“Yes, I’ll see you in the morning.”
* * * *
“Do you think I’m a coward because I’m still nervous when we’re together like this?”
Adam looked up at Warren, reading the expression of self-doubt on his face.
“No, of course I don’t. You’re not a coward. Far from it. And you’re not nearly as nervous as you used to be, either.” He spoke nothing but the truth. In the five months since he’d played his part in bringing down Tyrone Maddox, Warren had displayed not only a greater sense of adventure in the bedroom, but a greater level of self-confidence outside of it.
They’d stayed over as guests of the Benedicts from time to time. Warren had even recently sold his land and moved in to Adam’s house. It galled Adam that subterfuge was still needed, but they were both realists. They had to live in the society of man, such as it was. Being lovers of the same sex was against the law, and there really wasn’t much they could do about that.
Sarah, Caleb, and Joshua had stepped in and quietly let it be known that Adam and Warren were kin—a fact that was true in their own eyes—and that made a difference in the eyes of the citizens of Waco. Since the move happened just after Warren had been shot by Maddox, most assumed that Adam, as the older of the two, had taken his younger cousin under his wing.
It was late, and everyone in the household had retired for the night. Rita Mendez and her husband, José, had a small adobe cottage away from the house, on the other side of the barn. Only residents and guests would bed down under the Benedicts’ roof.
Warren had just returned from the bedroom next door. He’d spent a few minutes there so that in the morning it would appear he’d spent the night in that room. He trusted Sarah and her husbands, but not the staff, and so he was bound to feel nervous.
Adam set away his thoughts and went to his lover. He reached out and gently stroked a finger down Warren’s cheek. “I love you. Be naked with me.”
Adam had never loved like this, and despite the danger, and the need for secrecy, this love had not only flourished but grown stronger every day. Now he took the time to undress Warren, lingering over patches of flesh newly bared, brushing kisses and using his tongue to taste and his teeth to nip.
Warren shivered under his touch. Knowing he aroused him made Adam’s cock stiffen with need. When Warren stroked his shirtfront and began to unfasten the buttons, Adam held still for the caresses his lover lavished upon him.
The drapes had been drawn, and the bedroom door locked. When they stood naked together, Adam leaned in, his lips brushing back and forth across Warren’s. Then they settled, and Adam kissed him. With long, slow sips Adam relished the taste of his lover, and the freedom, at this time and in this place, to drink his fill. His tongue swirled in Warren’s mouth, tasting every bit of him, loving the flavor, loving him. He wrapped his arms around him, drew him closer, and shivered when their cocks rubbed against each other. Everywhere Adam touched Warren felt hot with passion. Everywhere Warren touched him quivered with delight.
Adam’s hands trailed down his back, then back up. He caressed the taut, bare buttocks, smiling when Warren clenched those muscles. Their breathing hitched, and Warren’s hands trembled as he caressed Adam, as he reached down and fisted him.
His lover’s hot hand surrounding his cock always filled Adam with such need. He didn’t know how much longer he could last.
Stepping back, Adam took Warren’s hand and led him toward the bed. He’d already turned the blankets down. He reached out to turn off the light that burned softly on the bedside table.
“No.” Warren’s hand stopped his. “I want you to leave it on.”
“Are you sure? I don’t mind putting it out.”
“I’m sure. I want to see you. I want you to see me.”
“Sweetheart.” He whispered the endearment, his voice, like his knees, weakened by this unexpected yet treasured gift from his lover.
He laid down, drawing Warren down with him.
Hands roamed and swept, caressed and grasped. Tongues met and swirled, lips met flesh with loving, tender touches.
Adam wrapped his hand around Warren’s hard, hot cock at the same moment he felt his own stroked and held. Arousal spiked, and Adam knew he needed to taste Warren’s erection, needed to feel his own stiff flesh fuck Warren’s mouth.
Moving quickly, he turned himself around on the bed, then inched closer, then closer still, until the heat from Warren’s body soothed his, until the musky scent of his sex filled Adam with a hunger to taste, a thirst to drink. He nuzzled his lover’s prick, licked and tasted his scrotum, inhaled deeply near the hair that nested his shaft. Then he opened his mouth and drew Warren’s cock inside and nearly groaned when he felt his own surrounded by the moist cavern of Warren’s mouth.
He loved the flavor of him, the salty and savory taste that Adam knew he would recognize anywhere. His tongue stroked while his mouth sucked, and the sound of Warren’s groan thrilled him as much as the sensation of it around his engorged dick did.
Adam’s heart pounded in his chest as his excitement grew. He tried to be gentle as his hips pumped forward, but the arousal climbed until all that mattered was the sweet, searing promise of release.
They reached it together, and Adam swallowed the pungent offering his lover gave him even as he felt his own seed drawn up and out of his body.
Later, lying under the blankets, light extinguished, Adam stroked Warren’s back and reveled in the closeness, the freedom to lavish affection.
“I want Amanda,” Warren said softly. “I want to feel her catch fire between us.”
“Good. That’s what I want, too.”
“She’s as attracted to us as we are to her. Earlier, as you and she were going at each other, I swear I could smell her pussy.”
Adam chuckled. “I had the damndest time keeping my cock from standing at attention then. I think she’ll be a very passionate lover.”
“If she’ll have us.”
“I never would have imagined a woman who would. Until I met her today. I’m pretty sure she’ll have us. Sooner, rather than later.
“Adam?”
“Yes?”
“You do know we could reach Tahlequah much sooner and mostly by train. Right?”
“Well, of course. But that would mean passing up the opportunity to be alone with Amanda, just the three of us, under a magnificent Texas sky. Alone, out on the trail, with no other people to interfere with our pleasures, is a much nicer prospect that a days-long train ride.”
“You have a point.”
Adam thought Warren drifted to sleep. But then he said, “I would follow you to Austin. I would follow you into hell.”
“I know. But I want to stay with you, and close to friends who accept us. This is our home.”
“You’re my home. But I’m glad we’re staying.”
As sleep claimed him, Adam’s mind drifted to thoughts of gold and a red-haired beauty who engaged his mind and fired his blood, and he wondered what the next few weeks would bring.
Chapter 6
Amanda groaned in pleasure as the bed seemed to wrap her in loving arms and pull her down into luxurious comfort. The mattress, made of lush feathers, was the most comfortable one she’d ever laid upon. The last week had been taxing, traveling by day, trying to sleep each night in beds that seemed hard, lumpy, or smelled of body odor. Surrounded in soft freshness and as tired as she was, sleep should have captured her instantly.
“Our room is right there, in the corner. This one across the hall from yours is the one Adam and Warren usually use when they’re here.”
Sarah had conducted the tour in her soft, no-nonsense tone, but just those innocuous words started Amanda’s imagination working.
Amanda understood the mechanics of sex and had from the time she’d turned twelve and gotten her monthlies. Her mother had told her, long before she met Terence, that some men preferred men, and some women other women. To Amanda, that was just the way things were, and although
she knew such pairings were considered taboo by society, she had never considered them so herself.
Neither had she ever lain alone in a big bed and imagined two men making love to each other. Not until tonight, not until an image of Adam and Warren formed in her mind. The sensations she’d felt earlier, standing close to Adam, looking into Warren’s soft eyes, came back to her now tenfold.
She could imagine them lying together, hands and lips moving subtly over sensitive flesh. They’d made no secret of the fact they were both attracted to her, that they would welcome her into their bed. What would it be like to feel their hands on her skin, their mouths on hers? Closing her eyes, she let the image seduce her until it filled her mind and tingled her belly. Her hands stroked across her breasts, her nipples poking against her chemise, reaching out for the stroke of her own fingers. Amanda sighed as the whisper-light touch of her hand became, in her mind, the gentle caress of another as she imagined the sensation of a hot male body on either side of her.
She’d never wanted a man, never felt the tug of hunger deep inside her. She did now, and as that hunger began to burn, she thought she could understand how a woman would do almost anything to feed it.
She’d touched herself before, of course she had. Doing so felt pleasant enough, but there’d been no urge to continue on or to repeat the exercise. Tonight, the stroke of her fingers over her sensitive body went beyond pleasant. Arousal began to swirl through her, and her sigh turned to a soft moan of need. Her hips moved, a subtle back and forth rhythm they seemed to know instinctively. Parting her legs and bringing her knees up slightly, Amanda felt the soft material of her chemise brush against her cunny.
Oh, that feels good!
Daring to claim more of the delicious sensations, she moved her hand down until she reached her hot folds. Back and forth, she petted herself, and with each stroke the need for more increased. She knew what was happening to her, knew there was a release just beyond her reach, and for the first time in her life, she chased it.
Moving her hips against her right hand, she used her left to pull the material out of the way so that she could touch hot, naked skin. Faster and faster, her hips flexed, the sensations beginning to grow and change from good to better, to more. Urgency filled her, and heat built inside her and out as the lips of her pussy swelled and grew hot. Her fingers brushed against one particular spot at the top of her slit, and the urge to cry out came so fast she forced the back of her left hand across her mouth to stifle it. She circled that spot, rubbing quickly back and forth over the tiny nub that swelled and stretched, and then, from somewhere deep inside, a burst of pleasure so intense shot out. Her body bowed off the bed, every muscle clenching tight as the waves of shivering ecstasy washed over her. A tiny gush of moisture coated her cunny, and as the height of the release ebbed, she touched that moisture with her finger, then brought that finger to her lips.
Oh, God. She’d never believed it would feel so good. She had no doubt in her mind that the two men she’d met today—only today—lay at the root of her body’s awakening hunger.
If I leave with them to search for the gold, we’re going to become lovers.
Amanda drifted toward sleep knowing she not only wanted them but had already decided to have them.
* * * *
“The trail we’re going to set out on is nearly four hundred miles one way.” Adam spread a map out on the dining room table. “We’ll take the shortest route, which would be straight through here to Denison. That’s just this side of the border with Indian Territory.”
Amanda had difficulty focusing on the man’s words when he stood so close to her. She’d gotten the best night’s sleep she’d had since leaving home. She thought when she awoke that whatever effect the two lawmen had on her the day before would have dissipated.
It pulsed stronger than ever.
“Is there a problem traveling through Indian Territory? Call me ignorant, but I had heard hostilities existed between some of the tribes and the whites.” She looked at each of the people standing around the table. Her cousin’s husbands were once more standing on either side of Sarah, again with a hand each upon her. Amanda thought it likely the men weren’t even aware they stroked her almost constantly.
Warren stood on her left, not as close to her as Joshua did to Sarah, but close enough for Amanda to feel his heat. Adam had moved subtly closer on her right, and she could not only feel the warmth from his body, but she could smell him—a musky, male aroma that shouted man to all her female parts. She blinked, bringing her focus back to the business at hand.
“We won’t have any trouble.” Adam gave her a look that said he realized her mind had wandered and that he had a pretty good idea where it had gone. “Mainly because we’re not carpetbaggers trying to steal Indian land. Plus, I have a good friend, Peter Smith, whose father is a chief of the Cherokee Nation. I know some of the Choctaw, too.”
“A chief of the Cherokee Nation is named Smith?” Amanda was unashamed to admit she knew nothing at all about the Indians who occupied the middle of the country. The only knowledge she did have had been garnered recently when she’d done her digging into her father’s military background. What she had read, though, had sickened her.
How could we have forced those people to leave everything behind and then make such a long, arduous journey?
What she had learned just served to reinforce her resentment toward organized society. There had to be something wrong with a system that shunned women like her mother, who had made a living the only way she could, and then turned around and treated others, innocents, so savagely.
“Most of Indian Territory is occupied by what’s known as the Five Civilized Tribes. That would be the Cherokee, the Choctaw, the Chickasaw, the Creek, and the Seminole. They have their traditions, their history, and their languages. But for the most part, they have adopted our ways. They farm, or ranch, or live in towns, just like we do. And they’ve taken what can be considered white names, as well.”
Amanda decided she would take Adam’s word for it. “You said you thought you knew where the gold had been hidden?”
He pointed to an area on the map just outside of Tahlequah. “There are old creek beds here, not far from the town. The land on either side of them tends to be rocky, and in some places, quite elevated. There are a number of small caves throughout this entire area.” He looked up and locked his gaze on hers. “We’re going to have to be awfully damn lucky to find the right cave.”
“Don’t you believe in luck, Adam?”
Too late she realized there were many different ways a man might answer that question, some of them quite risqué.
“Maybe one of Peter’s people would be able to help you,” Sarah said. “He and his father were very kind to us when we traveled through their land—after they scared me witless, that is.”
Amanda noticed that the Benedict brothers looked as if they were trying very hard not to laugh. Sarah noticed, too, of course.
To Amanda she said, “They both still think it’s funny. What they won’t likely admit is that until those warriors drew close enough so we could see their faces, they were scared, too.”
Adam looked up from his map. “You didn’t tell me that part,” he teased Caleb.
“It was a moment,” Caleb admitted. “We looked up to find a line of warriors almost as far as the eye could see coming toward us. They wore full battle paint.” He paused in the memory and then said, “I don’t know if Peter or his father can help you. I don’t know if any of the elders of their tribe were among the Cherokee party led by Bell or not.”
“I believe Gladstone wanted me to find the gold,” Amanda said. “Do you think there might be a clue in this journal that I missed? Something to make the task less formidable?”
“We can certainly read through the account again. Maybe we can all have a turn with it.”
“That’s a good idea,” Amanda readily agreed. “Perhaps something will stand out to one of you that I missed.”
Adam looked up, his gaze meeting hers. “Maybe I’m just being pessimistic. He doesn’t say how many wagons, but he mentioned a ten men. Two men per wagon gives us five wagons.”
“So?”
“I’m trying to get a picture in my mind of how much gold, and therefore how much space would be needed to hide it.”
“And the men,” Amanda said quietly. Adam had a point. “He said he dragged them all into the cave, so it has to be big enough for them, too. Oh, and he said it had an overhang.”
“That’s right, he did. So it’s a pretty good sized cave, then. That makes our search a bit easier since in part of the area there isn’t enough rock for anything more than a crawl space.”
Adam looked up from the map and seared her with his gaze. “Do I need to detail to you all the things I think we’ll need to get by way of supplies, or will you trust me to go and buy them?”
Clearly, to her mind, he expected her to kick up some kind of fuss. Amanda smiled as she realized she had a new favorite pastime, and that was keeping Adam Kendall off balance.
She reached into her carpetbag and pulled out the envelope of money and handed it to him. “Here. You know what to buy. I haven’t a clue.”
Adam shook his head. “I’m amazed you made it all the way across the country in one piece,” he said.
“Traveling as a widow on her way home to kin, I found few real problems. Most folks wanted only to help me, and I have to tell you it sure was nice being treated with respect for a change.”
Adam’s gaze darkened. “You deserve to be treated with respect all the time.”
Amanda shook her head. “We both know how society works.”
“It’s so damned unfair,” Sarah said.
Amanda blinked. It seemed strange, her delicate and genteel cousin speaking profanities.
“We have a gentle mount Amanda can use,” Joshua said. “No need to buy an extra horse.”
“And don’t be thinking you’re going to pay for it,” Sarah added on quickly. Amanda laughed because that was exactly what she’d been about to suggest.
Covington, Cara - Love Under Two Lawmen [The Lost Collection] (Siren Menage Everlasting) Page 5
