by Lexie Clark
“All right,” Cordelia said, not wanting to sound like a chicken. “Let us begin.”
The first few questions revealed nothing more than what they already knew about each other, the fact that his family was dead, except for his extended relatives, and she was alone in the world, which was why she had taken the position as his ‘mail order bride’.
The next one he asked—and it occurred to her that he seemed to get more high cards than she did—did not surprise her. But she was not sure she wanted to answer.
“Tell me about William.”
“He was intended to be my husband, and then he died.” She did not elaborate, and he did not push for more information. They drew again, he a queen, and she a seven.
“Did you love him?”
“Yes,” she replied. Again, no elaboration.
They drew again, he a jack and her a ten.
“I believe you have stacked the deck,” she said, trying to make it sound as if she were making a joke.
“When would I have the chance?” He held up both hands and looked around. “You’ve been watching me the whole time.”
Cordelia sighed, because she could not dispute that answer. He had only shuffled the cards once, and she did not see how he could have been fixing things in his direction.
“Were you and William intimate?”
Cordelia crossed her arms over her chest. “That is none of your business.”
“Oh, you’re so wrong,” Eli said with a laugh. “It occurred to me today that there is no way you and I are going to pull this off unless we’re… better acquainted.”
Her blood started to boil. “Would that be this afternoon when your hands were wrapped around your penis?”
Oh how she hated the look on his face right now, that smirk that she wanted to wipe off it with one hard smack.
“Were you watching?”
“Certainly not,” she said angrily.
“Then how did you know that’s what I was doing?”
Cordelia flushed. “I… assumed…”
“Because you know that’s what William would have done if you had aroused him?”
This time she stood up. “I am leaving now.”
“Are you?” Eli drummed his finger on his card. “The rules of the game state that if you refuse to answer, you receive a punishment. So either tell me the answer to the question or, prepare for the consequences.”
For a moment she was silent. Finally, she said, “What are the consequences?”
“Hmm,” Eli said before he pursed his lips. “How about… a spanking?”
Cordelia laughed. “Surely you are not serious.”
“I’m very serious,” he said. “I will allow you to keep your all togethers on, but you will come across my knee where I will lift your skirts and paddle your bottom.”
“Absolutely not.” But she did not move away from the table. She stood staring at him. “If you think for one moment I would allow something so…”
“Intimate?” he supplied.
“Exactly.” She turned toward the door. “I am going to my room now.”
“Think about it, Cordelia,” he called after her. “You and I need to be very close, and that includes knowing each other’s history. Would it help if I told you about my first time with a woman?”
She was at the door. In a huff, she turned toward him, putting her hands on her hips. “I have no desire to hear about—”
“My father took me to a bordello in Denver. I was nineteen. He said he waited so long because I was, and I quote, ‘the most sensual of his sons’ and he thought I might seduce one of the neighborhood girls, get married and lose my virginity to her.”
Cordelia did not say anything. Instead she just stared at him. “When that didn’t happen,” he continued, “he took me to Denver, where I discovered the pleasures of a soft, female body.”
“Good for you,” she replied.
“It was,” he said with a laugh. “I admit it’s not love, like what you felt with William, but it still produced an orgasm that made me tingle, and go back for more.”
“Several times, I am sure.”
“Several times,” he repeated.
“And I am also sure that you continue to frequent that particular establishment.”
Here, he frowned. “Not as much as you might think. The sex is good, but sometimes it leaves me feeling empty.”
That was not what she had expected to hear, but it didn’t make her move away from the door. Instead, she stared at him. “I do not understand why you press this conversation. I told you this afternoon that I did not want to talk to you about these things.”
Eli thumped his finger against the card. “When you know things like this about someone, it brings you closer. People will know that you and I have talked. When you do nothing but eat together and sleep in adjoining rooms, all you know is what the person is wearing that day and how early they rise in the morning.”
She did not respond.
“You and I need to know each other, intimately.”
Cordelia waited a few moments before she said, “This was not in our arrangement.”
“You’re right,” he said with a shrug. “Maybe you should spank me for trying to break it.”
“Really Eli, that suggestion is in poor taste.”
He chuckled, and the rich sound made her insides tighten again. She did not like the way he affected her. “I am going up to my room now.”
“So be it,” he said. “I’ll be here until it’s time to go to bed, and if you decide to return, we can finish the game. If you decide not to, we can try for tomorrow night.”
Cordelia took a step toward him, and the look of surprised pleasure on his face made her frown. “I will not change my mind, nor will I be back here tomorrow night while you probe to find out about my sexual experiences.”
He ran his tongue over his lips, and Cordelia felt as if she would swoon.
“Probe,” he finally said. “What an interesting choice of words.”
Without saying anything else, she turned and left the room. She heard him say good night as she walked toward the stairs. She wanted to yell back at him, but she decided the best thing she could do was continue to walk.
Once she was upstairs, she washed her face with the water Mrs. Dunlap had provided. Then she quickly changed out of her dress and into her nightgown, even though it was not quite dark yet.
She wanted her change of clothing to keep her from going back downstairs, even though she wanted to stand in front of him and scream because he continued to push the situation when he knew she did not want to discuss things like this.
The one thing Cordelia knew was that she needed to calm down. She poured herself a glass of water, then took her book to a chair near the unlit fireplace and sat down.
The best way to keep from giving in to the temptation to go back and yell at him was to sit and read, to engross herself in a book until she was so deep into another world that she forgot about Eli Bannister and his rotten idea that she tell him all about her sexual experience.
She hoped the book on her lap had enough pages to help her achieve her goal.
* * *
From the journal of Cordelia West
Seventh day in Colorado:
It has become something of a standoff between us. Since the night of the proposed ‘game’ I have made sure that I am not alone with Eli. We eat dinner together, and as soon as the meal is finished, I excuse myself from the table and retire to my room. I have finished the book I started the other evening, and have since taken two more from the library.
Eli has not mentioned my absence from his presence after the meal; of course I have not given him the chance to speak of the situation. At dinner, we are cordial to each other, discussing what went on during the day. For me, it is sewing and reading. For him, it is work on the ranch. He and his crew have managed to finish a good portion of the fence they were working on the other evening, and I happened to hear Eli mention to Mrs. Dunlap that he had se
nt Stuart into Denver to retrieve a few supplies they needed to fully complete the work. In the meantime, the other hands were working in the fields, or with the cattle.
What Eli was doing I was not sure. As I approached the table last evening, I heard Mrs. Dunlap tell him that something was wrong with our situation.
“It’s just not right,” she said. “Something needs to be done.”
He told her to give it time, since the two of us were barely acquainted with each other. Those words reminded me of the game he wished to play. I still have no desire to tell him about my relationship with William, but I do know that, at some point, I will have to have some conversation with Eli, because if I spend another evening cooped up in this room with nothing more than my journal, a pen and a book, I may go mad.
I know that means I have to give in, but I would like to do so on my terms. But I am sure that is not going to happen. I am not certain where to go from here, but tonight, after dinner, I plan to talk to Eli.
I hope he is receptive to my overtures.
Eli poured a dipper of water over his neck and shivered. It was cooler as the month progressed, but they had done enough work today that all of them had built up a sweat. Stuart needed to hurry back from Denver with the supplies so they could finish the fence.
Of course, knowing his cousin, Eli was sure Stuart was spending quite a bit of time with the ladies at the bordello while he was in town. Stuart never missed a chance to dip his wick, as his cousin said.
Eli wished he could say the same thing right now. Things with Cordelia were not going well, and Eli knew he had nobody to blame but himself. He never should have proposed the high/low game. It would have been better if he had waited a few days so they had time to talk about books, and maybe politics, or chat about the outlaws who were roaming through the plains now.
The weekly newspaper arrived like clockwork that morning, and he let Cordelia read it first while he was at work. He planned to take his turn with it tonight after supper. Maybe tomorrow he could bring up one of the subjects and they could get back on track with each other.
If things didn’t start improving, the hands would start talking, and when the woman from England arrived, his supposed betrothed, she would know something wasn’t right by the gossip that spread through the town.
The family lawyer had ridden to the ranch two days ago and told Eli the lady, one Constance Perry, had left England and was due to arrive in Boulder in a month. Eli had been furious; shouting and asking why he hadn’t written to let her know Eli had already broken the arrangement between them and married someone else.
“I did, Eli,” Nathan had said. “She moved her time frame up. I think she plans to try and break you and your wife up when she gets here.”
Nathan’s idea was a shock to Eli, who thought he had figured out the perfect way out of the situation. Why was this woman so persistent? Sure her father and his father had been friends in the past, but that didn’t mean the plan had to stay in play here.
Maybe he should have written her himself, told her that, while he understood the fact that she would be husbandless, the deed was already done and there was nothing he could do about it.
After all, according to the letter Nathan had sent Constance, Eli and Cordelia had fallen in love the second they had set eyes on each other. Of course everyone around them knew that wasn’t true, because he and his ‘wife’ barely spent any time together.
That had to stop, and it had to stop tonight. The trouble would be how to convince Cordelia of that. She left the table the minute supper was over, and Eli had thought about knocking on her door, but wasn’t sure exactly what he would say to her, since he had been such a colossal ass by proposing the high/low game.
He needed to talk to her before supper, tell her they needed to have a heart to heart, because things would be very serious in a few weeks time.
One of the best ways to talk about this situation would be to remind her that, once they had convinced Constance to go back to England, Cordelia could return to New York. She would have her money and things would be back to normal for her.
Eli hoped that would be an incentive for her to talk to him, to get to know him. It certainly wasn’t one for him. He may not know a lot about her personality, but her body enticed him. That part was evident by the way he had to relieve himself every day. It was like he was an overactive teenager.
The minute Cordelia walked into the room his cock rose to the occasion, and since he was always wearing clothes when that happened, it was generally a painful situation.
Last night he’d stroked himself off, and he’d done it again that morning. At noon, he’d thought about going to the house so he could do the same thing, but he knew there was too much work to be done.
And tonight… he was determined to behave himself and talk to her without bringing up her sex life, or lack of it. That didn’t mean his prick would cooperate, and when that happened, sometimes he lost brain function, since all the blood in his body was centered between his legs.
He was now at the house, wondering where Stuart was and how things would finish up with the fence in the next few days. He needed to get hold of Nathan and ask him to track Constance’s travel to see how close she was to Colorado, and he needed to get with Cordelia and…
Eli’s thoughts vanished as the lady in question came out the door. She wore a beautiful piece dress that accentuated her gorgeous hair and perfect eyes.
“Eli,” she said softly. “I had hoped to find you before you went to clean up before dinner.”
Her voice was gentle, and Eli said a silent prayer that she wasn’t going to tell him she had decided to go back to New York now.
“You’ve found me,” he said, giving her what he hoped was a winning smile. He knew he stunk from working in the afternoon sun, and he prayed that didn’t offend her.
“I have thought a great deal about the other evening,” she said.
He loved the lilt of her voice when she spoke, and the fact that it was so formal. It made him want her all the more. “Yes?” He didn’t want to push her, but it took every ounce of his being not to shout at her, “Out with it!”
Cordelia sighed. “You are right.”
Eli was sure his mouth hung open. “Excuse me?”
“I said you are right. For this to work, we need to know each other better, and if that includes talking about our previous experiences with the opposite sex…” Here she paused, and Eli was pretty sure it was taking every ounce of her being not to turn around and bolt back into the building. “If that includes talking about sex, well, I am a grown woman of a certain age, and while I still possess my maidenhead, I have not been… extremely chaste.”
“I see,” he said. This wasn’t what he expected at all.
“If you think speaking of these things will bring us closer, then I am willing to do so.” She smiled at him. “Part of me wonders if I can work it into the story somehow.”
Eli couldn’t help but laugh, and he was very happy when Cordelia joined in the laughter.
“I wonder what Mr. Tuttle would think if I talked about sex in my article. Something tells me he would develop a heart seizure.”
Eli nodded. “You’re probably right.”
She swallowed hard, and he knew it took a great deal for her to bring up this subject. “After dinner, you and I should retire to the library where we should discuss our… pasts.”
Eli nodded again. “I think that is a great idea.”
Cordelia turned toward the house. Before she could reach for the screen, though, she pivoted back around. “This is not going to be easy for me, Eli, and I have thought a great deal about the situation, as I said. One of the things you proposed the other evening stuck me as being a sound idea.”
“What’s that, Cordelia?” He leaned toward her, enjoying the smell of roses that came from her body. He wondered where it came from, lotion or soap?
She cleared her throat and said, “If I falter in this, I think you should… do as you said
you were going to.”
It took him a minute to figure out exactly what she meant. When it finally dawned on him, Eli couldn’t help but laugh. “Cordelia, I promise you that if you refuse to talk tonight, I will take you over my knee and give you a very thorough spanking.”
The serious look on her face made Eli’s cock harden. He hoped she didn’t refuse, because he was pretty sure that spanking her would start something that his ‘wife’ would not want to finish.
Chapter 5
Cordelia felt as if her stomach would fall to the ground and stay there. Eli sat across from her, looking calm, as if they were about to discuss something as innocuous as the weather. She had not eaten very much at dinner, but if she had, she would be losing it right now.
“Cordelia?” Eli’s voice was soft.
“Yes?” She swallowed hard.
“Maybe this isn’t such a good idea. Maybe you need another day.”
“Why?” She stared at Eli.
“Because you look like you’re about to faint.” He gently touched her hand. “The information might be too much for you, that Constance is on her way and we are going to have to deal with the situation. If this is too much—”
Cordelia put her hand up to stop him. She had made her decision, and she was not about to back out now. “If Constance is on her way, it is pertinent that we not take any more time to, as you put it, deal with the situation. I believe today’s agenda is getting to know each other better. You told me your story the other evening. Today is my turn.”
She was a big girl, and she was not about to act like a child anymore. She had taken this job. If he needed to kiss her, so be it. If he needed to hug her, so be it. If, at some point, they had to sleep in the same bed together, so be it. Sleeping in the bed did not mean they would engage in sexual intercourse.
“All right then.” Eli sat back. To his credit, he did not grin like he wanted to hear every lurid detail, and that made Cordelia feel a little better.
“You were right when you said that William and I had been intimate. We did not have intercourse together, but we did… um… I am not sure how to describe it.”