by Lily Reynard
"Pollux here knows the way home, so I thought I'd take this chance to remind you about certain talents I have."
Dan looped the reins loosely over the wagon rail, and the big Belgian draft horse continued to plod along the narrow road that led to the ranch.
Abby eagerly responded when Dan leaned in for another kiss. "Open your legs for me, love," he whispered.
She did. Without lifting his lips from hers, his fingers slipped into her drawers and began to skillfully caress her. He knew exactly how to tease her to a fevered, aching pitch, and how to draw out a sweet climax as the wagon rolled steadily on under a sky densely packed with brilliant stars.
When she finally descended from the summit of pleasure, she reached for him, intending to return the favor, either with her mouth or her hand. But he shook his head. "We're almost home," he murmured. "That was just a little something to whet your appetite, sweetheart. Once we go to bed, I intend to take both of us to heaven several times."
They rolled through the gates of the ranch a few minutes later. At the end of the drive, the house stood dark and silent.
There, they parted ways briefly. Dan continued on to the stables, where he would unhitch Pollux and bed the big horse down for the night.
Abby tiptoed upstairs and peeked into the nursery briefly before going to her room to undress and give herself a quick sponge bath using the pitcher and basin.
As she washed herself, her heart beating with anticipation of Dan's arrival, she thought about how lucky she was that he was still interested in courting her after finding out the truth about her barren state.
She was clad in her nightgown and ready for him when he tapped on her bedroom door a short while later. She greeted him with a kiss.
Then he took her to bed and proved that he hadn't been exaggerating when he promised to send her to heaven again.
◆◆◆
The next morning, Jim found his brother already at work in the stables, looking as if he hadn't slept a wink. Satisfaction radiated from him.
"So, I guess I don't have to ask how the dance went?" Jim commented.
Dan grinned at him. "Abby and I had a great time. And Mrs. Kottinger is expecting to see you at next Friday's dance."
Well, that was something, at least. He felt better knowing that Dan wasn't going to try to monopolize Abby's attention.
"And Abby seemed open to being courted?" he pressed.
Dan nodded. "Yup. Looks like she was mostly worried about not being able to have children of her own. We need to convince her that we want her, kids or no kids. She's…something special."
"You can say that again," Jim agreed, whole-heartedly. It was great news. "Well, no sense wasting time. I'm going to ask her about Friday's dance."
"Good luck," Dan said, and Jim didn't miss the lack of enthusiasm in his brother's voice.
He clapped Dan on the back and strode out of the stables, whistling, to start his chores.
When he entered the house an hour later to wash up before breakfast, he heard Abby singing upstairs.
Quietly, he climbed the stairs and followed the sound of her voice to the nursery. When he peeked in, he saw Abby in the rocking chair, holding Chris in her lap as she sang to him.
He stood in the doorway for a long moment, watching her. His chest ached at the picture she made. She would be such an amazing mother to Chris, if he could only convince her to open her heart to him and accept his proposal.
Abby finally noticed his presence, and the smile she gave him made him feel like he was standing in a pool of sunlight.
"Good morning, Jim."
"Morning, Abby," he replied. "I'm looking forward to squiring you to Mrs. Kottinger's next dance in town."
Her smile turned teasing. "Do you expect me to go to the dance with you because I accompanied Dan yesterday evening?"
"Nope," he replied. "I just like to dance and thought you might enjoy another outing away from the ranch. Besides," he added, "Mrs. Kottinger would be mighty disappointed if you didn't come."
Abby nodded, her beautiful cornflower-blue eyes sparkling. "In that case, I'd love to go to the next dance with you."
Chapter 19
Most of the people in town apparently couldn’t tell Jim and Dan apart.
At first, caught in the whirl of greeting people in between requests to dance, Abby thought that the townspeople were just showing special courtesy to the area's biggest landowners by addressing Jim as "Mr. Brody," in the same way that they'd addressed Dan at the dance the week before.
Then, while weaving her way through the crowd in Jim's wake as they headed for the refreshments table during a break in the music, she overheard muttered comments about Dan being a lucky son-of-gun to have lassoed the prettiest girl in town, and how it hadn't taken long for one of the few marriageable misses to be claimed.
She smiled as she realized that they thought Dan had escorted her to the dance for the second Friday in a row.
Then the rest of what she had overheard sank in. A spear of apprehension shot through Abby's gut, dissipating some of her fun at this event.
I've become the object of salacious gossip, after all, if people are speculating about my relationship with my employers!
What if she was publicly shamed and ostracized once again, even though Dan had assured her that it was unlikely?
Except that women are always held to a stricter standard and punished more harshly for their transgressions.
That was when she noticed that many of the men at the dance were glaring at Jim.
That's not fair! I've only danced with him twice so far. And I've danced with everyone else who had asked me, too.
But Jim seemed amused at all the dirty looks and mutters directed his way. In fact, he was smirking as he poured Abby a glass of iced tea and scooped up a couple of Emma's shortbread cookies.
"C'mon, let's head outside for a bit," he said. "Get some fresh air."
"That sounds like a good idea," replied Abby.
It had been a hot day that faded into a sultry evening, and the Hotel Bede's dining room felt stuffy and overheated.
Emerging from the building, Jim offered her his arm as they strolled away from the group of fellow attendees clustered around the hotel's side door.
Rectangles of golden lamplight spilling from the hotel's windows provided the only illumination. Overhead, stars crowded the night sky, looking as if several buckets of precious gems had been spilled over a vast black velvet blanket.
"You know," Abby told Jim as he guided her around the building. "The stars back home never looked the way they do here in Montana."
"And you're more beautiful than all of the stars in the sky," Jim murmured.
Out of sight of the other dance guests now, he plucked the glass of iced from her hand, drew her into his arms, and kissed her. His hard, demanding mouth on hers kindled her desire almost instantly.
"I’m glad you seem to like Twin Forks," Jim continued, once he had finished reducing her to a heated, aching state of need. "Have you thought about settling down here?"
His tone was so elaborately casual that it set off alarm bells inside her. "What do you mean?"
To her astonishment, he dropped to one knee, a dark silhouette against the faint glow of the light spilling from the hotel. "Marry me, Abby. Make me the happiest man in the entire territory."
She froze. Had Dan told his brother about her confession?
Dan had assured her that he didn't care if she was barren. But she couldn't be sure that Jim would feel the same way about a wife. I have to tell him.
"Ah, did Dan happen to mention that I have, a, well, a particular shortcoming?" Her throat was dry.
"You mean, did he tell me that you can’t get with child?"
"Yes." She wondered how much information the brothers had shared about their trysts with her, and decided that ignorance was bliss. "How would you feel if you married me, knowing that you'd never have children of your own?"
Jim heaved a sigh and shoved himself
to his feet. "Abby, I'd love an adopted child as much as one from my loins." He gave a short huff that barely passed as a chuckle. "After all, Dan and I have already adopted Chris as ours. You know, I'd give anything to have my sister back among us, but I can’t imagine life without Chris…or you."
He took her hand. "If that's the only reason that you're hesitating right now to agree to my proposal, then I thank you for your honesty and I assure you that that it wouldn’t stand in the way of a happy union."
Joy filled Abby's heart. Both Jim and Dan clearly loved their nephew. And they both seemed accepting of the notion that they might not ever have children of their own.
For the first time in a year, she felt the stirrings of hope. Maybe…just maybe, she might actually get the husband and family she had always wanted.
"I'm honored by your proposal, but my barren state isn't the only reason I'm hesitating to say yes," she confessed.
"Is it Dan?" Jim demanded. "Are you in love with him?"
"I…may be." Abby braced herself for Jim's anger.
She thought her choice would become clearer as she spent more time with each of the brothers. Instead, her feelings for each of them had only become stronger over the past fortnight.
Jim scowled and shook his head. "Well, can you at least tell me that I'm not out of the running yet?"
She rose on tiptoes and gave him a quick kiss. "You're definitely still a candidate. To be honest, I don't know how I'm going to be able to choose between you and Dan!"
Jim dug in his pocket, then extended his hand. A copper penny gleamed dully in the faint lantern light. "Here. Why don't you toss a coin?"
That made her laugh.
"I may yet be forced to resort to that extremity," she said, keeping her tone light.
He drew her in, and kissed her hard and thoroughly, until her heart was pounding in time with the urgent arousal between her legs.
"You done dancing for the evening?" he asked when he pulled back at last. "Because I've got a powerful urge to bundle you into my wagon and take you somewhere so that I can have my wicked way with you, Miss Rose."
"Oh my," she breathed. "You know, I may have to excuse myself from this dance on account of a terrible headache I've suddenly developed." She ventured a smile in his direction. "I hear that fresh air is an excellent cure."
"I'll make you forget all about your headache," Jim promised in a low, intense voice.
Abby went to make her excuses to Emma while Jim hitched up the wagon.
Twenty minutes later, when they were out of earshot of any of the cabins scattered around the fringes of the town, Jim parked the wagon on the grass verge at the side of the road.
"Stand up, turn around, brace your hands against the bench," he ordered.
A thrill of excitement shot through Abby as she obeyed, bending forward to brace herself against the padded seat of the high bench at the front of the wagon.
An instant later, Jim had pulled up her heavy skirt and petticoats. "Open wide, sweetheart," he said, tapping the inside of her booted ankles.
She eagerly widened her stance. His fingers slipped into the long opening of her drawers between her legs, and she felt cool air against her heated nether regions.
"You're ready for me, aren't you?" he asked.
"Y-yes!" she gasped as his fingertip found her needy clitoris.
He wasn't gentle. His fingers plucked and pinched the sensitive bud, and she felt her arousal heat to boiling point.
"You like that." It wasn't a question.
She nodded frantically.
"Good," he growled. "Because I need you bad, Abby, and I can't be gentle." He bit her shoulder, and she felt his hot breath penetrate the cotton of her shirtwaist.
"Yes! Please!" she begged. She needed him so badly!
She cried out with relief and pleasure when he slid his thumbs into her entrance, stretching her wide open. An instant later, he pushed into the slick, swollen entrance.
He felt bigger from this angle, stretching her as he slowly filled her. "You feel so damned good, Abby."
"So do you." It was the truth. She loved how she felt right now, wickedly and deliciously at his mercy, bent over with her skirts pushed up around her ears and filled to the bursting point with his thick, hot organ.
When he had sheathed himself to the hilt inside her, he waited a few moments as her body adjusted to the invasion.
"Ready?" he asked, his voice hoarse.
"Oh, yes," she said.
"Hang on," Jim warned her, as he withdrew partway.
He slammed into her with a powerful stroke and began a fast, hard rhythm, pounding into her mercilessly, his fingers gripping her hips with bruising strength.
He hit a place inside her that made fiery sparks shoot across her field of vision. Her orgasm gathered with each stroke, then broke and swept over her in waves of almost unbearable pleasure.
Abby screamed with the pleasure of it as her inner muscles rippled and squeezed him. It was not a high-pitched scream of terror, but something hoarse and guttural, torn from deep inside her.
Her wrists buckled and she collapsed onto her forearms, the firm cushions of the bench supporting her as she panted, moaning between gulps of air, aware of nothing but wave after wave of pure release.
"Oh yeah," Jim panted, his sensual assault never flagging. "I want hear you, Abby. Show me that I'm pleasing you."
"You are!" she gasped. Her orgasm subsided from its peak, but ripples of pleasure continued to move through her each time he thrust into her.
Then, to her astonishment, another climax began to build, without the first ever quite having died away.
She felt as if she were falling through a dark void, lit only by explosions of pleasure, anchored only by his hands on her hips, and the hard shaft moving relentlessly in and out of her.
Jim's thrusts suddenly sped up, and she could tell that he was getting close. He roared with triumph and buried himself to the hilt inside her, shuddering with his release.
He collapsed over her, gasping, the weight of his solidly muscled body pressing her into the bench. "Hot damn, Abby. That was a hell of a ride, if you'll pardon my language."
A golden glow of satisfaction made her limbs feel like warm butter. Despite the vulgarity of his expression, she could only agree with the sentiment.
Jim kissed her nape. "Just remember—you could have this every night if we were married. And we wouldn't have to sneak around."
◆◆◆
As was his habit before leaving the house for pre-breakfast chores, Dan poured himself a cup of coffee from the pot that Jim had brewed, and went to find his brother.
Jim was standing on the porch, drinking from a steaming tin mug, his expression contemplative as he gazed out over the snow-capped peaks on the far side of their valley. The approaching dawn was a wash of scarlet against a dull silver sky, promising another day of beautiful summer weather.
"We're overdue for rain," Jim commented as Dan emerged from the house. "Pasture's beginning to dry out."
Dan nodded. "Huritt thinks it'll rain later this week. I sure hope so." He glanced sideways at Jim. His brother was looking awfully satisfied with himself.
"Did you have fun at the dance last night?"
Jim's satisfaction transmuted into a beaming grin. "I sure did. And I know Abby thoroughly enjoyed herself, as well."
Dan gritted his teeth at the news.
Jim added, "I believe she may be coming around to the idea of getting married to one of us. Hopefully me."
"We'll see about that," Dan said. He'd intended to keep things light, but his words came out sounding tight and angry. "You've got serious competition, Jim."
Jim nodded. "I know." The smugness was gone now, replaced with something more serious.
"The problem is," Dan continued, "we both want her. But I don't want that to lead to bad feelings between us, especially since you're practically the only family I got left."
"Yeah," Jim said. He heaved a sigh. "I agree. But it'
s not up to us, is it?"
Dan nodded. "Yep. But we need to be careful about how hard we push her. Because I sure as hell don't want to spook her."
"Well, she didn't faint dead away or slap me when I suggested a threesome somewhere down the line," Jim argued. "She's not as prudish as you'd think a lady like her would be. I say we both knock on her door tonight, and see how she reacts."
