Captivating Cole

by Cheri Chaise

  I didn’t know how to answer that question. But there was only one way to find out.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Estella

  My four month affair all those years ago was nothing compared to what transpired between Bret and I on a daily basis that first week. Without the worry of living up to high society’s mores out here in the wilds of the Montana Territory, we were able to express our passions nearly wherever and whenever we wished.

  Or at least until Cole returned.

  Since Evan rode off early one morning soon after our affair was consummated, we had only to concern ourselves with Drew discovering our exploits.

  Oh, how those exploits left me shivering with need, increasing my hunger to be kissed and taken however he wished. Bret had blasted past my restraints like a railroader blasting away through a mountainside. His touch was sensual one moment, lips and fingers skimming every inch of my fevered skin, then urgent the next as he took my body and captured my soul with his mouth and hands.

  I didn’t bother with dresses and corsets when I rose that morning before sunrise – a morning that was destined to change all of our relationships. Instead I wrapped myself in a simple dressing gown and bustled about the kitchen with breakfast preparations.

  My biscuits still weren’t perfect, but they were improving as I mixed the dough and set it aside to rest then checked the stoked stove. Bret had risen before me to raise the fires, tramping before me in all his deliciously nude glory. I’d never be able to get enough of him.

  The thought saddened me. Whenever Cole returned, our liaisons would be so much harder to cover up from just his brothers. If discovered, I’d be labeled an outcast once again – and I’d drive an enormous wedge between the Carston brothers.

  The cast iron skillet sizzled when I dropped ham steaks in it with a sigh. My men would need a hearty breakfast today, especially Bret after all of the loving he’d expended on me last night. Somehow we just had to find a way to make things work around here.

  I’d rolled out the dough and was cutting biscuit rounds when Bret came out of my room wearing his trousers low on his hips – and nothing else. The sight of his dusky, naked chest inflamed my loins all over again. And based upon the bulge in his trousers, it appeared I did the same for him.

  He leaned in for a musky kiss and skimmed the silk covering my breast. “Mmm…looks like you’re cold this morning.” He peeled the fabric from my shoulder and planted a kiss against bare skin. “You could use a little warming up.”

  “Oh really?” I breathed as he tugged the silk aside to expose my breast to his warm, ravishing tongue. My heartrate sped up as he lavished attention on my sensitive mounds then parted the slit in my dressing gown to grip the flesh of my bare bottom. I gasped. “If Drew comes down the stairs, he’s sure to see us.”

  “It won’t be the first time,” Bret groaned against the hollow of my neck as he slid his hand between my bottom cheeks.

  I stilled then whispered. “You mean he…he knows?”

  “More than knows.” Bret kissed his way up to my shoulder, sending gooseflesh racing across my skin for more than one reason. “He’s watched.”

  “You mean he’s seen us?” Terror held my heart in a vise. “He’ll tell Cole.”

  “Drew knows it’s not his place to tell Cole.” Bret leaned his forehead against mine. “He just likes to watch. To see what he’s missing…for now.”

  The dark gaze held mine as my thoughts spun. Drew wouldn’t tell Cole about us? That he wanted to watch Bret and me in the throes of passion? And my lover was okay with this? Perhaps his younger brother had been caught observing when Cole and his first wife came together.

  Or had Bret had a not-so-secret affair with Sky too?

  The roiling thoughts dissipated as Bret effortlessly lifted me onto the counter in a puff of flour and parted the silk to trace my swollen nub with his thumb. I groaned.

  “You’re so wet already,” he whispered as he bent to kiss my quivering thigh and untied the ribbon holding the gown together. “So slick…because you desire me.”

  I leaned back exposed before him, my vision clouding with each stroke of his thumb. “Yes.”

  “You want me.”

  My eyelids grew heavy. “More than anything.”

  Kisses trailed along the inside of my thigh. “Say it.”

  “I want you.”

  He slid his warm tongue slowly through my seam. “Again.”

  I shuddered and moaned. “I want you.”

  The pace and pressure of his thumb increased against my nub. “Say my name.”

  He latched on to one of my nipples and grazed his fingernails over it before rolling and squeezing the hard protrusion between his fingers. I tried to stifle the cry, but it begged for release.

  “I want you, Bret,” I gasped. “So much.”

  He cupped my buttocks and slid me through the flour to the edge of the counter, right onto the tip of his manhood. We groaned together as slowly, inch by inch, he pulled me onto his hard length.

  “Oh, Essie.” He slowly drew out and thrust all the way deep inside my heat with one stroke. “I want you too. Always.”

  At the edge of my darkening vision, I saw movement around the kitchen corner before I squeezed my eyes shut. I didn’t want anything to disturb the glorious release building inside my belly.

  Bret stopped pumping into me and leaned closer, his long hair tickling my sensitive and aroused nipples.

  “He only wants to watch, Essie. Please…will you let Drew in?”

  I opened my eyes to the pleading in Bret’s liquid gaze, so close to my own. Such a voyeuristic practice seemed crude. Savage even. Then again, my antics years ago had drawn an audience – an audience that, out of necessity, had included my father.

  But necessity wasn’t a consideration this time. Yet dear Drew had always been so kind to me. Almost childlike at times as he so openly shared his stories of adventure and mishap. Shared his heart. Could I share a piece of me with him?

  Bret said Drew only wanted to look. And apparently he’d already seen what we were up to anyway. Could I really deny him such a simple pleasure? Would denying Drew impact my own ability to find pleasure within this odd family?

  I didn’t want to chance losing my newfound lover – and Bret said his brother wouldn’t tell Cole.

  I nodded then reveled in the torture Bret’s renewed vigor undertook as he slid in and out between my thighs. Heat increased and an ache bloomed hot in my belly.

  Over the sounds of our lovemaking, I heard another steady breath as it increased. I turned my head to view Drew as he shared in our intimacies. His sweet grin had gone rather devilish with his hand pumping his own length to the rhythm of our union.

  The heat in my body flowed through my veins like a molten river as I watched Drew thicken and grow harder the faster he tugged on himself.

  I was fascinated. Scandalized. Enraptured by this practice that apparently wasn’t new or unusual for the Carston brothers. It heightened every sensation pulsing through my veins and touching upon my every nerve ending.

  The heat of the kitchen grew unbearable. Instead of merely an oven beside me, I felt it flame and build, spreading from my belly to touch every extremity. The pleasure doubled. Tripled.

  And all from being watched and watching in return.

  Overwhelmed with new, erotic sensations, I didn’t sense the nearness of release until my limbs trembled and my back arched. With a cry, Bret emptied his hot seed into me. Seconds later, I felt the spurt of Drew’s join our ecstasy as he coated my thigh with streams of creamy warmth.

  I was spent – and completely exhilarated.

  As Bret and I clung to each other in the following glow, I expected a rush of shame and embarrassment at what had occurred. At allowing one of my husband’s brothers to ravish me while the other pleasured himself as he watched us.

  But I didn’t feel any of that. As I stared over Bret’s shoulder to see Drew tuck himself away and button his trousers, I f
elt a strange sense of connection with these men. An intimacy even deeper than what I’d had in all the times with Bret alone. It solidified the moment Drew’s deep green gaze connected with mine.

  I reached out to gently stroke Drew’s cheek then traced my fingertips across his open lips.

  He kissed my fingers with succulent lips then grinned that sweet smile I so loved. “I think the ham and biscuits are burnt.”

  With that he strolled off around the corner as if nothing was wrong. As if what we’d experienced together was nothing out of the ordinary.

  Bret sniffed the air scented with my burning breakfast. “Just like old times.”

  I couldn’t help myself. I tossed my head back and laughed. Really laughed. If I had to be honest, I think it was the first time in all my life I’d ever laughed so freely.

  I only wished it could last.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Cole

  Clouds built on the horizon, and a storm followed me the rest of the way toward home. The occasional rumble of thunder and flash of lightening sizzled the August air. But what little rain the clouds held dissipated in the heat before it ever neared the sun-parched earth.

  Montana had its share of dry thunderstorms this time of year. I kept a sharp eye out for the telltale smoke of a lightning-induced grass fire that could quickly burn out of control without the cooling rain behind it.

  Even though the lusty part of me was in a hurry to head straight toward the house to see how things were set to turnout with Stella, the practical ranchman reigned supreme as I made the rounds to check on the grounds and various cattle herds to make sure the storm hadn’t ignited anything nearby.

  But it was the storm in my heart that worried me most the closer I drew to the house.

  At the top of the familiar bluff, I dismounted Buck and paused to take in the scenery of the land. Carston land. Winds gusted along the ridge before dying back to whisper through the tall grasses. Tiny specks of dust lightly peppered and prickled my face like the pat of a child’s chubby hands.

  In reverence, I removed my hat and knelt at the edge of the headstones Drew had painstakingly carved from the granite Evan had brought back from the mountainous region to the west. A large, sturdy one for Pa. A smaller one for Ma, sprinkled about with flowers carved into the face. Sky’s was wider and more elaborate with an inscription that read No woman loved more.

  But it was the tiny one next to her, with a relief etched of a lamb, that was still hard for me to focus on.

  Tears pricked my eyes. I quickly swiped them away with my sleeve. “Things are finally going according to plan, Sky.”

  I’d never felt uncomfortable sharing with her in life, and I sure as hell wasn’t gonna be ashamed to share with her in death. “The ranch’ll probably have a little one running around this time next year…at least if Bret does his fucking job right.”

  I chuckled as if the gust of wind that whipped up was Sky getting on to me again for cussing in front of the baby. The only time she didn’t chastise us for our language was when we made love to her. Then she couldn’t get enough of the dirty talk.

  “Bret and Stella will make fine children for the ranch, and I think Drew will be ready for fatherhood soon too. He’ll handle it okay with our help.”

  I stared off into the distance at the gray thunderheads. “It’s Evan I’m still worried about. He’s shown little interest in other women since you left.” I dusted my hat absently against my thighs. “You should’ve seen him though at Fort Union. No hesitation. He shot that fucker right between the eyes…with Stella smackdab in front of him.”

  I spit my disgust in the dirt. “Well…even if he won’t sleep with her, I know he’s at least fond enough of her to do whatever it takes to protect our new wife.”

  Unexpected emotion choked me up. I bowed my head. “Especially comforting, considering how I failed to protect the two of you.”

  The attack had come out of nowhere. Resources were scarce that year, what with the drought conditions and the fires that had rushed across the dry prairie. Animals that normally stayed far away from human activity had encroached on more than our homestead, searching for food and water.

  Sky had the baby strapped on her back in a papoose Bret’s family had gifted her, washing our fucking clothes in the river farther away from the house when the creek dried up to little more than a trickle. Her screams sent all of us running.

  But we were too late.

  We buried what was left before the sun had even reached its apex. I wasn’t about to let those wolves touch another hair on either of their heads.

  I shoved my hat between my knees and leaned forward to rest my hands on the chill granite – one hand for each stone. “Today I make a pledge to you both…I will not fail again. Not this time. Not with Stella…or her children.”

  I lost track of time as I hovered over their graves, listening for words of comfort in the wind. But all I got was the sharp crack of nearing lightning and thunder.

  It was answer enough.

  I stood and kissed the headstones. Then shoved on my hat and mounted Buck with a sharp jerk of his reins to turn him toward the homestead. The tops of the barn and the stable were visible above the tree line far in the distance then disappeared again as we lumbered down across the valley.

  Evening approached before the ground sloped upward again and brought the sheep pens into view. The storm that had followed for the last several days dissipated and the rays of the setting sun cast an amber glow over the property as we trotted into the yard.

  Warm light spilled through the windows of the house. The scent of a recently cooked meal filtered from the front screened door, this time minus the charbroiled flavor that had accompanied Stella’s earlier attempts.

  I dismounted to open the stable door – only to find it hanging open a crack. Inside I heard voices. Soft murmurs. Moans of pleasure. I tied off Buck’s reins on the outside post and gave him a drink from the water barrel then peeked inside only to have my cock go hard at the sight before my eyes.

  Bret had Stella bent forward, holding onto the railing of a stall door with her feet far apart while he entered her from behind. Her creamy white skin glistened in the lamplight with a fine sheen of sweat that didn’t impede my brother’s grip on her smooth hips and shapely ass.

  The only thing she wore was that damn corset, though her heavy breasts spilled out over the top of it to sway like twin udders as my brother rocked in and out of her pussy. Slowly. Sensually.

  I was instantly harder than I could remember in recent memory.

  Bret leaned over her and traced his tongue along her spine as he unlaced the corset one notch at a time. She gasped and arched her back as she took him deeper. Welcomed him with abandon. Bret always did like to take his time with the ladies and build up anticipation.

  My hand clenched as if to cup her as my brother reached around to fondle her clit. My mouth went dry as I imagined sucking on that swollen nub until she cried out in ecstasy. Pressing my finger against her puckered opening as she gasped in all new wonder.

  I couldn’t stand it anymore. One way or another, I had to get in on this action. If Stella was going to welcome all of us to her bed, this was the best time to test her willingness.

  The dusty yard was clear of any of the ranch hands. I quickly stripped, allowing my cock to spring free, then poured a bucket of water over my head to clean off the smell of dust and sweat from the trail. The cold water didn’t even begin to touch the heat in my balls. I quietly opened the stable door further and stepped to the edge of the circle of soft light.

  Her pants and moans were coming more readily as Bret increased the pace and depth of his thrusts. My length continued to grow. I didn’t even have to stroke or pump myself as I watched the hot fucking action and realized this heightened sensation was why Drew enjoyed watching even when we told him he couldn’t participate. Not even the soft nickers and whinnies of horses did anything to interrupt this heated display of devotion.

  T
hat was my job.

  The moment Stella was aware of my presence she stiffened and tried to jerk upright. But Bret was prepared and grabbed the rails to hold her in place with his own body, while his thrusts stilled for the moment.

  Those big blue eyes widened further in alarm. “Cole.”

  I don’t think she even noticed my naked and very aroused state.

  “It’s okay,” my brother murmured as if soothing a nervous filly before her first mount. He stroked her belly with one hand and turned his head to face me. “Shhh, he’s not upset…see?”

  Stella’s frightened and horrified stare dropped to my cock as I stroked and encouraged its growth. I moved in closer between her and the railing until the puffs of her rapid breaths tickled the tip.

  I held back a groan. “Take it,” I whispered in encouragement. “Take me with those luscious lips of yours, Stella.”

  Her tongue darted out to lick those plump lips when all I could imagine was that tongue stroking me. I edged closer to where all she had to do was dart it out again to make contact with my velvety head.

  Wide eyes glanced away from my face to my engorged offering before she accepted it with a quick swipe of my pre-cum. A moan gurgled up but I fought to keep still, allowing her the freedom to go at her own pace as she tasted. Licked the ridge. Then wrapped her lips around my cock and sucked on the head.

  Hard.

  My knees buckled and I had to steady myself against the stall door when I nearly came undone right then. All of the jerking off I’d done over the last months had obviously done little to satisfy the thirsty craving that gnawed away deep inside me.

  I panted and wrapped a tendril of her black hair around my finger. “Oh, Stella. That feels so good.”

  I tugged the strand with each stroke of her tongue, easing her forward as she took my cock deeper into her mouth. Bret reached around her to tease her clit like he was so good at doing. Then he picked up again where he’d left off, sliding in and out of her channel.