Savage Impulses (3 page)

“That was a dangerous fool stunt that you
pulled,” he said finally. “You could have gotten yourself killed,
you could have broken one of Tamu's legs.”

She was silent as he helped her up. She moved
stiffly. The brush of her garments against her rear made her
flinch. He hadn't spanked her hard enough to make her limp, but she
knew that she would only be sitting with care for the next few
days.

“Stupid horse,” she muttered as he helped her
back to the house.

Instead of making him angry, the comment only
made Jake laugh.

There was suddenly something more than a
little wild about the way he pulled her around again. For a moment,
she thought he meant to drag her back to the fence for another
session and tears welled up in her eyes. Instead, she realized that
he was pulling her towards the horse.

“She's a fine horse,” he whispered in her
ear.

His hot breath against the sensitive skin of
her ear and neck made her gasp, sending tingles straight down.

“Here, I'll show you.” He swung up on the
horse and, in a moment, hauled her up with him.

Marigold yelled when her rear connected with
the hard saddle. Before she could collect herself, Jake had
whistled again and the horse was off like a gunshot.

Marigold clamped her mouth shut over a scream
as the horse lunged into motion and the ground started speeding
away beneath them. She had only ever ridden on the backs of placid
ponies before this, and now she could tell that Tamu was in another
class entirely.

They raced across the prairie, and she got
fleeting impressions of red cattle browsing placidly in the fields
and of tall grass that swayed in the wind. In a heartbeat, she went
from pain and fear to delight.

At her laugh, Jake started laughing as well.
After a little while, he pulled Tamu to a halt at a small pond that
was almost hidden in the grass.

When she turned to look at him, she realized
that he was even more handsome when he was smiling.

“Still think she's a stupid horse?” he asked,
breathless from their ride.

Marigold shook her head, their hard words
from earlier forgotten, and the moment stretched between them. The
early morning prairie was perfectly still. In that peaceful moment,
the first that she had had in far too long, she could feel
something in herself open up. She was aware of everything from the
way his strong arms came around her to the way that her rear still
stung from the spanking to the fact that his breath had abruptly
caught behind her.

Timidly, she pressed back against him,
enjoying the feeling but a little frightened of what came next. For
a moment, thoughts of men like Black and the drunken cowboys of
Langtry threatened to overwhelm her, but then her body took in the
warmth and reality of Jake behind her. Even the lush throbbing of
her bottom made her sigh. It wasn't even a pain any more. It was
just a sensation that told her that she wanted more.

She eased back against him more fully, and
now she could feel that he was far from unaffected by their ride
and her closeness. She knew what happened between men and women.
She had heard it described as a duty and even a horror, but
thoughts of both now fell out of her head. She couldn't stop
trembling as the fear and stress of the morning shed from her body,
and she realized that all she could feel was want.

Jake whispered a quiet command to his
horse.

Underneath them, Marigold could feel Tamu
lock her legs. It would take more than a mountain to move the
stubborn animal.

Jake dropped the reins to place both hands
tentatively around Marigold's waist.

“You're playing a dangerous little game right
now,” he warned her. “Maybe seeing as you're so unspoiled, you
don't know that.”

She ignored the biting tone in his voice. All
she cared about right now was how good his lean body felt against
her back. For the first time in what felt like ages, she felt safe,
as if the storms of the Atlantic and a fearful journey west might
have brought her at least to a safe harbor. She sighed as she
shifted against him again.

“I want...” Her voice was as soft as a
sigh.

Jake laughed hoarsely in her ear.

She couldn't help but think there was
something kind about his laugh as his hands grew more firm on her
corseted waist. She had lost the horse blanket somewhere in their
mad ride, and now she was only wearing the rags that Black had
given her. Even through the canvas and whale bone, she could feel
the warmth and the strength of his hands. When they came up to
close over her half-bare breasts, she whimpered with achingly new
desire.

“I know what you want, little darling,” he
whispered in her ear.

The ticklish sensations deepened to pure
pleasure when he nibbled her lobe gently, taking it between his
teeth to pull. At the same time, one hand drifted up to stroke her
neck with sweet care, making her sigh and moan for something she
couldn't name. “Yes,” she murmured. “I want you, I do want
you.”

As if her soft words had opened something in
him, his teeth grew sharper and his grip on her more tight.

His actions should have frightened her, but
instead, they only made her press back against him more.

His fingers tapped lightly on her corset.
“Undo this for me,” he whispered, a challenge in his voice.

At first, Marigold was shocked by the idea of
doing such a thing, of being so bare to the world, but abruptly,
she needed to be done with rules and disapproving eyes. There was
no one here but Jake, and he was the only person she cared to
please.

With trembling fingers, she unhooked the
front of her corset, breathing a little easier when it was free. As
she let it drop to the ground, his dark hands came up to cup her
tender breasts. When she glanced down, the contrast between them
was striking. As she watched, one of those hands left her breast
and crept down her belly.

After a moment of, he slipped his hand under
the waistband of her skirt.

“Jake...!”

“Shhh, this is exactly what you want,
darling,” he murmured in her ear. “I can tell...”

She might have protested more, but when his
fingers found the hair between her legs and the surprising wetness
beneath, she realized he was right. She leaned back against him.
The splay of her legs to either side of Tamu's flanks gave him
access to the most sensitive part of her.

Late at night, under the covers, Marigold had
touched herself there before. She had touched shyly and nervously,
understanding instinctively that what she did was not meant to be
shared with anyone. Her fumbling was nothing compared to Jake's
confident strokes.

His insistent touch soon sent tremors down
her legs, and she reached back and latched her hands onto his
thighs, digging her nails in so deep that he grunted.

“Little hellcat likes that, huh?” he growled
in her ear. Far too soon, he pulled his hand away.

“No,” she whimpered, tilting her head up to
look at him pleadingly. “Please don't stop, that was... I
was...”

“Don't worry,” he said soothingly. “I have
something that you're going to like so much better...” His strong
hands caught her around the waist.

She yelped as she was lifted free of the
horse, her legs dangling for a moment before she was turned and
resettled.
God above, he's strong
, she thought blindly
before she realized that she was even closer to him than she had
been before. Her legs were draped over his thighs, and she was
being supported by his strong hands, one at her back, and one
tucked under her still-aching rear.

“Can you feel how much I want you?” he
whispered intently, looking up into her eyes.

She could. His cock was hard between them,
separated from her hot slit merely by a layer of denim and her own
thin silk skirt.

“I can,” she moaned. “I can, and I want it,
please...”

He made a victorious noise that was nearly a
growl, and he reached down to tear at his own jeans while lifting
at her skirt.

Completely lost to the sensations she was
feeling, she reached down to help him, holding her skirt clear and
stroking his hard body wherever she could reach it. She felt a
moment of fear when she felt the smooth blunt head butting at her
opening. Memories of brutal men and crying girls battered at her
thoughts, but when Jake slid into her, so smooth and sleek, those
visions were banished. He moved slow, and, when her eyes fluttered
open, she could see the tension in his face and the concern as
well.

“Yes?” he asked softly.

Placing both her hands on his broad
shoulders, she nodded. “Yes,” she whispered. “Yes, please...”

With barely restrained fury, he started to
thrust up into her.

There was no pain, there was only a searing
heat that made her want more and more. She could hear her own voice
echoing over the prairie, barely human anymore it was so filled
with lust and longing.

She could feel how wet she was and how
sleekly he moved inside her. She was tight but there was no pain at
all. There was only opening to him, fitting him perfectly. Her
hands found their way to his loose thick hair. When she pulled on
it, he reared back and kissed her fiercely at the base of the neck,
licking and sucking until she thought she would faint from the
sensation.

She could feel a deep pressure building up
between them, something so much greater than the frail pleasures
she had gotten from her own fumbling hand, and it almost frightened
her. She started to draw back, but he took a harder hold of her
hips. His grasp pressed against her tender rear, making her push
towards him again, and the pleasure that gave her was almost
dizzying.

“No,” he muttered. “Don't pull away. You want
this. Let me give it to you.”

With a soft sob, she collapsed against
him.

He thrust into her hard, his strokes swift
and steady.

She could feel the pressure building up again
as she gave herself up to the sensations.

With a muffled swear, he pressed his hand
between them again to force his fingers against that sensitive spot
that he had found previously.

Between the thrust of his hard cock and his
skilled fingers, she was rocking back and forth, torn between
vicious sensations. She ware barely aware that she was in broad
daylight, that she was still mounted on a horse or that the man she
was riding was one she had only met yesterday.

“Please!” she cried out, and then it was like
an earthquake had taken hold of her body. She couldn't control how
she shook or how she clung to him. All she could do was shake and
quiver as her climax took her hard and fast. It was the most
consuming feeling that she had ever experienced, and it went on and
on.

The tremors passed over her. Just when she
was coming out of them, Jake's movements quickened and became more
erratic as well.

He thrust deep into her one last time,
shouting hoarsely, and then he was still, his hands draped around
her waist and his head pressed to her breast.

Marigold found her arms wrapped around his
shoulders, and she pressed her cheek to the top of his head. She
loved the smell of him, she realized.

He chuckled hoarsely. “How're you doing?” he
asked quietly.

Her own laugh was thin and shaky. “Good,” she
murmured. Perhaps she should have felt shy, but there was nothing
between them now to feel shy about.

Now that the act was over, she was aware of a
certain tenderness between her legs. She flinched when he pulled
out of her, doing up the buttons of his fly, and he even looked a
trifle guilty.

“Come on,” he said. “I suppose you want to
get cleaned up.

He slid down from the horse and lifted her
down after, catching her when she would have fallen down.

On wobbly legs, she made it to the shores of
the pond where she looked back at him quizzically. “I'm going to
wash,” she said tentatively.

Less than an arm's length away, he nodded, a
lazy grin on his face.

When it became obvious that he wasn't going
to move, she realized that she would have to clean herself in front
of him. Even in light of everything else they had done, even if she
was completely bare from the waist up, the thought made her flush.
She would be lying, however, if there wasn't a bit of appeal to it
at all, and she knelt down on the grassy bank.

She cupped handfuls of cool water in her hand
and dribbled it over her face first, watching him out of the corner
of her eye. He was definitely interested as the water dripped down
the slopes of her breasts, and she grinned.

Slowly, she cupped the water in her hands
again, and, flipping up her skirt, she poured it between her legs.
There was a sensual luxury to it that she had never felt before. As
the water ran over her slit, washing away her own juices and his
seed, she closed her eyes, simply enjoying the sensation of the
water on her most intimate parts.

Marigold yelped when an iron-hard hand closed
around her wrist and pulled her roughly to her feet.

Jake was a man with moods that could change
faster than the unpredictable weather of the prairie.

She could see a darkness on his face that was
at odds with his earlier gentleness.

He held up her clean hand, inspecting it
carefully, and then looked at her.

“No blood,” he said.

She realized what he was implying.

“I was a virgin,” she hissed, stung. “I
was
.”

“Virgins bleed,” he said, dropping her hand
in disgust. “You seemed just fine to me.”

“Some don't,” she retorted. “I worked for a
living, Mr. Sloan, even before I came to the shores of this
benighted country, you see? I worked, I walked, I ran, I rode
carriage ponies with my friends who worked in stables. I could have
lost that little bit of blood anywhere.”