I breathed a sigh of relief; my sister and I were more alike under the skin than I had guessed. "Thank you," I said softly.
"Can I ask you something personal?" Liam asked.
"Sure." I wondered what was coming.
"Are you and Matt serious?"
"Noo… I don't think so," I answered, cautiously.
"Well, has he asked you to marry him?"
"Kind-a."
"Well, I call that serious, missy."
"Gee whizz, well maybe he is, but I'm not!"
"Seems to me you should tell the poor guy that and not string him along."
"Oh I'm sure he knows." I was getting uncomfortable with this line of questioning.
Liam gave me a stern look. "You sure about that?"
"Yes. Why are you so interested?" I asked, nettled.
"No reason. Claire?"
"Yes?"
"Do you think we could possibly go to sleep now?"
"Cheek… hey you were the one asking all the questions! Good night!" I turned over with a huff.
"Bratty girl, you and I both know darned well that I'm gonna end up spanking you one of these days—jus' a friendly warning." I stiffened but refrained from answering and heard him give a rumbling chuckle. I smiled and closed my heavy lids, immediately drifting off to sleep.
When I woke, it was daylight. I was lying across his chest. His arm was flung over my hip. I lay very still, listening to the rise and fall of his even breathing beneath my cheek. He smelt good. Liam was male, musky and warm. Amazingly, I felt safe for the first time since I arrived in Arizona. Carefully so as not to wake him, I lifted my head to look at his face, his eyes were shut. The lashes lay thick and dark but a large bluish bruise had appeared along his forehead. He had a shadow of stubble over his lower jaw. He had a strong jaw and a rugged face. Gently, unthinkingly I placed my lips to the dark bruise. I drew back quickly, wondering what on earth I was doing. My heart jumped in shock as Liam's eyes opened, gazing at me, his expression unreadable. "Good morning to you too," he said gruffly.
"Umm, you have a nasty bruise on your head. My mother always said, 'Feed a cold, starve a fever, and er....kiss a bruise'!" I improvised and gabbled quickly, adding to that well known homily as I was disconcerted at being caught kissing him.
"Hey, is it still snowing?" rumbled Liam.
"Shall I take a look?" Gratefully, I grasped the chance to escape my stupid blunder. I clambered over him and went to the door. It was difficult to open; the snow had piled up high against the outside of the cabin. It was still snowing but not as heavily. Outside it was a changed world, a white wonderland. "It's easing up a bit," I called. "Oooh do come see—it's so beautiful out here." I felt Liam's presence move up behind me. He put his hands on my shoulders. I leaned back against him and we gazed in silence at the sparkling radiance that surrounded us.
He broke the spell first. "I wish I had my camera," he sighed.
"I know. I wish I had one too, even my sketch pad would do; it all looks so amazing."
"Mmm, kinda pure and totally untouched." He took a deep breath of the cold clean air and turned to me. "Okay, how about a hot drink? Warm us both up a bit."
"We finished the last of the coffee last night," I told him.
"There's tea," he said turning back inside the hut. I followed him in and dug out my boots from underneath the bed. I sat on the side of the bed and pulled them on, while Liam fed wood into the stove, blowing gently on the embers until a flame flickered into life.
"How do you feel today?" I asked him.
"Yeah, I'm good," he replied with a nod. He closed the stove door and turned to the cupboard under the sink. He pulled out the very, very old crumpled box of tea.
"Is that tea okay to drink, d'you reckon?" I asked, looking at it doubtfully.
He sniffed at the contents of the box. "Smells good to me but then I don't drink tea in the normal way of things."
I reached over and turned on the tap but nothing happened. "Blast, no water. The pipes must be frozen." Picking up the old saucepan we had used the night before, Liam headed for the door. "Where are you going?" I asked him anxiously.
"Snow." He threw the word over his shoulder and was gone. I shrugged and reached for my handbag. I brushed my hair back and applied some of Claire's pale lipstick. Liam came back in with a pan full of snow, which he placed on top of the stove to heat.
"Clever," I said, nodding approvingly. I could feel a call of nature coming on and went to the door.
"Where do you think you're going?" Liam asked.
"Snow," I replied, mimicking him and looking back over my shoulder with a grin.
"Yeah, very funny," he called after me. I giggled and pulled the door shut behind me.
We ate the last of the food Jules had packed into the rucksack—two apples. At least the tea was hot and afterwards I rinsed the pan and mugs out with boiled snow. "Shall we walk back to the pickup now?" I asked as I worked.
Liam was folding the blankets. "If the snow stops, then sure," he replied.
"Well it has stopped, hasn't it?" I asked.
"Not totally, no."
"But it's only light flurries, I think we should go," I said determined to leave.
"No, Claire, it may come down heavily all of a sudden, we could get lost. At least here we are warm and dry." He was adamant.
I banged the pan down on the cupboard shelf. "I have no intention of spending another night here alone with you. Besides, the food's all gone and we need to eat soon! I intend to walk back to the truck. You do what you want."
Liam stilled, gazing at me steadily and silently. It was unnerving and I could feel his eyes boring into me. "What?" I asked crossly. He continued to gaze at me and I noticed a faint tick in his jaw. "What the hell's wrong with you now?" I demanded, tetchily.
"You," he replied at last.
"What d'you mean, 'you'?" He was really getting to me y'know—how did he do it? One minute we were getting along just fine and the next I wanted to slap him.
He shook his head, turned his back on me heading for the door.
"Pig," I muttered, loud enough for him to hear. He paused in the process of opening the door, carefully closed it again and turned around real slow. I stepped back, alarmed by the implacable look on his face. He walked over to me and stood almost touching me, invading my personal space. I gulped and fixed my eyes on his chest.
"That's the third strike," he said tersely. How did he change his voice like that? I didn't know what he meant but it sounded very bad. He continued to stand there saying nothing.
My stomach lurched and I shuffled nervously, the silence was so uncomfortable that I just had to speak, but when I did, my voice didn't sound anything like me. "What d'you mean?" I squeaked in a falsetto voice.
"I think you know that baseball term, Claire, and you certainly know the rules."
No, no I didn't know… to both those statements! Liam lifted his hand to my chin and tilted my face up so he could look down into my eyes. I noticed that his cinnamon irises, had flecks of gold within them and that his lashes were a dark coffee colour and not black as I had first thought.
"You, young lady, are going over my knee for a well-deserved spanking."
I could barely comprehend his words. Shock and embarrassment were my first reaction, my second was flight. I had barely begun to tense my knees, rising to the balls of my feet, when I was swung upwards and sideways, landing squarely over Liam's knee in a smooth and expertly executed action by Mr. Disciplinarian himself. I found myself face down on the bed, my head on my arms in the blankets and my jean clad behind positioned up in the air over his hard thigh. I tried to push up and off the bed but Liam clamped his arm over my waist and at the same time, one of his legs scooted up and over mine. I was trapped. Damn, the man was quick!
With no warning at all. a hard thwup landed on my seat, rapidly followed by another. My brain was trying to cope with so many different emotions that I was overwhelmed and flopped still where I was pinned. I was
receiving my first ever spanking, something I had thought about, dreamed about, fantasized about for goodness sake—and for years. Yet I was shocked and unprepared—it hurt! Should it hurt? Surely it should feel sexy but instead it was—deeply embarrassing. I was so immersed in my own confused thoughts that it took me awhile to realise that Liam was talking to me.
".....and so, actions have consequences, young lady, and this is the consequence of your rude and brattish behaviour. I gave you fair warning, giving you the usual three strikes. I even told you that you were being a brat but you chose to ignore me." I was squirming now because despite the fact my behind was denim clad, the continued, fast delivered and surprisingly hard, swats were setting my rear end alight. I couldn't help but moan. "Good, I'm getting through to you, am I? Well, Claire, you may be the boss's daughter, darlin', and you may have had an injury but that does not give you the right to disrespect other folk and bad mouth them whenever you feel like it!" This lecture was punctuated with some jaw breaking thwacks to my tender posterior and to my chagrin, I began to plead with him to stop.
"I'll stop when I think you are a truly sorry, little girl and not just uncomfortable from being spanked," he told me smugly. I ground my teeth and hissed a bad cuss word at him. I don't know if he heard me or not, but he speeded up the swats with gusto and I decided that I'd had more than enough, thank you very much!
I bit his leg.
This was a mistake.
Note to future self:
When being spanked, do not bite!
Out of embarrassment, I hesitate to write this part down. I think I will for now but perhaps I'll remove it at a later date.
Liam very deftly divested me of my panties and jeans. The man is a demon. At this point I think that I hated him—and John Wayne, who had made me think that I might actually enjoy this whole spanking lark. I thought that I was embarrassed before but now… I was mortified!
And sore! My brain was receiving severe burn messages from my scalding rump. I had no other thought in my head other than, 'My bottom is scorching—somebody, help me—Please!'
What I actually yelped out was, "I am sooo sor-ry, I am sooo sor-ry, please, Liam I am sooo sor-ry!" Over and over again I chanted my mantra, in the desperate hope that he would finally stop spanking me.
I don't know if he got bored of hearing my pleas, or perhaps his arm was dropping off, but finally he stopped chastising me. He rested his hand on my throbbing derriere and allowed me to catch my breath. He asked me what I had to say to him. I took a deep breath and apologized as sincerely as I could.
"Okay, Claire, I think you may have learned a lesson here today."
Actually I have learned that I do not wish to be spanked ever again, thank you!
I certainly wasn't going to tell Liam that and so I mumbled an agreement and stood up on shaky legs. Liam pulled up my panties and jeans. I was standing between his thighs and I just couldn't look him in the face. I was startled when he pulled me forward into his arms for a hug. I held myself stiffly but he put a hand on the back of my head and pushed my head onto his shoulder. "There now, Claire, it's all over an' forgotten," he said gruffly. For some strange reason his gentleness set me off and I found myself flooded with tears and burying my nose into his neck—weird huh? The other strange thing was he smelled so good, so fresh and male that I didn't want to move. I burrowed in and Liam eased me onto his lap and cradled me as I cried. After a while, he lifted out a large handkerchief and told me to blow. I did and then he dried my eyes. "You needed that didn't you, little one? I suspect it's eased the tension that has been building up inside you ever since the incident at Pinto Rock. I knew when you were so waspish and rude the other day that this was coming."
I snapped my head up in surprise. "You mean you thought that I needed to be umm...spanked?"
Liam nodded and gave me a self-assured grin. "I am very good at my job you know."
"Yeah, I just found that out!" I said reaching under my behind to give it a tentative pat. "Ouch!"
Liam laughed. "No—I mean I'm a good behavioural psychologist—I know I'm a darn good spanker!" I flushed red and he chuckled again. I couldn't help it, I laughed with him. In fact, I became slightly hysterical, probably from embarrassment, and I began to howl with mirth, until I had tears rolling down my cheeks and you know what? Liam joined in. Yeah, we clutched each other and rolled around on that bed with aching stomachs and we guffawed. Finally, I rolled to the edge of the bed and sat on the side, wiping my eyes. He was right, I felt so much better, less tense and very much alive. I was raring to go.
*****
The snow had stopped falling, the skies were blue again and the sun was shining. The brilliance caught at tiny crystals of snow and turned them into sparkling silver. Soft muffled thumping sounds were all around me and I wondered what the noise could be. The fir trees looked like tall brides, their tiered branches dressed in layers of silvery white. As I gazed, I saw a laden fir tree drop an avalanche of powdery snow to the ground below which solved the strange thumping noise. Flurries of snow drifted down from the higher branches like white confetti. A dark shape to the left caught my eye and I saw Liam come out of the small cabin laden with the blankets and tarp. I waved and he grinned, calling out, "We should start walking back up to the pickup!" I nodded and hastened over to divest him of the blankets.
The walk back was much easier than the day before, despite the fact it was hard going in the deep virgin snow. Unburdened by the heavy tarp helped; Liam carried it and I held the blankets, I wore one and carried the other. Unlike the day before, it was sunny and clear. The snow was a foot or more deep in places, which made our progress slow. I enjoyed it; I loved the crunch of snow under my feet and the clean white of the landscape surrounding us. Blue shadows in the dips and dells, reflections from icicles twinkling from branches on deciduous trees. When we arrived back at the accident site, we found the damaged truck covered in a thick layer of snow. "No one has been to look for us yet," Liam said.
"How do you know?" I asked.
"No footprints," he said with a shrug.
I bent down, gathered a handful of snow, and shaped it before throwing it at the back of his neck. "Know all!" I shrieked gleefully, as my aim struck true.
Liam spun around surprised. "Hey, girl...just you wait!" he yelled, gathering snow himself and staggering through the drifts toward me. I turned and fled stumbling through the deep powdery mounds, laughing all the while. I felt a scattering thump on my back and bent to scoop up more ammunition to throw back in return. Once again my aim was true and I crowed with glee. Liam's face was determined as he ran towards me. I shrieked again and turned to run. Before I knew what had hit me, he dove and we rolled around on the ground, pillowed together in the loose snow. He straddled my waist as I lay on my back laughing up at him. Then his face changed, his smile went and my heart raced at the intense expression in his bright, clear eyes. He lowered his head and I knew that he would kiss me. Then a deep thrumming noise filtered through my foggy brain, a repetitive drone, a helicopter! Liam shaded his eyes against the glare and, straightening up, he waved. Jules, a woman of many talents apparently, was in the cockpit and she gave us a thumbs-up sign as a medic leapt down from the helicopter. We were rescued.
Chapter Ten - Confusion
I didn't see Liam for a while after our dramatic rescue, not until the day before the party. We had been flown to the nearest hospital, which was luckily at Flagstaff, by the Huey rescue helicopter and given a complete health check. Liam was treated for a minor concussion and bruising. My anxious father awaited us at the hospital and arranged for us to be taken home. Harry, the man with the extra trestle tables we were going to collect, delivered them himself once the roads were clear, on the day before the party. With all the arrangements to be made, there was no time for me to seek Liam out, even if I had wanted to, which actually I didn't. I was disconcerted by my own eager response to that near kiss. The thought of what might have been had the helicopter not arrived when it did, was k
eeping me awake at night. Well, that and the spanking he had given me!
I did meet with Matt, however, the following morning he came to see if I was recovered from my adventure. He seemed ill at ease and eager to be gone as soon as possible. This won't do, I thought. To the world, we must appear as friendly and at ease as always. I dragged him into the house to talk. "Look here, Matt," I hissed, keeping my voice down, "you've got to behave as you've always done when you were around Claire."
"It's real hard for me to do that, Miss."
"Claire!" I corrected him.
"Sorry, see that there's the problem."
"Listen, Matt, we need to talk and we must be seen out and about together. Why don't you take me out for dinner tonight?"
"Dinner… jus' you an' me?" He looked terrified.
"Yes. Where did you take my sister in the evenings?"
"Um, well mainly the Spotted Steer jus' for a couple of beers, there's a real good band mostly."
"That sounds a bit noisy, we need to talk. What about somewhere to eat, a steak house perhaps, my treat?" I smiled at him encouragingly.
"We-ll, there's Mister Macho's, I guess."
"Great, what time?"
"I'll pick you up at seven." Matt turned to leave but stopped suddenly, looking back at me. "If'n we're gonna do this right, the way me an' Claire did, then I pick up the bill. Okay?"
I nodded. "Cool, fine by me."
At seven o'clock as agreed Matt pulled up outside the main door in his truck. I ran around and climbed in the passenger seat. As I closed the vehicle's door, I noticed Liam crossing the yard. He stopped and watched us pull away; his face was expressionless and unreadable. He made no gesture in return to my cheery wave; I felt guilty and caught out and wondered why I should feel this way.
The steak house was a friendly, homely place and quite a few people lifted a hand in greeting toward us when we arrived. Matt led me to a table by the window. The red and white checked tablecloth was freshly laundered and a small vase of fresh flowers stood in the centre of the table. The waitress placed a jug of water and two glasses on the table, handing us our menus before saying, "Hi-ya, Matt, Claire, what can I get y'all to drink right now?"
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