Butler, Reece - 1 Bed, 2 Weddings, 3 Husbands [Bride Train 5] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting)

by Reece Butler

  “Did you help pick it out?”

  She nodded. “I thought the three of you would enjoy undoing all those buttons. I think we counted a hundred and twenty, all down the back. Of course, Victoria wants the gown kept in perfect condition, so don’t even think of biting one off.”

  “Biting? I’d use a knife or just yank it.”

  A faint flush lit Beth’s cheeks. “Perhaps your teeth aren’t as sharp as others.” She waved and went off to greet, or needle, other guests.

  Jed would have to think on that one. Maybe use one of Victoria’s old dresses. Catch her in it with nothing underneath and…He pulled his coat down to make sure it covered his obvious erection. Damn, how long did he have to stay and pretend to be patient?

  The hotel dining room was crowded with guests. Everyone was invited, of course. The Jennets were still in Helena, which made everyone happy, and Mayor Rivers was conveniently absent. Everyone else, from babies to old Mrs. Johnston, enjoyed themselves.

  Judge and Lily Thatcher were the most relaxed, but they’d been living openly together for weeks. Doc and Rosa were the most nervous, and for good reason. Doc thought it was a miracle that Rosa felt strong enough to marry him. They had a long way to go, but just having Rosa sleep in the same bed, with a row of pillows down the middle, was more than Doc had thought possible. Rosa still had scars, inside and out, from when she was held by the Commancheros. Helping Molly Sinclair and Sarah Unsworth heal from their ordeals had also helped her.

  That left Victoria, officially “till death do us part,” Mrs. Jed Adams. She wasn’t nervous, or relaxed. From the way she returned Riley’s kiss, her thighs must be already slick. They’d made a plan for the evening. All three would be equally involved, right from the start. The only problem was that they had this damn party to get through first. He looked for her, finding her surrounded with admirers. Because her smile was so wide and Clint was behind her, he let it go.

  “Relax, you’ll have her to yourselves for the next fifty years or more. We’ll be lucky to get twenty-five.”

  Judge Thatcher handed Jed a glass with a finger’s worth of liquid in it. He drank it down without thinking. It burned all the way to his stomach and then threatened to burn its way back up again.

  “Dammit, man, you’re not going to waste good whiskey.”

  Jed held up his finger. He could keep it down fine, but talking, or even breathing, was another matter for the moment.

  “Where’d you get that?” he finally managed to squeak out.

  “Private stock. If you promise to sip the next, you can have more.”

  Jed nodded and held out his glass. He wasn’t going to be bested by a man more than twice his age. Thatcher put a finger in it and held up his own glass in a toast.

  “To your second, and last, wedding.”

  “And to your first, and last,” replied Jed.

  This time he savored the whiskey. It was very smooth, unlike the rotgut served in most saloons.

  “It looks like your first wedding will be declared valid, so you’ve been legally married for almost a month,” said the judge. “But seeing how wide Victoria’s been smiling all day, I’m glad it worked out this way. I get the impression she could use some pampering.”

  “You don’t have to hint, Judge. We’ve had all the married men from the valley dropping by, doing the same thing. Barstow’s a recent husband, so he kept his thoughts to himself, but even John Tanner told us a few things.”

  “You listen to any of it?”

  “If I keep my wife happy, she’ll keep the rest of us that way. Now, if you don’t mind, I see that my wife is finally free of other husbands eager for a kiss. I’d better join her before she starts a riot with that dress.”

  “You are a lucky man,” said the judge, raising his glass. “Almost as lucky as I.”

  “Saw me coming, did you,” said Lily with a sly smile.

  “I always know when you’re around, my dear.”

  She winked at Jed and hauled her husband down to her by the ears. Jed, shaking his head at the open display by older people, went to find Victoria. If he wanted her to be equally demanding when she was a grandmother, he had to start this marriage off right.

  * * * *

  Victoria laughed at Luke Frost as he mournfully told her of the agonies of forever searching for a wife and finding them, alas, too late. She noticed he kept a close eye on Sarah Unsworth, however. Sarah was likely the same age as herself and seemed bright and cheerful. According to Sophie, however, Sarah had decided she would never marry and put herself under the control of a man. Considering her fiancé had sold her to a brothel, Victoria could understand her concerns.

  Ben Elliott had delivered a letter to her that morning from Jed, Clint, and Riley. It was a deed to one quarter of the J Bar C ranch. She’d burst into tears, which stunned Ben. Beth had quickly hustled out of the room and hugged her. Ben thought she was angry, but Beth understood. The only gifts Victoria had received before she came to Tanner’s Ford came with a price. Her mother and sister received gifts for selling their bodies and pretending to be whatever their patron wanted. Cecilia received jewels in return for beatings.

  Beth’s father had seen her as a tool to be used for his own purposes and nothing more. To Beth, receiving a quarter of the Rocking E meant she would always have a home. Victoria knew everything legally belonged to her husband upon marriage. She’d left the bag of gold from Smythe on the kitchen table when she left with Trace and Ross. She knew that when she returned, it would no longer belong to her.

  Yet her men had given her a part of their life. What was most important to Victoria was that it was deeded to “Miss Victoria Edison or Victoria, Mrs. Jed Adams.” Whether she married Jed or not, she would own one quarter of everything the three men had spent years developing.

  They trusted her. And that was priceless.

  She looked around for Jed, finding him walking toward her. Behind him, Lily and the judge indulged in a deep kiss, oblivious and uncaring as to whether anyone noticed. Bridie giggled and pointed, but Meggie smiled, perhaps thinking of her own wedding in the next few years.

  Jed reached her, picked her up around the waist, and twirled her around. She grabbed her hat so it wouldn’t fall off. Her stomach swirled.

  “Jed! Please put me down!”

  He immediately set her feet on the floor and held her close.

  “Are you sick? You suddenly turned white.” He held her away from him and looked down at her. “Is that dress too tight? Because if you’d like to change into something else, we can go upstairs.”

  Now that she was still she felt better. She tried to hide the laugh that bubbled up, but couldn’t. “Are you that eager to see me take off this lovely dress?”

  His eyes burned into hers. He trailed the pads of his fingers across the open expanse of her chest. “You have no idea how much I want to take this dress off you. It’s been—”

  “Four days. Yes, I know. It’s been just as hard for me.”

  He rubbed his hips against her belly. “No, it hasn’t. Cocks get hard. Pussies get soft, and wet.” He nuzzled her cleavage, inhaling. “You smell like roses.”

  “Have you seen the bathing room at the Rocking E? Trace ordered bathing tubs from back East that are five feet long! There’s even holes in the bottom to drain the water out. I soaked in one for an hour today and washed my hair. It was heavenly!”

  Jed kissed her forehead. “You might want to buy one with that gold you earned from Smythe. It’s yours, for whatever you want.”

  “I don’t want it in our home. I feel like it’s contaminated, as if he got it for doing terrible things.”

  “Then spend it. We could all share a bathing tub. Perhaps you want a buggy to get around on your own. Or save it for our children.” He looked deep into her eyes. “Or grandchildren.”

  “Are you hungry, Jed?”

  He blinked at the change in subject. Then his eyes got all hot and steamy. Her body responded, knowing that look. “Only for you,
my sweet.”

  “Would you mind if we skipped supper? I know that a lot of work has gone into it, but…”

  “But you want to go home.”

  She nodded.

  “Let me find Beth or Sophie.”

  He left her with Mrs. Johnston, who was telling everyone what a wonderful job Paddy O’Keefe and his son, Billy, were doing with her new house. She needed a bedroom suite on the main floor, so was having them convert an extra parlor in the sunny back of the house.

  Victoria looked for Jed, but it was Clint who found her. He kissed her temple and placed her hand on his arm. Without saying a word, he escorted her from the room. They went through the kitchen and out the side door. He led her to a wagon full of boxes and trunks and things she didn’t recognize.

  “What is this?”

  “Wedding presents.” Clint shrugged. “I’m as surprised as you. But they said we can’t take anything back, and to enjoy them.”

  “But”—she turned to the party she’d snuck out of—“I have to go back and thank everyone.”

  “Nonsense,” said Sophie from behind. “You go home and let the rest of us have a good party. It’s always more fun after the bride and grooms have left, anyway.”

  Victoria blinked back those silly tears. They spilled over. She pulled a hanky from her sleeve and dabbed her eyes.

  “You’re coming to the Fourth of July picnic at Walt Chamberlain’s, aren’t you?”

  “Of course. Everyone always goes to that,” replied Jed from behind her. He leaned his front against her back, a steady force in a world changing far too fast for her.

  “Then you’ll be able to thank anyone you haven’t seen before then.” She squeezed Victoria’s hand. “Home you go. There’s lots of food in that hamper, so you won’t have to cook for a few days.”

  Victoria laughed past her tears. “You haven’t seen the way my husbands eat.”

  Sophie laughed back. “Yes, I have. Starting tomorrow, the hotel dining room is open to the general public. It will be full of miners who haven’t seen a woman, or eaten a decent meal, since the snow closed the passes. I know how much men eat.”

  Jed and Clint fought over who would lift her up. Jed won, but only because Clint would lift her down. She sat on a soft cushion beside Jed. Clint got on the other side. Riley ran up at the last minute. He had red smears over his mouth and a fruit tart in each hand. His cousins confiscated the tarts, eating them as they rode out of town. Riley sat in the back with his feet hanging over the edge. He said he’d make sure nothing fell out of the wagon.

  “You look like you didn’t sleep well last night,” said Jed.

  “I haven’t slept well since Sheriff Barstow told me we weren’t really married.”

  Jed and Clint shared a look over her head. Clint climbed into the back of the wagon and, with Riley’s help, shifted boxes. They spread a folded quilt.

  “I can’t lie down in my new dress,” she said.

  “I expect you can barely breathe in it also,” said Riley. “Why don’t we help you take it off?”

  “But, people will see!”

  “Mrs. Adams, everyone is at a certain triple wedding. No one will see except us,” said Clint.

  “And we can’t wait to see.” Riley knelt behind her and started undoing the buttons at her neck. “Dang, help me, Clint. There’s hundreds!”

  “One hundred and twenty,” growled Jed. “Beth was very proud of that.”

  They’d passed the edge of town before the buttons were all undone and the dress carefully removed. For a set of bachelors, Clint and Riley knew a lot about removing corsets. She lay down in her camisole and one petticoat, boots and stockings off. They covered her with a light sheet. With one man on either side, “to make sure she didn’t roll,” Victoria, officially Mrs. Jed Adams forever, fell asleep to the rumble of a wagon.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  “Did she even wake up?”

  Clint kept his voice down in case Victoria could hear, but Jed shook his head as he descended the last few stairs after carrying Victoria up.

  “I know we’re all eager, but she needs sleep,” said Jed.

  He walked bowlegged, but all of them were in the same shape. Not only had they gone without her since Monday morning, Ross had stopped by on Wednesday with Amelia’s picture book, Sinful Pleasures. Jed put it on the side table where it was safe. Clint was sure the other two thought about it all day while they worked. As soon as supper was cleaned up, they went over it together, page by page.

  The first few drawings were fairly innocent, a man in a suit kissing a woman wearing only stockings, high shoes, and a hat. By the time they reached the two-men-and-a-woman part, all three of them were in pain. They couldn’t wait to try the position with Victoria riding one man with another entering her ass. But having her lie on her stomach, pillows under her chest and sucking one man while the other entered her from behind, had Clint groaning. He was sure if she kept knees close together her ass cheeks were deep enough for him to come just by rubbing between them. Riley wanted to lie on his back with Victoria’s knees either side of his ears and her pussy in his face while she sucked his cock. Either Clint or Jed would then enter her from behind.

  But not until the woman woke up!

  “Get the wagon unloaded, grab some dinner, and then see how she is.”

  Clint didn’t wait for an answer. He walked, wincing in pain as his cock rubbed against his tight going-to-church pants, out to the wagon. Making sure he didn’t hit the side of the wagon, he lifted the basket of food Sophie had prepared as a wedding gift. She told him to be careful moving it, so he set it on the table. Riley carried in a new cast-iron pot and a blue enamel coffeepot. Jed brought a flat crate that he set on the table. He pulled out tins and boxes.

  “We’ve got Arbuckle’s coffee, condensed milk, marshmallow creme, dried currants, Folger’s allspice, Our Choice ginger, Royal baking powder, salt, sugar, molasses, Banner Blue corn syrup, oh, ho!” Jed held up a small silver bucket. “Swift’s pure lard. That’s going upstairs.”

  Clint groaned at the reminder of their plans for Victoria. Blood had just started to ease from his cock. Someone had checked out their kitchen or asked her what she needed. Since she was so stunned at the presents that she burst into tears, he expected one of their many visitors over the last few days had reported to someone.

  “This box has linens underneath some pie plates, potato masher, rolling pin, washboard, soap.” Jed looked around the tidy room. “Where are we going to put everything?”

  “We’re not,” replied Clint. “We leave everything out so Victoria can inspect it, read the notes from whoever sent it, and put it where she wants. If she’s the one who’s going to be cooking, cleaning, and washing, then she decides where it goes. Remember how the women back home made a big deal out of unwrapping gifts?”

  “Grandma would take forever to pull a ribbon, open a tea towel, and find a pair of mittens,” said Riley, grousing. “And everyone had to wait until she admired them, tried them on, and then wrapped them up again.” Riley frowned. “I remember my Christmas gift was always picked last. It drove me crazy, having to wait.”

  Jed met Clint’s eye. They both snickered. “You’re just figuring that out now?” Clint pointed to the ceiling. “Remember who’s upstairs so watch your language.”

  Jed looked at the pile of gifts and shook his head. “When Sleeping Beauty wakes up, I’ll put some shelves over the windows like at the Rocking E. They hung hooks underneath to put cups where they’re easy to get. And some shelves under the stairs.”

  “I’m going to grind up some fresh coffee in our new pot while you two put the wagon away. A cup of coffee and something from Sophie’s basket will wake Victoria up with a smile.” Clint admired the bright-blue coffeepot as he carried it to the stove. They’d keep the rusty one for camping out. He fixed the pot and stoked the stove.

  Jed and Riley took off their good clothes before they went to the barn. They threw on rough pants and stuffed their feet
into work boots instead of the polished black boots they’d worn to the wedding, leaving their chests bare.

  When they were gone, Clint headed for the stairs. Both Doc and Beth had spoken to him at the wedding party. He wasn’t sure Victoria realized that being dizzy, tired, and having an upset stomach could mean something other than prewedding jitters.

  Jed had covered her, but she’d rolled. She lay on her back, her hair spread across the pillows. Her breasts pressed against her embroidered camisole. He hadn’t seen it before. Pale-pink embroidery over thin white fabric. Like her dress, it had too many buttons. One of her legs was straight while the other bent at the knee. Her petticoat, edged in lace, had scrunched up and exposed her dimpled knee.

  He stood at the top of the stairs, just watching her breathe. After a few moments her eyes fluttered open. She closed them again and stretched, rolling her fists into her chest and pointing her toes. She sighed, rolled over onto her stomach and did it again. This time she pressed her arms and legs far apart. Her petticoat was now high on her thighs. She pulled one knee up, creating a dark shadow where the white fabric draped over her bottom.

  Could he see under it? He cleared his throat so he could swallow. Her eyes flicked open. She stiffened for a moment and then smiled tentatively. She pushed her petticoat to cover her thighs. How long would it take before she no longer felt threatened when she woke with a man in the room? At least she didn’t flinch when he raised his arm, as Ace said Jessie used to.

  “I didn’t want to wake you,” he said. His voice caught, so he cleared his throat again. “Do you want something to eat before I tell Jed and Riley you’re awake?” She shook her head. “If you want to freshen up, now’s a good time to do it,” he croaked.