by Jenny Penn
“For her…and don’t give me that look, Sheridan. Five years ago you agreed with me.”
That got the old man out of his seat. “Five years ago I was afraid of what you might do to my daughter. Now I am afraid of what you did do.”
“I didn’t do anything.”
“You broke her heart.”
Caelen intervened fast before either Sheridan or Brodie’s temper turned the conversation away from their goal. Not that Brodie would lose this battle, even if it came down to a matter of force.
“Maybe we did,” Caelen offered up as a compromise. “Maybe we treaded too heavy on Jamie’s tender feelings five years ago, but you got to ask yourself, Sheridan, what price are you willing to pay for that sin? What price are you willing to let Jamie pay? ‘Cause we both know that as angry and hurt as she is, she’s going to make trouble. It’s already started, and she almost already paid a very high price.”
That had Sheridan’s jaw tensing as he breathed out in annoyance. “You don’t have to tell me about my own daughter, Caelen. Nor do you have to tell me how to keep her safe. I am her father.”
“And you’re here pretty much alone. Nobody but Mike around to help you rein her in and run this ranch for how many weeks?”
Sheridan’s brown eyes narrowed dangerously. “And just where are you going with that?”
“I’m just thinking, Bridgette is about to have that baby any day now,” Caelen drawled. “It seems to me she might like to have some company, especially female company. I mean, she’s kind of grumpy with just us guys around.”
“Tending to her pregnant sister would keep her busy enough to stay out of trouble,” Brodie weighed in. Drawn back to the plan by Caelen’s calmness, his aggression faded back into pure tension as he waited for Sheridan’s response.
He might have had white hair and been a man, but Sheridan shared his daughter’s tendency to turn that stubborn chin defiantly up. “You do have a point. I guess I could bring her by during the day.”
“You never know when a baby is going to come,” Caelen retorted instantly. “They can drop in the middle of the night, and if that happens, I’m sure Jamie would be a great comfort to Bridgette during the birth.”
“Besides, you don’t have the men to spare to run Jamie back and forth every day,” Brodie added.
They hesitated again, giving Sheridan the opportunity to protest or accept. He did neither. Instead he lifted to his feet as he swiped his glass off the table. “I need another drink.”
“Let me,” Brodie stepped up.
“You do realize that even if I agree to this, that won’t save you once my boys and your brothers return,” Sheridan commented with a touch of smugness as Brodie poured his drink. “If you don’t have my girl wed by then, they’re going to put a hurt on you and then try to get within a foot of her.”
“Sheridan, I’m going to have that girl of yours married by the end of the week.” Brodie handed him the double shot of whiskey. “I’ll have her pregnant by the time all them boys return, and just think how much a baby will force Jamie to settle down.”
Sheridan smirked at that. “You have a long way to fall, Brodie.”
“Is that a yes?”
With a lift of a brow and a slight shrug of his shoulders, Sheridan caved. “I think it might be wise for Jamie to go spend some time with her sister.”
“Of course.” The agreement came easy to Brodie’s lips, as did the smile. He’d deliver Jamie to her sister, right after he wore the stiffness paining his dick out.
* * * *
Jamie pushed the peas around on her plate, not bothering to eat one. Despite the hunger grumbling in her stomach, she didn’t dare take a bite of the meal her daddy had laid out for them. To a man they expected her to brood in her seat in silent defiance of her father’s decree. A sullen protest, that’s what the old Jamie would have given them.
The new Jamie secretly smirked. They thought they were so smart. Brodie and Caelen had conned her dad not into giving her to them, but to her very pregnant sister who probably wouldn’t be up to the task of keeping an eye on Jamie. There could be no doubt just what kind of mischief Brodie and Caelen planned get into behind Bridgette’s back.
Let them try. Jamie had learned one important lesson from all her time in the parlor house, men suffered more when their lusts were denied. All she had to do was give them enough, just a tease here and there to keep them in a riled state that would sooner or later boil into painful need. Then they would break and that could only happen faster staying over at the MacAuley ranch.
Brodie and Caelen had inadvertently solved her main problem, how to stay close to them. Her daddy had given her the opportunity, but more importantly, he hadn’t given the MacAuley brothers any direct authority over her.
The only thing that got to her was the idea of actually having to help her sister give birth. It would be small and petty to walk away from Bridgette in her time of need just because she felt uncomfortable, but that didn’t stop her from feeling a little anxious. Just another new experience to add to this adventure.
It would be added soon, too, from what her daddy said. Hell, it could happen tonight, thanks to Brodie and Caelen’s insistence that they head for their home this evening. Well over a two hour ride, the summer’s sun gave them the light to be able to push for the late ride. Jamie knew what really motivated their rush. She could see it in the scorching glances they sent her way.
Brodie and Caelen hoped to sneak her past Linc and Bridgette under the cloak of darkness. Instead of taking her to the main house, they’d probably ride right to the little cabin Bridgette had told her they’d moved into. Let them try.
“Jamie,” her daddy leaned in from his post at the head of the table. “I’d feel a little better if you actually ate something.”
“I’m not hungry.” Cold and hard, she made that statement with an unflinching look as she stared down her own daddy, a perfect imitation of her childhood sulk.
The difference came from her father, who didn’t instantly chastise her but instead covered her hand to give it a little squeeze. “Come on now, honey. You’ll be all worn out for your reunion with your sister if you don’t get some food in you.”
“It’s going to be dark when we get to the MacAuley ranch, Dad. Bridgette will probably be worn out herself.”
Sheridan sighed that long suffering sound that he used to try to guilt Jamie out of her foul mood. “Well, at least seeing your sister should put a smile on your face.”
“It’s not my sister that puts a frown on it but the company she keeps.” Jamie couldn’t help but to follow that comment with a resentful glance at Brodie. “It’s a little foul by my standards.”
This time her dad’s squeeze pressed the bones in her hand together. “Jamie, do I have to remind you that you will be a guest in your sister’s home?”
“No.” Even if she only pretended to bend, the pain to her pride had her honestly muttering. “Sir.”
“And what kind of behavior does a proper guest display for her hosts?”
“To be gracious and smiling.” Now she couldn’t even look Brodie’s way, assured that he had his gloat on.
“And isn’t there something you have to say to Brodie?”
“I’m sorry I called you,” her father’s hand tightened in warning, “what I did, Brodie.”
Sheridan’s response came instantly, with the cut of disproval in his tone. “That is not how an apology is given, Jamie Anne Traynor. Now, I want you to look that man in the eye, and give him the sincere apology he is due.”
Growing with the help of a deep breath, Jamie straightened in her seat and lifted her gaze back to meet Brodie’s sparkling one. Oh, he loved this moment. The very fact of which made it that much harder to give it to him, but she tried. “I’m really sorry, Mr. MacAuley, that you’re a colossal ass, and I can’t stand you.”
“Jamie!”
“It’s all right, Sheridan,” Brodie cut in with laughter tinting in his voice even as his gaze darkened on her. “J
amie just needs a little time with her sister. I’m sure Bridgette will remind her of just how a proper lady is supposed to act.”
“A proper lady would have already shot you in the balls,” Jamie grumbled, completely forgetting her dad’s hold on her hand in the moment of rash temper. “Ah! That hurt.”
Turning insulted eyes on her father, she snatched her hand back.
“And it’s going to hurt more if you need a spanking to remind you how a mature lady acts.”
That threat had her bristling and challenging her father as she never before would have dared. “I am mature, mature enough to know my own mind and to be honest to it.”
“Then you’re mature enough to accept the consequences.” Not the least bit impressed with her justification, Sheridan laid down that threat without skipping a beat.
Jamie snorted. “I’m a little old for your paddle, Father.”
“But not for Brodie’s.”
Her eyes went wide and straight for the cocky cowboy sipping milk at the end of the table. “He doesn’t have the right.”
“Your insults to him and the fact that you are going to be living beneath his roof will certainly give him that.”
“Anything of his that touches me will be cut off.”
That’s all she had to say about that.
* * * *
Caelen watched Sheridan’s concerned gaze follow his daughter as she stormed from the room.
“Let it go, Sheridan.” Brodie echoed Caelen’s thought as he set his glass of milk down. “She’s just running a little hot. She’ll cool down in time.”
“Running hot is no excuse for that kind of language or behavior,” Sheridan shot back. “It really makes me wonder about this husband of hers that let my daughter turn into such a…”
“Bitch?” Brodie offered.
“I would have said feisty,” Sheridan growled. “And lest you thought I was serious, don’t you dare go raising a hand to my daughter.”
Leaving the two of them to argue it out, Caelen slid his chair back as quietly as he could. Sheridan had to have noticed him leaving in the same direction as Jamie, but he didn’t speak up, and Caelen didn’t hesitate. He found her, not surprisingly, where she’d always stormed off to in a snit—the barn, petting the horses.
“You always knew how to make an exit.” Caelen settled along the stall gate right beside her. Tucking in his elbows, he leaned back against the slatted wood to glance around the bar, pointedly ignoring looking right at her, just as she did him.
“Really, Caelen, you can’t see how bad an idea this is?”
He didn’t even have to think about that one. “Nope.”
“Me living not a hundred steps from your front door?”
“The only problem I see is that you think you’re not going to be living inside my door.” Caelen turned his chin to cast her his signature grin.
She met his smile with her own overly sweet one. “My daddy is sending me to my sister, Caelen. Not to you.”
“I guess we’ll see how that works out, won’t we?”
He’d sensed all through the meal that she didn’t really have any heat under her scowl. Jamie had just been keeping up appearances for her daddy. Now, she couldn’t stop her laugh at that question. “You don’t know what you are getting into, Caelen MacAuley. I’m going to make your life a living hell.”
“Is that what you think, darlin’?”
Caelen curled around her, caging her against the stall. To her credit, Jamie didn’t hesitate as she stroked down the horses muzzle. That didn’t mean that she could hide the sudden tension in her shoulders or the way her breath caught. Caelen noticed it all, and it made him itchy in the worst way.
“I’m really going to like watching Brodie tan your hide, just as much as I’m going to love watching him spread your legs wide and pack your little cunt full of dick. I like watching, Jamie. It makes me hunger, and just when Brodie’s had his fill,” Caelen dropped his tone, “it’s going to be me who makes you beg for mercy.”
He could smell her heat dripping right down those creamy thighs. Sweet honey and all he had to do was thrust a hand up her skirt to be touching it. Before that urge could overwhelm him, Jamie turned. Her body might have been primed, but her gaze remained focused as did the taunting smile at her lips.
“Really, Caelen, it doesn’t shock me at all that you need your brother’s help to make a woman beg.”
He felt his ears go red with that one, but he let her go as she shouldered through his arm to strut off. No, his response to that challenge would be better served off her daddy’s land or at least not where Sheridan could interfere. Instead of chasing after Jamie, Caelen focused on getting the horses ready.
As he worked, he plotted. It bugged him that Jamie never saw him as half the threat she did Brodie. When it came to sex, Brodie actually tended to be a much more straight-forward lover than Caelen. Caelen kind of liked to play with his dinner before he ate it and he had a whole two hour ride with nothing to do but toy with one sassy vixen.
Chapter 6
Caelen couldn’t have been harder by the time Sheridan escorted his daughter toward the waiting horses. It made it damn difficult to sit still in his saddle, though no amount of shifting made it comfortable. It would be a pain that he’d bare for two hours, but on the other end, he’d have all night to exhaust it.
Despite all the assurance of her gait and all her earlier antagonisms, Jamie was worried. It showed first in her gaze and second in the way she stopped.
“Two horses?” Jamie turned that question on her father. “Why don’t I have my own horse?”
“Because you don’t have a horse, and I don’t have one to spare.”
Jamie couldn’t argue with that, nor could she make her mind up of which brother would be less a threat, as both Brodie and Caelen waited for her to make a decision. As he expected, she ultimately decided Caelen would be less likely to molest her during the ride.
He had to grin at her naiveté. Her ignorance didn’t last longer than it took for him to use the hand she offered to lift her up and settle that soft, plump ass right down over his burning erection. Several layers of clothes might have separated them, but that didn’t comfort her enough to stop her from sucking in a deep breath and stiffening straight up.
Before she could offer an objection to her father, Caelen kicked his horse into motion. “No time for second chances, darlin’.”
“What do you think you’re doing, Caelen?” There could be no masking the alarm in that question.
“Having a little fun.”
“Damnit, Caelen—” Whatever threat she’d been intending to make, it disappeared under her shriek as he hefted her straight out of the saddle. With the horse still eating up land as fast as it could, Caelen turned Jamie mid-air. It gave her quite a startle and she came back into his lap already fighting.
Pure heaven, that’s what having her pressed up against him felt like. All her squirming just made it better. With every clomping step of his horse, Jamie’s curves slid and rolled over him. From the puckered tip of her breast pressing into his chest, to the thick odor of the sweet cream merely a layer of denim away from his engorged cock, all her feistiness did was make her hotter and him harder.
“Damnit, Caelen. Let me go.”
“Why?” He drawled, leaning back slightly to stare down into darkening eyes. “This is what you wanted, isn’t it? To test your endurance against my strength and see which one of us begs first. Or have you started to realize you ain’t never had a chance of winning?”
That stilled her and had her chin lifting. “Fine, but there are rules—”
“There aren’t no rules, darlin’. That’s what makes it so good.”
Unimpressed by that guarantee, her gaze sharpened slightly. “I am not having sex on a horse.”
Now there’s an idea… “Not ever?”
He expected an immediate agreement, and it tilted there at the edges of her lips. “Not today.”
Caelen grinned. “I t
hink I can live with that, darlin’, but when we get to the ranch, I’m going to be spreading those legs and burying myself between them, and you ain’t going to be denying me. Just so you know.”
Jamie’s smile slipped right against his lips as she stretched up to whisper into his kiss. “We’ll see about that.”
Yes, she would. Caelen didn’t argue it. He could see the speculation in her eyes and knew she wanted to push him into being harder, rougher with his need. It dawned on him just what Jamie’s dangerous game was. The silly little woman thought she could rile them up and then still have the strength to deny them.
It could actually happen that way if he let her push him into rushing, fumbling, being too rough to bring her right along with him to the desperate moment when only one thing would soothe his burning flames of need. So he gave her just the opposite and returned her kiss with a soft, gentle brush.
Back and forth, light and sweet, he lured her eyelids into fluttering closed and her lips parting in silent invitation under his. The nectar of the gods. It became a whole lot harder to hold back as his tongue slid in to take a drink from the warm well of intoxicating sweetness.
And for the gods an erotic treat. Even as his tongue slid over hers, it curled around his, licking straight down the sensitive side. In a mating ritual as old as time, they dueled with sensual motions that had Caelen groaning. Slow to start, Jamie ripped a canon ball of fire straight down his spine when she sucked him just as she’d done before.
This time, he didn’t care who had taught her that move. All he could think of was devouring the soft woman so willing in his arms. Harder, hungrier, the kiss raged out of control as his fingers dented into her hips, holding her still for the grinding thrust of his hips.
His cock was one big ache, and he cursed the clothes between them. This just wasn’t enough, nor were the tiny giggles coming from the back of her throat. The happy murmurs solidified his need to break the spine of Jamie’s defiance.
He wanted her to melt beneath him as a woman should and not stubbornly insist on being contrary. From this day forward, she would carry his brand. Burned deep into her soul, Jamie would never forget who she called master at the end of the day.
