Her Old-Fashioned Husband Read Free Page A

it; she really did, because she knew Heath was going to take her defiance out on her butt. But she just couldn’t get the words out. As though he knew this, Heath sighed and turned to Tom.
    “Tom, I apologize for my sister’s poor manners and rudeness. I assure you, she will be held accountable for her mouth and actions.”
    “Don’t punish her for that,” Tom said tiredly. “She’s upset with me because I spanked her.”
    Heath stiffened further. “Do tell,” he said dangerously.
    Crazily, Frankie now swung from being angry at Tom to being worried about him. Heath would not look on Tom’s actions kindly.
    “It wasn’t much of a spanking,” she said quickly. “It was over my jeans. I didn’t really feel it.”
    Both men looked at her in surprise. She turned her gaze away, embarrassed.
    “Nevertheless, I should never have spanked her,” Tom said. “She’s not my sister or girlfriend. I simply got frustrated with how little Frankie seems to care about her personal safety. When I saw her, this guy, Rick, was practically mauling her. She was trying to fight him off, but he ’s a lot bigger than she is, and she was easily overpowered.”
    “I would have gotten him off me eventually,” Frankie muttered. “It’s not like that’ s the first time he’s tried it on.”
    She sucked in a breath, wishing she could take those words back.
    Both men stilled and stared at her.
    “What?” Heath asked, his voice a quiet whisper.
    Uh oh .
    Frankie squirmed.
    “Frankie,” Tom said in a cold voice. “What do you mean this isn’t the first time? He’s tried to attack you before?”
    “He wasn’t really attacking me. Just copping a feel.” Although this time he’d been much more persistent. Normally she could just push him off. Surely he wouldn’t have taken it much further. She would have fought him off. Right?
    Frankie felt sick. What if she hadn’t able to? What if he’d kept going? Tom really had saved her.
    She dropped her gaze to her hands.
    “Frankie, how many times have you snuck out with this guy?” Heath asked.
    She clenched her hands into fists.
    “A few,” she admitted. “He always tries to kiss me and stuff. This time, though, he was pretty persistent. I was telling him no, trying to fight him when Tom pulled him off me. Rick went flying. Tom then pulled me out of the house. I didn’t really want to go with him, though. That’s when he spanked me.”
    She bit her lip to hold in a sob.
    Heath started rocking her again, his hand running up and down her back. She buried her head against his chest.
    “I should have killed the fucking bastard,” Tom swore, surprising her.
    “Don’t worry about it,” Heath told him. “Write down the address of this party and I’ll take care of it all.”
    Frankie knew Rick was going to be sorry he was ever born, but she couldn’t bring herself to feel a bit of sympathy for him.
    “I owe you a big debt, Tom,” Heath said.
    “None needed. I’m just glad you’re all right. Frankie, I’ll see you later, okay?”
    Frankie remained silent, keeping her face hidden against Heath’s chest.
    “Frankie,” Heath warned. “What do you say?”
    “See you,” she muttered ungraciously.
    Heath sighed. “Frankie, you can do better than that.” His voice was low. She bit her lip to stop herself from immediately obeying him.
    “It’s okay, I know I’m not her favorite person right now,” Tom told Heath as though she weren’t there.
    “Yeah, well, I’m soon to top that list,” Heath told him grimly.
    Frankie said nothing, just sat there feeling a mixture of anger and relief.
    When the door closed, she raised her head and looked up at her brother.
    “That wasn’t very well done of you, kid. He did you a favor by getting you out of there and bringing you safely home.”
    “He hit me!” she protested.
    “He spanked you.”
    “I thought you’d be angrier at him,” she muttered. What was wrong with her? She’d been defending Tom just five minutes