Taming Ashley Page 3

  "Is that for me?" Ashley asked, shaking Morgan from his stupor. He looked down to see her already at the porch, removing the leather gloves he'd given her, throwing them on the ground and reaching for the lemonade that he was holding.

  "Yes...it is," Morgan replied, handing her the drink. Taking the glass, Ashley put it to her lips and began to tilt it back, swallowing giant gulps of the sweet, icy liquid. Some of it spilled from the corners of her mouth and Morgan watched a trail of it run her down neck, over her collarbone and disappear into her shirt. When she'd chugged the entire contents of the glass, she let out a giant sigh and wiped her lips with the back of her arm. The corner of Morgan's mouth curled up again. Nothing better at clearing the mind than a little hard work. "Are you done?" Morgan asked cautiously, not letting himself believe the spoiled brat had done as she was told for the first time.

  "Yup," Ashley replied, nodding her head. Morgan raised the corner of one eye. Ashley lowered her head slightly but kept looking at the tall cowboy. "Yes," she said, then added, "sir," in a quieter voice.

  "Good. Why don't you come in and have some lunch." Morgan stepped aside and let Ashley past him, through the door and into the house. The roast beef sandwiches he'd made were waiting on the table and as soon as Ashley saw them she lunged for the food. Exhausted and hungry from possibly the hardest mornings work she'd ever had to do, she ate the first one in four bites, barely waiting in between mouthfuls. Morgan watched the girl devouring her food, slightly amused, slightly proud of his accomplishment. When she'd finished the first one she reached for another and put it on her plate.

  "So," Ashley began looking around the spacious open kitchen and towards the living room beyond, "do you live here alone?"

  Morgan put down his own sandwich, chewed what he still had in his mouth and wiped his face with his napkin.

  "I do."

  Ashley nodded her head and took a bite of her sandwich, glancing around the room some more and out the window. The two of them sat there chewing in silence before she mustered up the courage to ask another question.

  "Not married?"

  Morgan almost choked at the question. He took a gulp of his water and coughed a few times before being able to respond.

  "That's a pretty personal question, young lady," he finally managed.

  Ashley let out a guffaw as her eyes went wide.

  "Umm, I'm pretty sure spanking my ass until it looks like a fucking tomato is pretty personal, don't you?!?"

  "Watch your mouth," Morgan rumbled, holding Ashley with his stare. The same memory that had surprised him on the porch, unearthed by the unruly girl he'd been asked to discipline was still swirling in his mind, clouding his judgment and making it hard to sort through his feelings.

  Ashley looked down at her plate, sullen that her attempt at being convivial had been so harshly rebuked. If she really were going to spend weeks out here there was nothing wrong with trying to be friendly, was there?

  A thick, uncomfortable silence hung over the pair as they ate the rest of their food. When they were both done, Ashley began to stand up. Morgan put his hand up.

  "Sit," he said, then realizing how the word had come out, scraped his knuckles across the stubble on his jaw and added quietly, "please."

  Ashley sat back down slowly, trying to stamp out the embers of her temper that had started smouldering once more.

  "Look," Morgan began, forcing himself to look at the girl, "it was a long time ago." He paused, his eyes roaming around the room as if searching for what else he could say. "We had a happy life here. She had a happy life here. It ended too soon."

  Ashley looked down, sympathy spreading across her face. If she'd known it were something like that, she wouldn't have asked. She shouldn't have asked. She should have known it was something like that.

  "I'm sorry," she said quietly, staring at the table before looking up again to see Morgan looking out the window, far past the pasture and far past the mountains.

  "It's alright. It doesn't bother me anymore...usually...it's just..." Morgan turned and looked back at Ashley. His eyes followed the line of her jaw, the shape of her cheeks, the curve of her brow. The more he looked at her, the more jarring it became, the similarity. And the harder it became to treat her simply as his project, a favour for a friend.

  "It's just?" Ashley asked softly, not wanting to upset him any more. But just as quickly as he'd sank into the trance, Morgan snapped out of it.

  "Nothing," he said, getting up from the table. The steady calm had returned to his voice and he scooped up their plates and walked them over to the counter.

  Ashley watched as the tall man put the plates and utensils in the dishwasher. She felt a bit bad about bringing up old memories that he hadn't wanted to talk about. At the same time, her curiosity was getting the better of her and she wanted to know what had remained unsaid. When Morgan turned around again, his expression had returned to the controlled, even stare to which Ashley had become accustomed.

  "Ready to go for a ride?" Morgan asked with a smile. Ashley rolled her eyes and let out an exasperated sigh. Morgan tilted his head to one side, silently asking her whether she really needed to feel more of his palm over her bottom. Ashley stiffened at the silent communication. While she didn't relish the painful punishment, the thought of his hand on her body was somehow appealing. Nevertheless, she stood up, took a deep breath and replied.

  "Yes, sir."

  "Good. Let's go teach you how to saddle a horse."

  ***

  Chapter 7

  It had taken a while and a lot of patience on Morgan's part, but Ashley had finally managed to heave a saddle on the horse she was going to ride. She nearly lost it a few times as Morgan calmly explained which straps needed to be tightened and how tight they needed to be. Taking instructions had never been her strong suit and taking instructions from a stern older man reminded her too much of her father telling her what to do.

  But something about the way that Morgan explained things, the way in which he showed her how to do them then undid his own work so she could try herself, gave Ashley the strength she needed not to fly off the handle. That and the memory of the sting of his palm on her bottom, made it a slow but ultimately successful process.

  By the time they'd set out and been riding for a few hours, the sun was starting to get close to the mountains.

  "Umm, shouldn't we maybe think about going back? Like, doesn't it get really cold at night or something?" Ashley asked, her voice wavering a little. It was one thing to be in a big comfortable house in the middle of nowhere, another thing completely to be in the middle of nowhere...in the middle of nowhere.

  Morgan let out a low chuckle at her question, the sound of his laughter mingling with the sound of the horses hooves. He pulled on his horses reins, and both animals came to a stop. Morgan looked at Ashley, who was now looking around, a look of concern on her face. He swung a leg over the horses rear and dismounted, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath of the crisp mountain air. "Umm, what are you doing?" Morgan immediately scowled at the question. "What are we doing, sir?" Ashley asked again, correcting her first attempt.

  "We're pitching our tent. There's a pond over there," Morgan said, pointing towards a small, dark, body of water, "protection from the wind by those rocks," he swung his hand lazily in the direction of the outcrop, "and a fire pit already made." Ashley looked down to see the small circle of rocks a few feet away from where he was standing.

  He'd said everything so quickly, she'd barely had time to take it all in. But now that the reality was sinking in, the reality that they really were going to be camping here for the night, she began shaking her head slowly.

  "Look," she began, eyeing Morgan, her fear of his discipline taking a back seat to hear fear of the prospect of spending a night in the wilderness, "Morgan, Mr. Kennings, mister sir, I'm sure this is all part of some 'plan' to make me find myself or something but I'm gonna have to be honest with you and tell you that there is no way I am sleeping in a tent ou
t here."

  Morgan met her stare with his and had to work particularly hard not to crack a smile. He'd had a feeling this was going to be his reaction and he'd already thought through a course of action.

  "Alright," Morgan said in his calm voice, "you can ride back if you like."

  "We both know that's not going to happen!" Ashley said, her voice rising along with her temper.

  "Well, then I guess you'll just have to help me pitch this tent," Morgan said, pulling the saddle bags off his horse and throwing them on the ground.

  Ashley could feel the panic starting to rise inside herself. Camping was not her thing. She clenched her jaw and tried to cross her arms in defiance across her chest, but the horse she was riding began shifting his weight from one hoof to another, sensing the nervous energy on his back. Morgan saw it to now and his face clouded with concern. The animal's eyes were wide, its nostrils flared, its muscles ready and flexing. He took a deep, slow breath and held a hand up to calm the beast.

  "Ashley, I need you to calm yourself down," Morgan said quietly. He could see the horse was reacting to Ashley's distress and if he didn't diffuse the situation, the animal was likely to bolt.

  "I am calm," Ashley began, her voice shaky and cracking on the last word she spoke. Calm, she was not. Morgan did his best not to let his concern be heard in his voice.

  "I need you to swing a leg over and get off the horse," Morgan said, approaching the pair and reaching for the horses reins hanging low. He kept an eye on the Ashley's movements, the shaking of her hands betraying her nervousness as she tried to steady herself on the animal. Her calf shot back in a nervous sweep across the horses barrel when his fingers were just inches away from the leather reins.

  With a huge whinny, a flare of its nostrils, the horse reared, pawing at the air with its front hooves. Morgan's eyes went wide but having been around horses his whole life, he knew better than to lunge for the animal and get in the way of its heavy hooves. His eyes went to Ashley. The fear in her eyes was obvious and a bolt of adrenaline shot through Morgan as he watched the horse go up with her on its back. But despite this being her first time riding, she didn't lean back and fall off the horse backwards like any beginner probably would have, she leaned in and Morgan watched as she put her hands gently around the animals neck and held on.

  Morgan's eyes went wide and his mouth opened as he watched Ashley close her eyes, her cheek pressing gently at the horses neck. She wasn't hanging on for dear life like he'd seen some do their first time on a horse. It was like she understood the animal, understood the way it had to be touched, understood how soft her hands had to be on it. For a few long seconds Morgan stood staring as the girl sat hugging the rearing horse, as if the two were one statue that had been standing there for centuries.

  The horse let out another whinny, shaking Morgan from his trance. It pawed at the air some more then, came back down onto the ground, its hooves landing with a soft thud. Morgan reached out quickly, grabbed the animals reins and put a palm on its neck, soothing it with soft tones while he let it stomp out the excess energy with its hind hooves. When the horse felt sufficiently calm, Morgan touched Ashley's arm and she opened her eyes.

  "Come on," Morgan whispered, easing her grip on the animals neck and watching as she swung her foot up and over the horses body. "Out of the stirrup," Morgan said softly and Ashley pulled her boot out and slid off the animal onto the ground. With an expert hand, Morgan guided the horse away from Ashley and took out a rope from one of the saddle bags on its back. Pushing a stake on one end of the rope into the ground, he clipped the other onto the horses halter. When he turned back around, he saw Ashley curled up in a ball, sitting on the ground where he'd left her. "Let's get the tents up," Morgan said and began unpacking the saddle bags he'd removed from his own animal.

  Ashley looked up. She'd been expecting a very stern disciplining from Morgan. She knew it was her own nervous energy that had caused the horse to stand up like that and she expected that she was going to be thoroughly spanked for it. Not that she wanted to be, she told herself, though there was a tiny swell of regret within her that she wouldn't be feeling Morgan's stern hand on her backside. The thought surprised her. She glanced over and watched the man who'd brought her out here, who'd made her clean a mess out of the horses stall that morning, walking around what was to be their campsite driving stakes into the ground and pitching tents.

  Ashley felt the familiar feeling of a faint wetness between her legs and blushed slightly at the way her body reacted to the sight of the older cowboy. No matter how stern and strict he was with her, he sure was handsome. She watched as the two small tents went up one by one, not speaking, barely breathing, just watching the muscles of Morgan's back working through his shirt, the desire growing inside her. When the tents were up, he set about gathering sticks until he had enough to start a fire. The sun had set and the only light left in the sky was the purplish blue hue coming up over the mountains. As soon as the fire was burning Ashley slid across the ground, her body drawn to its heat. She'd been so caught up in watching Morgan work, she hadn't realized how cold it had become.

  "You like beans?" Morgan asked quietly, opening a can and placing it on the wire rack he'd set up above the small fire. Ashley shrugged. She hated beans. At least she thought she did. She thought she hated cowboys and mountains and camping. Somehow all those things didn't seem quite so bad anymore. Maybe the beans wouldn't be too bad either.

  When the beans were warm, Morgan handed her the can wrapped in a towel, with an old spoon tucked inside it. The wind picked up for a second and wafted the fresh scent of the night air down off the mountain. Ashley huddled as close to the fire as she could and dug into her beans. After they'd both eaten in silence for a while, Morgan put his own can down, wiped his mouth and looked at Ashley.

  "It was my fault," he said, "what happened with Misty." Ashley smiled at the reminder of the horse's pretty name. "I shouldn't have done anything, said anything that might upset you when you were on that animal. I've been around horses my whole life and I know better than that." Morgan sniffed and wiped at his nose with the back of his fist, then looked up and into Ashley's eyes. "I'm sorry."

  It might have been the fire burning warmer, or the food she'd just eaten, but Ashley felt a strange warmth fill her body. She felt her sex pulsing between her legs, felt the ache in her middle grow.

  "It's okay," Ashley replied softly, biting her lip and looking away from Morgan, a little embarrassed at the change in her body's reaction to the man. Morgan stood up, brushed the dirt off his pants and walked over towards his tent.

  "I'm gonna turn it in. We've got a long ride tomorrow. You should go to sleep too, if you can."

  Ashley looked at Morgan, a little shaken at the suddenness of his departure.

  "Uh, okay...I guess. Is that my tent?" she asked, pointing towards the green canvas triangle next to Morgan's. Morgan nodded once, got down on all fours and crawled into his tent leaving Ashley staring at the spot. After a few moments, she picked herself up and dragged herself over towards her own canvas cover, slipping quietly into the darkness inside. She crawled into the tight black pants she liked to sleep in and curled up inside her sleeping bag.

  As the sounds of the night crescendoed gently around her, Ashley closed her eyes and tried to make herself go to sleep. But the thought of Morgan Kennings strong body lying just a few feet away from her kept sleep from coming too quickly. Ashley tried counting backwards, a trick that usually worked. She tried deep breathing, something that always made her fall asleep in her yoga class, but not this time. Every time she heard the man in the next tent over shift his weight, or roll over, her mind would jolt awake.

  What was he thinking about? Was there any chance that he was over there thinking about her the same way she was thinking about him? The ache in her middle grew at the thought, at the possibility of feeling his hands on her again. If there were just a way to get them there without acting like a spoiled brat. Ashley wanted to show Morgan
what a good girl she could be...

  In the tent beside hers, Morgan Kenning lay on his back, staring at the the canvas above him. The day hadn't gone exactly how he thought. In fact, it had gone nothing at all like he expected. He'd expected Ashley to complain more about having to clean the stall. He'd expected to have to spank her much more than he had. As happy as he was at the sudden change in her behaviour, his own body missed the feeling of her flesh beneath his palm.

  It wasn't just that she reminded him of his wife, Samantha, though she did. But this girl had something that no woman had he'd ever met. Somewhere in all that temper and fire, there was a softness, an understanding that Morgan couldn't help but wonder about. He'd seen it in the way she'd held onto the rearing horse