by Leah Brooke
Mr. Tyler and Esmeralda both beamed, obviously thinking Jeremiah had whispered sweet nothings in her ear.
Smiling obediently, Maggie promised herself that one day they’d pay for doing this to her.
They had the upper hand now, mainly because they’d changed so much she didn’t know what to expect from either of them, but she’d always been able to find a way to get back at them for something in the past. As soon as she got her bearings again, she’d make them pay.
On that happy thought, she took another bite from the fork Eb held to her lips, stilling when he leaned close from her other side.
“The way you reached for yourself out there convinced me that we’re gonna have to get something for you, something that’ll keep you from rubbing that clit when we’re not around.”
Maggie froze, almost choking on her food and looking up at him through her lashes. Her face burned as she tried to imagine what he could be talking about, but the devious look in his eyes had already given her a clue.
She looked away, embarrassed that she’d even attempted to touch herself in front of them. She still couldn’t believe she’d done it.
“I can’t believe you would remind me of that. You’re no gentleman.”
“Isn’t that the truth? Get that frown off your face. Smile for Dad and Esmeralda. Yes, I think something in leather should do the trick. I’ll order it tomorrow—one with a nice little metal knob that’ll fit in your ass.”
Maggie blinked, not quite sure she knew what he meant, but she would bet it didn’t bode well for her.
When the meal finally ended, Maggie stood to help Esmeralda clear the dishes.
The older woman waved her hand, shooing her away. “No, you are not washing dishes on your wedding night. Go on with Eb and Jeremiah, and I’ll see you in the morning.” Smiling, she slid a glance at the men. “Oh wait! Maggie, can I see you in my room for a minute?”
Maggie nodded and stood to follow Esmeralda, her lips firming when the men also stood and Eb caught her arm, his gaze boring into hers as a half-smile played on his lips. “You can go.”
Not giving him the satisfaction of seeing her anger at his calm display of authority, she smiled sweetly and fluttered her lashes. “I don’t need your permission.”
He grabbed her arm when she would have stormed past him, bending close and keeping his voice low. “You’re gonna learn just how wrong you are about that. Go with Esmeralda. We’ll wait for you outside.”
Glaring at him over her shoulder, Maggie started past him, stopping abruptly when she ran into Jeremiah, who gripped her shoulders and leaned close to whisper in her ear while running his hand over her hair in an apparent gesture of affection.
“Behave yourself. Don’t go upsetting Esmeralda. Damn, you smell good. I’ll bet you taste just as good.”
He released her to approach Esmeralda, grabbing her the way he used to and dipping her while raining playful kisses over her cheeks.
The older woman giggled, the sound making everyone else smile and reminding Maggie of happier days.
Jeremiah had always been a flirt and teased Esmeralda mercilessly, grabbing her often to dip her as he did now, or sometimes lead her into a dance.
As she had in the past, Esmeralda giggled and tried to shoo him away, her face bright red when he finally stood her upright again.
Jeremiah grinned and tugged her braid where it had come loose from the coil she always wrapped it in. “You still smell like cinnamon and biscuits. Maybe we should leave Maggie here and take you to the ranch instead.”
Mr. Tyler looked up from his coffee. “Over my dead body.”
Esmeralda finally evaded him, shooing him away and still, smiling as she put an arm around Maggie’s shoulders and led her to her bedroom. Once inside, she closed the door behind her, shaking her head. “That boy will never change.”
Still chuckling, she leaned back against it, her eyes brimming with unshed tears. “You’re a married woman now. I’m sure your daddy would be happy to know you’re being taken care of. What fine men they’ve become, huh? They’re more than capable of looking after you, and I know how much you’ve missed them.”
Maggie couldn’t help but smile at Esmeralda’s enthusiasm. The housekeeper had always had a soft spot for Eb and especially Jeremiah. “I miss Daddy so much. It happened so fast it doesn’t even seem real. I keep expecting to turn a corner and find him there.”
Patting her shoulder, Esmeralda tugged Maggie’s arm, leading her to the bed. Sitting next to her, Esmeralda hugged her, wiping away a tear and sniffing delicately. “I know this all happened so fast. I’ve always thought of you as a daughter, and I’m so relieved to know that Eb and Jeremiah are going to take good care of you. Is there anything you want to ask me about tonight?”
Maggie’s face burned, for the first time realizing that everyone would know what Eb and Jeremiah did to her tonight. “Will it hurt?”
Patting her shoulder, Esmeralda smiled, wiping away another tear. “It hurts just a little, but it doesn’t last. I’m sure Eb and Jeremiah will make it easy for you. After the first time, it won’t ever hurt again.”
Maggie didn’t believe that, especially after the spanking she’d just received. Eb and Jeremiah seemed to care a great deal about being physical. She didn’t know how to ask Esmeralda about the other, not sure how to put into words her anxiety about having a cock pushed into her bottom.
She didn’t even know if it was possible, or if they’d just said it to scare her. It sounded pretty real to her.
Patting her hand, Esmeralda jumped up. “I have a present for you. I made it for you and have kept it put away to give to you on your wedding day.” Esmeralda went to the chest at the foot of her bed and came back with the most beautiful shawl Maggie had ever seen.
Accepting it, her eyes pricked with tears. “Oh, Esmeralda! It’s so beautiful. You do the most intricate work.”
Maggie held the shawl up, taking in the detailed stitches, surprised at the soft texture. Hugging the older woman, Maggie squeezed her eyes closed against the tears blurring her vision. “Thank you so much. I’ll think of you every time I wear it.”
Esmeralda smiled through her own tears. “It’s a little something to keep you warm and give you a hug when I can’t. I’m going to miss you so much.”
“Oh, Esmeralda, I’m going to miss you, too. Do you think I’m doing the right thing?”
Esmeralda’s smile widened. “Of course you are. You’re a married woman now, Maggie. Your place is with your husbands.”
Maggie smiled reassuringly, not wanting to alarm the older woman. “I know. It’s just that I’m a little scared of leaving. I’m sure everything’ll be fine once I get settled in my new home.”
“That’s my girl. Now go on.” She gestured toward the window. “Eb and Jeremiah look a little impatient.”
Maggie followed her gaze to look out the window to where Eb and Jeremiah both stood, talking to their father. The sun had started to set, and she knew it would be pitch dark very soon and that both men were anxious to be alone with her before then. Hugging her shawl to her breasts, Maggie nodded. “Good night, Esmeralda. Thank you.”
Maggie walked slowly through the kitchen and out the back door. The need had dulled to a persistent ache but hadn’t gone completely away. Clutching her shawl tighter, she took a deep breath and walked around the corner, pausing when Eb and Jeremiah both turned to her.
Jeremiah wordlessly held out his hand, a brow going up when she hesitated. His eyes sharpened as he wagged his fingers. “Come on, Maggie. It’s time to go.”
* * * *
With his cock harder than he could ever remember it being in his life, Jeremiah walked beside Maggie across the yard, fighting the nerves that knotted his stomach.
He wanted to make tonight good for Maggie, but after what happened on the way here, he didn’t know if he could hold out long enough to give her what she needed. He’d played with many women before, some alone, some with Eb, but never in his life had h
e been primed like tonight.
He had to keep reminding himself that she was still a virgin, despite what they’d done to her. Her uninhibited response made it harder to remember that.
Smiling to himself, he had to admit that marrying her had to be one of the smartest things they’d ever done.
A woman who could work on a ranch, who was more beautiful than any woman he’d ever seen, and who turned to fire when they touched her would have been hard enough to find. The fact that the woman they’d already decided on, who was also a friend, made it that much sweeter.
He couldn’t believe the woman with a body made for sin and mouth made for sass was their little Maggie.
Damn, she was irresistible.
Building a new life somewhere else hadn’t been easy, but they’d done it for Maggie. Thinking of her cute smile, her sweet, playful disposition, and her eyes so blue it almost hurt to look at them got them through the roughest times.
He paused, his eyes narrowing when he saw a young man about Maggie’s age sitting on the bench right outside her door. “Who the hell’s that?”
He started forward, not waiting for an answer, his hands already tightened into fists. “Who the hell are you, and what are you doing here?”
Maggie started forward, gasping when the younger man jumped to his feet and reached for his gun. “Fred, no!”
Jeremiah drew his in a move so automatic he never even thought about it anymore, clearing leather before Fred even closed his hand over the butt of his gun.
Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Eb jerk Maggie behind him with one hand, holding a gun pointed at the younger man with the other.
Maggie tried to pull away from him, but Eb held firm, putting his body between her and the other man.
“Get behind me and stay there, Maggie. I mean it.”
The younger man puffed out his chest and straightened in an apparent effort to make himself look taller. “I’m Fred Johnson, Maggie’s beau. I work here on the Shenandoah. You two better get off Mr. Tyler’s spread before he catches you. He don’t cotton to strangers, especially around Miss Maggie.”
Keeping Maggie out of the man’s reach, Eb smiled coldly. “Well, Fred, I’m Eb Tyler, Maggie’s husband, and this is my brother Jeremiah. Maggie’s our responsibility now, and I don’t want to find you around her again. Get out of here, and if you value your life, you’ll stay the hell away from her.”
Satisfied at the way the younger man paled and then reddened, Jeremiah caught Maggie’s fist when, out of the corner of his eye, he saw it flying at him. “Settle down, Maggie, before you hurt yourself.”
This young man was apparently the one his father had talked about. Just the thought of someone sniffing around Maggie pissed him off.
She tried to pull out of Eb’s hold, her long hair flying. “Damn it, you’ve got no right to pull a gun on Fred. This is none of your business.”
The fact that she defended him pissed him off even more.
Eb holstered his gun before grabbing her shoulders. “He tried to draw on us, Maggie. A man doesn’t draw a gun unless he’s planning to use it. And in case you’ve forgotten, wife, you are my business.”
Maggie tried to push Eb out of the way, struggling to look around him, her eyes darting to Jeremiah and the gun he still held trained on Fred.
“You wouldn’t really shoot Fred, would you?”
Jeremiah smiled coldly, not taking his eyes from Fred. “Just waiting for him to go for that pistol.”
He barely restrained his laughter at the look on Fred’s face. He stood almost a foot taller than the younger man and outweighed him by about a hundred pounds, but the other man kept glancing at Maggie and then back at the gun pointed at him as though weighing his chances.
“Maggie, you got hitched?” Fred’s face hardened, his hands fisting at his sides. “I guess I wasn’t good enough for you. You had to marry the boss’s son.”
Jeremiah saw red at the insult to Maggie, his fingers tightening on the trigger. “I’d be careful if I was you, boy. Now you can walk away quietly and keep your job, or I can kick your ass all the way to the ranch border.” He smiled again, keeping his voice low. “Or you can reach for that pistol and end the whole thing. Your choice.”
Smiling, he gestured toward Fred’s holstered gun. “I’m hoping you’ll go for that pistol.”
Eb went to the door, opened it, and pushed a struggling Maggie inside. “Make up your mind quick. It’s our wedding night, and we’re anxious to get to our bride.”
“We?” Fred looked from one man to the other.
Jeremiah raised a brow, cocking his pistol. “You got a problem with that?”
Maggie fought to come outside again but couldn’t get past Eb. “Damn it, Jeremiah, leave Fred alone. I can take care of myself.”
“No. Get in the house, Maggie. Now.”
Muttering something under her breath that Jeremiah couldn’t quite hear, she stormed inside.
Jeremiah took a step closer to the younger man, hiding a smile that Fred’s bravado appeared to have fled now that Maggie was gone.
Fred backed away, nearly tripping over his own feet. “I don’t want to lose my job. Tell Maggie I’ll see her around.”
Eb’s eyes narrowed. “No, you won’t, and if I catch you anywhere near her, I’ll make sure you regret it. Get lost.” He turned his back on the other man and went inside, leaving Jeremiah alone with Fred.
Holstering his gun, Jeremiah never took his eyes from Fred as he scurried across the yard toward the stables. With his hands on his hips, he took several deep breaths, trying to get his unwarranted fury under control.
He didn’t really blame Fred for going for his gun. The younger man hadn’t worked here when they left five years ago and didn’t know them. He admired his fierce defense of Maggie.
His anger came from Maggie’s defense of Fred. He was jealous, plain and simple.
Irritated at himself, he went into the house, closing and locking the door behind him, anxious to get to Maggie. He expected to find her and his brother already wrapped around each other, and it irritated him that he was jealous of that as well. Hearing her voice raised in anger, he stopped in the middle of the kitchen.
“Damn it, Eb. I could have handled him. You and Jeremiah can’t tell me who I can talk to and who I can’t!”
“You’re wrong about that, darlin’.”
Jeremiah’s lips twitched at Maggie’s growl of outrage. Continuing into the front room, he paused, leaning against the doorway and watching in fascination as she paced angrily back and forth across the room, stopping only to rail at Eb.
“I’m not a child anymore, and you’ve got to stop treating me like one. There was no need to threaten him that way.”
“When a man goes for his gun, he should know the consequences.”
Maggie stamped her foot. “Oh! You make me so mad. He’s just a boy. There was no need for you and Jeremiah to pull your guns on him.” She looked up and, spotting Jeremiah, included him in her outrage. “No need at all. You’re nothing but animals. You act like cavemen, the way you treat women! You should both be ashamed of yourselves.”
Jeremiah didn’t allow his amusement to show. Damn, he’d forgotten just how exciting Maggie could be in a temper. It made him itch to tame her and had his cock hard in an instant.
“It’s a different world where we live now, Maggie. As tough as you think you are, you’d be defenseless there. Rules keep it peaceful in an uncivilized land. Having a woman there is just going to stir some of the men up, especially until we get some of those catalogue brides to come. You said yourself they’ve got to be protected.”
“But we’re not in Oklahoma, and I wasn’t talking about me!”
Eb raised his arms over his head and stretched. “That’s how we are now, Maggie, and you’re just going to have to learn to live with it. Seems you’ve got a lot of mad to get rid of. Maybe it has to do with being aroused still from your spanking.”
“I hate you. Both of you.”
Grinning, Eb removed his boots and crossed one foot over the other. “If you hate us for arousing you, you’re really gonna despise us by morning.” He leaned back and raised a brow expectantly at Jeremiah.
Amused at his brother’s willingness to let him take the lead, he turned to face Maggie. Nerves and lust fought for supremacy, and not wanting either Eb or Maggie to see the nerves, he led with the lust.
He went for her shirt, ignoring that she batted his hands and tried to pull away. Grabbing her wrists in one of his hands, he raised them above her head and pulled her shirt over to cover her face so she couldn’t see them.
With her hands out of the way and her face covered with the shirt, Jeremiah paused, smiling as she continued to rail at both of them, and decided to have a little fun with her. As she struggled, cursing both of them, her full breasts jiggled, their pointed tips making his mouth water. Turning, he smiled wordlessly to his brother.
Eb needed no second invitation.
Without his boots on, Eb moved quietly across the room, and to Jeremiah’s surprise, reached out to pinch both nipples.
Maggie froze, her gasp making his cock twitch.
Jeremiah grinned. “Seems like only one way to get your attention, Maggie. I guess we know how to handle you when you start your nagging.”
“Nagging? Nagging! I’ll show you nagging, you…you animal.”
Eb pinched her nipples again before releasing them, earning another gasp from her. “Being needy put you in a real sour mood. It puts me in a damned foul one. You might want to remember that.”
Jeremiah slid his hand down her soft belly and undid her pants, letting them fall to the floor. “Spanking you excites us and puts us in a real nasty mood when you’re being punished and can’t take you. You might want to think about that the next time you decide to disobey either one of us.”
Eb squatted and held her legs still so he could work her boots and pants off, leaving her naked except for the shirt covering her face and upraised arms.
Jeremiah waited until Eb stood before yanking her shirt off, leaving her standing completely naked between them.
