Fetching Charlotte Rose (13 page)
Read Fetching Charlotte Rose Online
Authors: Amelia Smarts
“The next time I’m captured by a raving lunatic, I expect you two to bring the marshal, not come alone to rescue me. Got it?”
Tim leaned back in his chair, folded his arms in front of his chest, and glowered at Max.
“I believe I already told you about the note,” Charlotte said tersely, matching Tim’s defiant attitude. “Simon said he would kill you if we brought the marshal.”
“Goddamn it, Charlie. You think he would’ve
not
killed me as a way to say thanks for being so obedient? If you wanted to pay mind to Simon’s note and not bring the marshal, you could have at least brought a man. Blazes! A woman and a boy, rescuing me. Of all the nonsense. I would never have forgiven myself if…” Max rubbed his forehead, growing more agitated. “My god, the things he said he would do, I can’t remember if they were part of my nightmares when I was passed out or if he really did say them.”
Charlotte touched his arm. “Max, my love?” she said gently.
“What, darlin’?” he responded, his voice fraught with anxiety and frustration.
She waited a few moments before speaking, and the only noise they heard in that time was the ticking of the clock. When she answered, she spoke softly. “I did bring a man—a brave one. And Tim brought a capable woman. We’re brave and capable partly because of you, because you’ve always believed in the both of us.”
Max frowned at her, then shifted his gaze to Tim, who regarded him with narrowed eyes that dared him to disagree. Max groaned and ran his hand around the beard growing on his face. “I hear you, Charlie,” he said finally.
Tim’s glower turned into a smug smile at Max’s subtle admission. He stood. “Speaking of, I have brave, manly things to do. Like goin’ on a picnic with the seamstress and her daughter that I was invited to when I delivered the hangers. I’ll be off unless you have anything else to yell at me about, Max, in addition to saving your life.”
Max got the sheepish look on his face that Charlotte secretly found adorable.
“I reckon anything else can wait until after your picnic,” Max said gruffly. “And if you bring me one of Marta’s sweet rolls, I’ll forget the whole thing.”
Tim grinned. He said goodbye and left the cabin. Charlotte and Max ate their lunch in silence. When they finished, Charlotte cleared the dishes off the table and washed them in the basin. She stopped scrubbing when she felt Max’s arms wrap around her. He held her gently against his chest and kissed the side of her neck.
“So,” he said in a deep voice close to her ear. “My wife thinks it’s acceptable to put herself in danger on my behalf, does she?” He peppered her neck and ear with soft kisses.
“Yes,” she squeaked.
He nipped her earlobe. “I disagree. You must be punished for that.”
“Max, that’s not fair. I don’t think—”
“It doesn’t matter what you think.” His kisses became more demanding as they traveled over her shoulder. “I decide what’s acceptable and what isn’t,” he said in between nips and kisses.
Charlotte whimpered with desire. He released her all at once, and she whimpered again when her body lost contact with his.
“Meet me in the bedroom for your punishment, young lady,” he said before he left the room.
A wave of arousal washed over her body at the same time her mind protested the injustice of being punished for helping her husband. She slowly dried her hands. Taking a deep breath, she walked into the bedroom to find Max seated on the edge of the bed. He regarded her with his fierce eyes. “Over my lap, wife.”
“But Max, you shouldn’t exert yourself. You’ve been injured. Your wrists—”
“My wrists are fine enough to tan your hide.”
Charlotte proceeded to provide him with her next excuse. “I didn’t do anything wrong by coming for you. I don’t deserve punishment.”
“Are you going to make me come get you?”
Charlotte’s temper flared at his refusal to reason. “Something happened to your head when it got hit, Max. You’re addled.”
“One.”
She stomped her foot. “You’re intolerable!”
“Two.”
“Just how high are you going to count to?”
“Three.”
“Very good, Max. You should teach math to my students.”
He let out a growl and pounced. She squealed as he dragged her to the bed and dropped her on top of it. He straddled her. “Just for that, you’re going to be fully naked when I redden your disobedient, impertinent bottom,” he informed her with a mischievous glint in his eye. He proceeded to tear the dress off her body.
Charlotte watched his face with no small amount of awe as he stripped her with deft hands. When she lay naked on the bed, her clothes in a heap in a corner of the room, he captured a nipple in his mouth and flicked it with his tongue. He fondled her other breast, squeezing and pinching until she arched into his touch.
He removed his mouth from her breast to say, “My wife has a hard time obeying, doesn’t she?”
He didn’t wish to hear an answer because he kissed her when she tried to speak. The warmth of his mouth sent a current through her, and she reached up to wrap her arms around his neck. He grabbed each of her wrists and pinned them high above her head on the bed.
His lips unlocked from hers. “My wife must learn how I feel about a few things.” Max lifted himself off of her and sat on the edge of the bed again. “And she must learn them over my lap. This instant.”
Charlotte sighed and crawled to the position he wished her to take. She felt his cock pressing into her stomach and she squirmed a little over it, knowing it would drive him crazy.
“That’s dangerous, my love,” he rumbled.
His hand settled on her bottom and slowly stroked around the curve to the apex of her legs. He felt the slick proof of her desire. “Mm, naughty girl.” He planted a swat on her left cheek. It wasn’t a gentle swat, but it wasn’t hard either.
“That’s for disobeying me when I told you to come to me for punishment.” He rubbed the place where he’d swatted before bringing his hand down on her other cheek. “And that’s for calling me intolerable. I prefer darling.”
Charlotte moaned. The two swats had sent jolts of pleasure to the lowest part of her tummy.
Spank.
“That’s for saving my life.” His hand ran down one of her long legs and back up, then smacked her again. “That’s for being brave in the face of danger on more than one occasion.”
“Oh, Max,” Charlotte sighed.
She understood finally. This was her husband’s way of thanking her for rescuing him despite his displeasure over how it happened. Her eyes filled with tears. Max spanked her mildly for many things, including how smart she was, how fetching she looked in her impractical dresses, and how cute she was when she stormed about sassing him. She laughed and cried over each ridiculous reason for being punished.
He landed one final hard swat and said sternly, “That’s for being so damn loveable, Charlotte. It’s hard on a man’s heart, you know.”
She choked out a laugh through her emotional tears. He lifted her, then pushed her to the middle of the bed, shucked off his clothes, and lay down with her. He pulled her into his arms and kissed her soundly. Charlotte wrapped her arms around his neck and met his passionate kiss with one of her own. When their lips unlocked, he moved his kisses south, starting from between her breasts down to her bellybutton.
“You didn’t have to spank me,” she said. “You could have just said thank you.”
He moved his kisses to between her legs and licked along her slit up to her engorged bundle of nerves. “That wouldn’t have made you this wet, naughty girl.”
He teased her clit with his tongue until her desire grew to massive heights. “Come for me, darlin’,” he said. She shattered, arching her back and grasping the quilt with both hands as she did.
Breathing hard after her moans of release, she threaded her fingers through his hair. “I came for you,” she said breathlessly.
“I know you did, darlin’.” He moved his body over hers and looked deeply into her eyes. “Thanks for coming for me, my love.”
Charlotte smiled, understanding the double meaning of his words. Her hips thrust forward as he invaded her core. He took her hard and fast, with both love and fury, grasping her hips to drive himself into her. Just as she was about to come again, he pulled out and flipped her around to take her pussy from behind. He landed hard swats on her sore cheeks as he ravished her, and she moaned at the pain and pleasure his body brought hers. She understood that this was both reward and punishment that he was inflicting, his feelings of love and consternation clear in every movement.
“You’re mine,” he growled in her ear. “And you will obey me and keep yourself safe from now on. Yeah?”
“Mm hmm,” she moaned in the affirmative. He cracked his palm against her right cheek to drive the message home. She came again in that moment. He held fast to her shoulder and rode her fast and hard until his desire built and he erupted. Groaning, he came deep inside of her.
After, Charlotte lay in Max’s arms in a state of perfect happiness. She fell asleep thinking about the day that they met, the day he’d first come for her, and how lucky she was that he had.
Epilogue
Simon died in prison during the time that Tim attended college in New York. Following his graduation, Tim became a lawyer and one of the founders of the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NYSPCC), the first-ever agency devoted entirely to child protection. News of the NYSPCC spread, and soon some three hundred child protection associations were scattered across America. Tim left New York and founded one of the societies in Tucson in 1904.
While away at college, Tim kept in close contact with Max and Charlotte, and also with the seamstress’s daughter, Clara. Tim and Clara married and settled in Tucson, a two-day journey by buggy from Max’s and Charlotte’s home in Weston, and much less than that when Tim bought Max and himself Ford automobiles in 1907.
Charlotte gave birth to five children over the years, three girls and two boys, the eldest of which joined Max in his trade, which by then had evolved from blacksmithing to all but entirely carpentry. His son possessed a unique talent for art and design, so they not only built quality furniture using Max’s talents, but also breakthroughs in style using his son’s. Their furniture became widely popular and replicated for years to come.
Charlotte’s mother came to live with Max and Charlotte a couple of years after they married, and the arrangement couldn’t have worked out better for everyone. Charlotte’s mother escaped her unkind husband, and Charlotte’s and Max’s children gained a doting grandmother who minded them when Charlotte taught classes in Weston.
The love Max and Charlotte felt for each other only grew, as did the amount of time Charlotte spent over Max’s lap. She never fully lost her stubborn pride, but it was kept in check, since neither did her husband lose the firmness in his right hand or the willingness to smack it across his wife’s bottom when warranted.
All turned out well for Max, Charlotte, Tim, and the friends and family who surrounded them. They loved, laughed, and flourished, and they owed it all to one simple errand that Max accepted, and that was the not entirely unpleasant task of fetching Charlotte Rose.
The End
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Table of Contents
Chapter Five: Obedience Required
Chapter Seven: Charlotte’s Secret
Chapter Nine: What Simon Wants
Chapter Ten: Patience Required
Chapter Eleven: Not Your Fight
Chapter Twelve: Brave Man, Capable Woman
Table of Contents
Chapter Five: Obedience Required
Chapter Seven: Charlotte’s Secret
Chapter Nine: What Simon Wants
Chapter Ten: Patience Required
Chapter Eleven: Not Your Fight