The Marshal's Rebellious Bride (6 page)

Damn, damn,
damn
.

He needed to find a window that would give him access
to the roof. He needed to get to that crazy female, drag her out of that
basket, and… Well, he wasn’t sure what he’d do next. Follow through on that
“burning her backside” thing that Taos had mentioned but probably wouldn’t
really do right now sounded good to him.

Finally, in the trunk and crate filled dusty attic, he
found what he was looking for: a window that opened right onto the main part of
the flat roof. Gut knotted, he stared through the hazy glass pane at the jumble
of basket, yards of netting, and a mess of collapsed balloon.

Taos swore a blue streak as he gaped at the same
sight. Past that point, Morgan kicked the pane out with his boot heel. Glass
shattered and fell inside and outside the window. He continued kicking until
all the glass was out,
then
he thrust his leg through
the window. It took some contorting but he squeezed his big body through the
opening, growling, “You can pay for the window. She’s
your
sister.”

Taos followed him outside. “Hell if I will! She can
pay for it herself.”

“A little help here,” Whiskey called out, drawing
their attention.

Morgan faced the balloon and noted the woman peering
through a corner of the collapsed envelope that she’d managed to shove aside.
From what he could see, she looked the color of a freshly washed sheet. But her
green eyes danced with life, with irritation. Evidently she wasn’t being
rescued fast enough to please her.

Together he and Taos moved toward the mess. Taos
muttered under his breath about burning the damn balloon, about blistering his
sister’s ears. Morgan was more interested in blistering her butt. He barely
knew her—even though he was going to marry her—and she’d scared a
good dozen years off his life. Maybe more.

Between the two of them, they pulled the yellow fabric
further to the side and enough to free her.

She bounced up all
wild-haired
and wide-eyed. Still, she looked cautiously at her brother. “Thanks.”

“Angelina Wakefield,” Taos said in a voice rusty with
emotion, “I swear you aren’t going to sit for a month of Sundays.”

She had the audacity to roll her eyes. “Are you going
to help me out of this contraption?”

Taos didn’t move he was evidently still too
frustrated.

Morgan strode straight to her, reached in to snag her,
but was handed a ball of black-and-white fur that promptly
unballed
to hiss up at him and raise a tail.

Thank the good
Lord,
the
usual offensive spray didn’t come at him. It appeared the critter couldn’t let
her rip. Again, thank the good Lord.

He tossed the squirming skunk at Taos, who caught it
and gaped at his sister.

She looked amused and said calmly, “Don’t worry,
Morgan can’t spray you.” She narrowed her eyes. “But don’t even think of
throwing him over the side of the building. He’s my pet.”

“
Morgan
? You
named a damn skunk ‘Morgan’?” Morgan pinned her with an irritated glower. She
really was going to be a handful.

“Seemed fitting.” She glared right back at him.

Unable to say another word, he reached into the basket
and hauled her out.

She wiggled to get free the second her feet neared the
ground, but he refused to let her go. The soft curves he felt as she squirmed
against him made him wish he’d never touched her. His body hardened.
Lord
a’mighty
!
His jaw tensed. He was in a hell of a lot of trouble.

She bristled like a wet cat the instant he set her
down and released her. A blush covered her cheeks. “I suppose I should thank
you.”

“I suppose you should.”

She pursed her lips and stretched to her full height,
a good foot shorter than him. She tossed her braid over her shoulder. “Thank
you.” There was no sense of sincerity in her tone.

Taos struggled to hold the wriggling skunk well away
from his body. “What were you thinking? Where the hell did you get a balloon?”

“Aunt Mae.” Whiskey glanced back at the pile behind
her. “I had everything under control until… Well, until that last gust of
wind.”

Morgan was almost shaking with fury now. She’d scared
him and he hated that. He was pretty darn upset at Taos, too, for not dealing
immediately with this bout of craziness. By damn, if she was going to be his
wife, then he was going to start out showing her what to expect from him when
she pulled stupid stunts in the future…and he knew in his gut she would.

“Take that skunk away,” he bit out. “I’m going to have
a few words with your sister.”

They shared a look of understanding. Taos hesitated
and then gave a curt nod.

“Hey!” she called out as her brother moved back toward
the window. “Where are you going?”

She tried to move by Morgan, but he latched onto her
arm.

Taos wisely didn’t even glance back.

Morgan tugged her close, swept his gaze down the
length of her. “
Britches.
You’re
wearing boy’s britches,” he said in disgust, even if she did look kind of cute
in them.

She attempted to pull her arm free. “It’s none of your
business what I wear.”

“You’re wrong about that.”

She went rigid. “What’s that supposed to mean?” She
pulled on her arm again. “Let. Me. Go.”

Instead he tugged her even closer, bent her forward
under one arm and pinned her at his hip. She’d barely managed to gasp when he
started peppering her bottom with fierce smacks. He wouldn’t bare her bottom
because it wouldn’t be proper until they got married. But she would certainly
feel this even through the layers of britches and pantaloons.

“What do you think you’re doing?” she protested,
dancing on her toes, trying to get away.

He soundly spanked every inch of her bottom. “I’m
making sure you think twice before you ever pull a dumb stunt like that again.”

He thought about how she could have crashed into the
side of the building.
About how she could have fallen out of
the basket while somewhere up in the sky.
About…

He spanked even harder, steadily.

Her small feet pounded the rooftop. “Stop! Stop right
now!”

He couldn’t stop, not yet. She was just mad, probably
embarrassed, but not really sorry for what she’d done. He went right on
spanking her wriggling bottom. “I won’t have you behaving so irresponsibly. I
won’t put up with it. Do you understand me?”

She slapped at his leg, attempted to reach around for
his gun.

He shook her and held her even tighter. His hand went
back to delivering a painful message that he hoped she’d remember. “I should
take off my belt and thrash you good for even thinking about that.”

“Why…why are you…doing this?” She hissed at a
particularly hard swat. “
Ohhhhh
…stop. Please stop.”

He eased up, but didn’t stop. “You need a strong man
with a strong hand. You need someone who won’t put up with your mischief.” He
sent another swat to the underside of her bottom. “Taos was right about that.”

After he’d landed another dozen swats, he finally
decided she’d had enough of a spanking. She would have trouble sitting while
going back to the ranch. Besides, his hand hurt like the devil. He released her
and she immediately spun away from him.

Her eyes glistened with tears but she hissed and spit
like a wildcat in spite of the fact that he’d just walloped her good. “I don’t
need a strong man. I don’t need
any
man. Certainly not
you
.” Then she
studied him harder. “What does Taos have to do with this anyway?”

Morgan flexed his hand. Spanking a woman was damn hard
work. “Your brothers want me to marry you. Actually I’ve already promised Taos
that I would.”

She rubbed her bottom, something he wouldn’t allow in
the future but would for now. “Marry
you
?!
Isn’t it enough that you and I will already share
ownership of the ranch? Aren’t I suffering enough with that?”

She stopped rubbing. “I would not marry you if you
were the
only
, the absolute only man
left in the world.”

He took offense at her clear disgust about marrying
him. “You’re no real prize either.”

Now she took offense. “At least I don’t go around
killing people. Or…or manhandling innocent women.”

“I only kill people
if’n
I
have to.” He gave a weak smile, being so out of the habit. “I didn’t
manhandle
you. I spanked your butt.
Because you needed it, because I needed to do it.”

He stepped toward her. “I’m thinking maybe I need to
do it again.”

She moved back. “Don’t you dare!
”

Taos popped his head through the window and she
glanced in his direction. “Don’t think just because your fiancé there warmed
your bottom that I won’t be doing the same thing when we get home.” He motioned
to her. “Now quit your sulking and get in here. It’s time to go back to the
ranch.”

She dropped her hands away from her stinging bottom,
her cheeks pink in embarrassment. “I’ve got a few things to say to you, too.
And you’re
not
giving me another
spanking. No, no, no.”

“Oh yes I am. Keno may even want to deliver one as
well.”

She glowered back at Morgan as if all of this was his
fault. And then she marched primly toward the window. He continued staring
after her as she gave him an excellent view of a mighty fine backside when she
scrambled through the broken-out window. He had a notion that spending the rest
of his sorry life chasing down criminals and occasionally getting shot would be
a hell of a lot easier than living with the little spitfire.

He glanced back at the balloon and promised himself
that he’d see to it that it was burned to dust as soon as possible.

* * *

Whiskey stood in the middle of the boardwalk in front
of the Opera House holding her beloved skunk and ignoring all the curious
people around her. Taos towered over her and looked madder than she’d seen him
in a long time. There wasn’t a doubt in her mind he would follow through with
that threat of a spanking. Probably Keno would, too. Darn it all.
She’d already been spanked by the irritating man now walking out
the door
.

Marry him?
Absolutely not! What were her brothers thinking?

“I want your promise that you won’t destroy my
balloon.” She’d already said that and Taos had growled. She had to insist on
his word. “It isn’t even really mine. It’s Aunt Mae’s. I just borrowed it.”

“You sure ain’t flying it again,” Morgan stated as he
drew up beside Taos.

Although his jaw seemed too tight for him to speak,
Taos bit out, “I’ll have a couple of the hands come get it tomorrow. But
you
aren’t going anywhere near it
again.”

Morgan looked far less than pleased but didn’t
contradict her brother. She noticed that he was frowning at the skunk in her
arms, no doubt recalling how she’d named it after him. She stroked its back and
heard the soft purr-like sound of his contentment.

“I’ve also got two animals on the train coming in that
we need to take back to the ranch.”

“We didn’t bring a wagon in with us, but I suppose we
can rent one from the livery stable.” Taos seemed resigned to doing so. “You
probably have a satchel or two as well to take home.”

Morgan moved closer and nerves fluttered in her
stomach. The man was so big, so darkly handsome, so…so aggravating. She
remembered feeling some of the same attraction to him the first time she’d run
into him, in Keno’s room before…

She forced down any such feelings for the rough
Marshal. He was used to ordering people around, used to getting his way. They
would never get along well. She detested being told what to do, which often got
her into trouble and often got her turned over someone’s knee. Well, she was
twenty now. Mature. She knew what she wanted in life, and it certainly wasn’t
being tied to a gruff man like him! She still couldn’t believe that he’d
spanked her.

“What kind of animals are you talking about?” Taos
interrupted her tumultuous thoughts. “Dog? Cat? Surely not another skunk?”

“I want to know why you chose not to ride on the
train,” Morgan inserted.

Funny, she could almost feel his big, hard hand
swatting her bottom again. That annoyed her. “I
did
ride on the train most of the way. In a boxcar.”

She focused on her brother. “A camel and a mule.”

The crowd appeared to be dispersing now, much to her
relief. She was used to causing a scene and drawing attention, even when doing
so was never her intention. But she really didn’t like laundering her family’s
business in front of the whole town. She wished Morgan would go away, too.

His eyes had darkened and he was clenching and
unclenching his hands at his sides. “You rode in a
boxcar
!”