Amelia's Outback Christmas (12 Naughty Days of Christmas) Read online

  Trevor paused. “Is that what you think? That I don’t like you?” His hand bounced off her reddened cheeks several more times. He was amazed at just how much he enjoyed the feeling of her fleshy bottom cheeks flattening under his hand. He didn’t enjoy causing her pain exactly, but he loved the feel of her warm, just smacked skin. “If I didn’t like you I wouldn’t be trying to stop you from doing something that you could end up regretting.”

  “Well that’s just dumb. Stop it! You’re hurting me!”

  “I’ll stop when I’ve gotten through to you just how dangerous it is to act this way.”

  “Lots of people would love to be my boyfriend!”

  Trev stopped spanking and pulled Amelia up to face him. “Having a boyfriend has to be for the right reason. You don’t want somebody that loves you for your daddy’s money or for your body,” he said. “They have to really care for you.”

  “And you don’t.” Amelia gathered up her dress. “I get it, I repulse you.”

  He couldn’t help himself, he kissed her. Just lightly at first, a kiss that was meant to make her feel better but it turned out to be a kiss that quickly got out of hand. He hadn’t wanted her to walk away from him thinking that he didn’t like her or didn’t find her attractive. Nothing could be further from the truth. Trev was attracted to Millie at the best of times, but in this setting she was intoxicating. Their bodies were pressed together skin to skin. Her soft skin against his was more temptation than he'd ever experienced and before he could stop it, or get control of himself, she was beneath him on the bench and he was surging inside her tight body.

  ***

  “I love you,” the young girl said quietly as they lay together in each other’s arms.

  Trev could have died. He wanted to say it back, but he knew those words would come with assumptions and expectations that he couldn’t deliver. He didn’t live here; he had nothing at all to offer a young girl whose home was a long way from his. He couldn’t say what he meant but he did lean over and kiss her softly before unlocking the door.

  “I’ll give you some time to get dressed,” Trevor said. “Lock the door behind me.” That beer would have been good about then, but it wasn’t the time or the place. He had to go and talk to Buck. He’d stayed at this ranch too long. It was time for him to go home. He just hoped he hadn’t already broken Millie’s heart.

  Chapter 2

  Amelia cried for weeks after Trev left. Even after she had finally given in to her daddy’s nagging and left to start school, she was consumed with a sadness that she couldn’t push away. Trev was her soul mate; she could feel it in her bones.

  “What’s the matter with my baby girl?” her dad asked.

  School was on break and she’d come home for Christmas. The place didn’t seem the same. It was like all the pre-Trevor days hadn’t existed. She sighed dramatically. “I miss Trevor,” she said.

  “Me too, the kid was a damn good worker.”

  “He wasn’t a kid Daddy, he was a man.” Amelia flushed when a sudden image of that night flashed through her mind. It wasn’t even an image; it was more like a feeling. She had flashes of her bottom burning and the feeling of his warm palm as it crashed against her skin.

  He’d actually spanked her. No one had ever spanked her in her whole life. It had shocked her. It wasn’t at all what she thought a spanking would be like. It hurt, a lot and it was loud. Why no one had come looking for her that night she didn’t know; not that she’d wanted them to; or had she? Of course she’d wanted someone to save her, didn’t she? Hell, she didn’t know what she wanted, except for one thing: she wanted Trevor. “Daddy, couldn’t you make him come back?”

  “I tried honey,” Buck said. “He wanted to go home. There was nothing I could do or say to make him stay here and I don’t suppose there’s anything I can say to make him come back.”

  “Do you have his number? You could phone him and maybe be a little more persuasive, you know?” Amelia’s lips formed a perfect pout and she waited for Buck to agree to try.

  “Millie honey, I already tried. I hate to see you so unhappy but there’s nothing I can do.”

  “I don’t believe you. You don’t want to make me happy.”

  “I got you something really special for Christmas baby girl. Just wait until Christmas morning. You’re going to be blown away.”

  “It won’t matter. If Trevor isn’t here then I don’t care about presents or any of the other Christmas stuff. I may as well be back at school.” It was true. That’s what she should do. She should pack her bags and head back to school where she could sit in the dorm and be miserable all by herself without anyone trying to make her happy. It wasn’t possible, she was never going to be happy ever again.

  ***

  “Trev!”

  Trevor looked up to find his younger brother leading his beautiful huge black Arabian horse into the paddock. The twelve-year-old was grinning from ear to ear, knowing that was about the very thing to get his brother riled. He liked nothing better than to wind Trevor up.

  “Don’t you dare!” Trevor shouted. “That horse is too big and you don't know how to handle him.”

  “Says you.” The younger boy whistled to the big horse, and produced a carrot from his pocket, giggling when it was gobbled greedily from his hand. “See? He loves me.”

  Trevor shook his head. His cheeky young brother reminded him of another little pest from the other side of the world. She’d been a pain in Trevor’s ass, but he missed her like crazy. Paddy was there to fill the nuisance void but he was the male, younger form of Amelia. “Come on then, hop up and I’ll lead you around.”

  “No way! I’m no baby. I don’t need to be led around,” Paddy said, indignity written all over his small face.

  “Then you won’t be riding my horse.”

  “No fair, Trev. Sometimes you’re just mean. Until you went away you were fun. Now you’re cranky all the time.”

  Trev took off his hat and scrubbed a hand over his face. The kid was right. He had been a grump of late. It wasn’t Paddy’s fault that he was feeling like a chunk was missing from his life. “Tell you what. You go get your own pony and the two of us will go for a ride.”

  “You mean it?” Paddy squealed. He went to run into the barn and then stopped and turned around. “You’ll still be here when I get back, won’t you? You won’t go away?”

  “Of course I will you little dork.” Trev sighed as Paddy ran off happily. Had he really been that much of a grump lately? Seemed like it. He would have to make more of an effort. Maybe he should have made more of an effort with Amelia.

  His mind wandered back to that last night before he left. He crossed the line. She had managed to push his buttons but he never should have snapped and spanked her naked bottom like he had. It wasn’t that he thought that spanking her was wrong. She’d deserved every sharp smack and probably more, but she wasn’t his girlfriend and she wasn’t his wife. Sleeping with her, though, was his worst mistake. He just hoped that she’d been able to forget it and move on. That was why he’d left sooner than he planned. Surely without him there in front of her face she would have been able to put it behind her. Hopefully she’d been more successful at it than him. He couldn’t help but wonder, though, if he’d done the wrong thing.

  ***

  Amelia sat in her bedroom brooding. Her bags were packed and she had every intention of returning to school early. Her mind was in such a muddle that she couldn’t relax and concentrate on Christmas anyway. She wasn’t going to stay at the ranch and try and enjoy everything. The minute her daddy and the rest of the house were asleep she would get into his office and find where Trev lived, she had to try one more time to get him to come back, he wouldn’t make it for Christmas but he might make it for New Year.

  ***

  It hadn’t been easy for Amelia to get out onto the main road, she had push her luckily quite small car until she reached the long dirt track which lead from the property. Eventually she did it. With her favorite sad mus
ic blaring she drove like a bat out of hell towards school. When she’d been driving quite some miles she saw a sign.

  “Airport,” she read. She slowed her speed. It was a thought, wasn’t it? She had her credit card, which made it more than just a possibility. Before she knew what she was doing she had made the turn and was on the way to find the love of her life. She changed the song and suddenly her heart was light.

  “But there must be,” Amelia said to the woman behind the counter. Why was the clerk being so stubborn? Amelia wasn’t a family or even a couple. Surely they could find a seat for one person.

  “No ma’am, I’m sorry but the only seat I can give you is in economy. This is the Christmas season, we’re very busy.”

  “I know that. That’s why I want to travel to Adelaide. It’s important that I make it there by Christmas.”

  “So will you take the economy?” the woman asked impatiently.

  Amelia looked around at the long line that was building behind her. “I suppose.”

  “How will you be paying?” the woman asked.

  Amelia handed over her card begrudgingly. If only she’d had the epiphany earlier, she may have been able to get a seat in business.

  ***

  “Excuse me.” Amelia tried to breath in, like that was going to help as she squished past the two people that were already seated in her row. It was going to be so hard to sit in such cramped quarters for a long time. The woman Amelia sat next to smiled. “Don’t you need to get out your neck pillow, honey?”

  “I don’t have a neck pillow,” Amelia said. What was a neck pillow anyway?

  “This is mine,” The woman said, dragging one out from behind the back of her head to demonstrate. “You’re going to be mighty uncomfortable without one.”

  “I…” Amelia nearly blurted out her problem, that she had travelled extensively and that she’d never had the need for a neck pillow. She didn’t want to come across as rude, especially to this lady who was only trying to be nice to her. “I was in a rush, I didn’t have time to get one.”

  “Never mind. I have a spare,” the woman said. She excused herself and retrieved the pillow from her overhead bag. “Here you go, now you won’t have a crooked neck over Christmas.”

  Amelia smiled and took the pillow, tucking it around her neck, just like the lady. “It is comfortable,” she said.

  “I told you. Everyone needs some support. I’m Bessie by the way and you?”

  “I’m Millie.”

  “That’s a sweet name Millie, suits you. Are you on your way to Australia for Christmas?”

  “Yes, my boyfriend lives there. He’s a cattle farmer.” Was hoping that someone was your boyfriend the same as them being your boyfriend? Hopefully if you wished enough.

  “Oh really. How did you meet?”

  “He was working my Daddy’s ranch for the summer.”

  “Love at first sight, hey?”

  Amelia giggled. “Something like that.” She closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep and her mind went back to that first day…

  Millie’s heart skipped. A tall man with beautiful clear eyes stepped from her daddy’s pick up. “Oh my,” Millie said to no one. They were coming toward her and the man smiled. He had a great smile; white teeth but not perfect. One tooth was almost out of alignment with the others. It was cute and real and it made her want to kiss those lips.

  “Millie this is our new hand, Trevor. He’s going to be working with us for the summer,” her daddy said.

  “Hi ya, Trev,” she said to the handsome stranger.

  “Hi yourself.”

  Oh my goodness. That voice. That accent made her weak at the knees.

  “Why don’t you show young Trev around honey while I go and get lunch, I’m starving. Trev’s says he’s eaten.”

  “I would love to take a ride around the property.”

  “I’ll take a ride with you.”

  “Do you feel comfortable with a mustang?” Buck asked.

  “Of course,” Trev said.

  Amelia knew that her dad didn’t like her riding the horses that he’d trained from the wild. He thought they were too temperamental and no good with women. While he gave in to her every whim normally, his fear of losing her to the same accident that took her mother, forced him to put his foot down with the horses. Her own horse was a purebred Arabian mare with a gentle nature. She was beautiful and Amelia loved her but there was something about having a spirited horse beneath her that made her heart race. Besides, she’d just brushed Bella down and fed her after a long ride. Going for a ride with Trevor meant choosing another horse. The other hands knew that she wasn’t suppose to ride Ginger, which was another reason she wanted to do just that; today gave the young woman the perfect opportunity. While the hands were off getting lunch and with Buck going off to join them, she could have her pick. “Come on Trev, we’ll find you the perfect horse.”

  “Trev can ride Ginger,” Buck said.

  Damn. How fair was that? But then again, Trev didn’t know what Ginger looked like. Amelia wandered up and down the aisles of stalls until she was sure her dad was not going to see them ride out and then she stopped at the stall. “This is Ginger,” she lied. The horse looked like Ginger but was in fact a horse that her daddy had bought at an auction. Do you need me to saddle him for you?”

  Trev smirked. “I think I can manage.”

  Amelia looked at the tack that had been hung over the name plaque. If the new cowboy moved it, the horse’s name would come into view.

  “I’ll show you to the tack room then.” She may have thought that Trev would be easily fooled but she was wrong. He petted the large animal.

  “He’s a beautiful horse,” Trev said, his hand running over his strong body and stopping to cover a small white patch on the animal’s right side. At the same time, his gaze flicked over to the horse opposite. “What’s that horse’s name?” he asked.

  “That horse? Uh, that’s called Patch.” Okay she just had to hope that he hadn’t noticed the white spot that had given him his name. She watched as he crossed the stall in a couple of paces and removed the halter from the nameplate. “I think someone’s a fibber, and it isn’t me.”

  Amelia was backed into a corner and her natural reaction was to get defensive. “Well it’s stupid that my father will let a virtual, no not virtual, actual stranger ride Ginger and yet me, his daughter, his only child who has grown up here on this very ranch around horses her whole life, he doesn’t trust.”

  “I don’t think it’s a trust issue. Maybe he’s protecting you. Although if he doesn’t trust you it could be because you’re sometimes loose with the truth. You did just tell me a blatant lie.”

  “Okay, well now you know the truth. That is Ginger, the horse I’m riding. This one is Patch. Saddle him up.”

  “I’ll saddle this one up for you.”

  “Nobody needs to saddle my horse, and I’m taking Ginger.”

  “No missy you aren’t.” While he was talking he slipped the bit into Patch’s mouth and fitted the bridle, ignoring Amelia’s indignant pose. “Now stop giving me a hard time on my first day.”

  “You need to remember who’s working for whom here.”

  “Well, as I see it, I work for your father and you don't work at all.”

  Amelia narrowed her eyes and stomped over to Ginger’s stall. She would just saddle the horse and ride on out of there, and there was nothing he could do to stop her. He may be cute but she wasn’t going to let any bossy cowboy come onto her ranch and tell her what to do.

  “Don’t go in that stall Amelia. Buck doesn’t want you to ride that horse.”

  She turned and gave him the finger. Her eyes widened when he dropped what he was doing and left his own stall.

  “Stop being such a brat! Is that how you make people feel welcome by lying and carrying on like a child who can’t get their own way?”

  “I tried to make you feel welcome. I wanted to take you on a nice ride, like you asked.”

&nbs
p; “Bull. You were using a ride with me to get your own way. If you were my sister your backside would be so sore that you wouldn’t want to be riding Ginger or any other horse today.”

  “I’m not your sister.” The fact that he put her in the same group as a sister didn't improve her mood any either. She would have to do something to fix that.

  “Yes, well get yourself out of that stall now before I treat you like one anyway.”

  Her face had flamed with embarrassment but her body’s reaction to his words had surprised her. Apparently she found the thought of a spanking exciting and yet, it had been the thing that separated them in the end. Well, not for long. For better or worse they were about to be reunited.

  Chapter 3

  “Trevor?”

  “Buck?” Trevor tried to blink his eyes open. Trevor looked at the clock. Surely Buck wasn’t ringing in the middle of the night to try and talk him into coming back again. “It’s two o’clock in the morning.”

  “Is it?” The man had no clue what time it was in either hemisphere. “Trev, have you heard from Amelia?”

  “No. I don’t have her number and she doesn’t have mine. She isn’t there? Hasn’t she come home for Christmas?” As soon as the words were out of his mouth he realized the question was a mute one. Why would Buck have called and asked him if he knew where she was? She probably ran off because she didn’t get her own way about something. What if she hadn’t, though? What if something had happened to her? “When was the last time you spoke to her?”

  “Three days ago. She said she was miserable and she was going to go back to school and wallow in the empty dorm. She snuck out, but in the morning I realized where she’d gone, or where I thought she’d gone. I thought she’d cool off for a couple of days and come back. But I rang the school to check on her and they said she’d never been back.”