“Oh believe me, we do!” Opal called over, from where she was taking her turn cleaning tables.
“Well, the transformation is astonishing!” Maisy told them.
“You wanted to see me?” Stephanie asked, wondering what this woman wanted with her. Maisy turned her sharp gaze back to her. “Yes, honey. It occurred to me that with your ma dead you might not have a nice dress to wear for your wedding on Sunday and so I bought you my gown to wear, I was about your size when I got hitched, er, wed.” She bent down and retrieved a carpet bag and snapping it open pulled out a dress. It was the tackiest royal blue and black striped gown that Stephanie had ever laid eyes upon.
“Oh, oh, how very, very kind!” she cried, desperate not to sound as horrified by the cheap and flouncy low cut frock than she actually was. There was a titter from across the room but when Stephanie and Maisy turned at the sound, Opal was rubbing at a table top, furiously intent on the task in hand with her back turned to them both.
“Pretty ain’t it? My Bill gave it to me when we was hitch… wed.” Maisy picked up the garment and held it up against Stephanie. “Hmm, a bit short on you, dear, but it’ll show off them pretty ankles of yorn!”
“Um, look I don’t want to sound ungrateful to you, it really is very kind of you to think of me…” Stephanie began.
“I knew you’d be pleased, dearie, now remember what I told you, come an’ see me soon as you’re settled.” She patted Stephanie’s arm and turned walking briskly away.
“No, wait I…” But it was too late. The woman had bustled out of the saloon without a backward glance. There was an immediate a snort of laughter from Opal and from behind the bar where Amy squealed with glee. Stephanie turned on them crossly.
“Stop it, you two! What am I going to do now? She’ll be so hurt if I don’t wear this on Sunday!” She held up the hideous dress and shook the offending frock. The two gems creased up, laughing even louder. Stephanie stamped her foot. “You’re no help, either of you!”
Opal wiped her streaming eyes. “Write her a note explaining you have a dress already, then ask Tey or Jeb to drop the dress and note back to her,” she suggested.
Stephanie brightened at the idea. “Yes, I’ll do that, thanks, Opal.”
Opal wandered over to Stephanie and fingered the revolting garment, a look of derision on her face. “Be careful of that Maisy Brown, Sunny, she has a nasty reputation and her husband is real mean. He came to me a few times when we first opened and he’s cruel. He slapped Jade about too and when I told Gabe about him, he banned him from using the gems again.”
Stephanie frowned bewildered. “Why would he come here anyway when he’s got a wife?”
Opal burst out laughing and hugged Stephanie to her. Amy’s trilling giggles could be heard from across the room.
“Why indeed little Sunny, why indeed?” she asked, throwing a broad wink over her head at Amy.
Sunday dawned chilly but it stayed fine and dry and as the morning wore on the October sun warmed away the early chill. Stephanie was touched when Jewel told her that a scented bath had been filled in the bathing room especially for her. Dottie had washed her hair for her on Friday morning and Stephanie was relieved that her hair was clean and sweet for her wedding day.
After her bath, Jewel took her into her bedchamber and styled her hair into ringlets, a style that suited her face shape so well. Although Stephanie tied rags in her hair every night to maintain the style, the steam from her bath had caused the curls to droop. The hot metal rod used to curl her hair had to be handled with care, or the result would be scorched hair falling off in chunks. Luckily, Jewel was adept at knowing how long to roll each curl along the heated rod and there were no disasters.
At last Stephanie was ready and Jewel turned her, so that she could see herself in the looking glass. Her hands flew to her mouth in pleased surprise. She had not imagined that she could feel so fine and truly she never expected to see herself look so beautiful. She turned to Jewel and hugged her impulsively.
“Thank you for everything, Madam, you have been more of a friend and a mother to me than anyone has in my whole life. I don’t know how to repay you, other than to say that I am always here for you, should you ever need me for anything.”
Jewel was touched and returned the hug. “I am only too pleased to help and I shall always count on you as my friend, as I hope you will me. Now come along, we don’t want to keep that handsome groom waiting, do we?”
Gabe appeared in the doorway. “Niña, you look, well, words fail me! Come here.” He held his arms wide and Stephanie walked into them. He held her for a moment and kissed her forehead, before releasing her. “Your father is downstairs waiting to walk you into church,” he told her.
“Oh, but I wanted you to do that,” she told him frowning.
“I am touched that you should wish me too, Sunny, but he is your father and it is his right and his paternal duty. Come, niña, it is time.”
Stephanie saw amazement cross her father’s face when he saw her enter the hall where he awaited her. He handed her a leather hat box and, placing it on the floor, she opened it to find her mother’s wedding veil nestling inside. It had obviously been her grandmother’s before her mother had worn it, its old fashioned style and age apparent within its creamy ancient folds. Stephanie was moved and she traced her finger over the delicate lace with care. Her father cleared his throat as he lifted the veil and placed it over his daughter’s pale ringlets. Kendrick then leaned in and brushed his daughter cheek with his lips before lowering the soft folds of material to cover her face. Stephanie felt triumphant and held her head high as she crossed the street making their way into the church with Jewel and Gabe following on behind. Charlie sat at the piano and, as she appeared in the doorway, he jokingly played a few bars of the Can-can music and there were chuckles and giggles from the members of the Red Petticoat who were already seated in the audience.
Jewel and Gabe slipped by Stephanie and her father, quietly taking their place beside Nettie who had thoughtfully saved them seats. Charlie began to play the newly popular Wedding March by Wagner and Stephanie walked slowly down the aisle with her hand resting lightly upon her father’s arm. She grinned when she saw Tey standing watching her at the altar, with the dog standing by his feet, his tail wagging with recognition and welcome.
Tey could not believe his own eyes when he saw Stephanie. She appeared to be floating toward him. She looked like no other woman he had ever seen. She had to be an angel, a beautiful, shimmering softly golden, angel. He immediately felt inadequate; he didn’t deserve this gorgeous ethereal woman. She was quite simply, exquisite.
Once she drew level with him, he lifted her veil and saw the nervous way she glanced up at him from beneath her lashes. At once, a flood of protective love for her filled his body with possessive desire. She was about to become his and he would care for her until the day came that he drew his final breath.
Throughout the ceremony, they focused only on one another and it seemed to Stephanie that the church contained only herself and Tey along with the pastor who married them. She even failed to hear the cheer that went up when Tey kissed her as her husband for the very first time, so engrossed was she with him and how weak at the knees he made her feel.
Nettie had cooked up a storm and the luncheon celebration after the wedding was stupendous. It was held in the saloon, where all the tables had been placed into a circle, set out ready for the invited guests to seat themselves. Gabe had put up a very prominent notice outside to state that the Red Petticoat would be closed on Sunday, until seven that same evening.
After the meal was finished, Dottie appeared at Stephanie’s side and whispered into her ear. Stephanie nodded back at her with a quick grin. She stood and leaned down to murmur into Tey’s ear, explaining that she’d be right back, before disappearing into the back of house. He wondered where she had gone and fretted when she still hadn’t returned after quite some time. Then the lights dimmed and music began to play. Tey r
ealized that he hadn’t even noticed Charlie making his way discreetly over to the piano. The curtains lifted and the guests whooped and clapped, men stamped their feet as Opal, Dottie and Sunny took center stage and began to dance the Can-can, adding far more kicks and bottom waggles than were normally included within the dance.
When Stephanie landed at the end of the performance doing her usual splits, Dottie and Opal either side of her, their bent backs facing the audience, their pantalooned behinds on full display, everyone went wild. But when Tey stood and strolled up onto the platform of the stage, leaned his shoulder down and hoisted Stephanie up and over it, they bawled with laughter and banged the tables appreciatively. Tey walked toward the saloon entrance onto the street and when Stephanie kicked her black fishnet stockinged legs, he swatted her soundly on her red flounced behind. Clapping and whistles followed them outside, fading as Tey walked further away down the Sunday deserted street, toward the guest house, where he intended to finally make Stephanie his own.
Tey carried his bride into the guest house and setting her down carefully, he placed his hand at her back and guided her upstairs to his room, now theirs. As soon as she had entered the bedroom, he spun her about into his arms and kicked the door shut with his heel. He grabbed his hat and threw it onto the chair, lowered his head and claimed her ready mouth with his, firmly and possessively.
Stephanie was lost in a sea of sensation. Tey’s kiss awoke her female senses and all her earlier trepidation at repeating the act she had enacted with Kelly disappeared. Tey heated her blood, awakening a need she had never felt before, the need of a woman for a man.
Tey’s kisses left her mouth, trailing down her shoulders, where his fingers followed, sliding the shoe string straps of her dancing costume down her arms. He bent his head to her neck and her head fell back allowing him access to the column of her slender throat. His lips trailed lower and followed his hands as they peeled away her sequined top, releasing her small pink tipped breasts. As his hot mouth closed over one burgeoning, tender peak, he gave a deep guttural groan of satisfaction. His obvious pleasure caused a flood of desire between Stephanie’s thighs. This thrillingly pulsing hunger was completely new to her. She had never before encountered feelings such as these and certainly not with Kelly.
It wasn’t long before Tey had pulled her dress down over her hips and she stood only wearing her frilled can-can drawers and stockings. Tey plumped down upon the double bed and holding her hands in his, he looked at her.
“You’re even more gorgeous and perfect than I imagined,” he told her as his hot gaze raked down over her pert breasts. “Take off your drawers. Leave the stockings and garters on,” he instructed gruffly. Stephanie blushed but obeyed. As soon as the bloomers were off, Tey reached for her and pulled her down onto his knee. He kissed her once again and his hands wondered over her body, creating a languid yearning in Stephanie, one that built and built deeply within, as his hands explored and petted her soft womanly flesh.
His hand slid across her lower abdomen and dipped between her legs, which fell apart of their own volition. The swirling, scattered yearning centered at the heart of her quim. She gasped as he pressed a finger into her wet folds and touched a tiny part of her that she never knew existed. In an instant, a flare of burning desire, unlike anything she had experienced before lit up her entire being. She looked down at his dark haired, tanned and masculine hand as it slid sinuously between her pale thighs. She moaned with a fierce need, one that she still did not understand.
She found herself tipped back onto the bed suddenly and his hands and lips were everywhere. Stephanie could no longer keep up with where and how he was stimulating her. She was overwhelmed by touch of tongue and lip, nip and tweak of finger and thumb. Then he flung her legs apart and over his shoulders, burying his dark head into the apex betwixt her thighs, causing her to buck her hips crying out her confused need incoherently. Until everything centered into one hot cloud of explosive sensation and she keened her climatic release.
Tey held her firm and worked at the nubbin of aroused flesh until he felt her becalm. Then he slid up her body and claimed her mouth; almost simultaneously his rigid cock took her quim. He didn’t last long but as he filled her, his aching balls eased as the pulsing seed drained from him. His mind relaxed and he remembered that he could fuck her every day for the rest of his life; after all, she was his wife now and they had forever.
Chapter Thirteen
By morning, Tey had made Stephanie into “Mrs. Tey,” several times over. She felt as replete as a pig in clover and just as hungry. He roused himself to dress, ordering her to stay put while he searched out breakfast. He wanted her in his bed a while longer. He was far from satiated; he only had to look at her lying there, only partially covered by the sheet and he was bullet hard, ready to take her again. One leg hung provocatively over the edge of the bed. He picked up her foot and kissed it, trailing his rough tongue up the inside of her fleshy calf to the back of her knee. He nipped her tender flesh and made her giggle and squeal.
“I’ll fetch breakfast then I have more to teach you, Mrs. Tey.”
Stephanie pouted prettily. “But I’m very sore, Mr. Tey. I don’t think I can take any more of your loving today.”
Tey seized both her legs and flipped her onto her front. Amidst her protesting squeals, he administered five rapid swats to her naked behind, then leant forward and nipped her buttocks, enjoying the high pitched yelp she gave. “Then, I shall teach you how to please me, wife, and you’d better be a fast learner or this pretty little ass will pay the price!” He nipped her buttock cheeks once again and she gave that delightful little squealing cry again, the one that made his shaft jerk and his balls tighten, lifting in anticipation.
When he finally left her alone and the door closed behind him, Stephanie jumped up and poured cold water from the jug into the ewer. Muslin strips lay in a pile to be used for washing and she hurriedly washed top to bottom, leaving her private area, which felt so sticky after her honeymoon night of passion, until last. She then brushed out her curls into waves and scampered back into bed, plumping up the pillows and sitting up with her back resting against them and the sheet pulled demurely up to her neck.
Thinking back over the previous night, she was astonished by the difference between what she had done with Kelly and her honeymoon night spent with Tey. There was no comparison, none.
Stephanie realized that she was as good as a virgin last night. Tey’s lovemaking had been miraculous and she could not remember ever feeling as happy as she was right now in this very moment. Not even dancing matched having Tey pleasuring her body and she finally realized what it was that Dottie and Opal so enjoyed about their work. She shuddered at the thought of some of the men she had seen frequenting the Red Petticoat and she knew for certain that she only ever wanted her handsome husband and no other lying between her thighs.
The door opened and Tey returned with a tray piled high with coffee and plates of eggs and sausages. A blur of four legged fur shot between Tey’s legs, almost causing him to unbalance and lose the breakfast tray.
“Darn dog!” he yelled without heat. Stephanie giggled and held Scamp off her, as he tried to wash her face and neck.
“Hey, you, I just washed!” she told the squirming animal.
“Down, Dog, come here!” Tey ordered, snapping his fingers. The dog ignored him.
“Call him Scamp, he likes that,” Stephanie told him. Tey glared at her. “He does not, ‘sides his name is Dog.”
“No, that’s what he is, he likes having a name, don’t you, sweetie. Go on, Tey, try it!”
Tey shook his head but called the dog anyway, just to prove he was right. “Scamp, come on, here, Scamp!” He glared at the dog as it leapt from the bed and sat in front of him, instantly obedient.
“It’s a fluke,” he groused dismissively. Stephanie’s peal of laughter followed him out of the door and down the stairs outside to the stables, where he put Dog into the stall with Mustang. The horse
nuzzled the small dog and Tey left them together. As he rounded the guest house from the stables, he saw the woman he had delivered a cheap blue frock at Stephanie’s behest just before their wedding day. She appeared to be loitering on the opposite side of the street, surreptitiously glancing his way. What was she up to, he wondered? He hadn’t liked the look of the run down shack or the woman when he had run Stephanie’s errand. He decided to ask her about the female. He waited until they had finished their breakfast before bringing the subject up.
“So you don’t know her or her husband?”
Stephanie shook her head. “No, as I explained, Maisy spoke to me at the picnic. I think she was just being nice because she worked in the saloon once and she knows that I do too.”
“Not for long you won’t,” Tey growled, “I don’t want you going around to her property d’you hear?”
Stephanie flushed. “I think you are overreacting and if she invites me for a cup of coffee with her, I think it would be rude not to go!”
“Steph…” Tey’s voice held a note of caution in it, yet she rambled on regardless.
“You can’t just decide you don’t like the woman for goodness’ sakes. I now have lots of friends, are you going to dislike all of them too?” She waved her arm for emphasis.
“Steph…”
“She was kind to lend me her wedding dress, even though I decided it wasn’t for me. She was being real kind, Tey, and you never know I might not like some of your friends but are you going to listen to me when I…”
She gasped as the covers were tugged away from her body and she was yanked naked across Tey’s lap. “Do I finally have your attention, Mrs. Tey?” he asked. Stephanie nodded and squealed when a hard slap stung her backside. “You answer me a clear, ‘yes, sir’ whenever you are across my knee, you got that, little girl?”
Sunny's Safe Haven (The Red Petticoat Saloon) Page 10