by Poppy Flynn
Ohmygod, which one was he talking about? Her mind raced through the book. There were a few chapters she had read and re-read. No way it would have fallen open on anything that wasn’t hugely erotic and incriminating, it was just a question of how much.
“So, do you have a particular interest in some of the shenanigans in this book?”
The silence stretched as she scrambled with what to say and all the while Cody just sat there watching her expectantly and waiting for her to respond.
“Maaaybe?” Jeez! It came out like a question. What a dork. She bit her lip and his heated gaze followed the movement before coming back to meet her eyes. His look incinerated her, and she felt her nipples pebble under her cotton shirt and had to fight the urge to look down and see if it was noticeable.
“It’s quite… titillating,” he said, never taking his eyes off her. “And something that I have to admit, I find I have rather a fondness for, as you may have guessed.”
Ellie knew her eyes must be as round as saucers at that last little revelation. What the heck was he referring to? Exactly what was he fond of and speaking of like it was something he’d indulged in before?
One side of his oh-so-kissable mouth kicked up in a small half smile, and Ellie thought the ability to breathe might just have deserted her.
“What?” It came out as a hoarse whisper, but she knew damn well he’d heard her when his eyes darkened even more.
“Spanking,” he said succinctly. Nothing else, just that one word, but it had a full body shudder coursing through her and her breath hitching.
Her mouth hung open, but no words came out. Her mind went blank, and she just stood there staring at him, her throat dry as a bone and panties soaking.
“Come here, Ellie.”
He patted his thigh, and her gaze dropped there instead. She licked her parched lips and tried to swallow past the huge lump that had appeared in her throat, but her feet clearly had a mind of their own and they were overjoyed that he had taken control. Trepidation filled her entire being, but her brain was doing its own little happy dance. She didn’t see the paddle anywhere this time. What did that mean? The paddling had been confusing on so many levels, but one of her deepest fantasies was an over the knee hand spanking. That was what happened in her book… was Cody going to make it become a reality?
She stopped next to him and wondered what she was supposed to do next. This kind of thing only ever happened in her dreams; in those her clothes all magically melted away, so she wasn’t entirely sure how that translated into actuality.
Thankfully, Cody had no such uncertainty. He pulled her towards him by her belt loops, his fingers hesitating over the button of her jeans as he said, “I prefer to spank on a bare bottom, but since you’re still a novice at this, I’ll settle for losing the denim and letting you keep your panties.”
The words wouldn’t come out of her mouth, so she nodded her consent. Hell, he could probably do whatever he liked with her right now.
The button popped undone, and he eased the zipper down oh so slowly. She could feel the heat of his hand against her mons and had to swallow a moan… now her voice decided to return?
Reaching back, he pushed his hands down the back of her jeans as she stood there in front of him. Everywhere his hands touched, she felt her skin tingle. He palmed her buttocks, pushing the garment down. She could no longer hold back the quivering that started in her thighs.
“Are you scared?” Cody murmured the words softly against her stomach.
“No.” The words were barely a breath. It wasn’t fear that was consuming her right now. She felt sure he must be able to smell her arousal, his head was so close to the apex of her thighs.
He continued to push her clothing down her legs, sending a shower of goosebumps following in the wake of his warm fingers.
“I should give you a proper punishment spanking…”
She shivered.
“… for not telling me what Cora and her sisters were up to,” he said against her belly as he nuzzled the soft skin there with his nose.
“And you can be sure, that if this relationship continues, I will discipline you if I feel that it’s necessary. Probably best for you to know that from the start, although I imagine you might have guessed that already. Perhaps I should have made that clear to Cora; it might have made her think twice before causing trouble.”
Ellie sucked in a one breath and then another, but it still felt like she couldn’t get enough air. She watched, mesmerized, as he sat back and rolled up his shirt sleeves, uncovering strong, tanned forearms with a smattering of dark hair. He continued, unhurriedly.
“But this time, I’ll take it slow and if it still gets too much, you just need to tell me to stop. Do you understand?”
She was full out panting now. She nodded again, but this time he demanded more.
“I need to hear the words, Ellie. Do you understand?”
“Yes!” Her voice sounded raw and breathless, and she had to tamp down the urge to call him ‘Daddy’, like the heroine in that book they’d both been reading.
The next moment, he patted his knee once more, but this time he didn’t waste a moment before pulling her across it, adjusting her bodily until she was positioned exactly where he wanted her.
His hand was on her butt, stroking in circles over the top of her sensible white panties. Oh, how she wished she was wearing something a little more alluring. It seemed Cody disagreed.
“Such pure and innocent underwear,” he crooned quietly. “And yet, I don’t think your thoughts are quite so pure, are they Ellie?”
She didn’t answer; couldn’t. And thankfully he didn’t seem to require a response.
“You should probably also know that I’m likely to make up whatever reasons I like in order to get my hands on this luscious ass of yours, Ellie. And that’s okay, because I’m the one who’s in charge, aren’t I.”
The hand stroking her ass was mesmerizing, but Ellie’s stomach was still clenched in anticipation of the first smack. Her gaze was riveted to the floor, but she didn’t really see it, and her plait dangled down, coiling onto the carpet next to her head. The waiting was driving her crazy, and she wished he’d deliver the first spank to stop the unhurried deliberation of it all.
Still, when it finally came, she really wasn’t prepared. This was him taking it easy? That was the first thought that barged through her head. Her panties really didn’t offer that much protection. Certainly not as much as the seat of her jeans had the first time around. And who would have thought that a hand would be so hard. Unlike the thuddiness of the paddle, Cody’s palm was altogether slappier. Hell, if this was his idea of what wasn’t a punishment, then she never wanted to find out what was.
It didn’t seem like there was enough time before he delivered a matching slap on the other side and her entire butt was stinging. She opened her mouth to say something. Like maybe this wasn’t quite the sensual feast that women’s fiction made it out to be and they should stop, draw a line under the experience, and never visit it again.
An ephemeral kind of disappointment shuddered through her and perhaps Cody picked up on her vacillation because he stilled and rubbed her stinging buttocks, soothing away that initial pain.
And that was when it happened.
The feel of his hand stroking over her sensitized ass sent a shower of desire skittering to her lady bits, and the brief pain he had inflicted morphed into a delicious heat. Inexplicably, she found herself wiggling and wanting him to do it all over again, to see if her initial perceptions were accurate. And he did.
This time she was a little more prepared, and it didn’t come as so much of a shock. He peppered her ass, taking his time, never striking the same place twice and alternating with those soothing strokes that heated her up in an entirely different way. It was altogether different from the paddle; very much more intimate.
She didn’t know how long it went on for; she was entirely too lost in her own head, trying to make sense of exactly wh
at she was feeling. There was a little bit of uncertainty, a modicum of confusion, and a whole lot more arousal than she expected after those first couple of swats.
She didn’t hate it.
And then, just when she thought it was all over, Cody upped the stakes.
“I have something else for you.”
He held something up in front of her and Ellie blinked at it through eyes clouded with both lust and a heavy kind of fog which seemed to slow all of her thought processes.
She stared at it for long moments, but her brain wasn’t really functioning on all cylinders right now.
“Do you know what it is?”
Ellie blinked some more. She knew what she thought it was from some of the books she’d read, but she’d never seen one up close and personal before, so her mind faltered.
“It’s a butt plug,” Cody confirmed, and a whole-body shiver cascaded through Ellie’s frame. She just wasn’t sure whether it had its origin in fear or excitement. Maybe a healthy dose of both.
He twirled the bulb-like, silver toy by its… oh boy, did you call it a handle or what? She tried to concentrate on his words instead of the motion.
“With your permission, I’d like to start training you for anal.”
That was it! Her mind was blank again. It was like it just didn’t know what to think or how to respond, so it just shut down on the decision-making process.
“And while I realize you haven’t committed yourself to any of us yet, I believe it’s a practice that my brothers are also rather fond of. Although I have to admit that I hope I won’t be doing this wholly for their benefit.” He said the last with a dry laugh and as he did so, he eased his fingers underneath the elastic waistband of her panties and stroked her buttocks, skin on skin, which sent her lust into the stratosphere. Hot damn, she might just let him do anything he wanted.
“Okay,” she finally replied hoarsely, though she was not at all sure whether she was in her right mind. But the simple truth was that laying here across his knee like this just made her want to please him.
Chapter Thirteen
The next couple of weeks were… interesting. Ellie happily settled into her role of, well, she’d call herself a ‘housekeeper’ for now, and she loved every minute. She had often thought she’d been born in the wrong century and was frequently embarrassed to admit that nothing fulfilled her more than cooking and looking after her men.
Here, at least, that wasn’t a mindset she had to worry about. She could just be herself and do all the things she loved with no one sniping about how she was undermining feminist issues or some such thing. And really, it wasn’t that she thought all women should stay at home and look after their husbands. She just thought every woman had the right to choose. And this was her choice.
And as for that spanking Cody had given her, well, she was still trying to get her head around that one; vacillating between wanting to experience it again and run far, far away.
And her men because, really, she thought of all three of them as hers; they were set to blow her mind even further!
There didn’t seem to be any planning or structure to their joint offensive; there were no set days or times that each of them specified as their own, but despite their random engagements, they somehow managed not to step on each other’s toes. They also kept Ellie completely off balance. Just when she thought she was settling into a rhythm with one of them, another would step up and set her head spinning all over again.
Honestly, she thought maybe Cody had the edge. That whole dominant vibe he threw off corresponded perfectly with her own deferential headspace and as ambivalent as she still was over the spanking, the whole scenario and her wanting to drop to her knees and kiss his feet in a way that had her mildly embarrassed… and maybe that was the reason she hadn’t completely embraced that particular relationship. She actually wasn’t sure how she felt about becoming so unmitigatedly servile. Still, she was three quarters of the way there. Or at least she thought she was until Syrus upped the stakes.
He eased up behind her and slipped his arms around her waist while she was washing some vegetables at the sink and daydreaming out of the kitchen window at the sight of the hills and pastures in the distance and for a moment it seemed like he had walked straight out of her fantasies.
She leaned back against his leanly muscled chest and closed her eyes; she just couldn’t help herself; it felt so good to just be held for a moment. To lose herself in the shelter of those strong, reliable arms.
Syrus nuzzled her neck and Ellie felt an intense yearning skitter along her nerve endings as her heart did a slow roll.
“Hey sweetheart, can you organize a meal that can pretty much cook itself today?” he asked, his breath warm against the shell of her ear.
Ellie tried her best to concentrate on what he was saying, but when he pulled her back against him and started placing butterfly light kisses down the side of her neck, it was all she could do not to melt into a puddle at his feet.
“I… umm.” Oh heck, what did he ask? She opened her eyes and tried to concentrate on the vegetables in the bowl instead. Oh yes, dinner.
“Yes, of course,” she replied breathlessly. “I can just throw all this together in the slow cooker.”
“Perfect. I’ve taken the day off and I’ve got a surprise in store for you.”
“You have?”
“Yes, Siree, so as soon as you’re ready, come and find me in the stables.”
Ellie was intrigued. She threw together a quick lamb casserole, set the slow cooker to its lowest setting and made her way to the stable, wondering if Syrus wanted her to help with Blaze and the foal.
When she found him, she was surprised to see Syrus’ personal mount, a beautiful chestnut roan named Sorrel, and a quiet grey mare called Gracie, both saddled. Syrus was busy filling panniers and crooning to the pair of them in that melted chocolate voice he sometimes used. Was it possible to be jealous of a horse?
He gave her a slow, seductive smile when he saw her and as soon as he’d finished what he was doing, he came over and took her hand, pulling the two horses along behind them by their reins.
“I thought we could take a trip out. I know you said you used to ride when you were younger, but I don’t think you’ve done any since you got here.”
“Oh! No, I haven’t,” she exclaimed, delighted. “Are we going to check some fences or something?”
He chuckled lightly and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek.
“Not exactly,” he said, as he helped her onto Gracie’s back. It had been a while… like over a decade, but she had ridden a lot as a child. She’d tried to keep it up after she moved in with Gran, but a riding school just hadn’t been the same as giving her own pony its head across the open fields of her parents ranch, and she’d eventually given up since it seemed only to serve as a reminder of everything she’d lost, rather than provide any kind of pleasure.
An overwhelming sense of satisfaction settled into her bones as she relaxed into the saddle; a sense of coming home.
“We’ll have to get you your own horse at some point,” Syrus remarked, and the words alone brought tears to her eyes that she had to blink away before he saw them.
The ride, especially when they came to a wide, flat field and let the horses fly, made something crack inside her heart. It had been so very long, and she really hadn’t realized just how much she had missed this. Yes, she’d felt that comforting sense of homecoming when she arrived at the ranch, but this was something different. This was like finding her place in life and while it was inexorably recorded, whichever brother she eventually settled down with; it was Syrus who had given her this, and that was something she would cherish forever. It was something that money couldn’t buy, and that made it even more special.
Syrus led the way to a small, but beautiful meadow which had been allowed to grow freely, probably because of its size and the fact that, since it was hemmed in on all four sides by a screen of mature trees, it would be difficult to get a
nything in or out.
“Wow! This is beautiful!”
“Apparently my great Grandfather fenced it off for my Grandmother one hundred years ago, as a special place for her to go when she wanted some quiet time or solitude. I like to think they came up here for a bit of privacy too, since they had seven children.”
He dismounted and got busy unpacking the panniers while Ellie took in the abundance of wildflowers; there was a blanket of purple prairie clover but interspersed were bobbing red and yellow poppies, sturdy ox-eye daisies, some delicate bell flowers and even a few patches of brightly colored lilies. The hedge was interspersed with lilac trees and the smell was divine and the familiar spears of fireweed clustered in the hedge line. It was like a little slice of paradise.
“The original pasture was seeded and planted out, but since then it pretty much seeds itself, although I make a point of replenishing it every few years so that some of the more aggressive weeds don’t take over.”
Ellie finished her slow three-hundred-and-sixty-degree circle that she’d been turning to take it all in and faced towards him again to find that Syrus had spread out a picnic blanket and was busy loading it with all kinds of nibbles and treats.
“Syrus!” she gasped. “How did you do all this?”
He looked up and gave her that panty melting smile which had her heart fluttering like a butterfly in her chest.
“Oh, I have my ways. Come and sit down and let me feed you for a change.”
He sat on the colorful blanket and gestured the lavish spread before patting the space next to him. At this moment Ellie thought she might just follow him anywhere and happily dropped down next to him.
He opened a tub and speared a fat olive with a fork and brought it up to her lips. Ellie stared into his smiling, whisky colored eyes as she closed her lips around the fork and sampled the treat and Syrus watched her lips as he followed it with a cheese stuffed cherry pepper.
Eating had never been such a decadent, sensuous experience, and Ellie was transfixed by him. He insisted on feeding her every mouthful, and every bite was a little taste of heaven. There was a tiny quiche, crisp vegetables with creamy dip and a delicate soft cheese served on miniature crackers. Then there were dates stuffed with walnuts and slices of fresh fruit; kiwi, melon, berries and peaches along with an ice-cold thermos of her favorite pomegranate juice. The man had thought of everything, and she was deeply touched by the care he had taken to learn the things she liked and include them.
