by Reece Butler
Sin winced when both females laughed. He’d remember that Jessie had an evil mind. In this case the punishment was just.
“There’s many a gal would love to have a figure like yours. Hourglass, they call it. Stuff you in one of those dresses that almost shows your nipples, and you’d rent for lots of gold.”
“How much?”
What? Only the Double Diamond men would ever touch this woman!
“If you did it right, you could sell your virginity six or eight times. Thousands in gold dust. With your looks, if you acted all innocent, you could get away with doing it for a couple of weeks, a different man each night. Put a sponge soaked in chicken blood inside you first, and you’d prove your virginity each time.”
“Eew!”
“I hear you’ve been riding horses astride since you could walk. That usually means you won’t bleed the first time. You’d better use a sponge on your wedding night so your husband will think you’re a virgin.”
“No sponges, thank God. I’m never going to marry and be owned by a man.”
Sin gave a quiet snort. Jessie was ripe for marriage. She just didn’t know it.
“There are so many single men here that you might not have a say in it. More than one innocent girl was married against her will. Now slip your arms into this corset.”
“Why don’t they leave?”
“After a gal’s been raped a few times, she thinks no one would want her.”
Rosa spoke so quietly Sin could barely hear her. Everyone knew Rosa rarely left Miss Lily’s Parlor, or invited any men into her kitchen. For some reason she got along well with Ross, though he resembled the men who held her captive. Now he knew why there was so much shock when she started taking buggy rides with Doc.
“Pull the strings tight. Start at the top to squash them down.”
It was a crime to press Jessie’s full breasts flat. He wanted them to be free, and proud, and in his hands. Or mouth. He wasn’t particular as long as both happened often.
“What about love and children?” continued Rosa.
“Love made me an orphan, and I don’t need to marry to have a man in my bed. When I’m a partner on the Bitterroot with my brothers, any children I have will belong to us.”
“If your belly starts swelling without a ring on your finger, there’s gonna be a whole mess of Elliotts and MacDougals tracking down whoever done it to you. They’d catch him and make you marry him so fast—”
“Every single one of them has hopped into bed with dozens of women and never married them. They know I wouldn’t marry a man I didn’t love, just because we had sex.”
“I thought you said you didn’t want love.”
Sin leaned closer for Jessie’s answer.
“I meant that you can love too much. My father died rather than live without my mother. I would never love a man that much. And if I don’t marry, my children would always come first. Why put up with a husband when my children would have all those uncles?”
“A man has different ideas about what he does to women, and what another man does to his sister. Put your shirt back on and tuck it in.”
“Nothing could make me marry unless I wanted to!”
Sin thought of his parents. Though they detested each other, they married to keep certain property within the families. They’d coupled enough to provide the required heir and spare, though it took eight years before the spare arrived, meaning himself. His dark-haired father cursed him all his life, saying he was his wife’s adulterous child from a common blacksmith or farrier. His mother denied touching another man before Sin’s birth, though she moved to Town and left him behind as soon as possible. She only returned to host weeks-long parties filled with bed-hopping games.
For some reason the village farrier and blacksmith, both dark-haired men with sweet wives, took a liking to him. While they gave him the love and attention he craved, it only fanned the rumors. Though he learned both trades and grew into his muscles, he had few friends other than Ace and Henry. Unless his friends were visiting, he stayed in the cottages where he knew he was welcome.
Title and property or an ancient name meant nothing to him. It was what was in the heart that counted. If Jessie had no one and nothing but the clothes on her back, he would feel the same way about her.
Ace, however, needed society’s touch of approval. The Elliotts were the local gentry according to Western society. They’d lived there the longest and created their wealth rather than inherited it. All Henry wanted was a big family and a chance for adventure.
Jessamine Bonham Elliott was perfect for all of them.
She might insist her brothers couldn’t make her marry, but Sin knew different. Jessie loved her brothers and would not want to be banished from the valley for refusing to marry. If she was compromised, he had a good idea what the Elliotts would do to the man who refused to marry her. He’d make sure Ace wouldn’t get beaten to death.
Chapter Eight
“If that damned kid can do it, so can I.”
Ace shook out the loop in his lariat until it was just the right size. He held it between his thumb and finger. He wiggled the other fingers, keeping them loose. With one motion he swung the rope over his head, around once, and let go.
He grinned. The loop was perfect. It sailed up, up—
It jerked to a stop and fell to the ground with a thud six feet from the stump he aimed at. He looked at his left hand. It gripped the rope instead of letting it flow to follow the loop.
“Blast!”
Someone cleared their throat. He gathered up the rope, keeping the loops in the right direction. Sin or Henry would speak up instead of asking for his attention. No, they knew him so well that they’d stay far away when he was this furious.
“Unless you wish to be horsewhipped, I strongly suggest you turn your horse around and go your merry way.”
“Cain’t rightly do that, Mister Ace.”
The boy sniffed loudly and then spat. Ace compressed his jaw. If he jammed his teeth together, he wouldn’t grind them. He wanted to grind the boy’s face into the dirt along with the grin at his expense he was sure the lad sported.
“And why is that?”
“Cuz I got me a message fer ye.”
“Because you have a message for me.”
“Yep.”
“Say it.”
Silence. Another sniff. “It?”
Ace whirled around. The boy slumped on the ugly white horse about ten feet away. Both of them looked lazy and half asleep. Unfortunately, he knew it was just an illusion. Boy and horse could work him into the ground any day and twice on Sunday, blast it! Brawn would come to the boy as he grew, but never a brain. Ace could keep that thought from driving him mad.
“Because you have a message for me,” Ace repeated.
The boy blinked. If Ace did that to any of the prefects at school, he’d be bent over and have six of the best applied to his backside. Ace’s cock jumped at the thought of applying his hand to Jessie’s bare ass. He fought it down again. He enjoyed women, not boys, especially one who didn’t have enough brains or education to speak properly!
“Say, speaking exactly as I do, ‘because you have a message for me.’”
“Bee-kauze yew have a mes-sage four meee.” The boy nodded. “Only I gots one fer yew. Doc and Miss Rosa brought them cinnyman buns fer ye. They’s almost gone so’s if’n ye wants one, ye’d better get home quick smart.”
The boy made his horse rear. He turned it around on its back feet and raced back to the cabin. No doubt to eat the last of Miss Rosa’s treat.
“Bloody hell!”
Ace clutched the lariat in his right hand, fuming. Why did the brat want to get his goat so badly? He’d heard Jessie talking with Sin and Henry. While the boy’s speech needed help, it was nothing like the way he spoke to Ace. Did the boy do it out of fear, or because he knew it bugged his ass?
Stupid question. The kid wasn’t afraid of anything. And if he didn’t need the kid’s knowledge and ability,
he’d fire him so fast his head would spin.
Ace tilted his head back and inhaled. He could do this. The kid had been roping since he could toddle. He, on the other hand, spent his first five years living with servants in a cottage, the next two in the big house with tutors and then was sent away to school. Latin, Greek, and the theories of Pythagoras were not needed in Montana Territory.
His ability with numbers and memory had won them the Double Diamond and the cattle he had hopes of one day roping. Excellent planning skills kept things running though they had not one ounce of gold to spare. The kid didn’t eat much and slept in the barn. They couldn’t do this without him, damn his eyes!
Ace picked up the rope and set his feet. He loosened the fingers of his left hand. This time when he let go the lariat floated high. It landed over the stump, thereby “roping” his first beast. Exultation expanded his chest. He flicked the rope so the end jumped off the stump. The next step was to rope something moving. Add trying to do it from the back of a moving horse…
No. Concentrate on today. Rosa brought some of her famous cinnamon buns, and he was bloody well going to enjoy them. The kid better not have eaten more than one, or he’d tan his hide!
* * * *
A week later, with Patrick and Ranger’s cattle now with them at the Bitterroot Ranch, Jessie’s thighs no longer screamed in pain with every step. It would be wonderful if she could sneak away and soak her aches in the hot spring. But it was too dangerous. If one of the men followed her, they’d discover she was no boy.
Thanks to Miss Rosa’s present, she could breathe. It wasn’t too difficult to unloosen the corset’s strings when she rode out in the morning and tighten them when the men were around. She did it at night as well. Wearing a corset was bad enough in a dress, but you did little but sit straight and step, slowly and gracefully, across a room. Wearing a corset while working cattle made a gal appreciate how wonderful it was to have fresh air deep in your lungs.
The Double Diamond men still hobbled around a bit every morning and evening, but none of them said a word of complaint. They also didn’t complain when she corrected them on things such as roping. Except Ace. To him, she was a sawed-off runt almost too young to tie his shoes, much less shave.
He ordered her to do one thing, then another. She could tell even Sin and Henry were getting fed up with him. She had her own way to get back at him. He spoke with such an upper-crust accent, all sneering and superior. She couldn’t help speaking like a po’boy who wouldn’t recognize grammar if he tripped over it.
When Ace looked at her, she felt…strange was the only word she could think of. Though she wanted to geld him with her knife half the time, he made her feel a bit shivery. Something about his total confidence in himself made him attractive. Of course, the fact that she did many things better goaded him to act even more superior. She pretended to completely misunderstand his biting wit, taking him at his word rather than his meaning.
Only when she was alone in the barn did she let loose a chuckle. The man was smart as well as educated. Too bad he took himself so seriously. Put him in a suit, and the girls in Virginia would swoon. She watched him once when he didn’t know she was in the barn. Trouble had caught a stone, and she’d brought him back midday. Ace came out of the cabin wearing only his hat. He carried a pair of dripping pants in front of him. She admired his broad chest, following the line of hair. His semi-rigid cock rose out of a dark nest, strong and thick. He hung his pants from a nail on one of the posts holding up the short roof overhang.
She’d seen naked men lots of times, but she was related to them. The muscles of Ace’s back flexed when he moved, and so did the ones in his ass. His smooth cheeks were concave on the sides, curving around the back.
She watched him, knowing it was rude but unable to turn away. She rubbed between her legs, thinking of him like a stallion about to mount a mare. He would be proud and erect, knowing what she needed and more than ready to provide it.
A couple of nights since then, when she could stay awake long enough, she put her fingers to good use as she remembered what he looked like. She imagined him kissing her neck and touching her aching breasts. He’d lay her on her back and she’d lift her legs wide so he could enter her. Or he’d kneel behind her and enter her like a horse, thrusting hard and deep.
That’s what the women she spied on from the loft of MacDougal barn did. No lanterns were allowed in the barn, so she couldn’t really see anything. The women would squeal, though, urging her brothers and cousins to do more. Usually they shared the women because it took so much effort to get one all the way from town to the MacDougal ranch. Every couple of months they’d manage to get one home, and Jessie would try to watch from the hayloft. She had no other way of finding out how a woman behaved around men.
No man in Virginia made her want to take off her clothes and let him touch her like that. But Ace did. And Sin, and Henry. Ace moved with determination, as if he was the boss of the world. When she bested him, he’d grit his teeth and glare. She knew it was only a matter of time before he proved he could be better than her. He’d find something, just to prove it.
What would it be like to lie down with a man so masterful? One who knew his way around a woman and could show her what she’d been missing?
She shifted in the saddle, rubbing her pussy against the hard leather. If she stood in her stirrups and leaned forward, could she rub herself against the saddle horn? Naw, she’d better concentrate on work.
She turned her horse to ride even higher above the ranch. She should check out the draws and gulches where longhorns might get stuck. It was best to get a good idea of potential problems and fix them before problems happened. She’d report them to the boss, recommending which areas they should block off.
“You think I should talk to Ace, Trouble?”
The horse flicked an ear.
“You’re right. I’ll draw them on paper and leave it on the table for him to find.”
She could recommend all she liked. If Ace didn’t like what she said, he ignored her. He did that a lot. For some reason, he’d been mad at her right from the start. Of course, she’d egged him on, but how else was she going to put up with his arrogance?
Sin told her Ace’s older brother was the Earl of Denby and lived in this huge palace in England. All of them were younger brothers of aristocrats. Though their families might have money and property, they’d inherit nothing since the eldest got everything. She admired their gumption at wanting to make their own way. So far, they’d done well, though almost all of it came from a game of cards.
At least they knew how to work hard. All of them stayed in the saddle as long as she did, every day. Henry and Sin slept in the cabin’s loft while Ace took the corner bed. She went in and put the coffee on every morning. The smell woke them, and they’d grunt their thanks. Ace, sleeping in the bed across the room from her, wouldn’t even lift his head.
The few times she did catch him looking, he had a strange look on his face. He’d bellow at her to get out and saddle the horses. She’d throw down whatever she was holding and slam the door behind her.
Once, she stuck out her tongue at his back while they were riding. He’d whipped his head around and caught her. She’d kicked Trouble and raced off before he could thrash her. She figured he was the type to take a switch to a boy’s bare backside. She remembered how much that hurt and wanted nothing to do with it.
Plus, if she dropped her pants and bent over he’d get a big surprise. The way he hated her, he probably would wallop her behind, tell her to pull up her pants and get back to work. Worse, he might fire her, and then Ranger wouldn’t let her be a partner in the Bitterroot.
Now, if she dropped her pants in front of Sin…
Sin would slide his magic fingers around her backside and stroke her pussy. She knew it would feel better than when she touched herself. She overheard her brothers talking about it feeling far better when a woman had her hand on their cock, so the opposite should be true.
She dismounted to check tracks. Deer and elk, of course, as well as antelope. She’d mention the large paw tracks to Ace. The claws meant they were wolves. Texas longhorns knew how to protect themselves, but a hungry pack would gladly make a meal out of a few calves.
On a hunch, she splashed along the stream for a bit. She crouched at a mark that looked suspiciously like a horse. There were some wild ones around, but no wild horse wore a metal shoe. She cast around farther, discovering many more tracks as well as the remains of quirleys. A shod horse could have gotten loose, but cigarette remains proved someone human was around. She looked down the slope. A person standing here could look into the homestead yard. It was too far to see detail, but with a spyglass they’d know if anyone was home.
Who would gain from that knowledge?
Frederick Smthye lost the ranch to Ace. Had he sent men to cause problems? Or was this an example of her brothers and cousins keeping an eye on her? She didn’t think any of them smoked. Since she couldn’t tell if the sign was from friend, foe or family, she’d keep the information to herself. For now.
She followed the ridge, mentally marking narrow gulches, streams, and well-watered places where the grass was still green this late in the summer. She found a few sheltered places where she could lie naked under the sun, just as she did when she was young.
Having seen Ace naked, and felt Sin’s fingers on her back, she didn’t want to lie alone. She wanted them to do to her what she saw the boys doing in the barn.
One hot Saturday night Ben, Nevin, Patrick, Ranger, and Ross snuck a couple of women home. She often slept in the hayloft with the cats on a hot night. That night she was furious, as The MacDougal told her he would never, ever let her go to town because she was a girl. She was not to be seen by the rough men who came into the cantina for a drink.
