“Sarah, my God, Sweet Sarah.”
“Some things can’t be replaced.” Her voice cracked as she clutched something to her chest. Then to his utter bewilderment, she crumpled into tears.
“Well, hell,” James muttered and reached for her.
* * * *
Humiliation swamped Sarah as the tears started to fall. She couldn’t stop them, and the fact that she couldn’t really ticked her off, which only made the tears fall harder. Her chest hurt. Something inside it tore in pieces as viciously and painfully as the picture she held of her parents. Taken shortly after her birth, it was the only photo of them and all she had left to remember their faces.
“Come on, now, don’t cry.” James’s arms wound around her, and she felt his strength pulling her close.
Sarah fought him, slapping at his solid shoulders in her attempt to get away.
“Let go of me.” Her face burned beneath the tears, fueling her anger even as it deepened her shame. “I don’t want you holdin’ me. I don’t want you tryin’ to comfort me.”
“Well, that’s just too damned bad, ’cause I’m gonna do it.” His arms tightened like vises around her until she could no longer squirm or slap, could barely even breathe.
“I just want to be alone.” She turned her head, refusing to look at him, hating that he could see her fall apart this way.
He buried his face in the top of her head, the warmth of his breath raining through her like fiery embers of tender compassion. “You’re never gonna be alone again.”
Sarah scoffed and nudged his shoulder with her nose. “That’s supposed to make me feel better?”
James pulled back, caught her chin in his hand, and tugged her face up to look at him. He held her there even when she attempted to jerk away, to look away.
“Damn right, it’s supposed to make you feel better, and so is this.” Sarah gasped when his mouth came down on hers. Her lips parted in stunned stupidity and his tongue took it for an immediate invitation. His tongue swept into her mouth, sliding over hers in a kiss of hunger and domination. She didn’t think to fight him, couldn’t with all the sensations that exploded in her body at the taste of him.
Dark and possessive and so totally male, he sent her galloping to the edge of insanity as his lips and tongue did delightful things to her mouth that made her pussy weep.
He brought the kiss to an end slowly, nipping her bottom lip with his teeth before resting his forehead to hers. “Better?” he asked gruffly, staring down at her, a small smile playing with the corner of his mouth.
No, most certainly not better! That kiss made her go all wonky inside. It made her feel things not fitting for the woman she prided herself to be. Still, as she met his gaze and saw herself running through the meadow green of his eyes, she knew she couldn’t hurt him by telling him such things. He got her mind and body so muddled she didn’t know how to respond to him or how to react in his presence anymore.
Sarah splayed her hands on his broad shoulders and pushed. To her shock, he let her go without a fight. She heard him sigh as she turned away from him and knew she hurt him anyway despite her attempt not to. She forced that knowledge to the back of her mind, unable to ponder how she could truly injure such a tough, confident man like James Cassidy.
“Will you help me see to tidyin’ this up?” she asked him quietly. “I don’t want to leave it this way, and I’d like to see what all I can salvage.”
“Yeah, I’ll help you.”
“What’ll happen to it? After we leave, I mean?”
“I was thinkin’ on that on the ride out here. I figured I’d talk to the Wilsons next trip into town. They got hitched just last month, and I heard tell they’re looking for a place of their own. Figured this would make a nice start for them, don’t you?”
“I’d have thought so before someone tore it all to pieces, anyhow,” Sarah muttered.
“I don’t suppose you got an inkling who might’ve done this.”
“I don’t suppose I do. Plenty of people don’t care for the way I live. Young woman out here all alone on her family’s land, no man to see after her and all that, think I need to learn a lesson. They think I should settle down. Gotta say, though, I never thought any of them cared about teachin’ me a lesson this much.”
* * * *
Someone cared all right, and James aimed to find out who. He and Sarah exchanged few words while they tidied the tiny two-room house and gathered the few salvageable belongings. When they put the place to rights as much as they could manage, James repaired the lock the best he could.
The return ride to the Cassidy ranch delivered more silence between them.
James thought to goad Sarah into an argument a time or two, if for no other reason than to take her mind off what happened. He wouldn’t mind seeing her pretty face all pink and hot with temper, either. His dick sure got harder than a stone when she started spitting her attitude at him. He couldn’t let her get away with it a lot, seeing as how she might come to think she could talk to him any way she pleased. Blistering her sexy ass could be worth taking a tongue lashing from her now and then, though.
He opened his mouth to instigate just that a time or two but decided better of it when he glanced at her. She rode her horse like a man, her long stems straddling the horse’s back, hands fisted easy and sure on the reins. The expression on her face told him her focus was anywhere but on the back of that horse. He knew her well enough to bet she was racking her brain trying to figure out who would’ve torn up her place that way. And God help the man that did it when she got wind of his name.
James didn’t doubt for a second that she’d go after the son of a bitch. He’d demand she leave it to him to take care of but didn’t harbor a prayer in hell of her listening. She’d give him a reason to turn her over his knee but good then, if she didn’t get herself dead first.
A chill ran through his blood. He didn’t fear much, but imagining Sarah McLaury lying still in a pine box proved enough to turn his bones to ice. Riding up to find her standing on top of the hanging platform with a noose fastened around her neck had been bad enough a sight for any man to take. What was it she’d said back at the house? Something about a third time?
“Ain’t gonna be no third time,” James muttered as the Cassidy ranch came into view. He’d die before he’d see his woman take a brush with death like that again.
James slowed his horse until he and Sarah rode side by side. “I’ve gotta catch up with Billy, fill him in on what’s happened. You can go to the eatery and help Mary-Beth with grub, or you can stay at the house.”
Sarah slanted him a look filled with defiance and tinged with pain. She’d never admit it, but there were still tears to be shed. As much as James wanted to comfort her, he couldn’t stand to be around when the waterworks started again.
Watching her cry her heart out once nearly did him in for life.
“Not gonna give me the option of comin’ with you?”
“No.” James left it at that, seeing no need for explanation.
“Fine. I’m getting pretty tired of your company right about now anyways. I’ll stay at the house, but don’t expect to find me all prettied up and makin’ pies in the kitchen when you get back.”
James let his lips quirk in a half smile. “Now darlin’, why you want to go and be so mean to a fella? A good apple pie baked by a beautiful woman would be just the thing to put an end to a hell of a day.”
“Yeah, so would an iron skillet upside the head.” Sarah’s grumble only made his smile widen.
“There’s my Sweet Sarah.” James steadied his ride with one hand, reaching far over with the other to pat her thigh. “I thought I’d lost you back there.”
“I told you to quit callin’ me that.” Sarah steered her horse to the side, putting a wider gap between them. “I ain’t sweet, and I figured you’d have realized that by now.”
“All depends on a man’s definition of sweet. I’ve never been much for
the sugary gals, myself. I like my women feisty.”
Sarah shot him a look, opened her sultry mouth, and then shut it again. She shook her head, sending her long braid swinging across her back, and stared straight ahead.
James never knew the woman to be speechless. Damn if he didn’t find it amusing. “I’ll send Buck over to stand watch outside the house till Billy and I get home.”
“You’ll do no such thing!” Sarah pulled the reins, bringing her horse to a more abrupt stop than she should have. Apparently the horse grew accustomed to such sudden decisions by her owner, because the only protest the animal gave was a short whinny before she stilled.
James brought his own horse to a gentler stop a foot from Sarah.
Sarah sidestepped her horse until she faced him. If eyes could shoot arrows, James reckoned he’d be full of holes right about now. “I don’t need a sitter, James. I can take care of myself.”
James held his temper and his grin, knowing both would only infuriate her more. “I don’t doubt you’d give it a helluva try.”
“I’ve done well enough for myself most of my life,” she fired at him.
“I’d be inclined to agree you did all right.”
“All right! All right!” Sarah sputtered, seething. “Ugh, why do men have to be so pigheaded that they can’t admit when a woman can see after her own life?”
“Pigs ain’t got nothin’ to do with findin’ yourself at the end of a hangin’
rope,” James reminded her.
Sarah’s eyes narrowed so much even the arrows she’d been shooting couldn’t make it through the slits. “That was a low blow, James Cassidy, and you know it.” Yeah, he knew it. “Doesn’t change the fact, though, now does it?” Sarah steered her horse back around and started riding for the house.
James gave her a good head start, knowing he’d find no trouble catching her if she decided to detour and make a run for it. His admiration grew right along with his cock as he watched her stop at the house, dismounting and tethering her horse with movements that spewed anger and pure sex appeal. She fumed so hot he wondered he didn’t see steam coming out of her ears. It made him want to yank down her britches, throw her onto the ground, and bury his cock in her tight channel all the more.
“Sarah.” He didn’t yell at her. He reckoned he’d get through her anger faster if he stayed calm.
She stopped in midstride on her way to the front steps. She didn’t turn to face him, leaving him no choice but to study her backside. What a view she gave him. Her squared shoulders heaved with each angered breath. Strands of her auburn hair had wiggled free of her long braid to flirt with her spine. The tip of her braid pointed like an exclamation point to the crack of her tantalizing ass. She wore brown pants that formed to her cheeks and made his hands itch to squeeze and smack.
“I don’t doubt you can take on a man. You might even hold your own against two, but what I saw at your place this mornin’ led me to believe there might’ve been three or, hell, even more there last night.” He’d been thinking on it a lot since they started to ride. He went over everything he saw, everything he knew about tracks and signs. There’d been too many different prints, too much mess made out of her house and land for him to believe one man did it all by himself.
Sarah slowly turned to face him. She didn’t say anything, but he judged by her expression she was taking in all he said and thinking he might be right.
“Three men could’ve held you down and broke you as good as they did the things in that place of yours.” And he would’ve hunted them down like the animals they were and given them a good torturing before he shot them dead. James didn’t tell her that, but he figured he didn’t need to. She’d know he’d look for justice. He’d do it anyway, just for what they already did to his woman.
“I’m gonna send Buck to watch after you until Billy and I get back,” he told her again, making his tone hard and steady.
She nodded, the smallest, almost imperceptible movement of her head. “I’ll rustle up some grub for when you and Billy get home.” James figured he might’ve fallen off his horse if he hadn’t been holding tightly to the reins. Inwardly, he praised himself for staying astride and keeping his astonishment in check. “There’s a nice apple tree out back. Have Buck go with you to pick a few. A pie would settle mighty nice for dessert.” Sarah gave a short laugh followed by a sigh. “Blasted man, why not? I’ve gotta find somethin’ to do, seein’ as it looks like you plan to keep me holed up inside.
Make yourself useful while you’re out and gather up some berries from the back field. You still got blackberries growing back there, don’t you?” James nodded. He urged his horse to walk slowly toward her and then leaned over and down to cup her nape in his hand. “I’ll bring back some berries,” he told her, his lips a breath from hers, “but I mean to save my usefulness for the bedroom tonight.” He kissed her, hard and hungry, letting her know with his tongue that he meant business.
When he let her go, she stumbled back a step, her cheeks flushed, her lips swollen from his kiss. He left her standing that way, seeing Buck’s hefty form at the edge of the tree line headed in his direction.
Chapter Five
Sarah refused to think on how she had swore she’d never find herself holed up in a kitchen for a man, let alone two of them. She didn’t mind caring for a man, men—would she ever get used to thinking in plural?—but she’d rather be out there with them, working the land and tending the cattle.
“Should’ve been born a man,” she muttered as she set to stirring a large bowl of dough she had mixed for the fresh loaf of bread she intended to bake. It sure would’ve made her life easier. She simply didn’t set well to being a woman. The dresses and bows, polite and proper ways, and reserved and subservient behavior just didn’t suit her.
It apparently didn’t suit the Cassidy brothers, either, she decided, as James’s parting words echoed through her mind for the umpteenth time. He aimed to take her virginity tonight. Her belly went all goofy every time she focused on exactly what that meant. Part of her wanted to feel his cock inside her. Her pussy throbbed, forcing her to squeeze her thighs tightly together in an attempt to calm the need. That same need within her made her quiver in trepidation. She’d noted how effectively James’s cock filled his britches. She’d felt how stiff Billy’s could get when she rode front saddle on his horse yesterday.
James wouldn’t take her alone. The Cassidy brothers gained the reputation in town of being randy men with insatiable sexual appetites who liked to share the whores at the brothel. Sarah might not be a whore, but she didn’t expect any different treatment. Hadn’t they already shared the responsibility of her since bringing her home?
“Responsibility,” Sarah spat. She didn’t want to be any man’s thing that he felt needed looking after. She wanted to be his heart, his companion. She wanted to earn his respect, not be owned like a head of cattle. She wanted to spend time with her husband on the ranch as well as taking care of his house and children.
The thought stopped her cold. Children? She dropped the spoon into the bowl and covered her flat belly with her palm. She wanted children, lots of them, but that would mean marrying James.
“What about Billy?” she whispered. She couldn’t very well marry both Cassidy brothers. Would they make her choose?
“Stupid girl,” she scoffed and returned to kneading the mixture. They’d choose for her. They’d probably already decided. Yet that didn’t make sense, either, given how they obviously planned to share her body.
Whips of white-hot desire slashed at her insides as she thought of the myriad of ways the Cassidy brothers could claim and share her. Could she live that way, hostage to two men who showed her the pleasures of the flesh?
“Not without givin’ me a name first.” She kneaded harder, faster as her determination grew. If they thought to take her virginity, to leave her a tainted woman without proper claim, she would teach the Cassidy brothers a lesson or two.
&
nbsp; She wouldn’t have them ruining her more in the eyes of the town. Not that she ever cared much what people thought of her. Still, her virtue was about all she had left these days.
“And by golly, I’m gonna keep it.” Sarah found herself whistling as she finished the dough and set to slicing apples for the pie, secure that she’d saved her virtue, if only for one more night.
* * * *
“The damn woman is a puzzle,” James muttered, raking a hand through his tousled hair. “One minute she’s spittin’ mad and the next she whistlin’ happier than a pig in slop.”
Billy grinned, pulling back from the peephole where he watched Sarah move about the kitchen. “Sure is a picture to watch, though.”
“Yeah, well, don’t know how much more watchin’ her I can take.” James turned and hooked his thumbs in his gun belt. “My dick is about to burst clean out of my britches.”
“Tell me about it.” Billy barely slept a wink last night remembering how her lithe body felt pressed so firmly against his stiff cock during the ride yesterday. The night was made longer still by the memory of her naked body in the tub. His mouth watered even now to taste her plump breasts. His tongue tingled to flick over her pebbled nipples until she writhed in his arms, begging him to fuck her.
“Not sure how much longer I can wait to get my hands on her, James,” he admitted. They had waited so long already. He burned to feel her, to fill her.
“Getting your hands on her ain’t gonna stop the ache none. Trust me.” Neither would punching his brother’s lights out, Billy knew, despite the overwhelming desire to do so since James told him about the way he’d comforted Sarah when she’d crumbled in his arms. Christ almighty, the envy that swamped Billy at that made him want to get into a down-and-dirty fist brawl with his brother, something they hadn’t done in many a year.
Her Dominant Saviors Page 5
