Read Online Ropin' Hearts: The Boot Knockers Ranch, Book 4 by Em Petrova - Free Book Online Page B

hadn’t been conscious.
    “Have you doled out this punishment?” Stowe asked.
    “No.”
    “But you want to. The power makes your head spin a little.”
    Damn, his friend did know his stuff. That was exactly how Ty felt. He nodded slowly. “She drives me to it. Her mouth… God, she’s smart-mouthed. She won’t shut up, even when she must see she’s digging herself deeper. And she won’t listen to me and stay where she belongs.”
    “That’s because she’s enjoying the hell out of running you around in circles.”
    “No shit.”
    “No, really. Listen to me.” Stowe rested his elbows on his knees and leaned forward. Ty was reminded of having serious talks with his own brothers but, being oldest, he’d never been on the receiving end. He sat up and listened.
    Stowe continued, “In her own way she’s making you react because it’s what she needs.”
    More confused than ever, Ty shook his head. “I don’t understand.”
    “She mouths off and you react, saying you’re going to make her do something, maybe even saying you’ll spank her. Is that right?”
    “Yes.”
    “But you’ve never followed through with your punishment, have you?”
    “No. She’s not mine to punish.”
    He pushed back and stared at Ty. “Maybe that’s what she’s asking of you, man.”
    Something forbidden sprouted in Ty’s chest. Before he’d blinked twice, the kernel had grown into a full-fledged vine, tangling him up.
    “She’s young, right?”
    “Yes,” Ty answered.
    “But she’s all woman and knows how to use it.”
    “You’ve seen girls like her before?”
    Stowe nodded. “She wants to be taken seriously as a woman and maybe nobody gives her that. It’s a need she wants fulfilled. She also wants rules and she’s acting out because she wants you to set them.”
    “Me?” Fuck. He tore off his hat and spun it counterclockwise, the way his thoughts always swirled when thinking of Bree. She made him feel out of sorts—and so fucking good. The idea of setting boundaries for her and making her adhere to them gave him a woody.
    “Girls like her want to act like just that—girls. But they want to be viewed as strong women. They don’t know how to meld the two, and there’s no rule book that states they should . We come in all shapes and sizes. She just needs both sides admired and acknowledged, as well as loved.”
    “What…what would you call this?” Ty asked.
    “I’d say,” Stowe said slowly, “she needs the care of a Daddy.”
    Ty stared at him, trying to process what he was saying. “She has a father.”
    “No. I mean a Dom. Daddy and Dom are interchangeable here.”
    Ty pressed his lips into a hard line, feeling as if he were on a roller coaster and about to hurl.
    “She sasses you, is that right?”
    “Fuck yes,” he ground out.
    “She’s encouraging you to play with her. The play she wants is punishment, boundaries.”
    “Why?”
    Stowe lifted a shoulder. “Some women just have the need inside them. Others have suffered from some lack in their lives or a trauma that brings it out.”
    Ty’s thoughts shot to Bree’s mother, lost too soon. He swallowed against the protective lump that rose in his throat. After a few beats, he said, “I don’t want to be anyone’s daddy.”
    “This isn’t about age-play. She wants care and guidance, intimacy and someone to nurture her while she acts like a sexpot. On the same note, deep down she wants to please someone. You.”
    Ty closed his eyes, breathing hard. How sick and twisted was it that he wanted her to want to please him? Of all his years working with women, he’d never encountered anyone as complex as Bree.
    He opened his eyes to find an amused expression on Stowe’s face.
    “It’s a power exchange. She has power, does something naughty. You punish her and then you hold the power.”
    “It’s what she wants?” It was a half question, half epiphany.
    “Give her what she needs—unconditional love, reliability, nourishment of the