Desire Oklahoma The Founding Fathers Trilogy

by Leah Brooke

  “Shh, honey. That’s a girl.” Jeremiah’s words came out as a warm breath against her cheek.

  Despite having Eb’s arm between them, he gathered her close and started to rub her back.

  Eb yanked his arm from between them and withdrew from her pussy, running his hands over her hips before standing.

  “I’ve got some things to check on.”

  Hurt at his brusque tone and the fact that he would leave her so soon after taking her so completely, Maggie turned her face away from him and tried to sit up, but Jeremiah held her close.

  Determined not to cry, she stared at the stone fireplace, the vision in her mind of sitting in front of it with a naked Eb and Jeremiah blurring until only she and Jeremiah sat there.

  “I understand. This ranch is the most important thing to you. Desire’s a good name for your town, since it seems to be the only thing you really care about.”

  Jeremiah stilled for several seconds before his hand started to move up and down her back again. “That’s not true, Maggie. This place was built because of our desire for you.”

  Forcing a smile, Maggie sat up, not looking in Eb’s direction. “That’s a nice thing to say.”

  Standing, she righted her clothing, still avoiding the stare she could feel coming from Eb. “If you’ll excuse me, I have some things to take care of, and I’d like to look around my new home.”

  She smiled once more at Jeremiah, who glared at his brother. “Thank you so much for my new home.”

  Without looking in Eb’s direction, she headed for the stairs, her steps faltering when she heard the sound of glass breaking. Determined not to show any emotion, she continued up to the second floor and into the only room with furniture.

  Closing and locking the door behind her, she heard words flung in anger from below but couldn’t make out what was said.

  She turned away and went to sit in a chair by the window, gathering her shirt around her as she looked out at what appeared to be the only thing in the world Eb would ever love.

  Chapter Eight

  Hearing the back door slam, Maggie looked down to see both Eb and Jeremiah crossing the yard, their stiffer than normal movements making their anger apparent.

  She forced back the hurt, knowing she could do nothing about it anyway. She loved both of them so much she wouldn’t, couldn’t ever walk away from them and just hoped that over time, Eb would allow her to get close the way Jeremiah seemed to want to.

  Deciding to go on as though nothing had happened, Maggie spent the next hour wandering through the rooms, hardly able to believe that she would now be mistress of such a fine house. She’d helped Esmeralda with her chores often enough that she was confident in her ability to make it a home.

  A home even Eb would have to appreciate.

  Gradually, she made her way to the kitchen, her heart leaping when she glanced casually out the window.

  Eb approached, his long strides eating up the ground as he crossed the yard toward the back door, the look on his face telling her he was in no better mood than he’d been in when he left.

  Determined not to let him see how much he’d hurt her, Maggie looked up with a smile as he stormed through the door. “Did you get everything put away?”

  He strode across the room like a warrior on a mission. “Yeah. Everyone wants to meet you, and Duke has supper ready in the chow shack. Come on, and don’t even think about making any comments about the ‘rugged- looking’ ranch hands, or I’ll paddle your ass.”

  Maggie’s welcoming smile fell, while inside a kernel of hope took root.

  Eb nodded at her startled look, gripping her arm and leading her to the door he’d just come through. “Yeah, I heard about that from Jeremiah. Did you think he wouldn’t tell me? You’ve got a lot to learn about having two husbands.”

  You’ve got a lot to learn about having a wife.

  Delighted with his show of jealousy, she smiled again, not giving him the satisfaction of trying to pull away.

  Besides, she liked it when he held her.

  Smiling in the direction of the ranch hands who also headed toward the outbuilding, eyeing her curiously, she shrugged. “I didn’t say anything wrong. It was just an observation. The men who met us at the train station looked capable of handling anything. You don’t see men like that too often in Kansas City.”

  Eb slid a hand over her bottom, patting it threateningly, the warmth of his hand sending a wave of longing through her. “Don’t observe anymore. I don’t want you causing trouble with my men.”

  Insulted that he would think such a thing, Maggie spun and pulled out of his grasp, knocking his hand away when he reached for her. “I’m not about to cause any trouble with your men.” Hurt that he had so little trust in her, she started toward the long, wooden outbuilding, unsurprised when he caught up with her and grabbed her arm again.

  “Listen, you little brat! I’m not going to have you swishing your skirts at any other men just because you want to lead me around by the nose. You behave yourself, or by God, you’ll regret it.”

  Maggie looked down to where his hand circled her arm before lifting her gaze to his again, carefully keeping her face blank. “You know, you really have changed. I remember when all the girls in town would fall all over themselves to be with you. Too bad you’re not as charming as Jeremiah.”

  Eb’s jaw clenched. “Thank God.”

  Shaking her head, she stared straight ahead. “I don’t know what those women ever saw in you if you were as mean to them as you are to me. Even the woman in Tulsa asked about you.”

  “Did she, now? They liked the same things you do. My cock and how good I can make you feel. My ability to provide for you. None of the rest really matters, does it?”

  Before she could answer, he led her inside the crowded building, leading her to where the biggest, meanest looking men she’d ever seen in her life stood cooking and handing out food behind several scarred wooden tables.

  Duke had a long scar, which ran from below his left eye to his prominent chin, making him look even more menacing.

  He looked up, grunted what she assumed was a greeting, and immediately fixed her a plate. He handed it to her, his scowl never faltering.

  “Ma’am. You come by tomorrow and we’ll get you set up with supplies.”

  He spoke softly, but she doubted a man that size ever had to raise his voice. He turned away and picked up a large, sinister-looking knife, wielding it with expert precision on the huge slab of meat he’d obviously been cutting.

  Enthralled, she couldn’t take her eyes from him as he sliced through the meat as easily as if he sliced melted butter, his bulging muscles shifting with every swipe of the knife. Transfixed, she jumped when Jeremiah came up behind her and bent to whisper in her ear.

  “You should feel honored. As long as I’ve known him, Duke’s never fixed a plate for anybody.”

  Phoenix came up on her other side. “Whatever you do, don’t ever say anything bad about his food.”

  Amused and no longer afraid of the fierce-looking Indian, Maggie grinned and glanced up at him over her shoulder.

  “Did you ever criticize his food?”

  Phoenix grimaced and reached for his own plate. “Once. He nearly scalped me with that knife of his. Duke’s deadly with that knife.”

  Taking in the long, dark braid that fell down his back, Maggie laughed softly, her laughter dying when two other fierce-looking Indians stepped up beside Phoenix. Their impossibly black eyes narrowed, their expressions forbidding and cold.

  Both had the same dark skin and the same ink-black hair as Phoenix, and their lean, muscular builds emanated power. Unlike Phoenix, both Indians wore buckskins, and their feet were covered with moccasins instead of the boots the other men wore.

  The most menacing looking of the two had shoulder-length hair, and when he spoke, his words came out gravelly and so low she had to struggle to hear him. “If you’re gonna talk—move. Some of us worked all day and are hungry.”

  Al
armed, Maggie took a step back, pressing against Jeremiah and probably would have dropped her plate if Eb hadn’t reached out and caught it in time.

  To her surprise, Phoenix grinned, the transformation of his harsh features remarkable. Her eyes darted back and forth between him and the other Indian, blinking when Phoenix’s nearly black eyes twinkled and met the other man’s glare unflinchingly.

  “One of us had to go, and neither one of you ever want to go to the city.”

  The Indian with the long, flowing hair who’d walked up with the other shot her a glance and grunted, using a broad shoulder to knock Phoenix aside so he could start piling food on his plate. “Is anyone going to introduce us to the lady?”

  Maggie automatically looked up at Eb to find him watching her, a faint smile playing at his lips. “Maggie, this man doing his best to intimidate his little brother is Hawke Royal. The one behind him piling enough grub for three men on his plate is his other brother, Blade. Hawke, Blade, this is Maggie Tyler, our wife.”

  Hawke spared one last glare for Phoenix and turned to her. His expression softened somewhat, but he still looked like a man no one in his right mind would want to go up against. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Tyler.”

  Maggie smiled, for the first time realizing that only the harshness of his features prevented him from being truly handsome. Because of her nervousness, she said the first thought that popped into her mind. “Your name is Royal?”

  Blade paused in the act of filling his plate and looked around his brother at her, flashing a cool smile. “Strange name for an Indian, isn’t it? Nice to finally meet you, Mrs. Tyler.”

  Maggie’s face burned. “No. I mean…I’m just surprised—” She stopped abruptly when she found herself talking to his back.

  Phoenix took pity on her and smiled, shaking his head. “My brothers are a little sensitive. Our mother and father were never married. Royal was our mother’s name.”

  “Oh.” Afraid of offending anyone further, Maggie nodded, thankful for the supportive hand Jeremiah placed on her shoulder.

  Hawke set down his plate on the scarred wood surface and turned to scowl at Phoenix. “Sensitive? About being a bastard or about being a half-breed?”

  Phoenix shook his head. “Our father’s tribe never would have accepted us, anyway.”

  “Neither do the whites.”

  Maggie watched out of the corner of her eye as Blade turned back and helped himself to the big piece of meat Hawke had plunked down on his plate.

  Turning his head, he caught her watching and winked at her before turning away and heading toward one of the long tables.

  Relieved that he’d apparently forgiven her, she giggled before she could help herself. Slapping a hand over her mouth to prevent another one, she hurriedly looked away, her eyes caught by Hawke’s.

  Hawke’s icy eyes held hers for several long seconds, as though he thought she’d laughed at him, before he followed her brief glance behind him and sighed in resignation. “He took my food, didn’t he?”

  Her laugh burst free, a combination of amusement and relief. “I’m afraid so. Is that something that happens often?”

  “Often enough.” He stared down at his plate, shaking his head before looking over to give Blade’s back a menacing look.

  Jeremiah nudged Maggie. “Let’s get out of the line of fire.”

  Feeling more at ease, Maggie followed Jeremiah to a table, where he placed both of their plates, and glanced over her shoulder to watch Hawke approach Blade. “They won’t fight, will they?”

  Jeremiah shook his head. “I’d be surprised. There are only a few of our men who seem to like fighting.” He shifted his gaze and inclined his head.

  She followed his gaze toward another table where several men watched Hawke, the mixture of nervousness and anticipation on their faces making her uneasy.

  Eb took a seat on her other side. “We’ve got enough to fight the weather, outlaws, and cattle rustlers. We don’t have the time or the energy to fight each other.” He looked at her meaningfully. “Unless we have to. Don’t worry about those men over there. They’re just looking for trouble. They’ll have to lose that habit or find themselves another job. The other men can handle them, but with you here, I’m going to have to watch them.”

  Nodding uneasily, Maggie started eating, looking up at Jeremiah’s low growl.

  He stared toward the other table again. “They’re going to find more trouble than they bargained for if they don’t stop staring at Maggie.”

  Not wanting to be the cause of any violence, Maggie touched Jeremiah’s arm and leaned into him, hoping to distract him.

  “Jeremiah, I wandered around the house before Eb came to get me. It’s beautiful. I can’t believe you built one just like the big house. That must have been a lot of work.”

  Setting his fork aside, he wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her close. “It was worth it to see that look on your face. We wanted you to feel at home.” Running a finger down her cheek, he bent close.

  “I want to fill it with all the babies you’re going to give us.”

  Her face burning, Maggie tried to look away, but he captured her chin.

  His eyes twinkled the way they used to when he’d teased her in the past. “I always want you, but when you blush, my cock gets hard enough to pound nails. It makes me want to make you blush all the time.”

  Bending closer, he bit her earlobe. “Those sounds you make when we’re taking you drive me crazy. I can’t wait to hear the sounds you make when I take your ass.”

  Shivering, she looked around to make sure no one else had heard him. “I can’t believe the way you and Eb talk. Do you talk that way because it’s only…you know, physical for you?” Shrugging, she felt her face burn even hotter. “I’ve never heard a man talk to his wife that way before.”

  Sighing, Jeremiah laced her fingers with his. “We’re blunt, Maggie. Just because I use coarse words, doesn’t mean I think less of you. I’ve always had a soft spot for you, Maggie. When you looked up to me with so much trust in your eyes…” He blew out a breath. “I always cared about you but now…eat your supper.”

  Looking down at her plate, Maggie moved her hand in his work-roughened one. “I wish you’d never left. It changed everything.”

  Sighing again, Jeremiah released her hand and started eating again. “We had to, Maggie. We both wanted to marry you and could never have lived that way in Kansas City. I thought you understood that.”

  “Understanding it doesn’t make the hurt go away. If you really cared about me the way a man should care about the woman he wants to marry, you never would have been able to leave.”

  Jeremiah chuckled. “You were only a kid when we left, honey. How could we think of you as a woman? Now eat your dinner so we can get back to the house. We’ve got water heating for baths for all of us, and then we can go to bed.”

  With a sinking heart, Maggie set her fork aside. “I want us to be the way we were before.”

  Eb must have heard her because he leaned close from the other side.

  “Get that out of your head right now. We’ll never be the way we were before. You were a little girl, and we were friends. I’m not your friend anymore, Maggie, no more than you’re mine. You’re my wife, and that’s an entirely different thing.”

  She’d noticed his arrogance seemed to have grown now that he’d come home to his ranch, the set of his jaw just a little tighter, his stride just a little more self-assured.

  His tone even harsher than before.

  Leaning toward Eb, she kept her voice low enough so that Jeremiah couldn’t hear her.

  “Then why did you give away my virginity so easily to Jeremiah instead of taking it yourself?”

  Eb looked surprised by her question, but quickly recovered. “I have my reasons.” Leaning closer, he ran a finger down her arm, his eyes coldly possessive.

  “Besides, when the time comes, I’m the one who’ll be taking your ass.”

  Aware that
the others looked on, she smiled adoringly, but kept her tone cool. “You used to treat me like a person. You used to talk to me.”

  She deliberately turned away, ignoring the bit off curse from Eb, and listened attentively to Jeremiah’s conversation as though hanging on to his every word.

  Next to her, Eb banged his cup down so hard she jumped, and it took tremendous willpower not to turn back around.

  Because she’d grown up on their father’s ranch, she had enough knowledge to participate in Jeremiah’s conversation with another man, delighted to be included, while Eb remained notably silent.

  Without warning, Eb grabbed her arm and stood, nearly yanking her from her seat. “You’re finished eating. Come with me.”

  Maggie shook her head in warning when Jeremiah spun, a shocked look on his face and several of the other men’s as Eb practically dragged her from the outbuilding.

  Digging her heels in, she tried unsuccessfully to tug her arm from his grip. “Stop dragging me. Where are we going?”

  Eb slowed his steps some but didn’t release her arm.

  “I wanted to show you how the supplies are sorted so you can find what you need.”

  She looked up at him in surprise. It didn’t make any sense, especially when he’d already told her that Duke would take care of getting her whatever she needed tomorrow.

  His features appeared to be carved in stone, not the look of a man who wanted nothing more than to show his wife around a supply building.

  Her heart beat faster, though, as they walked across the yard. No matter how much he’d changed, she couldn’t quite get used to the fact that after all these years, her childhood hero was back in her life.

  As her husband.

  Would she ever get used to it? Would it ever really feel like she was married to him instead of being just a guest here, one that he felt obligated to take care of?

  Determined to do everything she could to make him see her as his wife, to get his attention as a woman, she tried to pull away. She’d made it too easy for them so far and thought it was time they had a little bit of a challenge.