Chapter 11
A fter Christmas lunch at his dad’s, Ben and Dottie, along with Angus and Poppy, were headed across country towards Neamh on snowmobiles. He and Dottie were on her new Polaris and Angus and Poppy were on Angus’s big Artic Cat. It was probably a thirty-minute ride one way. Dottie wanted to show everyone at Neamh her new Christmas present and wish them all a Merry Christmas. They could have dropped by in a truck within 15 minutes to engage in holiday pleasantries, but this was much more fun.
It was a beautiful day out, cold and clear with eight new inches of snow for the runners to purr smoothly through.
“This is so much fun, Ben,” Dottie yelled over her shoulder.
“Aye, it is fun, especially snuggling the crazy driver,” he teased back. “Remember what I said, Dottie, ye need to follow Dad or listen carefully to me. There are several ponds and small lochs around and if ye don’t know the landmarks, ye could end up in one.”
“Aren’t they frozen?”
“Aye, the shallow ones are. And even the bigger ones are frozen on top by this time, but ye don’t know fer sure how deep the freeze goes. These snowmobiles weigh several hundred pounds without our combined weight.”
The world around them was something Ben was used to; he’d been roaming these hills all his life, in all kinds of weather. But Dottie hadn’t been herding sheep like he had and the pitfalls weren’t something she was familiar with. Sometimes landscapes changed in the winter with the amount of snow that fell in the highlands. Things could look different, even to the trained eye. His Dottie was impulsive and that sometimes landed her in unwanted situations. Like paying for the Christmas dishes for the holidays.
“I’m following yer dad, don’t worry so much.” She threw him a grin over her shoulder. Then she suddenly pointed. “Oh look, Ben. A red fox.” She veered a few feet off course in her excitement.
Ben grabbed her elbows. “Easy, honey. Stay in the trail Dad’s leaving.”
“I am,” she insisted, turning back to the right. “I need to get out more than I do. I love seeing the animals. The red fur against the snow is gorgeous. Can ye take some pictures with yer phone?”
“And go tumbling off the back when ye divert directions? No thank ye. Holding onto ye is what keeps me on.”
She shot him a half-lidded look. “Maybe that’s the idea.”
He leaned in close to the back of her neck and whispered, “Ye’ll pay fer that later, missy.”
She giggled. “My name is not Missy.”
As they rounded a stand of trees, the first view of Neamh’s buildings came into view. “Look, honey, there’s Neamh’s beehives,” Ben pointed out.
“How do the bees live in winter? I knew Darro had hives, but I’ve never seen one before. Living in the suburbs of Inverness, ye miss out on all this.” She waved one hand about.
“Except fer checking to make sure they have enough honey to eat through the winter, ye just let them be,” Ben replied. “Dad used to have a few beehives but fer some reason he got stung a lot, so he just gets our honey from Darro.”
Dorothy giggled. “Didn’t they like his pheromones?”
“Maybe too much. After a few climbed down the back of his pants he finally quit trying.”
Dorothy’s musical laugh rang out. “I can just see that, yer dad dancing around. Why didn’t he wear those beekeeper suits to keep the bees off?”
Ben loved her laugh; it always made him feel good to know she was happy.
“Always said he didn’t need them.”
“Ha!” She glanced back at him again, a mischievous twinkle in her eye. “I want to get to Neamh first. Let’s race. Is it clear enough that I can just run right past yer dad?”
“Aye, if ye stay to the...”
The rest of his words were lost when Dottie suddenly gunned the snowmobile and it leaped to the left with an amazing burst of speed and power. “Woot!” Dottie exclaimed as they whipped past a startled Angus who suddenly looked very concerned.
Ben grabbed both her elbows and yelled into her ear over the high thrum of the engine. “Dottie, no! “Veer right...hit the brakes...ye’ll be on ice!”
To her credit, Dottie did immediately try to brake and swerve right, but she was going too fast the make a sharp turn and Ben knew they weren’t going to miss the loch. The Polaris was incredibly fast. When the snowmobile went into a sideways slide, he grabbed Dottie around the waist and pulled them both off the skidding machine to land in the deep snow and roll a few feet. They both sat up and watched as the Polaris kept sliding until it slowly came to a spinning stop about thirty feet out, and then they heard the cracks in the ice. They were almost like pistol shots as they rang out in the clear air.
Angus pulled to a stop and leaped off his Artic Cat. “Are ye all right, Ben? Either one of ye hurt?”
Ben was breathing hard, his arms still around Dottie as she lay panting back against him. “Are ye all right, Dottie?” he echoed his father’s distress as he turned her in his arms to inspect her. Except for a few scratches that were bleeding on one side of her face, she looked okay.
“I think so,” Dottie sniffed, the tears forming in her eyes. Her hands were shaking as she took off her glove and wiped her face. Another loud crack drew her attention back to the Polaris and she tried to jump up. “My snowmobile,” she wailed.
Another loud crack and they watched helplessly as one back runner of the Polaris dipped down. Dottie started toward it but Ben caught her arm and pulled her back. “Are ye crazy? The ice is thinner in the middle and ye’ll be pulled under.”
“He’s right, Dottie,” Angus said gravely. “But we can try to save it.” He turned around and dug into the big bin attached to the Artic Cat and pulled out a coil of rope. “Stand back.”
Ben, Poppy, and Dottie all moved away to give Angus room. “Poppy, call Darro and tell him to bring some ropes out on snowmobiles immediately. And maybe send a truck. Even if we manage to get this thing out of the water, it may not be drivable.”
The other back runner suddenly began a very slow dip and the Polaris weaved back and forth like a drunk trying to sit on a small stump. Dottie screamed.
Angus walked out about six more feet and whirled the large loop around his head and sent it spinning towards the Polaris. It landed neatly around both handle bars and he yanked it tight. Then he suddenly dug his feet in and yelled. “Help me, Ben, she’s tryin’ to go under.”
Ben rushed to his dad’s side and grabbed the rope below Angus’s fingers and they both pulled.
“I can help, Dottie yelled and started forward, but Poppy grabbed her arm as Ben yelled. “Nay, Dottie! We don’t need more weight out here; we are already on ice. Ye and Poppy both need to stay back.”
“I don’t think we can pull her out, lad, the ice is splittin’ more and soon her belly will be in the water,” Angus said, his breath puffing from the exertion of holding the machine out of the sucking water.
“Mayhap we can hold it until help gets here,” Ben replied heavily, glancing towards Neamh. He could see the small figures of snowmobiles with their riders heading out from behind Neamh’s barns. His upper lip was beading up with sweat in spite of the cold. Every time they tried to pull, the runners wouldn’t come up and he had to assume there was heavy ice weighing them down. They must have slipped beneath it when they went in.
Angus nodded. “We can try, but we both know if our feet start slidin’, we’ll be pulled in with it if we don’t let go.”
“I know, Dad. I just want to save it if we can, fer Dottie’s sake.”
“We’ll try, lad, that’s all we can do. Just hold her stable fer now.”
“Isn’t there anything we can do?” Dottie yelled, wringing her hands. “What about tying the rope to the Artic Cat?”
Angus looked over his shoulder. “I only have the one rope, but even if we could, there’s no way one of us could let go long enough to tie it. It’s takin’ everythin’ we’ve got just to keep it above water,” he shot back at her.
“Why isn’t it coming out, honey?” Poppy asked Angus.
“The runners are stuck under the ice.”
Ben could see the snowmobiles getting larger and hear their high-pitched whine indicating they were running at full speed. His arms were starting to get a bit shaky by the time they finally arrived. It seemed like forever but in fact it had only been about 10 minutes or so. And then they were there and Darro and Bubs jumped off.
“Hold on, lads,” Darro thundered and Ben knew he was assessing the situation and deciding what to do. When the whir of a rope whizzed past him and his dad, he watched as the large loop settled over the handle bars of the snowmobile. Then another landed above that one.
“Bubs and I are tied off to our snowmobiles and are going to start backing up. Angus, ye and Ben let go and get out of there when I give ye the go ahead. I don’t want that machine suddenly pulling out and running right over ye.”
“Aye, boss,” Angus yelled over his shoulder. “Just say when.”
The engine pitch on the two big Artic Cats accelerated and they all watched as the Polaris started slowly moving forward. The ice cracked under its belly as it inched through it like an ice-breaker ship clearing the Artic Sea. Then it began an upward slide.
“Now, Angus,” Darro yelled.
Ben and Angus dropped the rope and ran towards Dottie and Poppy. Ice chunks flipped up behind the Polaris and landed in swirling dervishes across the surface of the snow.
They all stood back as steady pressure from Darro and Bubs slowly pulled the Polaris forward until it was off the loch and on firm ground.
***
D ottie was feeling faint from shock and relief. “I can’t ride it, can I?” she asked in a wobbly voice as they all walked over to inspect it. Now that the danger was past, she could feel disapproval washing off Ben in waves. To put it mildly, he was furious.
Darro shook his head. “Nay, the runners in the back busted away from the mainframe from the ice when it came up. They will need to be replaced. From the smell of petrol, the fuel tank may be compromised as well. I’ll have Joe bring a truck around and we’ll load it up. Where do ye want it? Neamh or Thistlewind?” He punched a text message in his phone and then dropped it back in his pocket.
Ben nodded to Darro. “Take it to Thistlewind, please,” he growled. “I’ll work on it when I have some spare time.”
Darro glanced at the scratches on Dottie’s face. “Are ye two all right? I take it ye bailed when ye hit the ice?”
“Aye. Dottie went left instead of right in her hurry to beat Dad to Neamh,” he replied with a smoldering glance towards her.
Dottie could feel the pink stealing into her cheeks. “I didn’t hear ye say that,” she protested.
“If ye’d listened to the rest of my instructions instead of gunning the snowmobile, ye would have heard it,” Ben snapped.
Darro glanced between Ben and Dottie, and then back toward Neamh. “Here comes Joe now. Why don’t ye and Dottie take Bub’s snowmobile up to the house and he can wait here fer Joe. I’ve already sent fer Doc MacCandish to check ye both over.”
Evan MacCandish was Whipcord’s brother and Darro’s uncle. Doc had preferred medicine to sheep and had left Neamh to seek his own path when he and Whipcord were young men. Whipcord had stayed with Neamh.
“That’s not necessary,” Dottie protested.
Ben shot her a warning look. “It is necessary, ye took quite a tumble, Dottie. Ye need to be checked over.”
Dottie opened her mouth then closed it again and nibbled on her thumb through her glove. Now would not be a good time to argue. She walked meekly with Ben to Bub’s snowmobile and climbed on behind him. Her hips signaled the fall she had taken with a few sharp pains here and there. A headache was beginning to form and her neck and shoulders felt tight and tense.
She laid her face against Ben’s broad back as he took off and tried to remember what he’d said. After she asked him if it was a clear shot, he’d said aye. Frowning, she suddenly remembered he had said something else but it was lost in the noise of the rpms as the engine accelerated. She’d taken him at the ‘aye’ and that was it.
Oh. My. Gawd. She was in trouble. Again.
***
S everal hours later , Dottie was home and trying to relax beneath a hot shower. They had gone on to Neamh after the accident and Doc MacCandish had given her a clean bill of health with a caution to take it easy for a few days. They had also eaten some holiday leftovers with everyone there. Finally, Poppy and Angus had gone home by snowmobile and Ben had borrowed one of Neamh’s trucks to bring them home. Now here she was, stalling getting out because she knew what was coming. Ben had warned her on the way home that she would be getting a spanking for ignoring his instructions. Nibbling on her thumb and pouting hadn’t done anything to change his mind either. When had her easy-going husband became so implacable?
She sighed. Going over Ben’s lap for a hard spanking wasn’t the way she wanted to end Christmas day. There was one more surprise she’d kept in store for him and a paddling would put a huge damper on it.
When the shower door suddenly opened and Ben stepped inside, she stared mutely up at him. His handsome face was stern as he stared back down at her. “Stalling, Dottie?”
She didn’t answer, she just nodded slightly like the coward she was.
“Then let’s just get this over with.” He took the bath brush from its hook on the wall and slapped it against his hand.
Dottie swallowed and nibbled on her thumb. “Please, Ben, not with that.” She pointed at the hardbacked, wooden brush. “I’m sorry I didn’t listen to the rest of what ye had to say. I was just so excited,” she tried to explain.
“I know,” Ben said sternly. “But it’s not as if this is the first time ye have blown me off. It just happens to be the one time that could have gotten ye killed. What if ye had been alone on that snowmobile? The thought of ye sinking below that icy dark water is giving me nightmares in broad daylight. No win is worth yer life, Dottie.”
Tears filled her eyes. “I know,” she whispered. “I’m sorry, Ben, I should have listened closer. Ye could have been killed too if ye hadn’t pulled us both off.”
His eyes softened only slightly. “Turn around and bend over, Dottie. If this is what it takes to make sure ye mind me when yer safety is concerned, then I’ll do it. I’m going to give ye ten with this brush and it’s going to hurt. I don’t like hurting ye, but I can’t lose ye either.”
“Ben...please,” she begged.
“Eleven, Dottie,” he said sternly, his eyebrows drawing down. “Do as I ask or I’ll add one more each time ye refuse. Ye aren’t getting out of this, so place yer hands on the front ridge of the tub and don’t get up.”
Realizing her husband wasn’t going to be swayed with her tears, Dottie finally turned around and bent down to place her hands on the edge of the tub against the shower surround. The last thing she wanted was more spanks added to the count. Her dad had swatted her a few times with a bath brush similar to the one Ben was holding and it stung like crazy. And that was over her jeans.
The hot water beat down her back and over her buttocks and her face was out of the stream so she could breathe just fine, but she felt completely exposed to his gaze and that darned brush. He was right, this was going to hurt, especially on her bare wet skin.
“Thank ye, Dottie. I don’t want to make this worse than it already is,” he said gruffly.
“Please don’t...” she tried again but she felt his arm slide around her waist and his body position over her to keep her from standing up. Then, a sharp pain exploded in her buttocks leaving her gasping and dancing on her toes. “Ouch! Oh!”
“Ye didn’t wait fer me to finish, Dottie. I told ye to veer right and ye jumped on the throttle so fast ye didn’t hear it all,” he scolded, his tone resolute.
Another hard swat landed in the middle of both cheeks in the same place and Dottie shrieked. “I know, I’m sorry.”
Two more swats landed, one on each cheek separately and Dottie was sure she was creating steam from the water sluicing over her backside. She burst into noisy hot tears when two more smacked her cringing bottom.
“Promise me ye won’t do that again,” Ben scolded, landing three more spanks in quick succession.
“Nay, I won’t,” Dottie screamed, wiggling and stamping her feet. She kept trying to stand up but she couldn’t get past Ben’s strong arm.
“Last two, Dottie.”
The last two seemed harder than all the others and Dottie’s knees nearly buckled, but Ben immediately dropped the bath brush and pulled her up into his arms. She sobbed wildly into his neck, still dancing from the burning pain. This was way worse than a hand spanking over his lap.
He reached around and began rubbing her hot, tenderized flesh. Between the water and his soothing palms, the sting slowly began to recede. There was a deep ache down in her buttocks that wasn’t though. She knew she would feel the results of this spanking for a few days.
“I love ye so much,” he whispered hoarsely into her ear. “I wish I hadn’t had to do that. Let’s get ye dried off and into bed. Ye need some rest.”
Still sobbing, Dottie allowed him to help her out of the tub and get towel dried, then he wiped himself down and took her into the bedroom. There he took one of his t-shirts out of the dresser and slipped it over her head.
Dottie was so incredibly tired and sad. Her bottom ached and her heart ached along with it. She’d ruined their Christmas and there was nothing she could do to change that. And Ben’s disappointment with her was the pervading emotion in the room.
He pulled the covers back and tucked her into the bed.
“Are ye still mad at me?” she asked plaintively.
He shook his head. “Of course I’m not mad, ye just scared me half to death, Dottie.”
“Aren’t ye going to lie down with me?”
“Aye, I’ll just take this towel back to the bathroom and get dried off first. Ye stay right there.”
Images of his naked buttocks flashing her as he left the room made her even sadder because before he’d turned to leave, she’d seen his front view hiding from her. He must be more upset than she realized, even though he wasn’t admitting it. A tear slipped down her cheek.
When she suddenly started awake, Dottie realized two things. She’d fallen asleep...and Ben wasn’t in the bed beside her. She glanced over at the bedside clock. It was 10:00 p.m. She’d been asleep for over two hours. Where was her husband?
Gingerly she stretched and rolled over, wincing when her bottom came in contact with the bed as she sat up. Tiptoeing to the door, she opened it silently and padded down the hallway. She could hear the T.V. so Ben must be watching a movie. Why hadn’t he come to bed with her?
When she peeked around the corner, she could tell he didn’t have a shirt on, his broad shoulders were bare. Then he lifted a glass to his lips and she realized it must be the Scotch his dad had given him for Christmas. He was drinking alone...on Christmas night. And what was that he’d said about having nightmares in broad daylight about her going under the icy dark water?
Shuddering, Dottie turned around and marched silently back to the bathroom in her bedroom and stared at herself in the mirror. Ben’s t-shirt hung down to mid-thighs, her hair was totally messed up from sleeping on it wet, and she looked like hell. She shook her finger at herself in the mirror.
“Ye ruined Christmas day, but mayhap ye can still salvage something from it.” It was time to make it up to her husband for being such a brat today. He was right, she had trod right over what he was saying earlier, and she had blown him off before. She needed to do better.
Lifting the t-shirt, she checked the status of her buttocks. Very tender and still pink and red in places, but she didn’t see any bruising. He hadn’t smacked her as hard as he could have, for which she was thankful.
Grabbing her hairbrush and some styling gel, she spent the next few minutes dampening her hair and brushing it into its usual soft waves flowing down her shoulders. Quickly she applied eye make-up the way Toni had shown her for the exotic harem look. Then she dug in the bottom drawer in the bedroom and pulled out the two-piece costume that she had bought for her belly dance. Finally, she stood in front of the full-length mirror on the back of the bedroom door and critically assessed herself. It was time to give Ben some new images to sleep on.
She was ready to save Christmas!
***
B en sat quietly on the sofa nursing his drink and staring at the Grinch on the big screen above the fireplace. He wasn’t seeing the movie though; he was thinking about Dottie.
When he’d gone back to the bedroom, she was already asleep. He knew if he climbed in with her, her lithe little body would arouse him and he didn’t want to disturb her rest. He hadn’t seen any bruises on her, their heavy outerwear and the snow had shielded both of them from the worst of the roll off the snowmobile. Thank heavens.
He pinched his nose between his eyes once more trying to stop the replay his mind was set on of the Polaris slowly sliding beneath the dark waters under the ice. It could have been Dottie going down with it. He took another drink.
He also felt guilty because he had to spank her on Christmas day. Her thumbs would never have survived a postponement though. Still, it was a crappy way to end a beautiful holiday.
“Ben, don’t turn around please. Can ye turn off the television though? I still have one more Christmas secret I’ve been keeping from ye.”
Ben stiffened. “Another indiscretion?” he asked, his heart sinking. He really didn’t want to spank her again.
She giggled. “Nay, this is one of yer presents...the last one.”
His breath left his body in a relieved sigh when he heard that mischievous giggle. Picking up the remote, he turned the television off. “Okay, it’s off. Can I turn around now?”
“Nay, just stay as ye are.”
The lights dimmed and he could hear her fiddling with something. Suddenly a slow beating drum music began to play like something out of Arabian Nights. What was she up to? She came in from the left, gliding past the Christmas tree dressed like Barbara Eden in ‘I Dream of Jeannie’ from the seventies. Her body was undulating and her hands and fingers were moving in a sinuous rhythm. His gaze was drawn to her naked belly as she swayed and dipped before him, his mouth so dry he couldn’t even speak. Greedily he drank her in as his boxers suddenly sprang into an instant tent.
She took off the scarf from around her head as she danced, using it to swirl around her and lift her breasts to his lascivious gaze.
As his lass danced before him, the images that had been plaguing him all afternoon slipped away. He knew Dottie loved to dance, but he had no idea she was this good. How the heck did she make her stomach muscles do the suggestive things they were doing? The blood was rushing to both of his heads and liquid flames were racing through his bloodstream. He wasn’t sure how much more torture he could stand before he threw her to the carpet and ravaged her.
At last, she sailed through the air towards him in a graceful leap with both legs stretched out, then immediately dropped to her knees before him and wrapped her scarf around his tenting tadger.
“I am yours, master,” she purred, dropping her gaze in a submissive gesture and resting her hands on her thighs.
Ben grabbed the scarf and leaned forward to tie it around her wrists. “Up, slave. Yer master has need of ye this evening,” he growled, getting completely into the scenario she had started.
“Yer wish is my command,” she replied huskily, and stood up.
Ben picked her up and strode with her to the bedroom where he dropped her on the bed. Then he pulled the scarf above her head to secure her arms to the head rail. “Now ye’ll be completely at my mercy.”
When he dropped his boxers and leaned one knee on the bed beside her she spoke softly, her gorgeous eyes shining up at him. “Merry Christmas, Ben.”
“Merry Christmas to ye too, honey,” he husked as he drank her in like a parched man in the desert drinks at an oasis. “Ye are all I’ve ever wanted or needed. I love ye more than ye could possibly imagine.”
She smiled and the image of her in that harem outfit with her hands submissively tied above her head was printed indelibly in his memories. He couldn’t wait to take it off and see her completely naked and at his mercy.
“I love ye too, darling.”
By the time midnight rolled around and Christmas was over, he and Dottie were just falling asleep. Gone were the horrific images of the accident. His dreams were filled with sensuous images of his wife dancing and leaping in front of the fireplace near their Christmas tree. Her submission had been so sweet. With his Dottie wrapped safely in his arms, her body naked and soft against his hard length, Ben’s world was complete.
Best. Christmas. Ever.
***