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  you’ll find an entry in there that says Get kidnapped before lunch!”

  Taylor didn’t know what infuriated her more, the fact that Austin was still reading her

  sister’s diary, or that he was ignoring her. Refusing to put up with it anymore, she reached out

  and snatched the book from his hand. He gave her an exasperated look.

  “What is your problem?” he demanded. “I’m a professional and could care less about

  your sister’s personal life, except where it relates to her disappearance. I need to read that diary,

  so give it back.”

  Austin reached for book as he spoke, but Taylor jerked it further away. “No!” she said. “I

  told you that I don’t want you reading my sister’s diary!”

  His eyes narrowed as he took a step toward her. “Do you actually want your sister found,

  or not?”

  She lifted her chin. “Of course I do,” she said. “I just think it’s completely inappropriate

  for you to be reading her diary, that’s all.”

  Austin scowled. “I don’t have time for this,” he said. “There could be something in there

  that might put us on your sister’s trail.”

  Taylor thought for a moment. She really doubted there would be anything relevant in her

  sister’s diary. But if Austin was right and there really were something in it that could help them

  find her sister...

  “I’ll read through it and let you know if I find anything suspicious,” she finally conceded.

  Austin gave her an impatient look. “I’m not going to sit here while you read that whole

  diary. Besides, you’d probably miss anything important, anyway,” he said. “Now, stop playing

  around and give it back to me.”

  When he reached for it again, Taylor backpedaled, putting the edge of the bed between

  them. “I said, no!”

  He swore under his breath. “Okay, that’s it!”

  Before Taylor could even react, Austin Malone had closed the distance between them and

  plucked the diary from her hand. Infuriated, she made a grab for the book, but he tossed it onto

  the bed. She immediately reached for it, but the bastard caught her arm and steered her away

  from it. He was going to throw her out of the room, she realized.

  “Hey!” she protested. “You can’t...”

  But to her surprise, Austin wasn’t heading for the door. Instead, he sat down on the

  padded bench at the foot of the bed and, with a yank on her arm, sent her tumbling headlong over

  his knee. For a moment, Taylor was so stunned that she simply lay there with her head hanging

  down and her bottom up in the air. She regained her senses quickly enough though, and when

  she did, she immediately tried to push herself up off his lap. She didn’t even get halfway up

  before a strong hand on her back shoved her down and held her there.

  Taylor had no choice but to put her hands on the floor to steady herself. Craning her

  neck, she looked at him over her shoulder. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” she

  demanded.

  “Something someone obviously should have done a long time ago!” he ground out.

  Her brow furrowing in confusion, she opened her mouth to retort, only to let out a

  startled, “Oh!” when she felt his hand come down on her upturned bottom. Her blue eyes went

  wide. Oh my God, the jerk had actually just spanked her!

  Taylor struggled like a wildcat to free herself even as his hand smacked the seat of her

  jeans again. “Let me up, you...owwwww!”

  “Not until we get a few things straight. If you want me to work for you, then this attitude

  of yours has got to stop,” he told her, punctuating the words with a series of hard slaps right on

  the most rounded portion of her asscheeks.

  Ouch! She couldn’t believe how much the spanks stung! What was he, crazy? Did he

  think she would just lay there and put with it? “My attitude!” she shrieked at him. “What the hell

  are you talking about, you jerk? Let me up right now!”

  That earned her a sharp smack on each jean-clad cheek and she yelped. She wanted to say

  something biting right then, but the heat building up in her bottom was making it difficult to

  come up with a suitable retort. She pushed against his muscular leg with all her might, but didn’t

  succeed in getting herself off his lap. God, she hadn’t realized he was so strong!

  “I’m talking about the fact that you’re irritating as hell, Ms. Cavanaugh!” he told her,

  bringing his hand down on her ass yet again. “You may be paying me, but that doesn’t mean I

  have to put up with you second-guessing me the whole time. This is my job and I’m damn good

  at it. But you seem to think that you know more than I do. And despite the fact that we just met,

  you seem to have an almost unnatural ability to aggravate the hell out of me. In fact, I’m betting

  that I’m not the only one you annoy. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if that’s why your sister took

  off. She was probably tired of putting up with her pain in-the-butt sister!”

  Austin punctuated every other word with a sharp smack, and while it stung like crazy,

  Taylor was more outraged by his words than by the spanking he was giving her.

  “How dare you say something like that about me!” she yelled. “You don’t even know me,

  you arrogant jerk!”

  “No, I don’t,” he agreed, his hand resting on her throbbing ass. “But I do know that

  you’re not letting me do my job. Now, are you going to stop being such a pain in the ass and let

  me do what’s necessary to find your sister, or do I need to start spanking you all over again, Ms.

  Cavanaugh?”

  Again? Taylor thought in amazement. Her bottom couldn’t take even one more smack!

  But Austin must have taken her silence for resistance because he said, “I suppose I’ll just have to

  spank you some more then.”

  “No!” she squealed. “Okay, I promise I’ll stop bothering you. Just let me up!”

  But to her chagrin, the private detective continued to hold her in place. “Do I have your

  word on that?”

  Taylor seethed with anger. “Yes,” she said through gritted teeth. “You have my word.”

  He had her word all right, she thought to herself. Her word that she would be finding

  another private investigator as soon as she got off his lap!

  Chapter Two

  But she didn’t. Instead of telling the detective that he was fired, Taylor sat on the couch

  in the living room, silently fuming while Austin Malone thumbed through her sister’s diary back

  in the bedroom. It wasn’t that she had changed her mind about firing the private detective,

  however. It was just that every time she opened her mouth to tell him that his services would no

  longer be required, he would look at her with that warning glint in his eye and she would fall

  silent again. And her bottom still stung way too much to chance another spanking, which is

  exactly what she was sure would happen if she bothered him again.

  Taylor she reached back to surreptitiously rub her sore bottom. What kind of man put a

  woman over his knee and spanked her, anyway? She should have known from looking at his oldfashioned

  office that he was a throwback to a bygone era. He was probably the type that thought

  men were superior and that women should know their place, too. Neanderthal jerk!

  At that moment, Austin walked into the living room, interrupting her thoughts. Taylor

  immediately
got to her feet.

  “Where’s my sister’s diary?” she demanded. She didn’t know why she was making such

  an issue of it, really. If reading her sister’s diary helped them find Tiffany, then what did it

  matter?

  Austin regarded her coolly. “I put it back where I found it.”

  She folded her arms. That was something, she supposed. “So, was there anything in it of

  any use?”

  He didn’t answer right away, but continued to study her with those incredible amber eyes

  of his. “From what I read, I’d say you don’t know your sister as well as you’d like to think, Ms.

  Cavanaugh,” he said. “It turns out that she’s been dating this guy Andrew Wallace since she

  started going to college. And from what I read, she seems to be pretty serious about him.”

  Taylor was speechless. That couldn’t be right. How could her sister have been dating

  someone seriously for so long and not told her? “Did Tiffany say in her diary if she was planning

  on eloping with him?” she asked when she had finally found her voice.

  Austin shook his head. “No, but she did mention that they had talked about getting

  married.”

  Taylor felt like she she’d just been slapped. “I can’t believe my sister would go off and

  get married without telling me,” she said in a soft voice.

  “We still don’t know for sure that she did,” Austin said. “It’s just another possibility. I’ll

  make some calls when we get back to my office and see what I can dig up on this Andrew

  Wallace.”

  Reminding herself of her earlier promise to fire the private detective at the first

  opportunity, Taylor was surprised when she found herself following him to the door instead.

  While she would have preferred to have nothing more to do with Austin Malone, she couldn’t

  ignore the fact that he was the only one actually willing to investigate her sister’s disappearance.

  Surely she could overlook his brutish behavior if it meant finding Tiffany, she told herself. As

  much as it hurt Taylor to think about it, Tiffany very well might have gone off to get married

  without telling her, but it was also still possible that her sister was in trouble. Taylor had to know

  for sure.

  Though the detective had said he was going to make some calls back when they got back

  to his office, he had obviously decided not to wait until then because he pulled out his cell phone

  and began dialing a little while after getting out onto the main road. Even as preoccupied as she

  was with thoughts of her missing sister and all the things she apparently didn’t know about her,

  Taylor still listened intently to Austin’s conversation. While she would have liked to have

  interrupted him every couple of minutes to find out if he’d learned anything, she forced herself to

  wait until he’d hung up the phone.

  “So, what did you find out?” she asked as he put his cell phone away.

  Austin gave her a sidelong glance. “Wallace used his credit card at a gas station on I-

  in Baker a couple of days ago.”

  Taylor’s brow furrowed at the name. Baker was about an hour east of LA, which put it

  right in the middle of the desert. And right in the middle of nowhere. The perfect place to kill

  someone and dump the body, she thought frantically.

  “Was Tiffany with him?” she asked Austin. “Was she all right?”

  The private detective shook his head. “I don’t know if your sister was with him, but I’ll

  find out,” he said as he pulled into a parking space outside his office. “A friend of mine at the

  LAPD is faxing over Wallace’s driver’s license photo. As soon as I get that, I’ll head up to Baker

  and check it out.”

  Taylor nodded. “I’ll go with you,” she said, already reaching for the door handle.

  Austin gave her a sharp look. “No, you won’t,” he said firmly. “You’re going home. I’ll

  call you if I find out anything.”

  Her grip tightened on the door handle. “No way! I’m paying you, so if I want to go with

  you, I will. And you can’t stop me!”

  God, that sounded incredibly childish, she thought. Right then though, she didn’t care.

  This was the first solid lead she had on her sister, and she was going with him to check it out,

  dammit!

  In the seat beside her, Austin’s eyes narrowed warningly. “I thought that spanking I gave

  you back at your sister’s apartment was enough to get you to behave yourself, but apparently I

  was wrong,” he growled. “Maybe you need another. Should I give you one right here in the

  parking lot, or take you up to my office?”

  Taylor’s blushed hotly at the thought of another spanking. “There’s no way I’m letting

  you spank me again!” she said.

  “And there’s no way I’m letting you tag along while I look for your sister,” he told her

  firmly. “Either you agree to let me do the job you hired me to do without this constant

  interference, or I drop this case right now. After I give you the spanking you so richly deserve,

  that is.”

  It was on the tip of Taylor’s tongue to tell Austin Malone that she didn’t need his help,

  that with the lead he had given her, she could find Tiffany on her own, but the truth was that she

  did need his help. Even if she found someone at the gas station in Baker who recognized

  Wallace, she wouldn’t know what to do next. Austin had contacts and resources that she didn’t.

  “Fine!” she snapped.

  Austin inclined his head. “Good. I’m glad to see that you can be reasonable sometimes,”

  he said. “I’m going to need a recent photo of your sister. Do you have one with you?”

  Thinking that the private detective would need a photo if he’d agreed to take the case,

  Taylor had actually brought a picture of Tiffany with her. Opening her purse, she reached inside

  and took it out.

  “This was taken before Tiffany started college,” she said as she handed it to him. She and

  her sister had gone out to Catalina Island for the day, and Taylor had taken the picture of the

  other girl after they had come back from a horseback ride.

  Austin studied the photo for a moment, but made no comment, other than to say that he

  would show her sister’s picture around at the gas station up in Baker and ask if anyone

  remembered seeing her with Andrew Wallace.

  “You’ll call me the moment you find out anything, right?” she asked as they got out of

  the Wrangler.

  He looked at her over the top of the SUV. “I told you that I would,” he said, and then

  sighed before adding in a gentler tone, “Ms. Cavanaugh, if your sister is with this guy Wallace,

  I’m sure she’s just fine.”

  She folded her arms. “You don’t know that,” she insisted.

  The private detective sighed again. “No, I don’t,” he agreed. “Which is why I’m going to

  go up to Baker, and then follow it up from there. Now, why don’t you go home and try to relax. I

  promise that I’ll call you as soon as I learn something.”

  Since her car was parked in that direction, Taylor fell into step beside Austin as he began

  to walk toward his office. When they reached the door, she had to resist the impulse to follow

  him upstairs. Since her sister had disappeared, she’d been going nonstop on nerves and

  adrenaline. She couldn’t imagine how she could just go home and “relax.” But trailing after him

&nb
sp; like a puppy wouldn’t get her sister found any faster. And would probably only get her spanked

  again, Taylor thought.

  “Thank you,” she found herself saying as he stood expectantly in the doorway. Then to

  make sure that he wouldn’t think she was thanking him for the spanking he’d given her earlier,

  she added, “For taking the case, I mean.”

  Austin studied her for a moment in silence before he finally nodded. “You’re welcome,”

  he said. “Now, go home and try not to worry. I’ll find her.”

  But as she sat in her car a few minutes later, Taylor realized that while she might be

  grateful Austin Malone had taken the case, there was no way she could simply stand by and wait

  for him to find her sister. She just couldn’t do it. She had spent the past ten years with no one to

  rely on but herself and she’d gotten used to that. Her sister might be in college now, but Tiffany

  was still her responsibility, and she needed to be the one to find the girl. Which meant that

  Taylor had no intention of playing by Malone’s stupid rules. If he didn’t want her to tag along,

  then she would just have to make sure he didn’t realize she was doing it. How hard could it be?

  she thought. When he left for Baker, she would simply follow him.

  Back in his office, Austin tossed his keys onto the desk with a sigh. Checking out the lead

  at that gas station up in Baker was going to be a waste of time, and he knew it. He already had a

  good idea exactly where the two college kids had been heading. So why the hell had he told

  Taylor Cavanaugh he’d look into it? Because he’d never been able to say no to a beautiful

  woman, that’s why, he thought. And with those big blue eyes, long dark hair, and hot body,

  Taylor Cavanaugh was definitely beautiful.

  There was another reason why had he agreed to keep helping Taylor, though. After

  reading her sister’s diary, he had begun to feel a little sorry for Taylor. Tiffany had been brutally

  honest in her diary, which was why he hadn’t let Taylor see it for herself. While Tiffany

  obviously loved her older sister, she’d written endlessly in her diary about how she felt

  smothered by Taylor’s overprotective attitude and constant need to run her life. And Tiffany had

  apparently grown tired of what she viewed as Taylor’s bitter and cynical outlook on men and