“How’s that feel?” she asked.
Jasper nodded, his eyes closed. His hips thrust in time with Goyo’s actions, his fists grabbing the sheets as his body surged closer to climax.
Goy lifted his head, drawing a low moan of disappointment from Jasper. “You want me to keep going, or you want to fuck my ass, papi?”
“I don’t care, just please don’t stop!”
Callie giggled. “Quit teasing him. Take care of him.”
With a melodramatic sigh, Goyo lowered his head to Jasper’s cock again. This time, he deep-throated Jasper, which drew another low, lustful moan from the man.
Callie brushed her hand up Jasper’s body, playing with his nipples and raking her fingers through the hair on his chest. “That feel good?”
“Oh, fuck yeah!”
She nipped his earlobe. “I love sucking you, too. I love it when you put me in the middle of the two of you, and then one of you fucks me while I’m going down on the other.”
That won her moans from both men. She suspected it wouldn’t take much to get Goyo ready for action again. “And I really love it when—”
“Yes!” Jasper grabbed Goyo’s head and thrust into his mouth as his entire body tensed. A minute later, he relaxed on the bed, eyes closed and a smile on his face.
Goyo sat up. “How was that?”
Jasper nodded. “Great.”
Goyo curled up on his other side. “This woman’s gonna wear us plumb out, you realize that, right?”
“Hey, there’s two of you and one of me. I have to do something to keep the upper hand or you two would never let me out of bed.”
Jasper grabbed their arms and pulled them tightly across his chest without opening his eyes. “Can we continue this discussion after I have a little nap? Then we can see about wearing our wife out.”
Goyo laughed. “I’m all for that.”
* * * *
Two weeks later, Callie was cooking bacon and eggs for breakfast when her stomach upended. She barely made it outside to the porch in time to retch into the dirt below.
Goyo, still in the house, heard her and came running. “What’s wrong?”
She shook her head and spit, then went and pumped herself a cup of water to rinse out her mouth. “I don’t know,” she said. “I was cooking. All of a sudden I just felt real poorly.”
Jasper emerged from the privy and spotted them on the porch. “What’s wrong?”
Goyo laid the back of his hand against her forehead. “You don’t feel like you’ve got a fever, sweetheart.”
“I don’t feel like I’m feverish,” she said. “Just my stomach isn’t right.”
Jasper frowned. “What happened?” he asked again.
“Nothing. I was cooking and then I got a whiff of the bacon—oh my goodness, the bacon’s still on the stove!”
Goyo raced to rescue it. “It’s okay,” he called from the kitchen. “It’s only a little burnt.”
Her stomach rolled again as another whiff of the usually luscious aroma hit her senses. She thought she might be sick again. “I think I’m gonna skip breakfast,” she said, feeling queasy.
Jasper went still for a moment, and she wasn’t quite sure she liked the look on his face. “What is with you?” she asked.
“You haven’t had your monthlies, have you?”
She felt her face turn beet red. “Jasper Collins! You do not ask a lady questions like that!”
“Like what?” Goyo said as he stepped out of the kitchen and rejoined them on the porch. As another cloud of bacon aroma followed him, she turned to the porch rail and tried to hold on to her stomach.
“You didn’t answer my question,” Jasper reminded her.
Could her face feel any hotter? “And I’m not going to!” she indignantly shot back. “If you were a gentleman, Mr. Collins, you could deduce that answer for your very self considering how busy you and Mr. Valdes here keep me on a nightly basis!”
Goyo’s eyebrow arched. “Ai, papi, you really riled her. She’s using our last names. Kiss and make up with her. I don’t want her mad at me because she’s mad at you.”
Jasper not only didn’t kiss and make up with her, his face broke into a large, beaming grin as deep, amused laughter rolled through him. Callie felt her ire grow as he collapsed against the porch railing and doubled over with laughter.
It was almost enough to make her forget her upset stomach. She swatted at him, which made him laugh harder and only made her madder. When Goyo made the mistake of laughing, she turned on him and started swatting at him, too. As he held up his arms in surrender, Jasper gently grabbed her and pinned her arms to her sides.
“Baby, settle down,” he gently warned, but she still heard amusement in his voice. “It’s not good for you. I know exactly what’s wrong with you.”
She wanted to stomp his foot, but he hooked one leg around hers and kept her still. “Then what, pray tell, is wrong with me that has you laughing at my discomfort?”
His hands cupped her breasts. She gasped, from pleasure and from something different. They felt tighter, her nipples more sensitive.
“They feel different, don’t they?” he asked. “Like maybe they’re getting bigger?”
She nodded.
He nuzzled the back of her neck. Despite her rolling stomach, the familiar sensation of wanting him fought for control of her attention. “You’re pregnant, sweetheart,” he softly said.
Goyo’s shocked expression probably mirrored hers. “What?” they both asked.
Jasper laughed and kissed the back of her neck again. “Mary suddenly couldn’t stomach the smell of bacon, either, when she got pregnant both times.” His voice softly trailed off. “It’s morning sickness. It goes away usually by the third month.”
She went still in his arms. “Pregnant?” she whispered, not believing it.
Goyo stepped close and wrapped his arms around both of them. “Really, papi?” He sounded hopeful. “You think so?”
He let out a long, content-sounding sigh. “I’d be willing to bet on it. We need to take you to see the doctor, but I’m sure he’ll agree with me.” His hands dropped from her breasts to her still flat tummy, his fingers splaying across her shirt. “The timing’s right. Were your monthlies regular?”
From stunned back to mortified again. “Yes,” she mumbled. Come to think of it, her last one had been two weeks after she’d arrived, and none since.
He turned her in their arms and kissed her lips. “Our family’s gonna grow.” He closed his eyes and rested his forehead against hers. “Do you know how happy you’ve made us?”
“This is incredible,” Goyo chimed in, still sounding stunned.
Jasper laughed and leaned past Callie to kiss Goyo. “We’re gonna be fathers!” he said.
“Shouldn’t we let the doc tell us that?” Callie groused. Now that her initial shock had worn off, her upset stomach was clamoring for attention again.
Goyo laughed as his arm wrapped around her, and his hand rested on her stomach. “I’m willing to bet Jasper’s right, mami. Get used to it. You’ve got two proud poppas to deal with.”
* * * *
On their next trip to Sarasota, all three went. The men nervously sat in the waiting room while the doctor examined Callie. When she emerged, the doctor wore a happy smile while she looked stunned.
He extended his hand to Jasper. “Congratulations! I think you’re gonna be a father. She’s got all the symptoms.”
Out in the wagon, the men stared at each other with stupid grins on their faces before they turned to her. She’d been in a foul mood since awaking that morning, and their silly attitudes weren’t helping.
“I’m not wearing a dress all the time,” she said.
Jasper laughed. “Whatever you say, sweetheart.”
Goyo laughed with him. “What he said, mami.”
* * * *
A week later, Callie was convinced. Her morning sickness progressed to the point that she could barely stomach any food in the morning
other than bread, and even that was an iffy proposition. She felt so badly that the men wouldn’t let her ride out with them, made her stay home and take care of things around there.
That chafed her, that they were coddling her. Yet when gripped by the worst of her nausea, she felt silently thankful the men were so considerate.
Not that she’d admit it.
* * * *
The two men stepped off the stage and looked around. “Not even a damn train, Bart. How the hell we supposed to find her? We don’t know she came down here. She could be anywhere.”
“Then we keep searching,” the other man growled. “The jeweler in Tampa said they’d come in on the Sarasota stage and left by it the next day.”
“You don’t need the money. You sold the damn farm. What more do you want?”
“I want a strip outta that girl’s hide for whacking me, that’s what. She wants to leave, that’s her business, but she took what’s mine by rights, and I want it back.”
They found a boarding house and took a room. It was late in the day when they took their dinner in the dining room. For lack of anything better to do, one of the men read a month-old newspaper from the stack sitting on a corner table.
“This is a backwater town, Bart,” the guy said. “Look at this, they got nothing in this paper but who got married and died and the church social schedule.”
Bart grabbed the paper from his hands and studied the blurb he’d spotted on the back side. He triumphantly jabbed his finger at it as he showed him a column recounting the previous month’s marriages. “What’s that say?”
The man squinted. “Jasper Collins married his fiancée, Callie Johnson, last month when the Methodist circuit rider came to town. The new Mrs. Collins is recently arrived from Mr. Collins’ home state of Virginia.” He looked at Bart. “So? Johnson is a common last name. And story says she’s from Virginia, not Tennessee.”
Bart shook his head in disgust. “You’re worthless, you know that? It’s her. It’s gotta be. Callie is what her momma always called her, and that is not a common name.” He studied the paper. “Now we just need to figure out where she’s livin’ and track her down.”
Chapter Eleven
Goyo whistled to himself as he milked the cows and took care of other chores. A baby. Maybe that bit of light would finally lift the last weight from Jasper’s soul. It didn’t matter if it was born with brown or blue eyes, or even if it would bear Jasper’s last name.
Their baby. Jasper had been so much happier since Callie entered their lives, and now with a baby on the way, he acted like a new man.
He grinned. She would have to start wearing dresses all the time, like it or not, once her belly swelled. As it was, at three months along she already had a little bump. It would be fun to hear the swish of her skirt as she worked in the kitchen. When she wasn’t nauseous, she was randy, her breasts starting to swell and begging for them to touch her all over, wanting their hands on her.
He wondered how long until she got so big she didn’t want them touching her at all?
He laughed to himself. Jasper had already warned him this was normal, that Mary had acted very similar. And to expect during the birth that she might cuss them out something fierce and swear to castrate them with her bare hands once she got done having the baby.
He stared at the house. They could add on another room, a larger bedroom for them and turn one of the other rooms into a nursery.
Maybe both of the rooms could be nurseries. He laughed out loud at that thought. A houseful of kids underfoot.
He turned to walk across the yard and get back to work, his heart light. Wouldn’t that be something, he thought. A large family of our own.
He was working in the barn mucking out stalls when he heard a noise behind him. When he turned, he barely had time to catch sight of a strange man before the world went black.
* * * *
When he awoke, he found himself trussed on the barn floor and staring at two pairs of boots. His head hurt like a son of a bitch.
“Where is she?” one man asked.
“Who?”
“Callista Johnson. Where is she?”
Goyo thought fast. “Ain’t no one here by that name.”
He had just enough time to tense before the man’s boot slammed into his ribcage. As he lay there coughing and trying to catch his breath, the guy knelt down, grabbed him by the hair and wrenched his hair back.
“Isn’t this Jasper Collins’ place? Are you him? We heard she married Jasper Collins. Where is he?”
“I’m Gregorio Valdes, asshole. This is my place. Collins is my business partner. He owns the spread next door, further down to the east. Don’t you think you shoulda asked me that before you punched me when my back was turned, you damned coward?” He prayed the lie would hold long enough for him to get to a horse and race to town to intercept Jaz and Callie.
If he lived that long.
The two men exchanged a glance. The one standing looked nervous. “Look, Bart, I never signed on for beatin’ up no innocent man.”
“He ain’t innocent. We found dresses in that house, didn’t we?”
“They belong to my wife.” Goyo coughed again, setting off more pain in his ribs. “Mary. She rode into town with Jasper and Mrs. Collins.” He tested the rope around his wrists, tight, but he thought he might be able to wiggle free if given enough time. “There ain’t no Callista Johnson here. I don’t know who you’re talking about.”
“He’s lying,” Bart growled. “We’ll go to the ranch next door and wait on ‘em, but before we do, we’re gonna pass a message along to Jasper Collins. And if we find your wife with ‘em, you can get her back when I get what’s due me.” He grabbed Goyo’s shirt and drew back his fist.
Goyo’s conscious faded with pain.
* * * *
Jasper gently teased Callie on the way home from Sarasota. At least her stomach had settled, and she didn’t need to make him stop anymore so she could be sick over the side of the wagon. But she felt tired and weak and leaned against him all the way.
Sammy Ingalls rode in the back of the wagon. He’d spend at least the next month helping them out with their small patch of crops, the cows, and everything Callie was quickly having trouble doing because of her morning sickness. It meant the three of them would have to be careful around Sammy, but they’d only need his help for a while.
Callie felt a chill despite the heat as they pulled into the yard. She grabbed Jasper’s arm. “Something’s wrong.”
He looked around. “What do you mean?”
“I mean something’s not right. Can’t you feel it?”
He helped her down from the wagon. “Goyo!” he called.
No answer.
“Sammy,” he said, “go look in the barn while I help Mrs. Collins inside.”
“Yes, sir.”
Jasper had helped her to the front porch when Sammy screamed for him from the barn. “Mr. Collins! Come quick!”
“Go inside.” He turned to run to the barn.
Callie refused to be left behind, her heart pounding, fear in her throat. She saw Sammy kneeling on the ground next to Goyo.
“Goyo!” she screamed as she raced to his side and dropped to her knees next to him.
Jasper firmly grabbed her by the shoulders and made her get out of his way. “Sammy, saddle one of the horses and ride as fast as you can back to town for the doctor and the sheriff. Now!”
“Yes, sir!” He ran to do it.
Callie cried. “Is he dead?”
Jasper grimly shook his head. “No, he’s alive. But someone damn near beat him half to death.” He untied Goyo’s hands and carefully rolled him onto his back. He moaned, but he didn’t open his eyes. At the sight of his wounds, she cried even harder. Both eyes blackened, a deep cut across his right cheek.
“Go to the house right now and get my revolver,” Jasper said. When she didn’t move, he looked at her, murder in his eyes. “Callie, I told you to go!”
She scra
mbled to her feet and ran to the house. With trembling fingers she pulled it from its hiding spot and checked the cylinder to make sure it was loaded. As she turned around, Jasper was carrying Goyo into the house. He brought him into their bedroom where he gently laid him on the bed. Tears ran down her face as Jasper started unbuttoning Goyo’s shirt.
“Go get some water and a wash rag,” he said. “We need to get him cleaned up.”
Goyo’s eyes finally opened. Jasper clutched his hands, brought them to his lips, and kissed them. “Who did it?” he growled. “Who did this to you?”
His upper lip was split and swollen. “Bart Packer,” he hoarsely whispered, which set off a coughing fit, making him moan in pain. “I told him you and Callie live next door. The new place. They were goin’ there to wait for you.”
“Take care of him, sweetheart,” Jasper ordered. He stood and reached for the revolver in her hand, but she stepped away from him and held it behind her back.
“Just where do you think you’re going?”
“I’m going to kill that bastard right now.” From the look on his face, she knew that was exactly what he wanted to do.
“No, you’re not! You’re gonna stay here with us until the doctor and the sheriff get here! You can’t leave us alone!”
* * * *
No, he couldn’t leave them alone, not with that animal still roaming out there. He got Goyo’s shirt off him and winced at the sight of the bruises already forming on his lover’s body. They’d kicked him half to death, and no doubt some of his ribs were broken.
Callie brought in a bowl of water and a rag and gently washed the blood off his face. He hated seeing her so upset, almost as much as he hated seeing poor Goyo like that. It couldn’t be good for the baby, either.
He tried not to think about the past as he impatiently waited for the doctor and sheriff to arrive. It was nearly an hour later when Jasper heard hoof beats in the yard.
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