Taming Texanna Read online

  Taming Texanna

  By

  Alyssa Bailey

  ©2016 by Blushing Books® and Alyssa Bailey

  All rights reserved.

  No part of the book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

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  Bailey, Alyssa

  Taming Texanna

  eBook ISBN: 978-1-68259-592-3

  Cover Art by ABCD Graphics & Design

  This book is intended for adults only. Spanking and other sexual activities represented in this book are fantasies only, intended for adults. Nothing in this book should be interpreted as Blushing Books' or the author's advocating any non-consensual spanking activity or the spanking of minors.

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  Table of Contents:

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Epilogue

  About the Author

  EBook Offer

  Blushing Books Newsletter

  Blushing Books

  Chapter One

  Mandy Joseph walked up to her best friend, Texanna Grant’s home carefully. Texanna was a wonderful friend but she was unhappy. She had been for some time; probably years but Mandy, being a few years younger, didn’t really notice the sadness until last winter. Mandy noticed many things then. She noticed her friend’s mother chose to leave her, that her brother had been her only ally growing up, and that Mr. Grant didn’t love kindly as other pa’s.

  As she approached the front door, she took a deep fortifying breath and released it as she knocked. She waited for a response. Nothing. Just as she was about to knock again, she heard a screech coming from the back of the house which was set out a little from the community. Mandy looked around and as she raised her hand preparing to rap again, the screech was repeated. It was Texanna and a sick dread came over Mandy.

  Running to the back of the house and making a beeline for the room that she knew was her friend’s, she carefully approached the window, staying down low so as not to be seen by the room’s inhabitants. The window was closed but the wails that emanated from that room were profound enough to breach the barrier to Mandy’s ears.

  Thwack. Thwack. Thwack. Came the dreadful noise and the distraught sobs accompanied each resonating connection of leather to skin. She had to peek in. Her need to know the exact circumstances overran her need to remain hidden. Mandy slowly peeked in at the scene now before her. Texanna was lying prostrate over her bed and her pa was wailing on her something fierce with a strop. After a few more stripes, it looked like he was done. He was saying something. Mandy listened hard.

  “The next time I tell you I have a suitor for you, you don’t come in with messed up hair and trousers on. You come dressed like a lady.”

  There was some kind of muffled sobbing response Mandy couldn’t decipher but it seemed to satisfy Mr. Grant.

  “Now pull yourself together and get my dinner. I don’t hold with laziness. I guess we’ve seen the back of that young man but I’ll find another. You need married and out of my house. You have been here too long and it is long past the time you got married.”

  During his ranting, Texanna had scrambled upright, pulling her drawers and trousers back into place. She was now trying to stop her crying and wipe her face with her sleeve.

  “And get rid of those clothes. Don’t wear them again. I’ll never marry you off with those things on.”

  The man walked out and Texanna walked out behind him, presumably to start the dinner. Mandy ran home only to return later that evening under the cover of darkness. She knew she was risking her own whipping for being out after dark, alone, but she didn’t have a choice, she had to make sure her friend was all right. It was worth the risk.

  She watched Mr. Grant as he began to walk the quarter mile from his home to town. He worked at the town sawmill and needed to be close but he wasn’t as close to town as the Joseph family. Mandy’s father had died a year ago in a work accident at the same lumber mill that Mr. Grant worked. It was too bad, really, that it wasn’t Mr. Grant who died. Mandy knew that it was a sin to think about things like that but she couldn’t help it. Her daddy had been perfect and would have taken Texanna in, but Mr. Grant was hateful and selfish.

  She quickly made her way to the window of her friend’s room and found Texanna lying on her tummy on her bed, looking like she was sleeping. Mandy tapped on the window boldl
y knowing that Mr. Grant was not home. Texanna leaped up and motioned for Mandy to be quiet, frantically looking toward the door.

  “He’s gone. I saw him walk toward town.”

  Texanna’s shoulders sagged in the sudden release of stiffness and she stifled a sniffle. Her eyes were mournful and Mandy was relieved when the window opened.

  Mandy perked her voice and demeanor to lighten the tension. “Hey, you look like you lost your best friend but since that is me and I am here, it can’t be that.”

  Texanna gave her a watery, mournful smile. “Thanks.”

  Mandy was anxious to get her piece in before it got too late in case her friend took her up on her offer. “Hey, I heard the end of what happened today. Do you want to stay with us? Ma says all the time you’d be welcome. I think it is about time we did something to get you away from your pa.”

  Texanna shrugged her shoulders in defeat. “I guess you are right but I don’t want to make trouble for your family and it would. I should just get a husband or leave and go somewhere.”

  “Well, don’t you worry about trouble, my cousin is the marshal. He likes you. He always asks about you when he comes by the house. He’d protect you, I’m sure of it.”

  “Well, let me think about it. I have things I still need to get done and I’m tired. You go home before you are missed and Brock takes after you with his strap.”

  “I will but don’t worry about me catching it with Brock. When I tell him what happened today, he won't strap me. He’s turned into a decent brother.”

  “I wish Ben was here for me. Brothers are good to have. I miss Ben. He used to protect me and keep things smooth when he was home. He took the heat for things and saved me from pa’s wrath all the time. Pa got along with Ben. My ma was right when she said Ben would make sure I was okay. I guess he did it so well, she didn’t have to stay.”

  “He shouldn’t have left you to your pa.”

  “Ben didn’t know it would get so bad after he left. I don’t believe he could have left if he did.”

  “He should have taken you with him.”

  “Nah, he didn’t know if it would be safe or not. He wouldn’t have risked it. He said he would return on my eighteenth birthday but that has come long ago.” Pushing away her wishes, like so many of her hopes and dreams, into the dissipating chimney smoke Texanna said, “Go home. I love you for caring. I’ll get this figured out soon. I promise.”

  “Well, I guess I had better get back home. Now don’t forget we have to help with the baking for the pie social at church. Ma is looking for you at about nine, the day after tomorrow. Afterward, I have something really interesting to show you, so don’t forget.”

  “I won’t.”

  ***

  Marshal Colton McFadden sat looking out the window next to the shared desk he occupied in the part-time Sheriff’s office. Platts was a good sheriff, he just didn’t want to do it all the time. That suited Colton because he liked working for the county judge and covering part-time for the sheriff. He was keeping an eye on the kids and adults alike out and about today. The town was filling up quickly with cattlemen and their straphangers, more every day. He had a few people he was keeping a particular eye on but since Judge Jackson had been gone for two weeks, Colton found that there was little to keep his attention without the judge to send him on tracking forays. It was a good day to track someone down. Hell, any day was a good tracking day.

  He had what folks called good intuition but his mother and grandmother, who also seemed to have possessed the same ability, called it good medicine and wise vision. Whatever it was, it had seen him through a few tight spots in his time. That intuition had been bothering him for a couple of days now. Something big was going to happen but he didn’t know what. Sometimes, he could tell what people were thinking. Not like they were talking to him, but he just knew that is what they were thinking. That usually happened if it were pertaining to himself, important to him.

  He was sharing space with the sheriff while waiting for his own office to be available in the new courthouse under construction next door. It had been a few years since the new cattle drive route sprouted up just after the Civil War. They assembled in Fort Worth, traveling through Oklahoma territory to Wichita Kansas, earning the town the affectionate nickname of Cowtown. Those cattlemen in West Texas were still using the Chisholm Trail and going up toward New Mexico and Colorado. The new route going to the railways in Wichita made the Chisholm Trail no longer the prime cattle drive route.

  Because of it, Fort Worth and the trail just north was bursting at the seams with cattlemen, cowboys, merchants, and drovers looking for a job. It also made it a prime target for those less honorable, but no less industrious men looking for easy money. There was some talk of a railroad coming through Cowtown, and Colton was sure he would rue his desire for more activity then. The women unspoken for as of yet filled the streets by day and those not looking for a man but for his dollar filled the saloons at night. The sheriff had plenty on his plate in this town.

  The one woman who filled Colton’s thoughts this last year and especially these last few months was a lovely young lady by the name of Texanna Rae Grant. His cousin Mandy was a close friend with Texanna and Mandy said the girl was looking for a home of her own and a trustworthy, reliable man to come with that home. The difference was, as a half-breed, he wouldn’t be welcomed if he came calling and asked to court her. He had been thinking about it for a while. He figured he would soon either give up and look elsewhere or take the bull by the horns and court her.

  The bull that he would have to wrestle would be Mr. Grant. He had made no bones about letting everyone know how particular he was to his ‘own kind’ but the word was he didn’t take care of that girl and hadn’t ever in anyone’s memory. His cousin, Brock Joseph had just talked to him before going home last night about how out of control Grant was becoming. He was worried about Grant's daughter, Texanna. Colton had asked Brock if he was sweet on her and was assured he wasn’t. Brock felt more like a brother to her and had been friends with Texanna’s brother, Ben, agreeing to keep an eye out after Ben went out west.

  Texanna’s ma was gone off somewhere long before Colton came around this way and Texanna’s brother, according to the judge, had moved out west, some time ago just as she was becoming a young teen. It left her with what was, now at least, a bitter, angry man but she remained caring and sweet in just about every way he could think of. His lust hoped she wasn’t sweet in every way. A bit of bobcat would suit him fine. Her soft-heartedness was well known. That tenderness appealed to him. He also knew it could be dangerous if you were soft-hearted without guile and naïve, as she seemed to be. She needed a level headed keeper.

  This was another place that his unusual vision medicine was helpful. There were plenty of sidewinders out there. Men who spent their time trying to get a buck they didn’t earn. They had just begun to pop up more and more with the added cattle drives. It seemed that Colton was able to discern if a man was telling the truth or not and that came in handy being a marshal. There were a few instances where he was at a loss and had to rely on his wiles and his gun, but that was proving accurate as well. He was a good shot.

  His gut stood him in good stead usually and often came through when he played poker. It was getting to the place where no one would play him for money and he didn’t blame the man who cautiously declined. He wouldn't play himself for money either, but he loved the game so did it now for fun, mostly. Especially since the time last winter when Colton had sat in on a game in the saloon. Colton just knew that the man playing him had a bad draw and an itchy finger. With high stakes on the table, Colton had called the bluff and reached for his gun while his opponent still had his hand on the handle of his own shooter.

  Colton had held his gun on the man while several others relieved the gentleman of his sidearm and his seat, helping him out the door all the while hearing the accusations of Colton being dishonest. Colton called it an evening, only retrieving the money he had put into
the pot, giving the rest to the community fund.

  As he was walking toward the front of the saloon, waving farewell to a few, he had a strong premonition that his life was in danger. Again, the hair on his neck bristled and his body shuddered. He called a few men over and while several walked out the front doorway, Colton went out the back. He came around the side and took his opponent at cards by surprise. He disarmed him. No, Colton never cheated but he did have too good of a sense of fairness and a strong desire to live a long life so he decided not to play for stakes anymore. His ability to tell if a man or woman was truthful was becoming as well known as his tracking ability.

  He was finding it a bit harder to get a girl to step out with him since that had gotten around, though. He figured it was because they didn’t want any of their fibbing to be caught out. Colton didn’t think that it would stop Texanna though. She seemed to be an honest girl and any time he had spoken to her, she was open and her responses unreserved. That is what a man wanted in a woman but Colton surely did love to lay his hand on a warm, bared bottom for fun. Anything more than that was only for his wife.

  When the war was over, his intent was to rejoin the Rangers. However, it was obvious that things had changed dramatically. The Rangers weren’t immediately reinstated as the policing force, thereby forcing him to throw his lasso in a wider circle. He was never far from a good job so long as he kept his skill and reputation up as a crack shot and an unparalleled tracker. That was where being a half-breed came in handy, lending credence to his celebrated ability. That and he didn’t make the wrong enemies, ensuring his bedfellows were honorable or, at least, predictable. He had gone looking for employment.

  Unfortunately, when the Rangers were finally reinstated, fighting his mother’s people was a primary task on their agenda with one of their main purposes unofficially being to annihilate them. Officially, it was to settle them down onto reservations. However, that particular cause was yet another fight he couldn’t afford to get into. The fight between the Indians and the Whites meant taking a side. He did not intend to take any. Not if he wanted to be in a position to protect his mother and Grandmother. Therefore, to stay clear of the skirmish, Colt knew he needed to align with something else. If he wanted to survive in the changing world, he would need to find his niche and stay in it.