Daisy Page 4

  “Daisy,” he warned.

  “One. Thank you,” I breathed.

  Spank.

  “Two. Thank you.”

  This went on until I reached thirty, but by then my bottom was on fire and I sobbed the number.

  I didn’t dare move, but I wanted to toss the fur over my head and hide. I felt humiliated, embarrassed and… comforted. It was such a confusing mix of thoughts that it made me cry even more. Why did I like the spankings? Why did I like the way the pain of his palm against my tender skin turned into heat? Was it the man’s attention? Was it the fact that we were both half dressed? Was it because I was a hoyden or depraved?

  “Shh,” he crooned, soothing his palm over the heated flesh. The sting morphed into a glorious glow. “It’s all done now. You were a good girl.”

  I shook my head. “I’m… I’m not good,” I cried.

  He turned my chin so I looked up at him. Before he spoke he brushed my tears away with my thumbs. “Why’s that, darlin’?”

  “Because I’m so wet. That makes me very, very bad.”

  He pulled me up and into his arms. His chest was like granite, but very, very warm. I could hear the steady beat of his heart. I’d longed for him to hug me just like this. “It doesn’t make you bad. It means you’re sexually aroused.”

  The hairs on his chest tickled my cheek and the clean scent of him was much stronger than just on his shirt. “By being punished?”

  “Yes, and by someone you know will not tolerate any nonsense.”

  “And that makes me… wet?” I sighed wearily. “I’m so confused.”

  “You do not need to understand it now. Just know that you have done nothing wrong, that your body recognizing what it needs is not shameful. It will remain our secret, Daisy, and I will be the one to fulfill your needs.” He continued to croon to me, soothing and lulling me. I relaxed into his body as my breathing evened.

  “It’s time for you to rest.” He released me and settled me back beneath the furs—on my stomach. “Sleep, Daisy. When you wake up, things will be resolved.”

  DAISY

  This time when I awoke I was not fearful. I knew my surroundings, knew that I was still at the Indian village. The difference this time was that Doctor James was not pressed against me. I was quite alone beneath the furs. An Indian woman was quietly working by the fire and she turned to me when I stirred.

  I sat up and stretched, ran my hair over my wild mess of hair. She was older, perhaps of a similar age to Miss Trudy and Miss Esther. Her hair, threaded with hints of gray, was pulled back into a long braid down her back, the color of it even darker than mine. Dark complected, she was very pretty.

  “I am wife of Red Bear. You helped him, so I help you.”

  She smiled at me and offered me a cup with steam rising from the top.

  “Drink,” she said, her voice low and soft.

  I thanked her for it and she sat with me quietly as I sipped at the hot soup. I noticed my dress and coat on a chair behind her. When I finished, she took the cup from me, took a cloth from a pot at the edge of the fire and wrung out the excess liquid. “Bathe.”

  The damp cloth was warm and I used it to wash myself, taking it to the small pot and dipping and then wringing it over and over until I felt marginally better. Next, she indicated with her hand to my clothes. “Dress.”

  I glanced quickly at the closed flap, wondering if Doctor James would enter, but the woman did not seem concerned for my privacy. Used to dressing in front of my sisters, I was not bothered to remove the shirt. All of my clothing was dry and I felt better dressed once again in my familiar garments. Once the last button on my dress was complete, my stockings tied in place and my boots back on my feet, she ushered me to a small stool. “Sit.”

  She held up a brush made with horsehair and began to work the tangles and snarls from my hair. It was when she was tying a strip of leather around a braid down my back did Doctor James enter. I had to tilt my head back to look up at him from my low seat. He had on a heavy coat, gloves and his hat. I had to assume he had another shirt in his saddle bag, but I could not tell if that was the case or if he was bare-chested beneath his outer garment. Just remembering the rippled muscles of his abdomen had me licking my lips.

  Then I thought of how he’d seen my naked body, how he’d discovered the wetness that had coated my thighs, how he did not mock my arousal from his stern punishment. While I was embarrassed by it, he was not.

  “Good morning,” I said, although it was difficult to meet his eyes.

  “Actually, it is afternoon.”

  I gasped. “It is?”

  His hair was once again combed and neat, his face clean-shaven. “You slept the night straight through. Clearly, you needed your rest. You are refreshed now?”

  I nodded, remembering how I had been so tired. It may not have been the punishment spanking itself that exhausted me, but it reminded me of my bad decisions once again.

  “I see you have no ill effects from your punishment.”

  I realized he spoke of me sitting with a spanked bottom on the hard wooden stool. I glanced over my shoulder at the woman and couldn’t help but blush. She nodded to me, then to Doctor James, then slipped out of the tipi.

  “Well?” he asked, waiting.

  “No, my… bottom is fine,” I mumbled.

  “The weather has lifted. While it is still quite cold, we are able to return to town, but we must do so before dark.”

  I nodded, pleased to be going home.

  “It has been two days, Daisy. Two days you have been gone. Your family will be worried.”

  I felt as if I were a small child being scolded, seated as I was with him looming over me. So I stood. While he was close to a head taller, the difference was not so great. “Yes, I understand they will be unhappy.”

  “What are you going to tell them?” He plucked off his gloves and stuck them in his coat pockets. “Surely they asked the sheriff and others in town to help search for you.”

  Oh dear. They would do that. The one time Marigold wandered off at the church picnic had the entire town searching for her. Of course, she’d been eight at the time and they’d found her quickly enough, asleep on one of the church pews. My disappearance during a winter storm was not of the same caliber.

  “I will say… That is…” What was I going to say? I glanced up at him and he did not answer for me. He was making me come up with a solution myself. “I will say I went for a ride and came upon an Indian village.”

  His eyes widened. “You will put the Indians in danger with your answer?”

  I frowned. “Danger?”

  “As you know, some from town do not like the Indians. They do not know of this transient settlement and may wish to drive them away.”

  “I do not mean them any harm. They have been nothing but kind. They rescued me.” I began to pace the small space and when I had a new idea, I turned to face him. “You saved me. We need not mention the Indians.”

  “Very well, for I wish to continue to offer them my services.”

  I smiled, relieved. “Good. Then it is settled.”

  He raised his hand. “You will tell everyone that you were following me and fell into the river?”

  I gasped. “How did you know I foll—” I recognized the trap that he set for me, although a tad too late. I bit my lip from implicating myself further.

  Instead of being upset by my admission, he seemed unaffected. “If you do not wish to tell everyone in town of your actions, then there is only one possible scenario that will work.”

  “Oh?” I asked, pretending to smooth out the nonexistent wrinkles in my dress.

  “We will marry.”

  My head shot up and my hands froze on my thighs. “What?”

  “I refuse to tell anyone about helping the Indians. My medical services are for anyone in need, not solely for those with white skin. That applied in Georgia, too.” He pointed his finger in my direction. “You can’t return to town without a viable excuse for your
reckless behavior.”

  Yes, but marriage? The man had lost his mind. I didn’t want to marry him because of circumstance. I wanted him to marry me because he wanted me.

  “If you tell your family you were with me through the snowstorm then they will want to know our whereabouts. Since I will not allow you to offer the truth, your virtue and my honor will be tarnished. The latter, I assure you, is not up for consideration.”

  I backed away from him, but stumbled when I realized I was going to step in the small fire. “We can’t just get married! I barely know you!”

  “Are you willing then to give explanation?”

  I sputtered, but my mind could not come up with a retort. I couldn’t think of a plausible story. If I were to say I had been kidnapped by Indians, that would only bring attention to them. If I said I’d been snowbound for two days with Doctor James, then we would be brought to the altar anyway, but in disgrace. Doctor James wouldn’t let me share his whereabouts, for he had done no wrong and again, neither had the Indians.

  I had been in the wrong, yet I would be mortified if the truth were to be discovered. What Doctor James offered was the most viable solution.

  “You are willing to marry me—marry—to protect the Indians?” I enunciated the word very clearly, for it was marriage. Was the man blind to the extent of that commitment?

  “We would marry to protect the Indians, and you. They have done nothing but offer shelter and kindness. To both of us. It is the honorable tack to take.”

  “So we’d wed because you are honorable?” I asked, my voice incredulous.

  He looked taken aback, as if I had insulted him. “Of course.”

  “And I am to marry you because I am careless and headstrong? I am to live with that?” I hoped I was smarter than I appeared to Doctor James.

  “It was one incident and after your punishment, the slate was wiped clean. Regardless, the price to pay is quite high.” He took a step toward me and I let him take my hand. His was warm; calluses on his palm brushed over my skin. “I will also revel in the knowledge that my bride was so eager for my attentions that she risked hypothermia to be with me.”

  “And what of you? While I might be eager, I doubt you are.”

  I had wanted to marry for love. While I couldn’t say that I loved Doctor James, I felt I could, if given time. I could not say the same for him.

  “You think I will be shackled to you?”

  I nodded, forlorn.

  “I assure you,” he continued, “that your interest is returned.”

  I looked up at him through my lashes, afraid to let hope take root. “You… you are interested in me?”

  “That is one word for it,” he murmured, tugging me into him so I was pressed firmly against his chest. He grabbed my braid and gave a little tug. My head tilted back and I had to meet his gaze. His eyes weren’t on mine, however, but on my lips. Heat spread through my body at the… interest I saw there.

  “You will marry me to keep my behavior from being common knowledge?”

  “I do not want a wife who is considered reckless or endangering. While I will most certainly work with you to curb such behavior, it does not need to be commonly known.”

  I crossed my arms over my chest. “What will we tell everyone?”

  “We married in Hollins Ferry.”

  I shook my head. “No minister will lie for us,” I countered.

  Sighing, he released me and stepped back. “The justice of the peace is a friend of mine. I am assured of his discretion.”

  “Then we will not actually be wed?” He would go about his day with me although we were not actually married?

  Frowning, he slashed his hand through the air. “I assure you, our union will be sacred. Red Bear will perform the ceremony and it will be valid.” He held up the same hand and I closed my mouth. “It is not about a certain God, Daisy, but the two of us saying vows to each other. It is a commitment… for life.”

  There was no other choice. If I told everyone the truth, I would always be the wild and impudent Daisy Lenox. What man would be interested in such a foolhardy woman? I would also endanger the Indians and Doctor James could possibly lose his job. No good would come from it.

  He stood silently waiting. As a doctor, it was in his character to be observant and I appreciated his patience in allowing me a moment to think and consider. I had no choice. I would have to marry the man I wanted.

  I took a deep breath and closed the distance between us. “If I am to marry you, I have one further question, Doctor James.”

  His knuckles stroked down my cheek and I shivered, this time not because I was cold.

  “Yes, Miss Lenox?”

  “What’s your name?”

  CHAPTER FOUR

  ETHAN

  Daisy sat on my lap as we rode toward town. The sun had set hours earlier and the sky was clear. I was unaccustomed to the way the snow reflected the moon’s glow. It was an oddly bright night.

  “Are you all right?” I asked.

  The horse plodded slowly, the sound of it muffled by the deep snow. With one hand on the reins, I kept the other one about her waist. It was a bitterly cold night, but she seemed warm enough.

  “That was… difficult,” she replied. I expected she would have wrung her hands if they were not mittened. She had not forgotten a thick wool hat and it covered her head and ears while a scarf wrapped around her neck kept just her eyes and nose exposed to the cold.

  After our quick marriage in front of Red Bear, we did not linger at the encampment. We rode straight to the Lenox ranch where Daisy was equally scolded and smothered by Miss Trudy and Miss Esther as well as her sisters. We’d stayed for dinner—we were not given a choice— as we recounted our false story and I, too, had been scolded in equal measure for eloping with Daisy.

  Miss Esther believed that I was an intelligent man, but must have assumed my baser needs had overridden my rational mind. I had no choice but to take the brunt of their frustrations. It had been my fault for whisking Daisy away without a word. Because these accusations came from worry and love, I did not let them bother me. Perhaps they even seemed happy with our marriage because they thought I’d been so blinded by lust to forget all courtesy.

  While it seemed Daisy’s virtue and my honor were still intact—the plan had worked—I had yet to even kiss my new bride, for the end of wedding tradition was not an Indian one. If I was considered to have married Daisy because my need for her was too great to delay a moment longer, I should at least have reaped the benefits of it.

  That was why I went to find Daisy in her room where she’d gone to pack a bag. There, I was surprised to find books. Lots and lots of books. As she folded her clothes and placed them in a small bag, I perused the titles on the shelves. There was a fair amount of fiction, but most of the books were scientific in nature. While I knew the woman to be well versed and she had borrowed one of my journals, I had not expected her eagerness for learning to be of such depth. My bride was a bluestocking.

  Once Daisy finished, I carried her bag out to my horse. We left the Lenox horse behind—the one that had tossed her into the river—and she was upon my lap. It felt good to hold her, not only because I could feel every curve of her lush ass, but because I knew she was safe. With my arms about her she could come to no harm. My need to protect Daisy was just as fierce as my need to fuck her. Town was not much further, which meant I could soon finally claim my bride.

  When I’d first decided to spank her for her impudent and reckless behavior, I had not anticipated how I would go about it. I had not imagined that she would be wearing just my shirt and that her nipples would jut out through the thin fabric. I had not anticipated seeing the slight curve of her breast as I inspected her shoulder. I had not anticipated the length of her legs or the softness of the skin on her thighs. I’d assessed her body as would a doctor, but lusted after her as a man.

  So before I’d tossed up the shirt that covered her ass, I knew definitively she would be mine. Daisy, upon her ha
nds and knees, ass in the air and the folds of her pussy visible, was the most incredible sight. She was the perfect submissive and I would not allow another to see her as I did. None other would touch her, coax her and turn her ass a bright pink.

  I shifted in the saddle at the memory of her juices sliding down her thighs, the physical proof that she longed to submit… to me.

  “I imagine whichever sister marries next will have no choice but to be wed in a church with a lengthy engagement,” she said, her voice muffled by her thick scarf.

  Daisy’s talk of her sisters had my thoughts returning to the present. “Oh?”

  “Rose and Chance were married by the Clayton sheriff. Hyacinth, while married in church, did it on the spur of the moment. Dahlia was married in Carver Junction. I am the fourth girl to marry hastily, the third to marry without any family present.”

  “They seemed pleased. Ultimately.”

  “You took the brunt of their anger. I’m sorry for that,” she said.

  “They consider me overly eager where you are concerned.”

  Daisy shifted on my lap and I tightened my hold on her. If she moved any more, I’d stop the horse and take her in the snow. Either she did not recognize that my cock was pressing against her ass, the layers of our warm clothing hid it, or she had no idea what it was that she was feeling.

  “They knew I was interested in you. I believe that helped your cause, that your… eagerness was reciprocated.”

  Once they knew Daisy was safe and well, they began to tease her about how she’d followed me around like a puppy. Lily had used that phrase. Marigold had said Daisy had gone into town for supplies more since I arrived than in her entire life. Miss Esther had only said that she knew everything. This, I most certainly believed. The woman was quite shrewd. Miss Trudy assessed me in a more reserved way, but must have known Daisy’s feelings, for I doubted she’d let me take her away otherwise.