“Yes, Aaron.” She sniffled as the fire he had set in her butt continued to burn. “Whatever that evil thing is, it will definitely help me remember this punishment.”
“Good. You’re halfway there. Then we can put this nasty business behind us and get on with the pleasure.”
With that promise given, he continued with his lesson, landing fiery, stinging swats over the parts of her skin untouched by the evil implement until he had covered her entire bottom. He moved lower, spreading the blows across her upper thighs as he administered four more burning licks. The final two of the dozen were applied to the inner aspects of her thighs. Those two had her squealing and begging forgiveness. The blaze he’d lit continued in the aftermath of the spanking as she stood bent over, hands grasping the edge of the tub tightly, fingers white from the strength of her grip.
She heard a clatter on the wood shelf, and unable to resist, she looked over. The wooden bath brush rested back in its usual place. The same one she’d used so many times before to scrub her back. Never would she look at it the same way again. She promptly renamed it the ‘bringer of fire’ and vowed not to earn its wrath again. A cool sensation startled her, and she hissed in alarm. Her inflamed skin was having a hard time distinguishing heat from cold, pain from pleasure.
“Shh, darlin’. It’s just the aloe vera to cool your skin.”
He applied the miracle gel to her burning bottom, and in a few minutes, she sighed, relaxing under his hand. He shifted behind her again, and she saw a towel fly toward the hamper in the corner. Large hands cupped her shoulders, helping her rise, and she was in his arms again.
“You took that really well, honey.”
“I hope Letty has plenty of aloe vera.”
“I’ll have her plant a whole crop.”
She gave an unladylike snort at his untimely joke. The aloe helped, but not that much.
Tipping her head back with a crooked forefinger and thumb to her chin, he looked down into her eyes. His expression was completely serious. “Don’t make me repeat this lesson, Janelle. I really don’t want to use a strap on you, but if you run away from me again or place yourself in danger with reckless behavior, I promise you will feel my leather.”
“I’ll stay where you put me from now on, Aaron. I promise.”
“Good, because I’d much rather spend my time loving and pleasuring you.”
“Me too, but the other rules—about the sass and feistiness—might take a while to control.”
“But, darlin’, I love that about you. Just watch your tone and be respectful. Remember Ma awhile back, when she teased Pa about having oatmeal between his ears? I found them later, necking in the kitchen. I’m not a total stick in the mud. I can stand some teasing and enjoy it when you’re playing. You are just going to have to learn when it’s acceptable and when it’s not.”
“That’s the lesson I’m afraid I’ll have trouble with.”
“I’ll help you, sweet pea.”
“Hmm, why doesn’t that thought make me feel better?”
He hugged her tight before lifting her into his strong arms and carrying her stark naked out of the bathroom and down the hall to their bedroom.
Janelle sputtered in alarm before she finally found her voice. “Aaron, your shoulder! You’ll break your stitches.”
The door swung shut before her last word was uttered, and she found herself bouncing on the soft bed on top of the covers. Aaron followed her down, his lips eagerly finding one hard nipple.
“I can’t believe you carried me here naked. What if someone came home?”
“They would have respected our privacy. You aren’t exactly quiet during a spanking—or during lovemaking, for that matter.” Aaron lifted his head, watching as her face flamed red to match her rosy bottom. Laughing, he lowered his head to her other breast. “You’re right, honey. You do have a perpetual blush around me.”
She smacked his good shoulder teasingly, but he caught her hands and pressed them into the mattress beside her head. His face turned serious as his hard length found the moist heat of her center and entered without pause. As he moved within her, taking her deeply with long, slow strokes, their eyes never faltered. Janelle gazed, mesmerized as the same raging passion she felt burned brightly in her beloved husband’s eyes. They were of one mind, one body, one heart… coming together long minutes later while clasped tightly in each other’s arms.
Chapter Twenty-Four
As they lay close together afterwards, Janelle’s head rested on his chest, her soft hand stroking over his ripped belly. Aaron smoothed his hand down her back, toying with the curls at the ends for a bit, before returning his hand to start the path slowly again. She loved his hands in her hair, and she sighed with contentment.
“Do you think you can be happy here, Janelle? With me, in this time, in this kind of marriage?”
“Oh, Aaron. You have already made me happy in this time and in this marriage. I am over my foolishness, because although my bottom is pink and a bit tender from that mean ‘ole bath brush, I am happier now than ever before in my life. The only thing I’ll miss is my family, but you have given me one more precious than gold.” She beamed up at him, and he returned her smile warmly.
“I have something to show you. Raise up.”
She sat up, but when her tender butt brushed against the covers, she quickly rolled over, her bright backside bare and sticking up toward the ceiling. She was so comfortable around him that she didn’t care. It was as likely as not that he was going to see her this way often, but for her sass and nothing else, she vowed.
Watching as Aaron went to the armoire in the corner, she thoroughly admired the muscles clenching in his naked rear end as he walked. Every bit of the man was hard and muscled. She giggled to herself; well, maybe after two rounds of sex, not all of him was hard.
He glanced at her over his shoulder. “What’s funny?”
“Just a naughty joke I thought of. Not worth repeating, honey.”
“Hmm… seems like you’re always giggling while I’m naked. It plays havoc with my fragile self-esteem.”
“I can assure you, dear husband, from my vantage point, there’s nothing fragile about you.”
He shot a glance over his shoulder at her and grinned. “What are you staring at, naughty girl?”
She saw his eyes sweep over her naked form as she lay on her belly, her pink cheeks bare, her chin propped saucily on her stacked hands. She blushed as he returned her gaze while quipping, “Do I pass inspection, baby?”
“Oh yes, sir. I’d have to say the view from where I sit is quite, uh… awe-inspiring. In my time, they’d call you bootylicious.” She giggled at that and buried her face in her hands. His teasing mood and the total ease he had with his nudity made her more daring. Sometimes she shocked herself with the things she said to him.
“Once again, I have no idea what that is. You’re mighty frisky this morning, baby. Let me show you this, and then afterward, we’ll go for round three.”
“Oh, well that sounds like fun, but I was wondering, what else do you do for entertainment around here?”
“Would you rather play pick-up sticks in the parlor with my parents?”
“Not really, but surely we can’t make love all the time.”
“Who says we can’t? I’m young and virile, and I can’t think of anything more entertaining than snuggling up with my gorgeous wife and making lots of babies.”
He winked at her outrageously as he came back to the bed. “You’ll just have to keep up.”
Sitting with his broad back resting against the headboard, his expression turned serious. “Come sit next to my, sweet pea.” He patted the mattress beside him and waited with Janelle’s purse on his lap.
Janelle, who was feeling a bit concerned by the sudden change in mood, pulled the sheet around her and settled by his side. “What are you doing with my purse?”
“We found this in Meyers’ woods the night you were kidnapped. When I brought it home, I went through i
t. I was looking for clues, and I wanted to feel close to you. I looked at your picture in the telephone for a long time.”
“I’m sorry, Aaron.” She could hear the residual pain in his voice, and the guilt was overwhelming. If she hadn’t run away…
“I didn’t bring this up to make you feel bad, darlin’. I emptied everything out, searching for something that could tell me what happened.”
He started removing the items, handling each one carefully, until lastly he pulled out an envelope that Janelle had never seen before. It looked slightly worn and tattered. Opening the flap carefully, he removed an old photo and calmly handed it to her, silently watching, waiting for her reaction.
She took it with a puzzled expression, looking down at the old brown and colored photograph. Janelle gasped, not believing what she was seeing as a myriad of emotions played through her mind: shock, wonder, elation. Before long, she flipped it over, looking for a date.
Aaron huffed a small laugh as he watched. “I did the exact same thing.”
“1885? Aaron, how can this be? This hasn’t even been taken yet?”
“Astounding isn’t it? What do you think of the subject matter?”
She flipped it over again and looked at it more closely. In the picture, Aaron stood tall and handsome behind her, his arm settled intimately at her waist. Janelle was seated on a stool, her head coming to the middle of his chest. Flanked by two boys about five years of age, they stood tall and handsome on either side of her, with warm brown eyes and brown wavy hair. Her eyes rose to Aaron’s and began to fill with tears. Looking back to the photo, she raised a trembling hand to her parted lips as she stared at the blonde-headed little girl that sat on her lap.
“The night I lost you and the following day while we searched that mountain, I held this image in my heart. I knew that I would find you and that we would resolve this discord between us, for I had seen our future. I had looked upon the faces of our unborn children, a gift unlike any man or woman has ever received before. It was the only thing that kept me sane through that long, painful day and the interminable week of your illness.”
“Oh, Aaron, this is too… I can’t even think of a word to describe how I feel.”
“Unbelievable? Fanciful, incredible, mind-boggling… None of them, all of them?”
“Yes… Oh, Aaron.” Her eyes found his, and she leaned against him, feeling his supporting arm circling her shoulders. “Their names are on the back, did you see? Jacob and Joshua… Aaron, they’re beautiful. The boys look just like you.”
“And Elizabeth, the sweet blonde-headed angel, looks just like her mama.”
With love bursting in her heart and tears overflowing, she turned into his chest and wrapped her arms tightly around him, weeping with joy as the big tears rolled down her cheeks and dropped onto his chest.
“Don’t cry, honey. Shh… Janelle, there’s more.”
Shaking her head, she said, “If it’s more like this treasure, I don’t think I can stand it, Aaron. I can barely breathe as it is.
“I don’t know what they contain. I didn’t read them.”
“Them?”
“Yes. There are two letters. One looks old like the picture. The other is on bright white stationery, like it was written yesterday.”
He handed her the envelope and waited again, his hand sliding reassuringly along her thigh and squeezing just above the knee.
Janelle stared at the envelope, too stunned to open it. After the photograph, she couldn’t imagine what these were about, and she couldn’t imagine how they got in her purse.
“Open them, darlin’. I didn’t read them before, thinking it was a violation of your privacy. But now the waiting is killing me, Janelle.”
“Okay, just hold your taters for a moment. I need to think.”
He cleared his throat, that eyebrow arching again. When had he started doing that? Whatever the case, she had learned quickly it was a warning that she’d better heed.
“Sorry.” She opened the white piece of stationery first, and her eyes zoomed in on the closing signature. “It’s from my mother, and it’s dated back in March, on my birthday.” Her voice broke, and she felt emotions clogging her throat, robbing her of speech. Passing it to Aaron, she said haltingly, “You… read it… for me.”
He accepted it and began to read aloud in his strong, calming baritone.
My darling Janelle,
I received this letter by Western Union, the day before your 23rd birthday. The delivery was made personally by the owner of the Salt Lake City branch, established way back in 1861, which he seemed to believe was important. He gave me a packet that had been held in trust by them for almost 125 years with special instructions to deliver it to one Angela Prescott on March 27, 2013. The man was dying to know what was in it, but I shooed the poor thing away until I knew the contents. Boy oh boy, was I glad I did. How on earth would I have explained all this?
The packet contained the enclosed family portrait and a letter, written by your hand, dated 1888. The letter stated that it was 10 years after your arrival in Wyoming, but months before you told us you would disappear in 2013.
Now, my dear Janelle, needless to say, I was confused, disbelieving, flabbergasted, etc… There is not one word to explain my shock. Of course, I thought it was a hoax. Your letter said not to tell you as your knowledge of this in the future could interfere with your arrival in the past, or some such confusing gibberish. I showed it to your father, and he was just as perplexed as I was. But he took it to a scientist friend of his at the university who was able to confirm with carbon dating that it was indeed over 100 years old, dating back to the mid to late 1880’s. We had no choice but to believe. So, as I write this, we are waiting for that fateful day. The day you will suddenly leave us and travel back to the past, to your future.
Your letter sets our worried minds at ease, my love, for you said you found the man of your dreams and the love of your life. From the picture, I can see that he is handsome and strong, and I believe from your smiling faces that you have found your true happiness—because no one else smiled in photographs in the 1800’s. Maybe someday you can tell us why.
Now we live each day, blessed to have you, yet thinking it will be our last. Based on your letter, your father and I believe that this is your destiny, Janelle. We don’t know what forces are at work here. That you could be snatched suddenly from our time and thrust into another is inconceivable. We may never know, but we love you, our only daughter, and wish you every happiness.
Love, Mom and Dad
March 27th, 2013
P.S. My grandchildren are beautiful. We took the photograph and had it enlarged. If this truly happens, I am prepared to hang the 11x14 copy over the mantel where I can look at it every day.
By the time he stopped reading, Janelle was a mess. “Aaron, I miss her so much. She’ll never see her grandchildren. Our children will never know their grandparents. It’s not fair.”
“I know, honey. But if you hadn’t come to this time, to this place, we wouldn’t be together, and those children would never be.”
Sniffling, she nodded. “It’s a bizarre paradox, I know that’s true. But it doesn’t make it hurt any less.”
“Do you feel up to reading the other?”
“No, I’ll just get snot and tears all over it. Will you do it for me?”
“Certainly. And don’t say snot, Janelle, that’s not very ladylike.”
“Yes, sir.”
Nodding, he carefully opened the yellowed piece of paper and began to read.
Dear Mom and Dad,
What I am about to tell you is hard to believe, so please sit down while you read this.
On August 5th of this year, I am going to be in a car accident. My car will be totaled and my body will never be found. Sorry for being so abrupt, but I couldn’t find a gentler way of telling you. Please don’t cry and grieve for me. I will somehow, someway, survive the accident and wake up in 1878 in Laramie, Wyoming.
I was
as confused and skeptical as you are now, but a wonderful man saved me. His name is Aaron Jackson, and he is the love of my life. I write this letter ten years after my arrival. Please know that I am happy and settled, and we have a lovely family. I have included a photograph of Aaron and me, taken three years ago with our then five-year-old twins Jacob and Joshua, and our precious baby girl, Elizabeth.
Also in my life now are Aaron’s ma and pa, who have become surrogate parents to me. Although they could never replace you in my heart, they have given me love and guidance and Letty, Aaron’s ma, has turned out to be my closest friend.
I am writing to relieve your pain and grief a little, knowing as a mother how devastating the loss of a child must be. So I hope these words provide you some comfort and the picture much joy. I also need to ask a favor of you. The times I live in now are woefully primitive in medicine. There is a copy of the Encyclopedia of Medicinal Herbs on the bookshelf in my apartment. This will be invaluable to me in the past, since I am sorry to say that I didn’t pay much attention in my botany class in college. Silly me, I didn’t think I’d ever need it.
I’m sure you are wondering how you will hide that on my person on the day of my accident. Well, the answer is, buy me the biggest purse you can find for my birthday—you know how I love them—and sew it into the lining. If you can fit actual medicine like aspirin or antibiotics, please try, but don’t make it obvious. I’m afraid if I know what is going to happen, I will somehow change the future, and my life will be irrevocably altered, once again.
So, Mom and Dad, that is my most bizarre and far-fetched tale. If you choose to believe me, I appreciate your help. If you find it too ridiculous to consider, I understand that as well. If it is the latter, don’t worry after I’m gone. I probably wouldn’t have believed me, either.
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