by Viv Phoenix
“You’re like an angel. You’re my beauty.” He tented the sheet.
Making a slow turn, I eyed him over my shoulder. The skirt swirled around me like silken wings.
“Are you happy, Callum?”
“I’m happy. Now let’s get that dress off you.” He grinned and leaped out of bed, landing next to me with a thud that shook the floor boards. I didn’t flinch. He was like a big dog that didn’t mean any harm.
He took me in his arms, pulled me close and danced me around the room. It was magic, his big body so graceful without warning. He lifted me by the waist and spun me at the foot of the bed.
Quilts fell off the chest. I recognized the wood grain as he spun me near it. It was a cedar chest, the hope chest for a Blake bride.
Callum nodded, as though he read my mind.
“It’s all yours now. There’s some fine things in there from Ma and her ma. They filled their hope chests with embroidery and things for the home, preparing to marry. It’s alright that you don’t have anything. We have plenty.”
He kissed me and my feet flew out behind me.
I hadn’t been sure I’d marry. In the dark, I imagined a man taking me away, ending everything. He wasn’t a husband, he was my killer.
I made no preparations for life at all. I spent more time on Facebutt than thinking of marriage.
I buried my face against Callum’s neck, hanging on tight, stamping down my disquiet.
He set me down. The room spun. I grabbed his arm, my fingers denting a rose.
“You big lunk. You made me dizzy.” I laughed, light inside at the joy on his face, the love in his eyes as he looked at me.
“You knew it, Sy. You knew I wanted to see you in that dress.”
“Yes. I wanted to do it right this time. I’m sorry I disappointed you before. Let’s start over.”
“We don’t have to start over, Sy. I couldn’t love you more than I do. But we can pretend anything. I want to make all your dreams come true. You can have another first time with me, if you want it.”
“I want it.” My tongue tripped in my mouth, clumsy with desire.
“Here.” He unzipped the dress, and slid it off me slow, like unwrapping a Christmas gift that might be fragile. He wasn’t polished, but that man made me feel cherished.
I stood unveiled, goosebumps walking over my flesh. I breathed so fast my breasts jiggled.
He whistled low.
“Oh, Sy. You are so beautiful. You make me as dizzy as I made you.” He blinked and gestured.
Snake was on the rise.
I felt weak in the knees.
“Show me, Callum, please show me how you wanted it to be for our first time.”
He pressed his lips on mine and I closed my eyes. His hands slid up my back and pulled me close. He slipped his fingers through my hair, giving me shivers. His mouth took me, opening my lips and slipping his tongue inside. I met his tongue, hungry for him. He kissed me deep and slow, possessing me. It felt so good that he took his time, like there was nothing he’d rather do than kiss me, and kiss me, and kiss me more.
I melted in his arms.
He gave me a soft, lingering lip kiss and gazed at me with heavy-lidded eyes.
“Are you ready for your first time, Sy?”
“I’m ready.”
He lifted me in his arms as easy as he’d lift a bag of groceries. With him, I didn’t feel too big. Years of pain about my body fell away in his sweet appreciation. He set me on the bed and climbed on top. The contrast of my naked body in the lacy lavender lingerie and his intense muscles and tats was so hot. The bright sunlight licked him the way I wanted to lick him. The rose on his chest pulsed like a heart.
Daring, I grabbed him and pulled him to my face, licked him on the lowest rose right next to his happy trail.
“Mm, yes, you’re ready. I’ve got one eager virgin on my hands.”
He slid his hand between my legs, his big palm caressing my pussy. His thumb slipped under the panties and teased me, taking a long time to glide up and down my lips and home in on my clit. He slid his thumb along my most sensitive places as tender as a tongue. His slow, gentle moves made me crazy. I felt like he was setting me on fire.
He nuzzled my neck, nipped me.
“If you want, you can pretend I’m a billionaire. I own my truck and this whole place. We don’t have a deed or nothin’, but our people have lived here as many generations as we can count.” His mustache brushed my ear. “Want me to be your billionaire this time?”
“Oh, Callum.” I couldn’t say anything else. It was sweet and funny, and somehow, coming from Callum, it was kind of hot. He was my parents’ idea of white trash, but he knew his way around my body. He was equipped for sex beyond my wildest imaginings.
“I mean it, you can pretend I’m a billionaire.”
“My dad’s a billionaire.” Something made me inject that bit of reality. Callum made my head swim. He was so powerful, and so eager to please me. “I’m an heiress, well, until Dad disowns me.” I kissed the rose near his shoulder to soften the truth. As sweet as Callum was wanting to share all he had with me, wealth wasn’t among his attractions.
“You want me to be your daddy?” His eyes widened. A wicked smile started a slow burn on his face.
“Um, I didn’t mean that way. I sure want you to be my baby daddy, though.”
He crushed me in his arms and kissed me breathless. He nipped my earlobe. “I want that, too. I’ll provide for you. Pa had some assets Jesse’s looking into in the city. Everything I have is as much yours as mine, so you’re still a heiress. It doesn’t matter if your father disowns you. Let’s make us a baby on your maiden ride.”
He spread me open and raised my ankles on his shoulders. I felt so open to him, so crazy-vulnerable. I felt hot and cold, the same way my fear and love ran through me like floodwaters.
“I love you, Sy. You’re the air to me.” He nudged the head of his cock where I needed it.
I raised my pussy to meet him, feeling his powerful shoulders under my ankles. Damn, he was fine.
He kissed my forehead, the corners of my lips. I tingled with heat. He captured my mouth and plunged inside me. I screamed into his mouth.
So big, so, so big.
He held still, swallowing my scream, giving me time to feel him filling me, stretching me, bottoming out.
“No more virginity for you love, but I’ll take it over and over anyway.” His husky voice and words thrilled me.
“Yes, yes, Callum, as many times as you want.”
“For the rest of our lives, sugar.”
He grabbed my ass and powered back out, plunged in, reveled in taking me hard. Veins stood on his arms as he worked me on his shaft, gripping my ass and using me for a tight massage up and down his cock.
He groaned and threw his head back. The thick veins bulged on his throat as he grimaced, holding back his pleasure. He thumbed my clit with sweet mastery, playing me, making me sing for him.
I shuddered and worked my hips, grinding on him, squeezing him good, shaking hard as his thumb took me there. He made pleasure pulse through my pussy and flashes go off in my head. I couldn’t stand it. I arched into a back bend, going off, coming my heart out on my man.
He slid his hands under my lower back and neck, supporting me, rocking me on his root. His orgasm shook me hard, his cry tearing out of him as he pushed so deep I felt him spurting at the entrance to my womb.
“Sy, my Sy.”
He lowered me and eased my legs down, my whole body still shaking from his power.
“Callum, my man.”
He kissed me tender. Smiling sweet, he spooned me.
With one big hand spread over my belly, he sang us a lullaby. Us, because I bet I already had our baby inside me.
I didn’t recognize the words. I imagined it was some folk song from the hollow sung to Blake babies for generations. He sang about flying, and seeing the trees and birds, then swimming with the biggest fish all the way out to the ocean. He sa
ng about rocking safe with Daddy and Mommy across the sea.
A tear ran down my face. Callum was going to be a wonderful baby daddy and love us both. That’s all I needed to know.
My eyelids fluttered. I felt safe in Callum’s arms.
I heard his breathing flutter with sleep, but I couldn’t join him. I wasn’t sure the rest of the world would leave us alone. There was no way I could ask him for my phone, because I couldn’t admit I knew he took it and that I searched his jacket. If I didn’t contact Trish soon, she might worry and admit to Dad I wasn’t at her place. I watched shadows from the bare oak on the wall for a long time. The crow calls fit my mood, and the long low whistle of the train carried me to sorrow.
I had to find my phone before Dad sent his security force after me.
Sy
The eggs came out better. Callum liked his scrambled or over easy. He showed me every day until I got the hang of it.
He forked some into his mouth. Standing in the kitchen, watching him eat the breakfast I cooked made me goofy with happiness.
“These are good, real good, Sy.”
“Thanks. I’m glad you like them.”
He finished eating fast, as though there was something on his mind. With a smile, he rose and put his plate in the sink. I recognized his compromise. He was helping with the housework. He took my hand.
“You have to trust me. And I have to be able to trust you, too. Today, you’ll get the clothes and sheets done. You’ll be out by yourself, and you won’t run off.”
He took me out to the shed. It held a deep sink with an old wash board, one of those wooden framed things with ripples of metal to rub the clothes on.
“You’re joking. Where’s the washer and drier?”
“That there’s the washer.” He pointed to the sink.
He opened a whopper jawed shutter and pointed to a clothes line sagging between the shed and a scrappy oak tree. “That there is the drier. You supply the power to get the wash done.”
“Can’t we get someone to clean and do the wash?”
“Honey, that’s what you’re for.” He looked at me. “Hasn’t anyone taken any care to prepare you to be a proper man’s wife? Well, don’t worry none. I’ll teach you everything you need to know.”
He stepped back and clutched the wall. His eyes went out of focus.
“Look what you done.”
His erection strained at his worn jeans. That was some Achilles’ heel. Every time the man got a boner, it took so much blood from his brain he came close to passing out. I could escape if I wanted to leave him. Right now while he was hard and dizzy. I didn’t want to be any place else.
“I’m sorry, Callum. I didn’t mean to get you hard.”
“Don’t be sorry. Just get those damned short, tight shorts out of my way and bend over.”
He pulled his belt out so fast it whistled. I flinched.
I want to give you a couple of lashes, only because I want to. It’s not a punishment. Do you understand?
“Yes, Master.”
He hit me across the ass. He hit me again. It stung. I creamed.
He dropped the belt and lunged, ramming his long, thick cock deep inside of me. I lost my mind right there, arching back against him, wriggling, taking it all. He was right. I was his. I wasn’t going anywhere.
He pounded me hard. I cried out in his rhythm. He took me to that place where everything goes away and nothing exists except his cock. He kept driving me, filling me, giving me so much pleasure I couldn’t stand it. I came hard, grinding back on him, shaking and making short high sounds like an unknown language of bliss.
The laundry basket seemed heavier, full of the sheets he made me gush on, and his, jeans, mud-caked from fishing. There seemed no way to keep the man from killing. I could stand the fish better than I could stand deer. I wasn’t sure I could stand many more days of rubbing all his dirty clothes clean on a damned old washboard.
Callum headed by with his fishing pole, a man of his father’s generation, occupied with his manly pursuits. I loved seeing him under Betsy’s hood, his tats shining and muscles working. Today looked like another lone day of housework for me. I slapped my hands on my thighs.
“I’ve been doing my best, Callum, but I want to live like a human being. I want a washing machine and someone else to do the laundry. I want a housekeeper.” I put my hands on my hips.
“Those aren’t things human beans have to have. We live fine. We have a flush toilet, a big refrigerator and a deep freeze. Are you questioning me as a provider?”
“No, no, Callum. Please, it’s human beings, not beans.”
“I don’t give a damn. This is my house. I’ll talk how I talk. If it’s not good enough for you, you get your high ass down here to my level.”
He grabbed me and kissed me. My head spun. I gripped the wall and his belt loop. That must be a fraction of what he felt when his big snake rose up. I forgot what I was talking about.
His big hand grabbed me between the legs and lifted me off the floor while he captured and plundered my mouth. My feet dangled.
He released my lips and I sighed.
What the fuck was my problem? Yeah, the place was rustic as hell and I hated housework.
But what a man.
“Better now?” He lowered me and grinned down at me.
I still felt his broad hand, the way it pressed between my legs, covering my pussy to my ass.
“Yes, Master. Thank you.”
“Good. Now get the wash done. I want you to check through the beans for rocks and get them soaking. I suppose I’m going to have to teach you to cook, too.” He slapped my ass.
Cook? I could burn dinner in a microwave. I caught the determination in his eyes and didn’t say a word. Looked like I was going to learn to cook.
“Yes, Callum. I’ll do my best.”
“Good girl. Now get that pretty ass out of my sight before I split it open. Go get the sheets and my clothes and anything of yours that needs a wash.”
He pronounced it ‘warsh.’ I didn’t say a word. I bowed my head like a meek servant and scuttled to the house to obey my soon-to-be-husband’s will.
Second thoughts danced through my brain. I wasn’t prepared to be a white trash housewife. What the fuck was I thinking? But my rebellious protests got smothered by a replay of his massive cock rising. The shock of him grabbing the wall, his power diminished by his arousal. I did that. The sight of my body laid the man low, like Samson getting his hair cut by Delilah.
Callum might be in charge here, master of his house, master of me, yet I had an ultimate weapon and defense: sex.
I tossed my head and opened the crooked screen door. I could live with that.
Damn it, I wanted a housekeeper, though. When I was sure I was going to have a baby, I’d wheedle and work him. It couldn’t cost much to hire a local woman.
I flashed on his massive cock again. Did I want another woman around the place eying my prize? Huh. She might get hot to take some pressure off for her boss while I was blowing up like a beach ball. Fuck it, maybe not.
I gathered up Callum’s clothes and stripped the bed where he fucked me to custard.
“Okay. He wanted a wife who did all the housework and cooked too, well damn it, I could do that.”
I lost my patience while peeling potatoes for supper.
“I’m supposed to do this every day?”
“I eat every day, don’t I?”
I pressed my lips together and kept peeling the damned potatoes.
He stalked out of the kitchen and let the screen door bang shut.
I stopped making a salad to watch a flight of bats over the crooked headstones in the distance. Callum walked in with a murdered doe in his arms, her blood dripping on the floor I just mopped. Her head hanging limp and bumping on the linoleum broke my heart. Callum grinned, so proud of being my big provider. My stomach lurched. I covered my mouth, hoping not to vomit.
Tears ran down my face.
I looked at the do
e’s glazed eyes and long lashes. I cried harder.
“Callum, no. No, please. Bury her, give her a proper burial. For me. I can’t cook her and I won’t eat her. Never. I’m sorry honey. I can’t.” I grabbed the sink, lurching, woozy as a drunk.
“Honey, oh honey pie. I’m sorry. Don’t you worry none, I’m taking Mrs. Deer away.”
I cried harder.
“Callum, don’t ever—don’t do that again. I can’t. I can’t eat a deer. I know you meant well.” I sobbed and retched.
Callum’s expression switched from crushed to joyous.
“Sy, sweetheart, it looks like I done knocked you up.”
“What?”
“You’re going to have my baby. Our baby. Sit down now. Bend over. That’s it. Keep your head low.”
He dragged the deer out back. He returned and petted my back like I was a horse.
“I’ll go to town and get some victuals you like, whatever you want, beautiful. You want to eat salad like a rabbit, I’ll bring you some.” His eyes shone and he danced a couple steps.
“Don’t kill any bunnies, either. I kept seeing Bambi losing his mother, and then Thumper, and then the dead doe.” I covered my mouth.
“Don’t worry about a thing. You’re pregnant. I will treat you like a queen, and you can eat whatever you want. I won’t hunt if you don’t want me to hunt.”
He frowned, but cast it off and took my hand. I could only imagine how difficult it was to promise me he’d give up a family tradition. I felt his heart racing in his wrist. I pressed my lips to it, tasting salt.
“Callum, I don’t know—” How could I have a baby here? This was bad enough for me, but how could I bring a baby into this crazy life?
“We’re going to have a baby.” He squeezed my shoulders and kissed me. He took my mouth. His lips felt like fever on mine. His tongue pushed into me and shut off my mind. What the hell was I worrying about? Women had babies all the time in worse places than this.
I kissed him back. Callum was going to be my husband. He was the man who broke my V and the father of my baby. My life went a whole lot more old-fashioned than I ever expected it to, but this was my life.
