“So?”
As he turned around, Eric was stunned by the look of anguish on his brother’s face.
“For crying out loud, what do you want me to say? I consummated the marriage, okay.”
“Jeez. I just wanted to know some details, Adam. What was she like?”
“She’s pretty, blondish, small as you well know.” Eric growled in frustration. “I meant in bed.” He was beginning to think there was more to this than his brother’s usual reticence.
Adam rounded on him then, and Eric took a step back, so fierce was his brother’s expression. “Look, it didn’t go well. Leave it at that.” He then turned back.
His heart dropping into his stomach, Eric felt sick. “Oh, shit. What happened?” He waited a moment. “For God’s sake, tell me,” he implored, really worried now.
“It hurt her, okay!” It was Eric’s turn to be silent, stunned as he was. Adam continued in a pained voice, “You know how little experience I have of women.”
When Eric spoke, it came out as a rough whisper. “What did you do, exactly?”
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“I pushed into her, and she was so tight she yelped. I knew it’s supposed to be painful for virgins, so I pushed in harder. Christ, it was difficult. Eventually I got in, but I could tell she hated it. She was so tense, and afterward her face was teary. She turned away from me, so I left the room and went downstairs. When I got back, she had gone to her room.”
“Hell! So didn’t you try to arouse her?”
His brother frowned at him. “What do you mean?”
“Please tell me you kissed her? Fondled her? Caressed her?” When his brother was silent, Eric continued, “Oh, God, what have you done? I might have known you’d muck it up. Curt will kill you if she’s left, and I probably won’t stop him.” As he turned to leave, Adam called after his brother, “It might be better if she goes.”
“For you, maybe.”
Eric raced into the house and up the stairs to the room they had given Brianna. He could hear movement, so he knocked gently.
“Brianna. It’s Eric.”
He could hear a muffled query, “What do you want?”
“Can I come in?”
There was silence for a moment before she replied, “Okay.” Fear assailed him when he entered and he saw she was packing her bag. “Please tell me you are not going?” She refused to look at him and kept her head averted. “I–er–look, I don’t think it is going to work. I’ve made a mistake. I’ll ask the authorities to annul the contract or something.”
“Hell. I’ve just seen Adam, and he told me he hurt you last night.” Eric didn’t expect Brianna’s next reaction. She burst into tears, covering her face with her hands. Her shoulders trembled. At first, he was stunned, but his need to comfort took over, and he took her carefully in his arms, concerned about how much she was shaking. He wondered what to say and retreated into his usual humor. “Hey, Wife for Three
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sweetheart, we’re not that bad really. We don’t bite. Not on Thursdays at any rate.”
That got a laugh from her, and she pulled away, wiping a hand over her wet face. He let her go reluctantly. Despite the circumstances, he rather enjoyed having a soft body to cuddle. Curt and Adam didn’t quite come up to muster!
Forcing back a smile at his own joke, he cupped her shoulders, gently looking down into her beautiful, teary brown eyes. “Look, Brianna. I’m sorry about what Adam did. Even he is. He has no experience of women, and we all should have remembered that. In a way, it’s our fault, not just his.”
“I understand.”
He stuttered wondering how he was going to ask his next question. “You–you’re not–not–injured, are you?” A qualm went through him. In his anxiety about her possibly leaving them, he had forgotten that Adam had said he had hurt her. He tilted his head to try to surreptitiously study her body. He didn’t really know what to expect, but she didn’t look pained.
She laughed. That was promising, that she could laugh at him, not that he had been making a joke. “No, it’s not that. Well, I wasn’t particularly crying over that. But it’s Adam. He doesn’t like me. I can’t stay in a marriage where I’m not wanted.” She sounded so unhappy that he wanted to take her in his arms again. Instead he rubbed his thumbs soothingly over her shoulders.
“I know he takes some getting used to, but he will come round, really. And anyway, you can’t annul a marriage that has been consummated. Besides which, you haven’t had time to get to know Curt and me. I promise you, we are much nicer people than we seem—in bed and out of it.”
Her responding laughter warmed him.
“We won’t force you to stay if you really want to go, but please wait for a while and get to know us before you decide. Come and 48
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have breakfast at least. I couldn’t let you leave without something in your stomach.”
He breathed a sigh of relief when she relented. “All right.” They walked downstairs, and as Brianna automatically began looking in the kitchen cupboards to see where things were, Eric sat down at the table, enjoying watching her as she bent forward to get a frying pan out of the bottom cupboard. Boy, she’s got a lovely ass. He couldn’t wait until it was his turn. Then he took stock of his thoughts.
He might never have a chance unless they could persuade her to stay longer.
“Um, I didn’t exactly bring you down here to make breakfast. I was offering you some,” he said, but didn’t move from his seat. She didn’t appreciate the extent of his lack of cooking skills yet, but he didn’t want to put her off remaining by making her breakfast that was inedible.
“You’re okay.” She gave him a coy look. “Adam warned me on the journey here what a dunce you are in the kitchen, so I’m not letting you any closer. And don’t think I don’t realize that your kind words were just a way of getting a free breakfast out of me before I leave!”
He was momentarily stunned, then joined in laughing with her, grinning at their repartee. Out of the three of them, Eric was the one who loved joking and the fun things in life. If Brianna enjoyed those things too, she would be a terrific wife.
“So tell me something about yourself,” she said unexpectedly after she placed some steak in the frying pan.
Looking up, startled by her question, Eric responded, “What exactly do you want to know? I’m the youngest brother. You already know, I guess, that our parents started this farm but are both dead. We herd wilderbeast and live a long way from town.” She giggled. “No, you nutcase. I meant tell me about you.” Unsure what to say, Eric repeated himself, “I’m the youngest. I–
er–my name is Eric. What else do you want to know?” Wife for Three
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Her laughter at his confusion echoed around the room, and he grinned at the way she smiled, pleased she was relaxing and that it was his doing.
“I know Adam is the eldest and he is the silent type, brooding, rarely smiles, takes his responsibilities as the head of this family very seriously.” Brianna’s face took on a shuttered look as she recited his elder brother’s foibles.
Eric chuckled harshly. “Oh, you’ve got him sussed all right.” He leaned back in his chair. “Tell me what you think of Curt, then.” He watched as she pouted. “Hmm, don’t know him—or you—as well yet. Let’s see, Curt? He put the advert in the paper, and I got the feeling it was without Adam’s agreement.” At Eric’s nod, she continued, “I knew it! So that means he is probably impulsive. He seems cocky and maybe quick-tempered?”
“Oh, yes!”
“I know from the advert Adam is thirty-five and you are twenty-six, but I’m not sure of Curt’s age. His rash nature makes him seem younger.”
“Actually, he’s thirty.”
“Hmm, so that leaves you.” She tapped a fork against her face as she stared at him to gather her instincts about him.
He raised an eyebrow, a little worried about her assessment of him as, so far, she had b
een spot-on about his brothers.
“I’m afraid you’re a little more difficult to work out. What I do know is that you like a joke—not surprising with one brooding brother and the other impulsive, who probably clash. You might even be a peacemaker between them. You have shown you are caring.” Brianna dropped her head as she finished, clearly remembering why he had been caring.
Instinctively, he tried to think of a joke to lighten the mood again.
“You’ve forgotten the most important aspect of my personality.” She jerked her head up. “I have?”
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“Yup, my lack of cooking skills, and if you don’t get back to that pan, I’d think you had lied about yours.” Shrieking, she turned swiftly only to find he had been teasing her, and the steak wasn’t burning at all. He grinned at her as she glared at him, waving her fork in a gesture of “you naughty boy.” As the smell of the meat sizzling in the pan started to permeate the room a short time later, a sleepy Curt came shuffling down the stairs.
Leaning back in his chair, Eric stared at him. “Good Lord.
Wonders will never cease, Curt Hollis up before midday.” Eric then winked at Brianna as she looked at him startled by his teasing, showing her the fun side of their relationship as brothers.
Curt didn’t take offense, just swatted his brother on his head as he passed by. “Oh, funny man. Morning, Brianna, how’s you today?” Wincing at his brother’s badly-timed question, Eric cleared his throat loudly, hoping that Brianna didn’t see him shaking his head urgently at Curt, who gave him an inquisitive look. He must have guessed the object of Eric’s thoughts, as Curt suddenly swiveled his head to gaze apprehensively at Brianna.
“How are you, Brianna, really?” he asked again, this time with concern in his voice.
Groaning in dismay, Eric saw her go pale, clearly not wanting to rake it up again. He was then thankful when the front door opened abruptly, and Adam strode in.
“What’s going on here?” His elder brother was glaring at the woman in the kitchen. Eric closed his eyes. Everything had been going so well, too, but he knew that Adam would be put out as making breakfast was always his chore. One he always said he enjoyed.
Before Eric got a chance to smooth things over with a joke, Brianna flung the fork down on the table and stormed off up the stairs. Great! Our first morning as a married foursome and two of them are at loggerheads already. This was going to be a wonderful Wife for Three
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marriage. That is, if she wasn’t now finishing packing her bag. Giving Adam a mournful look, Eric followed her up the stairs.
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Chapter Seven
Curt shifted uncomfortably in his place on the wooden settle.
His cock was hard and throbbing and had been for days. He knew, after what Eric had told him, that he had to take it easy, but the sight of a beautiful woman around the place, the view of her tight ass as she moved around the kitchen, the wobble of her gorgeous breasts as she bent over the table, made it difficult to contain himself.
No, it was more than that, he told himself. It was also the look of joy on her face when he had given her some flowers that he had picked.
Actually, her expression had been one of mortification that had stunned him. Her words explained why, when she stuttered that she’d remember to pick some herself in future, thinking she was expected to do this chore herself.
He had laughed and told her, “I picked them for you, not for the house or my brothers who would think I had gone crazy.” She had given him a look of utter joy followed by sadness.
Querying this, she had said no one had ever given her flowers before.
He felt so proud that he had been the first and, at the same time, so angry that her life had been lacking in such simple acts of kindness.
He had told Eric, and they had both made sure they gave her lots of things, for her alone. Eric had rummaged in the kitchen cupboard, getting in Adam’s way, and found an old but very pretty glass vase shot with colored striations that his father had bought for his mother many years ago, for Brianna to put the flowers in.
Adam’s expression of disbelief had been priceless.
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Curt had then presented her with a beautiful, long tail feather from a yellowcock that occasionally flew over the area and deposited its feathers while on its flight to its nest in the mountains. It was fairly useless but looked very pretty lying along the mantelpiece where she had placed it. Adam had been annoyed as he used that mantelpiece to lay items he needed for the horses, brushes, bridle bits, and so on.
Eric had just removed these horse-related items with a broad smile. “These would be better off in the barn.” Adam had not been happy.
When Eric then handed her a wooden comb that he had made just that morning, Adam had curtly asked them, away from her presence, what the hell they were playing at. They simply stated that they were just welcoming a new person into their family. His older brother had grunted but didn’t join in. He just looked at them askance when they came up with other things for her.
It had now been four days since her night with Adam, and Curt had agreed with Eric that it would be Curt’s turn to sleep with her next, but he had to get it right or he would scare her off altogether. So they had been taking it very easy and spent the time showing her around the farm, taking her on a horse around the nearby countryside to familiarize her with the area.
Adam had made terse comments about people avoiding their chores.
“We need to show her around so we can point out which places to avoid because of known dens of wild animals, toxic plants, or dangerous cliffs where rock falls happen frequently,” Eric had explained patiently, almost oblivious to Adam’s mood. Curt had just smirked at his elder brother’s tense face. Adam had just glared at them for a few seconds and told them to avoid going anywhere near the wilderbeast. He wasn’t sure if it was because of the danger of stampede or just because Adam would be in that vicinity.
Curt had been astounded by Brianna on many occasions. Firstly, she didn’t seem to have spent much time on a horse, but then that was 54
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town girls for you. However, she went everywhere they had asked without a qualm, and he had laughed at her discomfort when she had gotten up the next morning and walked down the stairs like she had spent the night having an orgy. Well, how he would imagine a girl would look.
Eric had been annoyed with him and rushed over to take care of her, offering to give her a massage. She had very sweetly turned him down, but Curt had winced knowing it was because of what had happened with Adam and not because she didn’t need the massage.
He had also been surprised that she was uneducated about some of the toxic plants, like the red spider plant. Actually, it wasn’t the plant that was poisonous, but it sheltered the nest of the red spider, which was deadly.
Brianna didn’t appear to have had any of the plants that they showed her where she had lived with her uncle. It could, of course, be that Goldtown had been settled such a long time ago that all the poisonous ones had long since been removed.
Remembering this, he frowned, thinking that he wasn’t sure on their travels that they had showed her the wildershrub yet and made a mental note to do so the next day.
Anyhow, their efforts seemed to work, and Bree was settling in very nicely. Curt chuckled at how quickly he and Eric had dropped into calling her by this nickname. She frequently laughed in his and Eric’s presence, and he enjoyed his conversations with her. She knew a lot about basket weaving, and when they presented her with leaves from the long-tailed rainbow shrubs, she astonished them by creating an amazingly strong and incredibly beautiful basket. She explained that she had often made such baskets. He knew that there was a huge craft industry on the planet and that women were the main force behind those goods. Brianna explained that she had sold those she made in her town for extra money to buy luxury it
ems and asked if she could do the same here.
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He narrowed his lips, his thoughts unsettled. They would be happy to buy her any luxuries. She didn’t need to buy her own. He also frowned recalling that she had yet to say very much around Adam. He seemed to scare her. It didn’t help that he hardly talked to the girl, let alone gave her a friendly smile.
Shaking his head, Curt laughed to himself. Actually, Adam never even gave his brothers a friendly smile.
“What’s up?”
Curt glanced over at Brianna and laughed out loud. “Nothing, just a thought.” He became aware then that the daylight was almost gone, and Brianna was struggling to do some sewing by the lamplight. “You shouldn’t do that anymore. You’ll strain your eyes.” She laid the sewing down, and his heart thumped. It was an old shirt of his. He mused, wondering why that would make him glad. It was great that she was prepared to do their sewing. No, it was more that it was his shirt she had chosen to mend.
“You’re right.” She sighed and looked around her. It was just the two of them. Adam was in the barn with a horse that was foaling, and Eric had gone into town. Curt knew his brother was getting very antsy and needed to get away. “Well, do you have anything to read?” Chuckling, he responded, “And that’s not going to strain your eyes either?”
He could see she had flushed a little. “Well, what can I do then?”
“There’s lots of things we could do.” His heart started beating quicker as he became conscious that this was looking like a really good time to take things further.
“Oh, do you have a game or cards or something?” She sounded keen. He wished it was eagerness for what he had in mind.
“I do have a game in mind. Come over here.” She frowned at him but still stood and wandered over to him, her expression showing her bewilderment. He held out his hand for hers, taking hold of her long, supple fingers when she placed her hand in his, and he stroked his thumb over her wrist. He could feel her pulse 56
Denys, Jennifer - Wife for Three [Duoterra] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) Page 5