“Not something you need to worry about now.” Effortlessly, Finn hefted her up and into Ranger’s saddle. He scooped up the bottle, shoved it back in the bag, then vaulted up behind Ava. With a slight adjustment, he settled her onto his thighs for his own enjoyment. “Your concern should be focused on how much pain this disobedient ass will be in when we get home.”
Ava shivered, and he swore to God he heard her moan under her breath.
“Make no mistake, it will be a punishment, Ava,” he told her sternly, nudging Ranger into action. The gelding walked forward slowly, the injured mare hobbling along beside him. It only took a few steps for Finn to realize they would never make it home before nightfall at this rate.
He reached back and tugged his phone out of his pocket. He waggled it in front of Ava. “Rule one, stay in sight of the house. Rule two, don’t go in any of the pastures with horses or cattle. Rule three, keep your phone on you at all times, in case of an emergency. Where’s your damn phone, Ava?”
She squirmed on his lap, enticing all the blood in his body to rush south. “I, ah, I think I dropped it? Lost it somewhere, but I can’t remember where. I’m sorry, Finn.”
She sure sounded contrite, he thought. She’d be a hell of a lot sorrier by the time the night was through. “You can apologize when my belt lights up that perfect ass, Ava, and again when I finally fuck the one place I’ve wanted to for weeks.”
Her back went ramrod straight.
Finn grinned to himself as he dialed Ash’s number. His little dove wasn’t quite so eager for her punishment now, was she?
Chapter 3
Ava
It was well past any civilized hour for eating by the time Ava and Finn made it back to the ranch. Truth be told, she wasn’t hungry, not after her Master’s ominous threat. She knew he’d do it, and she’d take the punishment for breaking the only three rules he’d set in place for her protection, but oh boy, she wasn’t looking forward to it.
The man was hung like one of his stallions, and her bottom was vehemently opposed to being mounted.
Finn’s head ranch hand had driven out to meet them with a float. Once Kinx was carefully loaded, Finn had declined to load his gelding and ride home with Ash in the truck. Instead, he’d boosted her up into the saddle, blistered her ears for a good thirty minutes as they rode, then cuddled her the rest of the way home.
Ava didn’t dare tell him why she’d ridden off so recklessly, couldn’t say why she was stupid enough to drop her phone and leave it. She wasn’t brave enough to confess her need to cut again.
What she was, she reassured herself, was capable of accepting her punishment and admitting she was wrong. She just hoped Finn would give her a pillow to bite down on.
The air was considerably cooler as Ranger plodded back into the yard, a far cry from the warm temps of that afternoon. The sun had almost disappeared behind the mountains, leaving a radiant glimmer of light across the peaks as dark rainclouds churned up the sky.
Spotlights lit up the front of the horse barns, and soft light spilled from inside. Most of Finn’s horses lived outside, with less than a dozen reaping the benefits of a comfy stall on a night.
Finn reined Ranger to a halt and dismounted much more smoothly than Ava could ever manage. She tended to get her foot caught in the stirrup and flail, to her everlasting mortification. “I’m going to check in with Ash and the mare. When I get home, I want you clean, wet, and on your hands and knees on the bed, little dove. You’ve got twenty minutes.”
She squeaked in alarm when he lifted her down, setting her on her feet. Her head tipped back, lips parted in question, and provided him with the ultimate opportunity to claim her mouth. An opportunity he didn’t waste.
He kissed her as though he still cared, which was a relief. A tiny paranoid part of her fretted he might not like her very much anymore, but the way he claimed her mouth, then smacked her ass to get her moving when he broke the kiss, reassured the anxious side of her greatly.
“Best get moving, Ava. It’s a ten-minute walk to the house, so that’s half your time gone by the time you get there.” Finn winked at her before he turned and led his horse into the barn, calling over his shoulder, “I’d run if I were you.”
Oh hell. Ava bolted towards the house. Normally, she might consider dragging her feet when it came to a punishment, procrastinating as much as she dared. But with what Finn had in store for her, she didn’t want to risk provoking his wrath by being tardy.
The yards were quiet as she passed through them. Most of the pens were in darkness. Cattle in the occupied sections milled around, moving from water troughs to the hay feeder, or were simply sleeping. The scent of hay and cow dung, the oddly likeable fragrance of live animals, was growing on Ava day by day.
For a city girl, she was strangely content with country living.
The first drops of rain splattered onto sun-warmed concrete as she streaked through the yards and neared the house. Her sneakers thudded across the driveway, up the wooden steps of the porch.
Breathless, Ava paused long enough to toe off her dirty footwear, then barreled through the screen door, the back door into the mudroom, and through the kitchen with only the under-cabinet lights for guidance.
Her socks lost purchase on the tiles in her haste. Heart and stomach plummeted toward the floor as her feet slipped to the left and her body tilted to the right.
No running in the kitchen with sweaty socks on, she reprimanded herself. I really do not need a concussion tonight on top of everything else!
She managed to correct herself before she hit the floor and slowed her pace to a hurried walk as she escaped into the hallway. It was a big house with a lot of space but, although Finn was a wealthy man, he didn’t flaunt it in his living quarters. Not the way she expected.
Everything was simple, masculine. His home was a working ranch, and the furnishings he’d chosen reflected it. Comfort had been at the top of his list when it came to furniture. He liked dark wood and colors to match—hunter green was a favorite of his, apparently.
There was little in the way of personal photographs, unless she counted framed pictures of the cattle and horses that had exceeded his visions for his future and helped further his breeding programs.
Finn had one such picture in his office that Ava loved. It was of a massive bull in a pasture with the mountains at his back. His silver hide gleamed under the summer sun, but it was the look in his big brown eyes that drew Ava in. Regality, wisdom, kindness—three things she never would have attributed to a big, dumb beast.
Finn had told her the bull was a Murray Grey, which meant nothing to her as she didn’t know a lot about cattle other than people ate them, they ate a hell of a lot of food, and they produced a phenomenal amount of poop.
As she scurried up the stairs, she remembered the pride in Finn’s face as he spoke about the bull he called King. His love for the animal had touched her. His animals weren’t just a money-making enterprise—he cared for them and made sure their every need was tended to.
A giggle broke free.
He wasn’t a cattle baron, was he? He was a cattle Dom.
God, she must really be feeling anxious if her mind was coming up with crazy thoughts like that. Visions of cows parading around on their hind legs, dressed in garter belts and stockings, wearing padded cuffs and collars assaulted her, and nearly dropped her to her knees as she started laughing.
No time for laughing. Shower!
Still snickering, she rounded the top of the stairs and bypassed the three doors on her left, beelining for the one straight ahead of her. The master bedroom. Finn’s domain…and now hers. Well, kind of.
Although Finn continually made it clear she was welcome in his home, not just as a guest, she couldn’t help but feel as though she was imposing on him. The constant feeling of being an annoyance, of being a complication he didn’t need in his life, gnawed at her.
Goodbye, self-esteem. Hello, insecurities.
It was why her hand hesitat
ed before gripping the door handle to his—no, to their room—and why, despite the urgency of the situation, she had to take a deep breath in order to open the door and step into the dark space.
It smelled like him. In all the rooms in the house, the bedroom and his office were the two places where she felt most connected to Finn in his absence. Walking through the door and being struck by the warm, earthy scent of leather and oak was like having his arms curl around her, pulling her into a hug.
Those first few seconds always allowed her to shove aside the thought that she didn’t belong here. She could believe her clothes had a right to stay nestled in the drawers beside Finn’s, that her toothbrush didn’t look like an imposter in the bathroom where it cozied up to his.
You do belong here. You can be happy here if you don’t fuck things up.
Ava ignored the beseeching voice in her head—her own, much to her surprise—and switched on the lights. They brought the room to life, illuminating the bed with its intricately carved headboard and the matching bedside tables. The damn thing was built for a giant to sleep on, and Finn certainly qualified for that title.
The wardrobes and drawers were all neatly hidden away, built into the walls to make extra space—space Finn warned her would be put to good use once they’d sat down to do some kinky furniture shopping online. For now, the room was essentially empty aside from the bed and the tables.
Dark green curtains framed the huge windows, even though Finn liked to sleep with them open so the sky could be seen from the bed. The room was a combination of mahogany, rich green, and cream accents to lessen the effect of so much dark masculinity.
There was a TV as big as the one in the living room on the wall opposite the bed, but that was pretty much it as far as wall decorations went. Her lover preferred the natural beauty of the landscape outside his windows to anything painted by a human hand.
Ava stripped as she crossed the room to the en suite bathroom, leaving a trail of clothes in her wake. Remembering how strict Finn was about her clothes being tidy when she was being punished, she decided to spare her butt an extra ten strokes and sacrifice a minute of her rapidly dwindling time to backtracking and gathering the discarded garments.
She swore she sensed him striding across the yard.
Tossing her armful of clothes into the laundry basket, she all but threw herself into the massive shower, fumbling with the controls. Cold water struck her like an avalanche of snow to the face, wrenching a shriek from her seizing lungs before she managed to adjust the settings to hot.
A surge of nausea twined with the butterflies in her belly as she quickly lathered and rinsed. She’d known this night was coming—Finn liked to make her squirm with nerves by telling her exactly what he wanted to do with her ass on a regular basis—but she hadn’t thought losing her anal virginity would be part of a penance.
Oh God, was she clean enough? Paranoid he would find fault with her, Ava lathered up again, paying extra special attention to all the areas she thought Finn might spot-check. Praying it was enough, she washed away the copious suds thoroughly, then switched off the water and stepped out of the stall to snag a fluffy bath sheet big enough to cocoon her twice.
He wouldn’t hurt her more than she could take, she reminded herself. Her hands shook as she dried herself quickly, her internal clock telling her she only had a handful of minutes left. He wasn’t cruel, he wasn’t malicious, but she had broken his rules.
Once it was over, all would be forgiven, and she’d learn and grow from the experience.
At least she wouldn’t be subjected to the dreaded figging tonight, right? He told her he was saving that for more grievous misdemeanors. That was a big ole check in the plus column, wasn’t it?
The damp towel went the way of her dirty clothes. Her hair was still wet but wringing as much water as she could out of it would have to suffice. She didn’t risk being even a second over her allotted time. Not tonight.
Her legs were shaking, her heart pounding when she stumbled back into the bedroom and climbed into the middle of the huge bed. She’d settle once Finn arrived—she always calmed down when he was with her.
It was the fear of the unknown that undid her. Her imagination was the devil, conjuring explicit images and torturing her with the maybes and what-ifs. The catalyst to her need to cut.
How mortifying it was to present her ass toward the door, naked and accessible. She stretched her arms out in front of her, pressing her forehead to the covers, and tried to ignore the cool air wafting over her exposed sex, a constant reminder of how open she was, and how wet.
The next few minutes were spent focused on breathing. Forcing her lungs to keep working even when anxiety gripped them. Training her mind away from Finn’s razor in the bathroom and the blissful burn it would gift her.
She’d almost managed to calm herself to an acceptable degree before the tiny hairs on her skin stood on end, saluting the man she waited for.
Master Finnegan was here.
Ava stopped breathing.
“Hmmm. Just the sight a man wants to see when he comes home,” Finn drawled from the doorway. “His woman, naked and offering herself to him. Such a shame that beautiful ass is going to suffer tonight, isn’t it, Ava? But that’s what naughty subs get for breaking the rules.”
It hurt whenever he said that. Naughty subs and breaking the rules was what she didn’t want to be, to do. Her only saving grace was there wasn’t any disappointment in his tone, not yet. But her ass clenched defensively at the subtle glee underlying his words.
Someone up above had added a pinch of sadist to the mix when He created Finn.
Ava squeezed her eyes shut, trying to hear his footsteps. If she knew where he was, he couldn’t take her by surprise, and there was the slimmest chance she might be able to keep her dignity intact for just a few moments longer.
That dream popped like a detergent bubble when hands clamped down on her ankles. In reflex, her hands grabbed fistfuls of comforter a second before she was yanked down the bed and her dignity gave her a sharp salute of farewell.
“That really was a beautiful presentation, Ava.” Cold, rough palms caressed her calves, stroked up her thighs until they reached her butt. “Very pleasing. You know, something occurred to me as we were riding home. In the four weeks since you arrived, not once have you broken a rule. You haven’t even come close to bending them.” His fingers dug into her cheeks, kneading the flesh absently as he mulled over his thoughts aloud. “Does it strike you as odd that you would break all three in one fell swoop without provocation?”
Ava swallowed hard. There wasn’t supposed to be a discussion; she was mentally prepared for a repeat of his earlier lecture, but not this. “No, Sir?”
“Hmmm. See, there we differ in opinion, little dove. I think it’s incredibly odd that my good girl would act so recklessly without cause.” The bite of his fingers gentled. “I’ve neglected my duties as your Dom this past week, Ava. That doesn’t sit well with me. I’m thinking you got frustrated, a little depressed, and you acted out. How close am I?”
Closer than she liked. If Finn reached that conclusion so easily, it wouldn’t take him long to figure out she was verging on breaking her promise. She pressed her face into the comforter and prayed he’d forget about rooting out the source of her misbehavior and just get on with correcting it.
“Close enough,” Finn sighed in exasperation. “Well, that leaves us in a bit of a bind, doesn’t it? Should I punish you as I first intended for the broken rules, with leniency for my part in upsetting you? Or do I let it slide tonight and make amends for not being here when you’ve needed me?”
Ava lifted her head, taking a relieved breath. She knew what her choice would be, but ultimately, her fate rested in her Master’s hands. He would be merciful if he wanted, or he would be strict. Either way, she would be safe with him. “I won’t argue with whatever you decide, Master Finnegan.”
“That’s a good girl answer.” Palms connected lightly on her ass
, sending a thud of sensation rippling to her pussy. “Three strokes with my belt for each rule you broke and one extra for putting yourself in danger, little dove.”
Oh, thank God. Ten lashes of leather would quell the urge to slice herself open for a few days. She liked the belt—Finn wielded it so efficiently, she felt the aftereffects of a hard whipping for days. “Thank you, Sir.”
“Don’t thank me just yet,” he warned. “This ass is mine, Ava, and I will claim it tonight. The only difference is you won’t be squealing apologies while I fuck it.”
Her stomach rolled slowly toward the vicinity of her feet. She dropped her forehead back to the comforter, turning her head to the side. “I’m not arguing, Sir, but I’m not going to thank you, either.”
He laughed and bent over her to press his lips to the bottom of her spine. “Understood, little dove. I think you’ll enjoy it if you just relax and don’t fight me.”
Ava snorted. “Can we consider the logistics of what you’re proposing, Sir?”
He nipped her cheek sharply, then straightened and effortlessly flipped her onto her back. There was no hiding from him now, not when he towered over her this way—chest bare but for a scattering of dark hair and barricaded by thick, corded arms.
Mercifully, he’d left his jeans on for the moment. Ava sometimes lost the power of speech when confronted with the full beauty of his nakedness and she couldn’t afford to fall into that trap tonight.
“I’m listening,” he said with a nod. “Go ahead.”
Don’t blow it, she thought. You’re the only thing standing between walking normally tomorrow and waddling like a duck. A sodomized duck. Use your words while you still have them. “So, let’s imagine that we’ve switched bodies. You’re me, with this tiny little booty, and I’m you, with a penis the size of a baseball bat.”
His lips quirked. “I’m not sure that’s an accurate representation of its size, little dove, but please, keep feeding my ego.”
Black Light: Branded Page 5
