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are terrible behind the wheel because you are always
in such a hurry. You speed, and if it doesn't suit you, you don't even
buckle up," Kelsey accused heatedly. "You shouldn't have been trying to
keep up with me!" she dared to scold.
    "Really?"
Cleve drawled slowly, perilously close to losing his temper, something he
rarely did.
    "Really.
Don't do that again!"
    "I'm
going to finish my ice cream, and then, little Pebbles, you are going over my
knee for a good spanking!" he promised her.
    "No
I'm not," Kelsey immediately argued although she was secretly thrilled by his
words. Was she deliberately trying to provoke him? Yes,
probably. Why? Because she had to know if he was the type of man
who could handle her moody temper and her bratty tantrums. If he
couldn't, then she needed to know it now, before she invested too much of herself
in him or let herself go to bed with him. Her libido was returning and
Kelsey suddenly found herself wanting to experience the physical side of love
once again. That couldn't happen unless she truly cared for the man and
he cared for her. A man who cared for her wouldn't let her drive like a
complete idiot without saying something.
    "Want
to make a bet?" Cleve asked. "I don't like being tested, but even more
than that, I'm not one bit impressed at the way you were driving. You
need your fanny set on fire for that little stunt, and I promise I'll do it
again if I catch you speeding and running stop signs. Hear me?" he
demanded.
    Kelsey
swallowed hard. "I hear you, and I really wish you'd forget the
spanking. I get the message loud and clear."
    "I
have no intention of forgetting the spanking, Pebbles. I get the feeling
that you haven't been on the receiving end of consequences too often in your
life, which I find very hard to believe since your Dad and husband were both
cops."
    "I had
consequences from my parents," Kelsey admitted, "but Mama did not permit
spanking, and Dad respected her wishes. She was abused as a child and it
frightened her if Dad even gave me a swat."
    "What
about your husband?"
    "He
didn't believe in spanking, either. And," she cocked her head to one side,
"I wouldn't have tested him like that. I knew where I stood with him from
the first second he looked at me." She took a deep breath and then let it
out slowly. "What about you, Cleve? Have you ever been
married? You have to be at least as old as I am, and I am thirty-three..."
    "I'm
forty and no, I've never married. I was engaged a few years ago, but Amy
didn't want kids. I do. She was offered a job in New York and took
it. She's happy with her career and probably better off following her
heart."
    "And
you haven't met anyone else?" Kelsey found that very hard to believe.
Cleve Blankenship was a handsome, sexy man.
    "No
one I was serious about. And you, Pebbles? You said that your
husband has been gone for ten years... I can't believe you haven't found someone
else in all that time."
    "No
one. I wasn't looking, and I discouraged anyone who might have been
interested. I needed time to cope with losing the three people who
mattered most to me in less than a year."
    "Three?
Your Mom, too?" Cleve wanted to know.
    "Yes,
she found out she had terminal cancer a couple months after we lost Dad and
Steven. She didn't care to live and wouldn't fight. I nursed her
through it... and it was a hard thing to do. Are your parents still
living?"
    "Yes,
they're retired and living in Florida. They're fortunate to be in good
health." They talked a while longer and their ice cream was long
gone. Cleve finally pushed his chair back and said, "Come on over here,
Miss Pebbles. You asked for a spanking and you're going to get one right
now."
    "But,
Cleve, I don't drive like that normally!"
    "And
you won't do it again once I'm finished with you," he promised. "Come
here and make it easier on yourself." He could see her thinking and
trying to decide what to do. It was plain as day that Pebbles didn't want
another spanking, but she didn't want to make the