Alicia swallowed the last bite of birthday cake and sat back with a satisfied sigh. She smiled at her sister, Karen, sitting beside her at the crowded table.

"That was an awesome dinner, sis."

Karen grinned, and her green eyes, identical to Alicia's, were dancing. "Glad you enjoyed it. But your birthday present's not quite finished with yet."

Alicia's eyes narrowed even as her stomach did a funny flip flop. "You didn't."

Karen giggled.

"Karen!" Alicia wanted to shout at her older sister, but managed to keep her voice down; she didn't want to alert all her friends at the table to what was going on. They'd find out soon enough, though, unfortunately. "You promised me!"

"Oh, come on, Alicia. Did you really think I'd take you here for your birthday, and not order you a birthday spanking?"

"Yes, yes I did, since I specifically asked you not to!" Alicia hissed.

Karen patted her sister's hand. "Calm down. I don't know why you're so upset. I thought you liked being spanked..." Alicia's face blazed with embarrassment and she was grateful for the noise of the diners around them and the other conversations at their table. "Besides, this is a well known restaurant, and everyone knows about the spanking thing--it's on the menu, for crying out loud! We've seen a couple people being led away from their tables by the staff just since sitting down. Where do you think they were going?"

Alicia had known full well where they were going, and although she'd not wanted to be one of them, she'd still experienced an involuntary twitch of desire as she watched them being led out of the crowded restaurant and bar. She'd been grateful that there hadn't been any public spankings that night; she was aroused just thinking about what those customers were about to receive. But that didn't mean she wanted to join them.

Her sister was still talking. "...I arranged for a private session, after all. I know you said you didn't want me to do that, but it is tradition, Lise. And, hey, maybe it'll help you forget about Damon."

"Don't mention his name!" Alicia hissed. "It's my birthday. I don't want to hear his name!"

"Okay, okay. Calm down. I just thought if someone new gave you what you like, you'd see that there's hope for a new relationship. You can't hide from the world forever, little sister."

Just then a burst of music came over the speakers and Alicia groaned as everyone at the table turned to look at her. They grinned with good cheer and alcoholic buzz as they joined in singing "Happy Birthday." Karen giggled, and Alicia wanted to clock her.

"I guess that's cue time!" She sang and hugged her glowering sister. "Oh, cheer up! You'll thank me later, I just know it!"

As the song died out, a tall, broad-shouldered man wearing jeans, a flannel shirt, black cowboy boots and a Stetson strode across the restaurant. Everyone in the room watched as he walked right over to their table, right up to Alicia, and held out one sun-bronzed, long-fingered hand.

Alicia sat back in her chair, staring at that hand. This was not happening!!

Then he spoke, and his soft, slightly Southern drawl had a strange way of pulling her attention to him. She found herself looking up into a pair of warm, sky blue eyes, set in a very pleasant face framed by dark hair. He touched the brim of his hat in gentlemanly greeting and smiled as he said, "I believe it's your birthday today, Alicia Goode."

It wasn't a question, but he seemed to expect an answer, so she nodded.

There were twitters of laughter and some elbowing around her table.

The man held out his hand again, pressing it closer to her in obvious encouragement. "Well, come along then, darlin'. Your sister ordered you a special present."

She knew she couldn't get out of this without making a scene. Something about this handsome cowboy--Lord, leave it to Karen to remember her thing about cowboys--told her he was not going to take a simple refusal without some arguing. She sent a glare of promising revenge to her grinning sibling, then thrust her hand into the cowboy's and stood up from her chair. She sighed as he led her from the room, applause and cheers following after them.

Once they were out of the room, Alicia tried to reclaim her hand, but the cowboy held fast as he led her down a quiet hallway to the last door on the right. Without a word, he unlocked the door with a key drawn from his back pocket, then ushered her inside.

Alicia's eyes quickly took in the room. It was fairly small, but not crowded, and very clean. There was a small table, two straight-backed, armless chairs and a leather sofa. In the corner was a shelving unit with a state of the art stereo, two shelves full of CDs and a cabinet below. Based on the purpose of the room, Alicia figured that cabinet held an assortment of spanking implements.

"Would you like me to put on some music?" Cowboy was asking. He shot her a grin from under his hat that made her toes curl inside of her sensible flats. "A little bit of country, perhaps?"

"No, thank you," she replied stiffly. This time she did manage to tug her hand out of his, only to experience a strange sense of loss the moment the warm contact was broken. Ignoring the feeling of disappointment, she plunged in with her speech. "Look, my sister did this against my wishes. And I really must insist you not follow through with this ... this..."

"Birthday spanking," he supplied helpfully. She looked up at him for the first time since she'd started talking to find he was grinning at her, clearly amused.