“Woah, woah, woah,” cried Lath. “We didn’t actually have sex!”
The tension in the group dropped, and Dela realized her mistake. A deep blush came to her cheeks. “Sorry. Didn’t mean it that way.”
All four men took a deep breath and began moving again—checking on the horses, stirring the pot holding their dinner, or making up some task. Dela tried to keep her face straight, but the more she watched four men in their hand-made underwear working around camp, the more she wanted to giggle. Finally, a little spurt of laughter escaped her clamped lips.
They all turned to look at her.
“What’s so funny?” Adrian asked.
Dela burst out laughing, finally unable to hold back the floodgate. She laughed until her side hurt. When she stopped, she found them all smiling at her, though they still looked confused.
“Please put some clothes on,” she finally panted, leaning against her knees and holding her side.
“You don’t like your men walking around in their underthings?” asked Lath, strutting toward her.
Her laughter increased as Mason made a show of swooping his silky black hair back over his head. At the same time, Adrian adjusted his cream-colored underwear before turning to show her his backside. Dela’s laughter increased. Only Gareth kept a straight face. He crossed his large arms over his chest and stared at them as the other three took turns posing for her. Though Dela continued to laugh at their antics, she couldn’t help but notice Gareth’s features or the way he made her insides tingle.
Finally, when she thought she might suffocate on her laughter, the men stopped.
That night they ate burned beans, but none of them seemed to mind.
Two more days of travel had brought them well out of the old city and into the countryside. After the incident in the pond, Dela had opted to ride behind the men. It kept things simpler. As much as she liked having their strong arms around her waist and their lips tickling her neck, she knew the entire group was on the verge of boiling over. The men didn’t say anything about the new situation, for which Dela was grateful. If they had challenged her new plan, she might have caved.
On the second day, the scenery changed. Rather than cutting across the open country, they turned down what looked like an actual road—ruts and all. Split rail fences began to line the dirt road, filled with bored-looking cattle munching on dried grass. On the other side of the road, fields of wheat swayed in the hot breeze. Half an hour after spotting the first cow, they passed an acre or so of land with an organized garden laid out. Dela watched the garden pass, wondering what some of the fruits and vegetables were. She hadn’t seen many of them, despite her various attempts at gardening. Whoever lived nearby, she realized, had stayed put for many years.
Finally, the ranch house came into view. Dela could have stared at it for hours. The structure was made entirely of thick logs, chinked together at the corners with some sort of mortar filling any gaps. One window was visible from the road, with pink flowers growing in a box. The roof was made of wood shingles, glistening black in the sunlight. Chickens pecked the ground, wandering around the front of the yard.
“I did not take your bat!” shouted a voice just before a small boy erupted from the front door.
Two more boys and a middle-aged woman followed on his heels. “Yes, you did,” cried one of the other boys before tackling the first.
The woman stepped into the melee, grabbing the ears of the two boys, her skirts swishing as their tiny fists struck her. The third boy laughed, enjoying the scene while keeping a distance from the fight.
“John. Alek. Wait until I tell your fathers that you’ve been fighting again!”
That stilled the boys, their hands dropping to their sides and their faces turning red with pain as she tugged on their lobs. Before their mother could say anything more, she caught sight of the approaching horses.
“Lath? Gareth? Is that you?” she called as she released the boys.
Gareth waved. “Good to see you, Josie.”
“Boys, go fill the trough and bring a few buckets into the house.”
“But, ma…”
Josie raised her hand, ready to strike the boy for talking back. Before she could, the three children scampered off. They reached the front lawn, Lath and Gareth quickly dismounting and rushing to Josie’s side. They both kissed her on the cheek before taking turns giving her a hug. Dela stayed in Lath’s saddle, embarrassed to be witness to such an intimate moment. Mason and Adrian were slowly dismounting.
A horrible thought struck her, and her cheeks burned red. Is this their wife?
Before Dela could reason herself into any sort of calm, the woman caught sight of her sitting up in the saddle and froze—one hand gripped in Lath's, the other resting on Gareth’s bicep. She gave each man a quick glance before turning her eyes on Dela again. From there, her eyes ran to Mason and Adrian.
“You brought a catch here? To my home?”
Lath leaned down and whispered in her ear. Gareth stared at him, just as confused as Dela. Whatever Lath said worked. A large smile spread across her face.
“Get that poor child off that horse, you ijjits! Mason, Adrian. You’re welcome here so long as you behave yourselves.”
If Dela hadn’t been so nervous, she might have wondered what sort of mischief they had gotten into the last time they visited. Before Dela knew what was happening, Lath was helping her off the horse. She stood by the mount, hesitant to enter the strange building. Was this the Harem House? She doubted it. Though Dela couldn’t even begin to guess what the Harem House might be like, she doubted it was a log cabin in the middle of nowhere surrounded by grazing cattle.
Lath took her hand and guided her up the steps, followed by a mute Mason and Adrian. She stepped up onto the porch and followed the others into the cabin.
Inside the cabin was a picture of domestic endeavors. On one side, a series of bunk beds lined the wall—ten beds in total. Beside one set of beds sat a little bassinet, two tiny fists visible above the padded edge. Hand-made cabinets adorned the other side of the cabin with a long table and two benches filling the rest of the kitchen space. Between the two areas of the home, a large braided rug filled the space. Two toddlers with matching golden curls sat on the rug, playing with hand-carved horses. A single girl of about ten sat at the kitchen table kneading dough.
Dela had never seen a place where the feeling of contentment permeated every inch, every item, every crevice. The very sight of it made her chest ache with need. What she needed, she didn’t know, but she had a feeling it had to do with being planted.
Lath guided her to the bench opposite the little girl, who stared at her with wonder. A moment later, one of the boys appeared from behind a curtain with a bucket filled to the brim. Cups were quickly filled and passed around. Dela drank as if she’d just invented water. When she emptied the cup, the boy refilled it. From the woman’s generosity, Dela suspected water was not a problem for them.
As everyone sipped on their second cups, the silence grew until Dela thought she might squirm right off the bench. Lath and Adrian were grinning at her, perfectly aware of her discomfort. Before anyone could think of something to say, a shout rang out from front yard, followed by a cackle of laughter. The door swung open and five more bulky men squeezed through, followed by boys ranging in age from thirteen to nineteen or twenty. The one-room cabin quickly filled with bodies. Dela ended up off the bench and pressed into the corner of the kitchen.
The first grown man stopped in his tracks, making his followers swerve to avoid colliding with him.
“Ah, dammit, Josie. You takin’ in strays again?”
The already noisy room burst into a loud crack of laughter and the five grown men worked their way around each other so that all of them could give each Hunter a back-thumping hug. Dela was glad she was hiding in the corner, detached from the chaos. She glanced at the little girl who had joined her in the corner. Her eyes had grown yet larger as she watched the men greet each other. The conversation moved t
o the Hunters admiring the recent growth of the teenagers. From what Dela could glean from her place on the sidelines, she guessed the Hunters came as often as they could, but it had been a long stretch since the last visit.
Finally, one of the men caught sight of her and whistled. “Who’s that pretty little thing?”
Dela blushed, then blushed again for blushing, as the five men and their boys all turned to look at her. She had never been so completely surrounded by testosterone. The men practically oozed it in their snug denim and cotton shirts, mostly unbuttoned to display the sculpted mounds of their chests and abs. They wore a variety of hats, one of them taking it off and wiping the sweat from his brow as if to accentuate his muscles. The move revealed his salt-and-pepper hair. Though he was clearly a good ten years older than the other husbands, he was just as firmly toned.
Her blush grew as she caught Josie watching Dela examine her husbands. To her astonishment, Josie was giving Dela a knowing grin, as though she knew what sort of affect her men could have on a woman.
“This is Dela,” Lath provided.
“All right, you crazy lot. Men, go down to the crick for your bath.”
A few of the grown men complained, but she shooed them out with the towel tucked into her belt. As they made their exit one husband grabbed her, giving her a passionate kiss. The others cried out, angered at the stolen moment of passion.
As the last of the men began to exit, Gareth stopped in front of Dela. “Understand me, girl, every pair of eyes on this ranch is watching you. You try to run, they’ll nab you for us. You understand?”
Dela nodded. “I gave you my word.”
“What a horrible thing to say, Gareth,” Josie snapped. “Now get out of here.”
Gareth ducked under Josie’s swinging towel and scurried out of the cabin.
Josie let out a sigh and planted her fists on her hips. “Now, that’s better. Just us girls. Let’s get you cleaned up. Looks like it’s been a rough road.”
Josie guided her through a thick curtain into a little room. A sturdy barrel had been cut in half and coated with the same stuff used on the roof tiles. Above the barrel, a pump sat with a long handle. Dela quickly went to work on the pump.
“Strip down, girl. You must be dying for a bath.”
Slowly, Dela began working the clasps on her vest. After a few minutes effort by Josie, the pump began sloshing out clear water. Dela felt her jaw drop. Even the streams weren’t that clean. Dela’s eyes flicked back and forth between the crystalline water and Josie’s face.
“Ah, yes. We picked this site because it had a working water pump. Our ancestors sure were geniuses, weren’t they? Built the house right around it and sunk another well further off for the fields.”
“But you told the boys to go get water.”
Josie shrugged. “The other boys got water from the other well for the horses. Can’t be having them lugging buckets through my nice clean home, now can I?”
Dela just nodded. She gave her head a little shake and went to work on her clothing. Within minutes, she had lowered herself into the cool water. She had to bring her knees up under her chin to fit, but it was worth it. To be clean, really and truly clean.
The pond had been nice—in multiple ways—but the water had been brown and she still walked away with dirt stuck in places best kept clean.
Josie produced some lye soap and began scrubbing Dela’s hair. The feel of Josie’s fingers working through her tangles reminded her of her mother. It had been nearly a decade since she’d felt the tender care of another woman.
“So how did you come to be with the boys,” Josie finally asked in a conversational tone.
“You know the answer to that question.” Dela struggled to keep her voice polite; after all, the woman was lavishing her with a bath, a meal, and a bed for the night.
“I know that it started out with you as their catch, but I kinda got the impression things had changed.”
Dela frowned, her mind jumping back to Lath whispering in her ear. What had he said? Dela shook her head. “Nope. I’m still their catch and they’re still dumping me at the Harem House.”
“And you don’t like that idea.”
It wasn’t a question but Dela answered anyway. “No, of course not.”
Josie slumped back on her backside, leaning against a little cabinet, her skirts splayed out across the floor. “It’s not so bad.”
“You ever been?”
“I went to the Harem House upon my first bleeding, like all girls.”
“Not all,” Dela grumbled, scrubbing at the dirt ingrained in her knuckles.
“True, not all. But most. You’re a rare breed to have avoided it this long. Why do you fear it?”
“I’m not afraid of it,” Dela lied.
“Okay, then why do you avoid it?”
“Look, whatever Lath told you to do, you can just stop. You’re not going to talk me into going there with a skip in my step. I made my deal. I’ll go peacefully, but that’s it.”
Josie laughed, catching Dela off guard. Like the touch of her fingers, it had been a long time since Dela had heard another woman laugh. Josie’s voice was that of someone fully content with her life, and the sound irritated Dela.
“Lath said nothing to me about the Harem House. I promise. I’m only asking because you’ve lived a different life than I have, and therefore I want to learn about you. You can ask me questions, too.”
Dela’s eyes flicked around the little bathing room and out beyond the curtain to the cabin. Truth was, she had a thousand questions, but she didn’t know if she had the nerve to ask any of them.
“Will your daughter go to the Harem House?”
“Yes. She needs to be able to find husbands.”
“Do you like having five husbands?”
Josie gave her a little smile. “It’s all I’ve ever known. I have no reason not to like it. My husbands are all very different, but all very caring. I can’t imagine my life without them or my children.”
“But… five?”
Josie laughed again. “Yeah, they can be a handful sometimes, but they're mine.”
“How did… like… did they choose you?”
The laughter disappeared from Josie’s eyes and little lines formed between her brows. “The men choose the women.”
“So you were very lucky.”
Josie shrugged. “I wouldn’t say very lucky. A lot of girls get good men, but not all.”
Dela didn’t have anything to say in response. “What did Lath whisper to you?”
“That is between me and Lath. Now, c’mon, let’s get you out of that water before you prune.”
Josie retrieved a light-weight skirt and tunic for her and combed her short hair. They were just finishing when the men returned, looking and smelling even better. They were all laughing at some joke. Even Gareth looked happy as he shut the door.
“Settle down. Dela’s gonna think you were raised by coyotes!”
The men laughed and seated themselves around the large table. Dela, not knowing what to do, stayed pressed against the wall next to the curtain. Josie was in the thick of it as she began dishing out some sort of stew. Considering there was no fire burning in the corner fireplace, Dela suspected they were eating it cold, and, considering the temperature outside, she didn’t blame them.
“Cap, come get some grub,” Lath ordered, scooting over on the bench to make space for her.
The other men all turned to look at her. Dela spotted the five husbands eyeing her appreciatively. They weren’t the only ones. Their older sons were giving her hungry stares. Even Gareth had stopped eating, too.
“Get your eyes on your food. She’s taken,” Josie said, smacking one of them with her serving spoon.
As the men went back to their food, Dela dared approach the table and squeeze in between Lath and Gareth. Though the long table was overflowing, Dela doubted it required the two men to sit quite so close. Both of their thighs were pressed against her legs and their elbow
s continually bumped her. She tried to squeeze herself into the smallest space possible, but the more she huddled in on herself the more they inched toward her. Finally, she decided to just eat, but that was easier said than done. The longer she felt their heat pressed against her, the more her body rebelled. The same pit formed below her belly button, desperate to be filled. Her skin tingled; every touch, every breath of air made her skin feel as though it was on fire.
Thankfully, no one seemed to notice as four different discussions took place around the table.
Chapter Thirteen
It wasn’t long before the group had finished their meal. Josie quickly rose from her seat, along with her daughter and the two youngest boys, and began clearing away the numerous bowls. Dela rose, ready to help.
“Don’t you dare,” Josie announced, waving a dirty spoon. “Sit. You’re a guest.”
Dela sat, more to keep from being the center of attention than because she felt right about not helping. Josie continued ordering her children around as they filled the wash pot from the pump and began scrubbing the dishes.
“Now, why in the world are you four working together?” asked the husband with gray hair.
Lath grinned. “When’s the last time you seen a blonde, Leroy?”
The man glanced at Dela, who blushed yet again and stared at the table. “Granted, but you four?”
“What’s wrong with us four?” asked Adrian, mock surprise coloring his voice.
Leroy gave him a well-practiced stare. “You boys have never played nice before.”
Dela snuck a glance up, surprised that the other husbands seemed content to let the old one do all the talking. Turning her eyes on the Hunters, she caught all four grinning.
“Well, we learned a thing or two,” replied Gareth, trying to hide his own smile.
“Uh-huh,” grunted the husband. He turned to look at Dela. “And you’re just going along with it?”
Dela swallowed the lump in her throat. “We made a deal.”
“Which brings us to something we need to discuss,” said Gareth, leaning into the table. “We didn’t just come here for a respite.”
Dela's Hunters (The Harem House Book 1) Page 8
