by Cheri Chaise
This woman was gonna be the death of me – one way or another. “Your contraption is in the back of the barn.”
“Well then.” Stella gathered up our plates in the blink of an eye, the knowing smirk revealing she’d won yet another battle. “The sooner we get the harvest and canning done, the sooner I can unpack my books.” She kissed me on top of my head and was gone, calling over her shoulder, “And now that I have some proper ranching clothes, I’m ready to really get my hands dirty.”
My already twitching cock strained against my trousers. If that was a euphemism for our dirty deeds through the night, I’d gladly help her dirty up those wicked hands in whatever way she wanted.
“What about you?” Bret asked me, donning his hat as he headed for the front door. “Got any plans for the day?”
Before I could tell him how badly I wanted to spend the day fucking the wife instead of in a saddle with aching balls, a clamor in the yard sent all of us onto the front porch. Evan arrived in a swirling cloud of dust, dropping Thunder’s reigns and leaping from his foaming horse with a smack to its rump.
“Grab the guns, brothers. Trouble’s headed this way.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Estella
After basking in the afterglow of an unusual but amazing night and hearing my husband sing my praises over breakfast, I was at a loss as to what to do when the house erupted in a flurry of weaponry.
Cole sent Drew out to the bunkhouse to notify the few hired hands who were currently helping around the ranch, while Evan and Bret raced by me to the second floor then came down with an arsenal big enough to outfit a cavalry regiment.
As I was wearing only Cole’s oversized shirt, I ran into my bedroom and snatched one of the cotton skirts from the floor, grateful it somewhat fit once I stuffed the shirttail beneath the waistband.
The derringer I’d forgotten to give back to Mr. Stubbs was still nestled beneath some lingerie in my trunk right where I’d left it. I tucked it into the skirt pocket, but I had to hitch up the overlong fabric in my clutches even after slipping into my shoes. My long, tangled tresses after a night of loving would have to wait.
The scent of mothballs swirled in my wake as I made my way onto the porch. Everyone had gathered and was busy filling every pistol and rifle on the property. They had belts and holsters slung two deep around their waists and crisscrossed over their chests and shoulders. Bret even had a rifle cradled against his spine, as did Evan.
“Stella!” Cole barked as he snapped a loaded rifle closed. “Get back inside.”
“This is my home now too,” I huffed. “Don’t I have a right to protect it?”
“With what?”
I drew out the derringer. “With this.”
Evan’s snort carried clearly on the breeze all the way from the other end of the porch. “Where’d you get that peashooter?”
“It was…a gift. From Mr. Stubbs.”
“Who?”
“The elderly gentleman. At the wedding.”
The furious pace at which the brothers prepped for what appeared to be a war didn’t let up throughout the conversation. “Do you even know how to use the thing?”
I wasn’t about to admit to Evan or any of the Carston brothers I’d never had to. “Well, I…”
“When was the last time you cleaned it?” Drew asked, twirling a pistol around his finger before shoving it into a holster.
“Cleaned it?”
“Give me that.” Cole snatched the weapon from my hands and stared down the tiny barrel. “It’s not even loaded. You got any ammunition for it?”
“I uh…”
“That’d be a no then.”
Perhaps it was simply because I was tired – we all were tired – but my vision clouded with tears. Even after an incredible night of lovemaking, my husband had returned to his short-tempered treatment. I crossed my arms across my unbound breasts and glared through the hurt as best I could.
The lines around Cole’s eyes softened a fraction when he looked up at me. When his knuckle traced gently along my jaw, my heart struggled to stay clenched in anger.
“I’m only trying to keep you safe, Stella. A good woman out here is as valuable as water. We don’t know who Evan saw or why they’re headed this way, but we’ll be ready to protect what’s ours if we have to.”
I didn’t trust my voice and only nodded my understanding.
Cole leaned over and grazed my lips with his. “I promise I’ll take you out and teach you how to use this thing. But for now, please stay inside where you’ll be safe.”
I ached to drag him into the house with me as my lips slanted over his. A hard knot of emotion restricted my throat as I placed my hands on either side of his face and gazed into his deep green eyes. He didn’t look away this time. Hadn’t looked away from me since his return home the day before.
Had it only been a day? Mere hours since we’d finally made a connection? A connection so deep my heart threatened to rip in two at the idea of something happening to my husband. Something happening that had the potential to take him away from me forever.
I wrapped my arms around his neck and stood on tiptoe to press my cheek against his. “Be safe.”
“I will.” He quickly kissed me again then glanced up at the dust swirling down the road. “Now go inside and wait…preferably on the second floor away from windows.”
I did as told and scampered up the stairs with the skirt held high. Cole’s upstairs room overlooked the front of the house, so I sat on the edge of his bed to watch out the window as he directed men to the far edge of the barn and around the back side of the house. My heart leapt into my throat to see Evan crawl along the steep pitch of the stable roof to hide on the far side of the cupola.
I clutched my husband’s pillow and breathed deep, expecting a faint whiff of his scent before remembering he hadn’t slept here since I’d last laundered the linens in his absence. Remembering he’d shared my bed last night. Remembering how Cole and Bret had shared my body while Drew looked on – and how much I wanted them to do so again.
Would they include Evan this time? Did I want them to? The grizzled brother had barely spoken to me since my arrival. The conversation we’d shared moments ago were the most words he’d strung together in my presence, even though they’d been spoken in derision.
But I didn’t have time to contemplate such things further. With my face pressed to the glass, I saw when the dust formed into men and horses. I counted nine as they neared. Make that ten. No thirteen.
Thirteen men against nine. Nine well-armed men defending Carston Ranch – but against who? Realization crept over me as I recognized the one in the lead when they rode to the far edge of the barn and stopped without coming into the yard. One olive-skinned and swarthy man, the sight of which chilled the very blood in my veins.
What froze it completely was the sight of my husband walking off the porch to stand alone and exposed in the center of the dirt yard. His deep voice carried through the thin pane of glass.
“What brings you to Carston Ranch this morning, gentlemen?”
Gentlemen? I wouldn’t exactly call any of them gentlemen – especially not the man who dismounted and strode confidently toward Cole, shaking out his hat before donning it again to cover his glistening ebony hair.
I could just make out the careful response as Mr. Jahan stopped several yards away. “Well now, Mr. Carston. I’ve come to see how that stallion I sold you is doing.”
The silent tension that followed penetrated the window and swarmed thickly in the room. I held my breath, waiting for Cole’s response.
“Long way for a man to come just to check on a horse.”
“Well…” The leering grin sent shivers through me. “I like to make sure my customers are always, shall we say, satisfied with their piece of flesh.”
“The horse is fine, sir. Just fine.”
Cole’s emphasis was loud and clear. Whatever designs Mr. Jahan once had on me, they were not lost on my husband.
“I hope the horse is not proving to be too much of a handful for your filly…or did you plan to geld him.”
Cole’s hands tightened on his holsters as Bret joined his brother. I couldn’t breathe – and not from a restrictive corset this time. My dear lovers were open targets for a hail of bullets, standing out in the middle of the yard. The only saving grace was knowing Evan had them covered from his position on the stable roof.
But the odds against thirteen men were not in his favor.
Bret answered, his tone lighter but still strong. “No plans to geld a good stallion. Not when we’ve already put him to good use.”
Mr. Jahan held his arms out at his sides and looked around the homestead with a careful and assessing eye. “With all of this open land, I’m sure he’s getting enough exercise to help calm that restless spirit of his.”
“He’s proven to be a capable stud for at least one of our mares.”
A chuckle. “Glad to hear it.”
The roving eye stopped on my window. I jerked backward and aside to avoid being seen.
“I hear you Carstons have put together quite the stud farm out here,” Mr. Jahan continued. “I’m curious about your particular…operation.”
My stomach dropped. I knew for certain he wasn’t talking about horses this time. He’d seen me.
Cole’s voice carried up to me. “Is that why you’ve come all this way to our ranch? Looking to stud one of your mares?”
“Actually, I heard you had a certain fair filly. A particularly desirable filly looking for a mate…or perhaps more.”
My heart pounded with realization. I raced down the stairs to the front door, no doubt in my mind exactly what the stranger had come for – and what he’d do in order to obtain it.
I couldn’t just stay locked inside while this man threatened my family, so I did the only thing I could. I threw open the door and scrambled down the porch to the center of the yard to stand in front of Cole and Bret.
“Stella…,” Cole started, grabbing me by the waist.
I held firm. “I know very well what he’s looking for,” I said, looking up into the abyss of Mr. Jahan’s black eyes as I raised my chin with a fortitude I didn’t feel.
“Me.”
Chapter Thirty
Cole
The horses with the men in the background stamped restlessly when Stella came barreling from the house. Jahan’s stare raked over my wife’s body like he owned it, even while I held onto her firmly.
“And why would he be looking for my wife?” I questioned Stella without taking my eyes off of the uninvited visitor.
Jahan cocked his head. “She and I had a bit of a…shall we say…an agreement.”
“You mean a threat,” Stella returned with that determined anger she’d so ably demonstrated when securing her trunks back at Fort Union. “Accosting a woman in her room is no agreement. Besides, whatever you imagined between us is moot. I am a married woman now.”
Jahan looked down his aquiline nose as he studied Stella once again. “Pity.”
Cold anger seeped through me like a hailstorm. The fingers on my free hand twitched to draw my gun and put a hole right between this bastard’s eyes.
“Easy there, brother,” Bret muttered from my right.
Senses sharpened as I tamped down the automatic response and assessed the situation a bit more rationally. Twelve armed men backed up Jahan, who no doubt had guns hiding behind that fancy-ass jacket. Thirteen against nine. Considering we had a sharpshooter positioned on the stable roof, odds in a shootout were easily on our side.
That left Stella as our only variable – and I’d do anything to avoid endangering her out here in the open.
“What kind of an agreement did you think you had?”
Jahan took a step forward. “I have a job waiting for Miss Estella if plans haven’t worked out to her satisfaction.”
The memory of our conversation at the fort whispered in my mind, and I had no doubt exactly what kind of job this man envisioned. I spat in the dirt then tightened my hold around Stella’s tiny waist, her ample breasts spilling over my arm. Breasts that were ours and no one else’s ever again.
“As you can see, Mrs. Estella Carston is happily settled on Carston Ranch.”
“And more than satisfied,” Stella finished off.
A slow grin spread between the carefully trimmed mustache and beard. “Yes, it appears so.” He made no effort to leave and instead took another step forward.
“If you’re looking for a cool drink, you’ll find refreshment in the creek…downstream.” My emphasis should’ve left no doubt as to my directive to leave.
But Jahan didn’t take the hint and instead took yet another step toward us. “Just men in the family then? Seems a bit much for just one woman to manage.”
“I do just fine.”
The grin widened into an evil smile of sinister intentions. “I’ll bet you do, Miss Estella. I’ll bet you do.”
The next step forward was the last one. Dust spat up as Evan’s shot plunked right at the edge of Jahan’s boot. In the split second following, the shuffle of drawn weapons was only exceeded by the click of ratcheting pistols and rifles from all around the yard. Jahan and his men hadn’t even had time to draw their weapons as they stared down ours.
I hated having Stella exposed out here like this. Dammit, why couldn’t the woman have just stayed indoors like I’d told her?
“Now that Stella’s place here is settled, it’s time you and your men were on your way,” I instructed. “We’ve got a ranch that won’t run itself.”
The tension in the air ratcheted up a notch. Jahan took one last slow and careful look around, then with a tip of the hat and the shuffling of feet, he mounted his horse and led the group away from our land.
I had no doubt they’d be back.
We were still staring after the diminishing dust cloud when Evan and Drew joined us in the yard.
Evan spat a stream of tobacco. “Just so you know, I missed on purpose.”
“I think he got the message.”
Drew grinned. “Did you see him though? I think that fucker nearly pissed himself.”
“Language, Drew,” I admonished as Stella stiffened slightly in my arms.
My brother doffed his hat. “Sorry, Ella.”
She wriggled from my arm and kissed his cheek. “That’s okay, Drew. I’m just glad you’re safe.” One by one, she kissed each of us. This time even Evan allowed her to peck his grizzled cheek. “That you’re all safe.”
“And you were supposed to stay safe in the house,” I growled before addressing Evan. “Saddle up and watch after that bunch to make sure they don’t cut around to flank us.”
“Got it,” Evan responded and set off with a couple of reliable hands toward the stable.
While they prepared to gallop off down the road, I instructed Bret to keep his eyes out from the barn loft until Evan’s return and set Drew and the remaining hands to keep an eye out while in the fields. Someone had to get some work done around here today.
I gripped Stella’s tiny hand in mine and jerked her toward the trees at the rear of the yard. “Now…come with me.”
She stumbled along behind. “Let go, Cole. You’re hurting my wrist.”
I didn’t even stop as I tugged her forward to sweep up in my arms in a flurry of hair and skirts that smelled of mothballs.
Stella wiggled and squirmed futilely. “You put me down this instant, Cole Carston.”
“No.”
“No?”
“No.”
She smacked my chest. “Damn you.”
Even in the midst of a crisis, I couldn’t help but chuckle at her outburst. “Am I going to have to chastise you for language like I did Drew?”
“You can try,” she grumbled. “But it wouldn’t do you any good.”
“And here I thought you were a respectable society woman.”
“I left respectable society when I came here.”
“Apparently.�
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The flash in her blue eyes sent an ache straight to my cock. I had to remind myself of the reason I carried her through the trees to the open meadow far from the rear of the house – and it wasn’t to push her against a pine and shove up her skirts to probe the moist heat beneath.
I also had to remind myself that for now only her mouth was mine. That lush, full mouth that spouted fury and fire that hardened me in an instant. A mouth that had no problem forming words like damn. A mouth I wanted to fill with more than dirty words whispered between us.
But I had a whole other reason for setting her down at the meadow frontage.
She looked around, no longer prepared to bolt away from me like a frightened or frustrated deer. “What are we doing here?”
“Shooting.”
“Shooting?”
“I’m going to teach you how to load and fire a pistol.”
“But I…”
I reached around and drew her to me, sliding my lips across hers before pulling back when she groaned. “And you’re gonna shut that pretty, little mouth of yours and learn some basics.”
A spark of heat glinted in her eyes – and it had nothing to do with anger. “Whatever for?”
“So that when those characters come around again, you’ll be useful, since it’s obvious you have no intention of staying indoors where you’ll be safe. Even when told to by your husband.”
She crossed her arms in a huff. “You mean you wanted me to stay out of the way while you put yourselves in harm’s way?”
“At least I knew what I was doing.”
“Really? Standing out in the middle of the yard where any one of those men could’ve cut you down with one shot?”
Damn, it was hard to concentrate when she got all riled up. “Your faith in me is astonishing.”
In her momentary silence, I took off all but one belt and holster and set them aside in the grass before I checked all the rounds in my pistol and sighted one of the tattered wood shingles nailed to a tree at the far end of the meadow.
The warmth of her hand on my arm returned my gaze to Stella. “I’m sorry. But when I saw you out there all alone, I panicked.” Tears pooled in her eyes. “After finally making a connection, I couldn’t bear the thought of losing you…any of you…in a firefight right before my eyes.”
