Spanking Tails VI

Daniel lay his cards face down on the green felt table. In Texas Hold-Em it was always good to know when to quit, and he had just reached that moment. He smiled as he watched his opponent pull the pot to him, and then Daniel scooted back his chair.

"You're not leaving already, are you?" one of the other men at the table asked.

Daniel did not make the mistake of thinking it was his fond company that would be missed. He tucked his wallet back into his inside jacket pocket. "I'm sure you'll find a wealthy fifth eager to be plucked back to poverty before my chair has cooled. Have a good night, gentlemen."

Instead of leaving the casino, Daniel stopped at the bar to salve the sting of his losses with a dollop of brandy. As he was waiting for his drink, he glanced up at the TV above the bar, catching only the tail end of the news report being broadcast.

He shook his head. "Looks like they found another letter."

Just setting a glass down in front of him, the Bartender nodded and poured a finger's width of brandy into a glass. "Yep. Killed a congressional representative in Missouri. But at least now they think they know something about whoever's sending them."

"What is it?"

"They're not saying too much about it, except that they've found evidence that suggests it's someone in a government position. Some sort of little telltale thing in the stationary. I don't know forensics, but maybe they'll catch the bastard soon."

"A government employee." Daniel shook his head again, snorting with grim disbelief.

"Or an official, maybe." The bartender arched an eyebrow, nodding meaningfully as he wiped down some glasses.

"Damn."

"I know," the bartender agreed, just as grimly. "Just what this world needs, huh? Some lunatic in power waging biological warfare through the U.S. mail."

Daniel sipped at his drink, staring at the TV and shook his head a final time. Then, paying for his brandy and tipping the bartender, he walked out of the Golden Hills Casino into the hot Las Vegas sun.

The strip that hosted the Golden Hills was a fairly quiet one on the outskirts of the busier tourist rows. There were only three gambling hotels on this particular street, a Shell gas station across the road and a lone chapel, Reverend Love's, sandwiched in between the Golden Hills and the Aces High casinos. A loud boisterous laugh pulled his gaze to a young couple, obviously intoxicated and decked out in full wedding regalia, as they staggered up the front steps. Holding onto one another, they disappeared into the church.

Another bachelor bites the dust. Daniel shook his head in sympathy and headed towards the church. Or, more specifically, towards the alley, which separated the Golden Hills from Reverend Love's and led to the back alley where his car was parked. But just as he was drawing abreast of the alley's entrance, a big, white blur shot out of it and smashed right into him, knocking him clean off his feet. A shrill shriek mingled with his low-throated grunt as he toppled over backwards, landing flat on his back on the sidewalk.

The hot sidewalk.

The very hot and very hard, particularly on his back, sidewalk.

A forehead cracked his forehead and a landslide of white, frilly material washed over his head as the body on his chest slid over the top of him, smothering him in lace and sequins and the somewhat tempting scent of vanilla.

"Aagh!" he said, struggling to get out from under the cloth, batting it out of his face and for a moment revealing a long bare stretch of sun-bronzed thigh.

A very pretty thigh.

A very pretty thigh that culminated, virtually at eye level, into a womanly V that was blocked from his sight only by a slim pair of white panties. He blinked in surprise. "Well hel-lo, beautiful."

The mess of white mesh all around his head began to move as the wearer of those white panties began to fight her way through the cloth to get to him. As the last layer of white was batted away, exposing him once more to the sun, bright green eyes stared down at him in absolute shock.

"Oh my goodness gracious, I'm so terribly sorry!"

Torn between meeting her eyes and meeting her panty line, his natural male proclivities took control and panties won, hands down. More's the pity.

"Not a problem," he said, rather suavely for a man lying on the ground with the hot sidewalk searing through both jacket and shirt to scald his back.

But she wasn't looking at him or even listening at that point. She snapped around to look back down the alley over one bare shoulder and then jumped up to her feet. "Oh my God! Oh my God!"

She ran two steps in one direction, then darted four steps in another, stepping down off the sidewalk as though she intended to cross the street to the gas station without even bothering to check the traffic, light though it was, and then came running back to him. She whined in distress, flapping her hands rapidly up and down like a wedding-gown-clad bird struggling to take flight.

"I've got to hide somewhere! They'll be here any second! I've got to--" She instantly stopped babbling as her eyes fell on Reverend Love's and then she looked at him. Or, more specifically, she looked at the tuxedo he was wearing.

Slowly, his body aching as he moved, Daniel picked himself up off the ground. "They? Who's they?" He didn't like that look in her eyes as she finally raised them to meet his.

"Marry me," she said bluntly.

"What?!" The panties hadn't looked that good! Daniel held up both hands, patting the air between them placatingly, and quickly backed up a step. "Uh, I'm sorry, lady. I really need to go."

"Wait, please!" she begged. "I need you!"

Daniel tried to laugh but the sound stuck in his throat. "Sorry, but I'm not that kind of guy."

"What kind of guy?"

"The marrying kind." He nodded his head toward the chapel, then saluted with two fingers. "Have a nice day."

He pointedly walked around her and into the mouth of the alley, heading for his car. The bright, cherry-red convertible that was the only love of his life.

"They're going to kill me," she suddenly said, clasping her hands in front of her pleadingly. Her mop of bright red curls blew about her face and neck as a slight breeze picked up around them.

He stopped and stared at her. "I'm sorry, does this sort of thing work for you? You just run up and down the street in a wedding gown, proposing to strange men?"

A flash of irritation crossed her face. "I'm a seamstress," she explained. "I made this dress. I was just checking my work when they broke into my shop and started threatening me."

Daniel nodded, not believing a word of it. "I've got to go," he told her, and turned to do just that.

"Please," the redhead begged, clasping her hands in supplication. "Please just ... just help me."

What was it about damsels in distress that just went straight past his head, pierced his heart and turned him into the world's biggest dope? Daniel stopped where he was, frowning at the sidewalk before closing his eyes with a sigh and turning around.

She was a lovely woman, somewhere in her early thirties with a mop of untidy red curls that made her look like a punked-out Little Orphan Annie in a sleeveless, strapless, thoroughly sequined white wedding dress. And here he was in a tuxedo. And here they were standing in front of a church that specialized in impromptu weddings.

He may as well have been born with a huge 'Sucker' sign tattooed on his forehead. He gave her a look that said as much. "They're going to kill you?"

She blinked rapidly to keep back the tears in her eyes. She looked up and down the strip, and then sidled up to him. "Please, I need your help. If they find me, believe me, they will kill me. Please."

"Who's they?"

"It's a very long and complicated story," she hedged.

He smiled. "Not nearly long enough or complicated enough to get me into the church without first hearing it."

From somewhere in the parking lot all the way down on the far side of the alley, there was an odd sound. The woman jumped, and although he wasn't sure he believed her excuse for wanting to get him into Reverend Love's, there was no denying that her face turned as white as her gown.

"It's them," she whispered.

He turned to look down the empty alley, half shrouded in shadow from the tall buildings, the concrete down at the opposite end rippling in the heat of the sun. For a brief moment, she clutched his arm with a trembling hand and then whirled around, her white skirts flying out behind her as she dashed up the chapel steps.

"I don't love you, and I'm not getting married," Daniel called after her.

"I don't love you, either!" she snapped back, casting him barely more than an irritated glance as she flung open the door and disappeared inside.

Yeah, sure someone was going to kill her, he thought.

Catching the glimpse of movement out of the corner of his eyes, he turned to look back down the alley. Two men in dark suits and sunglasses were coming from the parking lot towards him. They paused to poke behind boxes and when the taller of the two stopped to look in the casino's dumpster, the breeze caught his coat and Daniel glimpsed the unmistakable glint of a gun sticking out of a holster.

Sucker he might be, but he wasn't a total fool.

Daniel ducked out of the entrance of the alley before they noticed him. He didn't think twice about following Orphan Annie up the chapel steps.