The Lawman (Montana Men Book 1) (10 page)

She gave a small nod. "Yes. He had me down on the ground and I struggled, finding a rock that was part of the edging of the flowerbed. His hand went up beneath my skirt and I hit him. Hard."

A shiver went through her. My hands fisted in my lap at her words. The man had intended to rape her and he was still alive. She might be glad he wasn't dead, but I didn't feel the same.

"So you fled."

"I wouldn't have been able to explain what happened. No one would have believed me." She pointed to her hair. "You'd be surprised what ridiculous things people have said, still say to me because of the color of my hair. Temptress, siren, Jezebel. The Simmons family is well connected enough to have had the police pinning the actions of the man onto me, painting me with a false brush."

"How did you end up with Mrs. Bidwell?"

"I saw an advertisement in the paper a few months beforehand and remembered it. I couldn't think of anything else. I had little money, certainly not enough to leave the city to such an extent where the Simmons family wouldn't find me, nor have people hear about the...murder." She gulped as she said the last. "My red hair would have made me very conspicuous wherever I went."

I stood abruptly, my chair scraping against the wood floor. She jumped at my actions. I was too wound up to sit. She looked up at me with a tearful, fearful face.

"Were you ever going to tell me?"

"That I thought I was a murderer?"

I nodded.

She stood too, came toward me, but stopped. "Yes! That's what I was beginning to say when I came in. I realized that what we shared, even in such a short time, deserved honesty. I didn't mean to kill him. Truly."

"You saw what I do to murderers." My voice was cold.

Her eyes widened. "You mean Baxter. Yes, I know your feelings toward people who commit such horrible crimes."

"He was going to hang, Ellie."

She swayed at the possibility of a similar fate, but settled. "Yes. I know. Are you...are you going to send me back?"

"To Minneapolis?"

Nodding, she swallowed, took a deep breath. "Yes. You shouldn't have to be with a woman who puts shame to your job, to everything you believe in. Or are you going to put me in jail?"

It was my turn to take a deep breath. She didn't think she was worthy of me? She considered herself of the same ilk as Baxter? The woman was crazy if she thought that. Even more so if she thought
I
thought that.

I went over to my gun belt, hung on a peg by the door and pulled off a pair of handcuffs. The hard metal was cool in my hand as I approached her, tears streamed down her face, but she lifted her chin and looked me squarely in the eye. So fierce.

"Hold out your hands."

She did with full compliance, yet she jumped as the final click of the metal was secured about her wrist. Leading her over to the door, I lifted her hands above her head and placed the chain of the handcuffs over a peg high on the wall I used for my hat. She faced the wall, her arms up far enough where she wasn't flat on her feet. She was trapped.

"Ryder, what are you doing?" she screeched, shifting her hips to free herself. With the height and angle of the peg, she was truly caught. And at my mercy.

I moved up close so she could feel the full length of me. The way she shifted and struggled had me rock hard. There was no question she felt my cock against the seam of her ass.

"Do you truly believe I would arrest you for murder?"

Her silky hair brushed against my chin as she nodded. "I thought I killed him."

I reached around and started undoing the buttons at the front of her blouse.

"But you were going to tell me anyway," I said, her bodice opening little by little.

"It's who you are, Ryder. I couldn't let you fall in lo...I mean, be married to a woman who was everything you despised." She looked down at my hands, confused in her agitation. "What...what are you doing?"

The blouse wouldn't come off with her arms caught above her head, but I wanted to see the top swells of her breasts. I undid the button of her skirt, pushed it over her hips and to the floor.

"Fall in love? That's what you were going to say, wasn't it?"

She stood in her open blouse and corset; the woman had no drawers on and the biggest plug in her ass. It was right then, staring at her captured, mostly naked body, that I knew, without a doubt, that I loved her. Even though she was going to tell me her sins, prepared to accept the most ruthless of punishments, she still had forgone her drawers and kept the plug in when she dressed. This, to me, meant she wanted to be mine, was willing to continue to obey me. She was willing to go to jail, yet still do a very trite task of keeping her pussy bare, her ass stretched.

"Too late, baby."

She tried to turn and face me, her chin over one shoulder. "What?"

"I'm already in love with you. And you are with me."

The look in her eyes grew confused, elated and soft all at the same time. There was no question she was overwhelmed, her mind working hard to keep pace with her thoughts, what I was doing to her, what I was telling her....

"How--"

"No wife would go to the gallows, continuing to stretch her ass and go without drawers if she didn't love the man - the sheriff - whose job was to lead her there."

Right then, all at once, she submitted. Her shoulders slumped, her head dropped, she relaxed. She let go. It was a beautiful sight to witness. Brushing her fiery hair and the cotton of her blouse off one shoulder, I kissed the exposed flesh very gently, the skin warm and silky beneath my lips. I caught her scent, peaches and sweetness, and I knew I'd never let her go.

"Ryder," she pleaded. "I didn't mean to kill him...hurt him."

Smoothing my hand down her back to her bare ass, I replied, "He was going to rape you. I'm glad you hit him. It wouldn't have mattered to me if you had killed him."

"But you don't stand for murder!"

I moved both hands now over her skin in soothing motions, as if to tame a skittish mare. "Who does? But when a woman is attacked, assaulted like that? Baby, it was self defense. You did what you had to do."

"Then you're not going to send me back?"

I gave a little headshake even though she couldn't see. So stubborn! "I should add five more to your punishment for thinking that."

Her back stiffened.

"That's right, baby. You are going to get the spanking of your life."

"But--"

"You should have told me everything. I could have made it right."

"Made it right? You aren't going to go after him, are you?"

I pressed one palm against the wall by her head, leaned in so my mouth was right by her ear, my breath fanning her hair. "Let me worry about Simmons. If you'd told me right away, then I would have known we aren't really married and I would have dragged you to the church from the stage."

Her eyes darted to mine. "Not married?"

"I'm married to Eleanor Adams, not Ellen Oldsmere."

Ellie sucked in a breath at the realization.

"After we are done here, we are going to be stopping by the church and making things official. I might want you to behave in bed like a loose woman, but that doesn't mean I want you to be one. You're mine, Ellie, and that's final."

She nodded her head vehemently, her hair moving to snag on my whiskers. "Yes, Ryder," she breathed.

I leaned back and rubbed my cupped palm over her ass. "You can cry out as much as you want while I'm spanking you. Just remember, baby, I'm doing this because you're mine, not because I'm angry with you. I love you and this should help you remember that."

I didn't give her pause to reply. The anger had tapered away. Love and admiration remained, but so did a hearty dose of possessiveness. Knowing she wasn't legally mine - even though I knew she was regardless of a piece of paper - only made this possessiveness more extreme. She would know she was mine if words weren't enough.

And so I spanked her, thoroughly and completely. At first she twisted and shifted away from my palm, but after about ten strokes when her ass was pink all over, she slumped down and took what I gave her. She accepted her punishment, accepted that she was mine, that I was there to protect her, defend her.
Love her.

Once her ass was an appropriate pink hue and I felt she'd grasped all that I'd told her, I lifted her shackled hands over the peg, carefully lowered them to her sides and rubbed her shoulders and arms to relieve the tension and any soreness.

Turning her to face me, I wiped the streaks of tears from her cheeks, kissed her sweaty brow. Pulling her into my chest, I held her securely, letting her regain her bearings. "What's this about hitting Myrna?"

Ellen

I stiffened within Ryder's firm grasp. I could hear his heart beating, solid and steady, beneath my cheek. "Oh, Ryder, you're not going to spank me again!"

"Tell me what you did."

After the spanking I just received, I'd learned my lesson. I wasn't going to keep any secrets from him again, not that I'd planned to hide the altercation with Myrna.

Glancing up, I met his eyes. I wasn't the least bit contrite by my unladylike actions. "I punched her in the nose." The corner of his jaw ticked. "I would do it again, too."

"What was her offense that warranted this?"

"She was slandering your good name."

His head rocked back as if I'd punched
him.
"Let me get this straight. You punched Myrna because she insulted
me?
"

Good, he understood. "Yes, of course. Are you considering bodily harm to Allen Simmons?"

"Definitely." His voice was dark and his eyes got an evil glint to them. In that moment, he wasn't a lawman.

"I felt the same way about Myrna."

He let me go and paced the room. The handcuffs were heavy about my wrists. "I don't think my thoughts on Simmons and yours toward Myrna are the same."

I considered this and found it true. "No, but I protect what's mine." My voice was fierce and his eyes widened. Then he grinned, came toward me, shoulder into my belly and my world upturned. "Ryder! Please don't punish me again. I'm too sore!"

He lowered me to the softness of our bed, roughly flipped me onto my belly. The chain of the handcuffs rattling as he moved me. Going around the bed, he hooked the cuffs over the corner post, effectively trapping me once again.

"I'm not going to punish you, baby. I'm not saying you should punch every person that says something you don't like about me, but you only did what half the people in town have wanted to do for years. Hell, I wanted to punch her in the nose myself a time or two, but I'm too much of a gentleman to give it much credence."

"Then why--"

"I'm going to reward you. I like your possessive streak. It seems to match mine and only confirms to me that you love me, even though you haven't said the words yet."

After all that he'd told me, how he felt about my actions in Minneapolis, there was no doubt of my feelings for him and I couldn't keep them to myself a moment longer. "Ryder, I do. I do love you."

Gently grabbing my hips, he pulled me back so that my knees were tucked beneath me in the familiar position, my ass on display. I had no doubt it was fiery red; it most definitely felt that way.

"I already claimed your pussy, baby." He stroked over my slit, one finger parting my slick folds to slip inside. I clenched down on the digit, milking it, trying to pull it in deeper. He didn't linger, but pulled out and I moaned at the loneliness that swept over me. I needed him in me.

He filled my heart, now it was time for him to fill my body as well.

"Now it's time to claim your ass." His finger tapped against the plug that filled my back entrance and I clenched down once again. "You've taken all of the plugs so well, even in such a short time. I've been stretching you open, preparing you. The one filling you now is the biggest. You're ready to be mine in every way. It's going to feel so good. Then, after, we'll go to the church and make this marriage official. I want there to be no chance for you to get away from me."

I relaxed at his words and felt as he began to work the plug from my ass. It slipped out readily enough and I sighed into the pillow, yet felt empty. The feeling was brief as his finger quickly moved to take the plug's place, slipping easily inside my ass. I cried out at the sensations his thick finger elicited as it circled round and round.

"I think the handcuffs resolve that problem nicely," I replied tartly, my voice escaping in little pants.

I felt him lean toward the side table, his body dipping the bed on one side. The tinny sound of the ointment jar being opened filled the air and I knew what was next. I still jumped at the cold feel of the slick ointment against my back entrance, a finger rimming around the opening once again, slowly, yet very surely, coating me thoroughly for his cock. At the same time, his other hand dropped lower and stroked over my folds, parting me once again and thick fingers plunged deep. There was nothing I could do but take it. My arms were stretched taut above my head, my weight on my knees and I couldn't shift off of them. I was well trapped.

Not that I had any intention of going anywhere. The combination of his fingers fucking my pussy and his finger now pushing into my ass had me crying out. I wanted to shift my hips, to work myself upon his digits, but I couldn't move. When his finger slipped into my ass even further, I lowered my head to the soft quilt and moaned. My entire body sagged, the tension gone, as if it had reconciled itself to the fate that I was at Ryder's mercy. His dominance was complete.

I could feel my orgasm building. Sweat coated my skin, my nipples were tight buds, painfully hard within the confines of my corset. My skin tingled, my blood pounded in my ears. I held my breath as I was almost there. Just a little more with his fingers over that spot...right there...no!

He pulled his fingers free from me entirely with a wet slurping sound. "That's what I like to hear, your dripping pussy telling me it's ready for me."

I hadn't heard him open his pants, but he must have as I felt the broad head of his cock nudging at my pussy. It slid in all the way in one smooth stroke, my body so wet and ready for him. My inner walls clenched down as I cried out. "Yes!"