by Reece Butler
Nev pinched her nipple and clit at the same moment that Ross plowed into her spot, and she fell apart. She shook with the spasms, fire running from between her legs out to every part of her body. She was so overloaded she barely noticed the loss of stimulation on her breasts and clit. Ross grunted and lost his rhythm, the jerking motion setting off an after-quake. She heard Nevin below her give a deep cry, and then something hot splashed her belly.
Ross pulled out, hauled her around, and pressed her to his chest. She clung with her arms around his chest, her legs around his hips as his tongue plunged deep into her mouth. She fought his tongue with her own, forcing him back so she could impale him. She finally pulled out, gasping for air, crying and laughing at the same time. Ross held her, both of them shaking.
“If you’re finished, there’s work to be done, lads.”
Amelia peeked over Ross’s shoulder. Gillis, wearing boots, kilt, and a shirt, stared back with one red, bushy eyebrow high. With his legs wide apart and fists on his hips, he looked like a wild, red pirate. His face was redder than usual. Was it exertion, sunburn, or a blush of surprise at seeing the three of them standing in the clearing almost naked?
Or had he arrived earlier? How much had he seen? A rush of lust flashed over her. Had he watched Ross enter her from behind while Nevin licked and sucked her until she was crazy wild? What did he think about his brothers enjoying her while his wife, her sister, was gone forever?
“That took more out of me than a day of sawing,” gasped Nevin to Gillis. “I gotta cool down.”
Amelia turned her head. Nevin, naked as the day he was born, shambled over to the creek. Ross set her down, waiting until she could stand. He turned her in the same direction and slapped her back cheek. “You’d better do the same.”
Face flaming and tissues swollen, she carefully walked to the water. Her wet thighs rubbed against her pussy, making her already want more. She felt two sets of male eyes boring into her back.
Or backside, more likely.
“She’ll do,” she heard Gillis say over the post-orgasmic buzz in her ears.
Keeping her back to Gillis, Amelia took off her boots and approached the stream. She went upriver to where Nevin sat cross-legged. She caught the gleam in his eye too late. She managed to close her eyes before a handful of cold water splashed her front. She wiped her face, eager to retaliate.
“Since I got you sticky, I’d better wash you off,” said Nevin from right in front of her. Like Ross, he moved too quickly and silently for such a big man. He splashed more water on her belly and rubbed. She fixed her eyes on his scar.
“Touch it if you like,” he said.
She traced one of the four grooves. It was deeper near his shoulder, as if a slash mark had hit there first. “Some animal attacked you.”
“Black bear. Padooa is my totem,” he replied calmly.
“How old were you when this happened?”
“Old enough to meet Bear and survive. Older than Ross was when he met Raven.”
“I didn’t see any scars on Ross that look like a bird pecked or scratched him.”
“Raven has a lot of messengers. He keeps at least one near Ross at all times. I suspect Bear wanted to make sure I’d remember him.”
“Hard to forget with that across your chest.”
Nevin shrugged. “It’s a part of who I am.”
She looked back at Ross, busy pulling off his boots. Gillis held up his finger as if lecturing him on something. A splash of cold water between her legs brought her attention back to Nevin. He waggled his eyebrows and leered.
“That part I can wash myself, thank you,” she replied. She knelt on one knee in the stream of snowmelt straight from the mountain and splashed herself clean. Shivering, she scampered out of the water. She climbed the bank and stood in the sun heating the clearing. Goosebumps covered her skin. Her breasts were hard and nipples jutting from the cold.
“Amy!”
She turned at the call. Ross rolled her dress into a ball and tossed it as he walked toward her. She caught it and shook it out, holding it to her front like a shield as she watched him approach. Dressed, her husband was handsome, but this golden man at one with nature was magnificent. Long legs with strong thighs, a taut belly flaring out to a wide, muscular chest, and equally strong arms. Between his legs, a nest of black curls couldn’t hide the pair of orbs and the cock that swung with every step. The cock that was, once again, growing. She shook her head at him.
“Cover that up. We’ve got work to do.”
He laughed. “You don’t know what cold water does to a hard cock, do you?”
She shook her head. He pointed behind her. She turned to see Nevin with a melodramatically mournful expression on his face. His cock lay limp. Just ten minutes earlier, it was big enough for her to wrap both hands around it yet still leave lots sticking out.
“Poor thing doesn’t know what happened,” Nevin muttered.
“Dinna worry, lad. It’ll be back when ye need it,” called Gillis.
Amelia turned to Gillis. His eyes flickered over her from toes to hair. She flushed, realizing he must have seen the three of them together. For a moment, she thought he smiled.
“Auntie sent me to tell ye dinner’s ready,” Gillis said. “Take yer time, lads. Ye can have whatever’s left after I’m full. It’ll take a wee bit for me to eat. I’m a mite hungry after watching all that hard work ye did with Amelia.” After another thorough look at her, he turned and walked away, leaving her shivering and the men shriveled.
“Did you see the way Gil looked at Amelia?”
“He said he was hungry. I think he considered having Amelia for dessert,” replied Ross to Nev’s question. He dropped his head back, inhaled, then let it out. He smiled at her and took her dress from her cold fingers. She held onto his shoulder as he helped her step into it.
“Thank you,” he said and kissed her bare shoulder. “Seeing us share you is helping Gillis get better.” He walked past her to the stream and sat down, huffing at the cold.
“I can’t believe I did that!”
Amelia bit her lip as she finished buttoning up her dress. She tried to smooth the wrinkles, but it would need a good wash and ironing. Auntie and Tillie would know she’d taken her dress off but not with whom. “I wouldn’t even have taken off my dress if I knew he was near.”
Ross stood up, as shriveled as Nevin had been. “We could have done that without taking off your dress.” He slicked his hands over his body, skimming the water from his skin. “One of these days, I’m going to press you against a wall and lift your skirts.”
She watched his cock stir to life.
“I think it’s time I started wearing a kilt. No buttons to undo or pants to trip over.”
His cock grew, stretching down his thigh. He took it in his hand and lifted it.
“How about a kiss before dinner, wife?”
Chapter Eighteen
“You sure you don’t want company? I could use a trip to town,” said Nevin to Ross. He let the axe land on the chopping block so he could wipe his face. “Even better, how ’bout I take Amelia to get her boots, and you fill the woodbox.”
Ross sucked his teeth as he shook his head. “I want some time alone with my wife.”
“You have her every night,” groused Nevin. He set a chunk of alder on the maple block. He picked up the axe and swung hard in an arc. The axe split the wood with a loud crack. Two stove-size pieces fell to the ground. He had to push down on the handle to get the axe to release.
“I want her to be the one to ask for you to join us rather than us encouraging her.”
Nevin set up another chunk of wood. “I know. Doesn’t make it easier to listen to the two of you go at it each night.” The axe hit again, just as hard. “I don’t know how Gil can stand it.”
“He knows we put up with it for years with him and Prue.”
“That was our choice.”
“And Gil is choosing to leave Amelia alone.”
Nevin
looked up at his slightly older brother. “You saw him watching her the other day in the clearing. The kilt might hide his hard-on, but the rest of his body showed he wanted her.” He rolled out his shoulders, stretching the muscles. “Not all of his pain is because you have Amelia and he doesn’t have Prue.”
“I asked. He says he’s not ready to share my wife.”
“That’s his mouth talking. And I don’t mean just his cock wants her. You told me holding Amelia at night was almost as good as the sex.”
Ross nodded. He’d never before known what it was like to hold someone in the night. Amelia not only held him back, she depended on him. Knowing that made him work hard all day just to come home to her welcoming smile. He’d sworn he’d not get sucked into that trap, but he had. He’d enjoy it as long as he could then pass her on to Nevin.
“I don’t know what that’s like, but Gil does. He won’t heal until a woman holds him to her breast and lets him cry.”
“Where did that bit of wisdom come from?”
Nevin bent over to stack the wood he’d split. Ross waited patiently. Before Amelia, no female had ever held him to his breast to comfort him. Not that he needed any comforting these days. He desperately wanted it as a child, though. He couldn’t remember his mother holding him while he nursed, but who would? He did remember Father and his older brothers making sure he wouldn’t be a sissy. He had a few scars from those lessons.
But comfort from a woman? The first night when Amelia fell asleep on his chest, trusting him, he kept still so she wouldn’t move. Something in his soul began melting that night. A woman could weaken a man, making him want to take him in her body no matter what. Amelia’s soft sighs, the way her arms wrapped around him in sleep after he’d fully pleasured her, was life-changing. Losing that would turn his life a dark gray. That was what Gillis remembered and thought he’d never have again.
Nevin stood up. He rested the axe head on his boot and stared Ross in the eye. “I asked Lily. She said he’ll eventually get over Prudence dying, but he’ll need help.”
Ross looked up into the mountains. He wouldn’t be free until the men he sought roasted in hell. The need for vengeance was the only thing that kept him going. Then Amelia showed up in that dim hotel room.
“Whatever it is, I’ll do it.”
It was Nevin’s turn to look up and away. Ross waited until he sighed and turned back.
“It’s not you he needs. It’s Amelia. And Lily said it’s not the sex. We all know why he won’t go near the house after supper. But Lily said if he could hold Amelia and have her hold him, they could both grieve.”
“How the hell are we going to find a way to leave Amelia all alone here overnight?”
“I don’t know. Maybe Lily’s wrong, and he’ll come around.”
“You know how stubborn he is.”
Nevin nodded. “Almost as stubborn as you.”
* * * *
Amelia, wearing going-to-town underthings, settled on the wagon seat and smoothed her dress over her knees. It took her an hour yesterday to find the right dress in her trunks. Something good enough for town but not too fancy. The blue gown with strips of tiny pink roses gave her a lift, yet it wasn’t so fancy the other women would think she put on airs.
A half hour this morning with the sad irons made sure the store-bought white lace ruffles stood out from her bodice. Two petticoats fluffed out the skirt. Her corset supported her chest. Going without a corset when the wagon swayed and thudded over the rutted road was not comfortable.
“Don’t think you can haul me in your lap and kiss me,” she instructed Ross. “No playing until the way home. I don’t want to get all mussed up and have the townsfolk think I’m a hoyden.”
“You’re married to the MacDougal Devil. Not much you could do to make things worse.”
“What if I tore off my clothes and strutted down the center of the street?” She glanced at his groin. The erection that had poked her during their get-in-the-wagon kiss had grown.
“That’s one way I could come into town without anyone noticing me.” He drew on the reins to ensure the horses didn’t go too fast downhill. “Of course, I’d have to kill every man jack of them for looking at my wife.”
“Hmph! Nevin and Gillis, too?”
“Nah,” he drawled. “They’ve already seen you in nothing but your boots and wide smiles, top and bottom.”
She flushed at the reminder. Every time she thought of that sunny afternoon, her thighs got wet. All the way home, she’d dreaded Auntie and Tillie knowing what she and Ross must have been doing. But Tillie smiled and sighed, saying she couldn’t wait for her man to return.
When Amelia apologized to Auntie for not being there to do more of the work, it took her a while to figure out Auntie’s reply. Only while folding the clothes did she realize Auntie meant her first job was to grow babies. Auntie didn’t mind what she did with any of the brothers, as long as she made babies.
Auntie must have told Nevin the same thing. This morning, he looked at her like he wanted to bend her over and take her like Ross had. It made her hot. Worse, the man knew it. He saw her nipples harden and the way the heat flowed up her face. He winked, and she knew he was silently saying, “Anytime you want, I’m ready for more.”
Was she ready? Her body certainly thought so.
A hand snuck under her dress and between her legs. Needy from Nevin’s heated looks and Ross’s kiss, she opened her thighs. When his fingers slid between the slit in her knickers, they both groaned.
“Damn, woman, you’re wetter than a cat caught in an August thunderstorm.”
She leaned back and tilted her bottom, wanting more of his callused fingers.
“You’re remembering how Nev sucked your clit when I bent you over that log.”
He chuckled when she clenched his fingers.
“If you want more of Nev, you have to ask for it. He won’t come to our bed otherwise. He wants you, bad. But it has to be your choice.”
He rubbed her clit, making her gasp as the tension coiled in her. She imagined Nevin licking her clit while Ross waited to pound. She moaned, wanting more, but he pulled his hand out.
“Don’t stop,” she pleaded, no longer caring about wrinkles.
“Don’t want to mess up your clothes on the way to town.” He smirked at her.
“You’re making me crazy on purpose!”
She wiggled on the seat, rubbing her thighs together. He nudged the horses to speed up. They were on flat land next to the river, so it was easy going. The rumble of the wagon sent a vibration through her bones that wound her up even more.
He pretended to ignore her though she saw the hard-on pressing against his pants. He had threatened to wear a kilt to town but backed out at the last minute. She smiled at him having to suffer as well. She’d flirt with him in town. On the way home, she’d let him take care of her needs.
* * * *
Amelia’s new boots clunked on the boardwalk as she hurried toward the hotel. The hollow sound wasn’t as crisp as her heeled boots, but practicality had to win over fashion. Hemming her skirts up two inches meant her toes stuck out with every quick step. The advantage was she’d not have to wash the bottom six inches of her dress when it rained. She turned right at the hotel, following the path between red brick and the squared timbers of the bank.
Her objective, the privy, waited behind the building. Next time she went to town, she’d not have a large cup of tea for breakfast followed by another with Patsy Tanner. The heavy tread of a man’s boots made her pause. He entered the privy and shut the door.
She hurried past and climbed the stairs to the second floor balcony, holding her skirts high to move faster. She’d never heard of a two-story privy but was very glad of it today. Ahead of her, the open door beckoned. She heaved a sigh of relief and rushed forward. She bolted the door, grateful that the tiny room was deeper and therefore gave her more room to lift her skirts without wrinkling them too badly.
Five minutes later, she washed
her hands in the basin Sophie McLeod kept on a rough board table by the hotel’s back door. Now that her urgent business was taken care of, she took a moment to look around. The rattle of wagons and noise of people was subdued here at the back of town. The smell of horse dung was as strong as out front, and the privy added to it.
The hotel was deeper than the other buildings. From the corner of the verandah, she could see what lay behind each establishment. Baldy’s Saloon, to her far right, had a pile of broken barrels and other garbage on the far side of the open back door. A small man followed a broom out the door. She recognized the sound of the broken bottles he swept the side of the step. His hairless head suggested he was the owner.
Next door to her right, close to the street, was the small assay office, then the bank. Neither had a back door or side windows. She hadn’t been in either building yet. With no gold or money of her own, she had no need. The banker’s home was next.
To her far left was Miss Lily’s two-story business. A heavy wagon pulled by mules was parked by the door. Two men strained to unload wooden boxes. She couldn’t read the words printed but expected they contained liquor. A big woman followed them out of the building and began arguing, gesturing at two more boxes and pointing inside. Rosa was hard at work, managing Lily’s business as if it was her own.
Amelia descended the stairs, wanting to get back to the mercantile before Ross returned. He’d told her not to walk down the street without him, but she couldn’t have waited a moment longer. She reached the bottom and turned to her right. A hand grabbed her around the waist and pulled her around the corner. Before she could scream, another covered her mouth. She flailed out with her right hand. It caught the corner of the brick, scraping her knuckles.
The man pulled her back to his chest. She inhaled the stink of old sweat, tobacco, and fresh whiskey. He held her mouth so she couldn’t see his face. She struggled, kicking out with her new boots, but he just grunted when her heel connected.
