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Category: Erotica/Fetish Erotica/Romance
Description: Christmas Crazy is one of 10 short stories in the Her Cowboy's Way anthology from Black Velvet Seductions. It's almost Christmas, there are a gazillion things to do, and Brandi has a miserable cold. Can it get any worse? Yes, her husband could get seriously into mother hen mode! He worries about her, wants her to stay in bed and is ready to make sure she does. But then later?yes, she's very glad she married this hot stud of a cowboy.
eBook Publisher: Black Velvet Seductions Publishing Company, 2010 2010
eBookwise Release Date: August 2012

Available eBook Formats: OEBFF Format (IMP) [32 KB]
Words: 6159
Reading time: 17-24 min.

Brandi sneezed and then sneezed again. No, no, no, no! This was soooo unfair, getting a cold just before Christmas. Her eyes burned, her throat felt scratchy. She'd gone through two boxes of tissues yesterday and must have drunk a gallon or more of orange juice. But she'd refused to take cold pills because they always made her sleepy...and a little bit loopy.

If it wasn't the week before Christmas and if she didn't still have a gazillion things to do, she would just pull the covers over her head and sulk about being miserable. But she didn't have time to sulk. Okay, today she was going to take the darn cold medicine!

She flung her legs over the side of the bed just as Colby walked out of the bathroom. Wearing nothing more than tighty-whities, he made her heart do all kinds of fancy dances. What that man of hers could do with his hands, his mouth, and most definitely with the glorious Mr. Wowser! Maybe she could put off some of her have-to-do-today chores. Maybe she could convince him to take a few more minutes before he went out to work on the ranch, or maybe the whole day.

She was about to make that suggestion when she sneezed again. Stupid cold!

Super Hunk looked pityingly at her. "I think you should stay in bed today, darlin'. Get over this cold."

Tempting, but she couldn't do it. She heaved her body off the bed, tugged at the hem of her over-sized T-shirt, and shook her head. "Can't. I have a list as long as my arm of things to do." She held her arm up for an example, and then reached for a tissue on the nightstand.

He walked closer, but, with her stuffy nose, she couldn't even draw in his scent. That really annoyed her.

He put a palm against her forehead. "Don't feel a fever." He tugged her into a hug, gently stroked her hair. "You look like hell, though."

She snuggled into his warmth and mumbled, "Thanks."

His chuckle made his muscled chest rise and fall beneath her cheek. "Didn't mean to..."

"Never mind, I understand. I've been avoiding mirrors for the last two days. Afraid I'll break one if I even glance into it." She savored his arms around her another second, and then stepped away. "You really shouldn't get too close to me. You'll catch..."

He chuckled again. "If I was worried about catching your cold, I wouldn't be sharing a bed with you." He reached out to tilt up her face. "I wouldn't have made love to you last night."

She remembered the way he'd come to bed looking exhausted from a hard day dealing with some run-away cattle. Remembered the way he'd taken one look at her and gone back down to the kitchen. Her big, tough cowboy had soon returned with a bowl of microwaved chicken soup and proceeded to spoon feed it to her. She hadn't really been hungry, but no way was she going to reject his kind offer. After that...oh my! The things he'd done.

"You're blushing, darlin'." He flashed that crooked grin of his, his eyes sparking with pure male pride at knowing he was responsible.

Brandi smiled. "Just remembering some of what you did. Such a naughty cowboy. My naughty cowboy." Then she sneezed and ruined the moment.

He took her by the shoulders and spun her back toward the bed. "This is where you need to spend the day. End of discussion."

"But..."

He swatted her bottom, encouraged her to climb back between the sheets. "I said 'end of discussion.'"

She had no intention of lazing about in bed all day, but she wasn't up to arguing with him. So she slid back between the rumpled sheets and let him tuck her in, stubborn man. She didn't resist when he leaned down to kiss her forehead either. Her eyes drifted shut, and she decided maybe she could catch a few more minutes of sleep. Just a few.

Somewhere in the fuzziness of near-sleep she thought he said something about her staying put today or else. Or else what? But she was too groggy to really care.

Cookies! The word seemed to jump into the bizarre dream she'd been having about chasing Colby around the snow-covered yard, both of them naked. She really hated to be pulled from that dream, as ridiculous as it was. Still, as reality shoved its way back into her mind, she recalled how she hadn't made even one Christmas cookie yet. And she'd promised the men that she would. She also remembered how they'd rattled off at least a dozen different kinds they favored. They worked so hard, she couldn't let them down. But they were only going to get six kinds...if she could manage to crawl out of this bed.

Half way to the bathroom she thought about how she hadn't even started decorating the tree Colby and Thad had managed to haul into the great room a couple of days ago. She knew Colby's parents had left boxes and boxes of decorations in the attic. He'd said something about them getting their own decorations, but Brandi knew he'd be happier with the old familiar ones. He just wanted to please her. She didn't care about new ones. Okay, she needed to get to that chore today, too.

As she stood under the shower, letting it pound the fogginess from her brain, she thought about all the presents that needed to be wrapped. She had gifts for the ranch hands, for Thad and Sarah, for her father and his fiancee stashed in the guest bedroom. Then there were the gifts she'd gotten for Colby hidden all over the house. He'd said they should each get just one really nice present for each other. Yeah, right! It was Christmas. She always went a little nuts with gift buying and buying for her husband was no exception. She might have gone a little overboard and he might decide to warm her bottom for doing so, but she didn't care. Well, maybe she cared a bit.

Colby had worried about his wife ever since he'd left the house several hours ago. Brandi drove him crazy at times, especially when she had health issues. Most of the year, they'd been learning to deal with her getting closer and closer to being officially declared diabetic. It scared him, her, too. He worried over her and watched her like an old mother hen. She really did try to stick to a good diet, and she got a fair amount of exercise since he'd bought her a treadmill a few months back. Still, he worried, couldn't help it. He loved her so damn much. And this cold had really settled into her. It couldn't have come at a worse time of year, the holidays. She'd been wearing herself out lately with holiday things rather than just staying in bed a good solid day to help knock the bug from her system. Stubborn woman.

He should be out helping with chores, but he'd gotten a feeling a few minutes ago that he needed to come to the house. A gut feeling his wife was disobeying his order to stay in bed. He strode through the house, a sinking feeling building in his stomach. Then he heard the shower running. Shit.

Resigned to what he'd need to do, he took the stairs two at a time. She was sick and he didn't particularly like having to warm her sweet butt, but it appeared he'd have to in order to get her to mind him. In order to make her get the rest her body needed.

"Brandi Lynn," her cowboy called out, knocking firmly on the bathroom door. "What the hell are you doing out of bed?"

She'd just turned off the water. NOW she considered turning it back on and drowning him out. But it wouldn't work. He'd only come storming in and drag her out of the shower. Stubborn man.

Heaving a frustrated sigh, she reached for a towel. "I felt like taking a shower."

"But you're going right back to bed." He said it as a statement of fact, didn't pose it as a question.

"Don't you have chores to do?" She dried off and realized she actually felt a lot better now. Still, she snagged a bottle of day-time cold medicine from the cabinet and chugged down probably more than she should have. But if a little would help, then a lot would help even more. Right? Well, probably.

"The men'll handle the chores until I get back. I had a feeling you were up and going against my wishes."

She wrapped the towel around her, weighing over what he'd said. He'd sounded pissed, as he would so eloquently would put it. But there was a hint of worry in his tone as well. The man worried about her too darn much sometimes. That diabetes scare had really hit him hard, harder than it had hit her. She tried to be patient with him when he got all smothery with concern, but this was just a stupid cold.

Irritated, she opened the door and found him standing inches from her. Scowling. "I'm among the living, so you can go deal with whatever you need to."

His clenched jaw loosened, but the tension didn't leave his big body. "You have no intention of spending the day in bed, do you? The cold's got you good, but you don't have the sense to--"

She puffed up in annoyance. "Don't go there, cowboy! The cold might be making me a bit fuzzy brained, but I still have the sense to deal with what I need to get done."

His shoulders grew even stiffer. She was bucking up against him when he'd shifted into serious take-care-of-hislittle-woman mode. The man could be a real trial when he got like this. If she didn't love him so much, she wouldn't put up with these I'm-in-control moments. He wanted her to stay in bed, and he damn well intended to make her do it, even if it meant taking his hand to her bottom. She knew exactly how he thought after all these months of marriage.

"You're going to spank me, aren't you?" She looked straight at him, already knowing the answer.

"You were going to head down to the kitchen and start making those damn cookies, weren't you?" He glowered right back at her. "Even if your eyes are watery, probably itchy, too. Even if your nose is sore and you spent half the night blowing it. Even if you don't have a dime's worth of energy."

Okay, all of that was true. "It's just a cold. I'll deal with it." Then she sneezed and nearly dropped her towel.

"Fool woman." He took her hand and began leading her to the bed. "Maybe getting a hot bottom and then pouting about it will at least keep you up here a while longer. Maybe you'll fall asleep after a good cry, like you sometimes do. That's what I'm hoping for."

"That's some twisted reasoning." She tried to dig her bare feet into the carpet, but it didn't work. "I'm sick, but you're going to spank me. Spank me hard enough to make me cry. So my eyes will be tired and I'll fall asleep. Definitely twisted reasoning."

He sat on the side of the bed, holding her in place in front of him. "I'm a desperate man. I want you to rest, and this is the only damn way I can get you to do it."

She studied her toes. She needed to repaint the nails.

"Brandi Lynn." His patience had reached an end. "You can still choose to go back to bed and stay there the rest of the day. Without a spanking for encouragement."

She met him eye-to-eye. "I have things to do." It was like talking to a wall. She could see in his grim expression that she might as well have said, "Blah, blah, blah."

"All of those things can be handled tomorrow or the next day."

"You came out of your mother's womb stubborn, didn't you?" She'd heard tales from his mother about how even as a child when he made up his mind about something, he would do it. Even if it earned him a swat or two on his bottom.

He shrugged. "You're stalling, darlin'. You're going over my knee, and I'm going to warm your butt for making me nuts."

She could see in the set of his jaw, in the flare of determination in his eyes that he wasn't going to be swayed on the matter. As much as she didn't want to screw up her day suffering from a sore bottom, she would have to do so. "Fine. Do it."

She dropped the towel, half hoping he'd see her naked body and change his mind, although she doubted it.

His eyes widened for just a second, but then he shook his head. "While I certainly appreciate the view, sweetheart, it's not changing things." He tugged her to his side and then over his lap.