Page 5 of Their Accidental Bride (Bridgewater Brides 5)

She was ours. She may not know it yet, but she would soon. We would make sure of it. I couldn’t wait to claim her, to fill her holes with my seed.

I wasn’t looking for a wife. After seeing how miserable my lying, cheating parents had made each other, I didn’t want that for myself. I’d left home as soon as I could to escape their constant fighting and Shane had been my only companion. I liked it that way. But now here was a woman, in the middle of nowhere, that we’d come across quite by accident. She had nowhere to go. Returning to Philadelphia obviously terrified her. I wanted her. Me and Shane, we both wanted her. We would share her, claim her together.

The proud carriage of her body revealed a stubborn defiance, as she bravely brushed down her skirts. Her face was flushed. Her blue eyes sparked. Was it anger or arousal that danced there? I wasn’t sure.

I didn’t let go of her arm and she didn’t pull it away. Instead she turned, so she could look at me better, and I felt her gaze rake up and down my body. I saw her lips part ever so slightly. That spark in her eyes flashed.

“I’m pleased to see you have more manners than your barbaric companion,” she told me, in cultured tones. She’d been raised well. The way she spoke suggested an education in an expensive finishing school, not just learning basic reading, writing and arithmetic in a one-room schoolhouse out here in the mountains. Did she have the skills necessary to survive out here? If she’d been honest in responding to Coleton’s letter, she did.

“My barbaric companion saved your life.” I did not smile. “Perhaps he did not act like a gentleman, but he is right when he said you do not understand the dangers of the west. You would not have made it back to town alone; there is no law out here. Not like what you’re used to.”

She wrenched her arm from my grasp and stood between Shane and I. She looked about to cry. “What am I to do?”

“Come to Bridgewater with us,” I told her. “Shane and I, we will keep you safe. Whatever it is you’re running from, we’ll protect you.”

I looked over her head at Shane. He nodded. He wasn’t willing to let her go any more than I was. Not now that we’d found her. She was ours. I was glad we’d found her. Shane hadn’t been the same since he’d lost his first love, Rose, and it would do him good to have a woman again. Rose had been Shane’s alone, but I knew he didn’t want a woman to himself again. He wanted to share one, like all the men on Bridgewater did. The responsibility of keeping a woman safe out here was too much for just one man. We would do well, sharing a bride between us.

There was fear in her eyes, but no more than there’d been before, when she’d learned that Coleton was dead. She had no reason to trust us. But she didn’t really have a choice.

I smiled. I was not given to smiling, but I wanted to put her at ease. “Come.” I extended my arm to her, she took it, resting her fingers in the crook of my elbow. I kept a grip on the reins and handed her up into the buggy, climbing up next to her and settling myself on the hard wooden seat. We waited while Shane tied my horse to the back, and mounted his own steed.

She sat stiffly, squirming uncomfortably, but her body was close to mine. She could have moved over if she wanted to, widening the gap between us, but she didn’t.

“I don’t even know your name.” She spoke softly, but her eyes met mine and her gaze was steady. She’d obviously decided to meet her future bravely. Her courage made me like her even more. I had no time for weak, timid women. The Montana Territory was no place for a woman who was frightened of her own shadow. If she was to be our wife, she would need to be honest. Hardworking. Resilient and brave. And she’d need to be willing to learn. We had lots to teach her, Shane and I. Things to do with her pleasure, and with ours.

“Roscoe,” I introduced myself.

Shane rode up alongside us. “I’m Shane. And you are?”

“I’m Elise. Elise Templeton.”

“Elise.” The name rolled off my tongue. “A pretty name for a pretty lady.”

She smiled, and her whole face lit up. If I’d been attracted to her before, it was nothing to the way my body responded now. My cock strained against my pants, begging to be let out. On a whim, I slid my arm around her shoulders and drew her in close. After just a few seconds she leaned against me and I felt her relax. She didn’t seem afraid now. In fact, she seemed anything but.

Darkness was falling when we arrived at our small ranch on the outskirts of Bridgewater. Our wooden cabin and the fields beyond were bathed in a golden glow, light from the rising moon. Beside me, Elise sucked in a breath. It did look beautiful. My arm tightened around her. I was proud of the life Shane and I had built together and couldn’t wait to share it with her.

As Shane took care of the horses, I took Elise, and her suitcase, inside. I lit the lamp and showed her around. Our cabin was not big, but it had everything we needed. Two bedrooms. Comfortable chairs. A decent stove in the kitchen for cooking on and a wooden table to eat at. It was simple, but clean, and Elise could decorate it however she wanted. I watched her with interest as she took in her surroundings. She was obviously used to fancier dwellings than this, as disappointment was evident on her face.

“Shane and I built this house ourselves. And everything in it,” I told her, and winced at the defensiveness in my tone. What did it matter if our home didn’t compare to what she had left behind in Philadelphia? Things were different out here. Still, I wanted her to like it. I wanted her to be proud of what we had achieved, all by ourselves. Honestly. Not through swindling and cheating like my parents had done. Everything Shane and I had, we’d worked for.

Slowly, Elise smiled. “I like it,” she declared. “It’s nice and cozy.”

I knelt at the stove and lit a fire in the grate and listened to Elise’s gentle, even breathing and the soft lilt of her voice. “Father was a successful businessman and our house was large, but it lacked warmth. Servants kept it clean and my aunt came to supervise the dinner parties father threw for his business, but it didn’t feel like this. This feels like…. It feels like a home.”

“Where was your ma?” I hadn’t meant to ask the question, it just slipped out, but I was curious. Did she have a useless, quarrelsome mother like I had?

“I never knew her. She died having me.”

“I’m sorry.” And I was. My mother might have been useless, but I think it was better than not having one at all. She hadn’t been a shrew all the time. I did have some fond memories, back from when I was very young.

Elise shrugged as though she didn’t care, but a glimmer of pain flitted across her face. Of course she cared. I watched her stare at the flickering flames. She looked lost in thoughts. Memories, perhaps?

“You can cook?” I asked her. “Coleton wanted a wife who could cook.”

Without looking at me, she nodded. She seemed a bit hesitant. Could she cook, or couldn’t she? It didn’t matter to me either way, Shane and I would teach her everything she needed to know. But I didn’t want a dishonest wife. Neither would Shane. I knew what dishonesty did to a marriage and I didn’t want a part of it.

Footsteps on the wooden porch heralded Shane’s arrival. Elise looked up and smiled, her beauty stirring life into my cock once again.

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