“Looks like you got yourself a problem, honey.” It was White Star. He sauntered up to her, and frowned at her outstretched hands. “No calluses, hm?”
Speechless, Audrey shook her head.
“Those look mighty painful. Why didn’t you wear gloves?”
“G-gloves?” Now she really felt stupid. Did she even have gloves? No. She’d sold her one pair of dainty crocheted white gloves with her dresses.
He gave her a wry smile. “You know, those things that you put on your hands to protect them?”
Anger flared. “You’re mocking me.”
Tilting his hat back on his head, White Star smiled. “Maybe a little. I take it you never beat carpets before.”
The answer was obvious, wasn’t it? Audrey sputtered. “Of course not!” She picked up the beater again and flinched, holding the tool gingerly.
“What kind of housemaid are you?” Fortunately, he didn’t pursue that question, because Audrey knew she couldn’t admit exactly how useless she was in the nineteenth century. That would certainly break some kind of Romantek rules.
“Why didn’t you tell Clarissa you ain’t never beat carpets before?”
Because she hadn’t wanted to appear useless, she realized. Even in her dream she wanted to be capable and helpful. But White Star didn’t need to know her psychological issues. Besides, he was treating her like a ninny. “Be nice to me, I’m in pain.”
“She would have given you some gloves.”
“How would I know? I’m from the… I mean, I don’t usually do this kind of thing.”
He narrowed his eyes. “You sure say some funny things, Audrey.”
“I-I-”
“Ain’t no never mind. That was a foolish stunt, no matter how you look at it. Damned foolish. Again. Ain’t got a lick of sense in that purty head, do you?”
“I do so!” She straightened to her full height, still a good twenty centimeters shorter than White Star. The difference made her feel small and vulnerable. Sticking her chin out, she gave him her most belligerent stare.
He laughed at her efforts, making her that much more furious. “I think you’ve earned another spanking.”
Audrey backed up a step, still trying to put on a brave front. “You wouldn’t dare! Out here in the open, anyone could come by.”
White Star nodded. “True enough. But there’s a woodshed down that little path there.” He pointed. “I’d say that’ll do just fine.”
“I’ll scream, you big bully.”
“Not if I stuff my handkerchief in your smart mouth.” Now he was looking perturbed. Audrey wondered if he could really get away with manhandling her that way. What if she told on him? Of course, the fact that he was paying attention to her again was exciting in a perverse sort of way. She’d never expected it to happen. The last encounter hadn’t gone so well.
Taking her by the arms, he looked at her hands one more time. “Maybe you learned your lesson,” he muttered.
“Yes. Damned straight! And besides, I don’t have to take this shit from you.”
“Watch that language!” He considered her for a long moment. “Spanking it is.”
“No!” Audrey swung the carpet beater at his head, hoping to make her feelings clear, but he ducked out of the way easily.
White Star took the carpet beater out of her hands and tossed it on the ground. “Yup, a whipping is what you need.” He dragged her down the path and into the big, roughhewn woodshed. Lots of chunks of wood were piled up against the walls, and one grimy window was the only thing offering light. It smelled like old trees in there, sap, and dust.
As soon as she was inside, he shut the door and started pulling his belt out of his pants. “Ain’t got no switch this time. We’ll just have to make do.”
Audrey backed up until she ran into a pile of wood. A handmade sign fell off the top of the stack, and hit the ground with a little puff of dirt. It read “Wud Shed.” It ridiculed her unfortunate position in the crowded shed. Audrey stared at the sign dumbly, and then remembered why she was there and a sense of unpleasant destiny swelled in her chest.
The only thing good about a spanking was the cuddling afterward. That part was more than good. She had a bright memory of White Star’s warm body against hers and a pang of longing twisted her gut. This was a dream. She had to keep remembering that. White Star wasn’t a real person, he was a figment of her imagination. And, as a product of her imagination, she could manipulate him if she wanted to. She could ask for what she really wanted without being embarrassed. Who would know, after all? This was all in her head.
Stepping away from the wood, she smiled at him, causing his eyes to narrow and a frown to form on his face. “White Star…” she said, trying to lower her voice a seductive octave.
“What you got planned in that sneaky female mind o’ yours?”
“Nothing.” She strolled over to him and put her blistered right hand on his chest. “Ouch!” Immediately, he moved to cover it with his.
“Watch yourself, missy.”
Although her palm was stinging, she touched his face. He only withdrew a little. “If I let you spank me, can we…I mean, why don’t we follow that up with something a lot more fun?”
“Fun for who?”
Audrey worked hard at not calling him a harsh name. “For both of us, of course!” Was he being purposely dense?
“Are you propositioning me, young lady?”
He sounded so stern, Audrey reconsidered. Maybe it had been a bad idea to be the aggressor. It wasn’t very historically accurate. “I-I…never mind.”
“You definitely deserve a spanking.” He wrapped his belt around his right hand and left a tail sticking out. Nodding toward a waist-high stack of wooden logs, he said, “Put your belly on them logs, Audrey. You’ll get what’s coming to you.”
“I won’t.”
“Don’t make me say it twice.”
“Make me.” Wow, was that the wrong thing to say. White Star’s smile was immediate, and it wasn’t the jovial kind. It was the kind that meant you were in trouble and he was about to make a lesson of it.
“All right,” he said. He grabbed her by the arms and pushed her onto the woodpile, lifting her dress and petticoats easily and pulling her pantalets open in the back, exposing her bottom.
“Stop! I didn’t mean it!”
“You surely did,” he countered. “I don’t know what you were up to, but I got my suspicions and they don’t make you much of a lady.”
His hand rested on her back, holding her skirts up and her body down, and as he stood there beside her, he slid the belt over her behind seductively. It was warm from his body, the texture smooth. Audrey’s muscles tightened instinctively.
“Don’t! Please don’t!”
“Relax your behind, missy, or it’ll go harder on you.”
“No!” She squirmed against his pressure, trying to put her hands behind her to protect her fanny from attack.
Quick as a wink, White Star grabbed her wrists, and held them to the small of her back with her skirts. “Stop fighting me, Audrey, and take your medicine like a big girl.”
Tears formed in her eyes, even before he started the spanking. At about that time, the spanking commenced. The first blow made her gasp. The next several made her cringe. But the ones after that made her cry harder and squeal with pain. She didn’t even try to beg for mercy again.
“You got to be more mindful of your own self, Audrey,” he lectured. “You got to wear gloves when you’re laboring. You got to hold yourself back like a lady, not try to seduce a man.”
“Ow! Oh!”
The blows were coming fast and furious. She didn’t know how many, only that they were lighting her bottom on fire—a fire as hot as the wood around her would burn.
He spanked and spanked and spanked and Audrey cried, wailed and struggled. White star was relentless.
Audrey despaired of ever fitting in with these people. She was making such hash of it, and her punishments only proved that point
with painful precision.
The spanking began to slow, just as she was thinking it was never going to end. “Damn it, woman,” he muttered. Audrey heard the belt thunk on the dirt floor, but her rear hurt so much she hardly registered that the spanking had stopped.
“Damn it, woman,” he said again. “How do you do it to me? How come I ain’t got the sense to leave you alone?” He was talking to himself as much as to her. She couldn’t see him, he was behind her now, still holding her hands and skirts up. There was a soft rustling sound, and after a moment, she felt something hard and hot against her.
Audrey gasped, realizing it was a rock hard erection, pressing against her scorched behind.
“Why you got to make me want you so much?”
With a strong shove, he was inside her, sliding through copious wetness to seat himself deep. It felt magnificent, so right and sensual. But Audrey was utterly puzzled by the fact that she was wet and ready for him. Like White Star, she asked herself why and how she was so attracted to him, even though he spanked her to tears. How could her body so betray her mind? Of course, she had made a brief effort to seduce him, so she was getting what she wanted. This wasn’t exactly what she had in mind, but…she wiggled against him…it wasn’t bad.
He pulled back and then thrust again, and Audrey found herself pressing back against him, though tears were drying on her cheeks and her bottom burned as it came in contact with his hot pelvis. She moaned with pain-pleasure.
The thrusts were becoming regular, stronger, faster. Audrey’s belly did a little twist as her excitement grew. Her breathing got harsh and her moaning became more frequent.
“You beguile me,” he said, his voice as stiff as his cock.
Audrey was beyond words. Her pussy was beginning to squeeze, and her mind was lost in the moment. It was a long moment, several more thrusts, and she realized she was going to lose all sense of herself, and her place here in her RAVE. Her thoughts spun like a riptide. In this make-believe world, the erotic dreams were about as real as it was possible to get.
White Star released her wrists, and held her hips, pumping into her like a jackhammer.
The sounds of their eroticism grew until they were nothing but guttural utterances, punctuation for their desperate union. Audrey’s back arched, she pressed her ass against him, desperate for that last…little…thrust that would send her over the edge. When it came, when she came, her body shattered, her hot bottom smarting and screaming along with her voice. It was a more ecstatic moment than any other Audrey had ever felt.
White Star wasn’t far behind her. She could hear him groaning and feel him pulsing his pleasure into her as he slowed the pace. A few more undulations against her behind and it was over. They were both breathing hard. Audrey was trying to get her thoughts back from the void they’d been lost in.
“I ain’t got no sense,” he said. “I shouldn’t have done that.”
“We both did it.”
“Yeah. We did. And now it’s done and all we got is a memory. That’s all I can give you, honey.”
He pulled away and let her skirts drop back down. Audrey felt sticky between her legs and the smell of sex was strong in the enclosure. “I’m not asking for anything but a memory,” she told him honestly. What more could she have from a dream, after all? But, oh, if only she could meet a man like White Star in her real life. Someone who was strong and sexy, capable and masculine. She wouldn’t care if he was a throwback to an earlier time. Her friends might not understand, but it wouldn’t matter. Audrey would take her contentment and smile at their cynicism.
But that was not to be. He was a dream.
“I got to get back to work, and you ought to, too,” he said.
“Yes. Yes. Clarissa will miss me.”
He straightened his clothes and picked up his belt, fitting it back into its loops snugly. “Don’t you go beating any more rugs today. Let them blisters heal. Show ‘em to Clarissa and she’ll give you some liniment or something.”
Audrey re-pinned her hair. She was finally getting competent at it. “Yes, sir.”
White Star drew his hat down on his head and smiled at her. “I’ll see you around, Audrey.”
As he opened the door and walked away, she whispered, “Yes. In my dreams.”
* * *
As Owen left the woodshed, his smile abruptly disappeared. He’d done it again, given the potential blackmailer or sleazy press person ammunition to shoot him in the public eye. But, damn! Audrey—if that was her real name—hit all his hot buttons. He was one hundred percent sure, now, that she was a real person. The woman he’d seen at the pre-dream party had been Audrey. A part of him reveled in the knowledge, while another part wanted to smack her rear for putting him in this situation. He’d wanted her from first seeing her, and that had carried forward into the RAVE. Now what was he supposed to do?
Lost in his thoughts, he collided with another person as he started down the path toward the stables.
“White Star!” It was Rosemary, the saloon girl. What was she doing here? How long had she been listening outside the woodshed?
“Rose,” he said, touching his hat politely. “How’d you come to be here?”
“I got a job! Mr. Ryan took me in. I really hated the saloon, and as soon as there was any chance possible, I wanted out. Mr. Ryan was in a good mood yesterday, and when I asked him for a job, he agreed. I’m helping with the household chores and whatever the housekeeper comes up with.”
“Good for you, Rose.” Owen wondered if she was going to be as much of a thorn here on the Bar R as she was in town. She had a penchant for causing trouble. Obviously, spanking didn’t work with her, because he knew for a fact she’d had two at the saloon. Maybe Mitch’s spankings were weak. It seemed likely that her presence was Romantek’s way of making sure the game was challenging. At that moment, Owen would have happily accepted rather less of a challenge than Audrey and now Rosemary. He tipped his hat again and made to leave, but she dropped her empty basket and caught his arm.
“Say, White Star…” Her voice had lowered into something sultry. “You and I, we, uh…we get along really good. Maybe you could give me a taste of what you do with Audrey.”
So she did know something was up. But, she was a dream girl, and no one he needed to be worried about. Still, he wasn’t inclined to take up with another woman. Audrey was enough for any man, even if he should try harder to resist her. Then again, maybe a little time with Rosemary—who definitely had appealing charms—would take his mind off the feisty blue-eyed minx.
He smiled, still unsure of what he wanted to do. Whether he was wrong and Audrey was a dream, or if Audrey was real, there was a strong chance that she’d be jealous about his interest in Rosemary. He cautiously patted Rosemary’s hand on his arm.
“Now, Rosie,” he started. “There ain’t nothing between Miss Audrey and me.”
Rosemary smiled and it was a bit feral. “I know better, White Star. I heard her cries, and a few other things.”
“Eavesdropping ain’t a way to start a conversation.”
She looked down at the patchy grass at her feet. “I know, but I was on my way to the woodshed to get some wood for the kitchen stove. I couldn’t help but overhear.”
The story was plausible enough. “Well, you keep what you heard to yourself, you hear?”
“I will…if…”
White Star plucked Rosemary’s hand off his sleeve. “I got to go.”
“Don’t go, yet,” she said, giving him a woeful stare. “I’m attracted to you, White Star. Mighty attracted. Can’t we get together? Even for something quick?”
Damn, but she was forward. She had to be a figment of his imagination. Caution, however, was a part of his personality, and a woman who made such a blatant pass was suspect. It wasn’t like Audrey, who had gone into this reluctantly, earning spankings and then some. That didn’t change the fact that Rosemary had caused trouble in the past. It was possible that she could get him fired from his job at the Bar R. A
lthough he’d made good money gambling in town, he would have to leave the ranch and find another town and another job. He was enjoying the horse training here on the Bar R. The stock was excellent quality and he was quite happy reliving his earliest accomplishments as a horse trainer, the profession which led him to all the success he had in the real world. He’d missed that sorely; this was his dream opportunity to revisit fond memories.
Rosemary could nix it, depending on how Romantek had programmed her. It wasn’t worth the chance. He could easily roll the dice and come up with a big goose egg.
“I’m flattered, Rosie. I truly am. But I ain’t got no time for fooling around. I’m behind as it is.”
“You don’t seem to mind time spent with Audrey.”
“That, little girl, is between Audrey and me. Ain’t none of your affair.”
“But I want to know you better. Don’t you want to know me?”
“If that’s knowing in the biblical sense, thanks but no thanks. We can be friends, Rosie, but that’s it.”
“That’s not good enough.” There was a threat in her voice.
“Now, you listen to me. I don’t want you stirring up no trouble. Do what you come here to do—work. I’ll do the same. Leave Miss Audrey out of it. She ain’t your problem.”
“You’ll regret humiliating me this way, White Star.” Color had risen in her face together with a frown.
That was his cue to leave. She needed to calm down and sticking around, giving her more feedback, was only going to make things work.
He hoped Audrey had found her way out of the woodshed when he said, “Go get your wood, Rose. This conversation is done.”
“You’ll change your mind. You just see if you don’t.”
White Star tipped his hat and walked away, sorely regretting ever taking an interest in Rosemary at the saloon. That was before he met Audrey, and now the very things that had drawn him to Rose at the saloon—ease of access, a pretty face and smile, a flirtation that bordered on the bawdy—were things that had no appeal anymore. It was frustrating, but Owen knew himself enough to know when one chapter had ended and another began.
The Winner (Romantek) Page 10