by Leah Brooke
Jeremiah introduced her to the other men who came forward, each man just as hard and rugged looking as her husbands.
Feeling as though she’d somehow stepped into another world, Maggie moved closer to Eb.
Eb ran a hand over her hair, his smile distracted. “Jeremiah, why don’t you go get Maggie settled while we start unloading?”
Jeremiah took her arm and pulled her firmly against his side. “I’ll be back in a bit.”
Away from the train station, the crowd thinned out, and for the first time since she got off the train, Maggie felt like she could breathe.
Looking around, she tried to take it all in. “I didn’t know we’d be staying at a hotel. I thought we were going straight to your ranch.”
Jeremiah led her down a street that still bustled with people at this late hour, most carrying bags as though they’d just come off the train, too.
Turning to look over her shoulder for a glimpse of Eb, she frowned when she didn’t see him. Glancing up at Jeremiah, she reached out to touch his arm.
“Are they really going to unload all of that stuff you bought tonight?”
Jeremiah nodded once. “Have to. The train’s got a schedule to keep, honey. We’ve got to get all of it off as fast as we can. That’s why there’re so many men. They’ll also have to guard it all night so nobody steals it.”
“Oh.”
Feeling like an idiot for not thinking of that, Maggie walked alongside Jeremiah, grateful to see the sign for the hotel. Practically asleep on her feet, she leaned heavily against him as they stopped at the desk inside the hotel lobby.
“Well, if it ain’t Jeremiah Tyler! It’s been way too long since you’ve been in town.”
The tall, heavily made-up woman behind the counter fluffed her dark hair and smiled flirtatiously at Jeremiah. Her barely covered full breasts almost spilled from her dress when she leaned over the tall desk and eyed Jeremiah like a treat she hungered for.
Straightening, Maggie wrapped her hand around Jeremiah’s arm and lifted her chin, making sure the other woman got a good look at her wedding rings. Raising her brow, she snuggled against his side, fighting to hide her jealousy.
“Do you know that woman, Jeremiah?”
The other woman’s smile broadened. “Jeremiah knows me intimately, don’t you, honey? Where’s that handsome brother of yours, and who’s this little thing, your baby sister?”
His sharp glare at the woman had the smile falling, and she began to fidget with her hair. Before he could speak, Maggie leaned over from the other side of the desk.
“I’m Maggie Tyler, and I might be small, but I can shoot. Think about that before you make a play for my husband.”
The other woman blanched. “Husband? Tyler? You’re Jeremiah’s wife?” Her eyes hardened and a calculated smile curved her lips as she ran her fingers over her décolleté as if to draw attention to her ample charms. “Well, perhaps now Eb’ll be interested in my company. He’s probably not as much fun as Jeremiah, but there’s something about that dark broodiness that just makes a woman’s heart flutter.”
Maggie met the other woman’s look squarely, while inwardly her confidence melted away. Knowing her husbands, how could she ever hope to compete with this woman’s raw sexuality?
Tapping her finger where the two rings they’d placed there shone, she grinned. “He’s mine, too.”
Feeling plain and out of her element, Maggie kept her gaze on the other woman, too afraid of what she would see if she looked at Jeremiah.
The other woman’s eyes went wide, her confident smile giving way to a look of astonishment. “You’re married to both of them?”
Smiling smugly, Maggie straightened. “I am, so you might want to look elsewhere for your entertainment from now on.” Irritated by her jealous insecurity, which Jeremiah would no doubt see as immaturity, her tone came out sharper than she’d meant it to.
Shooting a scathing look at Jeremiah, she turned away, still not looking at him when he joined her to cross the lobby.
As they started up the stairs, Maggie raised her chin again, trying to show bravado she didn’t feel.
“If you or Eb even look at another woman, I’m going home.” She turned away again, aware that the woman at the desk watched them.
Jeremiah jerked her arm, spinning her, and pinned her to the wall. The smug satisfaction in his grin made her want to smack him. “Why should we look at another woman when we’ve already got you, darlin’? You’re already being trained for us, remember?”
Instead of rising to the bait as he obviously expected her to, she raised a brow, not about to let him intimidate her. “Careful, cowboy, that you’re not the one being trained.”
His grin widened. “You volunteering to train me, darlin’? Hell, that could be a lot of fun.”
Maggie smiled secretly and looked around the lobby.
“There sure are a lot of men around here, aren’t there? Are all the men at the Circle T, excuse me, in Desire, as rugged looking as the ones that met us at the train station?”
Jeremiah’s smile fell, his lips thinning in anger. Gripping her arm, he hustled her the rest of the way up the stairs and down the hall to their room. He unlocked the door and ushered her inside none too gently, pushing her back against the wall and holding her there by pressing his body against hers.
With the only light coming from the hallway, it created a more intimate atmosphere, turning his threatening gesture into something entirely different, especially when his cock jumped against her belly.
Grabbing her hands, he held them on either side of her head, his eyes narrowed as he pressed the hard bulge against her belly. His voice deepened and softened, the soft growl in it oozing as much sex as it did anger.
“You even look at one of those men wrong, Margaret Tyler, and I’ll tan your backside good. You’re a married woman now.”
Arching her back, Maggie pushed her breasts against him, thrilling at the flare of gold in his hooded gaze. “And you and Eb are married men. The first place we walk into, a woman practically throws herself at you. And you liked it. Do you expect me to share you the way you and Eb share me?”
She tilted her head back to brush her lips over his jaw, deciding to make use of the womanly charms she’d recently discovered. “Maybe you don’t want me as much as you want that other woman. Maybe you’re thinking about sharing me with someone else.”
She hid a smile at his sharp intake of breath, the rush of feminine power making her dizzy. Intoxicated, she rubbed against him again, sucking in a breath when he pressed his cock against her.
Interlacing their fingers, he lowered their hands between them, the anger in the eyes holding hers adding a dark edge to the sexual tension. Brushing the back of her hands over her nipples, he rocked his narrow hips, thrusting his cock against her.
“No one but Eb and me will ever have you. I’ll kill any man who tries. Clear enough for you, darlin’?”
Thrilled with his show of jealousy, Maggie looked up at him through her lashes. “So you won’t be seeing any other women?”
He picked her up and carried her to the bed, tossing her into the center. “I’m married to you, Maggie.” Leaning over her, he ran a hand possessively down the center of her body, pressing against her abdomen before straightening. “Isn’t that what you told Dolly downstairs?”
Watching him light a lamp before kicking the door closed, Maggie sat up and gave him a scathing look. “Dolly? So I guess you and Dolly have been friends for a long time?”
Jeremiah turned up the wick on the lamp and turned, crossing his arms over his chest to glare back at her. “Dolly’s a thing of the past and none of your business.”
Maggie shrugged and scooted to the side of the bed to remove her boots. “So anything that happened before we got married doesn’t matter?”
He reached the bed in two strides, tossed the hem of her dress up, and started tugging off her boots. “I don’t know where you’re going with this, but everything about you is our business. Now stop
arguing and get into bed. You’re too tired to fight with me tonight.”
Now that she sat on the bed and her boots had come off, the fatigue had really started to set in. The events of the last few days, the emotional good-byes to Mr. Tyler and Esmeralda, and the long train ride all seemed to come together at once.
“I’m not arguing. You are.” Not willing to give up yet and still jealous about the woman downstairs, she decided to stoke the flames of his temper. “At least Eb didn’t sample her charms. Some men don’t have to have every woman around.”
After tossing her boots aside, he removed her stockings and impatiently knocked her hands away as she struggled to unbutton her dress to do it himself.
“You want to argue because you saw that woman look at me. I’m your damned husband every bit as much as Eb.”
Lifting her to her feet, he efficiently stripped her out of her dress and tossed it onto a nearby chair, leaving her in just her chemise. Running his hands down her sides, he pulled her close and kissed her hard. “I don’t know what you’re getting so riled up about. You’re the one who’s gonna benefit from my experience with other women.”
He moved ahead of her to pull back the covers, his jaw tight with suppressed anger. “Get in bed before you fall over.”
Hiding a smile, she crawled tiredly into the big bed and closed her eyes. She could actually feel his frustration as he slid her to the center of the bed and tucked the covers all around her.
Jeremiah muttered the entire time he adjusted her to his liking and tucked her in. “One woman looks at me and you’re talking about the men who came to meet us at the train station and asking questions about us sharing you with someone else. I’ll tell you right now, Margaret Mary, you even think about making eyes at one of them, you’re gonna get him run off or killed and find yourself in a heap of trouble.”
Making herself comfortable under the covers, Maggie turned her face into the pillow to hide a smile.
“You’re not jealous, are you, Jeremiah?”
The silence dragged on, but her eyelids were too heavy for her to open them and see his expression. His hand slid beneath the covers and felt warm and comforting as it moved over her back, a sharp contrast to his words. “You invite another man’s attention and you’ll get a spanking you won’t ever forget.”
He patted her bottom and bent to kiss her hair. “Go to sleep. We’ll be back in a bit.”
Too tired to do more than hum her agreement, Maggie listened to the door open and close again.
She wouldn’t dare mix anyone else up in her plan to get even with Eb and Jeremiah, but if she could use their jealousy for each other, she just might be able to do a little training of her own.
With a smile on her face, she slipped into sleep.
* * * *
Exhilarated by the scenery, Maggie rode between Eb and Jeremiah and, with six other men, they made their way to her new home.
The men took turns driving the buckboard to give each other a break from riding on the hard seats. They’d ridden since morning, but none of them seemed to want to stop for longer than it took to rest and water the horses before they were on their way again.
They didn’t even start a fire for coffee, instead just eating as they rode and drinking water from their canteens. Every single one of them seemed impatient to get home.
Although the other men didn’t speak to her often, they were very solicitous toward her. Instead of asking her if she was all right or tired or hungry, they asked Eb or Jeremiah, who always stayed on either side of her.
The ranch hands answered her questions without hesitation and glanced at her often in concern as though checking to see if she was tired, but none of them looked at her in an impolite manner or seemed the least bit forward. Because of it, she relaxed and started asking questions about her new home.
“Are there really no other neighbors around?”
Eb grimaced. “Not yet, but something tells me there will be soon.”
Phoenix’s hooded gaze made him look even more threatening. “What do you mean?”
Eb sighed. “While I was in Kansas City, I talked to a couple of lawmen who have both taken a liking to my wife’s best friend. They’re trying to protect her from her uncle and want to marry her and bring her here to live.”
He looked meaningfully at each of his men. “I told them they could come and that no one would give them any trouble. Anyone who doesn’t like the way we live can leave anytime.”
The man who’d introduced himself as Hart Sanderson and who drove the buckboard closest to them nodded thoughtfully. “Goes without sayin’. Does that mean we can get some law here to deal with those cattle rustlers? Even with those outriders you hired, it’s a lot of land to cover.”
Jeremiah nodded. “Yeah, they’re gonna uphold the law.” He glanced at Maggie. “There’re also gonna be some laws regarding the women that we’ll talk to you about later. We’ve advertised for mail-order brides, and every man’s gonna have to do his part to protect the women. Once they’re claimed, their husbands will be their closest protectors, but with some of us out on the range for days at a time, it’ll be up to everyone to help protect all of them.”
Phoenix didn’t look too happy but nodded anyway. “Makes sense. As long as we’re not required to claim any of ’em.”
Hart shook his head. “Before you know it, there’ll be a town here.”
Eb grinned. “It’s called Desire, and we’ve got to get a sign put up so Hayes and Wyatt can find it.”
Phoenix blinked. “Desire? Where’d you come up with a name like that? You should have named it something with a little grit.”
Jeremiah shook his head. “Never mind. That’s the name of the town. We talked to a blacksmith who wants to get out of Kansas City and another man who was a Union soldier and dealt with supply lines. He’s thinking about coming along to open a general store.”
Hart’s lips twitched. “You sure were busy in Kansas City. You going back there soon?”
Eb’s look at Maggie made her insides flutter. “No plans to. I brought back what I wanted.”
Embarrassed and inordinately pleased, Maggie smiled. “When’s Savannah coming? It’ll be great to have her here.”
Shrugging, Eb looked away. “That’s up to her men. Look, see that stream up ahead?”
At her nod, he straightened in the saddle and smiled, pride in every line of his body. “That’s the border to the Circle T. Welcome home, Maggie.”
Chapter Seven
Riding over the last hill, Maggie gasped and came to a stop between Eb and Jeremiah, almost afraid that she was dreaming.
Sitting on the next rising was an almost exact replica of their father’s house back in Kansas City.
For some reason she didn’t entirely understand, her eyes welled with tears that she hurriedly blinked away. She looked at Eb to find him watching her, his expression unreadable. Her throat had become so clogged with tears she had to swallow before speaking. “It looks like the big house.”
Every one of the men brought his horse and the buckboards to a halt behind them, no one saying a word except Hart, who’d stopped on the other side of Eb.
“The big house?”
Eb nodded, not taking his eyes from hers. “That’s what everyone calls the house at the Shenandoah. We built it for you, Maggie, so you wouldn’t feel so homesick.”
A sob escaped, and then another. Sensing Jeremiah’s gaze, she turned toward him, blinking back tears.
“I can’t believe you did that.”
Despite the fact that the others looked on, Jeremiah moved closer and touched her thigh. “The furniture’s as close as we could get it. Not every room has furniture yet, but we’ll order some more for you as soon as you pick it out.” Snapping the reins, he grinned. “Come on, let’s go home.”
She couldn’t take her eyes from the house as they approached, the feeling of coming home forcing her to choke back even more sobs. She could already picture sitting with them on the wide front po
rch and knew where she would plant the cuttings Esmeralda had sent with her.
Once they got near, the other men started around the house, looking away as Eb and Jeremiah paused with her at the bottom of the big front porch.
Eb slid from his horse and came around to lift her from hers, carrying her to the front door. “Take some time to look around while we unpack the supplies.”
Jeremiah came up behind them and opened the door, running his hand over her hip as Eb carried her inside.
“We’ll be in to get you as soon as we finish. Duke’ll have supper ready soon, and I’m sure the men are all anxious to meet you.”
Nodding as Eb set her on her feet, she let go of his shoulder, her gaze moving around the room, unable to take everything in fast enough. She took in the high ceilings and massive fireplace in the front room and immediately pictured sitting on the cowhide sofa on a cold winter night, warm from the fire and the arms of her two husbands. This is what she would have expected from the Eb and Jeremiah of the past. A sense of relief washed over her, and she turned to smile at both of them. “I can’t believe you did this.”
Eb patted her bottom and winked. “You can show your gratitude later. We’ll be back in a bit.”
Jeremiah stood watching her thoughtfully until Eb left, his tread light down the steps of the front porch. With a calculated gleam in his eyes, he approached her, looking more like a gunfighter than a cattle baron.
He whipped out a hand and yanked her back against him. “Hello, wife.”
The thrill of being held so close to him, the firm muscles of the chest and legs pressed against hers, gave her that small, defenseless feeling again, one that excited her more each time she experienced it.
Now that she’d also had a taste of the power of being a woman and matching it against such masculine strength, she couldn’t resist using it again.
Running a hand down his chest, she delighted in the feel of his warmth and strength as the muscles trembled beneath her caress. Looking up at him through her lashes, she rubbed her belly against the hard bulge pressing at her. She licked her lips, hiding a smile when his eyes flared. While he stared at her lips, she took advantage of his attention and gave him her best pout.
