Read Big Sky for Free Online

he might not kill her. What would be the point? If he were a serial killer, wouldn’t she already be locked in the basement?
    “I’m losing patience, Veronica.” His voice had dropped a register, and it was the first time he’d spoken her given first name.
    “What if I say no?”
    “Then I’ll spank you.” There was no hint of teasing or amusement in his voice. The statement had been matter-of-fact as if it were an obvious conclusion that any thinking person would reach. What did you do with a woman who didn’t eat her burger on command? Of course you spanked her.
    She gawked at him, her mouth dropped open. “Excuse me? You’ll WHAT?” Like hell he was going to spank her. She’d fight him until he killed her.
    “You heard me. Eat your burger. There’s no need for things to be unpleasant.”
    “Let me just say, you’re about the creepiest little fucker I’ve ever met.”
    “Big fucker,” he said around a mouthful of burger.
    “What?”
    “I’m the creepiest big fucker you’ve ever met. I’m six and a half feet tall. No one uses the word little when describing me. Eat.”
    She sat for another minute trying to determine if he meant the threat. The look in his eyes said he did. Was refusing to eat when she was hungry really worth dying over? Veronica took a bite. It was the best burger she’d ever eaten, and not just because she’d been eating cheap food for a week and had only had chips and a coke for the last ten hours.
    “Now, you will call me Sir .”
    “Excuse me?”
    He sighed. “Ronnie, you’re making me tired. I’ve had a long day. If you interrupt me every time I speak, we’ll be up until the roosters start. And they’ll be starting in about two hours.”
    “That’s before dawn.”
    “Welcome to the ranch.”
    She went back to her burger, trying to ignore the company and the fact that the way he was treating her, though offensive, was having a fucked-up effect. She was sure if—no when—he hurt her, it would snap her back to reality, but for now, his low voice, good looks, and semi-barbaric ways were sending her spiraling back into fantasy world.
    “You’ll have chores here. You’ll also be cooking for me and the guys. You’ll keep the house tidy, and you’ll tend to the garden in the backyard. We don’t sell the produce; it’s just for us. We don’t eat a lot from the grocery store, some snack foods here and there and soft drinks. Most of our meat, eggs, and dairy comes from here or our neighbors and our produce comes from the garden. The growing season is short so we also have a pretty big greenhouse. Any questions?”
    “I’m not going to be your happy domestic slave. I don’t live to serve men.” In real life she had barely been able to stand Joe as her boss at the ad agency. And she’d never called Joe sir . Her first two years at the agency it had been a woman, but then she’d run off to Australia with her boyfriend. The fact that Veronica would be the only woman here, waiting on them all hand and foot, caused an indignant rebellion to rise up in her. She didn’t know how long she could play nice with this psycho.
    “All right, get in the truck. I’ll take you back to the city and you can die in a ditch or turn to prostitution and drugs to dull the horror of it all.”
    Would he really take her back to the city? If he meant it, she wanted to take the offer and get away, but his forecast of prostitution and drugs felt too true and close to the mark to take the bait. It might not be any better out there.
    “Don’t you intend to use me like that?”
    “When the time is right, and I feel you’re ready to be a good slut, absolutely.”
    She cringed at the way he spoke to her, rough and calloused like his hands. “What you’ve done and what you obviously plan to do is wrong.”
    “It’s wrong to feed you and give you shelter and productive work?”
    “That’s not what you’re doing.”
    “Isn’t it?” He took his plate to the sink. “See you in the