by Vanessa Vale
“What did you surmise?” His voice had lost all the anger.
“When I first saw the article, I was devastated. I thought you’d lied to me, were the worst kind of man, that you’d conquered another virgin and left her behind. God, what they wrote about you! It took me a week.”
“I married you,” he replied. “If I was going to fuck a woman and leave her, a whore at the brothel would have been the wiser choice.”
“That’s exactly what I thought as well. As you said, I’m prickly. Why would you want to be stuck with me in the eyes of God and man, if you weren’t telling the truth? You said you were a Pinkerton and I knew you were off gallivanting the countryside for some job. You left your bride behind, so I knew it was important.”
“Jesus, sweetness, you thought I wanted to leave you? Leave that warm bed with your naked body tucked up against me? You had my love marks on your skin, my seed sticky on your thighs. It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done.”
The turmoil and frustration in my eyes was my undoing and all the weeks of anger drained from me, like water down a drain. “I know. I missed you. So much.” I held up my hand to stop him from getting closer. “You could have told me the truth. I would have kept your confidence.”
He shook his head. “I gave my word. I didn’t know you then and I couldn’t go back. I wanted to tell you. Desperately.”
“And I wanted to know the truth. Desperately,” I replied, trying to get him to see why I did something so reckless.
Jack sighed, came over to me and stroked my cheek. “Don’t think that saying that will get you out of your punishment.” I tried to step back, but he hooked an arm about me. “You’re going to tell me, wife, how you found me.”
I played with a button on his shirt as I shrugged. “It wasn’t so hard.”
“Oh, really? Then tell me why the US Cavalry, the Pinkertons and US Marshal Service has yet to find Benson and his men and you knew the exact time and place of their latest robbery?”
I didn’t answer right away, so he tilted my chin up with his fingers. “Lily,” he chided.
I shrugged again, wishing he’d call me by sweetness instead. “When I realized you couldn’t have done anything listed in the paper, I started investigating.”
His eyebrows slid up underneath his hair. “Investigating? That newspaper man and those other stuck-up buffoons wouldn’t share anything with you.”
“Of course, he wouldn’t. He’s a pompous little piece of…” I sighed. “Let’s just say I don’t like the man. His wife, however, I know quite well. It turns out she had an ingrown toenail that pained her terribly.”
Jack groaned. “I think I know where this is going.”
I pursed my lips. “You do not,” I countered. “The woman had said I’d saved her life and so she was more than happy to do a little digging for me. Once I learned the truth from her, I moved on to Mr. Granby.”
“Let me guess, the railroad owner had flatulence?” he asked.
I laughed. “No. Gout.”
“Then what, my little detective?”
“Once I knew the copper kings were after Benson and they’d set you on them, I just followed a pattern of his behavior and learned how he robbed banks.”
He stiffened at that statement.
“And how is that?” His voice went deep and cold.
I assumed it was obvious, but not to Jack. “I went to the robbed banks, of course.”
“You went all over southwest Montana all alone?”
His voice went back up.
“You know Dr. Bower banned me from helping him at the mines. He has Dr. Meager now to assist him, the little muskrat, so I had some time on my hands. Do you really think he monitors me that closely?”
“Clearly not,” he grumbled. “You belong to me now and I promise I will monitor you much more closely.”
“From where, your next assignment in… Kansas? Colorado?”
He didn’t reply, but instead tugged me down to the ground and had me on all fours before I could breathe. He knelt back on his heels beside me, my belly over his muscled thighs. My fingers gripped the tall grass in my hands, the scent of it filling the air I looked over my shoulder at him.
“Jack!” I cried as he tugged up my long dress to bare my bottom.
He groaned. “Where the hell are your drawers?”
“You told me never to wear them!” I yelled.
He growled. Yes, an actual growl.
Smack.
“You went to a bank robbery without any drawers?”
Smack.
“Jack! Are you spanking me because I’m not wearing drawers?”
Smack.
“No, I’m spanking you because you’re too smart for your own good. You went off on this harebrained plan to find me, putting yourself in all kinds of danger, let alone a bank robbery! What if I wasn’t there to save you?”
His palm rained down steadily, finding new places to strike each time. I tried to wiggle away, but he hooked his free hand around my hip and I wasn’t going anywhere. The painful swats brought about all my upset, all my worries to the surface, like the bubbling hot springs that dotted the territory. I had been so sad, so distraught, then hopeful, then curious, then frightened, so many emotions where Jack was concerned. He was the only person who truly made me feel and I gave over to his power over me, for I wanted this connection with him. I knew he, too, felt something and this was how he let it out. If I was beneath him, beneath his hand, he had me safe and protected. If he spanked me, he knew I was paying attention to him, that I knew his dominance and I submitted to it. I began to cry about this connection we had, how powerful and ridiculously deep it was.
I dropped to my forearms, my forehead resting on them. My bottom was up in the air for him and he didn’t stop. The heat of his palm, the stinging strikes morphed into delicious pleasure. It was odd and completely surprising, but I wanted Jack with an intensity born from danger and distance.
“Jack!” I cried. He must have heard something different in my plea, for his hand stopped. As he moved around behind me, I felt the rough texture of his pants on my thighs as he nudged my knees further apart.
The rustle of his pants was the only sound besides the distant chords of crickets. With his hands settled on my hips, I felt the blunt head of his cock at my entrance.
I tossed my head back at the delicious feel of it there. “Yes!” I cried, eager for him.
Curving himself over my back, he placed a hand on the grass beside my shoulder so he could murmur in my ear. “So wet for me, sweetness. I’m going to fuck you now.”
“Yes,” I repeated, pushing my hips back against him.
“Tsk, tsk, I set the pace. You can bring me to my knees, sweetness, but I’m the one who does the fucking.”
He drove into me then, slow but in one long stroke. Jack groaned as he bottomed out. The feel of his thighs against my sore bottom only added another layer of sensation.
“Yes, please, fuck me,” I gasped. “God, I need it.”
Jack took me then, not overly hard, but with a ruthless precision that had me so wet for him that each thrust was slick sounding. He didn’t stop, at first with a consistent pace, but soon he gave over to his baser nature and his motions became more erratic. Lost to his pleasure. Pulling me up, he settled me atop his thighs, my back pressed to his chest as he knelt in the grass, his cock buried deep inside me. His mouth went to my neck and he sucked and licked the spot behind my ear. His arms curved around me and he gripped the front of my dress and tugged it apart. The buttons flew into the air, lost in the grass as his hands lifted my breasts from my corset. As his thumbs brushed over my nipples, I moaned.
Jack stilled, buried inside me, his hands cupping me. Gently, softly he kneaded my tender flesh, as if he were relearning my curves.
“Yes!” I cried. The feel of his hands on my sensitive skin had me close to coming.
He stopped to undo the top few inches of stays on my corset, then cupped my breasts again, weighing them, feeling them as if
for the first time.
“Sweetness, have something to tell me?”
I pressed into his hands, needing him to use his thumbs on my very responsive nipples. “What?” I asked, confused as to why he stopped moving.
“Your breasts are bigger.”
“Oh.”
“Sweetness,” he repeated, drawing the word out. God, I loved when he called me that. It meant that I wasn’t in the least bit of trouble, unlike when he called me by my real name.
He slid a hand down my open dress, over the bottom of my corset, lower still, to lay flat over my belly.
“Tell me we made a baby that night.”
His voice was rough with desperation and… hope.
“We… we made a baby that night,” I repeated, my voice soft.
He groaned again, this time a sound almost like a wounded animal. He began to move, lifting and lowering me on his cock, this time so gently, so carefully.
“Oh, Jack, you feel so good,” I admitted, letting my head fall back on his shoulder.
“You’re going to come for me, sweetness. All over my cock.”
It didn’t take much to get me close. Perhaps it was the time apart. Perhaps it was because my body was extra sensitive, but the friction of his cock alone had me clenching down on him as I raised and lowered myself.
“Easy, gentle, sweetness. That’s right, ride my cock and take what you want. Yes. You’re going to come all over my cock. Milk it. Such a good girl. Yes. Come now.”
His words in my ear were so carnal, so erotic that they pushed me over the edge. My cries of pleasure were lifted on the wind as my body shook with ripples of the sweetest pleasure.
When I’d slumped down into Jack’s hold, he lifted me from him, his hard cock slipping from me. As he set me on my feet, I placed my hands on his shoulders. For once I was taller than he. His dark eyes bored into mine as he began to strip the dress from me. I said nothing—he’d fucked the fight right out of me—and let him do as he wished. He still wore all his clothes, only the front placket of his pants was open and his cock jutting out from the dark nest of curls. It was slick and glistening with my wetness, the color of it a vibrant and angry shade of red.
“I need to see all of you.”
Layer by layer, he stripped me until I stood before him naked. We were alone on the prairie, nothing around us for miles. The sun had worked its way behind the distant mountains, but the air was still warm.
Reverently, he stroked his callused palms over my skin. My arms, my breasts, down between the valley of them, over my flat belly.
“A baby.”
I nodded and bit my lip, watching him look over my body. He looked enthralled, stunned even. I’d known for about a week and had gotten used to the idea. While my breasts were bigger, they were more sensitive too. Fortunately, I wasn’t sick in the mornings as some expectant women were. “How could you tell?”
A sly grin tipped up the corner of his mouth as he cupped my breasts in his palms. “I know your body, sweetness. I know every inch of you. Well, almost all of you, but soon I’ll take everything.”
At my little frown of confusion, he just continued. “I’ve thought about these perfect tits for weeks. I know how they should feel and you are much bigger.” He brushed his thumbs over the plump tips, which quickly turned them hard.
My eyes closed and my head fell back. “I like that,” I admitted.
“Mmm,” he crooned. “You can’t hide anything from me. I see all of you, sweetness.”
I angled down and cupped his bearded jaw. “I see you, too.”
He just looked at me for a minute, then replied softly, “Yes, I think you do.” His eyes narrowed then. “Lily, I should spank your ass all over again for carrying my baby and walking into a bank robbery. I’m sure you rode a horse in the past six weeks and I spanked you good and hard. Jesus, woman, why didn’t you stop me? I fucked you really hard, too. What about the baby? I’m going to have to tie you to my bed and never let you out. It seems the only time you’re the least bit meek and docile is when I’ve fucked you into submission.”
He was all riled up again and I tried to soothe him with my hands on his face, over his hair, running my fingers through those longer locks.
“The baby is fine.”
“How do you know that?”
“Because I live with Dr. Bower and Ethan’s a doctor and I know all about these things. The baby is fine,” I repeated. “I’m fine. As for the spanking, I won’t mind you skipping that until after the baby comes.”
“Oh, I think spanking you has got to be much safer than some of the risky things you’ll do all on your own. If a sore bottom will curtail you, then it will continue. But,” he grinned then. “I have other ways to punish you.”
“Oh?” I asked warily.
He spread my dress out on the ground behind me and lowered me to it. Nudging my knees back, he spread my thighs, then settled himself between them. The tall grasses surrounded us, hid us from view entirely. We were in our own little world.
“I’m going to taste you and see if you’re as sweet as I remember. I’m going to make you come, again and again. The sweetest kind of punishment. Then I’m going to fuck you, Lily. You’re going to lick our mixed juices off my cock, then I’m going to fuck you again.”
I moaned then at his words, then moaned even louder when his tongue slid across my slit. When he used his thumbs to open me, when he slid two fingers deep inside, I knew I was going to like this kind of punishment very much.
CHAPTER NINE
JACK
I didn’t dare show my face in Bozeman again, even though it was the closest place for us to get the train. There was no way in hell I was going to allow Lily to ride a horse all the way to Butte in her condition. A baby! Holy fuck, I was going to be a father. Up until six weeks ago, the idea of a child of my own made me sweat, thinking the idea a nightmare come to life.
I was nine years old when my father died, a prisoner of war at the hellish Andersonville. He’d been dead and buried in an unmarked grave in Georgia before the news of his demise was brought to my mother. Somehow, the uniformed men walking over the rolling hill from town was a clear and distinct memory, even now. That entire week was. Growing up in western Maryland, our farm had been in the epicenter of the fighting in ‘63 and ‘64, the rebels marching through the land to infamous battles such as Antietam and Gettysburg. They’d forged a path of destruction in their wake that included my mother, who had no man to protect her.
I hadn’t understood then what was happening as I watched from my hiding place beneath the porch, where she’d sent me when a small patrol took her into the barn. I lay on my belly, afraid to come out, even pissing my pants waiting. The men had come out first, walking off over the hill, then I finally watched as my mother came out an hour later, disheveled and a shell of the woman she had been. They’d not only defiled her body, but ruined her mind as well. So when the army brought the news of my father’s death, it only took her two days to go back into that same barn and blow her brains out with my father’s shotgun. I was young, alone on a farm and burying my mother in a hole that took me two days to dig.
I vowed then that I would rid the world of evil, one person at a time. I couldn’t see the men who’d raped my mother hang, but I brought justice to many over the years since. I’d had no plan to bring a child into a world just so they could suffer as I had, to watch those I loved destroyed and ultimately die.
But Lily had changed that. It was that damned glimpse of her in the street. That’s all it had taken for her to ruin my jaded, hermit lifestyle. I wanted to revel in her scent, her goodness, her innocence. I had wanted to give her a part of me, but I hadn’t thought that it would take the form of a baby. A baby we made.
This baby would be loved. This baby would be protected, sheltered, safe. Lily would be an incredible mother and I hoped, with her guidance, I’d be a decent father, as long as I didn’t drop him. Or her. Christ, a girl. If Lily had a girl with curly red hair I was doome
d.
“You’re lost in thought,” Lily said, breaking me from my mental wandering. We stood at the station in Three Forks, the distant rumble and hiss of the train from the east getting louder. “Why are you clenching your fists?”
“I was just thinking about this baby of ours. If it’s a girl, I’m going to follow her around with my shotgun.”
Lily glanced down the tracks. I had her tucked close beside me. There was no one else on the platform, but I wasn’t letting her out of my sight, let alone my reach.
Her eyes danced as she laughed. “I’m sure the schoolteacher would enjoy that on her first day of school.” She patted my arm. “How about you let me watch out for her for the next few months. Then, when she’s born, you can start panicking about the toddlers who might chase her.”
“This is not funny, Lily,” I grumbled. “This baby has a reckless mother.”
Lily rolled her eyes at me.
“I don’t have fond memories of being young, therefore this child is doomed with a father such as me,” I admitted.
When her small hand stroked down my biceps, I could tell she was trying to soothe me. I then realized I was stiff and tense. I sighed and tried to relax.
“This child will have the best parts of each of us.”
“Your gorgeous hair,” I said.
“Your possessiveness.”
“Damn straight,” I growled, picking up her hand and kissing the ring I put on her finger.
“Matthews!”
We turned our heads to see the colonel closing the distance from the far side of the platform. He shook my hand, then tipped his hat at Lily. I made quick introductions.
“We were able to apprehend them this morning. They had the money in their saddlebags.”
Relief pumped through my veins. It was finally over.
“Both of them gave up the other.” The colonel rocked back on his heels and took hold of the lapels of his uniform coat. He practically preened with pleasure.
“Both?” I asked. “There were three of them.”
The smile fell from the man’s face. “Three? Then where the hell is he?”
