch me and you’ll regret it," she hissed.

"Might." He nodded. "Might feel better for it though," he said, still firm and determined.

"God damn it you’re arrogant!" Patty was pure reactive tissue. The electric surges that raced through her skin and into her groin with every warning and threat he made, were making her nervous.

"Swearing is not acceptable either." Cliff warned.

"What do you mean by punish?" Patty challenged.

"Time out. Push-ups. Cross country run. Bed without supper. Spanking….." Cliff spoke the list as if he were reading the supplies list.

"No FUCKING way!" Patty hissed. Her mouth and her temper escaped. She tipped the milk glass over, spilled it onto his hands and dropped the glass. The edge caught his knuckles making him draw his breath in sharply at the stab of pain. The distraction was momentary. He caught her wrist and pulled her toward him.

"You asked for it!" he announced to her with his face inches from hers. Her eyes registered anger, fear and surprise. Cliff stood lifting her with him by both of her forearms. Patty pulled back trying to get away, but Cliff held her easily as he crossed the floor to the work area by the west windows. He grabbed a thick old drafting ruler that had been part of the station since time began. It was a hefty, three inch wide, fifteen inch long implement that you could only find in flea markets and antique malls today. Perfect for the purpose he had in mind.

"Don’t!" Patty tried in earnest to pull away. She dug her heels in and leaned her weight back as far as she could. The effect was that she was nearly squatting like a water ski start as her feet were dragged across the floor behind him.

Cliff had no trouble bringing her back to the table, where he pulled his chair away and around to face the open space of the room. He sat down and slid her up and forward over his lap.

"Stop!......... DON’T!" Patty tried to push back up and wiggle back off his lap.

"Too late!" Cliff said pulling her forward and pulling her waist tight in a vice grip with his left arm. He brought the ruler down hard.

"Oh SHIT! DON’T!" Patty screamed.

"No swearing!" Cliff hit again harder.

Patty could not believe this was happening. She’d worried about it, wondered about it, and now it was here. It hurt more than any thing she remembered from her childhood.

Cliff put his full arm into whacking the ruler down against her shorts. She’d stopped yelling right away, but was kicking and trying to twist her butt away pretty vigorously. After ten licks he shook her and yelled at her.

"Stop fighting me or we will be doing this all afternoon!" He spanked in earnest.

"STOP!" Patty cried out. The sting of each whack was so intense she could only focus on avoiding the next one. Getting away was a desperate goal. She couldn’t break his grip by twisting, her arms weren’t strong enough to push herself back under his arm, and she couldn’t get her knees up over his leg to crawl forward. After ten more blistering licks all she could think was how much this was hurting and how much she needed to make him stop. Her thoughts were not rational.

She worked her right hand up under his pants leg, and her left hand back around to his flank. Gathering all of the effort she could, she dug her nails into his leg and grabbed, pinched and twisted the skin on his flank.

Cliff let out a holler of pain and surprise. She almost succeeded in making him let go, but not quite. What she did was make him grab her right arm and twist it onto her back and pull her tighter against his torso so her left arm couldn’t reach him. He stopped spanking briefly.

"That will cost you," he growled, and then brought the ruler down even harder, but this time he targeted her thighs below the cuffs of her shorts. Quickly alternating sides, he delivered ten more licks.

Patty screamed. "OWWW! NO, NO, No, no, no, no, DON’T." Her struggle to get away became more desperate.

Cliff left off his efforts on her thighs and returned to her butt. He started to lecture to her.

"When – I –tell-you- to do- something I- expect- it to –be done.- Got it!" He punctuated his words with crisp smacks.

"OK!" Patty gasped, as she kept kicking and wiggling.

"You’ll -stop -arguing about -EVERY -LITTLE -THING!" He added with force, bringing the last three licks down as hard as he could.

"OK! OK! Stop…… Ok……..Stop!!!!" The words were choked out. She was getting way too close to crying. The tears in her eyes were from the pain, but if this didn’t stop soon, Patty was afraid she was going to loose it, really start to cry, give in completely and become really sorry for being so stupid.

Cliff stopped and let her up. She backed away from him, trying to set her jaw and not take her eyes off of his face. She was seething with anger, and trembling with humiliation.

"If I have to do that again, your pants come down! Is that understood?!" He pointed the ruler toward her, sitting back in the chair as he spoke. His voice was hard and he clearly meant what he said. He hoped the threat sunk in and reinforced the pain as a deterrent.

Patty backed further away, her face struggling to keep her thoughts of shock, anger and fear hidden. She shook her head as if she were saying ‘No.’ The familiar electric flash once again shot through her body and into her groin. Her fingers tingled with pins and needles, very briefly distracting her from the burning in her bottom and her legs.

"Yes!" Cliff said as he leaned toward her, answering her head with a firm nod, his eyes flashing dangerously. He stood up and walked over to the work area, and put the ruler back where it had been. He leaned onto the bench and looked out over the tree tops.

It was quiet between them for a few minutes. Patty used her sleeves to wipe her face, and stood watching him from where she was, well out of his way. She didn’t say anything, and she couldn’t think clearly enough to dare to try.

Eventually Cliff turned toward her. He took a deep breath. His face had lost all of its anger and now looked tired. "Lie down for an hour or so and then we’ll go down to collect the soil samples from your next quadrant." He stood waiting for her to move.

She couldn’t help her reaction to being sent to bed. "I’m not a baby. I don’t need to go to bed!"

Cliff sighed. "I need you to go to bed. I need space and time to think. Just do it. Don’t make me angry again today. OK?"

His explanation surprised her. He sounded almost like he was feeling guilty. ‘Well shit! Isn’t this interesting.’ Looking at him like his hair had turned green, Patty gave in and nodded. She dropped down onto her bunk wincing as her bottom made contact with the quilt. The skin tingled, but there was no real pain with the contact.

Taking a chair with him, Cliff stepped out onto the four foot deep cat walk that surrounded the cabin. He was mad at himself now. Spanking her satisfied his temper and relieved his frustration with her, but he was not pleased that he let himself loose it like that. She might have had it coming, but a rational man shouldn’t let things get to this point. Still he would do it again no matter how he felt now, if she pushed it that far again.

‘Why do I let her get to me like that?’ He asked himself silently. The answer was there close to the surface. He’d been bothered by it for a while now. She didn’t like him. More than that, or maybe more important than that, he liked her. It was out of line too. No messing with the interns. At least two couples he knew well, started out as team leader and intern. In both cases the decision had been a potential career limiting event for the team leader. They recovered professionally after a few years, but administration had been tough to please for a while. He knew it was his feelings for her that made him react to her behavior. He’d dealt with lots of bratty women who never pushed him to the point of giving a darn. Spanking is a consequence applied by someone who cares. That was part of him. A part he was becoming more accepting of as he got older and more comfortable in his skin.

The events of the last few hours spun around in Patty’s mind. She’d had a spanking. It hurt way too much, but she couldn’t get past the other sensations she felt before he did it, and what she was feeling now as she thought back over it. As angry as he made her feel, the danger in his raw authority and the anticipation triggered by his threats was exciting in a carnal uncomfortable way. ‘How can I be like this? I’m a modern girl for God’s sake.’ The whole thing played out in her mind like a thrilling inevitable ritual that began in his office after the survival weekend.

The possibility that he might feel bad after doing it was confusing too. If he hated her as much as she thought he did, spanking her should have left him feeling way too pleased with himself. The whole thing was confusing.

She ran her hands across her bottom and legs. There were raised welts on her legs, and a couple of stripes across her bottom, where he’d hit the same spot several times that felt numb and hard. She would probably have marks for a few days, and the numb areas would start to hurt before too long. Confusion or not, sleep took her.

After a little more than an hour passed, Cliff came in and walked over to check on her. Patty was curled on her left side. Her hands were behind her cupped on her butt. Her face was still blushed pink and streaked with drying tears, a large wet spot colored her pillow under her face. ‘God damn she’s cute." He thought. Guilt was replaced with affection and an instinct to protect and nurture.