The Marshal's Rebellious Bride (30 page)

But as soon as she’d begun kissing him back, he pulled
away, breathing raggedly.

“Turn around and lean over the bed,” he said gruffly.

“Morgan, no. Please. I don’t want to be spanked,” she
protested.

“I’m sure you don’t.” His expression remained
determined, even though his eyes remained heated.

“You can be so stubborn.” She hesitated and finally
did as he’d said. At least she turned around, but she didn’t lean over.

He gently pushed her down until her palms met the
mattress. “And you’re not?”

All right,
they
were
pretty much a match
when it came to being stubborn. She
didn’t like standing vulnerable like this, especially not when she’d rather he
be holding her, kissing her.

“You should have obeyed me, about staying in bed.” He
lifted her long nightgown and placed it on her back.

“I was feeling fine.” Maybe she was still a
light-headed, but he didn’t need to know that.

He snorted in clear disbelief. Then he pulled her
drawers apart to bare her bottom. “I won’t spank you long, but I am going to
spank you.”

She wasn’t sure why she didn’t just climb into bed.
She doubted that he would pull her back and spank her if she finally did as he
asked. But she was too annoyed with him for having stayed away and now for
showing up and thinking he could tell her what to do. She wanted to show him
she would stand by her decisions. Clearly this hadn’t been a wise decision,
this choosing to disobey him.

The first swat landed with an attention-getting force.
She yelped. No, she should have stayed in bed.

“I honestly don’t know why I love you so damn much,”
Morgan grouched, sending another sharp swat to her bottom. “You’re a lot of
trouble sometimes.”

She hissed at the sting, but it was his words that she
latched onto. “You really love me?” she asked, turning her head to look at him.
She wished she hadn’t when she saw him sending his big hand flying down again.

When it landed hard, she danced up on her toes. “
This
is loving me?”

“Damn right it is.” He met her gaze grimly. “Turn
away.”

She focused ahead once more, lowered her head and
gritted her teeth. She absolutely didn’t want to watch him spank her. But the
rebel in her hadn’t wanted to obey him on this either.

His hand landed briskly several more times and she
jerked each time. Her marshal sure could give a devil of a spanking. She
protested, “What happened to not spanking me too long?”

Fool man chuckled. At the same time he smacked her
wriggling bottom with another sizzling swat. “It won’t be much longer,
Angelina.”

She muttered under her breath, “I have trouble seeing
how
this
is loving me.”

“It’s just one of the ways I’ll show you how much I
love you. A more painful way, granted.” Then to annoy her, he stopped and
smoothed a hand over her throbbing bottom.

Tears were threatening to spill out and she sniffed
them back in irritation. “Stop that. If you’re spanking me, do that.” She
glowered back at him where his hand still rested on her sore butt. “If you’re
going to touch me like that…”

He drew in a shuddery breath and blinked back to the
moment. “Spanking it is, then.”

Next time she would try to keep her mouth shut and not
antagonize
him. It didn’t bode well for her poor
bottom. She concentrated on standing as still as she could and taking the rest
of his “brief spanking.”

By the time he finished painfully showing her his
love, she promised to stay in bed for at least another day.

He gently helped her into bed and she settled on her
stomach, annoyed at having to do so. “You don’t expect me thank you, do you?”
She wasn’t going to do it.

“No.” Then he fingered her much shorter hair and
sighed, “I’d like to kill Marino all over again for what he did to you.”

She softened her heart a bit as he continued to play
with her hair. She almost rolled over, decided against it, but then looked back
at him. She asked warily, “I need to know, Morgan. Are you turning in your
badge or not? I’m heart tired of you refusing to talk about it.”

He didn’t answer at first and then said grimly, “I’ve
done some serious thinking these last couple of days.” He closed his eyes for a
second and heaved a sigh. “Worrying over Marino coming after me had me worrying
about other enemies I’ve made doing the same thing. How can I marry you and
risk putting you in danger? How can I stay here with Tyler and risk putting him
in danger?”

Her heart nearly stopped. “So you’re not marrying me.”
She struggled with the words.

He shook his head. “I can’t. I love you damn much to
do it.”

Stunned, she rolled over, winced. “But…”

His shoulders stiffened and he turned and strode
toward the door. He hesitated. “I’ll make arrangements to sell you the ranch.”

Chapter
Twelve

True to his word, two days later Morgan sent papers to
sell her the ranch via Taos, who had been furious with his former trail
partner. She’d promptly shredded them into tiny pieces and ordered her brother
to throw them at Morgan. The stubborn marshal had found a room to stay in at
the Great Western hotel. He hadn’t left town yet to return to Texas like he’d
told her. Nor had he sent any kind of telegram to the U.S. Marshal’s office,
from what she’d been able to find out and she seemed to have spies everywhere.
Everyone in town was upset with him for backing out of the wedding, especially
her. But she’d told the reverend to keep things as planned in case the marshal
came to his senses. She didn’t know what the heck Morgan was doing, but she was
surely mad at him.

Now on this day before her supposed wedding Tyler had
come to see her with Chase, who had come
againto
check on
Brandy
. She wasn’t sure what was going on
between them, but she had enough problems of her own at the moment. She was
darn tired of tossing and turning at night only to wake up and have her heart
hurt so painfully that she burst into tears. And she’d been losing weight
because she couldn’t eat.

Well, she was done with this nonsense with Morgan. It
was time to make
her
stand.

She had been brushing down the camel,
who
was trying to resist as always, and mulling over her
problems while Tyler sat in the dirt nearby. As so many times before, he was
holding Morgan, the skunk, and lovingly stroking its back. They were going to
greatly miss each other. Even more important she was going to miss the boy. She
decided it was time to share her frustrations with him.

“Your father is an impossible man. Stubborn.
Impossible. Oh, I already said that, didn’t I? But he is, impossible, I mean.”

He looked at her with eyes so like his father’s now
filled with misery. “He’s been grouching all over town. People steer clear of
him, including your brothers. Maybe especially your brothers.”

“I don’t want him taking you away. I love you like my
own.”

She stomped her foot and stirred up a small cloud of
dust. “Damn his sorry hide.”

Tyler blinked at her show of temper and his hand
stilled on the skunk’s back. “I was looking forward to you being my new ma.
It’s so unfair.” He swallowed hard and she saw tears shimmering in his eyes.
“It’s not like he plans on being with me when we leave here.”

“What do you mean?” Of course she already knew what he
figured to do, but she’d hoped maybe, just maybe, she’d been wrong.

Tyler gazed up at her and for the first time since
she’d known him, he looked truly angry. “He’ll just dump me with Uncle Chase at
the ranch back in Texas. ‘Course I like being with Uncle Chase. Still, I’ve
been
wanting
to have Pa stick around, looking forward
to it. Won’t happen, though. He’s still wearing that damn badge.” He thrust his
chin out. “I’d rather stay here with you.”

She was so mad at Morgan that she would have burned
his ears if he’d been anywhere close. Which would make
him
mad and he’d probably toss her over his knee for a spanking.
Right now she’d take a spanking if he’d just come to his senses. They belonged
together, her, Morgan and
their
son.

While she was in the midst of her spell of anger,
Chase walked toward the corral with Brandy at his side. “We’d best get back to
town, Tyler. I was telling Brandy that you and I will head back to Texas in
a—”

That did it! She threw down the brush and the camel
sped in relief to the other end of the corral. She snapped, “You will
not
! I’m tired of all this nonsense.”

She marched to the fence, stopped nose-to-chest with
him and looked up. “You go tell that idiot brother of yours that I
will be
at that church tomorrow as
planned. You tell him that he’d better show up, too.”

She glanced at Tyler as he walked cautiously toward
her. “You tell Morgan if he doesn’t get himself to the church and say his vows
to me, he’s not seeing his son ever again.
I’m
keeping him.”

Both Chase and Brandy gaped at her as if she’d lost
her mind, which maybe she had. She crossed her arms over her chest. “I’m
holding Tyler hostage. You tell him that, too.”

Chase looked incredulous. “You can’t do that.”

“You really want me so bad?” Tyler stepped to her side
and appeared hopeful. “You’d still marry my Pa? After how he’s been acting?”

She blew out a breath of frustration. “I’m clearly
crazy, but yes, to all of that.”

When Chase continued to look concerned, Brandy added
her backing, “You heard what my sister said. You go talk sense to that idiot
brother of yours.”

She smiled at Whiskey and Tyler. “Because
we—
Whiskey and I—are holding
Tyler hostage.”

He walked off frowning and mumbling about crazy women,
but he didn’t even make an attempt to take Tyler with him when he rode back to
town.

* * *

Morgan sat in a chair outside the Great Western hotel,
silent, angry, alone. There wasn’t a person in town brave enough to come
anywhere near him these days, including Taos. But then Taos was pretty damn mad
at him for changing his mind about marrying Whiskey. And Morgan was angry with
the fool woman for sending those legal documents back to him all torn to bits.
Why the hell had she done that? She’d told him from the moment she arrived back
in town that she wanted to own the whole ranch, not share it with anyone.
Especially with him.
Besides, he had no use for the place
anymore. That dream was done blown to hell and back.

He tipped his hat lower against the sun as his mood
darkened another notch. Fine. He’d keep his part ownership of the ranch, but it
didn’t mean he planned to live there ever again. He had the family ranch down
in Texas now to deal with as well.
Although not for long.
Chase and he’d already talked about it. Chase would take it over; all Morgan
wanted in return was for him to raise Tyler there.

An ache centered in his chest.
Tyler
. He was letting the boy down again. But he had to do things
this way; he had to keep him safe…Whiskey, too. There were just too many men
who might come after him, like Marino had done. He didn’t want to take the
chance that next time someone he loved would die because of him.

He glanced down the boardwalk toward the Dusty Trails,
then
looked toward the Varieties Dance Hall where he’d
found her dancing that fancy French dance. He’d made damn sure she would think
twice before she ever did something like that again. Then he thought about her
racing down Front Street, how he’d feared his heart would stop from worrying
about her risking her fool neck. He’d burned her butt for that little foolish
act as well. And then he’d marched her right down to the dressmaker’s shop to
get her fitted for a wedding dress. Who would be watching after her now? Who
would spank her soundly when she needed it? Her brothers had already moved to
town, so they wouldn’t be watching after her as carefully as was needed.

That ache around his heart became more intense and he
reached up to rub at it. Hell, he was going to miss this town and these people
who’d eventually looked past his frowns to become friendly with him. Mostly,
though, he was going to miss Whiskey when he finally decided to head down to
Texas. Which wasn’t right now. But he would leave one of these days.

Feeling meaner than a bear with a thorn in its paw, he
looked at the horse and wagon traffic on Front Street. Where the hell were
Chase and Tyler? He needed to make a few more plans with Chase concerning his
son. His brother had said they would be leaving for Texas probably
tomorrow.
 
Chase had wanted them to
ride together, but he just couldn’t do it knowing that he’d be parting ways
with his son at the ranch once again. The trip would have torn his heart apart,
weakened him. He couldn’t afford that.
They
couldn’t afford that.

At last he spotted Chase threading his way on horseback
around a pair of wagons. Alone. Where was Tyler? Surely he hadn’t left his son
at the ranch with Whiskey. Even before they’d gone there, Tyler had been upset
about having to tell her a final good-bye. He hadn’t wanted him to go, but
Chase had talked him into it.