"Now sit down, please," he asked quietly, moving her gently towards the chair. Tired not just from all that had happened that day, but from the spanking she'd just received and the feeling it set inside her, she didn't object and instead sat softly down onto the chair, wincing at the pain it brought to her bottom.
Rem took a seat beside her and Blaise a seat across and the two men stared at her intently.
"Normally," Blaise began, his voice much more tender than she'd ever heard it, "a punishment like that would earn you a reward." She glanced up at him, unsure of what he was talking about. He must have read the puzzlement on her face. "But from what you said earlier, about staying in your own room, and from the way you're looking at me now, I'm fairly certain you don't know what does transpire between a woman and a man, or in our case men, once they've married."
Annabelle looked down at the table, embarrassment burning at her cheeks. All these questions and all the excitement felt all too much and a fresh wave of anguish welled up inside her and caused the tears to come back to her eyes.
As soon as Rem saw her crying, she felt him pull closer to her. His strong, masculine smell surrounded her as she felt him lay a giant arm gently around her neck and his palm rest on her shoulder. Though he'd just spanked her bottom so severely, in that moment she felt safer and more at home than she had at any other time in her life. Happiness mixed with sorrow and her tears came out in violent, jerking sobs as she cried into the strong cowboys shirt. She felt another hand, Blaise's rest on her knee, filling her with the same warmth she'd felt before, but this time it was as if his touch brought only affection and reassurance. She cried like that for some time between the two of them before one or the other handed her a kerchief. She dabbed at her nose with it as they held her there until the torrent of tears had receded into a trickle, then into barely a thing at all and all that was left was her shame at having acted so silly in front of them.
"You've been through a lot today, Annabelle. We know that." Blaise's voice was low and even and made her feel even better about everything. "As soon as we're done talking, I'll put the kettle on and draw you a hot bath, then you can go to sleep. But what we're asking is important. You have to know exactly what you're getting into, that's why we want to explain."
She looked up at him, sniffled and dabbed the kerchief to her nose again. Despite her tiredness, she wanted to hear what they had to say as much as they seemed to want to say it. She nodded in agreement.
"When a man and a woman marry Annabelle, they're joined for life in every way not just by their promise to be together. They're joined in the mind, in the spirit and in the body."
Annabelle scowled, she'd heard something like that before from her mother but the conversation had ended abruptly and she barely remembered any of it. She didn't say anything, but let Rem continue.
"That means that once we're wed, our bodies will come together with yours."
"What does that mean?!?" The words burst from her, propelled by the frustration of not understanding a thing of what he was talking about.
"It means," Blaise took over, "that we're going to put ourselves inside you, Annabelle. We're going to claim you and make you ours in every way."
Annabelle's mouth dropped open and her eyes shot wide for the second time that day. She began to feel the room swaying again, but she felt in no danger of fainting again. She looked back and forth between the men, unsure of what to say, her mind filled with questions. Finally, one slipped out quietly.
"Inside me? How?"
Blaise had held her gaze steadily the entire time she'd stared at him and as he spoke, he didn't let it go. "Where you've got your sex, Annabelle, between your legs? Well a man's got his. It's meant to be put inside a woman. That's the normal course for every marriage. But in our marriage, things'll be different, because there are two of us."
Annabelle's mind had stopped moving entirely and now clung desperately to the thought of how a man, how this man in front of her, might place himself inside her, between her legs. She shook free of the notion for long enough to ask, "Different how?"
"Different," Rem responded this time, "in that when we claim you, it'll be both of us doing it at the same time. One of us between your legs and one of us from your rear. Do you understand?"
As if the first statement hadn't been confusing enough, now she was hearing that not only would one man place himself inside her, but both of them would?!? At the same time?!? Annabelle shook the thought from her head. Surely, that was impossible, particularly with how small her frame was compared to the bulk of the two men. Her mind raced at how such a thing might happen, her eyes darting back and forth between the two men in disbelief.
"What we need to know, Annabelle, is that you agree to such a thing happening, that you agree to the three of us becoming as one?"
A million thoughts shot through mind at once, each of them against the backdrop of her curiosity at how such a thing might happen, how her body could accommodate two men such as the two that were before her now. But through the confusion, the racing, spinning confusion that filled her mind, one thing for her was certain. She'd never felt the way she felt with these two strange cowboys. No one had ever spoken to her the way they had, or made her feel as safe.
The thought filled her with fear as much as it filled her with love, that she might desire someone as much as she desired them. A part of her wanted to close itself off, to push them away and board the train back, away from Amos away from Blaise and Rem and away from this wild frontier. The more she thought about it, the more she felt it closing in, pulling her inside herself where only she was in control of who she was and where she might feel lonely but at least she would be safe.
Blaise touched that spot, the one above her knee, with his hand and she looked at him, realizing it had been some time since Rem had asked the question.
"You don't have to worry Annabelle. Though it would pain us more than you know, to have you change your mind, the decision is yours and only yours to make. Will you take us both and let us make you ours?"
She felt as if the moment were slipping from her, that if she didn't grab it now, it might fade away forever and never present itself again. That, and the heat that travelled through her at his touch, coursed through her entire body now, even hotter than her bottom burned, the space between her legs damp again and the ache in her core overwhelming everything else so that when she opened her mouth and looked at him there was nothing else she could say, nor did she want to say anything but the word that left her lips.
"Yes."
***
The furious pounding at the door broke the still silence that had descended on the two men and Annabelle as they sat together by the table. Blaise felt her jump against his body and his head snapped towards first to the door, then to the room behind him as he made sure his gun was where he'd left it. Rem moved to push Annabelle away from him, but Blaise knew she needed him there.
"No, you stay. I'll go." he said, getting up and moving quickly to grab his holster before heading towards the door. Unholstering the gun, he checked the cylinder, then turned the handle and swung open the door. His breath caught in his throat at the sight of Mack's bloody face swaying in front of him. He moved forward and caught him just as Mack fell inside the door. "What in the hell?!?" Blaise whispered, his blood already racing through his veins at the thought of what might have happened.
Mack groaned as Blaise eased him onto the sofa. When he turned to look back, Annabelle was already running for the door with a bucket, Rem close behind her with a towel.
"I'll get the water," Annabelle said quickly as she swept past him and towards the door.
"Well's out back," he said quietly, still not fully able to believe he was seeing his friend in this condition. "Wait!" he shouted at her, realizing she was about to step out of the house by herself and into the night Mack had just stepped in from with a bloody face. "You can't go. They might be out there."
He watched Annabelle storm towards him, a fury
in her eyes he'd never seen on a woman's face. "If they are, it won't be for long," she said through clenched teeth, pulling the six-shooter from his hand. Too shaken to respond, he watched he step through the door and into the darkness of the evening beyond.
"Oh hell Mack, what in the hell happened?" Rem asked, kneeling beside his friend and putting the towel up to his bleeding lip. Mack took a deep breath, wincing in pain and putting a hand up to his rib before answering.
"Damn savages showed up again," he said through clenched teeth, in obvious pain. "Except this time they were a little more sober and I was a little more drunk."
Blaise glanced at Rem, a fury rising inside him at the thought of what those bastards had done to his other friend. "What about Tex and Daisy-Lou?" he asked, ready to head for his gun, get on a horse and ride to the house. Mack shook his head.
"They're fine. I was all those bastards had left to beat on after I sent the two of them back to Amos' place. Tex didn't want to go but who'n the hell knows what would have happened if they'd gotten Daisy-Lou? I told him he owed me one."
Annabelle came storming back through the door, a full bucket of water in one hand, the revolver pointed towards the ceiling in the other. She put the gun down on the table before coming over and putting the bucket down beside where Mack was seated. Rem dipped the towel into the water then brought it up and started dabbing at Mack's blood soaked face causing him to wince and pull away.
"Hey, easy does it, that's kind of tender!" Mack said through clenched teeth. Annabelle pushed him aside.
"Hey, just a second..." Rem began as she took the towel from him and dipped it into the bucket. When she turned and looked at him, her expression didn't leave much room for negotiation.
"Listen cowboy," she began. Rem's eyes widened in surprise at how she was speaking to him. "We've an agreement to come to, you and I." She glanced at Blaise. "I and...us..." she added, appearing still confused, "but before I ended up on the train to nowhere and ended up here I was taught as a nurse for one year. Maybe I didn't finish my schooling enough to work as one, but I'll venture a bet that I know far more about taking care of a wounded man than you do."
Blaise watched as Rem raised an eyebrow, but neither of them could argue with that logic. When Rem looked to him, Blaise just raised his shoulders in a question.
"Fair enough," Rem said finally, moving to one side and letting Annabelle tend to Mack. Her touch was much lighter than Rem's and Blaise watched as she dabbed the wet towel at his friend's face until the only thing that remained were the swollen bruises the men who'd beat him had left him with.
"I suppose you were pretty good at that...when you were doing it?" Blaise asked Annabelle as she dabbed away the last of the blood caked around Mack's lips.
"Best in the class." Her reply was swift and stern, full of confidence and certainty. It made Blaise want her even more, seeing her take command the way she had.
"What made you stop? The schooling, that is?" he asked, unable to help his curiosity despite the seriousness of the situation before him. He watched Annabelle fluster at the question, looking side to side, she waved it away and stood up with the bucket full of dirty water.
"It's a story for another time..." she muttered as she moved towards the door.
Blaise wondered what it was he'd said that had turned the strong, confident woman back into a shy girl, but one look at Mack brought him back to the reality of what they were facing and what was to be done next.
"I think someone should go to Amos' house and see that Tex and Daisy-Lou are alright," Rem said from across the room.
The sound of his voice pulled Blaise from his thoughts and back into the moment at hand. "I think we should all go," he said, looking over at Rem who was staring at him. "Who knows if those sons of bitches don't have every intention of coming this way next. We can't leave Mack here and there's no way I'm letting you ride over there alone. Someone needs to stay with Annabelle. It'll be safer for all of us if we all go. You bring your horse?" he asked, turning to Mack.
"I ran, er, stumbled over here more or less."
"Doesn't matter," Blaise replied "we can all get there on two horses, though it'll be slower. Rem, get the guns."
His friend was moving towards the darkened room where they kept their guns. Blaise leaned down and helped Mack up from the sofa just as Annabelle walked back in through the door.
"There's a crowd moving towards us. I couldn't see them for the darkness but by the sounds of it they're angry."
"We're going to see Amos," Blaise said, moving towards the door with his friend. "You'll have to leave your things here and..."
She didn't let him finish. "Fine. I'll saddle the horses out back."
"No. You stay with him." He watched her face cloud in a frown. Now wasn't the time for petty arguments. "You've done what you can do best. Stay where you're needed. It's how you can help the most." She raised her chin in defiance and he watched as she thought about what he'd said, hoping she would see the reason in it.
"You're right," she answered finally. "I'll stay with Mack."
Blaise breathed a sigh of relief as he hand his friend over to Annabelle. He couldn't help but let his gaze linger on how beautiful she was. Though her manners might need taming, he couldn't think of what else he'd want in a woman than what she had. Once she'd slipped beneath Mack's arm to help support him, he moved quickly through the door into the darkness of the night and rounded the corner of the house towards the small barn where the horses were kept.
With the horses saddled and ready, Blaise bolted back into the house. Rem had already blown out all the lamps but the one in the front room and the three of them were standing, waiting and ready to go as he waved them through the door. Taking one last look at the house which he knew might be ransacked when the mob found it empty, Blaise blew out the last lamp, cloaking the place in darkness, then closed the door and moved to where his friends were waiting, Rem on a horse with Mack and Annabelle waiting for him on his. The sounds of the crowd were nearing and there was no time to waste. They'd have to ride around the outskirts of town to get to the dusty road that led to Amos' house to avoid the men that wanted to do them harm.
Blaise mounted the horse, settling into the saddle behind Annabelle. The heat of her body pressed up against his chest made him even more aware of how in love he was with this beautiful creature, her feminine fragrance even more so. But there was no time to linger on that now. With two soft clicks, he dug his heels into the stallion's belly and pulled on the reigns to one side. The beast obediently turned, then started quietly trotting towards the road. Looking back he saw Rem and Mack behind him. The din of the crowd began to grow fainter as they rode. It wasn't the way he'd expected to spend the evening, but at least they were all safe.
Chapter 6
"Am I ever glad to see you boys," Rem heard Amos say from his porch as they rode up from the dark night towards the light of the house. The man was standing with a rifle perched on his hip, ready to fire at anyone that might come to do him harm. As they rode up to the hitching rail Amos had in front of the house, Rem dismounted first, careful not to nudge Mack and cause him pain, then helped his friend slowly dismount.
"Glad to see you too, sir," he said, tying his horse to the rail for the time being. "Mack gave us a hell of a scare."
"Shit. I can see why," Amos replied, inspecting the now purple bruises that blotted Mack's face. Tex emerged from the house, a six-shooter in either hand.
"Oh shit, I knew I should have..." he began, but Mack wouldn't let him finish.
"You shut your mouth. I didn't take a beating so you'd regret it for the rest of your damn life. This was the way it had to be done. Next one's on you." Mack grinned at his friend, then punched him in the chest as he walked up the stairs.
Tex holstered his guns, then caught Mack by the shoulder as he walked past him and wrapped his arms around him in.
"Ow!" Mack yelled, trying to pull away.
"Shutup," Tex said, squeezing him even tig
hter. With a tight jaw, Mack raised his arms and returned the affection, slapping a hand on Tex's back.
"Like I said, you owe me one."
"Anything, brother," Tex said, leaning back so he could look Mack in the eye.
"Alright lovebirds," Blaise said, untying the horses and walking them around the house to the barn. "You put your heads together and figure out what to do next. I'll tell you what we're doing when I get back." The last few words disappeared with him around the corner.
"Come on Mack," Amos said, waving a gun towards the house and waving them in. As Mack and Tex walked into the house, Amos followed them leaving Rem and Annabelle outside. Rem looked at Annabelle with kind eyes.
"You sure know how to think on your feet. That was impressive, what you did back there."
Rem watched Annabelle touch her neck with her fingers and look around as if searching for something very important on the ground. He couldn't help but smile.
"Does that mean you're not going to spank me for it?" she asked finally, looking up at him, her eyes full of gentle mischief.
"We'll have to see."
Annabelle frowned at his reply and looked away again. At that moment Blaise came back.
"Okay you two, let's get inside. It's getting cold out here."
Inside there was a fire roaring in the giant stone hearth, bathing the room in a flickering, orange glow. As the settled into sofa's and chairs, Amos came around with glasses of whisky for all of them.
"I figure you should have a doctor take a look at that," he said, taking a sip of his and pointing towards Mack's bruised face.
"It's not the first time, Mr. Evans, and it probably won't be the last," Mack said, sitting up and taking a sip of his whisky.
"More importantly," Rem said quietly, "is the question of what we're going to do next?"
Annabelle: An Erotic Western Spanking Menage (Doms of Destiny Trail Book 1) Page 6