by Leah Brooke
Standing again, Hawke turned to smile at her. “And once she gets used to our touch, she’ll settle some.”
Sarah wished she’d listened more to the girls back at the whorehouse. If she had, she’d know how to please them.
According to what she’d heard over the years, once a man had his pleasure, he lost interest in lovemaking.
If she could learn how to give them pleasure, she could distract them from touching her. They’d be so wrapped up in their own hungers that they wouldn’t pay any attention to how much she liked their touch.
Then they’d respect her.
Hawke went to the fireplace and retrieved two of the buckets. “Blade’ll bathe you. We’ll get cleaned up and ready for bed.” His eyes narrowed on hers. “You’ll sleep with me tonight.”
Blade slipped out of his own shirt, revealing a chest as wide and dark as Hawke’s. “Phoenix, will you please go get the warm water Duke has waiting while I get Sarah ready for her bath?”
Phoenix grinned. “Of course. Go slow, though. I don’t want to miss anything.”
Shaking his head, Hawke walked on bare feet to her side, reaching out a hand for her. “Go get the water, Phoenix. We’re not about to rush anything.”
* * * *
“No, we’re gonna go nice and slow.” Blade took Sarah’s other hand, pulling her to his side. “Let’s get you out of these clothes.”
She nodded, her eyes wide as she looked back and forth between him and Hawke.
Wanting her attention focused on him, Blade gripped her shoulders, turning her to face him before reaching for the top button of her shirt again. “A nice warm bath will make you feel better.”
Sarah smiled, shocking him when she reached out to touch his chest. “I feel better already. I’d like to learn how to please you. Will you teach me how?”
Troubled by the hesitancy in her eyes, Blade shared a look with Hawke over her head. “You’re doing just fine. I like the feel of your hands on me.”
She blew out a breath, obviously relieved. “Good. Show me more.”
“In a hurry, huh?” Blade reached for the top button of her shirt, unsurprised that his hands shook. “Why don’t you just relax and let me explore you?”
Sarah stiffened, biting her lip and pulling back slightly. “No!”
Confused and wondering what he’d done to scare her, Blade lifted her chin, frowning when she looked away. “What is it? What’s wrong, Sarah? Did I scare you?”
He couldn’t imagine what had frightened her, especially after she’d responded so beautifully earlier. When she tried to turn away, he tightened his grip, careful not to hurt her. “Tell me, honey.”
The endearment brought a flash of pleasure to her eyes, a sharp reminder of how little affection she’d had in her life. “It’s just that I want to please you, but you won’t let me.”
Amused and more than a little relieved, he smiled, holding her chin while he began unbuttoning her shirt again. “You please me just fine.”
She closed her eyes when Hawke closed in behind her. “But I want to touch you.”
“You will.” Bending to touch his lips to hers, he finished unbuttoning her shirt, parting the sides just as Phoenix walked back in.
“Well, isn’t that a beautiful sight?”
Straightening, Blade smiled at the awe in his brother’s voice. Looking down, he pulled her shirt from her skirt, cupping her breasts while Hawke slid the shirt from her shoulders. “Yes. It certainly is.”
His cock jumped, the sight of Sarah’s body gleaming in the faint light as arousing as a fantasy. “You’re so beautiful. Let’s get you out of these clothes so I can see the rest of you.”
He slid his hands from her breasts to the fastening of her skirt, watching her eyes flutter closed when Hawke replaced his hands with his own. “You like that, don’t you?”
Her hands slid to his shoulders and tightened, a moan escaping just as her skirt puddled at her feet. “I—um. I don’t know. Please. Um. You don’t need to touch me. Let me—oh, God.”
“Oh, I need to touch you very much.” Watching her face, Blade smiled at the picture she made. Every moment he spent with her, he found himself drawn even deeper.
She gasped when Hawke’s fingers closed on her nipples, arching into the fingers Blade held over her slit. “But it’s not good this way. I’m supposed to make you feel good.”
With sudden understanding, he flicked a glance at Hawke and then at Phoenix, struggling not to show his anger. Keeping his voice low and soothing, he forced a smile. “She’s trying to treat us the way Rose, her mother, and the women back in Waco treated the men who came to visit them.” Slipping his finger through her folds, he smiled at her gasp. “I can’t blame her for that.”
“No!” Gripping his wrist, she writhed in Hawke’s embrace. “I don’t want to be like them. Hell and tarnation! I’m never gonna get this right.”
To Blade’s shocked delight, Hawke released her breast to deliver a sharp slap to her shapely bottom. “I won’t tolerate any bad language from you.”
Phoenix moved closer, sliding his fingers into her hair. “This is gonna be a hell of a lot more fun than I’d thought.”
Hawke frowned. “It’s more than just fun. She’s our wife and our responsibility. I won’t have her swearing, and I sure as hell won’t tolerate being lied to anymore.”
The misery and confusion in her eyes knotted Blade’s stomach. Gathering her against him, he lifted her and strode toward the tub. “Phoenix, fill the tub. I want to get her settled and get to the bottom of this.”
“You don’t have to get me settled!”
Blade didn’t bother to hide his smile, rocking her gently while Hawke and Phoenix filled the tub and tested the water. “You’re a fascinating woman—one I reckon it’ll take the rest of my life to figure out. You steal an outlaw’s gold, get on a train—alone—despite the fact that you’ve never been out of Waco, head to a town you’ve never heard of to marry a stranger.”
He settled her in the tub, and taking her hand, he lifted it and began to soap it, slowly working his way up her arm. “You take on Hawke, when most grown men wouldn’t even approach him, want to shoot Hart and Gideon, and give yourself to us when most women would have been hysterical.”
Shifting his attention to her breasts, he let his soapy hands slide over them, paying particular attention to her nipples. “But the gift of some material and soap makes you cry, and getting pleasure upsets you.”
Phoenix lifted her foot from the tub and began to wash it, smiling down at her. “You sure are a contrary woman.” Lifting her leg higher, he grinned. “I’d rather deal with the spunk than with the tears.”
“We all would.” Staring down at her from above her head, Hawke ran a finger down her cheek. “We know that you like the way we touch you and know that you’re aroused. Why are you tryin’ to hide it?”
Phoenix rinsed her leg and hung it over the side of the tub before reaching for the other. “I wouldn’t keep Hawke waitin’ for an answer long, if I were you. When he uses that tone, his patience is runnin’ out.”
Dropping to his knees beside the tub, Hawke tilted her chin back and touched his lips to hers. “She’ll learn about each of us herself. Won’t you, little one?”
Smiling up at him, she sucked in a breath, squirming when Blade slid his hands lower and began washing her stomach. “I hope so.”
Blade ran his fingers through the soft curls covering her mound, fascinated by her uninhibited response. “So, are you going to tell us what’s bothering you, or do we have to force it out of you?”
Phoenix rinsed her other leg and draped it over the other side of the tub, and knelt between them. “Please make us force it out of you. I’d love the chance to spank your pretty bottom.”
Slipping his hand between her legs, Blade shook his head. “If there’s any spanking to be done, I’m gonna do it. Now, are you gonna talk to us, Sarah?”
* * * *
Sarah lost the struggle to keep h
er breathing even, a cry escaping when Blade’s finger slipped between her folds. “Oh! How can this happen so fast?”
Blade pressed his finger more firmly against a spot that had her writhing in the tub, sloshing water over the side. “Your clit is really sensitive. We can give you a lot of pleasure by stroking it.”
When the pleasure became almost unbearable, she grabbed his wrist, disappointed when he stopped stroking her clit and took her hand in his.
His eyes darkened, the smile playing at his lips filled with erotic intent. “Or I can arouse you and leave you like this.”
Fighting to get her hand free, she cried out again when Hawke focused his attention on her nipples. “Oh!” Pressing her legs against the sides of the tub for leverage, Sarah arched almost completely out of the water.
Blade tightened his hold on her hand, lifting it to his lips. “Or, I can spank your little pussy if you misbehave.”
Sarah froze, the image of Blade spanking such a sensitive place sending a rush of heat to her clit. “You c-can’t spank me there.” Her words came out in a breathless rush, the pressure on her nipples intensifying the heat between her thighs.
Blade tapped her clit, the shock making her jolt. “I certainly can—and will. Now, tell us what’s going on in that pretty head.”
Her cheeks burned, but found her attempt to avert her gaze thwarted by Hawke’s fingers firming on her jaw. “I just wanted you to respect me.” Shrugging, she closed her eyes, uneasy at the tense silence. “I know it’s silly, especially with my background, but—”
“Open your eyes, Sarah.”
Her eyes flew open at the icy command in Blade’s voice, her gaze captured by his before she had the chance to look away.
Sliding his hand to her waist, he bent low until she saw nothing but him. “What have any of us done to you to make you think we don’t respect you?”
Phoenix slid his hands up her thighs, sharing a look with Hawke before frowning down at her. “Is it because of what we did to you earlier? Because of what you’re doing now?”
Hawke touched his lips to her hair. “You’re our wife. I know that you have a different idea about what sex is, but if you thought that just because we didn’t take you on our wedding night, that we weren’t going to expect to have you in our beds, you’re sadly mistaken.”
Blade slid his hand over her belly. “We’re your husbands. Did you really think that just because we’re gentle with you that we wouldn’t take you? That doesn’t mean that we don’t respect you. We all want you—very much.”
Feeling foolish, Sarah moaned at the slide of Hawke’s slippery hands over her breasts, sucking in a breath when Phoenix’s hands moved higher on her thighs. “It’s not that. I just wanted you to respect me enough to let me go through the door first.”
Fighting the pleasure proved useless, her breath coming out in pants as they took her closer and closer to the edge. “I know. It’s stupid, but—” She yelped when Hawke slid his hands under her arms and yanked her from the tub with one quick movement.
Spinning her to face him, he gripped her upper arms and lifted her to her toes. “You’re not married to white men, Sarah. We’re part Indian, too. That means we take a little from either side—things that make sense to us.”
With a warning look, Blade pulled Sarah to his side, wrapping a large cloth around her. “We see how the white men let their woman go through a door in front of them, and it doesn’t make a hell of a lot of sense to us. Our father and his people always went through the doorway before their women. If there’s danger on the other side of the door, we meet it first.”
Hawke made a sound in his throat that sounded suspiciously like a growl before he turned away muttering something about white men and their stupidity.
Shooting a grin at his brother, Blade gathered her close and began to dry her. “It seems stupid to us that a man would allow the woman he was protecting to go through a door first. We’ve had words with the others at times, especially when one of us went through a door before Maggie or Savannah, but that’s the way we are.”
From across the room, Hawke turned, his features like stone. “We’re not like white men. We’re half-breeds, remember?” He met Blade’s glare with one of his own. “She’s just going to have to get used to the fact that we’re not like other men.”
Understanding his sensitivity about being a half-breed, Sarah smiled. “Thank God. I like you just the way you are.”
Hawke blinked. “You do?”
Nodding, she wrapped her arms around herself, embarrassed at being naked while all three of her husbands were still dressed. “Of course. You’ve been very kind to me. That’s why it hurt so much to think you didn’t respect me. I know it’s silly, but—”
“It’s not silly at all.” Blade wrapped the cloth around her. “You just didn’t understand why one of us goes through the door first. It’s just our way. Do you feel better?”
“Much.” Grinning, she leaned back against Blade, the knots in her stomach loosening. “If you don’t respect me, you can’t like me, and I want you to like me.”
With a smile, Blade slid his hand inside the large, scratchy cloth. “We like you very much. Is that why you’re so determined to give us pleasure—so we’ll like you?”
Squirming, she sucked in a breath at the feel of his warm hands closing over her breasts. “Not exactly.”
“Why, exactly?”
Lulled by the seduction in Blade’s silky tone, Sarah lifted her arms to wrap them around his neck. Fascinated that every slide of his hands over her nipples sent an answering surge of hunger to her slit, Sarah moaned and watched Phoenix’s approach, not minding at all when the towel fell away. “My mother said that the reason men came to the whorehouse was because their wives didn’t like fulfilling their marital duties.”
Phoenix frowned, his gaze raking over her. “So you wanted us to go to the whorehouse in Tulsa?”
“No!” Sarah didn’t even want to imagine Hawke, Blade, or Phoenix in the arms of one of those women. Struggling to focus proved more difficult when Phoenix’s hands closed over her hips, his thumbs stroking her abdomen while Blade continued to tug at her nipples. “I thought if you didn’t think I liked it, you would respect me.”
Blade applied pressure and tugged lightly at her nipples, groaning softly when she moaned. “God save us from thinking women.”
Insulted, she gasped, a gasp that ended in a moan when Phoenix parted her folds and slid a finger over her clit, the resulting tingling sensation weakening her knees. “W–women who th–think too much get, um, themselves into t–trouble.”
Leaning against the post in the center of the room, Hawke stared at her with eyes narrowed to slits. “Our woman used her wits to get out of trouble.”
Straightening, he started toward her. “She’s smart and has good instincts.” He reached for the fastening of his leggings, his fingers working at the ties as he slowly closed the distance between them. “She has a sweet look about her, but she’s no shrinking violet.” He finished loosening his buckskin pants and shoved them down his legs, a small smile playing at his lips. “Are you, little one?”
Gasping at the sight of his cock, Sarah pushed back against Blade, her heart pounding. With Blade’s hands massaging her breasts, and Phoenix’s hand splayed over her abdomen, she trembled as she watched Hawke move closer. “Oh, God. I don’t think it’s gonna fit.”
Her pussy clenched at the thought of something that big and hard going into her.
Remembering the incident with Willy, she swallowed heavily, lifting her gaze to Hawke’s, alarmed to find the same need hardening his features.
The look in his eyes, though, gleamed with possessiveness instead of evil. He didn’t seem the least embarrassed about his nakedness, and moved slowly as he approached her as if knowing of her curiosity and needed some time to adjust to his nakedness before he slid into bed with her.
Wondering if all three of them planned to take her, she turned to look at Blade and Phoenix
.
Blade smiled faintly and bent to nuzzle her neck. “No. Only Hawke will take you tonight. The first time will hurt a little and you’ll be sore afterward, so Phoenix and I will wait, but we want to be here when you lose your virginity. There’ll be times when we each want to be alone with you, but most of the time, we’ll be together when we take you.”
Sarah gulped, watching Hawke circle to the other side of the bed out of the corner of her eye, while keeping an eye on both Blade and Phoenix. “You’re going to watch us?”
Blade smiled. “Of course. If I can’t be the one taking my wife’s virginity, at least I’m going to watch.”
Naked, Hawke was even more intimidating—all copper skin and hard muscle.
Powerful muscles bunched and shifted with every step, emphasizing his masculinity and making his long, thick cock even more threatening.
Gulping again, she lifted her gaze to his, reassured by the tenderness and affection in his eyes. “Will you show me what to do?”
From behind her, Blade groaned. “That’s probably the most arousing thing I’ve ever heard a woman say before.”
Hawke extended a hand, smiling faintly when she readily placed her hand in his. “I need to wash off first. Come wash my back.”
* * * *
Hawke pulled her closer before climbing into the tub, moving slowly so as not to startle her. He’d seen the trepidation in her eyes, and hoped that letting her have the chance to touch him before he took her would ease some of her fears.
Bringing her hand to his lips seemed as natural as breathing, the delight in her eyes telling him that he’d made the right decision. “You said that you want to give us pleasure. It would give me a lot of pleasure to feel your hands on me.”
Her smile held relief, and he could see the tenseness in her body ease. “I’d like to touch you.” The hitch in her breath made his cock jump, his own body tightening at her nearness.
