Shana's Guardian (8 page)

“The next time I hear mention of you
stepping an inch over the settlement barrier, you can expect another session
with the strap.”

She gasped as two fingers pushed into her
tight bottom hole.
 
He hadn’t
penetrated her here since the night before their wedding.

“How dare you disrespect me, Shana,” he
scolded as he pumped in and out of her asshole.
 
“I thought I taught you better than
that.”

“Oh!
 
You did!” she said, speaking for the first time since the first stroke
of the strap.
 
“Please!
 
I’m sorry.”
 
Her bottom muscles clenched around his
thrusting digits, but his momentum didn’t slow.

“Soon you will feel my cock here, Shana,
during punishments and during lovemaking.
 
Your body belongs to me.”

“Yes, Uncle,” she said.

He withdrew his fingers completely, only
to push deep past his knuckles, and repeated the process a dozen times more.
 
Stopping once her shoulders relaxed and
he sensed her total
submission,
he rubbed and
inspected her bottom, which was a lovely crimson.
 
Only a few small welts had risen.
 
He thought of the night she’d snuck away
to the gypsy town and his jaw tightened at the memory.

“You’ll take the final ten bent over the
bed,” he announced as he slowly helped her to stand.
 
Their eyes locked as she straightened,
and Daman nearly lost his resolve when her lip quivered.
 
Tears filled her eyes and she wiped at
her face, sniffling.

Shana was crying – for the first
time in years.
 

Concerned, he inspected her from head to
toe, turning her around to double check her punished thighs and ass.
 
Nothing appeared out of the
ordinary.
 
He’d turned her backside
a brighter red than this on many occasions.
 
So why the hell was she suddenly sobbing
when harsher punishments didn’t
illicit
as much as a
single tear?
 
He spun her around.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, searching her
face.
 
“Why are you crying?”

Another heavy sob racked her body and she
attempted to look away, but Daman cupped her face between his hands, forcing
her to meet his anxious gaze.

“Tell me what’s wrong,” he demanded,
growing tenser by the second.

“I – I don’t know,” she sobbed,
fresh tears pouring from her eyes.
 
“I’m just so sorry.”

He sighed as most of his anger
evaporated.
 
It wasn’t fair to
punish her again for misdeeds she committed at the age of eighteen.
 
He reminded himself why she was being
punished, which was mainly because of her bad attitude in response to his
refusal to bring her on the trading mission.
 
Of course, he’d promised her ten
additional strokes of the strap, and he was nothing if not a man of his
word.
 
He couldn’t command respect
by being a pushover.
 
Tilting her
head up, he planted a kiss on her lips.

“I know you’re sorry, Shana, but you’re
punishment isn’t over yet.
 
Bend
over the bed so we can finish this.”

She wiped at her eyes again and
nodded.
 
As she took position, he
decided to end her suffering and deliver the strokes in rapid succession.
 
He placed a firm hand on her lower back
to prevent her from rising up.
 
Careful
not to strap the same place twice in a row, he brought the leather implement
down across her punished flesh ten times.
 
She rose up on her toes but made no attempt to thwart him.

“It’s over.”
 
Daman dropped the strap and stroked his
hand down her back.
 
Her shoulders
heaved as she mumbled incoherent apologies into the covers.
 
Her hands surrounded her face, and her
breathing gradually slowed.

At first her tears had scared him, but
now they brought him hope.
 
The
emotional wall she’d built around her heart was crumbling down.
 
This pleased him greatly.
 
He wanted all of Shana – her light
and her darkness, her happiness and her sorrow.

His hand roamed lower to cup her exposed
mound.
 
Even without gliding his
fingers through her folds, he could feel her pussy weeping for his touch.
 
“All is forgiven, Shana,” he said as he
freed his engorged cock.
 
Taking her
body was the final act that would seal the rift between them.

Her walls clamped down on his shaft as he
pushed inside her slick entrance.
 
He groaned, lost in the delicious sensation as she pulsed around
him.
 
She pushed her center backward
and arched her back to allow him fuller access to her pussy channel.
 
Pulling out, he rammed forward and
repeated the process as he gripped her hips.
 
The rhythm of his thrusts quickened, and
he knew it wouldn’t be much longer before pure ecstasy surged through his
senses and culminated in a powerful, quaking release.
 
As their bodies rocked together, he
glanced down at her little form underneath him and his heart swelled with
joy.
 
She was his, all his.
 
He groaned and threw his head back as he
released inside her welcoming warmth.
 

All his.

Chapter 5

The temperature drops to freezing most nights
now, Shana realized with a heavy heart as she stared out the kitchen window.
 
She regarded Daman conversing with the
group of men he’d assembled for the trading mission in the backyard.
 
Further away in a nearby field, she saw over
a dozen supply wagons lined up and ready for their horses.
 
Tonight the monthly marriage celebration
would be held, and tomorrow the chosen men would leave before sunrise for the
trading post.
 
A gust of wind
disturbed the large map Daman was bent over, and Shana shivered even though she
was indoors.
 
Would he fall asleep
at night on the side of the road, freezing and dreaming of home?

She tapped her fingers on the counter and
gave Margery a wary glance.

“Oh stop fretting,” her friend said,
rolling her eyes dramatically.
 
“They’ll
be fine.
 
They always are.”

Shana sighed and went back to work fixing
turkey sandwiches for lunch.
 
“Daman
said it’s dangerous.”
 
She
paused.
 
“I asked him to take me
along and he refused.”

“You
what
?”
 
Margery shook her head, laughing.
 
“Mark says taking a woman on the road is
bad luck – not that I’ve ever asked if
I
could come along.”
 
She placed the sandwiches Shana had made on a tray.

Shana shrugged and grinned at her
friend.
 
“Okay, I’ll admit it wasn’t
my brightest idea.”
 
Her sore bottom
clenched involuntarily as she remembered the cost of her wayward tongue.

Margery delivered the sandwiches to the
men while Shana started cleaning up the mess.
 
Once lunch was eaten and the kitchen
made spotless, the two women decided to visit Beth in the greenhouse.
 
Rare solar panels kept the greenhouse
warm all year round, so it would be a cozy place to pass the afternoon.
 

Shana led the way to the awesome
structure situated behind the Clayton house.
 
Heat instantly enveloped her as she
walked inside.
 
Even during the
harshest winter day one could enjoy fresh fruits and vegetables in the
settlement.
 
Beth’s husband, Mr.
Clayton, had engineered the building of the massive domed structure six years
ago.
 
Everyone pitched in to help
take care of the produce, and a second greenhouse
was
scheduled to be built
next summer.

Beth was
busy picking
blueberries
from the potted blueberry bushes in the middle of the
aisles.
 
Her face lit up when she
saw her friends.
 
“I hope you’re
here to help,” she said, nodding toward some buckets stacked on a stool nearby.

Shana laughed.
 
“As long as you promise to put those in
one of your pies, I’ll help.”

Beth narrowed her eyebrows
mockingly.
 
“Oh fine, it’s a deal.”

The three women picked the berries for a
few minutes in silence.
 
Shana was
nervous about the marriage celebration and Daman’s imminent departure to the
trading post, and she tried to use this opportunity to clear her head.
 
It didn’t work.
 
Her insides were all twisted up, and her
stomach kept lodging in her throat.

“It’ll be nice having you around for
company for the next two weeks,” Beth finally said, giving Shana a cautious
look followed by a reassuring smile.
 
“I have the guest room all made up for you.”

Margery gasped.
 
“Daman still won’t let you stay by
yourself?
 
I thought since you were
married now –
”
 
Her
voice trailed off and her unspoken words hung in the air.

Ugh.
 
Embarrassed didn’t even began to describe how Shana felt at this
moment.
 
Her face burned as she regarded
her two best friends.
 
What could
she tell them?

“He treats you like a child,” Margery
said, tossing a handful of blueberries in her bucket.
 
“You’re nearly twenty-four.
 
Doesn’t he know how old you are?
 
Mark never makes me stay with anyone
when he leaves.”

Shana didn’t need any reminders about her
age, or for Margery to rub it in that Mark let her get away with murder.
 
“He thinks I’ll be lonely if I’m by
myself for two weeks,” she said, half lying.
 
Daman really wanted to ensure Shana
behaved herself, especially after she’d recently brought up the subject of
traveling outside the settlement barriers.
 
Her husband trusted Mr. Clayton to keep an eye on her.

Margery shrugged.
 
“If you say so.”

Shut up, Margery
.
 
Shana nearly crushed the berries she held in her tightening fist before
she realized what she was doing.

“Guess what?” Beth suddenly asked, a
twinkle in her eye.
 
“The Johnson
triplets are sneaking off to the gypsy village on Friday night.”

“Really?” Shana asked, grateful for the
change of subject and ready to latch onto it.
 
“How do you know?”

Beth picked up an empty bucket and began
filling it with more berries from the next bush.
 
“They asked me for directions.”
 
She grinned and spun around, her dress
flaring outwards.
 
“Remember how
much fun we all had that night?”

Margery nodded enthusiastically.
 
“I’ll never forget it.
 
What a night it was!”

Oh, no.
 
Shana didn’t like where this was
going.
 
Nope, not one bit.
 
Neither of her friends had gotten
caught, and neither of her friends knew the price she had paid for defying
Uncle Daman.
 
“Yes, it was fun,” she
offered, feeling increasingly uncomfortable.
 
It was fun . . . until she got caught.

“They invited me to go with them,” Beth
said, winking as she popped a blueberry in her mouth.

“Let’s do it!” Margery said, throwing her
hands up in the air.
 
“It won’t be
long before the three of us have babies.
 
This is our last chance for some wicked fun.”

Beth shot her friends a pointed
look.
 
“Won’t your husbands be angry?”

“Not if they don’t find out,” Beth said,
practically singing the words as she twirled again.

“I can’t go with you,” Shana said
nervously, her thoughts centered on how disappointed Daman would be if she
disobeyed.
 
And
the awful strap.
 
Especially the awful strap.

“Why not?” Margery asked, a hand on her
hip.

“I promised Daman I wouldn’t set foot
outside the barrier again.”

“Again?”
 
Beth’s eyes widened.
 
“What do you mean
again
?
 
How does he know
about the first time?”

She flushed.
 
“If you must know, he caught me sneaking
back through my window all those years ago.
 
He wasn’t pleased.”
 
And
he took a strap to my bare bottom every night for a week.
 
That’s why I never told you.