“Well,” Ariadne said with a slight smirk at Ayla’s insensate form. “It’s good to make a worthy entrance.”
“You have not been dead at all, have you,” Kira said accusingly, wrapping a sheet over her naked body in the pursuit of modesty. She did Ayla a similar favor, tossing the coverlet over the witch’s ample curves.
“Nothing and nobody dies, Kira,” Ariadne said in tones which were just shy of testy. “It is a persistent illusion at best.”
Strangely, Anna couldn’t pull her own pants and panties down. Physically she could, but baring herself for Tamsan’s little disciplinary scenario was somehow too difficult. It was only a game, of course. This wasn’t really about being in real trouble… so why did she feel so damn tingly all over, so small and so vulnerable?
“I’ll help,” Tamsan said, putting her hands on Anna’s hips and drawing the fabric down over her bottom. There was a rush of cool air, followed by warmth as Tamsan laid her palm across bare cheeks.
“That feels nice,” Anna wriggled her cheeks back and forth beneath Tamsan’s palm. Tamsan’s hand slid back and forth, caressing gently with a tender care that didn’t seem to indicate any impending intention to impart discomfort.
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“Sure you can,” Tamsan pressed a kissed to the same cheek, replacing the tears with the butterfly soft touch of her lips. “And if you don’t, well I’ll whip your behind until you do.”
Anna looked up to see if she was joking. The kindly look in Tamsan’s eye told her that she was.
“You’ve had enough for one day,” she said reassuringly. “Let’s just go inside, actually eat something and talk, okay?”
That sounded good, which made Anna burst into tears.
“I don’t deserve you to be so nice!”
“Yes, you do,” Tamsan reassured her. “You’ll feel better once you eat. You barely touched dinner.”
Putting one arm on her hip whilst keeping a firm hold of the lash with her other, Tamsan explained. “Nothing’s wrong with me. I just don’t take kindly to mouthy brats thinking they can say what they like without consequences. You’ve been picking at me all day, missy.”
The last part was true. Anna had been at Tamsan all day, but she hadn’t expected any real retaliation. Certainly not with her pants down.
“Is this how people deal with disagreements where you’re from?”
“If we were dealing with this the way people deal with it where I’m from, your little ass would be bright red and you’d be standing in the corner until I said otherwise.”
“Oh, so you come from the dark ages,” Anna snapped. “Need help finding your way back to your time machine?” Continue reading
“Well…” Anna was about to launch into a tirade of her own, but Tamsan cut her off.
“Get on the horse before you get in trouble, cowgirl.”
Following her better judgment, Anna mounted up again. What followed was a bunch of riding, a bunch more looking at cows and an ache in her butt that left her very ill-tempered and slow to respond to Tamsan’s increasingly curt instructions. They were getting on one another’s nerves and Anna was really quite surprised when Tamsan asked her back to her place at the end of the day.
“You want me to come over?”
“Mhm,” Tamsan sat erect in the saddle, looking down at Anna with an enigmatic expression. “I think you and I better spend some time together tonight.”
“If you say so.” Anna shrugged and sloped off to get a shower. It wasn’t the most gracious way to accept an invitation, but she was tired and grumpy and all out of polite. Continue reading
“Wake up,” Tamsan nudged Anna out of sleep. It was a tactical error, for if there was one thing Anna liked less than getting up in the morning, it was being woken before sunrise.
“What?”
“We need to get to work.”
“You need to get to work. I need to get at least three hours more sleep.” Anna pulled the covers over her head. Tamsan pulled them back down.
“You need to get up,” she insisted. “The cattle need to be…”
“You deal with it,” Anna said, tugging the blankets back up again.
“I’ll deal with you.” Tamsan’s tone had turned a bit grim. Continue reading
Under the flow of the water, Anna let her fingers drift between her thighs as she leaned back against the shower wall. The detachable shower head was in her other hand, directed towards the sensitive mound, beating with hot wet intensity over her mons. Her fingers did the rest, sliding inside her body where a different kind of moisture was brimming. She did not waste time teasing herself as Tamsan would. She pleasured herself with abandon, thrusting her fingers inside her body as the water drummed on her clit. Orgasm followed quickly, leaving her wet and sleepy. She fixed that by drying herself off and taking a nap.
The nap was eventually interrupted by Tamsan, who must have taken a shower herself, for she was naked and still slightly damp when Anna became aware of her presence. Continue reading
“Hey.” Tamsan interrupted Anna’s circuit of anger. “I reckon it’s time to get out of the office,” she announced. “Leave the monies for another time. We’re going to work on that gelding of yours.”
“Tex?”
“He needs a few lessons in manners. Way he rides it’s only a matter of time before he bucks you off, and personally, I don’t want to see that cute butt of yours in the dirt.”
“You’re welcome to try,” Anna said, scratching her chin. “I don’t think he’ll work for anyone besides my dad. He was always dad’s favorite. And I guess dad was his. The ranch hands won’t ride him.”
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The alrightness of things was debatable. The next day Anna sat with a cup of strong coffee and a pounding headache and went over the last half-decades worth of numbers. They weren’t good. Or rather, they were okay, but there was something hinky about them.
“Tamsan!”
Tamsan poked her head around the door. “Need help?”
“Do these numbers look even remotely right to you?” Anna pushed the ledger across the table and leaned back in her father’s creaky old chair. Continue reading
Somewhere in the midst of the conversation, Anna found herself being coaxed into Tamsan’s truck. She was too far gone to operate the seat belt so Tamsan did it for her. It was nice, Tamsan’s capable, able hands moving over her body with a touch that wasn’t exactly erotic in intent, but which Anna managed to interpret that way regardless.
“You’re so fucking hot,” she slurred as Tamsan leaned over her.
“Glad you think so,” Tamsan said, clicking the seat belt into place. “Let’s get you home.”
“The stars are so pretty,” Anna said whimsically as they drove. “They were never pretty back in the city. They were just little twinkly winklies all far away. Here they’re close. Here I can eat the moon.” Continue reading
Much later that evening Anna sat by herself at a table in the corner of the saloon, drinking what a Britisher would have called her third pint. She was drunk, but not quite drunk enough to wash away the cares of the day. The fight with Tamsan, the firing of a hand, the dismissal of the longest serving employee of Sun Ranch. If she was going to run the place into the ground, at least she’d do it quickly.
“Hello, Sunshine.”
Anna looked up to see a most unlikely lady standing next to her. Tamsan. Great. Now they were going to have a fight too. It was the right sort of night for it, at least.
“What do you want?”
“Just saying hello.” Tamsan smiled her pretty smile and sat down without being asked. “You seem out of sorts.” Continue reading
“Now hold on,” Rex said, finally finding his voice. “Tom there’s a good hand, and we’re short handed as it is…”
“Then maybe you should have kept him under control,” Anna said. “I won’t tolerate cussing and I won’t tolerate shots and you ought to know that.”
Rex looked stunned. All the hands did. There was a silence during which Anna felt very much at a disadvantage.
“Apologize to the lady,” Rex finally said. “And we’ll get on with the drenching.”
“No,” Anna insisted. “It’s too late for apologies. Take your bad attitude and get off my property. Now.”
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