Taming Texanna (21 page)

“Never mind, man, let’s go.” Colton whipped his horse toward the Grant home and yelled over at the deputy, “Where is she?”

“Trenton was taking her toward the courthouse, but if she calms down, he will take her home.”

He took his horse to a steady canter and changed direction slightly only to arrive at the courthouse where a frustrated Mark was leaning on the hitching post. Colton assumed he was protecting the horses from his obviously irritated wife. He watched a spewing Texanna Rae kicking the dirt.

Colton pulled up and watched his wife. “Let me go home, now. I don’t need to calm down and I don’t need any help. I need you to let loose my horse.” Colt was staring at his love when she jerked her head in his direction, full of spit and vinegar. He dismounted, keeping his eyes on her, suspending her storming but not her anger.

“Don’t you even come near me, Colton McFadden if you think that you’re going to stop me from ripping that man apart. There is no good in that man. There’s even less in that woman who birthed me. They did the things they did to me knowing that it was not going to be good for me, just good for them. It was too much to care about a small child when they had their own needs to attend.”

She began stomping again. Colt knew that things didn’t go too well and after tossing his reins around the post, he asked her a question. “Were you supposed to be in town?”

She stared at him for a moment and then lowered her voice to answer bitingly, “Do not make this about me and my shortcomings. That man and woman who were my parents are no good.”

“Honey, I get that your pa is not the man he should be but that is not news. Now calm down before you get in some trouble here. You are beginning to make a few heads turn.” He indicated the café window down the way with a bird’s eye view. “Two tantrums in one week is not a good idea.” She kicked the ground again but didn’t answer.

He let his woman stew in some of her anger while he walked over to talk to Mark Trenton. The man still gave him concern but he disregarded the feeling for now.

“Has she been this way long?” Colt asked his male companion while sending the deputy with a message to the judge to pick up his wife or send someone for her. It would be best if it weren't Colton and if it could be done sooner rather than later. He would explain later.

“She has been upset about an hour off and on, including her stop at her pa’s place. She was determined to leave the house but got madder when she left her pa’s house. I need to tell you that Mr. Grant, who is supposed to have fathered her, is a piece of work, but I guess you knew that.”

“Yeah, it is something to see. That was why I decided to side with him and get her married instead of listening to her and giving her the option. She needed away from that man.” They leaned against the building a moment, Colt’s leg bent toward the building wall, foot stationed there. After a few more moments, it appeared that Texanna was going to settle down. “What happened at her pa’s house?”

“I honestly believed she was going to castrate that man using his own kitchen knife. I had to remove it from her, and she fought me. I’m afraid that she might sport my grip on her upper arm. If that is the case, I’m truly sorry, but I had a hard time controlling her.” Colt could see that he was telling the truth. It was hard for him to connect with his wife’s feelings the way he could when she was calm. When she was too emotionally tangled, he had to guess what might be going on inside.

“I’m walking down the street if you don’t give me my horse.”

“I’ll be right here when you get back.”

She grunted with irritation but she was considerably calmer, noted Colton.

“What went on exactly?” he asked, keeping his eye on his woman as she walked in the opposite direction of her pa’s home. He figured she wouldn’t get far on foot. He watched her as she turned around at the far end of the street and came back in his direction at a slower pace. Good, she was settling. Colt transferred his attention back to Mark.

“Well, she was pretty upset that Mr. Grant told her he didn’t think he was her pa and that he kept her only because a brother wanted him to let her stay. Then, I gather her brother left, grew up a while ago and then he moved on. She still had some growing to do I guess.”

“Yep, that sounds about right, but I don’t think she knew the part about him not being her pa. Then how could her ma leave her?” Colton wondered aloud.

“Well,” Mark stood straight and went to shake Colt’s hand, “I figure that information first came from her ma. Texanna was terribly irritated after the time she spent with her as well but seemed more confused than anything. I told her I would take her home if she were calm but I was not going to have her ride off on a horse when she was that angry because it wasn’t safe. She is hell on livestock when she isn’t happy. No offense. So, she’s not happy with me, I’d say.”

“Yeah, well she’s not going to be happy with me soon.” Colton thought of the whipping his woman was earning by this tirade in public. He was going to tame her if was the last thing he did. And it well might be, he groaned.

Colton relieved Mark to go back to his own family, with his thanks, while he watched his wife a moment longer before deciding he needed to start shutting her down. He waited until she came closer to him on her burning up of the street with her rampage having all but gone. He thought of how it reminded him of another rampage just yesterday at Mae’s Café. He smiled. She would have been hell at the Alamo. They might have survived the standoff. He’d waited long enough, he reckoned, to speak to her. It was time to rein her up.

“Texanna Rae,” he said in his steely drawl, “you have five minutes to pull yourself together or we will be visiting my office.”

She turned to glare at her husband, but he knew that the words delivered as he did, always did things to her insides. He knew he had her when she stopped and stomped her boot in place. He also realized that there still was no reading his wife. She was so emotional. He would have to use the things he had learned from his still new bride, to help her work through her emotional turmoil. There was no doubting that she was hurting.

She continued to walk away from him having made a decision he knew she would regret. “Do not walk away from me, Mrs. McFadden. You get your skirt covered behind back here right now while it is still that way if you know what’s good for you.”

He waited for a few seconds, watching her face as she looked at her husband. Anger was pushed out of the way by the pain and that lost little girl look that appeared when things were too much. She needed her protector to take over.

That was his cue to put out his hand in invitation, “Anna.”

After another contemplative moment, she ran full force into his open arms. Colt barely had enough time to push off the wall with his foot before she was barreling into him.

There was no more public viewing of his wife and her heartbreak or her tantrum because he took her inside to his office and shut the door. The new deputy that was coming had luckily not yet arrived, so he had the office to himself. Pulling her onto his lap while sitting in his big armchair reserved for those visiting the marshal’s office, he pushed her face to rest on his broad shoulder and let her relax into the comforting familiarity of her husband. He hated anyone had hurt her, but they would weather the storm together and be stronger for it. He would just wait her out.

***

  How could her world have fallen apart so quickly and so dramatically? Texanna thought she would be happy to see her ma. She had always hoped she would see her again, meet her, spend time with her, but had given up hope after all these years. Try as she might, she knew her pa could have talked and her ma could have come back to see how she fared. Neither did.

It would have been better if she had never seen her, talked to her, and ultimately learned the terrible truth. Was it so terrible that they all just believe what the truth was? The man she had called pa all these years was not her father.

In hindsight, she was glad that the man that she had always assumed was her father really wasn’t because it meant it was not her fault that he didn’t love her, hadn’t shown any real compassion for her. Both people she thought of as parents, were not any such thing. She could learn to be friendly toward the woman who had given birth to her eventually, but see her as a mother, no; Pia was the only mother she had ever had.

She just thought she looked like her ma and not her pa, but maybe she
had
taken after her pa, her
real
pa. The man who died had been good to her mother and would have been good to her too. If she had known this information earlier, maybe she would have taken off and looked for her real pa’s family.

She hadn’t realized she was talking aloud again until Colton kissed her head.

“I love you, Texanna Rae McFadden. We will handle all this mess together. Grant and Miranda are selfish people and to take his feelings about your ma out on you was wrong. But people make mistakes. They do things when they hurt. You were an innocent. Besides,” he leaned down and kissed the top of her head, “if you had left to find your real pa’s family, I would never have met you and fallen in love with you.”

“You really love me?”

“You have to ask?”

“Not really. And you’re right. I wouldn’t want to take that away.” Texanna leaned back onto her husband, feeling much more settled. She bolted up, “Move, I have to be sick.”

She raced to the window and threw it open before voiding her predominately-empty stomach out onto the ground. She coughed and gagged for a bit longer after her vomiting had ended to be met by a clean handkerchief and her husband’s loving arms. It was the very last straw. Texanna released all she had in her copious tears that had been held off by anger until now. Colton was gentle as he lifted her in his arms, brought her back to the large chair, and pulled her in tightly. Tears spent, she expelled her last tear-filled breath to settle in his hold, now relaxed. She presented to Colton a much quieter and subdued wife as she lay in his arms.

“I know you were upset but you should not have thrown a tantrum and stormed everywhere.” His tone was stern but held not anger or irritation.

“I know.”

He explained to her, “I need to get you home, honey, and take care of my own house instead of worrying about the judge’s home or your pa’s home.”

Texanna pushed up from her cuddling spot and said forcefully, “He’s not my pa. He’s Mr. Grant.”

“All right, but we are not going to spend any of our precious energy there. I’m going to love my wife so she knows, without a doubt, where my loyalties and concerns lie. I love you and I’ll work hard to make my love help to heal the loss of love anywhere else. I know it isn’t going to do it all, but Pia and Kaku will help. They love you already.”

“Do you think so?” She reached up to kiss him and then rushed on. “I knew you loved me when you took my side today. I love you so much. You are the reason I can handle all of this mess. I can’t do it alone.” She cuddled back down into her life, the man she would never grow tired of and sighed.

Colton leaned into his woman and whispered, “Let’s go home. You need food and I need you. If we wait too much longer, I’ll make love to you here.”

“Yes, please. Can you love me here?”

She could see her practical husband was going to deny her but looking into his eyes, she allowed the vulnerability to be seen, the soulful entreaty she hoped he found there. She hoped that he couldn’t deny her, that he would love her here and then at home again. She smiled when she thought of his cock that had been fluctuating between up and down since coming into his office.

Colton leaned down and captured her lips with his, kissing her hungrily. She could feel his desperate search for her taste. He had often told her she was sweeter than honey in the morning. She smiled as he stood up and carried her over to close the window and put the covering in place before taking each piece of clothing off her. He then put her in the seat he had vacated. She watched as Colt walked over and locked the door. She could feel the rising need for him as he sat on the floor between her legs lifting one leg over each of his shoulders. The anticipation made her squeal and he grinned.

“Hush, baby, I’m going to love you but you have to be quiet. We might not be the only people in the building.” He looked into her big eyes and she nodded her head in understanding.

Kissing her inner thighs and licking his way to her hidden places, he loved her with his tongue and mouth, bringing her to single ecstasy before raising her to lean over the padded arm of the chair. He brought his thumb to her flowing juices and trailed it up to her brown flowered back entrance.

“No, no, you can’t. It isn’t right.”

What was he thinking? He had done this before and she thought it had been part of her punishment but this, now, was not punishment. Not punishment unless the desperate need she was feeling was his penalty for her angry tantrum. She would simply die from the unrelieved craving if that were the case. He wouldn’t be so cruel, would he?

“What did I tell you? We are married and it is right if we want it. You loved it last time you will love it this time.”

He ended his sentence with his index finger finding its target and slowly pushing itself through her tight entrance into her perceived forbidden place. Even for his finger, it was tight but he tantalized her button of pleasure while he worked a rhythm on her bottom and she found herself moaning. She knew he was going to work on this entrance for he had told her he ached to take her here. For now, she felt him work to bring them both to completion and she wouldn’t fight him for, in truth, her body loved his play in her unmentionable spot.

He opened his pants and continued to work Texanna up as he brought his stiff, throbbing cock to her slit, sliding in. She was snug here as well and he had often told her that he had to still for a moment to allow his control to slip back into place. She could tell this was no exception. She felt like his little wanton bride as she couldn’t control the writhing in response to her growing desire and she prayed he intended on filling that desperation, now.