by Vanessa Vale
Her response was interrupted by the arrival of our meals. Placed before each of us was a plate of roast chicken, mashed potatoes and green beans.
“I’m a breast man.” When the waitress gasped at my completely inappropriate, completely carnal words, I pointed to the chicken on my plate. “I love a good chicken breast.”
The waitress flushed and pursed her lips, but hastily moved on to put a bowl of rolls and a crock of butter down, then fled as if stung in the ass by a bee.
“Mmm, yes.” Landon picked up his fork and knife, dug into his meal, cutting up his chicken. “I’m more of a thigh man myself.”
Mrs. Thomas, who was sipping her water, coughed at his words.
I stood and patted her back. I felt the bumps of her spine and the stiff edge of her corset through her dress.
Mrs. Thomas held up her hand, then added, “I’m all right.” Her face was a bright red and she refused to look at either of us. “Thank you.”
Leaning down, I whispered in her ear, “You see, two men can offer up such…variety.”
CHAPTER THREE
Maddie
“You don’t even know my name,” I replied, turning my head slightly. Mr. Bane was right there. I could see the hard line of his jaw, just the hint of whiskers, his full lips, his pale eyes that held humor and heat. I couldn’t help but breathe in his clean, male scent before he took his seat again.
I’d recovered from choking on my water, but not as much from their topic of conversation, or his nearness. I couldn’t believe the, well, gall of these two. Their boldness. I didn’t let them respond, just kept right on talking. “We’ve just met, not even thirty minutes ago and you want to marry me?”
While I spoke with intent and a surprising fervor, I hitched my voice low so no one else could hear.
“Yes,” they both said at the same time, before taking bites of their meals.
They were eating with gusto, as if they’d just come off the trail. They were well dressed, well groomed and well spoken. They had all their hair, all their teeth and no dirt could be seen beneath their fingernails. Manners wasn’t something they lacked, nor was boldness.
They were gentlemen, but their words said otherwise. What were they? Both? Gentlemen in public and something a little…rougher in the bedroom? Why did the idea of that appeal?
“Do you say this to all the women you meet?” Regardless of their brazenness, I couldn’t deny they were the handsomest men I’d ever laid eyes on. I assumed that had served them well when flirting so boldly with other women.
“No.” They echoed each other again.
Mr. Cooper—Landon—was dark haired and had a beard. It was short and groomed, yet full. I had to wonder if it was silky soft to the touch. No, I had to wonder if it was silky soft against my thighs since he’d said he liked them so much. Dear lord, I was as bad as them. I was fantasizing about something ludicrous. With Landon’s head between my parted legs. Me, with them. Them!
Not Landon, or Mr. Bane, but both of them.
Was that done? I knew women in the whore houses did all kinds of things I’d never considered before, but being with two men at once? It wasn’t inconceivable and for some reason, I found it…intriguing. Exciting. Arousing.
These two were all of those adjectives and more.
Where Landon was dark, Mr. Bane was fair. His hair was the color of wheat and it was clear it had lightened in the summer sun. He was quicker to smile than Landon, who seemed to be the more serious one of the two, although they both had the knack of speaking out of turn and beyond society’s dictates. Both had caught my attention right away. Both had all but swept me off my feet with their rescue of the hotel room and the invitation to dinner.
Now, they wanted more. So, so much more. And I was considering it. I flushed at my own bold thoughts.
But I wasn’t the woman they imagined. I hadn’t lied about being a widow. I hadn’t lied about anything. I just hadn’t told them I was an outlaw. I was omitting the truth. A very big truth. I doubted they’d believe me and I doubted they’d want to marry me if they found out.
Marry! Why was I even considering it in my thoughts? I couldn’t get mixed up with two obviously possessive men. I had a bank to rob!
“I…well, I’m flattered, but I will have to decline.” I scooped some mashed potatoes onto my fork and took a dainty bite. It was hard to eat when it felt like I had butterflies in my stomach.
“Why?” Mr. Bane asked. “You said you were no longer in love with your husband.”
True. It had been years since he’d taken sick and died. While I remembered him, his image was fuzzy in my mind. Time had altered my perspective on our marriage. We’d been happy, certainly, but love? I wasn’t sure. Mutual respect, fondness, definitely. Youthful eagerness. I would always look back on the time we shared with a smile, but nothing more.
Mr. Bane pushed on. “Don’t you find us attractive?”
I felt my cheeks flush. “Yes, I do.” I didn’t need to lie. They knew their appeal and I was sure it had worked on others in the past. I was not their first conquest, although it seemed if I might be the first they said they wanted to marry.
God, marry?
If I wasn’t strangely intrigued by the conversation, I could have walked away. I would have done so before the meal was even served. I felt that they would have let me. While their knees pressed into my thighs, I didn’t feel trapped. I felt…sheltered. The way they spoke in front of the waitress, I could have caused a scene and fled easily enough. The fact that I remained between them only proved to all of us that their not so subtle references to my breasts and thighs was stimulating banter instead of perverted mumblings.
“You are beautiful. Enchanting. Interesting,” Landon added.
If he only knew.
“You can’t doubt what you feel between us,” Mr. Bane said.
“Mr. Bane,” I countered, ready to list all of the reasons why this was a bad idea.
“Seth,” he replied. “As Landon has given you leave, I shall as well. We’re past formalities now, don’t you agree?”
I nodded, because we’d gone far beyond the usual chitchat about the weather.
“Then tell us yours.”
I cleared my throat. “Maddie.”
Seth grinned and he looked so devastatingly handsome. He wasn’t a city man, all slick and perfect. No, he was rugged and rough around the edges.
“As you said, you are a widow, an experienced woman. Aren’t you curious? Curious what it would be like to be in bed with the two of us? To have two sets of hands on you? Two mouths?” He leaned in, tipped his voice very, very low. “Two cocks?”
Oh my. I delayed my answer by taking a sip of my water, this time very carefully as I’d been prepared for something stunning to be uttered by either one of them at any time. I hadn’t been wrong. Two cocks?
“We want you,” Landon said, stating the obvious. No one mentioned hands and mouths and cocks unless they were eager for a night of passion.
Yes, it was good I’d put my glass down, for my fingers shook. My defenses couldn’t stand their verbal assault. They wanted me and seemed well armed to get me.
This was insane. I was a bank robber, not just a boring widow. I didn’t have time for a marriage, much less a dalliance. Did I? The next, and hopefully last, robbery was tomorrow and then we’d have all the money we wanted back from Mr. Rollins and be done. We could return to the life of law abiding citizens.
I could spend the night in their company. Do things with them. Just this once. Nothing was stopping me. No little old biddies were judging or stopping me. No lightning strike would befall me, at least not for this. A widow could be wild. A widow could consider such blatant advances. A widow was allowed to seek pleasure where she desired. I wasn’t in Mecklen where everyone knew me. Here, in Helena, I was anonymous. Forgettable. That boded well for bank robberies and an illicit dalliance with two handsome men.
I glanced between the two, felt my nipples harden from just their focused s
tares. They wanted me and that was heady. Flattering. Exciting. I wanted them. I wasn’t going to deny it, even to myself. I wanted two men. It had been a long time, years, since I’d been with my husband, felt a man’s hands on me, his mouth. Felt the weight of his body pressing me into his bed, the slow slide of his cock. The heat that came from the joining. I remembered what it had been like, ached for it late at night. I had a feeling a night with Landon and Seth would not be the same as it had been when I was nineteen, two virgins newly married.
I was curious about it, being with them. Interested. Needy. I wanted to feel like that again. I wanted to feel feminine and soft, desirable and worth loving.
They weren’t eating any longer, their plates clean and my food barely touched.
Leaning in, I waited for them to do the same, then whispered, “What is it that you want?”
Yes, I was curious. Hearing their thoughts didn’t mean I had to act on them.
Landon glanced at Seth, then at me. “You.” His eyes blazed with that single word.
I put my cutlery down. “Yes, but…how?”
“Naked,” Seth added.
My woman’s core clenched and I was sure my drawers just got damp. Oh my. I hadn’t felt like this in a long, long time. If ever. Why now? Why these two? Why was I so aroused by each of them uttering only one word a piece? You and naked.
“And?” I wanted more. Needed to hear more from them.
“And between us.”
“In bed.”
“Perhaps riding me,” Landon said.
“Or on your hands and knees,” Seth offered.
They went back and forth, all the while keeping their eyes fixed on mine, ignoring everyone else in the establishment.
“Just on your knees before me.”
“Holding on to the headboard.”
“No, tied to the headboard.”
“Leaning over the side of the bed.”
“Pressed against the wall.”
I whimpered and they stopped talking.
“Does any of that sound appealing to you?”
Appealing? That wasn’t the word I would have chosen. What didn’t sound appealing? I’d never done some of that before. No, most of it. Orville and I had been so young when we married and we’d fumbled for the first month, not even trying various positions. Since he, too, had been a virgin, he’d been more eager than skilled. While it had been pleasant, it hadn’t been…intense. Hot. Devastating.
That’s what Seth and Landon’s words made me feel and I was in a public restaurant. I could only imagine what they could do if we were alone and our clothes came off.
Was it suddenly warm in the restaurant? I knew my cheeks were flushed and I could barely look at either of them.
Seeing that we were done, the waitress came over and cleared our dinner plates. “Dessert? Tonight, it’s cherry pie.”
“Yes, please,” I replied quickly, needing something to do with my hands and definitely with my mouth. Having it filled with pie might keep me from saying something I might regret, like “yes.”
When the waitress walked away, Seth asked, “Are you saying ‘yes, please’ to us?”
“What?” I asked.
They were both grinning at me. Wickedly. They were so handsome, devastatingly so in completely opposing ways. One dark, the other fair. One light hearted, the other intense. Yet they both wanted me. Me!
Sitting between them, I realized I wasn’t just Madison Thomas, widow, any longer. I wasn’t the shy newlywed from years before. I was the Black Widow, a ludicrous moniker I’d been given by one of the bank tellers from the second robbery. I hadn’t killed Orville—the ‘flu had taken him—so it wasn’t true, but it sounded wicked. I was wicked, robbing banks and getting away with it, even if it was solely to get the money Mr. Rollins owed us and not a penny more. I might have been a criminal, but I was a criminal with morals. We had one more robbery to steal the last few hundred dollars and we’d be even. Done.
I wanted the other ladies to walk away, to save themselves, but I had one more robbery to go. I had to do it for them as much as for myself, for Daddy.
My simpering and questioning these men was an innocent’s response. A familiar reaction to my ladylike upbringing, not to my current station in life. I wasn’t an innocent any longer. I probably wouldn’t even be considered a lady. I might not have been taken by Orville while I gripped the headboard or on my hands and knees, but I’d aimed a gun at a bank teller and stolen several thousand dollars. Not once, but three times. I was a wanted woman. An outlaw.
Why couldn’t I have these two? Why couldn’t I spend a night with them and find the pleasure they were offering? How much further could I sink? The ladies at church would say I was already going to hell. Why not enjoy the trip? I had no doubt these two knew exactly what they were doing and I would not be left wanting. One night of pleasure couldn’t ruin me any more. But if I were caught, I’d have the memories of what we’d do together. Even if I wasn’t caught, I’d remember my time with them for the rest of my life.
I took a deep breath, then another. “Very well. I accept.”
Both men stilled. “What are you saying, Maddie?” Landon asked.
“I wish to…to—”
The waitress brought over the plates of pie, thick slices with a dollop of cream on each. They looked delicious but I was suddenly too nervous to think about tasting it.
I leaned back, allowing her room to put the desserts before us, instantly having second thoughts.
“Coffee?” the waitress asked.
“No, thank you,” Seth replied, his gaze resting squarely on me.
The waitress left.
“You were saying?” he asked.
I folded my hands in my lap, worried my fingers. Then I lifted my head, glanced into Landon’s dark eyes and then Seth’s fair ones.
No, no second thoughts. There wouldn’t be second chances for a night like this and I was going to take it. An outlaw took what she wanted and I wanted a night with Seth and Landon. “I wish to be between you.”
CHAPTER FOUR
Landon Cooper
I barely remember paying the bill or escorting Maddie back to the hotel. My room was directly across the narrow hall from Seth’s, but since that was now her room, he led her there. Pushing the door inward, he let her enter first. She glanced at him, then at me, the tacit understanding that when she entered, she knew what she wanted. Us.
I watched her breasts rise beneath her prim dress as she took a deep breath, then walked within. Seth grinned, he couldn’t help it, I was sure, and then I followed. Shutting the door behind me, I leaned against it. My position wasn’t to keep her from escaping; I would have opened the door for her quickly if she’d changed her mind. I didn’t think she would. From the glint of something akin to mischief in her eyes, she was with us willingly.
The window faced the west and the mountains in the distance. It was open a few inches to let in the soft summer air, the plain white curtains fluttering. It was a clean, serviceable room. No frills. I didn’t need any. Tonight, I just wanted a bed with Maddie in it. On it. Leaning over it. Any way we could have her.
This was no virgin standing before us. While she stood perfectly straight and her hands were folded at her waist, she’d been with a man before. Although from the sound of it, a young and most likely exuberant one. Because of this, I had to wonder if she’d ever come. Her husband had sounded like a kind man, but had he seen to her pleasure? Had he even known how to do so? Would we be the first to show her what it could really be like?
She wasn’t a whore either. No, she hadn’t joined us for a quick romp for the exchange of coin. She was a lady through and through. But that didn’t mean she couldn’t have what she wanted. If that meant two cocks and a wild, fun ride, then she was allowed to have it. Society norms be damned.
But this wasn’t just a quick fuck. No, we’d said we wanted to marry her. We’d made that quite clear. If she was going to be with us, then come morning, we’d be befor
e the nearest minister or justice of the peace.
Seth and I hadn’t even had to talk to agree about this. We’d known for years we’d share a woman, we just didn’t know who she’d be. Until now.
Maddie Thomas was so damn beautiful, words didn’t do her justice. Her dark hair would be long and I wanted to tangle my fingers in it, get lost in her. I’d never seen eyes so green, like the prairie in springtime, bright and alive. Most men would think us insane with our adamance of our desire for her to become ours. Some would say foolish for our instant acknowledgement that she’d be ours. There was a whorehouse down the street to sate our male appetites if we wanted. But no upstairs girl would suffice ever again.
My cock was hard, but it was only hard for Maddie.
Tomorrow, we would go to the meeting and learn about our latest fugitive, then go on the hunt for him. Them. Whatever. Another criminal. For every one we put behind bars, there were always more. It wasn’t a lawless land, the Montana Territory. Far from it, but bandits had plenty of room to wreak havoc, to hide. We’d do our job, and fast, and get back to Maddie. Quit. Settle. Give her all the babies she wanted and enjoy every minute of it.
Starting now.
I took a step toward her, took her hands in mine. Seth moved to stand behind her. She was skittish and I didn’t blame her. We were both a head taller and big. Very big. Hopefully, we’d shown her that we meant her no harm, that we were not a danger to her. The opposite, in fact. We would protect her from anything.
She’d never want again.
Her hands were so small. Warm and soft. Lifting her head, her emerald eyes met mine.
“Second thoughts?” I asked, my voice soft. My cock wanted me to strip her bare now, toss her on the bed and sink deep. I would do that. Whether it was tonight or after days or weeks of wooing, that was still to be determined.
“No.” Her voice was barely a whisper, but I detected no fear in her gaze. Nervousness, surely. Hell, I was nervous, too, because I wanted to get this right. I wanted it to be perfect for her. It wasn’t every day you had your last first kiss. It wasn’t every day you undressed your lover, your wife, for the first time. Saw her perfect body, watched arousal darken her eyes, made her catch her breath. Heard her cries of pleasure. Sank into her. There were so many firsts that I wanted to remember every single one of them.
