Laying Down the Law by Laylah Roberts

her head at the large sandwich he held towards her.
    "I'm okay," she muttered, feeling a hell of a lot worse than okay. Man, was she going to feel this tomorrow!
    "Callie," he said with infinite patience.
    "You need to eat, we still have to tramp back down and you're not going to make it without some fuel. Now eat."
    Callie reluctantly took the sandwich, knowing he was right. Surprisingly it was quite good and she found with some shock that she'd managed to eat over half of it before her managed to eat over half of it before her stomach protested that it was full.
    "Thanks, that was good," she commented as she wrapped the rest back up. Tanner frowned but didn't force the issue.
    "I suppose you can eat the rest when we get back," was all he said.
    "Come here." Callie looked over in surprise at the gruff words. He patted his thigh in invitation.
    “Why?”
    He chuckled. “So suspicious. I can tell you have a headache, squirt. Now come here and let me rub your head for you.” Callie moved over and laid her head on his hard thigh, trying desperately to ignore how close she was to his cock. Even though she was exhausted, her body still stirred at his scent. Sighing with pleasure as he rubbed her scent. Sighing with pleasure as he rubbed her temple she closed her eyes and drifted softly.
    “Why did you allow yourself to get to this point, squirt?”
    She stiffened and tried to rise, but he easily held her down. “What do you mean?”
    “I want to know why you haven’t been taking better care of yourself. You’ve deliberately ignored the doctor’s advice for years and I want to know why. I also want to know why you didn’t tell me you had an ulcer.”
    Callie snorted and squirmed her way backwards until she could sit up and face him.
    Bad enough he wanted to have this conversation, she wasn’t going to have it in such a vulnerable position.
    “Maybe because it was none of your business?”

    He raised his eyebrow. “Is that so? You didn’t think I would want to know that you were ill, that I wouldn’t want to help take care of you.”
    “I can take care of myself.”
    “Obviously not or I wouldn’t have had to drag you to the doctors the other day, or force you to eat and give up your beloved caffeine.
    Why haven’t you been looking after yourself?” Callie shrugged uncomfortably as she looked out over the view.
    “Callie?” He wasn’t going to give in.
    “I don’t know. I guess, I just don’t really think about it. I just keep going until I collapse. I hear this voice in my head telling me I’ll never be good enough, that I will never succeed and I want to prove it wrong.”
    “Whose voice is it, sweetie?” He drew

    “Whose voice is it, sweetie?” He drew her into his arms, rocking her gently as she began to cry.
    “Ryan,” she whispered. Tanner tensed beneath her. She glanced up to see his jaw clench. “He always said I was worthless, that I wasn’t worth his time. I always forgot to do the laundry or I burnt dinner, I was forever costing him money, money he didn’t have.”
    “But you know now that he was the one at fault, don’t you? You were a child, squirt, you shouldn’t be expected to run a household, and he should have taken care of you not the other way around.”
    Callie shrugged.
    Sighing, Tanner drew her up so that she sat upon his lap. “You deserve the world, baby.
    You are worth more to me than anything I own, more than anything else. You are my world Callie and one day you will believe it. In the meantime I’ll just have to ensure that you the meantime I’ll just have to ensure that you take care of yourself, and spank you when you don’t.” Callie leaned back to glare at him, but he just grinned down at her, totally unrepentant.
    “So, young lady, no more 14 hour days, you will close up and finish each day at 6pm.” He held up a hand to stop her speaking. “Let me finish. You may need to look at hiring another vet part-time, don’t worry about the money, we’ll sort