The O'Malley Brides (6 page)

“Tess, I…”

“Why?” she whispered, her voice quivering, her eyes wide.

“I…I’m
sorry if I scared you Babe
, it’s
just been so hard for me not to …”

“No.” she insisted, sitting up and grabbing his arms, her eyes pleading for understanding.  “Why did you not…I thought you would want to…maybe you do
no
t want me like that?”

Rory groaned deep in his throat.  Good God
,
could she actually believe he didn’t want to bury himself deeply inside her.  Rory was a large man, in every way.  It would take time and patience for her to accept him.  He was sure of it now after feeling how small she was.  This was definitely
not an activity
for his
parents’
home.

Taking her sma
ll hand, Rory pressed it
on
his hard, enormous cock. 
Even through his jeans the pleasure had him sucking in a breath. 
He watche
d her eyes widen in surprise as
she squeezed it gently.  Suddenly Tess snatched her hand back as is she’d been burned while her face flamed.

“Oh.”

“Yeah Babe… Oh.
  Don’t think for a second we’re finished.  I
will
take you, over and o
ver, but not here in my parents’
house and certainly not while they are a
t
Mass. 
Bridget
is downstairs right now starting dinner and it won’t be long before the house is full of family.  
I may be going to hell, but not for this,” he continued not quite kidding.  “You need to get dressed and give Bridge a hand, and I have some thinking to do.  I obviously won’t be able to control myself much longer.  We might have to make other living arrangements.”

Tess showered and dressed quickly and hurried downstairs to give Bridget a hand with the meal preparations.  Quietly peeling potatoes
,
she ignored the
questioning looks from Bridget
even though they had grown
quit close in the time Tess
lived there.  

“Why so glum?” Bridget finally asked after watching Tess pe
el the potatoes like she was per
forming a delicate surgery.

Tess shrugged and continued peeling until a large glob of stuffing sailed across the kitchen and smacked her in the chest.
  It fell from her apron with a plop into the pan of water she had in front of her.  Her head came up with a snap as she glared at her smirking friend.

“Excuse me?  Did you just throw stuffing at me?” she asked as
she narrowed her eyes
.

“Well gee, there’s no one else here,” Bridget answered sarcastically, “So I guess I did.”

“Why?”

“I thought it would get your attention, and it did.  Now what the hell is wrong with you today?  Headache?  Hangover?  What?”

“Oh, so you wanted to get my attention,” Tess replied, grinning
evilly
and picking up a handful of stringy cooked squash that was waiting to go into the food processor. 

“Don’t you dare throw that at me,” Bridget squealed seconds before she had stringy slippery squash dripping down her face. 
Wiping her eyes, Bridget picked
up four eggs from the carton next to her as Tess dove for the kitchen door.

Yanking it open she jumped back just as Bridget let the eggs fly, smack into Rory’s
massive
chest.

Both girls froze and Rory opened his mouth, but nothing came out. 
He stood there as yolk and shells dripped from his shirt, down the front of his pants and pooled on his large shoes. 

Tess slowly backed up until she bumped into Bridget w
ho whispered in her ear, “Run!”
but Tess couldn’t seem to make her legs move.  Seeing that her partner in crime wasn’t going to be able to escape, Bridget wrapped an arm around Tess’s waist, tilted her chin up in defiance and waited.  They didn’t have to wait long.

“Wh
at the hell is going on in here?
” Rory demanded, grabbing some paper towels and trying unsuccessfully to wipe the dripping mess off of his chest. 
“What are you girls, five? 
Clean this damn mess up before Ma gets home,” he ordered, throwing the paper towels down in disgust.  “I’ll deal with you later,”
he gr
owled fixing his eyes firmly on Tess.

“Geeze Rory, don’t blow a gasket,” Bridget yelled after him before Tess could get her hand over Bridget’s mouth.  “It’s not like it was acid or poison or something.”

“Shut up,” Tess pleaded
, “
Please,
before he comes back here.”

“Ah, his bark is worse than his bite,” Bridget insisted
.  “Come
on,
let’s get this cleaned up before the real threat comes home.

“Your
m
adre?” Tess asked, still shaken by Rory’s promise.

“
Si,
mi m
adre
,” Bridget laughed. 

The girls had the mess cleaned
up before Maeve came
home and
shooed them out of th
e kitchen. 

“Bridget, what’s in heavens name is in
your hair?  You best be gettin
’ in the shower before it dries.  Tess, lass, you look a little flushed,” Maeve remarked, putting her hand on Tess’s forehead to check for a fever.  “Do you feel alright?  You should go sit on the swing for a
bit,
it’s not likely this mild weather will be stayin’ much longer.  Go and get yourself a little fresh air.”

Nodding, Tess
made her way fro
m the kitchen,
grabbed her sweater from the front hall closet and settled on the porch swing. 
Rory’s truck was gone, so he had probably gone home to change.  God
, Bridget
never knew when to shut up.
She and Tess had become quite good friends but if Tess ended getting a free trip over Rory’s knee, Bridget was going to ge
t … get what?  It’s not like Tess
could do anything about it.  Telling Bridget would be like taking out an ad in the local newspaper.  Hopefully Rory would
cool down after dinner.  His m
adre
’s cooking always seemed to put everyone in a fairly good mood.  Sighing, Tess closed her eyes and set the swing to swaying gently.

Hearing Bridget running down the stairs followed by the screen door slamming shut, Tess braced herself.  Sitting up
she watched as the small golden
haired
tornado approached and plopped down on the swing beside her.

“So what’s going on?” Bridget asked, tucking her legs under her and pinning Tess with her green eyes.

“I cannot tell you,” Tess told her firmly.

“Why not?  Aren’t we friends?”

“Yes we are friends, but you
,
my friend, have a big mouth.”

“
Moi
?” Bridget asked with an offended look on her face.

“Yes you,” Tess answered, not buying the innocent act for a moment.

“I don’t know how you can say that.  Haven’t I always gone out of my way to make you feel welcome here?”

“Yes, of course you have.”

“Haven’t I tried to help you every time you get in trouble?”

“Yes, you have,” Tess admitted, remembering last week when Rory had been looking all over the house bellowing her name and Bridget had taken her hand an pulled her down
to the
cellar until he had given up.

“If I p
romise not to tell a living soul
, will you please tell me what’s wrong?
I only want to help you
,
Tess,” Bridget told her
truthfully.  “I’m sorry about the stuffing thing.  If Rory starts with you, he’ll have to go through me to get to you.”

Tess smiled despite herself. 
 
“Like picking you up and setting you out of the way would be a hardship on someone as strong as Rory.”

“It
doesn’t
matter.  I can kick and scream loud enough to bring the whole family running.  Believe me
,
I might be small but I’m powerful,” Bridget continued flexing her arm muscle and wiggling her eyebrows until Tess laughed.

“Alright, I will tell you, but you must swear to me that you will never tell another.”

“I swear,” Bridget told her, hand over her heart.

Tess took a deep breath.  “I think I have a crush on your brother,” she said quickly before she could change her mind.

“Oh God,” Bridget responded, uncurling her legs and flopping back on the swing.  “I was afraid it was something like that.”
For several minutes only the tiny squeak of the swing could be heard.  Finally Bridget sat up and turned sideways to face Tess.

“Rory, I hope?  Well,
actually
I don’t hope
,
but it would be better than if you had a crush on Patrick.”

“Of course Rory,”
Tess replied shoc
ked.  “Patrick is married.  Mi m
adre would be rolling over in her grave.”

“Okay, sorry, sorry.  Look Tess, I really care for you and I would like for you to be my sister, but the men in my family, they’re well…different.   Oh, I know they’re attractive in a caveman sort of way.  No, not that.  What I mean is if you like tall, strong, big men, then I suppose they would appeal to you.  No what I mean is…, they all have a very a…dominant nature.  Sort of. 

Oh, I’m not saying this very clearly at all,” Bridget continued, watching the panicked expression on Tess’s face.  “Okay, I’ll just spit
it out as best as I can and then
you can ask me any
questions.
  They have this
antiquated notion that the ‘husband
’ should rule the house
,” Bridget continued, taking Tess’s hand.  “Tess, they spank their wives.”

“All of them?” Tess asked in disbelief.

“Yes that’s what I’m trying to tell you, all of them, even the ones who aren’t related except by marriage.”

“Even Nick?”

“Yes, Nick, Mason, even Noah.  I know.  It’s hard to even wrap my brain around it.”

“Why?  Why do they do this?”

“I don’t really know.  They think the husband should be the head of the household and that the wife should…God it’s hard to even say the word, but they think the wife should obey.”

“You
are kidding
with me
, right?”

“No Tess I’m not.  That’s why it’
s very important you understand
if you already have
a crush
on Rory.”

“And the wives, they are okay with this… this spanking?”

“No I don’t think so, but what can they do?  They love them.”

“I am trying to understand th
is Bridget.  Molly, she too let
s Patrick spank her?”

“I know.  T
hat’s the hardest to understand
for me too.  Molly is so
kind and gentle and Patrick is s
o loving.  It’s hard to imagine Patrick doing…that to Molly.  Plus she’s the only one who would see it coming and have time to get away, at least till he calmed down.  I tell you Tess
,
I
just don’t
get it and when I get ready to start seriously looking for a husband I plan to look far away from here,” she finished with a delicate shudder.

“I see,” Tess said quietly, her hands folded in her lap.

“What I’m trying to warn you about is… if you think you could live that kind of lifestyle, domestic discipline, it’s called, then you should stick around and see if your feelings for Rory grow stronger.  If not, girl you better run like hell because I think my brother has feelings for you as well and I’ll tell you now I’ll bet he would be the strictest of them all.”

Tess swallowed with difficulty.  She had been asking herself these same questions.  The spanking in the park could have been an isolated incident based on Rory’s fear that she had put herself in da
nger.  Now that she had two
spanking
s
under her belt, she didn’t think so.  The way he spoke to her about
defying him
, the words that were a
natural part of his speech, such as
misbehaving and minding him, obeying him.  These led her to believe he really saw the world that way and he had a very clear vision of her place in it as submissive to him.  If it could include something as simple as a haircut, then it meant he
wanted her submission
in all things. 
Could she do that?  Could she be the woman he wanted, obedient?