Reins & Ribbons

by Vanessa Vale

  I choked on my coffee.

  “What about your plans to move to the city?” Poppy wondered.

  “We've been too busy to discuss very much of anything at all,” Garrison told her, making all four of my sisters giggle.

  “Where's Daisy?” I wondered. She was the only unmarried sister not present, which was a surprise, for she and I were the closest. I assumed she'd be quite livid I didn't tell her first.

  “In town with Hyacinth and Jackson.”

  “She has her eyes on Doc James,” Lily said, her voice all soft and lilting as if she were the one who found the town doctor appealing. “She was hoping to catch a glimpse of him.”

  Miss Esther shook her head and humphed. “That girl is going to be mighty disappointed. Doc James is out at the Nelson homestead delivering their baby.”

  While I knew about Daisy's interest in the doctor—she'd told me as much time and again over the past few months—I did not know how Miss Esther knew of the man's whereabouts.

  “We will have a wedding celebration,” Miss Esther said, standing to retrieve her small writing journal and beginning to write in it. “Next weekend would work. We will announce it at church on Sunday. A picnic.”

  “That's kind of you, Miss Esther, but that weekend won't work,” Garrison said.

  She paused and looked up. “Oh?”

  “I will be purchasing a horse in Cheyenne and must go to retrieve it from the train depot there.”

  “A horse on a train? Imagine that!” Marigold exclaimed.

  I tugged my hand out from beneath Garrison's and looked up at him. There was no way I could hide my surprise, for this was news to me! He was leaving me to go to Cheyenne? That was hundreds of miles away. Was he even going to say goodbye?

  “I should go pack up my things,” I murmured, standing. Garrison looked at me, but said nothing.

  “Dahlia, you're not upset your husband is leaving you?” Iris asked.

  My spine stiffened at her question. She had absolutely no ability to be subtle or to recognize that something was amiss. How could she not realize I was being thrown over for a horse?

  I put on my usual saucy air of uncaring and smiled, albeit forced. “Of course not,” I replied. I was thankful to hear my voice was even, although my heart was breaking on the inside. Surely he'd return from Cheyenne, but it certainly set a tone for our life together. It wouldn't actually be together. Did I actually have all of him to begin with? Was I just another thing for him to purchase? “Garrison has been quite a distraction for me. With him gone, I can certainly tend to my activities that I've neglected.”

  Garrison's jaw clenched and I didn't linger to be pulled into a conversation with Iris about this. It was hard enough as it was. I fled upstairs to my room and retrieved my bag.

  I'd only folded three dresses before Garrison stood in the open doorway. He took in the room with a quick glance and then focused on me. “What the hell was that about?” he murmured.

  He kept his voice low, for while we were on the second floor, being alone could change at any moment. Besides, I knew how nosy all of my sisters were, for I had been that way myself when Hyacinth and Jackson had been alone as we were now.

  I stuffed a dress into the bag. “Whatever do you mean?” I replied tartly.

  “You're planning on taking up your old antics again?”

  “Antics? Is that what you call what I do with my life?”

  Remaining quiet, he stood large and forbidding. No one else riled me like he did. No one else made me hot and wet and eager for him either.

  I shrugged as I folded another dress. “Why not? With you gone, we won't be spending all of our time fucking, so I will be able to occupy myself in other ways.”

  He crossed his arms over his chest and leaned against the wall. “You would take up Poker again, even against my wishes?”

  I glanced at him over my shoulder. “Who said anything about Poker?”

  He pointed at me. “I know that tone, sugarplum, and don't think I won't spank your ass nice and pink right here, right now.”

  I spun around to face him, hands on hips. “You wouldn't dare.”

  “I would, and you know it.” He sighed, then he lowered his voice and continued, “You're coming with me to Cheyenne.”

  My arms fell to my sides. “You're taking me to Cheyenne because you can't trust me to stay out of trouble?”

  He leaned in and tempered his voice even more. “The way you're acting right now has me questioning, yes. But you're coming with me because I'd always planned on taking you.”

  My mouth dropped open. He'd always planned on taking me? Really? Or was he saying that now to hide the fact that he couldn't trust me? It was so much easier to hide my hurt behind my façade of flippancy. “You said I wasn't going.”

  He shook his head slowly. “I never said such a thing.”

  “Yes, you—”

  He put his fingers over my lips. “Iris assumed I was leaving you behind and said as much. I can't help it if you believed her words instead of asking me.” He ran his hand over the back of his neck and stepped away, paced the small room. “Why, Dahlia? Why on earth would you ever imagine I'd leave you behind? Have I given you any indication at all that I want to be so far away from you?”

  “I… I mean, well—” I sputtered. He'd actually done nothing of the kind. I'd just assumed that he would leave me. I no longer doubted that my scars were not a deterrent for him, but deeper down I knew people I loved left me, just as my parents had done. It was easier to resign myself to it, to drive Garrison away than to share my hurt with him. If I didn't like him, it was easier to tolerate his leaving me.

  Garrison took the few steps between us. “You have my plug in your ass. Do you think I want to wait all the weeks I'm away to fuck that tight, virgin hole?”

  I felt heat wash over my entire body. His words, his voice, the way he stroked my cheek with the back of his knuckles as he spoke had my body reacting. My nipples tightened, my pussy softened and I clenched down on the offending object in my bottom.

  “I know you, Dahlia Lee. I know that you aren't as contrary as you let on. I know it's all an act, to hide your fears.”

  My mouth fell open. “What…?”

  He took my shoulders, bent at the waist and forced me to meet his eyes. “I'm not going to leave you. You're mine and you don't have to pretend with me. You don't have to pretend to be strong.”

  He could see all that? “Garrison, I… I'm scared, scared of losing you, too.”

  He knew I meant my family, because they'd died and left me all alone.

  “I'm not going anywhere, sugarplum. Besides,” he added, thankfully changing the topic. “You're so hell bent on getting to a big city. I thought you'd enjoy Cheyenne. It's not as big as Denver, mind you, but I think you'll find there is plenty to see and do.”

  How could I be mad at Garrison when he was being so thoughtful? So dang insightful? He wanted to take me and he wanted me to see a city. He'd listened, heard my desires and was trying to fulfill them. He'd said it was his job to bring me pleasure and while he certainly fulfilled that with his male prowess, he was also doing that by having me accompany him.

  I cleared my throat and gave him a smile.

  “I've made you speechless.” He leaned in and nuzzled my neck.

  “Garrison,” I cajoled, tilting my head to the side.

  “Just knowing your ass is filled has had me hard all morning.” He nipped at my earlobe and I gasped. “I want to make you come.”

  “We can't,” I whispered.

  “We can and we will. I just wonder if you'll be able to remain quiet,” he murmured, undoing the buttons at my neck.

  I smiled. “I don't think I can. You're too good.”

  I felt a rumble deep in Garrison's chest beneath my palm.

  “I think… I think Hyacinth and Jackson did this one day,” I murmured.

  “What? Fuck in her room?” he asked as he kissed the hollow above my collarbone.

  “I thin
k so.” I looked up at the ceiling and then my eyes fell shut as he nipped a sensitive place on my shoulder. “There… there was some noise, some voices, rustling. I recognize the signs now.”

  “Turn around.” He spun me by my shoulders and directed me with the tilt of his chin. “Get on your bed, hands and knees.”

  I complied, adjusting my skirt so it wasn't caught beneath me. He grabbed the hem of it and tossed it up onto my back. I looked over my shoulder at him. My bottom was up in the air and facing him, completely bare since he had torn the last of my drawers. He could see everything—my pussy, which I knew was wet, and the end of the plug that was parting my bottom. He took a step closer as he looked at me there. All he had to do was open his pants and I'd be in perfect alignment for fucking. The thought of it had my wetness dripping down my thighs.

  Garrison tugged at the plug. “I'll have to think about these tendencies of yours, such as listening to others as they fuck. Tell me, do you think Jackson had a plug in Hyacinth's ass?”

  I took little panting breaths as he started to work the object from my body, and all thoughts of my sister and her new husband fled. I sighed when the plug slipped free. He tossed it on the quilt. I felt empty, open and very exposed.

  He ran his thumb over my slick folds and then back to my bottom, which was trying to wink closed. He gave it no opportunity, for with the ointment he'd used to originally insert the plug, I was very slippery. He pressed his thumb easily into me, his fingers and palm resting on the globes of my ass.

  “Garrison!” I cried.

  “Shh,” he crooned as he rocked his thumb in and out of my ass, shifting it side to side to stretch me wider. It was like the spanking he'd given me a few days ago—a little uncomfortable, and I scrunched my face up at the feel of it. There was a tinge of pain, but the pleasure that accompanied it was too great to deny. I loved it when he touched me, well, everywhere, but ass play—as he'd called it—was something that was… amazing. Perhaps it was because Garrison was the one touching me, for he was so skilled, so adept at knowing just what I needed. He knew to push me, to take me to surprising and new carnal places or just gentle and almost sweet fucking. “You don't want your sisters to know what we're up to. Certainly not Miss Esther.”

  I shook my head. I didn't want them to know what my husband was doing to me, that he had his thumb sunk deep in my back entrance. Surely they knew we had consummated our marriage, but that meant his cock in my pussy. I doubted any of them would believe I'd let Garrison play with my ass.

  A week ago, I wouldn't have either, but now, now the feelings being touched there were unlike anything else. It was jangly and hot and dark and carnal and it felt… oh so good. The first time when he'd just brushed a finger over that delicate opening, I'd come. It was as if it was the one thing that had been missing to take fucking from good to incredible. There was no going back to just regular old fucking and I doubted Garrison would let me even if I'd wished it.

  He'd most certainly ruined me for all others. Not that I wanted anyone else.

  My hips began to move of their own accord, pushing back to take as much of what Garrison could offer. “Every night, sugarplum. All day long, I'll fuck you—in the stage, in the hotel, hell, even in a brothel if you want me to show you off. I can't go a few hours without your delectable body. Why would you think I'd go a whole month?”

  I lowered myself onto my forearms and dropped my head to the cool quilt. “I… I need you, Garrison.”

  “Good girl.” I heard him work his pants open, then felt the broad head of his cock slide over my sensitive folds. “Your pussy, for now.”

  He slipped into me, spreading my lips wide around his thick cock. Deeper and deeper he went until he bottomed out. With his thumb buried inside my ass, it was so incredibly tight. “Oh my God,” I whispered. My skin was damp with perspiration, my fingers clawed at the quilt. It was too much, the feelings Garrison could wring from my body.

  With one hand on my hip, he began to move, in and out, not only his cock, but his thumb as well, in alternating motions.

  “You are so gorgeous,” he whispered. “Those pretty pink bows holding up your stockings, your creamy thighs right above them. I love watching my cock slide in and out of your pussy, the way your pink lips are spread wide and open around the base of my cock. And your ass, I love seeing my thumb spear your ass, feeling you clench down on it as if you want more. Deeper. Bigger.”

  His whispers were rough with his deep breathing and I bit my lip to keep from crying out. I was close, so close that the tips of my ears tingled. While I was always in control, ruthlessly and meticulously planning my life, when I was beneath Garrison, when he was fucking me, I knew I was well and truly dominated. There was nothing I could do but to take whatever Garrison wanted to give me.

  I was in my old bedroom, only a door separating me from any of my sisters who might walk by. There was no lock and Daisy could—and would—walk in as she often did without any interest in my privacy. Instead of the idea of being caught a damper for my feelings, it instead only pushed me even closer to climax.

  “You're going to come so hard, sugarplum, and you're going to be quiet about it. This time. When we get home, I'll take care of you again and you can scream to your heart's content.”

  I nodded against the quilt, knowing I didn't have a choice in coming either. If he wanted me to come, he'd work my body ruthlessly until I did. He was a master at it. He was my master and there was no other place I wanted to be. No one else I wanted to call that.

  He adjusted my hips and thrust deep, stroking over some secret place inside of me. That was all it took to come. My world exploded, the pleasure so intense I couldn't even scream. My body tensed, stiffened as Garrison continued to pound into me. The sound of his hips slapping into mine, the wet sound of our fucking filled the air. Garrison stroked inside of me through my pleasure and only when it began to ebb, when I could catch my breath did I feel him thicken and lengthen within me and bury himself to the hilt. His fingers clenching my hip were the only indication that he'd come until I felt his hot seed fill me to over flowing. As he slowly pulled out, slipped his thumb from my ass, his seed coursed down my thighs. I lay there, bottom in the air as I caught my breath. Would I ever catch my breath with Garrison?

  8

  GARRISON

  * * *

  Cheyenne was hot and windy. I'd never known the town when the wind didn't blow. The less time I had to spend in the city, the better, for I felt confined with all the people about. Dahlia, however, seemed to love it. We'd gone to several different restaurants and even an outdoor concert. I'd wanted to appease her eagerness for these attractions and then, once the train came with the horse, leave it all behind.

  I worried that I would not be enough for her, that fucking her day and night, pleasuring her beyond measure—even telling her I loved her—wouldn't be enough to hold her. The lure of the city was strong for someone of Dahlia's personality and it was possible she wouldn't want to leave when the time came. While she was my wife and I could easily force her, I did not want her to be bitter and angry at me for ruining her life. I remembered those words distinctly as my mother shouted them at my father. You ruined my life. While I couldn't let Dahlia leave me, I wouldn't force her to stay.

  She needed someone to keep track of her impetuous behavior. I was also able to release her restless energy fucking her. It was a connection between us—a common ground where my father's legacy wasn't plaguing me, and Dahlia wasn't thinking about leaving me for a new life. It was not a hardship for either of us. Just the scent of her hair, the sly turn of her lip had my cock hard enough to pound nails. That was why, instead of hating the way the dust kicked up from the streets, it instead offered good reason to order a bath brought to our hotel room and to watch my naked wife within.

  I lounged in the hotel room chair, my legs apart, my pants open and my hard cock in my hand. I stroked it slowly as I watched her bathe, soaping her arms then running a dripping cloth over them.

>   “Are you going to do that the entire time?” she asked. Her hair was piled atop her head in a sloppy bun, her face pink from the heat and steam rising from the tub. Her breasts floated and her pink nipples just breached the surface of the water. Her exposed skin was wet and she was one of the most erotic sights I'd ever seen.

  “Biding my time, sugarplum, until you get out. Then, I'm taking you to bed and not letting you out 'til morning.”

  I licked my lips as I slowly stroked myself and watched her smile as her nipples tightened. The idea appealed to her as well.

  “It will be your turn next to wash,” she countered.

  “Only if you sit here and play with your pretty pussy while I do so.”

  She looked at me with an expression of mock surprise, one hand high on her chest. “Mr. Lee, I would never.”

  Her eyes lowered and watched as a bead of fluid slid down the head of my cock and onto my fingers. The thought of watching her had me closer to coming. “Yes, you would.”

  If I came now instead of waiting to get inside her, I'd last all night. “I'm going to come and you're going to watch. Then it will be your turn.”

  “You want me to make myself come? I thought that was your job?”

  I hadn't let her touch herself without me and she'd only climaxed by my hand or my cock since our wedding. “I'll allow it this time since I will be watching.”

  With my free hand, I reached across the bedside table and grabbed a new, much larger plug. On the journey from the Montana Territory I'd only played with her ass, worked it to take fingers more readily, to keep a plug within for a longer period of time. I hadn't claimed her there. Yet. Holding it up for her, I said. “You'll be up on your knees on this chair, your back to me, your ass up. You'll work this plug in while I watch, then play with your hard little clit and make yourself come.”

  She bit her lip and I watched as her cheeks darkened further and her entire being shifted into quick arousal. The idea of me seeing everything had her very eager. Once she'd learned that her body was perfect, that she made me hot, that she made me hard, every hint of modesty had fled. She was bold and brazen and knew her power over me. She liked being on display and knowing I was watching and all but panting for her.