Love Under Two Gunslingers

by Love Under Two Gunslingers (lit)

  “I see.”

  “Only one suitcase?” Joshua asked, reaching forward and relieving the housekeeper of her burden. As he did so, he gave Caleb a look that told him he wasn’t alone in his attraction to the lady, just in how he chose to deal with it.

  “My husband requested that I bring but one.”

  “Well that makes things a lot easier,” Caleb said. “If you’re ready, then? We have a half hour to get to the train station.”

  “Yes, all right.” She turned and threw her arms around the housekeeper, who returned her hug while shooting a steely glare at both him and Joshua.

  “Don’t worry,” Joshua said to the older woman. “We’ll take good care of her.”

  “See that you do.”

  Caleb noticed the tears in both women’s eyes and hoped to hell neither one of them burst out crying.

  Nothing made a man feel more helpless than a woman’s tears.

  He pulled open the door, and stepped outside. The morning sun still beat down on the city. The houses stood too close together and too many people scurried about. Fortunately, the buckboard and horses they’d rented from the livery were used to the city and stood placidly at the hitching post.

  She smelled like a flower-filled spring meadow.

  Caleb scowled, willing the unwanted thought away. Joshua pushed past him, taking the path to the street at a fast pace, setting the valise he carried on the back of the buckboard next to their two small bags.

  “Oh. Is there even room for me?”

  Mrs. Maddox had come up behind him, and stood so close he could feel the heat of her body against his back. Her scent surrounded him, making his blood heat and his cock begin to twitch.

  “Sure there is,” Joshua answered. “You can sit on the seat beside Caleb. I’ll just hop on the back here.”

  “Oh, well that’s fine then.” She went around Caleb and stood looking at the buckboard as if she’d never seen one before. Caleb approached her, and wondered just how fast the week could pass.

  “Mr. Benedict, if you would be so kind?”

  Caleb girded his loins even as his hands reached for her. It took only a moment to lift her and set her on the seat, but that moment burned the feel of her, the heat and the allure of her, into his soul forever.

  She’s a married lady, you moron.

  Caleb considered himself a man of honor. But as he rounded the rear of the buggy and prepared to take the reins, he couldn’t help but wonder if his honor could stand the test of Sarah Maddox.

  Chapter 2

  Liam Larson would do anything for his lover.

  All his life he’d been alone and lonely with no hope, really, of ever finding anyone who would love him the way he needed to be loved, until Jamie came along.

  Growing up, he’d never doubted his fate. Unattractive, sickly throughout his childhood, he’d been rejected even by his own family. If those to whom he’d been born didn’t really want him, how could he expect anyone else to?

  Liam had determined while still a boy that although he wouldn’t be wanted, he would be needed. He worked hard, applying himself first to his parents’ farm, and then to whatever job he could find. And then history stepped in and changed his life.

  The war, so devastating to the country, proved to be his salvation. He’d been an excellent shot even before enlisting. Under the tutelage of the United States Army, his skill flourished, and with success came the first real acceptance and respect he had ever known. Army life suited him. He liked the rules and the regulations, the rigidness that made every man the same as every other. He liked the sense of camaraderie that facing danger and harsh conditions bred. He’d been mustered in with men he’d never met, stationed in places he’d never been. He fit in.

  Under these most unlikely conditions and circumstances, while stationed in Missouri, he’d met Jamie. There existed no doubt in Liam’s mind. They’d been destined to find each other and belonged together.

  God had given him this exquisite creature, and Liam knew he could never do enough to be worthy of that gift. He would never take his beloved for granted, and anything, anything at all Jamie wanted, Jamie would get.

  Liam reread the note the telegraph office had just delivered to his room. The message, succinct and to the point, announced that events had begun. Nodding to himself, he stuffed the note into his pocket.

  Liam left his room in the small hotel in St. Louis, Missouri, conscious of his surroundings yet focused on his mission. His mission for Jamie.

  He knew where to find the men he sought. This particular saloon, Murphy’s, had its share of patrons morning, noon, and night. Some arrived early and stayed late, rarely getting up from their stools or chairs except to go piss out the back, making room for more drink. Or taking a quick trip up the stairs with one of the whores, working up a bit of a thirst, then coming back down, again for more drink. One could find places like Murphy’s in every state and territory, hell, in every city in the nation. Places where, for the right price, one could buy anything at all.

  Liam’s first sight of Dick Morgan and his gang didn’t fill him with confidence. If he’d had his way, he’d take care of fulfilling his lover’s wishes personally. But in this, as in most things, his lover proved clever.

  These ruffians could never be traced to Jamie. And no one would ever remember Liam Larson, as plain a man as ever walked the face of the earth. No one, save Jamie, had ever looked at him twice.

  He pulled out the extra chair at the table. The smell of unwashed bodies assailed him, and it was all Liam could do not to curl his lip in disgust.

  “Guess you’re the dude we’re waiting for.” Morgan turned his head slightly to the side to spit out his chaw, just missing Liam’s foot.

  Liam didn’t shake his head but he knew no amount of willpower would keep the look of contempt from his face. Reaching into his jacket he pulled out an envelope and tossed it down on the table in front of Morgan.

  “Half now, half when the job is done.”

  “How’re you gonna know if we did it right or not?” The question was asked by another man at the table, a man who appeared to be little more than a boy, really.

  No intelligence shining from those eyes.

  Liam knew Morgan’s stepson ran with him, as did his brother and a couple of men he’d met during the war, all of them, of course, fighting on the losing side.

  “I’ll be close by,” Liam said. He turned his attention back to Morgan. “Here’s what’s expected of you and where you’re to make your move.”

  He spoke quietly, quickly. He described the target, and there could be no way even a bunch of no-accounts like Morgan and his gang appeared to be could miss picking out the target.

  Morgan grabbed up the envelope, his callused finger playing over the edge of the bills that filled it. “I don’t trust paper money overmuch. Learned my lesson a few years back. Mr. Davis’s paper money turned out to be worth less than shit. I want the rest of it in gold coin.”

  Liam raised both eyebrows. This was one of the reasons he’d argued with Jamie against using a man like Morgan. The man’s basic lack of professionalism would be the death of him.

  Or it would be if Liam had any say in the matter.

  “Very well. The target doesn’t arrive here until tomorrow. You don’t move for a day after that. Plenty of time to make arrangements for the gold then.” What choice did he have? It wouldn’t be very difficult to get the coin, as Jamie had been very generous and provided Liam with substantial property and cash. But his instincts told him the wisest course of action would be to let Morgan keep his obvious impressions, that Liam was just able to meet the financial demands on top of being an unthreatening ‘dude.’

  He could see no reason to let Morgan know he could put a hole in his forehead from four hundred yards away. Farther if he had his Sharps. In fact, there existed no need to let the man know one damn thing more than he absolutely needed to.

  “Then you’ve got yourself a deal. Me and my boys will get the job done.
Now, just one thing we was wondering about. Any reason we couldn’t have us some fun with the…what’d you call it…the target, before we finish the job?”

  Liam got to his feet, revulsion coursing through his veins. He tramped down the twinge of pity that tried to surface by reminding himself that when all was said and done, Jamie would be stronger and safer. And Jamie was all that really mattered.

  Still, he leaned forward and braced his hands on the table. His expression must have revealed a little of the dangerous man he knew he’d become, for Morgan and his men, as one, leaned away from him.

  “You can do whatever you like to Sarah Maddox,” he hissed. “As long as you leave her dead when you are finished with her.”

  * * * *

  Sarah shivered, the chill unexpected and inexplicable. The day had turned unseasonably hot, making the interior of the train car stifling. Opening the window any wider wasn’t an option because of the steady bombardment of smoke and hot ashes from the train’s engine. The constant clatter of the wheels on the tracks and the nearly bone-jarring and never-ending motion as the train made its way toward St. Louis were beginning to take their toll on her.

  The train began to slow. Again. Sarah turned her attention from looking out the window at the endless vista of farmlands and trees to watch the door at the end of the car. She’d had no idea there would be so many stops along the way. Sure enough, the door opened and the conductor began to walk through the car.

  “Normal. Approaching Normal, Illinois.”

  She thought she just might hear that nasal-accented monotone in her nightmares. And then as the town’s name registered, her mirth rose up and she chuckled. Across from her, Joshua joined her, his eyes crinkling at the corners, the blue of them sparkling with merriment. From beside him, Caleb shot his brother an annoyed look and then turned his grumpy-looking face back to the window again.

  She honestly didn’t know what to make of these two. She’d considered herself a fairly accomplished hostess as she’d acted in that capacity for her father before he’d remarried the year before. So it wasn’t as if she had no experience conversing with men.

  But these two seemed different than any she had ever encountered. One appeared stern and moody, the other cheery and unruffled. The fact that they were brothers was amazing enough. That they could actually be twins seemed impossible.

  Yet Joshua, happy to fill the journey with chatter, told her exactly that.

  Looking at them both caused an unfamiliar heat to curl in her belly. Her nipples tingled, and she felt an overwhelming need to clamp her limbs together tightly. These sensations shocked her, being totally foreign to her, but she knew what they meant.

  She’d never in her life felt any kind of stirring toward any man, and now she felt it toward both of these two dissimilar brothers.

  “Can’t say as I’d want to live in a place called ‘Normal,’” Joshua mused. “And if I did, I don’t expect I would go around telling anyone.”

  “Leastways it’s a town and not a goddamned city,” Caleb said.

  Sarah’s eyes widened as her gaze snapped to Caleb, who seemed to immediately realize his blunder. He shot her a fast glance, and she could have sworn he blushed.

  “Beg pardon, ma’am.”

  He appeared completely embarrassed, which to Sarah’s mind constituted a huge improvement over looking stone-faced. She cast a fleeting glance at Joshua who looked as if he was going to choke.

  “My Great-Aunt Maude used to say that the devil himself hid in cuss words,” she announced primly.

  “Yes, ma’am,” Caleb replied, still obviously miffed with himself.

  Now that’s interesting. He seems willing to submit to a well-deserved tongue lashing when I would have wagered he never took any rebuke from anyone.

  As much as she enjoyed seeing this new facet of Caleb Benedict’s personality, she was far too fair minded to let him dangle on the hook for long. She looked out the window at the gradually slowing scenery. “Of course, that damn woman has never been anywhere near Normal in her entire life. So what does she know, really?”

  This time Caleb was the one to give her a quick, wide-eyed look. In response to his shock, she could only smile.

  His laughter filled her with pleasure even as it entered her bloodstream and increased the sensation of attraction.

  The train came to a stop and the sounds of civilization, horses and people, a dog barking and some children laughing and playing, rolled in through the window on wisps of dust. Sarah sighed with the respite from train noise and motion.

  “I’m coming to the conclusion that this is your first train trip,” Caleb said.

  Sarah’s lesser angel wanted to comment on how nice it felt to no longer be totally ignored by the big, dark-haired man, but she easily defeated the impulse. She liked his dry humor and the way his lip curled up at the corner. She wondered what it would be like to trace it with her finger.

  The shock of that thought pulled her gaze down to her lap. It took every bit of will she had to raise her head, look him in the eye, and answer him. She hoped he thought the high color in her face was a result of the heat of the day and not inappropriate thoughts.

  “It is. I must admit that it’s nothing at all like I imagined it would be. How long until we get to St. Louis, do you think?”

  Caleb raised one eyebrow, then looked over at his brother.

  Joshua shook his head. “Tomorrow afternoon. We’ll be stopping for the night in Springfield, Illinois. I’ve heard tell that some trains do travel all night, that some of them actually have cars with cots in them, but not this one. There’s a hotel with a dining room near the station in Springfield. We’ll be staying there tonight.”

  Several hours later, Sarah found herself sitting across a dining table from her traveling companions. The hotel seemed to be doing a brisk business, thanks to so many of her fellow passengers needing food and lodging for the night. She’d never felt so tired or grubby, and, truthfully, didn’t know whether she could do her meal justice, despite being famished.

  The Benedicts didn’t seem to be having any trouble in that regard.

  Since that one stop in the unforgettable town of Normal, Caleb had become somewhat more loquacious. She’d been certain prior to that moment there must have been something about her Caleb Benedict found objectionable. She no longer believed that to be the case.

  She felt a gaze on her and looked up to see both men had cleaned their plates and now stared at hers.

  She looked back down at her food and forked a small bite of potato. This silence that had fallen upon them wasn’t a good thing at all. In the silence her mind played games, such as telling her the brothers regarded her with the same hungry expressions they’d regarded their roast beef just a few minutes earlier. She needed to do something to dislodge these forbidden, albeit exciting, thoughts.

  “Could you tell me a little about where we’re going?” It seemed to her a good idea to focus on the reason for this trip.

  She was, after all, a married woman. Even if she had married a man she’d only met hours before the ceremony. A man who, after the nuptials, had seemed not the least bit interested in her at all. Perhaps it would prove an embarrassment, asking these two to discuss her husband and the ranch that would be her home for the rest of her life. But surely the conversation would keep her thoughts from straying where they truly ought not to go.

  “We’ll arrive in St. Louis tomorrow afternoon, probably late. We’ll stay the night and then take a Wells Fargo stagecoach to Springfield, Missouri. There we’ll board another train to Waco. From the station in Waco it’s just a few hours to your ranch.”

  Caleb’s deep voice shivered her skin. Sarah put the reaction out of her mind. She found it uncharacteristically difficult to concentrate. “Thank you, but I meant could you tell me a little bit about the ranch itself, and maybe a little about my husband?”

  Caleb and Joshua exchanged a look she couldn’t read.

  “Pardon me, Mrs. Maddox, but you
want us to tell you about your husband?” Joshua asked.

  “You have to call me Sarah. Both of you. And yes, I know it’s probably an imposition and maybe not even appropriate, seeing as he’s your boss and all but—”

  “Tyrone Maddox isn’t our boss,” Caleb said quickly. “Not in the way I think you mean. He hired us solely to escort you from Chicago to Texas. We only heard of the job through a friend of ours who’s a Texas Ranger stationed in Waco and who introduced us to your husband. We’re not ranchers—well, we haven’t been since we left home to join the Union Army when we were seventeen.”

  “Oh.” Which meant once she arrived at her husband’s ranch, she’d likely never see the brothers Benedict again.

  That was probably for the best. It wouldn’t do to have these kinds of strange feelings for the two men while being married to another. Inhaling deeply, she pushed those thoughts aside and tried to ignore the tightness in her chest. “So if you’re not ranchers, what are you?”

  “I thought you knew. At least the look you gave us from the top of your stairs in Chicago, when you spied on us, seemed to suggest you did.”

  Caleb’s tone had gone quiet with that last sentence, and oh, the unexpected teasing glint in his eyes stirred her emotions in a way she knew she should ignore—even if it did feel delicious.

  “I’m not going to apologize for that,” Sarah said, pitching her tone to match Caleb’s. She leaned forward just a little, to help ensure their conversation remained private. “I needed to have a look at you before I came down those stairs.”

  “Can’t blame you for that. We had a look at you, too. And we won’t apologize either.”

  “Oh.” His words, his voice, went straight to that secret place between her legs. She grew damp there, a sensation she’d never felt before. She sat back, thoroughly flummoxed by the way her body kept reacting to these men. So far her attempt to bring her body under control and her attention to where it should be, on her husband, was proving to be a dismal failure. Determined, she leaned forward once more. “So, if you’re not ranchers, what are you, then?”