Read Daniel for Free Online Page A

switch."
    He took the hammer from her hand and tossed it over on the bed. She stood stiffly, growing pale, clearly trying to come to terms with what he'd said. He figured he would just show her.
    He took hold of her uninjured hand and tugged her toward the end of the bed. "I don't have time for more explanations, for any of your stubbornness. Lift your skirt and bend over the bed."

    * * *

    Thrashing? Lift her skirt? Bend over the bed? Jennie's heart raced and her stomach swirled with uneasiness. She shook her head and refused to move another inch. Instead of doing as he asked, she put her hands on her hips and glowered up at her grim-faced husband. "I am not lifting my skirt or bending over the bed without an explanation! You are not going to punish me in any manner without explaining exactly what I have done."
    She rubbed her now sweating palms down the sides of her long skirt, glad it covered her now wobbly legs. She didn't like going over Daniel's lap for a spanking. Without a doubt, getting a thrashing would be worse. "I have been on my absolute best behavior. I can't imagine..."
    The rest of her protest faded away when she watched his brown eyes narrow. A vein pulsed in the side of his neck, another bad sign.
    "Your idea of 'best behavior' and mine are a whole lot different, Jennifer Braddock." He tapped that awful stick against the side of his leg.
    Jennie really didn't like the way he said her full name, especially through gritted teeth. And she didn't like the looks of that skinny stick at all. "I still don't understand."
    "Adam." He said his brother's name as if that explained everything.
    In a way it did. She inwardly sighed in disgruntlement. He'd obviously found out about her little visit with his brother yesterday. She really was starting to like the gruff brother less and less. She'd tried to be patient with him. Tried to remember his tragic past, but...
    She drew in a shuddery breath and raised her chin. "Did he come storming into your office first thing this morning complaining about me? Saying I was harassing him?"
    "No, he didn't." Daniel took a step closer and she took a step back. "I ran into Faith Paddington coming out of the mercantile. She gave me a bristly lecture on how I needed to speak to Adam about manners. Explain to him that it was wrong to take hold of women's arms and roughly lead them to the door of his business and then all but kick them outside. She even showed me the bruises on her upper arm from where he'd squeezed her too tightly."
    Jennie couldn't stop herself from glancing at her left arm. Yes, she had bruises, too. Drat! What was Daniel going to think about them? Say about them?
    She reluctantly looked toward her husband, who was staring at the bruises and clearly unhappy about them. He was grinding his teeth. "Well, he was a bit too forceful," she muttered.
    Daniel's broad chest rose and fell with the deep breath he sucked in and blew out. "I'll be having a word or two with him about hurting my wife."
    Foolishly she said, "So you won't be hurting me after all? Perhaps just giving me a firm lecture instead?"
    He shook his head, his slightly shaggy dark brown hair brushing his shirt collar. "You've earned yourself a sore bottom, not a mere lecture."
    "But..." She thinned her lips at his not-changing-my-mind look and huffed. "I have much to do today, Daniel. I need to finish this task with the nails, and then hang up my clothes. I need to bake some bread later with that recipe and instructions Annabelle gave me. I--"
    "You need to lift your skirts, bend over the bed, and brace yourself. Now." His patience had clearly run out.
    She hesitated for a couple of seconds before turning away from him and grumbling under her breath about impossibly stubborn men. She bent to scoop up her skirt and petticoat but couldn't quite figure out how to bend over the bed and keep the skirt up at the same time. Irritated, she glanced back at him. "I don't think I can do this. Hold up my skirt and bend over