Submitting Sarah (Montana Maiden Series Book 4) Page 2

  Even if I didn't know who she was, it was obvious she was from Liberty. Nowhere else did a man protect a woman's maidenhead by fashioning a leather belt with a strip that ran between a woman's legs covering her pussy. She'd been confused when I mentioned a dildo and a plug, a clear indication she most assuredly wasn't married. A wife from Liberty would be extremely familiar with both. A maiden would have nothing in her pussy or ass. Only once she was married and rightfully claimed did a husband fill her the way he saw fit.

  Sarah didn't seem the least bit distraught by her father's death. Being confined to the ranch for all these years might not have been pleasant for her, but he'd protected her from everything. I could thank the man for that if he wasn't six feet under because here she was, just for Tagg and me.

  Her protector was clearly nowhere about, therefore that role fell to Tagg and me by proxy. Once we removed the harness, and we'd have to soon, she'd belong to us. Practically naked as she was now, she already did. Her maidenhead may still be intact, but her virtue was not. Regardless, we needed the name of her protector to tell him of her whereabouts and to claim her properly. She would tell us. I'd spank it out of her, if required.

  Glancing about, I found a boulder that would work perfectly for her spanking. Sitting down upon the hard surface, I patted my thigh. "Bring her over, brother."

  Her eyes widened and her skin paled even further. As she shook her head, tangles of red hair caught on the damp skin of her back. "No! I don't want to."

  "You don't have to want it," Tagg said, his voice gentle, even though his intent was clear as he took her arm. "All you have to do is answer our questions. And tell the truth when you do."

  She shook her head vehemently. "No."

  It was unclear if she was saying no to the spanking or to answering the questions. Neither “no” was acceptable. It was obvious, at least to both of us, that we would have our way. In this, and everything else. "Very well," Tagg replied.

  He easily lifted her up into his arms, small as she was. Placing her over my knees was no hardship for him, even as she struggled against him. Spreading my hand across her lower back, seeing the firm globes of her ass clearly through her wet shift, was no hardship for me.

  She wiggled and shifted, fighting my hold, which only made my cock rise beneath her belly. There was no reason to soothe her, not yet at least. Not until we had the answers we wanted. Nothing I could do would put her at ease except turning our backs and letting her run off. But based on her actions when we discovered her, the harness was a hindrance for her. She couldn't perform the most basic of bodily functions easily without it removed.

  If we undid the lock at her lower back for her, it was an outright claiming on our part. Whoever put it on her did it for just such situations. Running away, however, changed that. She forced herself, albeit unknowingly, into our protection.

  And so my hand came down on her ass with a resounding smack.

  She bucked at the surprise of it. "Ow!" she cried, wriggling even more. "You can't do this to me!"

  "Never been spanked before?" I asked.

  "No, of course not!" she hissed after my hand came down again.

  I couldn't help but smile. Tagg watched how her flesh jiggled with each strike I landed. Over and over I spanked her until her ass was a bright pink and she was breathing hard. Her initially chilled skin now had a sheen of perspiration.

  "We are your protectors now. In order to take care of you, you must answer our questions. Since you refuse, you are being spanked. This is your choice, Sarah."

  She remained tight lipped.

  Smack.

  "Who do you belong to?" I asked.

  Smack.

  "No one! My father's dead. You know that. Now stop spanking me!"

  Not until I had the answers I wanted. Smack.

  "Who put the harness on you?"

  Smack. Smack.

  "Please, stop, that hurts!"

  I wasn't hurting her. Stinging her pride most assuredly, but I would never hurt her. If she calmed down enough, she'd realize that.

  "Who put the harness on you?" I repeated.

  Smack.

  "Doctor Graham!" she wailed. With her admission, her shoulders slumped down and she began to cry. Not tears of pain, but frustration. Frustration that she'd been caught, that she'd been discovered practically naked, and that she'd been given a spanking.

  I ran my palm over the places I'd turned bright pink, soothing them. "Good girl. That wasn't so difficult now, was it?"

  Doctor Graham was a friend of ours. We were of a similar age, grew up together and had been caught in similar wild antics as boys, along with the Bridger brothers and Ian McKenzie, Liberty's sheriff. Tagg and I had stayed on the family ranch and took over the running of it when our parents died, but Doc had gone off to medical school back east, before returning and becoming Liberty's sole doctor. We’d seen him earlier in the week when we went into Liberty for supplies, but he’d not mentioned Sarah to us then.

  Thankfully - and wisely - he saw fit to bring Devney and Sarah to town and under his protection instead of leaving her alone on the ranch. I could only imagine the vultures that were circling the new widow for that sizable spread and the money that went with it. And Sarah? Hell, just looking at her I knew any man would claim her on sight.

  If she'd stayed in Liberty under our friend's protection and not run off, she might have had a say in her spouse. Doc would have ensured she was well matched. Now, however, she would be married to Tagg and me, regardless of her personal preference.

  She didn't respond to my question.

  "You are under Doctor Graham's protection?" I asked. The town doctor or the sheriff were the only two unmarried men who could offer protection to a woman without being forced to marry her. Their roles as civil servants gave them this responsibility, whether they wished it or not. Sarah would remain with Doc and in a harness until a family member could claim her, or, if none were alive, until she married.

  "Yes," she sobbed. "I have no one else to do so."

  "You’re a maiden?" Tagg asked, coming around to stand beside me. He'd crossed his arms over his chest and looked down at her prone form.

  "Yes," she answered easily. She spoke to the ground beneath her.

  Lifting her up carefully, I positioned her to stand between my thighs, my hands on her waist. She was so tiny I could almost span her girth with my fingers. Sitting as I was, we were at eye level. Her green eyes were glassy and bright with unshed tears. One slipped down her flushed cheek and I wiped it away with my thumb.

  "You have two choices, Sarah."

  She bit her lip and sighed, flicked her gaze to me, then up at my brother.

  "We take you back to Liberty to Doctor Graham."

  Her eyes narrowed and her lips thinned as her back stiffened. That didn't seem to appeal to her. "Or...," she murmured.

  "Or you become under our protection instead," Tagg added.

  She tried to back up, shaking her head, but I held her in place easily enough. A lock of hair fell down across her face and she tucked it behind her ear. "No. Absolutely not. I could also get back on my horse and continue riding east."

  "I bet that harness is going to be an issue for you soon enough," I commented.

  Her cheeks flamed.

  "I'll take it off of you right now," I offered.

  Hope lit her eyes, then wariness. She was smart to see motive behind my statement. "But...."

  "I'll take it off, but since Doc isn't here, we'll be the ones in charge of your maidenhead."

  She darted her gaze between us once again. "Both of you?"

  "Both of us," Tagg confirmed with a nod of his head. "We're brothers. We run the ranch together and we protect a woman together."

  The word he didn't use was claim. By taking the harness off Sarah, we were claiming her. She just didn't know it.

  TAGG

  Sarah was beautiful. Utterly beautiful, with hair red like a burning sunset, long and thick down her back. She was so petite, so
dainty, that I felt sure I would break her, hurt her just by holding her arm. She was such a fragile thing, until I looked in her eyes. There, I could see a stubbornness that made her a feisty force to be reckoned with. She clearly had a mind of her own, and a sharp one at that. Somehow she'd escaped Doc's clutches and made it as far as our ranch. But the one thing she hadn't considered, probably hadn't even known existed until very recently, was the harness she wore over her pussy.

  When I saw her on the ground, trying to cut the thick leather with such intense focus that she hadn't heard us approach, I knew if she'd have time, she would have completed her task. She wanted us to let her go, so she could follow through with whatever plan she'd contrived.

  Like hell we'd let her go.

  There was no need to even talk with Garrett about it; we were of similar minds here. I had less than pure thoughts of her; no doubt Garrett did as well. But we were both gentlemen, unlike the next man - or men - who might come upon her. My jaw clenched tightly at what could have happened to her if we hadn't found her. There were outlaws, ranch hands who hadn't seen a woman in a month, and drunkards more than eager to find a woman, willing or not. This untamed land was not safe for a woman alone. The fact that she'd been isolated on her father's ranch for years made her even more vulnerable. She didn't know it, but we'd saved her.

  "Fine," she fumed. "I just need you to remove the harness."

  "Sarah," I said, forcing her to tilt her head up to look at me. When she did, I continued. "Just to be clear. Unlike Doc, we won't be protecting you for another man, your future husband. We take the belt off, we take you."

  Her mouth fell open and I saw her little pink tongue. "Take me?"

  "Like Garrett said, we'll be in charge of your maidenhead. That means we decide when we take it."

  "You?" She pointed at both of us, confused.

  "Us."

  She stepped back and Garrett let her go. Her shift had dried so that it no longer clung to her luscious body, now only offering a hint of a curve of breast, the tight peak of a nipple, the swell of her hip. The rest was hidden, yet burned into my brain. I didn't need to see it to see it.

  "I will keep it upon my person then." She nodded as if validating her choice with herself. She was so self assured it was stunning to watch. Her father might have offered her protection, but he didn't make her biddable like the women we knew who bowed to their father or protector's wishes, or her husband's. Most of Liberty women were so submissive that they'd become meek. When we showed Sarah our dominance - and it was only a matter of when - she would learn her true power. By submitting, she would be the one in control.

  It was difficult to discern if her change of opinion was because it would be the two of us taking her, claiming her, fucking her together, or if she needed more time to formulate some kind of escape. Perhaps both. As if we'd let her go. Any fears she might have about being claimed by two men could easily be assuaged, one orgasm at a time.

  Garrett sighed and stood. Between the two of us, I was the taller, however he was broader and heavier. Regardless, the two of us together were quite formidable and I was impressed by her lack of fear, the way she stood her ground, even though it was slowly sinking from beneath her, like quicksand.

  "Very well. We will go back to the house and have something to eat. Surely you are quite hungry," I guessed.

  At that, her stomach gave a loud grumble. She placed one hand upon her belly and blushed quite prettily.

  "Afterwards, we’ll do our chores, and then if we’re finished in time, we'll ride into town to return you to Doc. If not, then we’ll take you in the morning. In the meantime, your maidenhead is most assuredly safe from us," Garrett told her.

  "Where is your horse?" I asked, trying to keep her off kilter, even though I knew the answer. We'd come across her horse before we found her.

  "Um...it's that way, most likely eating grass." She pointed downstream.

  Garrett headed in that direction.

  I reached down and picked up her dress, still sodden and dripping. "Come on. We will return to the house."

  "I need...I need to get my boots and stockings," she said, walking to the side of the creek to claim her things, her gait stiff, her steps gingerly. The corner of my mouth ticked up, amused. A sore bottom was a consequence long remembered.

  Garrett came back, leading a horse by the reins. We looked at each other, but no words were necessary. He nodded and I returned the same gesture. She wasn't getting away. I met her halfway back, picked her up by the waist and sat her down upon the saddle.

  "Oh!" She winced and squirmed.

  "It is our job to protect you, Sarah. You may not walk here without shoes. There are unseen dangers you could step on and get hurt. Rattlesnakes even."

  Shifting, she looked down at the ground as if a snake or two had slithered out of the brush, then added, "But my--"

  "Your spanked ass?" Garrett finished for her. Probably not the words she would have chosen. "I can carry you instead."

  He tossed the reins to me and made ready to help her down.

  "No," she replied very insistently, sitting up ramrod straight as if she had a plug in her ass. Ah, a plug. I couldn't wait to see Sarah with her first plug. "Thank you, but I will be fine upon the horse."

  I led the animal toward the house and smiled, although she couldn't see being behind me as she was. Having Sarah submit wasn't going to be easy, but it sure was going to be fun. We'd left at dawn to observe the beaver dam being built upstream and came home with a woman.

  CHAPTER THREE

  SARAH

  Everything was going wrong! This was not how I imagined my escape to be. I was to make it as far as the next town by horse, take the stage east to the first town with a railroad, then continue all the way to a real, big city. There, I could be one of so many, discover everything I'd only read about in books. The money I'd collected, little by little over the years, had been tucked neatly and safely into a hidden pocket on the inside of my dress. Before Doctor Graham, the sheriff and Mr. Bridger had taken Devney and I from the ranch yesterday morning, I'd quickly hidden my money upon my person. Everything had been planned meticulously over the years. Except the harness.

  The stupid, ridiculous, confining, humiliating harness! I'd never even imagined such a contraption existed, let alone the reason for donning it. Lifting my skirts for Doctor Graham to take it on and off had been embarrassing. Absolutely mortifying. But he was a doctor. I had no real idea of what occurred between a man and a woman, but even I knew Garrett and Tagg Ericksson had anything but clinical thoughts about me. Unfortunately, they'd caught me in the most inappropriate of positions, which then turned downright indecent when I'd fallen into the water.

  After spanking me and receiving the answers they wanted, they were nothing but polite. True gentlemen. I was shown to a lovely bedroom to rest while they tended to their chores. The walls were painted white, with equally crisp and bright curtains in the window that overlooked the vast stable and the prairie beyond. A brass bed took up most of the space and a small table with pitcher and bowl upon it sat beneath a mirror. Although I hadn't slept all night and the bed looked quite inviting, I couldn't rest. My mind and body were too restless.

  What was I to do? I paced the small space, frustrated and irritated, hands clenched in tight fists. I needed the harness off of my person in order to escape. I couldn't continue on with it upon me. Before that, I needed it off of me as soon as possible as my most basic needs were very, very pressing. I squirmed at the discomfort in my belly. I couldn't wait the several hours for Doctor Graham to be fetched. I couldn't wait another hour.

  Tears filled my vision and the dress blurred. I had no choice. I began to cry in frustration, my desperation too great to consider the depths of the consequences. I glanced at the damp dress that was draped over the rails at the foot of the bed. I could put it on, but it would be a soggy, miserable experience and another inconvenience to wait upon. Opening the door, I ran down the narrow staircase, out the front door
and into the stable.

  "All right," I shouted, when I found Tagg brushing down a horse. The air inside was cool, the scent of animal and cut hay fresh in the air. His hat was off and his hair was a dark blond, like the sand on the banks of the river. He glanced up at me in surprise, his eyes the color of the sky.

  He stood at my sudden appearance, a curry brush in his right hand. "All right?" he repeated, confused. He looked me over from head to toe. I was still in my shift and barefoot, breathing hard from my exertion and fidgeting from my body's imminent needs.

  "Please," I begged. "Take off the harness."

  Understanding flickered across his face. He put the brush up on the half wall of the horse's pen and turned to me. "Let me wash my hands."

  He went outside and I followed him into the bright sunlight. Working the pump, water came pouring out. Using a bar of soap he pulled from a small tin hooked onto the curve of the pipe, he scrubbed his hands clean. Shaking off the excess water, he turned to me. "Turn around and lift your shift."

  I backed up a step. "Here?" He wanted to remove it out in the open?

  "No one else is about but Garrett. Here will do. Turn around, Sarah."

  His voice went deeper and was more commanding, his shoulders back and he appeared even taller and more imposing.

  Slowly, I turned to face away from him so I looked at the front of the stable, and lifted the hem of my shift. It only covered me to mid thigh, which was indecent enough, but I lifted it up so that the back of the harness where the small lock was situated was uncovered. This meant that my bottom was on complete display as well.

  Glancing over my shoulder, I watched as Tagg knelt behind me so his line of sight was directly on my bottom and lower back. I gulped as his eyes darkened and his jaw clamped down tightly.