Cowboy Caveat (3 page)

Amy huffed in frustration
and disbelief. Nobody had ever dared to spank her before; what was
Ethan
thinking
?
What the hell was wrong with him anyhow? First those embarrassing
swats in town this morning.........and now this! Unfortunately,
instead of listening, Amy chose to struggle, trying to free herself
and vent her spleen on Ethan. “Jumping Jehoshaphat... Ethan,
what is wrong with you
?!” she bellowed.

“
Honey, when we’re married
you jump when I say frog, got it? Girl, there are gonna be some
rules set in stone for you, and rule number one is that you
will
obey me,” he said
following this up with another swat, which elicited a squeal. “Rule
two: my wife will not cuss at her husband, and another thing, she
will definitely
not
blaspheme.” Ethan again landed a hard swat on Amy’s
bottom.

“
Rule three: no lying or
sassing me or your brother Ed.........nope, not ever again!” Ethan
peppered Amy with a sizzling volley of spanks because he was sick
of her jaw jackin and rudeness towards Ed.

“
Yow.....eee
!” was all Amy had to say
to that.

“
Rule four: no more bull
riding or horse racing....
EVER
!!!” At that, he scalded Amy’s
buttocks with a number of blistering spanks, and Amy’s screech of
outrage satisfied Ethan mightily. He stopped spanking and rubbed
Amy’s behind with a large hand; my, oh my, she felt warm, and she
looked so divine bent over the grain sacks with her shapely little
ass up in the air!

Ethan could see how pink her curved buttocks
were through the thin covering of her pretty pink pantaloons. He
itched to slide his hand inside the material and stroke her soft
skin. Ethan felt his loins tighten and swell against the rough
material of his trousers. He needed to marry Amy soon; he couldn’t
take the strain for much longer. He had to have Amy because it was
all he could think about and it was starting to interfere with his
workload.

Amy was relieved that the spanking seemed to
be over, but she was surprised to find that she didn’t resent
Ethan; his hand stroking her burning flesh felt divine. She stilled
and waited, holding her breath to see where his hand would slide to
next. But what did she want? Amy was more than somewhat confused by
her feelings toward her intended.

Ethan reluctantly removed his hand, but held
Amy in place while he asked her the question, “Amy will you marry
me Sunday? An’ you’d best say yes, lil’ girl......because I intend
to spank on until you do!”

“
Gee, I guess that’s a yes
then,” Amy said, fully intending to retract after he let her
up.

“
Oh no. I want your solemn
oath, Amelia Jane, that you
will
marry me this Sunday.” He gave her rump another
scorching swat to emphasize his point.

Amy ground her teeth.
“
Land sakes,
Ethan Walker!” she spat furiously.

“
Have it your way then,
darlin,’” Ethan drawled as he raised his hand and lit into Amy’s
bottom with gusto; she
had
to say yes. He’d had enough of waiting. By God,
she was stubborn! He could see Amy would spend a lot of time across
his lap after they were wed and Ethan wasn’t complaining any about
that!

If Amy thought Ethan had
spanked her hard the first time around, she realized now how
mistaken she’d been. This time he took no prisoners and Amy found
herself kicking and squirming, trying to avoid the hard spanking
that burned and stung her bottom all at once. Surprised, she found
tears leaking from her eyes and the first gasp of a sob starting in
her throat. Amy realized that Ethan meant what he said -- he would
carry out his threat to keep spanking until she said yes. After a
particularly painful barrage of swats she yelled out the
‘
YES
!’ that Ethan
wanted to hear.

Ethan stopped, waiting for Amy to catch her
breath and recover before he would pull her upright. He was so
proud of her, she had taken all he had to give very well and he
knew she was about to capitulate when she went limp over the grain
sacks. “Okay I solemnly swear that I will marry you on Sunday...you
snake!” Another couple of scalding whacks followed.

“
You learned not to sass
me yet, little girl?” Ethan asked as his hand bounced off Amy’s
quivering bottom. Amy gave in, slumped limply over the grain sacks.
“Sure’nuff, Eth – I’m done,” she sniffled.

“
Well, now your ass is
hotter than a burning stump!” Ethan said as he rubbed Amy’s flaming
behind. He pulled her upright and into his embrace.

“
It’s all over, honey, go
on now cry it out little darlin’,” he murmured, kissing the top of
her head and holding her tight. Amy snivelled into Ethan’s chest
because he seemed to expect it and then she snuggled into his arms.
She was where she wanted to be.....nothing else
mattered.

Later, when the women and children were
abed, Ed walked Ethan to his horse. He was still thunderstruck that
Amy had agreed to a wedding on Sunday, only three days away!

“
I don’t know how you did
it, Eth, but I am so relieved that Amy gave in!”

Ethan chuckled. “I spanked your little sis’
good and hard until she agreed, but you know, Ed, I think she
wanted to say yes ages ago. She’s just afraid to love anyone after
what happened to your folks. Amy thinks it’ll happen again and
she’ll lose me, too.”

Ed frowned. He was not best pleased to hear
that Ethan had spanked his sister. Ed was a non-confrontational man
and he liked a happy, easy-go-lucky atmosphere in his home. He
hadn’t ever spanked his siblings or his boys. He’d only ever
spanked Lucy once and that was because she’d scared him half to
death by staying over at her friend’s in Wichita Falls one night
instead of coming home as she’d told him she would.

“
Sunday though, Eth? How
are we supposed to get ready by then?” he said, shaking his head.
“You heard Lucy: Amy can wear our mother’s wedding dress and she
said that Millie can have a store-bought dress from Mac’s in town.
Don’t fret, Ed, it’s going to be jus’ fine! Ed....butt out,
okay?”

“
What d’ mean
‘
butt out’?”

“
After Amy and I are
hitched, there’ll be fireworks at some point, and I want your word
you’ll let me handle things my way, no interference from you okay?”
Ethan put his hand on his brother-in-law’s shoulder.

“
Yeah, okay, jus’ as long
as you don’t hurt her none, Eth. She’s been to hell and back and I
won’t stand by and let you hurt her. Got that?”

“
Christ, Ed, I ain’t gonna
hurt Amy! I love your sister! The worst she’ll suffer from me is a
sore backside and no one ever died from that. I told her my four
rules tonight; they were Pa’s rules and they worked for Lucy and
me, so I guess they’ll do fine for my wife and family.”

Ethan’s neck flushed pink.

“
I also told her what she
could expect if she breaks those rules. Amy needs protecting from
herself and I’m jus’ the hombre for the job. Take today: did you
know that she rode old Bellamy in to town with the steers for
loading?”

Ed looked surprised and shook his head.

“
Huh?”

“
Thought not....so do I
have your word then you’ll keep out of it and send her back to me
if’n she comes a runnin’ to you?”

Ed grinned and nodded. “Sure’nuff,” he
said.

Ethan gestured out towards the range.

“
Old man Henderson asked
again about your folks’ spread?”

The Lazy Z belonged to Ethan’s and Lucy’s
parents, who had died in the freak flood in 1886. Ed’s father owned
a homestead on the land north of the Lazy Z, and north and east of
that, Lawrence Henderson owned the Red River spread.

Henderson had tried to buy out Daniel
Campbell any number of times and had been turned down flat each
time, but Elizabeth, Ed’s mother, didn’t recover from Amy’s birth
and had died a short while afterwards. Daniel had gone to pieces
and promised Henderson that he would sell his spread to him. When
Elizabeth’s pretty blonde cousin Suzie had turned up for
Elizabeth’s funeral, Daniel had fallen in love again and taken
Suzie as his wife and as a mother for Ed and Amy. Ed had adored his
stepmother and since he had only ever known Suzie as mother, he
thought of her as such. Daniel retracted his offer to sell and
Henderson had been livid.

Over the following years, there had been a
number of nasty incidents such as steers being butchered and horses
mysteriously dying, which Daniel believed Henderson was behind. Ed
and Ethan also believed Henderson to be responsible for the murders
of Daniel and Suzie Campbell.

Even though the Sheriff had ridden over with
them to the Red River outfit to confront Henderson the day after
the bodies were recovered, they couldn’t pin anything on the man.
He told them he had visitors staying over at the time of the
murders. When pressed, Henderson wheeled out his frightened,
sweating, rotund little accountant, who confirmed to all listening
that he had been with Henderson the whole time during the killings.
The brothers-in-law knew that Henderson wouldn’t have killed Ed’s
parents himself. Oh no, he would have paid someone else to do his
dirty work; the trouble was proving it, and to date, they
hadn’t.

Ed and Ethan used Daniel’s old homestead as
overnight accommodation for the hands that worked over that part of
the range since it was a two-day ride away. They made no complaints
when Red River steer wandered onto their land, but Henderson
slaughtered any of their cattle that roamed onto his.

Recently, Henderson had reverted to directly
requesting to buy the land once again.

In reply to Ethan’s question Ed shook his
head. “I tell you, Eth, Henderson is like a stone in my boot.”

The two men eyed one another, determination
binding them together far deeper than their in-law ties. Neither
man could forget the horror that they found at Spring Creek on that
fateful day, nor the vow of vengeance that each man had silently
made.

Amy awoke to bright sunshine spilling over
her face and she stretched and yawned; surprisingly, she had slept
well. She smiled to herself, remembering Ethan and the spanking he
had given her in the barn last night. Amy felt rather proud of him.
She didn’t think he had it in him to stand up to her quite that
way.

Amy leapt out of bed, and pulling her
nightdress up, she stared at her bottom in the mirror. What a shame
the pinkness from last night had gone, she thought. Amy was keen to
explore the interesting warmth and the heat that the spanking last
evening had created between her legs. But she would wait until
after their marriage before testing Ethan in that way again.

As Amy washed and dressed, she thought about
the implications of marrying Ethan. They would live at Aunt Peggy’s
house, where Ethan and Lucy had lived after the death of their
parents. Uncle Joe, Peggy’s husband, had perished in the flood of
’86. Ethan and Ed had enlarged the back of the house a couple of
years back for Peggy so that she could be separate from the house
as she aged. Peggy still did all the cooking, for which Amy was
very grateful because that was not a role she intended to fill, no
siree! Amy realised she would have to take on some domestic chores
because of Aunt Peggy’s age, but she hoped that Peggy would still
carry on with the kitchen duties.

Amy bred horses; she had
five beautiful, fast white horses, bred for their speed and
temperament. The color white was to be her trademark. The horses
were her life, her pride and joy, and she lived and breathed for
them. Amy suddenly remembered that Ethan’s fourth rule was no more
horse races. Well
sonofabitch
! He couldn’t expect her
to back out of the Fourth of July race,
no
siree
, not her! She just wouldn’t mention
the subject; hopefully it wouldn’t come up again. She could just
lit off, win the race and be back before Ethan knew anything about
it. Ethan would find out eventually, but now she knew what a
spanking was like, she’d deal with it. It was no big deal, hell it
hurt more falling off a horse and she’d done that plenty o’
times!

Amy thought for a moment about her wedding
night. She knew what to expect in the bedroom - after all, she bred
horses. But she was curious to see how a manhood looked. Was a man
as big as a horse or as small as a dog? Surely not! Amy was keen to
experience the act of mating. She wasn’t worried about the
mechanics of sex; mares seemed unconcerned when they mated, after
all. Yup, marrying Ethan would be a good thing all round. She would
be married and in control of her own destiny and together they
would raise a herd of sought-after horses that she hoped would
become renowned. Humming happily, Amy trotted down to
breakfast.

Lucy had a million and one things buzzing
around in her head and she knew she didn’t have enough time to do
them all herself. She would have to delegate some tasks. Lucy
didn’t have a problem with that, but she also knew the rest of her
family was totally unreliable and could not cope with
responsibility. As she was pondering this, Amy shot down the
stairs, grabbed a biscuit and made for the door. Lucy ran after her
sister-in-law, grabbing her arm before she disappeared.

“
We are going into town in
ten minutes Amy, where do you think you’re going?”