Jamie's Revenge

by Jenny Penn

  “That’s because you ain’t going to die givin’ birth to your children.”

  Brodie’s sigh stirred the very hairs framing her heart-shaped face. Caelen had told him and Linc just what craziness had entered Jamie’s head to make her scream like that earlier. Despite the fact that Caelen had already told it to her once, Jamie appeared to need to hear it again.

  “Bridgette ain’t dead, Jamie. She’s just tired.”

  “It was too near a thing.”

  “It wasn’t anywhere close,” Brodie snapped back, releasing her with in his annoyance. “Jesus above, Jamie, you’d think I let your sister come anywhere close to death?”

  Not the least bit contrite in the face of indignation, Jamie came back at him just as quickly. “I think you could have let her die given you ain’t never birth no babies before.”

  “Hey, I’ve been there for almost every birth we had on this ranch for the last fifteen years. I know about birthing babies.”

  “Bridgette isn’t a heifer, Brodie, and neither am I.”

  “It ain’t like it’s that much different. The baby still comes out the same hole with all the same crap. You still got to keep things clean, help the mama push down, stick your hand up there and make sure the babe’s coming out right, cut—”

  “You stuck your hand up my sister’s… up Bridgette’s…up there.” From horrified fear to outraged anger, the accusation had her stumbling back as she fumbled for the words.

  “It ain’t like that.”

  “And Linc let you do that to her?”

  “Oh, for Christ’s sake, Jamie.” Brodie felt like shouting but bit back on the urge and diligently tried for reasonable. “Look, Jamie, when you push out my kids, there might be a point when one of my brothers, Linc himself, has to put his hand up your—”

  “Don’t you even say it,” Jamie snarled.

  “Cunt and I think after the way you shoved that pussy in my face last night for me to feast on, you can say the damn word. Cunt.”

  Brodie caught her wrist half way to his face and brought the slap she’d intended to deliver to a sudden stop. Snarling out growls, he tried to vent his frustration physically out of his body as he reminded himself that Jamie was tired and overwrought with the excitement of the day. It didn’t really help to temper the urge to put her back over his knee and give her the punishment she deserved right before he delivered the fucking she obviously needed.

  “Look, Jamie. I know you’re having a hard night, but in the morning, when you talk to Bridgette, you’ll see. She’ll explain it to you.”

  Jerking her wrist back, Jamie stood her ground. “I don’t care what Bridgette has to say. I ain’t doing that.”

  “Jamie…”

  “Even if that means no sex, then so be it.” She made that declaration as if she honestly didn’t see anything wrong with it. Well, Brodie did. He saw a whole bunch wrong with it.

  “Be reasonable, Jamie. You have needs. I have needs. We’re—”

  “You can take your needs into town to have your precious Rebecca service them,” Jamie cut across sharply. “You ain’t never needed me for that before, and you don’t need me for it now.”

  “You listen here, and you listen good, Jamie Traynor.” Brodie advanced on her, done with being reasonable. It was a wasted effort on Jamie. “Rebecca is a good woman and great fuck, but that’s all she’s ever been to me. All she did was borrow my dick, Jamie, through the years you weren’t woman enough for me to claim what was yours.”

  “How very noble of you.” He might have backed her right up against the wall, but he hadn’t intimidated her in the least. “But I don’t want—”

  “If you say you, I’m going to lie out on that bed and prove just how big a liar you are.”

  That had her lips snapping closed, even if her eyes narrowed on him. When she finally responded, her words came out just as tight as her gaze. “I know about men, Brodie.”

  That threw him for the moment. “What does that mean?”

  “It means I don’t buy any of your flowery compliments about owning your dick. Dick isn’t owned. It isn’t loyal. It doesn’t really care who the hell is sucking it. It just wants to get sucked.”

  Brodie’s mouth opened only to close as he tried to figure out just how to respond to that one. Linc had told him the only fragments he’d gotten. It had been little enough, but there had been no mistaking the insinuation that Jamie had run some kind of parlor house.

  He certainly had a lot of questions about that, but he didn’t feel like standing there having the argument.

  “You can’t argue with that one because it’s the truth.”

  “You know what?” Brodie had had enough of this. Caelen wasn’t there and so she had to deal with him. “You’re right. Dick ain’t loyal. Not even mine. Can I stand here and tell you there won’t be a day when another woman makes mine hard? No. Can I even stand here and tell you that there isn’t a woman I’ve known that hasn’t made it hard at some point or another, including your sister? No.”

  That had her gaze snapping away from his in a flash a pain, making him have to lift it back up with a palm to her chin. “That don’t count for much, Jamie, because that’s just the way men are made. What counts is that just the thought of you makes me hard. Just the sight of you about weakens my knees with need, and last night…”

  Brodie leaned in to nuzzle the soft curls tucked in behind her ear, “last night you enslaved me, sugar. You make me ache like no other woman, Jamie, and it doesn’t matter if for a minute here or a minute there some other perks up my cock because I would as soon as cut it off before I let it cause you any harm.”

  “Well then sharpen your knife, Brodie. It’s hurt for the last five year knowing you’d rather screw that widow whore than waste a moment thinking about me.”

  “You ran off.”

  “You told me to go.”

  “And when did you ever listen to me?” Brodie asked with full indignation. “You know, maybe if you had listened to me we wouldn’t have ended up in this damn predicament in the first place. You ever think about that? Maybe if you’d let yourself finish growing before you took off all your clothes, I wouldn’t have been honor bound to say no.”

  That had Jamie’s mouth unhinging as she came off the wall. “You’re blaming everything on me.”

  “Are you mad at me for actually being a gentleman and doing the honorable thing?” Brodie shot back.

  “Honorable thing? You threatened my father with wrecking my virtue if he didn’t ship me off east.”

  He really couldn’t argue that one, not that he thought it counted for much. “I was pissed at the time. Besides, he didn’t send you east because I told him to. He sent you away because you wanted to go.”

  “Because you were supposed to follow me, you big dumb ass!”

  “Ah!” Brodie turned with a snarl. The need to pound something into little pieces had him shuddering to hold back the violent urge. Forcing his hands to uncurl from the tight fists they’d clenched into, he tried for even breaths and a reasonable response as he turned around.

  “And why would I have done that?”

  Oh, she tempted him with that eye roll. His hand about itched to give her another spanking.

  “Because you love me. Because you couldn’t live your life without me. Because you were supposed to be so sad after I left that you realized what a colossal mistake you made, but instead you just headed in to town to screw off with your little widow.”

  Her lower lip slipped into a full pout while her top one pressed down hard with her refusal to get in. “Do you know how much that hurt? Knowing you’d rather roll around with some other woman.”

  She neutered him with that last bit, and he couldn’t even say he didn’t understand. For the last five years, he’d ignored the fact that Jamie had married somebody else, but these last few days…seeing her and knowing…it had been a bur in his heart. At least it hadn’t been real. He couldn’t really tell her the same.

  Moving i
n close to cup her cheeks, Brodie gave her all that he could to try and make it better. “I didn’t mean to hurt you, girl. I was trying to do right…You got to see it from my side. I know it might hurt your vanity, but all those years, I didn’t ever think of you as a girl.”

  “You used to call me kiddo,” Jamie muttered, echoing the resentment she’d shown for that nickname even as a kid.

  “Because that’s what you were to me, a kid, one of many we had running around between your kin and mine. It wasn’t like I didn’t care about you…I just…hell, if somebody had hurt you I would have defended you like a sister because that’s the way I looked at you.

  “You can imagine then just how unnerving it was to turn around one day and have this sexy vixen tempting you with all her nakedness, and I’m thinking….that’s my sister.” Even saying it made him shiver with disgust.

  “But I ain’t your sister,” Jamie shot back, clearly annoyed at the very insinuation.

  “Oh, darlin’, I know that, but it was a shock in that moment, and I responded…like a good brother would. I thought of you first. Hell, if I hadn’t cared about you, darlin’, I’d have thrown you down on the ground and ravished you like any easy cunt that comes along. I couldn’t do that to you, Jamie, and you should have known that would never happen.”

  Maybe he’d actually made a dent in that thick skull of hers because she retreated slightly even as she grumbled out another complaint. “Well, you could have come after me.”

  “And why would I do that? You kept sending letters home about how great your life was and how much you were enjoying everything and then how you’d fallen in love with some ass. What was I going to do? Drag you back here to be miserable? That ain’t love, darlin’.”

  Jamie didn’t have an answer for that, but that didn’t mean the sulk eased from her body. Brodie could still feel all the anger and hurt holding her tight against him. It brought him back to the same point he’d bumped into earlier.

  “I guess I don’t need to ask why you lied, but I got a whole bunch more questions you’re going to be answering…in the morning.” Brodie stepped back, leaving a hand outstretched. “Right now it’s time for sleep, so you’re going to walk home with me like my woman, or am I going to carry you like a shrieking, little brat?”

  Chapter 15

  Jamie went with him, not even offering a bit of resistance when he stripped her down and tucked her into the middle of his bed. Despite all the chaos of the day, it felt like warm comfort to be smuggled into his embrace. It didn’t take her but a minute to be lulled by his heat and her weariness into slipping right to sleep.

  If only she’d woken up that way. Eyes popping wide with alarm, Jamie tried to make sense of waking naked in some man’s arms. That it turned out to be Caelen, whose possessive grip held her breast prisoner, didn’t calm her panic in the least.

  Just the opposite, the way his gaze twinkled and his thumb rolled over her nipple had her all too conscious of the thick, hairy thigh tucked between hers as his hardness and heat molded itself to her back. Something particularly hard and hot branded her lower back. As if all of that hadn’t told her what Caelen had woken up in the mood for, he gave her that wicked little smile of his.

  “Mornin’, sugar.”

  “Don’t look at me like that, Caelen,” Jamie groaned. She’d have rolled away if he’d have let her. Captive as she was in his embrace, the furthest she could flee was to bury her face in the pillow.

  “Aw, don’t be like that now, sugar.” Caelen nuzzled her shoulder with a plaintive series of kisses.

  “I told you last night,” Jamie lifted her head out of the pillow. “I’m not doing that again.”

  “Far be it for me to argue when you get that tone in your voice.”

  That didn’t stop him from chasing the shivers around her neck. Jamie couldn’t but flinch when he hit a particularly ticklish spot right at the top of her spine. That had him chuckling and taking another nibble.

  “Caelen, I said no.” Jamie rolled her shoulders pointedly away.

  “Fine,” Caelen groaned rolling onto his back and releasing her. “But if we ain’t having no fun, then we’re going to be having a conversation, so don’t even be thinking of getting out of this bed yet.”

  Jamie ignored that threat as she yanked on the sheet, trying to wrap as much around herself as she could while she rose to a sit. “Where’s Brodie?”

  That concern hit her as her eyes scanned around the room to find it as empty as the other side of the bed.

  “He went to get you breakfast,” Caelen commented absently.

  He just couldn’t keep his hands to himself, and one lifted to stroke down over her spine, making her shift away from the too tender touch. His fingers fell to the bed with a plop. When he spoke again, he sounded almost tired…a little sad.

  “He said you needed to be gentled, so he’s planning some kind of surprise.”

  “Brodie?” That had her smiling for the first time that morning, even if the gesture held a good deal of disbelief. “Brodie is planning a surprise…to gentle me?”

  Caelen shrugged and stretched up along the headboard. “He said you were all jealous that we’d been screwing Rebecca all these years.”

  “I’m not jealous,” Jamie snorted. “I’m disgusted.”

  “And I’m just real thrilled to be marrying a former Madame,” Caelen shot back. “You know what Brodie and I been doing is perfectly normal for men. What you been doing…darlin’, you gonna have to explain that to me.”

  Jamie rolled her eyes at his demanding look and gave him her shoulder. “Like what, Caelen?”

  “For starters, how you even ended up stepping one foot into a parlor house.”

  “What’s to explain? My aunt used to run one, and when she met me, she knew I’d be damn good at that job.” Jamie turned back to give him her own steady look. “And you know what? She was right, and I actually have you and your brother to thank for that.”

  That had him coming off his relaxed pose. “You don’t you try to blame this on me, Jamie Anne Traynor.”

  “It was a compliment. A good whore knows how to fuck a man, Caelen, but there a lot of women out there who can do that. A good Madame knows how to control a man, and there are far fewer of those around.

  “My aunt taught me how to dress and talk and walk. All the little teases that get men in the mood, but none of that would be worth more than making a whore out of me if it hadn’t been for the punches you taught me to throw or all the dirty tricks you showed me. You taught me how to make sure I won any battle I stepped into. That was the key.”

  “I didn’t teach you that so you could run off to some city and become some perverse creature,” Caelen growled. “I taught you that to keep you safe from the perverts who come out of the cities.”

  “Well then you really failed,” Jamie shot back. “’Cause it wasn’t no pervert from the city who took my innocence. That was you and your brother, perverts from the country.”

  “You better be glad none of them boys touched you. The only thing saving you is that you had enough sense not to let them, otherwise, that ass would be on fire.”

  “Don’t yell at me, you oversized ass. You lost the right to have any say in my life when you sent me away.”

  That dismissal had Caelen doing more than snarling at her. In a display of temper better worn by Brodie, he snatched her right back across the few inches she’d managed to get between them during the argument. Hauling her over his body, Caelen used a hand to press her hip down onto his erection.

  “You listen to me, sugar, and you listen good. We either going to talk or fuck, so don’t you be giving me all this attitude, or I’ll wear out your pussy until you’re more than willing to be a little sweeter in your delivery.”

  Instead of being intimidated, Jamie shoved back from him. “See, this is exactly why I didn’t want you knowing I was a virgin ‘cause you think it gives you rights over me.”

  “Nah, that ain’t it. It’s the fact that
I could rat you out to your daddy. That gives me all the power.”

  That had Jamie going still. “You wouldn’t.”

  “Give me a reason not to.”

  “Because it would hurt him, and there ain’t nothing he can do to undo anything, not I would even want him to.”

  “So? It ain’t my fault that you ran away.” Caelen used her answer against her, which just annoyed Jamie to know end. “And it certainly ain’t my fault it took you five years to come back, is it?”

  “I haven’t even figured out why I did come back,” Jamie snapped, hoping that hurt a little. “Hell, back East, I’m at least respected, and I got my own money, my own life…” Jamie couldn’t help but smile as she shot Caelen a dark look. “And kind of like you, Caelen, I like to watch.”

  “I know why you came back, Jamie.” Caelen toppled her over, sprawling across her as he slowly pulled the sheet free from between them. “Because watching just ain’t enough.”

  “Caelen…”

  “I know you’re pissed about Rebecca, just as I ain’t too thrilled with the way you been wasting the years, but do you really want to go back? You think in a few days, you’re just going to get on a horse and ride off back to your little whore house and leave me here…all alone…but for Rebecca?”

  That threat had Jamie’s jaw clenching. A low blow, he hit her hard because there would be no way for her to answer yes. “You’re supposed to be so scarred. You could never touch another.”

  He gave her an honest laugh at that. “Jamie, you worked in a parlor house. You know that ain’t the way it works.”

  “If you loved me, it would be,” Jamie stubbornly muttered that insistence.

  “And if you ever want to find some happiness in this life, you’re gonna have to forgive us.”

  “Just like that?”

  “And like this.” Caelen whispered a quick kiss across her lips, but he didn’t leave her convinced.