“Naw,” said Brett. “I’m calling,” he said and he showed his hand.
The dirty cowboys folded. But much to everyone’s surprise, Boyle won. He won the pot back and he won Ella back. Just as he was about to scrape the pile towards himself, the cool cowboy spoke.
“Not unh,” he said.
He counted out some cash and divided it three ways.
“One for you,” he pushed a section towards one of the dirty cowboys.
And then another to the other and the third to Boyle.
“What’s this?” demanded Boyle cautiously.
“That’s for the woman,” smiled Brett.
“You just paid the two of them for her. She’s mine,” protested Boyle.
“Not anymore,” said Brett. “Come with me, missy.”
John Boyle drew on Brett. For a moment Ella did not see any other movement. Then there was gunfire. Boyle slowly cascaded to the ground dead.
“Gosh darn,” said Brett.
“We saw it. He drew. No question,” said Hank.
“Shall we divvy up the pot?” ask the other lustily.
“Yeah sure,” said Brett. “I guess I have to wait for the marshal.”
He looked over to Ella who fell like all the blood in her face pooled in her stomach and she was going to be sick.
“Welcome to Dodge, missy,” smiled Brett.
Chapter Two
After the two other surviving card players and Ella confirmed that John Boyle drew first and also vouched that it had been a fair game, the marshal didn’t pursue the matter further.
“He put his own bride on the block for a poker game?” the marshal shook his head.
“I’m not his bride,” corrected Ella. “I’m his intended. But we didn’t quite make it to the altar.”
Brett’s eyes narrowed at that. That fact changed things for him.
“I see,” said Brett. “What was the plan exactly?”
Ella produced a paper from her hand bag. She searched the document.
“You can read miss?” asked the marshal with curiosity.
“Yes sir,” she said. “My mother insisted.”
“Brett what are you fixin to do?” asked the marshal.
“Now hold up Brett,” said Hank. “She was part of the kitty. And we feel we’re entitled to it. Her. Entitled to her.”
“I split up the cash equivalent and divvied it up between the two of you, thereby removing her from the pot. I took her off the table,” said Brett.
Hank made a move. The marshal assumed a stance.
“Stay out of this marshal,” said Hank. “This is between the two of us.”
“I already killed one man tonight,” said Brett. “I am prepared to kill two.”
Ella drew a gun and held it on Hank. Everyone’s eyes went wide.
“Daddy also taught me to shoot and I am in no mood for this nonsense. Now I could hold you up for a train ticket home because I have had enough of Kansas already. How nice is it of me to not do that, eh Hank?” asked Ella.
“That isn’t very lady like of you,” remarked Hank meekly.
“What in the world am I doing out here?” asked Ella.
“Beats me ma’am,” said Hank.
“Cause I ain’t no lady,” said Ella. She turned to Brett. “Still want to take me with you?”
Brett pushed up his hat. “Boy do I.”
The marshal held the two disgruntled cowboys at bay while Brett and Ella loaded up on Brett’s horse. She didn’t have but one bag much to Brett’s amazement.
“You running away from something?” asked Brett.
“Isn’t everyone?” she asked glibly.
He stopped what he was doing and looked directly at her.
“Straight answers only. And truthful ones at that. Understood?” he asked.
His voice was like honey. Soft, smooth. Even. But so rich. She didn’t feel scolded at all and that was a refreshing change from what she had been used to. Still, she wasn’t sure she wanted to be anything with him. Not honest. Not married. If she could have her way, if she could live alone, it would sure be nice to be back in her house back in Washington, DC. Ella grew up in that house on Capital Hill alone with servants until her aunt showed her ugly self. She could see herself growing old in spinsterhood in that very house, if she could get back there.
Ella was the sole surviving grandchild of a wealthy grandfather whom she hadn’t seen in years. She only had a vague memory of him. But apparently he doted on her. He left her inheritance in a trust managed by a spiteful, awful aunt. A childless, marriage-less aunt whom the grandfather wasn’t quite so fond of. The aunt set about to plant awful rumors about Ella and challenged the maturation of the trust. The aunt commandeered almost all of the money and left Ella virtually penniless.
When her lack of inheritance was plainly explained to her by the estate attorney, she was informed about the phenomenon of mail order brides. Basically the attorney and the aunt whom Ella thought were something of a couple, said hey you have no money but here is how you can marry yourself off.
The aunt and the attorney guided her through the mail order bride process which included meeting up with a marriage broker who facilitated the correspondence between John Boyle and her.
In a few short hours of her arrival, her prospective husband was dead, she had no way home and she was in the company of a charming cowboy. But Brett was so delicious. He was a turn of events she had not anticipated. Maybe Ella had been so bored for such a long time or maybe she was starved for a human connection, Brett interested her. She didn’t tire at staring at him while he wasn’t looking.
“So I believe introductions are in order,” he said smoothly. “My name is Brett Sullivan, and you are?”
“Ella Hutchins,” she said entranced by his demeanor.
She liked his face and style as much as she loathed the late John Boyle.
“So Miss Hutchins,” said Brett. “What was your situation with John Boyle? How was it you and he came into each other’s company?”
“Mr. Boyle and I corresponded with one another. He proposed marriage and I accepted,” she said, carefully crafting the truth.
To say that that she and John Boyle shopped each other as spouses view the mail sounded crude and was humiliating to admit. But Ella could tell by the look in Brett’s eyes, there was no fooling him.
“I see,” he said politely. “Now that your intended has met his demise, you are something in a predicament. Did you travel far?”
“Yes I did,” she said, a trembled warbling in her voice.
The reality of her dire circumstances were coming to the foreground of her mind. She was completely stuck. Stranded. Up a creek without a paddle.
Brett took her hand in his. It was not a threatening touch. It was not a creepy touch. It seemed completely appropriate. She was too stressed out to feel much of anything else but somewhere she felt a twinge of something more when they connected. Somewhere her mind told her that the series of catastrophes -- between the aunt telling her she had no money to being carted off out West to seeing her fiancé shot dead in front of her were all blessings in disguise.
Something got through to Ella underneath all her worry, that life was about to get real good real fast.
Chapter Three
“Miss Ella, here is what I propose. I don’t have a wife and seeing how I killed your matrimonial prospect, I would like to extend to you a proposal of marriage.”
Brett sunk down on one knee and covered her hand with his.
“Miss Ella Hutchins, would you do me the honor of being my wife?”
Ella looked down at his sweet face. She momentarily tried to imagine his hair kept the way the men did back east. Tried to imagine him in a suit. But she had come to like the style or lack of style of his hair. And if his features were any prettier, his face would be wasted. They’d belong to a woman. His shoulders were broad. His hands were warm. His voice was kind. But she knew nothing about him.
And she didn’t have time to l
earn. She had no choice. The small mercy was that the more she thought about him, the more she looked at him, the better she liked him. He stirred her in vaguely animalistic way that no one ever had before. If it didn’t work out, if she lived through her next choice and it didn’t work out, she would run away.
“Yes Brett Sullivan. I will marry you.”
Brett climbed to his feet and gazed into her eyes. There’s a preacher down the way at Union Church. I’d marry you right now if I could,” he said, stroking the hair from her face. “My mother lives with me. I take care of her and well, she takes care of me. I reckon she’ll be upset if I was to get married without her present. How about we get hitched first thing in the morning?” He asked.
Ella had already suffered a tarnished reputation back in Washington, DC. She couldn’t live through that again. She wouldn’t want anyone to think that she was a loose woman staying the night at Brett’s place without benefit of marriage. She must have looked worried for he asked her, “What’s the matter? Is this happening a bit too fast for you?”
“You asked me what brought me out here? Why would someone like me would need to get married this a way,” she said.
“Yes?” he asked.
“We can talk about it all you like but the bottom line is someone destroyed my reputation back East. Basically made it unfit for me to stay in town,” she said.
She saw the look of concern on his face.
“I will tell you straight up I did not do anything. This woman was after my money. But I cannot suffer a bruised reputation. As a lady, it is perhaps one of the things I have had to endure, apart from my travel.”
“I thought you said you weren’t no lady,” reminded Brett gently.
“I was bluffing,” said Ella, her lip trembled. “You know, to be scary.”
What had she done? Had he proposed to her because he thought she was one kind of woman when she was not?
“Oh and it worked,” he said taking her into his arms. “I believe he was definitely afraid. And so tell me, did your daddy teach you to shoot?”
“No he didn’t,” she replied.
He laughed.
“So you bluffed there too? My goodness, maybe I should teach you to play poker,” he said. “But in that case if anyone says an ill word against you, I’ll shoot them for you.
Chapter Four
Brett lived right outside of town. It was well after the hour his mother would be in bed so he and Ella were very quiet. The plan was that he would sleep outside in the barn and that she would take his room. As he lifted her off of his horse, he gave her a sweet chaste kiss goodnight.
But they lingered too long. The moonlight was on them. The prospect of connecting to one another as complete strangers create a wicked excitement that Ella had never known before. And she liked it. She liked looking at this man. She liked his body and the way he sent chills through her whenever he made contact with her. The chills went straight to her nipples and made them hard. Brett’s thumb instinctively found them.
He braced her shoulders, scrunching them up as he took her mouth with his. The taste of him was so luscious. He swept her mouth with his tongue. Ella froze, allowing him to explore her completely. She moaned against him. Almost as if she were pleading with him to please take her. At long last someone was interested in her. She had been so void of human contact, affection that she was literally starved.
Brett awoke her dormant heart. She figured any moment he would finally escort her into the house to his room and say goodnight at last. But he didn’t. He swept her up into his steel-like arms and carried her into the barn. It was a hell of a place to be with a man but somehow Brett made it cozy.
She was certain their mouths never separated the entire distance to the barn. He was able to walk and kiss at the same time and still find his way around. He manipulated her body so she was wrapped around him. He put her arms around his neck, her legs around his hips as he climbed the ladder to the loft. He set her down.
Ella’s skirts belled out. He sat down next to her. He tenderly swept her face with his fingers.
“You and I will be wed tomorrow. I am just not sure I can wait for you that long. I have to confess I never was so glad to reap the benefit of another man’s foolishness in all my life. You are the most beautiful woman I have ever seen. Something about you. I leapt at the chance to make you my wife,” said Brett.
He kissed her so tenderly. It felt like he was pouring a wild and stirring elixir into her for warmed spilled throughout her. It made her body hot and wet. She craved him. She ached for him from her very center. Instinct had her squeezing up her center and rocking towards him. She laid back and offered herself to him.
Brett raised above her. His strong hand swept the buttons down the front of her bodice and brushed open the fabric of her dress. He sought the softness of her round breast and tweezed her already-pebbled nipple. This was a completely new experience for her. She cried out, overwhelmed with pleasure.
Brett lowered his mouth to her plump breast. His lips branded her delicate skin there. There was a direct connection between the sensation of his wet, hot mouth and between her legs. Ella squirmed with delight as he suckled.
Slowly he sought the hem of her dress, bunching it up to bare her legs. His hand was calloused and it gently razed the soft surface of her legs as it glided upward, upward. He teased the delicate insides of her thighs with his fingertips, unfurling a ticklishness inside of her that made her clutch.
She ached and was so empty. She needed him to solve her dilemma for her. And he was ready and willing. He sat back on his haunches and peeled of his shirt. He revealed a chiseled torso that was nothing short of magnificent. There was not an ounce of fat or sag on the man.
Ella positively loved the way his hair fell in a tousled fringe, forward as he gazed upon her. Something was not quite decent about what they were doing or about to do -- which was something she had only a vague knowledge of -- but she knew that she really wanted to do it.
Brett lowered his britches and nestled in between her legs. She felt a soft skinned hardness press against her sex. She twitched with desire for him. He kissed her, reached between them and levered the head of his hardness gently just inside of her.
Ella’s eyes widened. Her eyebrows nearly flew off of her face. She pressed against his shoulders as he encouraged her back against the hay in the loft. He pushed further inside of her, stretching her. Filling her. At one point, he thrust into the rest of her body. A squeal escaped her.
“Shhh,” he soothed her.
He pushed her dress down off of her shoulders. His fingers drew calming circles on the plane of her bare back as he drew in and out of her, slowly. The pain subsided. He knew how to play her, strum her to impassion her so that her body yielded to him. She rocked her hips up against him with yearning. The more she pushed up against him the deeper she took him into her. Each time she took him as deeply as she could, a pulse of electricity washed throughout her.
Her core drew up against his member with delicious results. Each squeeze of her flesh around his made her clench even tighter. She wavered like she was drunk as a passion threatened to possess her completely. Instinct pushed her to seek some pinnacle.
Brett’s rhythm quickened, stroking her relentlessly. He reached between her legs and pressed the very sensitive nub at the top of her opening. He massaged incessantly as he plunged endlessly into her. The combination was explosive. A strange built within her until she burst upon him in endless pleasure.
Ella quivered as the sugared spasms disabled her. He seemed to delight in her state. His thrusting picked up the pace. He was driving into her more purposeful, stronger. It was almost like he was dancing. His thrusts became glides and Brett’s eyes looked up to the ceiling. His body stiffened and he too seized.
Brett moaned low. He tried to not make too much noise. His moment rushed through his nose and though his mouth. He jerked and spasmed as his hips pulled this way and that. He moved to the last squeezing out his pleasu
re to the last.
He touched his forehead to hers. He closed his eyes, a faint smile curled his lips slightly. He liked it as much as she had. Had she known exactly what was to happen she might not have been so easy about it. She was glad she let herself completely enjoy it the way she had. She thought it was wonderful.
Brett kissed her gently, tasting her lips as though they were the sweetest thing he had ever tasted. He eased out of her, causing a slight pang in between her legs. Suddenly Ella was sore. He helped her to sit up and to fix her clothing. He smoothed her hair straggled from its pins. There was no repairing that. He pulled the pins from the fraying strands and the thick tresses tumbled down her back.
“I should have done this first,” he muttered.
Brett sifted her hair through his fingers like he was handling gold.
“Beautiful,” he remarked. “Just beautiful.”
He released her hair and backed down the ladder to the loft, waiting for her to come to the loft’s edge so he could help her down, like a gentleman. Brett and Ella strolled to his house, their fingers loosely threaded. Brett opened the front door cautiously, tiptoeing inside and up the stairs to his room.
He left her to undress and to get into bed, sending a kiss through the air when he closed the door behind him. Ella dropped immediately into a deep sleep. She was so exhausted she did not have a moment to fuss over sleeping in a strange place.
Chapter Five
Ella was wakened with a fright when Brett’s mother barged into his room to roust him for breakfast. The poor woman was speechless. Ella thought that she herself would faint. It wasn’t what it looked like but Ella could not find her words to explain.
Brett’s mother’s face turned to stone as she did an about face and left the room. Ella heard the Brett’s heavy boots climb the stairs.
“Good morning ma’am,” he said.
“Indeed,” his mother said stiffly.
Brett laughed softly as he opened the door. “Oops,” he said.
“It’s not funny,” said Ella paralyzed with the heat of embarrassment. “I can’t go out there.”
Adored By The Rancher: Mail Order Brides Box Set Page 10
