“Aww, now you’re gettin’ water everywhere, darlin’.” James tsked.
Amusement glinted amidst the intense arousal in his gaze.
“And you can clean it up, seein’ as it’s your fault. Stop looking at me! You’re supposed to keep your backs turned.”
“Gotta get used to it sometime, Sweet Sarah. Billy and me are gonna be looking at you plenty from here on out. You’re ours now.” Sarah frowned. “You make me sound like a head of that cattle I was fixin’ to be hanged for stealin’ this mornin’.”
“Naw, you’re far more valuable and precious than any cattle.” As touched as she was astonished, Sarah’s gaze followed Billy as he moved closer and then walked around the back of the tub. She tipped her head back, finding him looming over her from behind.
“Belonging to us doesn’t have to be a bad thing.”
Sarah snapped her head up, her gaze slamming into James where he now kneeled beside her. She dropped her attention to his big, callused hands curled around the lip of the tub. Those hands would be on her body soon, claiming, taking, owning.
Whips of need slashed through her system, making her shudder.
“Does it feel good when you touch yourself that way?” James asked.
Embarrassment scorched her cheeks. “My hand happens to be the only thing I can cover myself with. If you’d be so kind as to hand me a cloth, I’d be happy to use it instead.”
“Nah, I’m not feeling all too kind anymore. You didn’t answer my question.
Does it feel good?”
Sarah didn’t want to answer. Until he directed her focus to her hand, she hadn’t thought twice about it. She covered herself on instinct. After all, it wasn’t fitting for a man to look on a woman while she bathed. His question made her acutely aware of the wiry hair beneath her palm, the sensitive, untouched flesh beneath that.
Her folds clenched and unclenched under her hand, drawing notice to the coating of thick moisture even the water hadn’t washed away. Yes, it felt good. No way could she ever tell him that.
“I’m guessing it does,” he went on when she didn’t answer. “My hand would feel better, of course, but a woman can find some pleasure in her own touch. Are you nice and wet?”
“I’m in a tub of water, James. It’s kind of hard to stay dry.”
“You’ve got me there. Is that pussy hot and slick, too?” Sarah gulped. She’d heard the name used to refer to a woman’s feminine folds before. Still, when James said it in that low baritone of honeyed sex it made her feel wickedly naughty and intensely self-conscious.
“Why don’t you find out?” Billy scooped her braid into his hand, working the strands until her hair hung free over the back of the tub.
“I think that’s a mighty fine idea, little brother. Why don’t you find out, Sarah? Slip a finger into that slit and tell us how wet you are.” Mortified, Sarah gaped at him. “I will do no such thing!”
“Sure you will.” James sounded so reasonable she actually blinked at him.
“You’ll do what I tell you to do, darlin’. I’m aiming to show you some pleasure today. Why you want to go and ruin a man’s right to see his woman happy?”
“You’re…but…I can’t…” Sarah sputtered herself to a stop, unable to believe what he wanted her to do, flabbergasted by the tingle traveling through her arm to obey his command.
“Sure you can.” Billy buried his hands in her hair, his fingers massaging her scalp. It felt so good she let her head fall back into that touch even as her fingers twitched on her sex.
She slammed her eyes shut, knowing she wouldn’t be able to meet James’s penetrating stare as she hesitantly slipped one finger between her folds.
“That’s it.” The low growl that rumbled from James’s throat made her open her eyes to look at him. His gaze seemed transfixed on her pussy, his expression more primal and fascinated than she had ever seen it. “Have you ever touched yourself like that before, Sarah?”
“No,” Sarah snapped and quickly withdrew her finger. “How could you ask such a question? A woman’s body is made to bear children. Not to be played with.” He finally looked at her, his expression one of pain as much as astonishment.
“You’re joshing me, right?”
“I most certainly am not.” She meant every word. So why did she suddenly feel more embarrassed by what she said than what he had made her do?
Billy gave her hair a little tug. The pull sent a sliver of white-hot lightning straight to her slit. “Look at me, Sarah.” He waited until she focused on him to ask,
“Is that one of them things your mother taught you?”
“It’s what all girls are reared to know.”
“Girls at the brothel seem to know different,” James commented.
“They aren’t looking to bare youngins, but they ain’t findin’ pleasure in what they let men do to them. They use their bodies to make money is all.”
“Hmm, and did one of them girls tell you all this?” Billy asked.
Sarah attempted to lift her chin despite Billy’s continued grip on her hair. She didn’t understand this strange fire lighting a path from her head to her slit. Pain wasn’t supposed to feel good. Not that Billy’s gentle tugging on her hair hurt, exactly. “None of them had to. It’s just the way things are.”
“We’re gonna show you the way things are.”
Something about the predatory, animalistic authority in James’s voice scared Sarah. What would they do to her? Arousal chilled in the face of a newly heated fear.
“Lower yourself into the water,” Billy instructed, giving her head a gentle push.
“What are you gonna do?” Sarah hated the way her voice shook. She’d never been a scared mouse, but blazes, she sure sounded like one now.
“I’m just helping you with your hair. It needs a good washing. I can’t wash it if you don’t get it wet, though.”
“I can wash my hair myself,” she grumbled, despite how amazing it felt to have Billy’s hands working her scalp.
“Yeah, I’m guessing you can, but I’m doin’ it this time. Now dunk.” Sarah let her body slide down until she could dunk her head. She came up with a sheet of water falling from her hair. She dried her face with her hands before she realized the move would leave her privates exposed. She started to cover her breasts and pussy once more, but James’s hands shot out to catch her wrists.
“You’ve covered that pretty pussy long enough. Put your hands at your sides or hold the tub if you want, but no more coverin’ up. I want to see my woman.” His hard gaze left no room for argument. That normally wouldn’t have stopped Sarah, but as she opened her mouth to say something in response, not a word sprang to her tongue. Billy gave her hair another tug, drawing her head back as he dabbed a bit of soap on the sodden strands and began to work it through.
Relaxation settled into her bones, making her feel weak. She would’ve never allowed the moan that escaped to pass her lips otherwise.
“There’s no need to be so afraid of us,” Billy told her as his hands did such wonderful things to her hair and scalp. “We ain’t aiming to hurt you.” Weren’t they? She had always heard how badly it hurt when a woman lost her virginity. Wasn’t that precisely what they planned to do to her?
“That’s something more you’re gonna get used to, darlin’,” James drawled.
“We’re gonna be touchin’ you a lot, touchin’ all of you whenever we see it fit to do so, and you’re gonna like it, too.”
“You make it sound like a threat.” Sarah met his gaze and, by the blazes, couldn’t hold it without a tornado of longing setting loose in her belly to rip through her system.
“That’s no threat, Sweet Sarah. It’s our job to see that you like it.” Sarah couldn’t make sense of the emotions twisting in her chest when he said things like that. She knew the Cassidy brothers had been raised different than most men in the West. Their ma didn’t cotton to men treating women like things to be used and pushed asid
e when the mood struck. It fell so far to the side of the way Sarah got reared that she couldn’t fathom these tough cowboys looking to see her happy and pleasured as they kept talking about the things they aimed to do to her.
“Take this.” James handed her a cloth. “Rinse out that hair and go ahead and wash yourself.”
Sarah dunked beneath the water again, staying just below the surface while Billy rinsed the suds from her hair. When she sat up once more, she set to washing herself, keeping her gaze averted because she knew both men watched her every move. Billy kneeled on the opposite side of the tub now, his stare as potent and fixed as James’s as she swiped the cloth over her naked flesh.
“Slow down. Pigs alive, woman, I told you to stop takin’ away all my fun.” James grinned at her when she glanced up at him in exasperation. “Ain’t no way you’re gettin’ good and clean rakin’ that cloth over that pretty skin like that. You’re missin’ spots everywhere. Want me to show you?”
“No,” Sarah answered quickly when what she really wanted to say was, yes, yes, yes! “I’ll get them.”
“Your breasts are beautiful,” Billy breathed. “Lift them for me. Feel the weight of them in your palms.”
Does this happen to all men? she wondered as she gripped the cloth harder, sliding it up under one breast, lifting it as he said to do. It felt heavy and full with a need she didn’t recognize. The need for a man’s hand, maybe? Did all men turn into crazed animals in the face of a naked woman? Did all women feel this intense need to be feasted on like prey and simply never wished to admit it?
Sarah hoped she wasn’t the only woman to experience such passionate desire.
Something was surely wrong with her if no other women felt such things.
“I’m gonna put my mouth on them soon, Sarah. I want to suck on those hard nipples until you scream my name.”
Dear God! Sarah gulped as her nipples throbbed. The plea for him to do exactly what he spoke of sprang to her tongue. She released her breast with a start, disbelieving how her mouth and body could betray her so easily.
James chuckled. “Watch it, little brother, you’re gonna make the woman all hot and wet between the legs again.”
Again? She hadn’t stopped feeling hot and wet since James started talking in her ear while she stood with a noose fastened around her neck!
“Not that I’m complainin’.” The grin that unfolded on his lips held so much fire it nearly set the water in the tub to boiling. “I’m gonna enjoy mighty much feelin’
how wet you get between them pretty pussy lips. I bet you’re gonna be real tight around my cock.”
Sarah’s pussy gave an involuntary convulsion at the thought of him shoving his manhood inside her virgin hole. “Both of you know it ain’t proper to speak such things to a lady,” she chastised them as she set to washing the rest of her body. She didn’t care how much of her flesh she missed. The more the better when she felt as if she might burn from the inside out from the faintest brush of flesh to flesh, even if the skin was her own.
“A man can say what he wants to when it’s his woman he’s a talkin’ to,” James reminded her. “And you’re just gettin’ upset ’cause you know you want us to do what we’re sayin’ we’re gonna.”
Sarah couldn’t argue with that. The betrayal of her body was making her good and angry. “I’m finished with my bath. I’d like to get out now.” Both men got up. Billy grabbed a towel and brought it around to the side of the tub where James stood.
James extended a hand.
Sarah started to grumble about not needing his help but thought better of it.
The moment she stood it seemed as if the weight of the day fell like a boulder on top of her head. She swayed as a sleepy weakness overwhelmed her.
James caught her, helping her out of the tub and holding her against him as Billy stepped in to dry her off. “Easy now,” he whispered. “Stop fightin’ me, darlin’.
Just lean against me while Billy gets you dry.”
For once, she listened. She figured she could hate herself for it later, but right about now, she couldn’t find the energy to do anything more than let herself be coddled.
“Now it ain’t so bad, is it?” James’s soft words moved the fine hairs on her earlobe as he leaned down to whisper.
“Slip this on,” Billy told her even as he pushed a garment over her head. “It’ll likely be big on you. It belonged to Ma. But it’ll keep you covered while you sleep.”
“I can’t sleep,” Sarah tried to say, but the words got lost in a huge yawn. “Still daylight out there. Too early.”
“It’s late enough for you, darlin’.” James lifted her into his strong, corded arms, and she couldn’t stop herself from nestling her cheek on his chest.
His warmth comforted her, his strength steadied her, and the way he gently laid her down on the bed moments later made her feel safer than she remembered feeling since her pa used to tuck her in at night.
“Sleep, Sweet Sarah,” she heard him whisper just before she drifted off.
“You’re finally home where you belong.”
Chapter Four
James spotted the wide-open door to Sarah’s house before she did. He purposely picked up his pace as they neared her land, taking the lead a bit when the hairs on the back of his neck started to rise. Instinct ruled a man of the West, kept a cowboy alive, and gut feelings didn’t go ignored.
He slowed now, giving her a moment to catch up, moving his own horse in front of her in an attempt to block her view. “Did you close up when they took you to town?”
“Of course.” Suspicion leapt fast to her face. “The sheriff was nice enough to let me do that, at least, before he carted me off to be hanged.”
“You secured it good enough? A strong wind or nothin’ couldn’t have blown the door open?”
“What are you pokin’ at, James? I know how to lock up my own house.”
“If that’s so, then someone knows how to open it up right well, too.” James pulled on his horse’s reins, turning them both back toward the house. “Stay put. I’m gonna check it out.”
“When pigs fly,” Sarah muttered and shot off as if a wild dog chomped at her horse’s heels.
James said a string of curses that likely made his ma roll in her grave as he took off after his woman. “Damn it all to hell, Sarah McLaury, when in tarnation are you gonna start listenin’ to what I tell you?” He managed to catch up with her as she came to a halt mere feet from the house. “Will you wait a damned minute? Whoever pushed the door in might still be in there.”
Sarah pulled the gun from the gun belt he’d dared to give her and dismounted in a series of graceful moves that James couldn’t help but admire. She cocked the barrel and started marching straight for the wide-open doorway. “I hope he is, ’cause he’s gonna get a bullet right between his thievin’ eyes.”
“Stubborn woman’s gonna run me to my grave,” James muttered as he hopped off his horse and darted after her. With the eyes of a skilled rancher and survivor, he noted the trampled gardens to the side of the house, the tracks leading around to the back and off toward the woods. “Are you off your rocker?” He fumed as he stomped through the door and nearly plowed right into her back. His hands shot out reflexively, grabbing her waist before he bowled her over. “Whoever did this could’ve been standin’ here with a gun trained at your head, ready to shoot you dead.”
“So it would’ve been my second brush with death in two days.” She didn’t turn, but she shrugged as if facing the maker were the least of her worries. “I heard a sayin’ not so long ago. Somethin’ about third time’s a charm. If that stands true, I’ve got another shot left. Look what the sonuvabitch did, James.” James blinked at her, surprised at first that such a foul word crossed her sultry lips. Then he shifted his gaze past her as she turned sideways and he saw the carnage.
Everything he spotted appeared to be destroyed. Tables broken in half, legs snapped off chairs, tatter
ed material covered the floor, flour and other kitchen mixes dirtied the walls and other surfaces.
“Fucking hell.” James took off his cowboy hat and raked his fingers through his hair as Sarah stepped away from him. She took careful steps through the main room, head bent as she took it all in. James stayed put. He worried he might break something more with his big feet, seeing as he couldn’t find a clean space of floor to step other than where he currently stood.
“There’s nothin’ left,” Sarah said softly, disbelief lacing her words. “Nothing, James.”
“Stay here, and I mean it this time,” he ordered her. “You move and I’ll blister your ass but good when I get back. I’m gonna check around outside and make sure whoever did this is gone.”
It didn’t take him more than a minute or two to determine the bandits hauled ass. Even the tracks he found leading into the woods dead-ended after a few trees. He figured he could’ve tracked them if he’d been alone. No way in hell would he leave Sarah inside by herself long enough to try. He didn’t fear she’d run from him this time. No, he feared more whoever tore up her place would come back and find her.
The things an angered man could do to a slight woman like his Sarah were too horrid to think.
Sighing heavily, he dusted off his hat on his pants before putting it back on his head and returned to the house. He found her not much farther into the room than where he’d left her. She must have heard him come inside because she spoke even though she kept her back to him.
“There’s a little of my things left. Not much. They did a good job.” James watched his step, taking most on his tiptoes as he closed the distance between them. He took her shoulders and let his hands fall down her arms in a gesture he hoped would comfort her. “We’ll replace it all, darlin’. Whatever you need, Billy and me’ll get it for you.”
He fully expected her to jerk away from him, to round on him and spit that she could get what she needed herself. He held no doubt she could. Nothing could’ve prepared him for the way she spun on him with tears streaking her cheeks. The sight surprised him enough that he rocked back on his heels before he managed to steady himself.
Her Dominant Saviors Page 4
