by Reece Butler
“You put any liniment on after you dressed?”
She shook her head. “I didn’t know where it was.”
“Then I guess we’d better take care of that right now. Gideon?”
The youngest, and tallest, reached for a shelf far higher than her head and took down a tin. The rogue had put it where she would never find it! She held out her hand, wiggling her fingers to silently demand Gideon give it to her. He winked and set it in Zach’s palm instead.
“Now that we’ve got us a woman, we’ll be taking care of you,” said Gideon.
“I can take care of myself,” she insisted.
“You got enough gumption that you just might,” said Rusty, “but we can make you feel a whole lot better.” He winked and flicked his tongue. “Inside, and out.”
“Don’t make me come get you, Kate,” warned Zach.
“You wouldn’t hurt me,” she shot back.
“That’s right,” said Zach. “I bet you’d like a bit of a spanking followed by some kissing. Get your bottom all red and hot, and your pussy’d be purring like the wildcat you are. I hear that’s how the men around here keep their women in line.”
Gideon choked. He stared at his brother. “That true?”
Zach nodded without moving his eyes from hers. “There’s eight ranches in this valley, each run by three men. Most of them have wives just as uppity as Kate here. A couple have pushed their husbands so hard they got spanked right in the middle of town. Didn’t lift their skirts, of course, but I expect that happened as soon as they got near enough to home that the men could finish the job.”
Kate gasped, imagining herself, naked, lying across Zach’s equally naked lap. Imagined his cock straining under her body while his hand caressed her bottom as he planned where to place the next tap. Her heart thudded at the thought of being dominated in such a way. Not with real pain, but with just enough to excite her, knowing that he would never hurt her.
It wasn’t fear that had her body on fire, but something far more ominous. It was eager desire wanting to fan those flames. She wanted to taunt him, to push him past his limits and make him show how strong he was. Strong, yet totally in charge of himself. This would prove whether she could trust him to keep control. If so, she could struggle in his hands as much as she liked, fighting to escape, and he would carefully hold her.
Father had icy control, but no passion. She wanted both.
“You’re not my husband,” she squeaked. “You don’t have the right to lay a hand on me.”
“Ain’t a right, darlin’. It’s a pleasure.”
She shot Rusty a look. He laughed.
“Not now,” said Zach. “Tonight you need liniment on your saddle sores and a massage to work out the knots in your muscles.” He pointed again to the spot between his feet and the table. “Now, Kate.”
He could have grabbed her at any moment and forced her to do what he wanted. Any of them could. But he waited for her to make up her mind. If she wanted to fight and play, he was ready, but they both knew she could use soothing more than wrestling.
“I’m only doing this because I’m sore,” she said. She set her shoulders back, knowing it would thrust her breasts forward, and sashayed around the table to stand in front of Zach. She looked up at him. His blue eyes almost glowed in the lamplight.
“Turn around and put your hands on the table,” he quietly ordered.
She took her time turning and resting her thighs against the edge of the table. She settled her palms flat on the scrubbed surface. Just for fun, she wiggled her bottom a bit to get comfortable. The inhaled gasps made it worthwhile.
Zach set the tin on the table beside her and slowly lifted her skirt. Her face flamed as she felt the fabric rise up the back of her legs as he caught it in his fingers. He folded it across her back, baring her from waist to stockings. She felt a breeze across her bottom, but it didn’t cool her down.
Gideon took the lantern off the table and held it so they could see. She heard someone gulp. Out of the corner of her eye she saw a big hand take the lid off the liniment and scoop up a fingerful.
“Now that’s one fine ass,” said Rusty, releasing a tight breath. “I’ll hold her cheeks apart so you can rub it in.”
A set of hot palms were placed on her back cheeks. They gently stretched her apart. She hissed when the cool salve touched her sores.
“That’s it, Gideon, rub it in while I distract her.”
She heard a belt being unbuckled and clothing rearranged. Then the smooth, blunt head of a cock slid over her pussy to her clit, and back. She closed her thighs around it, squeezing it closer to the flesh she wanted rubbed. Zach chuckled and kept up his rhythm, back and forth. She concentrated on the way his cock rubbed against her lips instead of the sting of the salve. But it wasn’t enough. When he pulled back, she arched her back and shifted her legs apart. His cock slid right where she wanted.
“Mm, that feels good.” She sighed. He pulsed forward, farther each time, until his balls rested against the back of her thighs. She expected her cheeks to be released, but instead a finger slid over her bottom from her back and down. It slowly circled her anus as Zach stayed still, breathing deeply.
“Use lard, not liniment, so it won’t sting,” she heard someone whisper.
Gideon darted around the table, grabbed something, and came back. A moment later a finger breached her bottom. She shuddered at the sensation of delicious penetration. Zach began moving again, in and out, slow and powerful. The finger kept up the same rhythm.
Rusty released her cheeks. He leaned across the table and kissed her. He nipped her lip and she opened up. He caressed her breasts through her thin dress, catching her nipples between his fingers.
“Not good enough,” he growled, and unbuttoned her dress right to her waist. He pushed it off her shoulders and helped release her arms while Zach and Gideon waited. When she was naked to the waist, her hair still tied up snug, Rusty palmed her breasts with his rough palms.
That was the signal for the other two to continue. Zach held her hips to pump deeper and faster. Gideon added a second wonderfully invasive finger, still thrusting to Zach’s rhythm. Rusty took control of her breasts, her mouth, her neck. He kissed, nuzzled, and nipped his way over her skin. Tension coiled up her spine. Zach’s rough breath panted behind her. Rusty murmured, his words part curse and part encouragement.
She arched her back as her orgasm neared. Everyone sped up, going harder, and faster. Gideon twisted his fingers inside her bottom. She clamped down on Zach’s cock. He roared her name as he pounded into her.
She vaguely noticed that Rusty’s hands had disappeared from her breasts, and that her pussy felt empty before they were back. Only it was Zach kissing her, and Rusty’s wider cock stretching her just a bit more than before. Zach sucked her entire breast into his mouth and caught her nipple between his teeth. The sharp touch sent her to a new level. She shuddered, teetering on the brink. Gideon stretched her bottom even more and she shattered.
Chapter 13
Gideon lazed in bed the next morning, something he couldn’t remember doing before. He was on the outside with Zach snoring beside him. Next was Kate, then Rusty, and the wall. They had to get a bigger bed, one that didn’t sag so much. Though tallest, he was about twenty pounds lighter than Zach and Rusty, and didn’t like waking up rolled against them. If Kate was the one snuggled up to him he wouldn’t mind the sag at all. But there was only one of her and three of them. She couldn’t sleep beside him every night.
He saw Kate stir but didn’t move. His cock was already in its usual morning state, hard and ready to go. Normally it would go down after a bit so he could take a leak. Having Kate share their bed, and remembering what they’d done before they slept, meant his cock wasn’t going to relax any time soon. It hurt like heck, but if Kate was thinking of repeating a certain few hours, he’d put up with any pain.
“Mornin’, darlin’.”
The rough drawl was Rusty, of course. Zach rolled over, elbow
ing Gideon in the process. Gideon grunted and sat up. Rusty lay on his side, spooned against Kate’s ass. Gideon climbed out of bed and stretched. There wasn’t enough room to do it lying down.
“If this ain’t the best way of wakin’ up, I don’t know what is.” Rusty’s top arm came over her shoulder and cupped her breast. She bit her lip, blushing.
“Doing what we did before bed,” said Zach, rolling to his feet. “But we’ve taken enough time for fun. There’s work to do.”
Kate pulled the quilt around her. She closed her eyes as they dressed, wincing as they carefully stowed their erect cocks. Rusty warned Gideon with a scowl not to interfere, put one knee on the bed, leaned over, and gently kissed Kate’s forehead. Though Rusty acted like he was tough and didn’t care about a hill of beans, Gideon knew otherwise. On the long trail north Rusty had gone off one day and came back with a kitten. He carried the little beast around with him until he found a good home for it. Gideon dang near got a black eye when he asked about it. Yeah, Rusty could be caring. He just didn’t like anyone knowing it.
Zach, of course, had to show up Rusty’s kiss. He lay on the bed beside Kate, fully dressed except boots and hat, and angled his face to meet hers. Disgusted at not getting a chance while he could, Gideon turned away to do something useful. He heard murmurs but kept his back to the three of them as he stirred up the stove, filled the kettle, and put it on to heat.
“We’ll stay away half an hour or so,” Gideon said to Kate. “That long enough for you to get breakfast going?”
She nodded, still flushed from their kisses or embarrassment. She looked so good lying in their bed, her dark brown hair spread around her, that Gideon wanted to dive right back in. But it wasn’t to be, not now. If they played their cards right, they might convince her to stay on forever. That was a job for another day.
The three of them stomped into their boots, slapped hats on their heads, and headed to the barn for morning chores. But this morning was different. They had a pretty woman making breakfast while they worked. One who would welcome them back with a kiss.
Or, if he was lucky, one whole heck more.
* * * *
Kate sighed in relief when the door closed behind them. She heard them arguing, something about a wild horse needing riding and who was the best man for the job. As soon as their voices faded, she slid out of bed. Her face and ears burned from embarrassment, but her nipples peaked from the kisses Rusty and Zach had given her.
They didn’t seem at all changed this morning, but she knew she’d never be the same. As soon as someone put together her kidnapping from the Bride Train and arrival here, wherever that was, she would be branded a loose woman. She’d spent a night under the same roof as three known bachelors. Even if no one knew what happened between them, it didn’t matter. Her reputation was ruined.
She waited for a sense of mortification to descend. After all, she’d done things that no self-respecting woman would do. No decent wife would eagerly demand satisfaction from her husband. It was worse that she wasn’t married, to any of them!
It was no use. She felt no shame at all. Joy bubbled up and she laughed. She rolled out of bed, naked as the day she was born, and stretched. Her hair tumbled down her back, wild and free. She leaned her head back and shook it. The ends tickled her bottom. She laughed again and twirled, arms out, like she used to when they went to the park and Father wasn’t around.
He’d sent her away in disgrace, thinking she would slink under a rock and disappear. Instead, she had found her freedom. She was born to be wild and carefree, enjoying the gift of her body’s arousal. Never would she be ashamed of who she was, or what she chose to do!
She had a quick wash, dressed, and started breakfast, singing snatches of songs as she worked. She made coffee for the men, but preferred tea. Since she couldn’t find any, she’d do without. She took a slab of salt pork from the larder and sliced off a few chunks. After chopping them into finger-size pieces she cooked them with the leftover potatoes and onions.
What would her mother have been like if she’d followed her heart and run away with Wilbur instead of marrying Father? Even if she died while being attacked by Indians, her greatest fear, she would have lived a far richer life, one full of love and caring.
Which was worse? A quick death after a short life of joy or dying day by day, inch by inch?
Kate would take the joy she’d found in the last few days. She’d never known the touch of a man could bring her rapture. She wanted love in her heart but, for now, would settle for pleasure in her body. If she had to die tomorrow, she’d die content with her choice.
Mama hadn’t believed she’d had a choice. She did what her parents demanded, and was terrorized without a hand being raised. Father knew how to slay those less powerful with his voice, cruelly cutting them down. He used public humiliation and private threats against the things her mother most loved. It turned her into a cringing creature who barely spoke over a whisper.
Kate fought him for years. The final embarrassment was at seventeen when she won the race against the sons of his friends. Since she refused to cry when he punished her, this time he turned his quiet rage on Mama. He took her precious figurines, handed down from her grandmother, and smashed them. No, she corrected herself, that would show emotion.
Though he was furious, she remembered the pleasure he took in fondling the delicate figures as she and her mother watched. He took a laughing shepherd with a crook and slowly climbed the stairs. He leaned over, his cold eyes on Katherine, and held it out. Without blinking, he released it above the marble floor far below. It exploded on impact, sending tiny shards everywhere. She cried out as they sprinkled her face, arms, and clothing. She saw his satisfaction, so pressed her lips closed.
He trailed one hand on the banister as he slowly descended. His feet crunched over the broken porcelain as he passed her to grasp the matching shepherdess holding a lamb. Mama’s favorite.
Once more he climbed. He held it out in his fist. One by one, he uncurled his fingers. Mama choked back a cry just before he let it drop. A shaft of satisfaction touched his face when the silence was again shattered by its destruction.
Kate still had a scar on her cheek from a piece of the lamb hitting her.
As Mama quietly sobbed, Kate had bowed her head, hands behind her back, and begged his forgiveness as a dutiful daughter. He didn’t know her head was bowed to hide her fury, disgust, and scorn. Though she begged, it was for her mother’s sake.
She kept her tears for later, when she asked for forgiveness as Mama cleaned her cut face. Her mother quietly explained that in some ways it was a relief to have her most cherished things destroyed. That meant her husband couldn’t hurt her anymore. He’d turned her children against her, all but Katherine. The only thing he could do to hurt her now, was to send her eldest daughter far away.
Mama explained that he’d never do it because it would raise questions he couldn’t answer. She’d made sure to impress on the wives of his most important clients that she couldn’t bear to have her dear daughter leave home, except to a suitable husband. While Mama was alive, Father could do little more than humiliate and berate her.
As she lay on her bed that night, Katherine vowed that fear, of a man or anything else, would not determine her life. She would obey Father, but only because she loved Mama. It didn’t stop her from fighting him, but she kept it hidden. He kept her housebound, often locked in her chamber, and she loved to read. He didn’t know Mama found her a key to his library. He never did more than lay certain books on piecrust tables as if he’d just put it down. He only used the room to entertain his friends and cultivate clients with expensive drinks and cigars.
She snuck in when no one was around and borrowed books about things proper women were not to trifle their little heads about. She loved arithmetic, natural philosophy, botany, history, and more. All sorts of ideas were revealed to her. His tread was heavy enough that she could hide her book before he unlocked her chamber and entered. He al
ways found her staring out her window. She knew he gloated about locking her away from the temptation of the outdoors.
But that was no more. The family and home she’d spent twenty-one years in was gone. She was dead to them as if she’d never existed. Now she could create her own life. She wanted a home with a husband and children. But love, passion, and trust had to be part of it.
She wanted an unquenchable love that made her body explode with passion. She wanted to trust her husband not only to protect her, but that he would choose to love her over other things, such as his pride. She wanted her husband to accept her as she was, even need her.
The McInnes men seemed to approve of her, but they also wanted to bed her. The afterglow of bedding could easily fade and reveal their true feelings about her. She would wait, and watch, to see their true characters. She could test them, to make sure they accepted her contrariness. If they still wanted her after she showed them she refused to be a compliant female, perhaps one of them was worth marrying.
If he loved her. If she loved him. Because of how they treated her, she was halfway in love with them already.
She called the men in for breakfast.
Chapter 14
It was midafternoon when the rattle of the window pulled Kate outside. Clouds rose in the west, high and dark. The wind whipped her hair around her face. The afternoon’s heat had finally begun to fade, but the weather made her pause and look for her men. The barn was to the west and so was the road, so she walked past it to look down to the north. Skeletons of round plants, nothing left but white branches, tumbled past her. Gusts of wind flattened her clothes tight against her body.
A jagged streak of lightning flashed seconds before thunder blasted her ears. She jumped, though the storm was still far away. From what Zach and Rusty had said while riding from the train, cattle would be frightened and could stampede in such a storm. There was little she could do to help while wearing a thin dress.