A Contract Bride's Triple Surprise (20 page)

“Thank you,” he said and kissed her bare shoulder. “Seeing us share you is helping Gillis get better.” He walked past her to the stream and sat down, huffing at the cold.

“I can’t believe I did that!”

Amelia bit her lip as she finished buttoning up her dress. She tried to smooth the wrinkles, but it would need a good wash and ironing. Auntie and Tillie would know she’d taken her dress off but not with whom. “I wouldn’t even have taken off my dress if I knew he was near.”

Ross stood up, as shriveled as Nevin had been. “We could have done that without taking off your dress.” He slicked his hands over his body, skimming the water from his skin. “One of these days, I’m going to press you against a wall and lift your skirts.”

She watched his cock stir to life.

“I think it’s time I started wearing a kilt. No buttons to undo or pants to trip over.”

His cock grew, stretching down his thigh. He took it in his hand and lifted it.

“How about a kiss before dinner, wife?”

Chapter Eighteen

“You sure you don’t want company? I could use a trip to town,” said Nevin to Ross. He let the axe land on the chopping block so he could wipe his face. “Even better, how ’bout I take Amelia to get her boots, and you fill the woodbox.”

Ross sucked his teeth as he shook his head. “I want some time alone with my wife.”

“You have her every night,” groused Nevin. He set a chunk of alder on the maple block. He picked up the axe and swung hard in an arc. The axe split the wood with a loud crack. Two stove-size pieces fell to the ground. He had to push down on the handle to get the axe to release.

“I want her to be the one to ask for you to join us rather than us encouraging her.”

Nevin
set up another chunk of wood. “I know. Doesn’t make it easier to listen to the two of you go at it each night.” The axe hit again, just as hard. “I don’t know how Gil can stand it.”

“He knows we put up with it for years with him and Prue.”

“That was our choice.”

“And Gil is choosing to leave Amelia alone.”

Nevin looked up at his slightly older brother. “You saw him watching her the other day in the clearing. The kilt might hide his hard-on, but the rest of his body showed he wanted her.” He rolled out his shoulders, stretching the muscles. “Not all of his pain is because you have Amelia and he doesn’t have Prue.”

“I asked. He says he’s not ready to share my wife.”

“That’s his mouth talking. And I don’t mean just his cock wants her. You told me holding Amelia at night was almost as good as the sex.”

Ross nodded. He’d never before known what it was like to hold someone in the night. Amelia not only held him back, she depended on him. Knowing that made him work hard all day just to come home to her welcoming smile. He’d sworn he’d not get sucked into that trap, but he had. He’d enjoy it as long as he could then pass her on to Nevin.

“I don’t know what that’s like, but Gil does. He won’t heal until a woman holds him to her breast and lets him cry.”

“Where did that bit of wisdom come from?”

Nevin bent over to stack the wood he’d split. Ross waited patiently. Before Amelia, no female had ever held him to his breast to comfort him. Not that he needed any comforting these days. He desperately wanted it as a child, though. He couldn’t remember his mother holding him while he nursed, but who would? He did remember Father and his older brothers making sure he wouldn’t be a sissy. He had a few scars from those lessons.

But comfort from a woman? The first night when Amelia fell asleep on his chest, trusting him, he kept still so she wouldn’t move. Something in his soul began melting that night. A woman could weaken a man, making him want to take him in her body no matter what. Amelia’s soft sighs, the way her arms wrapped around him in sleep after he’d fully pleasured her, was life-changing. Losing that would turn his life a dark gray. That was what Gillis remembered and thought he’d never have again.

Nevin stood up. He rested the axe head on his boot and stared Ross in the eye. “I asked Lily. She said he’ll eventually get over Prudence dying, but he’ll need help.”

Ross looked up into the mountains. He wouldn’t be free until the men he sought roasted in hell. The need for vengeance was the only thing that kept him going. Then Amelia showed up in that dim hotel room.

“Whatever it is, I’ll do it.”

It was Nevin’s turn to look up and away. Ross waited until he sighed and turned back.

“It’s not you he needs. It’s Amelia. And Lily said it’s not the sex. We all know why he won’t go near the house after supper. But Lily said if he could hold Amelia and have her hold him, they could both grieve.”

“How the hell are we going to find a way to leave Amelia all alone here overnight?”

“I don’t know. Maybe Lily’s wrong, and he’ll come around.”

“You know how stubborn he is.”

Nevin nodded. “Almost as stubborn as you.”

* * * *

Amelia, wearing going-to-town underthings, settled on the wagon seat and smoothed her dress over her knees. It took her an hour yesterday to find the right dress in her trunks. Something good enough for town but not too fancy. The blue gown with strips of tiny pink roses gave her a lift, yet it wasn’t so fancy the other women would think she put on airs.

A half hour this morning with the sad irons made sure the store-bought white lace ruffles stood out from her bodice. Two petticoats fluffed out the skirt. Her corset supported her chest. Going without a corset when the wagon swayed and thudded over the rutted road was not comfortable.

“Don’t think you can haul me in your lap and kiss me,” she instructed Ross. “No playing until the way home. I don’t want to get all mussed up and have the townsfolk think I’m a hoyden.”

“You’re married to the MacDougal Devil. Not much you could do to make things worse.”

“What if I tore off my clothes and strutted down the center of the street?” She glanced at his groin. The erection that had poked her during their get-in-the-wagon kiss had grown.

“That’s one way I could come into town without anyone noticing me.” He drew on the reins to ensure the horses didn’t go too fast downhill. “Of course, I’d have to kill every man jack of them for looking at my wife.”

“Hmph! Nevin and Gillis, too?”

“Nah,” he drawled. “They’ve already seen you in nothing but your boots and wide smiles, top and bottom.”

She flushed at the reminder. Every time she thought of that sunny afternoon, her thighs got wet. All the way home, she’d dreaded Auntie and Tillie knowing what she and Ross must have been doing. But Tillie smiled and sighed, saying she couldn’t wait for her man to return.

When Amelia apologized to Auntie for not being there to do more of the work, it took her a while to figure out Auntie’s reply. Only while folding the clothes did she realize Auntie meant her first job was to grow babies. Auntie didn’t mind what she did with any of the brothers, as long as she made babies.

Auntie must have told Nevin the same thing. This morning, he looked at her like he wanted to bend her over and take her like Ross had. It made her hot. Worse, the man knew it. He saw her nipples harden and the way the heat flowed up her face. He winked, and she knew he was silently saying, “Anytime you want, I’m ready for more.”

Was she ready? Her body certainly thought so.

A hand snuck under her dress and between her legs. Needy from Nevin’s heated looks and Ross’s kiss, she opened her thighs. When his fingers slid between the slit in her knickers, they both groaned.

“Damn, woman, you’re wetter than a cat caught in an August thunderstorm.”

She leaned back and tilted her bottom, wanting more of his callused fingers.

“You’re remembering how Nev sucked your clit when I bent you over that log.”

He chuckled when she clenched his fingers.

“If you want more of Nev, you have to ask for it. He won’t come to our bed otherwise. He wants you, bad. But it has to be your choice.”

He rubbed her clit, making her gasp as the tension coiled in her. She imagined Nevin licking her clit while Ross waited to pound. She moaned, wanting more, but he pulled his hand out.

“Don’t stop,” she pleaded, no longer caring about wrinkles.

“Don’t want to mess up your clothes on the way to town.” He smirked at her.

“You’re making me crazy on purpose!”

She wiggled on the seat, rubbing her thighs together. He nudged the horses to speed up. They were on flat land next to the river, so it was easy going. The rumble of the wagon sent a vibration through her bones that wound her up even more.

He pretended to ignore her though she saw the hard-on pressing against his pants. He had threatened to wear a kilt to town but backed out at the last minute. She smiled at him having to suffer as well. She’d flirt with him in town. On the way home, she’d let him take care of her needs.

* * * *

Amelia’s new boots clunked on the boardwalk as she hurried toward the hotel. The hollow sound wasn’t as crisp as her heeled boots, but practicality had to win over fashion. Hemming her skirts up two inches meant her toes stuck out with every quick step. The advantage was she’d not have to wash the bottom six inches of her dress when it rained. She turned right at the hotel, following the path between red brick and the squared timbers of the bank.

Her objective, the privy, waited behind the building. Next time she went to town, she’d not have a large cup of tea for breakfast followed by another with Patsy Tanner. The heavy tread of a man’s boots made her pause. He entered the privy and shut the door.

She hurried past and climbed the stairs to the second floor balcony, holding her skirts high to move faster. She’d never heard of a two-story privy but was very glad of it today. Ahead of her, the open door beckoned. She heaved a sigh of relief and rushed forward. She bolted the door, grateful that the tiny room was deeper and therefore gave her more room to lift her skirts without wrinkling them too badly.

Five minutes later, she washed her hands in the basin Sophie McLeod kept on a rough board table by the hotel’s back door. Now that her urgent business was taken care of, she took a moment to look around. The rattle of wagons and noise of people was subdued here at the back of town. The smell of horse dung was as strong as out front, and the privy added to it.

The hotel was deeper than the other buildings. From the corner of the verandah, she could see what lay behind each establishment. Baldy’s Saloon, to her far right, had a pile of broken barrels and other garbage on the far side of the open back door. A small man followed a broom out the door. She recognized the sound of the broken bottles he swept the side of the step. His hairless head suggested he was the owner.

Next door to her right, close to the street, was the small assay office, then the bank. Neither had a back door or side windows. She hadn’t been in either building yet. With no gold or money of her own, she had no need. The banker’s home was next.

To her far left was Miss Lily’s two-story business. A heavy wagon pulled by mules was parked by the door. Two men strained to unload wooden boxes. She couldn’t read the words printed but expected they contained liquor. A big woman followed them out of the building and began arguing, gesturing at two more boxes and pointing inside. Rosa was hard at work, managing Lily’s business as if it was her own.

Amelia descended the stairs, wanting to get back to the mercantile before Ross returned. He’d told her not to walk down the street without him, but she couldn’t have waited a moment longer. She reached the bottom and turned to her right. A hand grabbed her around the waist and pulled her around the corner. Before she could scream, another covered her mouth. She flailed out with her right hand. It caught the corner of the brick, scraping her knuckles.

The man pulled her back to his chest. She inhaled the stink of old sweat, tobacco, and fresh whiskey. He held her mouth so she couldn’t see his face. She struggled, kicking out with her new boots, but he just grunted when her heel connected.

“Stay still, or I’ll use my knife.”

She immediately stopped struggling.

“Ya shouldn’t’a married an Injun when they’s white men goin’ wantin’.”

She gagged when the smell of his whispered words passed her nose.

“I kin show ya what a real man does to a woman.” He ground against her clenched buttocks. “Feel that? White meat waitin’ fer ya.” He inhaled deeply. “Mmm, yer gonna be mine. Me and my pardner, we’ll show ya.” He banged his groin against her in a disgusting parody of what she shared with Ross. “Ye’ll soon be a widder, and mine. And don’t tell about this warnin’ or I’ll kill yer sister’s brat.”

He pushed her forward. She stumbled on the rough ground. When she caught her balance and turned, the passage was empty. She leaned her back against the rough brick to catch her breath. She brushed away furious tears. She would not be scared by the ridiculous threats of a coward.

Beth had stood her ground and defended herself against three men determined to hurt her. She’d even shot two of them! Though the man who hired them, Big Joe Sheldrake, was still around, Beth hadn’t been hurt since.

Ross said the MacDougals came from a long line of warriors. She was part of that line now. God willing, she’d produce strong sons and daughters to carry the proud name forward into the future.