Matt and Annie take a trip into town. Annie decides to do a little shopping and promises not to get into a fight with her arch enemy, Mary Beth, but the woman pushes Annie too far with her snippy comments. Matt comes back to find his wife and Mary Beth rolling around on the floor.

~~~~~

Annie remained silent and sullen on the ride home. Each time she glanced in Matt’s direction she swore his jaw would set tighter and his left eye would twitch faster.

“How could you act like such a brat, Annie Caine?”

“She started it.”

“That’s no excuse. You could have walked away.”

“I tried. She wouldn’t let me.”
Matt stared straight ahead. “Where were you when she threw the candy at you?”
She frowned. “At the door, why?”
“So, you’re telling me that after she hit you, she pulled you all the way back to the counter and fought with you. That’s where both of you were when I came in.”
Annie huffed and crossed her arms over her chest. “I know exactly where you’re going with this, Matt.”
“Good, then you admit you had the chance to walk away, but you chose to fight instead.”
Annie threw her hands up in the air. “Yes, I chose to fight. Dammit, Matt! First she shoved me and I walked away, but when she called me a ‘soiled dove, I had to do something.”
Matt veered from the worn path and steered the buckboard toward the thicket of trees in
the distance.
“Matthew Caine, what do you think you’re doing? Why are we stopping here?”
Without a word, Matt locked the hand brake and yanked her across his lap. “What sort of
husband would I be if I didn’t correct my wife?”
“Right here, right now?” Annie shouted as he tossed up her skirts.
“Would you rather I wait until we get home where everyone within a mile can hear you
screaming your head off?” He laid two firm whacks to her backside. Annie bit her lip to stop
from crying out. “Blast, you can’t be feeling a thing with all this padding, can you?”
She’d be an idiot if she answered that question honestly. Matt tugged down her drawers
and was peppering her bare bottom with hard smacks. Her eyes widened in shock. She kicked
and shrieked.

“Matt, you stop this instant,” she cried. What if someone happened to pass by and
saw her naked? He showed no sign of stopping and she reached behind to grab her dress, but he
caught both her wrists and pinned them to the small of her back.
“The only way you’ll feel this spanking is on the bare. You’ve got too many clothes on.”
“You’re the one who wants me to dress like a lady,” she informed him snidely, even as
more spanks fell. She wailed at the burn spreading across her cheeks. “You son of a bitch.” She
threw more momentum into her fight.