Rocky Mountain Wild (Rocky Mountain Bride Series Book 6) (23 page)

“You’re being such a good girl. Two more and then it’s done.”

He waited until she said, “Yes, Calum,” before he stood and delivered the last two strikes.

As soon as it was done, he threw the tawse to the floor and took her into his arms.

“Never again,” he said, cuddling her close. “Never, never. I hate punishing you like that.”

“I know.” She laid a hand to his cheek. Despite the lines of fire striping her skin, Phoebe felt satisfaction spread through her with a happy glow. She’d done wrong, taken her punishment and it was over.

“Don’t make me do that again.” Picking her up, he seated them both in the chair, her slightly tipped on his lap so she was lying on her side and not her burning bottom.

“I won’t. Thank you for correcting me.”

His arms tightened around her, and she lifted her tear-streaked face to kiss him. Her man needed to be close to her after dishing out punishment.

One kiss lead to several and after a few minutes she was moaning and grinding against him as he palmed her bottom, one cheek in each big hand. She felt his length grow under her. They both were so well trained after her punishment to expect pleasure.

One of his fingers started to slip between her legs, but she slid off his lap to her knees before he could stroke her. “Phoebe, what are you doing? I’m going to make you feel good.”

“Please, Calum,” she took out his cock, “I need to do this for you. Let me take care of you.”

He nodded and she worked his thick member, licking and then sucking him.

“Up here. Ride me, lass.” She obeyed, impaling herself on his length. He licked and caressed her pert breasts as she rocked over him.

Ducking her head down, she whispered in his ear, “I want you to take my bottom hole tonight. I want you to use me. Make me yours, all yours.”

His grey eyes stared into hers. Then he nodded.

“To the bed with you, then. Face down and wait for me.”

She lay, kneeling with her front half pressed to the bed. While she waited, she thought through all the times she’d seen her husband sad. He’d worked so hard to heal for her, it was her turn to care for him. She loved him, and she was strong enough, now. Silently, she vowed to do her best as she heard his footsteps approach the bed.

As he walked into the room and the lamplight washed over her still form, he sucked in his breath. “Lovely,” he breathed. He walked around the bed, admiring her from every angle before returning to the foot of the bed.

“Reach back and pull open your cheeks. Offer yourself to me.”

She obeyed, feeling her cunny gush at his words and the lewd position. His fingers trailed over her body. He’d set the plug in her earlier that day, and taken it out before her spanking; now he used his oiled fingers to toy and stretch her.

“Knees wider,” he ordered, and she spread her legs for him. One palm massaged her cheeks as the other pushed in and out of her ass. Then she felt the plug push into her bottom hole, stretching her to the limit.

“This is the largest one I’ve carved for you yet,” he told her. Indeed, she felt stretched to the limit, but excited, too.

His beard rasped over her sore bum as he kissed it, breathing hot air onto her cunny.

“You ready for me?”

“Yes, Calum.” She arched her back further, offering herself to him.

“I don’t think so.” He flipped her onto her back on the bed. His beard scraped her inner thighs, and then his tongue was on her cunny, licking with powerful swipes that sent her screaming over the edge in no time.

“Now,” he growled. “You’re ready.”

Pulling the plug out, he tossed it away. He loomed over her, a lusty, wild giant, large member jutting out wickedly, ready to fill her. His hands tugged her hips, rolling her onto her face before pulling her back flush against him so her hot cheeks were cradled in his hips. Gripping her neck, he pushed her slowly to the sheets. He’d never been this rough with her, and it made her heart beat faster. “Naughty Phoebes get spanked on their bare bum, then their arse gets filled.” His palm smacked her bum lightly as if to remind her of her spanking.

“Yes,” she moaned into the furs.

For all his manhandling, when he slid in, he was very slow and gentle. His cock felt almost too big, and she was grateful for the months of taking the plug in her bottom.

“I’m going to fuck you now,” he said, and for once didn’t apologize for his crude language. “Thank me for punishing you.”

“Thank you for spanking me. I needed it.”

“Thank me for fucking your tight arse.”

She squeaked. “I can’t say that.”

“Do it.”

“Thank you for fucking my tight arse.” Her face burned, her cunny dripped with delicious humiliation.

He began to move, and she grunted at the strange feeling. Her bottom cramped and stretched around him, but he’d trained her well, and her body quickened.

“You want me to make you cum? With my cock in your bottom hole?”

“Yes, please, Calum, I want it.”

He reached between her legs, fingers going right to her sopping wet center. She was bucking against him in no time.

With a triumphant cry, he pushed her down and slammed into her sore bottom, finishing quickly.

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome anytime, lass. Did you enjoy it?”

“Yes,” she announced.

“Truly? You’ll let me take you again?”

In answer, she pushed him onto his back and climbed on. He grinned up at her, raising his hands to support her.

“My little Phoebe is spreading her wings,” he said, and sighed when she settled in for the ride.

*

The next night, Phoebe sat knitting, shifting once in awhile on her still sore bum. A steady snowfall blanketed the world outside of their warm lodge.

Her husband sat quietly in his chair. The melancholy had overtaken him. She’d heard Mrs. Martin mention to someone that the long dark nights could swallow a man whole.

She feared that’s what was happening to her husband.

“It’s snowing again,” she said and touched her foot to his.

He roused enough to look out the window and nod.

“I bet your trails are beautiful in winter. Do you want to go out and walk?”

“No, lass.” He sighed. “I apologize for being this way. I have trouble in the winter. The darkness makes me melancholy.”

“It’s all right.” She offered him a little smile. “I understand. You’re allowed to be sad.”

But as she watched him sink into silence, something told her the long nights weren’t the only reason for his mood. She was determined to beat back the darkness inside her husband.

Later, she was folding and putting away the blanket she’d taken for her expedition. She tucked it into a drawer in the second bedroom, next to the mysterious children’s clothes. As she stood, she noticed a small object on the floor: a small wooden piece that had fallen out of the unused blanket. It was a small toy, a tiny horse finely carved for a child to play with.

And suddenly she knew.

Calum looked up when she held the toy out to him. “It was your family, wasn’t it? The things in there belonged to them. You built this whole lodge for them.”

He ran a hand down his face, his expression tired and strained. “Yes.”

She knelt before him, her hands on his knees. “Tell me.”

“I was always traveling. Never content to stay in one place. My wife and sons lived in Tennessee, near her family, and I traveled doing my hunting. I came out here and saw the mountains and knew I wanted to settle. Finally, my wife agreed. I built this place, and made it ready, and went to meet them.

“They were struck with dysentery, all of them. My wife was alive and well one morning, and by evening, she was gone. My two sons died a few days later.”

“Calum,” she whispered.

“They’re buried on the trail. I left most of their things, but I could not leave it all behind.” He picked up the little wooden horse. “This was Jamie’s. My wee boy.” His fist closed around the piece, swallowing it up.

Phoebe wiped tears from her eyes.

“Don’t cry for them, lass. They’re in a better place.” But his look was tortured.

“Calum, I’m sorry.”

“If I had not dragged them from their home, they’d still be alive. It was me and my wandering ways that did it.”

“There’s no way you can know that. You shouldn’t blame yourself.”

“But I do.” He glanced out the window to the falling snow. “And every winter, the darkness comes and I cannot shake it.”

She gently pried the wooden piece from his big hand, and rose, turning it over in her fingers. “It’s not your fault, Calum. I’ll tell you over and over again, until you understand that.”

“Oh, lass. You cannot fix me.”

“No.” She set the toy horse on the mantle next to her little bird before turning to him with gentle determination. “But I can love you.” Her blue eyes held his until he held out his hand to her.

“Come to me.”

She curled up with her head on his chest. His arms went around her and she felt him heave a sigh.

It wasn’t much, to sit close with her man before a crackling fire, but it was enough.

*

The next morning he woke her. “Come see.” The world outside their lodge was entirely white. “Bundle up. We’re going out.” He pulled out two long strips of polished wood, taller than she was. “What are those?”

“Trust me, lass.”

They went outside and he tied them to her feet, and another pair to his. She had her poles and he had his own pair; they practiced skiing around the yard before he tromped to the forest edge. “You ready?”

The skis slid across the hard white crust, leaving twin tracks through the snowy trees. He led her through the forest trail until the land started to incline.

“Tired?”

She shook her head. Her body was warm, her cheeks red with cold, but she felt alive.

“Come on.” He found a small hill and showed her how to ski down it. She had a moment of panic, then the muscles in her legs engaged and she slid down, crying out with glee as the wooden skis carried her effortlessly to the bottom.

“Again,” she shouted. They climbed the hill over and over again until her laughter echoed around the hills.

He gave her some jerky and water.

“You ready?” He nodded to the high ridge. They trekked up the side of the mountain, taking the path she’d tried to find the night she ran.

The hemlocks were bowed under their snowy covering. Other than the fox and deer tracks, the world was flawless white.

They labored up the side of the mountain. Every so often, she wasn’t sure she could manage to go on, but whenever Calum looked over to check on her, she forced a fierce smile.

Finally, they burst from the trees to a wide expanse, a large, open slope that usually was a rocky path, now soft and smooth with countless feet of snow.

“This is it,” he told her, waving his pole. “Ready?”

The drop was further than the hill they’d practiced on. But her legs were strong, stronger than they’d ever been, and she knew: she was ready.

“I can do it.”

His eyes crinkled as he nodded for her to go first.

Scooting her skis to the precipice, she took a deep breath. The whole white world was at her feet, the mountain and hills, great forest and plains stretching out below, inviting her.

She took a deep breath, and using the poles, launched herself down the slope. Her heart beat faster and for a moment she felt afraid, then her powerful muscles took over, balancing and letting the skis carry her over the pillowy snow as easy as a bird soars in the air: effortless, fast and free.

And Phoebe flew.

The End

Bonus Scene: The Rogue’s Wife:

A few minutes after the shooting…

While the others carried Phoebe’s uncle into surgery, Jesse pulled his wife into another one of the rooms. Susannah was quiet, her face pale and peaked, her hand on her middle as if to steady her stomach.

Jesse lit a lamp and turned to her. “Here. Let me look at you.”

“I’m fine.” She gulped a few times. “I feel much better.”

“Let me see.”

“It’s all right,” she protested. “I didn’t get shot.”

But his hands were roving up and down, checking her body under her layers of clothes before coming up to cup her face.

“Did they touch you? Did they touch anyone?” he demanded.

“No.” She stepped back, catching his hands. “I pulled my gun before he got close, and told him to stop. He threatened us and came forward, so I aimed and fired.”

“You aimed for his leg and not his body?”

He’d instructed her to fire into a man’s torso if she ever wanted to make sure and stop him. She lifted her chin. “I know you always told me to shoot to kill, if I had to, but I didn’t want to kill him.”

“You were lucky. It might not have stopped him, and then it would’ve just made them all mad.”

“I know that,” she snapped. “I also knew you and the other men were close, and my attackers weren’t armed.”

“You didn’t know that for sure. They could’ve had weapons close by.”

“Fine, I made a mistake. Next time I’ll be sure to aim for the chest.” She glared at him, and he stood frowning at her. “I did what I thought was best in the moment. And now a man is shot.” She waved her hand in the general direction of the surgery. “And I have to live with it, not you.”

The door creaked open a little, and they could hear the wounded man shouting in his room. Jesse crossed and shut it, hard.

When he turned back, he was relaxed. “What’s done is done. And it all worked out. You did well.”

“Thank you.” Despite herself, her lower lip trembled.

“Come here,” he said gruffly and she crossed to him. His arms slid around her and she shook a little with the aftermath of her feelings about the shooting and their fight.

“I didn’t want to shoot him, but I couldn’t let him—”

“I know. It’s all right.” He hugged her until she pulled away, her blue eyes flashing defiance.

“How dare you pull me in here to question me. I did what I had to do.”

“I know you did, Susannah, and I’m sorry for second guessing you. I was afraid.” He squeezed her harder. “I should’ve been there. I’m supposed to be the one to protect you.”