Western Widows

by Vanessa Vale

  Even after our night together and the different ways I'd shown her how much I wanted her, I still wondered. But with just a few words, she'd released that burden I'd carried. I ached for her, too.

  My smile, at first, was unsteady, but then spread wide and sure. "Do you know how hard I am for you? I've most likely disgraced myself in front of Seth."

  Charlotte looked down my body. "I'm the one who hasn't come," she countered, pouting.

  I raised my eyebrow and gazed into her pale eyes. "Are you wet for me?"

  This time I asked, she knew the meaning of my words.

  "How can I not be? I have your seed still deep within."

  I growled at those words, my possessiveness coming to the fore.

  "You're going to come. I know you will because you are so responsive, so incredibly aroused just by having your nipples played with," I told her with conviction. "Harder than you ever have before, then we're going to finish our lunch with Seth, somehow, then I'm going to take you back to bed. At my house. Our house, and I'm going to fill you up again."

  I ran my hands up from her arms, over her shoulders, and then down the creamy expanse above her bodice. I took the end of each ribbon attached snugly to her nipples. "Ready?"

  Her breasts rose and fell as she panted, her need obvious now. She hadn't been upset, she'd been aroused to the point of desperation and only I could help her. "Please," she begged.

  Ever so gently, I pulled on the ribbon, feeling the ties loosen, then pull from her bodice to hang in my hands.

  Her eyes slipped shut and her mouth opened as the blood rushed back to her sensitive tips. A shiver ran through her body and I knew she was about to come. I pulled her in to me and covered her mouth with mine to cover her cry of pleasure. I felt her skin turn hot, felt the tremor of pleasure. She softened like soft taffy candy in the sun in my hold. When I was sure she would remain quiet, I lifted my head, pulled her tightly into my embrace. I didn't want to let go, holding her as she recovered from her orgasm the most wonderful perk of being married.

  "I feel your cock against my belly," she murmured into my chest.

  "I know. I can't help it around you," I grumbled. "As I said, Seth is going to poke fun."

  Charlotte pulled back enough to look up at me. "You said he's vowed to protect Rachel?"

  "Yes," I confirmed.

  "Then perhaps we need to see them wed as well."

  I saw the gleam in her eye and knew she had a plan. I wanted to hear it, but first, I needed to get through lunch and then an afternoon of fucking. Then maybe my mind might be ready to play matchmaker. Maybe.

  A WIDOW'S NEEDS

  CHAPTER ONE

  RACHEL

  The man was insufferable! He hasn't stopped pestering me for months. Seth Barnes is a veritable nuisance. My only intention was to pretend to mourn in peace. There were no whispers about me as Aaron had made an honest woman of me, as the church ladies would say. I could only imagine several of those old biddies had trapped a man into marriage in their day. I wasn't the only woman to have done so. With a ring on my finger, the licentious kiss had been forgotten.

  I hadn't. That kiss had ruined my life. I kicked a pebble in my path as I made my way to the mercantile. All of the blue thread for my new dress was gone. A simple spool of thread was all I needed, not a giant of a man shadowing my every step. He wasn't sly about it, how could he be? The man had to be well over a head taller than I, broader than a barn with hands the size of dinner plates and a face of a Greek god.

  Regardless of the fact that he made me want to turn around and pull his head down and kiss him, he would drive me to drink before the end of the summer. He was everywhere. The mercantile. The telegraph office. The jail. The other side of the thoroughfare. Every time I looked up, he was there. Usually at a distance, but on occasion he would approach me. Then, I would have to look at his blue eyes, his strong jaw, straight nose and will myself not to grab hold of his unruly strands of blond hair and tug him down to taste him.

  Those desires were nothing but trouble. Wanting to feel a man's hands on me, his mouth on places of my body that were completely carnal and impure were fantasies. Dreams I thought of alone in my bed late at night. I could touch myself, use my hands to seek pleasure from my own body. It caused no one harm and was a secret. There was no sign about my neck that read harlot. I dressed modestly, offered no hint of returning any man's attentions. I attended church regularly and participated in socially acceptable pastimes such as quilting and jelly making. There was no chance I would ruin another man's life by doing any of those mundane, dull and completely mindless activities. Pleasing myself alone in my bed would be the only way I'd succumb to my baser needs. Seth was safe from my wicked ways.

  Except he kept putting himself in my path! I couldn't avoid him. He was everywhere. He was most ardent in his attentions, although never inappropriate, but I could see he was becoming more insistent, more driven. How could I protect myself from a behemoth of a man with all of his focus solely on me? I was so frustrated and focused on Seth's dogged presence that I did not see the man who'd come out of the saloon before I ran into him, his dirty, rank body a hard wall. I struck his side and stumbled backward. The tinny sounds of a piano drifted out to us on the boardwalk. I usually avoided this side of the street intentionally, but I'd been distracted.

  "Aren't you a pretty lady?" he drawled, a strong whiskey scent emanating from him like heat from a stove.

  I took a step back but the man's hand came out and gripped my arm with a speed that contradicted his inebriated state. "Unhand me," I said nervously, attempting to tug my arm free. It was to no avail.

  "I think not. I've captured myself a prize and I'm going to keep it." He grinned, displaying crooked yellow teeth.

  "No, you're not." The voice was deep, clear and cold as spring run off. Seth.

  The drunkard's eyes widened as he looked over my shoulder. His hand dropped immediately and he took a step back. "I beg your pardon, miss."

  He tipped his hand to an invisible hat and made a hasty retreat down the boardwalk.

  I exhaled a pent up breath, relieved to be free of the vile man. But I would have to thank the man who had dogged my steps, filled my mind and distracted me in the first place.

  I turned.

  There, standing before me, towering over me so I had to tilt my head back to look him in his blue eyes, was Seth Barnes. The breath I gained escaped me again. He was angry. It radiated from every tense line of his body. "Did he hurt you?" he growled.

  I shook my head, my voice gone.

  When two men came out of the saloon directly behind me, Seth took hold of my arm and led me away. I had to walk quickly to keep up with his long legs. By the time he slowed, I had trouble catching my breath. He moved me to a break in the buildings so that foot traffic could move without our interference.

  "What the hell were you doing in front of the saloon?" His voice boomed loudly, startling me.

  "I wasn't paying attention," I murmured. I'd been distracted by thoughts of him, but I wouldn't let him know that.

  His eyes widened. "You weren't...that much was blatantly clear." He removed his hat from his head and ran a hand over the back of his neck. "What if I hadn't been following you? That man wouldn't have been a gentleman."

  "I would have screamed," I replied confidently. The main thoroughfare through town was very busy. Any number of persons would stop to help had I made a scene.

  "That will not protect you in all situations. You were lucky as to the location of the incident. If it had happened after dark near your house, the consequences would be different."

  I crossed my arms over my chest and narrowed my eyes. "I do not need a keeper."

  In a verbal battle with this man I could hold my own. In no other circumstance would we be evenly matched.

  "Yes, you do," he bit out through clenched teeth.

  "Is that why you've been following me?"

  "Is your opinion of this the reason you have been avoiding me?"r />
  "I've been avoiding you because you are an overbearing brute!"

  His eyes widened at my veracity. "I have barely said more than five sentences to you before now. I've never laid a hand on you nor pressed my advantage in any way. That man," he pointed over my shoulder, "was the one who grabbed you. How can you consider me a brute?"

  "Because you won't leave me alone."

  His shoulders relaxed then. He put his hat back on his head and sighed. "That is true. I won't leave you alone."

  He didn't want me, had even said he hadn't pressed his advantage, so why did he continue to shadow me? "Why?" I asked.

  "I promised Aaron."

  That was not the answer I anticipated. Hearing my dead husband's name had me dreading what would come next. I remained silent and waited for him to continue.

  "Before you were married I promised him I would protect his wife should anything ever happen to him."

  A lead weight settled in my stomach and I looked at the ground, looked anywhere but at Seth. "Then you're following the wrong woman around town. Excuse me." I held up my hand in a vague farewell and moved to walk past him, but he would have none of it. He easily pulled me back to stand before him again.

  "Explain," he replied.

  I stared at the buttons of his shirt as if they fascinated me. "Julia Lanesport. She's the woman Aaron was to marry. She was the woman he wanted you to protect."

  "Aaron married you."

  He made everything so simple, yet nothing was. Yes, I'd married Aaron, but for a complicated reason.

  "Yes, but as I said, he wanted to marry Julia Lanesport. They were courting."

  Seth tilted my chin up with his fingers. "Look at me. You're not making sense."

  His voice had softened, but still held that deep timbre that thrilled me to my bones.

  "You don't know this story? I'm surprised. Everyone else in town does," I replied, my voice tart. When he did nothing but run his thumb over my jaw, I sighed. "Aaron was courting Julia Lanesport. At a church social, Aaron and I were found in a compromising position and we were hastily wed. Julia Lanesport was the jilted woman, the woman Aaron really wanted. No doubt when he made the arrangement with you it was with Julia's face in his mind."

  Seth's eyes narrowed. "Compromising position? Of course he should have married you. What did he do to you?"

  I laughed, although without any mirth. "What did he do to me? Nothing. I kissed him."

  Seth rolled back on his heels as if I punched him, eyebrows disappearing beneath his hat. "You married him, all because of a kiss?"

  I felt my cheeks heat remembering. "Just as you said, of course. I'm surprised you didn't hear about the fiasco my wild behavior brought about." I swallowed down tears that had lodged in my throat. I'd cried enough tears over the doomed marriage, the husband who longed for another, his untimely death. "I ruined one man's life. You should be careful, for I could easily ruin yours as well."

  A wagon went by, the wheels loud as it passed, distracting Seth for a moment and I stepped back from his touch. I took a steadying breath in an attempt to even out my varying emotions.

  Seth studied me, from the hem of my dress to my simple hat upon my head. "You're avoiding me to protect me."

  "Yes." I couldn't deny it. He was too smart, too intuitive for me to do otherwise.

  He shook his head in disbelief. "You can't hurt me."

  It was my turn to arch a brow. "Oh really? I hurt Aaron. Julia Lanesport in the process."

  "How on God's green earth did you hurt Aaron? He kissed you, too, no doubt. Any man who kisses you wouldn't just stand there."

  I shook my head and held up my hands in front of me. "You don't understand."

  "Why, Rachel? What are you protecting me from?" Exasperation filled his voice.

  "Me! I'm protecting you from my whorish ways." I covered my mouth with my hand and darted a glance left and right to make sure no one overheard.

  Seth stepped in close, forcing me to look up at him. His blue eyes took on a deep blue cast. "Whorish ways? Who said that about you?" His voice had a definitive bite to it.

  "No one. I say it about myself. I wanted to kiss Aaron. I wanted to know what it felt like and I grabbed him and kissed him. That's how those old biddies found us. It wasn't Aaron's fault at all."

  A couple passed on the boardwalk and Seth tipped his hat to them, but barely afforded them a glance.

  Once they moved on, he spoke. "You're protecting my virtue?" He grinned, his face shifting from anger to happiness from one second to the next. He leaned in close and murmured, "Rachel, should I be worried about your intentions toward me?"

  I turned my face away knowing my cheeks were bright red. "If you're with me, I could somehow compromise you. Then you'd be forced into a marriage you did not want."

  He was quiet for a moment and I felt his gaze on me, studying me intently. The sounds from the main road filled the silence between us. Horses hooves, people talking, the faint strains of piano from the saloon.

  "Just answer one more question."

  I looked at him expectantly.

  "All this time you've crossed the street to avoid me, ducked into the mercantile, greeted me then fled, you've done it all because you worried for me? For my honor?"

  "Yes," I replied, my voice a soft whisper.

  He rolled his shoulders back, nodded his head. It appeared as if he'd come to some sort of internal resolution. "Thank you. I understand now."

  I thought that would be it, that he would let me continue on my way to pick out the needed thread for my dress. That he would leave me alone now, keeping himself well free of me and my wanton ways. My control weakened with each day I saw him, but now, if he heeded my warning and gave up his attentions, that control would be easier to maintain. I'd ache, oh, I'd ache with the longing for him. Instead of tipping his hat and offering me a good day, he grabbed me and pulled me into his chest, lifting me off the ground so my feet dangled.

  "Seth, what are you—"

  He walked out of the quiet spot from where we'd been conversing and onto the boardwalk. He turned and pressed me into the side of a building, lowered his head and kissed me. Not a peck on the cheek. Not even a chaste brushing of lips. He molded his mouth to mine and touched his tongue to the seam of my lips. I gasped in surprise at his action and he took the opportunity to plunge his tongue deep to tangle with mine. His hand was at my nape holding me in place. He tasted of cinnamon and something primitive and exotic that woke up every carnal part of my body. My nipples tightened, I was wet between my thighs and my inner walls clenched.

  I vaguely heard whistles from men that passed, but I felt nothing but Seth, pressed against him the full length of my body. His mouth worked mine for a duration of time I could not tell. But when he lifted his head and our lips parted, I looked up at him in confusion with a very foggy gaze.

  "There," he said triumphantly as the world returned. Words of disdain and shock from passerby permeated my confusion and surprise. "I've compromised you and good. Now you have to marry me."

  CHAPTER TWO

  SETH

  What an infuriating woman! She'd been like a mouse, scurrying into hiding at the sight of me for the past three months. Why? Because she was afraid for me. I'd thought she'd been afraid of me, my overlarge size often putting the fear of God in many. It was to my advantage quite frequently, as with the drunk who'd cared to touch Rachel in front of the saloon. With a woman such as Rachel, I didn't want her fearful, I wanted her lustful. For my desire for her was unlike any need I'd felt before. I was distracted at the mine, consumed with thoughts of her dark hair, her pale, creamy skin, the succulent sway of her hips.

  All this time—months!—she'd maintained her distance and a cool air of disdain as a falsehood, for she had just revealed her desperate need for me. My cock swelled as big as my pride at the discovery. She wanted me. Wanted me enough to avoid me at all costs. The stupid, willful woman! I could have had her in my bed beneath me, on top of me, any way I could have her a
ll this time. Instead, I'd been like a schoolboy with his first crush, chasing after her.

  The woman needed protecting. Overzealous and lecherous men abounded in Collins, eager and ready to pluck a ripe fruit like Rachel. I'd given many a man clear warning as to whom Rachel belonged. Unfortunately, there were too many men to lecture and Rachel had free roam of town. I couldn't run a mine and keep Rachel safe simultaneously. There were most certainly moments when she was prey for the underbelly of the town.

  Now, well, now everything changed. When I had her standing still long enough to speak with her, I was able to glean so much. She'd not only confirmed the status of her marriage to Aaron, but she'd intimated that her desire for me was so great she had to maintain distance to keep from possibly tarnishing my honor.

  Complete rubbish. As a man, it was my job to ease the woman's worries, to remove any concerns or hindrances to her happiness. It wasn't Rachel's job to defend me. I was strong enough to protect the both of us. In one quick action, I'd taken control, taken the worry away from her and put it on my own shoulders. I claimed her quite publicly, which, when news spread, would tarnish my honor, not hers. There was only one way to make it right and that was to marry her. This was what she wanted all along, but needed me to take control of the situation. Finally. I'd been tiptoeing around like a pansy until the truth of it struck me like a pickaxe to the head.

  She wanted to submit but didn't know how. I did. With one passionate kiss, she'd given herself to me and now she was irrevocably mine.

  * * * * *

  "Are you insane?" Rachel asked two hours later.

  I lifted her up in my arms and carried her over the threshold and into my house. The soft feel of her in my arms was incredible and I intended to carry her directly to my bedroom to continue to touch her. Without the hindrance of clothes.

  "I was, but no longer." For the first time since Aaron was killed and Rachel had become a widow, legally available for marriage, I was clearheaded.