The Spitfire:

©2002, by patty

The little snot was going to go one step too far with him. John thought, as he walked back up to the house. One more snide remark from her and he told himself he’d paddle her butt blue. Just who did she think she was? John shook his head.

From the kitchen porch, Roz smiled. She could see that the six foot five inch man walking toward her house was talking to himself, and the conversation he was having was heated. She was willing to bet money that the person who should have been on the receiving end of his words was same little fireball who was at that moment leading White Socks out of her stall and into the clearing.

Kimberly was a cute little thing Roz thought. Just in need of some manners and self control. When she first arrived, three weeks earlier, everyone thought Kim was refreshing, and very funny. Her quick wit was endearing, but it seemed, after a while, that she didn’t know when to let up. John was first to grow annoyed by her joking and teasing. It wasn’t surprising Roz thought, since he seemed to be her target more often than not. It was somewhat poetic after all, that John would meet his match in the teasing department.

Roz moved into the kitchen as John trudged up the steps onto the porch.

“What’s got you so wound up?” Roz asked.

“Don’t want to talk about it!” He answered with all the anger he felt. The tone of his voice was much stronger than he meant for it to be.

“Watch that tone of voice with me mister!” Roz, warned the brooding man, who was also her son. An observer would have been amused by the immediate deference the big man showed to the small sixty something woman. Now almost twice her size, there was a time years earlier, but still vivid in his memory, when the big man found himself over her knee, or worse, on his way to the woodshed with his father, for just the kind of retort he had just issued.

“Sorry Mom, it’s just that little brat.” John said with a sigh.

“She’s got a way about her, I’ll give you that.” Roz chuckled.

“Gonna get her self a whippin’ if she doesn’t settle down.” John said as he washed his hands at the sink.

“What did she do now?” Roz asked her son. John wouldn’t volunteer the information, so Roz kept conversation alive with questions.

“Argues every damned detail.” John shook his head. “And then she laughs.”

That was as much as Roz was going to get out of her son. She knew he was close to boiling. She’d been watching him simmer now for several days.

Kimberly was nineteen. Her older sister was recently married to John’s cousin. At the wedding, a very warm and open invitation was extended to Kim to come and spend the summer at the Miller Ranch in south Texas. Kim was an Aggie, enrolled in TexasA&MUniversity in the general sciences program with her heart set on getting into Vet school. The idea of staying and working on a working ranch for three and a half months attracted her. And her bubbly personality made the invitation an easy one for Roz and her husband Pete.

John was twenty eight. He was finished with Vet school and had a growing large animal practice in near PoteetTX, home of the Texas strawberry festival. He lived at home with his parents mainly because it was practical. The expense and aggravation of a home or apartment made no sense, when it would just be a place he went to for sleep. His free time was primarily taken up at his parent’s ranch lately anyway. Especially in the last year since his father had injured his leg. The injury didn’t keep the man still for long, but it did cut back some on how much he could do without John’s help.

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

John felt an attraction to the brat who had come to work at his home. At the same time, she had a knack for making him angrier than he could remember feeling in a very long time.

To an observer, that morning’s interaction between them wouldn’t have seemed like the kind of thing a “final straw” was made of. But then, final straws are not known to be earth shattering events. By definition, the final straw is just the last of a run of similar things that a man is willing to put up with. And John was no longer going to put up with Kimberly’s sass, arguing or snide remarks.

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

Roz watched her son tromp around the kitchen. He was such a restless man. He needed a spitfire like Kim to keep him focused and busy. “So much like his father.” She thought, and then smiled. She calculated that Kimberly had maybe one or two more chances before John called in her chits. Shaking her head, she let her mind drift back to fifty-six years earlier when she was the brat and John’s father was the man at his wits end.

Roz was the nasty little sister. And the man who would become her husband was her brother’s best friend. Pete Miller was also her favorite victim. So many excellent pranks had gone between them in the years growing up, and then something changed. The pranks became more than fun. They became thrilling. She felt the now familiar arousal settle into her pelvis. Shortly after she turned seventeen, teasing Pete had taken on a new purpose. Now she understood fully, but at the time, she acted on pure energy and instinct.

What had she done that last time? What had been that ‘last straw,’ Rozthought. For the life of her, she couldn’t remember. But she was never going to forget the outcome. The vivid image of Pete stalking toward her, backing her into one of the stalls, and then looming over her once she was trapped in the corner, still had the same power it did then.

The excitement, and uncertainty still coursed through her. Alive now, and every bit as intense. Roz shifted on the hard wooden chair, and crossed her legs. She certainly had gotten his undivided attention. And then he had gotten hers.

Spanking had never entered her mind, until that moment. When it did, she was both afraid and fascinated.

Pete grabbed her arm and began to lecture her. He called her a “damned fool,” “a rotten little witch,” and several other things. Roz remembered how she had laughed in his face, and the truly wicked grin that had come across his face. The surge of arousal she had felt in her groin then came back to her now. To this day, he had the power to ignite that energy in her with those intense eyes that determined look on his face, and above all the lecture.

“Well girlie girl! You’ve been asking for this for some time! Now I guess you’re going to get it.” Roz shivered as she remembered being pulled out of the stall, out of the barn and around it. He pulled her all the way up past her house to the woodshed. The speed of it all still bewildered her.

In the blink of an eye, Pete sat on the huge tree stump the shed was built over, that countless chunks of wood had been split over, and several generations of children had been spanked over. At seventeen Roz was about to be spanked there by the man who would be her husband only a short year later.

Pete had wasted no time. He pulled her trousers down with no difficulty, and her underpants came with them. His hand came down hard. The jolt that came from the coalescence of the immediate reality of pain, embarrassment and the realization that he was angry not just annoyed, made her cry out and begin to struggle. And then he set to work.

He’d spanked her hard. She kicked, and struggled and screamed at the top of her lungs for him to stop. Nothing she did made him stop. Years of dirty tricks had primed him. Roz’s memory reminded her that that spanking delivered every payback she’d earned. She also knew that he took special pleasure in delivering it. After so many years with him now, she knew him better than she knew herself. There was nothing mean or sadistic about the punishment he inflicted that day. But he took his revenge with all of the glee of a man who was pushed very far past his limits, by someone he cared about very deeply. And she knew that like her, he had been captured by the un-named energy that they would come to know was love. It was electric and restless and put them both on edge.

That first spanking broke a dam. Everything changed after that. Pete continued to be a constant presence at her home, but he was there to be with her not her brother.

Roz smiled and stood in her kitchen. She stepped out of her reverie. Here was her son, dancing the same dance his father had danced so many years ago. The pretty little spitfire was his match, he knew it instinctively even though he was not yet consciously aware. His mother saw the weaving bonds and the rightness of the match. Kim was going to know before long too…..

*******

Kim enjoyed her ride. The day was sunny and the air was clear. Early May was always beautiful in south Texas. A cold front had pushed through with thunder and lightning the night before, and now the air was clean, the humidity down below thirty percent. By noon the temperature was up to eighty three degrees, and the cool dry breeze felt like silk on her skin. White Socks was enjoying the ride as well. She was spirited and responded eagerly to the exercise with the adventurous rider on her back.

Four and a half hours later Kim turned the mare back toward home and smiled to herself that once again she was “in violation” of a directive given to her by John. ‘Goodness the man was a tight ass,’ she thought. It was a good game pushing his buttons. He never failed to react. She loved the delicious pulse of danger that coursed through her each time he leveled that steely glare at her. This morning he was particularly stern. He thought she was spending too much time riding and not enough time working.

Well it was Sunday. And it was her day off. Kim smiled to herself as she remembered how pointing that out to the man had stopped him cold. She admitted she could have used a less challenging tone of voice when she did it, but sass seemed to be what the situation called for.

“Be back in an hour this time, or you’ll be sorry.” John had ordered as he turned and stalked out of the stables. Kim wondered why he was always so darned bossy. She didn’t let it bother her, far from it, she let it spur her to test him and seek to push his buttons.

“Sure thing.” Kim flipped out as she’d turned away to mount the horse. It was in that moment that Kim decided she would not just defy him about how long she would spend out on her ride. She would go off of the property to the quarry, that John had recently declared off limits for riding, pending the outcome of a right of way dispute with the state. After all, there was no legal reason she could not ride on the state land she would have to cross.

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

By the time she was back in the stall preparing to dismount White Socks, John was entering the stable. After he barked out a question, which Kim ignored, John stood back in the doorway waiting and watching to see what she would say, or do. Several minutes passed. Kim set up the saddle up on the saw horse, forked fresh hay into the front end of the stall, scooped some oats into the feed pail and then began to brush down her mount.

After she finished grooming White Socks, Kim picked up the tack and carried it over to the wall where it was to be hung and sorted. John followed her to the back of the stable. He watched as she made a show of an organized approach to her chores. When everything was stowed and Kim could no longer use attention to detail as an excuse to ignore him, John spoke to her again.

“Are you ready to answer me now young lady?” He said. The danger in his voice was unmistakable. Kim smiled to herself as she felt it pulse through her. She did enjoy getting him riled. The experience was both physically exciting and mentally stimulating. His facial expressions and the icy tone of his voice triggered a physical sensation within her,
that felt almost sexual and certainly electric. And she had always loved the challenge of banter and teasing.

“What’s your problem cowboy?” Sarcasm dripped from her answer.

“You are my problem!” John said coolly. “You and your arrogant attitude, are my problem.”

“Oh come on.” Kim’s tone was dismissive as she moved to try to walk around him.

“Not this time you don’t.” John moved into her path. “This time you find out that I mean what I say to you. This time you find out what happens when you defy my from now on.”

“What happens when I defy you?” Kim smiled a cocky grin, folded her arms across her chest and shifted her weight onto her right leg. John grinned too, but there was nothing funny about his expression. Kim began to sense that this was going to be more than their usual stand off. Arousal pulsed through her again, but this time it lingered and she felt that her heart beat stayed fast. The sensation was unsettling. She turned to move around John on the other side. He moved again into her path, and this time shook his head firmly, indicating she would not be going anywhere until he decided.

Cornered and angry, Kim looked around for an escape. There was none. John was perfectly positioned to move in any direction and prevent her from evading what he had planned. All of a sudden the danger he exuded triggered more than the now familiar pulse of arousal through her. The arousal that surged through her and electrified her fingertips, her pelvis and her face, was overwhelming. All she wanted to do was get away. But there was no chance of that.

“What was the last thing I told you before you left here today?” John repeated the question she’d ignored when she’d dismounted her horse only a few minutes before.

Kim didn’t answer, she swallowed and tried to make herself hold eye contact with him. His glare was powerful and intimidating. ‘Damn him for being so stiff.’ She thought. In only a few seconds, she felt herself blush and look away. By then the question was forgotten.

“Fine, let me remind you.” John growled. “I told you to be back here within an hour. And if I recall, you said ‘sure thing.’” He took a step toward her. Now Kim had to tilt her head up to look at his face. Reflex took her, and she let her eyes roll in exasperation.

“Is that what you’ve got your pants in a wad over! That I enjoyed my ride for longer than you thought I should! Damn you John Miller! If it were up to you no one would enjoy life.” Her tactic was a smoke screen and she knew it. She had known he was serious about the time limit on her ride, but she decided when he issued the order that she was going to ignore it. If she had argued or challenged him earlier, she knew he would have simply become more adamant, leaving no wiggle room for her later after she defied him.

“Are you telling me you misunderstood my instruction?” John’s glare became even darker. Within the look he gave her was a dare for her to say that he had not been clear.

Kim read his face well, but she ignored the message her instincts sent to her brain. “I understood you fine! It’s my day off, my time, I wanted to enjoy it my way. You have no say over what I do on my time.” She put her hands on her hips, and shifted her weight so she could punctuate her position with a stamp of her right foot.

“I have a say in what you do with MY horses, and what you do on this property. And when someone tells me “sure thing” in answer to an order, I take that to mean they are going to obey it.” John’s voice was quiet, but there was an icy resolve in it that Kim could feel.

“You have been gone for more than six hours! Did you water that horse? Did you rest and feed it?” He kept the same tone. The questions on their own were fair and simple, but the way he asked them made her feel foolish and thoughtless.

“Yes I did!” She answered after a second, but the delay betrayed her. She had rested and watered the horse. That was the truth. It was where she had been when she did that she preferred to keep to herself, but that she now realized she had admitted with out saying.

“You did?” John’s question did not suggest that she was lying, it revealed that he would press further, that he knew she had defied more than the order he gave her that morning. “I’m interested to know how you managed that away from the well and troughs.”

Kim realized she was not just physically trapped, by the big man in front of her. The quarry was a popular destination for riders, but for the time being at least it was off limits to ranch personnel. She knew it and went there anyway. That was just the tip of her crime. The stream and quarry she visited, were infested with cottonmouth snakes. With the water high after the lightning storm the night before there was a very high risk that they would be active and migrating en mass from flooded nooks and crevices to higher ground. Everyone on the ranch knew better than to go into the streams after a heavy rain. Kim knew better, but let her cocky resolve to best John get the better of her common sense.

Kim looked down at the foot she had just stamped. It was swiping hay side to side. She debated how she would answer. John took the obligation away from her.

“You went to the quarry didn’t you?!” His voice rose. Anger was clearly present in it now.

Kim look up to meet his glare again and realized that she had gone too far this time.

“I take it the snakes wanted nothing to do with you, either you snotty little brat!” John grabbed her by the forearm and twisted it up and used it to pull her to him. It looked for a few seconds like he had her fist aimed at his chin. But his grip was so tight, there was no way she was going to swing that arm higher.

“I’m going to do what I should have done weeks ago, now brat.” John seethed. With that he turned to survey the stable for a suitable place to do it. The bench just inside the entrance would do. No matter that someone might walk in and happen to see it. As far as John was concerned that might serve her right.

“Hey let me go!” Kim cried out. When she saw where he was taking her, a sick feeling of realization set in. She couldn’t quite believe what her instinct told her was about to happen. “NO! What are you doing!” She dug her heels in and tried to pull away

“I’m going to bare your bottom and give you a spanking! That’s what I’m doing.” John answered.

“You can’t!” Kim screamed. But clearly he could, and was doing it.

As he sat down on the bench, he reached up and pulled the snap on her jeans open and slipped the zipper down in a single motion. Her jeans and underwear came down to mid thigh as she fell across his lap. Kim was amazed at the speed of it, she had absolutely no chance to consider modesty or wonder what John could see. His hand lit into her backside with fire.

The electric surges of fear and anger that coursed through her pelvis as he pulled her behind him and she realized what he intended to do, were replaced by the sting and burn his hand rapidly built on the flesh of her butt. Surprise and disbelief kept her dumb for almost a full minute, but tears built up and escaped quickly.

John was surprised at how little fight she put up in that first minute, but that soon changed.

In what felt like an explosion for Kim, the pain and humiliation of what he was doing to her blended with rage, and she became a flailing, screaming bundle. John chuckled, and tightened his grip. She was determined though, and after another minute if trying to keep her on his lap and continue to spank her hard enough to make his point, he decided to make things more secure. He shifted her hips forward onto his left leg. The movement was so fast, that Kim was forced to reach forward with both hands to keep her face from hitting the dirt floor in from of her. John used that distraction to lift his right leg over the backs of her legs and pin her. He reached forward and grabbed her right arm, and pulled it tight against her side. She could wiggle, but she was effectively secured for him now.

Her spanking continued in earnest. John put all of the frustration with her that had been building in him into his efforts. It wasn’t long before the tone of Kim’s howling and squalling changed from being angry and defiant, to coming from obvious pain. Her muscles tensed and squeals and yelps were forced from her with each smack from his hand.

“Please stop!” Finally after several minutes of steady spanking, Kim’s cries became desperate. “You’re hurting me!”

“Good!” John said. “That’s!!!! -- the idea!!!! --- I intend ---to--- make it hurt---- so ---- much---- that you will---- think---- very long---- and hard---- about defying me---- again!!!!! Because I promise you----- if---- you do---- we’ll do this----- again!!!!!--- and again!!!! --- and again!” He punctuated the promise with hard smacks to the part of her bottom that would bear her weight if she tried to sit down.

“Please!!!!!!!” Kim cried. The plea came out as a long wail. She was sobbing, and her breath was coming in heaves.

John stopped, but he held her in place.

“Well?” he said as if she should know what he expected.

Kim sobbed. “What do you want me to say!” She managed to get out.

“What do you think I want you to say!” John smacked her hard five more times.

“Oh please!!! I don’t know!!!” Kim cried.

“Then I guess we just keep going.” John chuckled, and he renewed his efforts, moving the spanking to the tops of her legs.

Kim’s struggles renewed also. But she was unable to keep it up. After thirty or so more smacks, her cries became muffled and she stopped struggling.

“Please stop, please stop, please stop.” Came out of her like hiccups.

“Well?” John asked again, and he once again stopped spanking her.

“I won’t defy you again! I promise I won’t.” Kim said.

“And you’ll stop arguing every damn thing.” John stated with five hard smacks.

“I’ll stop arguing, I’ll stop being so sarcastic. I’ll be good!!! I promise.” Kim cried.

John released his grip on her and gave her one more very hard smack. “There now! That wasn’t so hard now was it!”

Kim scrambled away from him and pulled at her jeans trying to get them up.

“I hate you, you heavy handed son of a ….” She stopped as she saw the expression on his face.

“Maybe we’re not done yet?” The words framed a question, but the tone in his voice framed a warning.

“NO!!!! I’m sorry!” Kim moved out of reach, and then set out toward the house at a run.

Roz saw the girl come up the driveway to the house clutching her jeans at the waist. There was no question in her mind about what had happened. Kim’s tear stained face and hitching sobs only confirmed the obvious. Kim ran through the kitchen without seeing Roz by the window.

In her room, she let herself cry, and tried to wrap her mind around the confusion she was feeling.