Page 30 of Their Wanted Bride (Bridgewater Brides 1)

I drew my hand back, giving up my protests. This was what they wanted of me, and I’d promised to obey. Besides, I was sure they wouldn’t let anyone see me like this.

Bare as the day I was born, I reheated breakfast, thankful they allowed me an apron for the chore. When everything was ready, they took it away again. Seated on Justin’s lap, they fed me, teasing me with glancing touches that never went where I needed them most. By the time we finished eating, I was a panting mess and there was a wet spot on Justin’s trousers.

Although I expected them to give up our tantalizing games, they didn’t. After three days suffering their temptation, I was ready to burst! Although they always satisfied me in bed after sundown, my days were spent naked with a plug in my bottom, and I was never left alone. While one worked, the other would tease me to distraction, fucking me with that infernal plug.

They had me so muddled and turned around, I’d barely thought about Prince in days, or how I planned to feed three people with dwindling supplies. I decided to put my foot down and make them cease their maddeningly provocative behavior.

Unfortunately, the thought scurried away like a startled chipmunk when Caleb crooked a finger and pointed at the floor between his splayed knees. I knelt before him, addled and addicted to his taste and touch, just as I was for Justin’s.

JUSTIN

* * *

I stroked the tangled mess of red hair away from Maddy’s face, smiling fondly. We’d driven her to distraction for several days, finally quieting her protests of needing to work. She didn’t have to though. We wanted her to have a life of ease and comfort.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t Maddy’s way, and despite her sensual bliss, she grew restless.

“We have to let her go,” Caleb murmured, his voice barely audible.

I stiffened and bristled, then realized he meant we had to release her from our games and let her work. Aside from that, whoever wasn’t with Maddy was doing the labor of two men. We wouldn’t be able to keep up much longer, and we did need her help.

The list of things she was capable of, spat at us like bullets over supper the night we claimed her as ours, itched at both of us. As much as we wanted her safe and comfortable, she wouldn’t be happy, and she’d been right. We needed her. Smiling down at her wistfully, I acknowledged the thought that we needed her more than she needed us. She made us a family.

Leaning close, I kissed her, inhaling her sweet perfume. “Ready to wake up, darling?”

“A few more minutes,” she muttered, burying her face in my chest.

“We thought you might like to see Prince,” Caleb said. “I’m sure he misses you.”

“Dressed?” She cracked an eye open and glared at us.

“Yes, and you should pick a saddle from the barn.”

Sitting up, she stretched, revealing the knobs of her spine. “No plug today?”

“No. Not today. We thought you might like to ride out.”

Leaping from the bed, Maddy rummaged in her satchel for a clean dress and pulled it over her head. Scant seconds later, she was in the kitchen and reheating beans for our breakfast. She shoveled food into her mouth, clearly in a hurry to get outside. Her impatience was obvious when we lingered over our meal. I had no idea what she did to plain beans to make them taste so good.

“Go,” Caleb finally said. “We’ll clean…”

The door slammed behind her, making me chuckle as I sipped my coffee.

“…up.” He shook his head and grinned at me. “And, she’s gone,” he said, still smiling.

I finished my coffee and stood. “Means we’d best get on with our chores too.”

We spent the day repairing fences and scowling at our dwindling herds. Where were they all going? Every steer was money we couldn’t use to support our beautiful new wife, and I wasn’t having it. I raked my hands through the stubble on my head, reminding myself to have Caleb or Maddy take care of the chore later.

“Where are they?” I finally burst out. We should have at least fifty new calves, but there were barely twenty, and no sign of intruders, either animal or man.

“I have no idea.” Caleb chewed his lower lip, then smiled wryly when his attention caught on our wife riding her stallion bareback through our southernmost pasture where our cows should be. Her hair flowed behind her as she sat a neat canter, her small booted feet steady on his sides. She must not have found a saddle that suited her, and had a rope tied to Prince’s halter in place of reins.

“Good afternoon, gentlemen,” she said. “Does your brand look like this?”

When she drew the shape in the air with one graceful hand, I nodded. “Why do you ask?”

“I found about eighty head at the base of the escarpment. There’s a trail leading down behind a pine thicket. I wouldn’t have seen it at all, excepting for the heifer that made her way through while I watched.”

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