by Jenny Penn
“Well, we certainly didn’t do it so you could end up being a Madame.”
“Come on, Bridgette,” Jamie pleaded. “I want you to be all right with this.”
“And how in the world am I supposed to be that?”
“Because I am.” That drew a frustrated sigh from her sister. The one that always said she was caving. “I’m actually more than happy, Bridgette. I really love my life…the only thing is…”
“What?”
Jamie cast a look up at her sister as she confessed, “I’m just kind of tired of being the only virgin in the room.”
“Oh, God, no, Jamie.”
Jamie dismissed the horrified outrage of her sister’s response to continue on pitifully. “I mean, I tried some things, but…it just didn’t feel like everybody said it would.”
“Listen, Jamie, you can’t play these kinds of games with Brodie and Caelen.”
“But they’re the only ones it feels right with,” Jamie whispered back.
“Then just marry them,” Bridgette snapped, completely unsympathetic to Jamie’s plight.
“And live under Brodie’s rule for the rest of my life?” Jamie wrinkled her nose at the very idea. “I don’t think so. Besides, I’m just home for a visit. I’m not staying.”
“What?” That actually had Bridgette lift off her pillows in alarm. “You can’t mean to say you’re going back to that…that…”
“Parlor house,” Jamie filled in. “And of course I am.”
“That’s it.” Bridgette swung her legs off the opposite side of the bed.
“Where are you going?”
“To get Linc and put a stop to this insanity.”
“No, Bridgette.” Jamie lashed onto her sister’s arm. “You can’t. Not now. I have everything set up so perfectly.”
“Perfectly? And just what is your definition of perfect?”
“Well, Daddy thinks I’m a widow so he isn’t worried. If you tell Linc about what I’ve been doing, it’ll get back to Daddy, and just think how that will upset him.”
“Don’t you try to guilt me, Jamie Anne Traynor.”
“And just what do you think is going to happen if you tell Linc? Who do you think he’s going to go blabbing to first?” Bridgette didn’t want to answer that, and Jamie didn’t wait for her. “Brodie and Caelen. And just how do you think they’ll react?”
“Jamie,” Bridget sighed as she settled back on the bed. “It doesn’t matter if I tell them or not. They’re not going to let you go. Don’t you ever read what I write? You’ve come all the way back here for revenge, but you’ve already had it for five years.
“Five years, those boys have been miserable without you and when they found out that you’d gone and married somebody else…you might be mad about what happened down by the bathing pond and jealous that they’d been rolling around with Rebecca, but they’ve suffered for those sins already.”
“Well, I didn’t get to see it,” Jamie snapped, pulling her hand free of the placating one Bridgette had put over it.
“You’re a fool.” Bridgette shook her head. “First to think they’re going to let you walk away from them a second time and second, to even think you can trick them into taking your virginity without them realizing you’re a virgin. The whole thing is just foolish.”
“Please, Bridgette, just let me do this the way I need to,” Jamie begged.
“Fine,” Bridgette spat out with a deep sigh. Settling back into the bed, she shook her head. “It’s not like it’ll change how this is going to end. I guess if you want to make things difficult for yourself, I can’t stop you.”
Jamie smiled and stretched out beside her sister. With a nudge, Bridgette lifted her arm so Jamie could snuggle into her side. From that position there could be no ignoring the very large protrusion growing out of Bridgette’s belly. Placing a hand on her sister’s stomach, Jamie couldn’t help but give it a rub.
“You scared?” Jamie whispered, glancing up at Bridgette.
“A little.”
So was Jamie.
* * * *
“Okay,” Linc stormed through the front door of the cabin already demanding things. “I want to know what you two idiots think you’re up to.”
Brodie looked over the rim of his glass and smirked. “Getting as drunk as I need to, now that you ruined my night.”
“Shut up, Brodie.”
That came from both Caelen and Linc at the same time. Linc shot it at him as he ripped out the chair at the head of the table and plopped down. Caelen did so over his own glass. It was the one he’d been sipping while Brodie threw back four in a row. There went the fifth.
“I’m waiting, Caelen.” Linc snatched the bottle away from Brodie while he snaked a glass for himself from the center of the table.
“There ain’t a need to get all in a twist, Linc. We’re planning on doing right by Jamie,” Caelen assured him as Brodie snatched the bottle back with unnecessary force.
The rude move earned him a dark glower from Linc, but he let it slide. “Well, you can do right by starting with what she’s even doing here?”
“The way she tells the story, her husband passed, and she’s come home.” Caelen shrugged. “With everybody gone on the cattle drive, her daddy figured it might be better for her to spend some time with Bridgette, given her condition.”
“So Sheridandidn’t give her to you.” Linc shook his head.
“Not exactly,” Caelen begrudgingly agreed. “But he wasn’t convinced on sending her here until Brodie promised to get her wed and pregnant before everybody got back from the drive.”
“Can’t get there without a little foreplay,” Brodie grumbled, drawing Linc’s annoyance back in his direction.
“Foreplay? That’s what you were up to? Not some good old fashion discipline?”
“Jamie earned her paddling, Linc.” Brodie roused himself up enough to straighten nearly off the table. “In one day, that woman has shoved, tripped, hit, kicked, bit, and pinched me. Not to mention all the obscenities and insults or the knife she threatened to slice my balls off with. Hell, Sheridan even threatened to put her over his knee in the middle of dinner.”
“And Sheridan would have that right,” Linc shot back, not the least bit sympathetic. “Jamie’s his daughter. She ain’t nothing more than a sister-in-law to you.”
“She’s mine.”
“No, she ain’t. Not yet, and if you keep up on this pace, she ain’t never going to be.”
That had Brodie looking completely exasperated. “What the hell are we supposed to do?”
“You lie, dumbass,” Linc snapped in total disgust. “God, you two don’t know anything about catching a woman.”
“Hey,” Caelen snapped. “We do just fine, thank you.”
“Really?” Linc smirked. “And who is sharing your bed tonight? Tomorrow? Hmm? Where is this woman?”
“Well you kind of stole her from us,” Brodie snarled. “Which reminds me, I aught kick your ass for that.”
“I saved you, Brodie. The way you were going, all you were headed toward was headaches and heartaches.”
“At least my dick wouldn’t ache, and that’s all I really care about.”
“Is that so?” Linc shook his head as he shoved away from the table. “Well then, there really is no way in hell I’m going to let you near my sister.”
“In law,” Brodie added on for him.
That earned a pause and a smirk from Linc. “I’m going to enjoy watching you two suffer for the next few weeks.”
“Son of a bitch,” Brodie sighed out as he caved back into the table. The cabin door clicked closed behind Linc, calm and soft, proving just how he meant what he’d said. It left Caelen shaking his head as he looked back over at his older twin.
“You really made things more difficult for us with that attitude.”
“Screw you, Caelen,” Brodie muttered into the table top.
“I don’t know why you just don’t come out with the truth, then Linc would be doing
everything he could to make Jamie available to us.”
Lifting up about an inch, Brodie smacked his lips at Caelen. “I told him I’d marry her. Isn’t that enough?”
“You could have told him that you loved her.”
“So could you have.” Brodie’s forehead dunked back down. “Besides, Linc isn’t God. We’ll find a way around him. Hell, he’s got to sleep sometime.”
That last bit faded off into a deep breath as Brodie passed out right there, bent over in his seat, drooling on the table. Normally, this would have been when Caelen did the nice thing and at least stretched his brother out on the floor to sleep without getting stiff, but Brodie’s last words struck Caelen.
Linc did have to sleep. In fact, he’d probably just headed off for bed. A bed and his pregnant wife leaving his sweet, little sister-in-law in a bed all by herself, Caelen smiled at the thought. It would probably be in the room right next to Linc’s. Maybe across the hall, but sure enough, he wouldn’t keep her any closer than that.
Waiting through the darkening of the sky to near black, Caelen plotted and planned before getting everything ready for Jamie. Assured Linc would be fast asleep by then, he headed off toward the main house wearing nothing but his boots and jeans.
Instead of risking the long path of creaking floorboards that barred his way through the house, Caelen chose to climb it instead. It was not a particularly difficult task thanks to the wraparound porch and its lower roof line. He did crack the railing when he pushed off to heft himself onto the roof.
Tipping a look back over the edge, Caelen shrugged off the damage, even though he knew Linc would surely be pissed as hell come morning. Linc would have other reasons, though, to beat Caelen’s ass come morning, better reasons than a broken railing.
Crawling up the steep incline, Caelen used the exterior wall of the second floor to help him gain his feet. Then all he had to do was snoop from one window to the next. Just like he thought, the room right next to Linc’s had somebody sleeping deep beneath the sheets.
The summer heat had waned with the falling of the sun but not enough for the windows to be closed. Nothing barred Caelen from stepping right through and into Jamie’s bedroom. How easy was that? Too easy, and fate hadn’t exactly been kind to him where Jamie was concerned.
Thinking along those lines, Caelen silently shed his clothes, intent on not giving fate any more opportunities than necessary to deny him his victory. All the while, he kept his gaze fixated on Jamie, or what he could see of her.
Tucked completely under the sheet, only a tuff of dark hair peeked out. Just a smidgeon of skin gleamed in the night, a hand curling around the edge of a pillow with barely a finger showing. The rest of Jamie’s glorious body was hidden from his sight by the sheet.
It bulged out bigger than his little angel, thicker. Caelen’s lips curled in wicked anticipation, wondering if she’d dragged a pillow beneath to hump out her frustration. Maybe even thinking of him, but she didn’t have to dream any longer.
Stretching the rope tight between his hands, Caelen mounted Jamie. Straddling her side with his thighs, he settled his naked ass down onto hard bone and heavy muscle. Even through the sheet, Caelen knew in that instant he hadn’t just straddled his soft, willing woman.
“What?” Linc groused rolling, and then Caelen’s world spun as his brother shoved him, jerking free with a roar. “What the fuck?”
Caelen tumbled right over the edge of the bed. The wrong edge, because his pants were on the other side. The ones at his nose got yanked away as Linc stormed into his own britches, still raging at Caelen.
“What the fuck are you doing here, Caelen? You better answer me, boy, before I break that stick poking up at me!”
That threat had Caelen snapping out his momentary stupor to rush for his feet. “What am I doing? What are you doing sleeping in Jamie’s bed? Where the hell is she?”
That had been his natural response but one probably better kept to himself. It had Linc going still. “You son-of-a-bitch. That’s what you’re doing up here?”
“What else would I be doing up here?”
“With a rope no less? Is that how you intend to treat my sister? That’s how you’re going to show respect for me? Breaking into my house, tying up my sister and then what? You gonna rape her too?”
With each accusation he thumped Caelen on his chest, backing him into the little table by the bed and around its hard corner to the open window that flanked either side of the bed. When his naked ass hit glass, Caelen had nowhere to go but forward. Thankfully, Linc’s last suggestion had Caelen mad enough to do just that.
“There ain’t going to be no rape! Trust me on this, Linc, that girl’s going to beg for it.”
“Then why the hell do you need the rope?”
That got a momentary smirk out of Caelen as his mind dipped toward the pleasant memories of his plan. “She’d have liked it.”
“That’s it,” Linc growled. “I have enough problems worrying about my wife than you making my life a whole hell of a lot worse with all this bullshit. Get it through your head, Caelen, you ain’t getting Jamie. Not on my watch.”
“Get this through your head, Linc, ain’t nothing going to keep me from what is mine. Not you, not God, not the devil. Nothing.”
“You’re going to make this difficult, aren’t you?”
His brother sounded just defeated enough for Caelen to risk a smug grin. “I’m going to win.”
Maybe that had been a touch too much. Caelen figured yeah when Linc growled. That’s all the warning he got before two hands planted themselves against his chest and shoved. Naked and off balance, Caelen crashed right through the window and went tumbling down the porch roof to land hard in an undignified pile on the ground.
That hurt. From the slicing pain of the glass cuts to the vibrating throb of smacking into the Earth, that really had hurt. Caelen just laid there staring up at the night and thinking that fate had gotten the last laugh. Only for the night, Caelen swore silently. Tomorrow will be different.
That thought froze as actual laughter peeled down from the heavens above. Rolling his head on the ground, Caelen caught sight of Jamie, leaning out the window right next to the one he’d crashed through. Linc’s room. Damnit! She’d been sleeping with Bridgette, and that possibility had never occurred to him.
Holding a candle aloft, she had another hand covering her mouth, but it couldn’t hold back the giggles tumbling madly out. With as much dignity as Caelen could muster up, he rose to his own feet and shot back a warning at her…and fate.
“Laugh it up, darlin’. Tomorrow’s my day.”
Despite being naked, cut, and bruised, Caelen still managed a swagger as he stormed off, Jamie’s laughter rolling in his wake.
Chapter 9
Jamie didn’t have much to laugh about the next day. Nor any of the other four that followed. Linc’s protective attitude didn’t turn out to be as sweet as she’d thought and certainly didn’t work to her advantage in the slightest. In fact, the man had brought all of her schemes to a halt with his rules and orders.
Brodie and Caelen weren’t allowed in the house, except for meals. She wasn’t allowed out, except for chores during the day when Linc drove Brodie and Caelen far from the ranch to find work to keep them busy and tired. Since the day she’d arrived, she might have seen Brodie and Caelen for all of an hour combined.
Just long enough for them to glower at her with dirty thoughts darkening their gazes and putting the itchy heat back into her stomach. Jamie had grown damn tired of enduring the itch that she’d intended to make them suffer.
Sleeping with her sister didn’t give her anytime to see to it on her own. Not that she had anything other than her own hand to play with. None of the men had been willing to ride into town to retrieve her bags. Laziness hadn’t put the chore off. To a man, Jamie knew none of them wanted her wearing her own clothes.
An inch bigger in every direction even when she wasn’t pregnant, Bridgette’s old dress hung like
curtains from her shoulder. She might as well be flat and assless, because she didn’t have even the hint of a curve to tempt her twins with.
“Ohh,” Bridgette groaned, drawing Jamie’s eyes over toward her. “My back is killing me today.”
“Maybe you ought to go rest.” Jamie eyed the way Bridgette rubbed her rump with concern. “Standing out here scrubbing like this can’t be good for the baby.”
“If I don’t stand out here and scrub, neither will you.”
“I’ll do it,” Jamie snapped, more than a little indignant over the testiness in Bridgette’s tone. There were moments and times when the old Bridgette showed through, but mostly, Jamie suspected she got left with Bridgette because Linc had tired of getting bit so much.
“Do it right?”
“Bridgette Mary Traynor, I know how to do laundry!”
“It’s MacAuley, and since when?”
“Will you just go lay down?”
“Yeah, I’ll go, but don’t you be tearing nothing that I’ll have to stitch up later.” With that optimistic advice, Bridgette lumbered off toward the house, leaving Jamie muttering to herself.
She really did hate laundry, but she could bear it for her sister. Bear it right up till Brodie’s shirts came to the top of the dwindling pile. He would just get a kick out of this moment if he could have seen it. After accidently popping off the buttons of Caelen’s britches while cleaning them, Bridgette had protected the twins’ clothes from Jamie’s clutches.
Now with her warning ringing in Jamie’s head, she felt too guilty to do it again. Even if the bastard did deserve it. It would serve him right if she washed his clothes in mud…or with roses.
Snickering to herself, Jamie dropped Brodie’s shirt back into the pile and lifted up the dragging hem of Bridgette’s dress to rush into the barn. Just as it had in the old days, the massive metal tub sat in its stall with the well spigot hanging over its edge. Down the wooden side of the wall ran a ledge that held a variety of objects, one of which was the old rose soap Jamie knew her sister loved.
