“It’ll get easier,” Warren said. “The more times we take you there, the more you’ll stretch.”
She understood his was the voice of experience. “I liked it a lot.” Paltry words, she thought, to convey the sense of being as one with these two dynamic men.
“I never would have known.”
Adam’s dry rejoinder teased laughter out of her and Warren. Then he said, “It was better than anything I’ve ever felt. Ever.”
“It was,” Warren agreed. “I think you’re the part that was missing from us, Mandy.”
Amanda sighed and snuggled deeper into her lovers. As much as their words warmed her, they alarmed her as well. She’d told them she had no idea what the future held, and that was as true this moment as it had been when she’d said it.
Blissful this relationship may be, and, yes, she’d never felt more complete. But she understood how transitory the physical could be. She loved them and loved being with them. But she had a life waiting for her in Richmond, just as they had lives waiting for them here. She simply wasn’t certain these feelings between them could ever be a forever kind of love.
Chapter 15
Warren’s smile felt permanently etched on his face. The scenery had become monotonous a few days ago because he preferred cities over wilderness. The sun must have decided to give summer another try, as it burned down with the intensity of mid-July. His ass felt like it had been molded to the shape of the saddle and would remain so for the rest of his born days.
None of those irritants mattered. He’d never been happier in his life.
He looked over at Amanda and Adam and knew he’d never be able to give thanks enough for the simple miracle of their having come into his life.
He’d carried dark shadows inside him for as long as he could remember, shadows forged by the events of his past and the perilous times he’d survived before landing in Waco. He’d told Adam some, but not all, of what he’d endured. He could see no need to reveal those past wounds to the light of day now. Especially now that he had these two amazing people as lovers.
Every moment he spent with them erased hurts and wounds from the past. They made him feel fresh and clean and new.
How did a man return such a gift?
“If we can get as far as Eufaula Lake before sundown, it’ll be a good place to camp.” Adam turned slightly in his saddle to look at both him and Amanda. Then he flashed that smile Warren so loved. “It’s deep enough. We can swim naked. Um…can you swim, sweetheart?”
Warren knew he addressed Amanda. Swimming naked together was the one thing he and Adam had always been able to do, even in the full light of day, provided they were where women weren’t.
Society is a strange beast.
“Yes, I can swim. I’ve never swum naked, though. I think I’ll like it.”
They’d been skirting the edge of the Ouachita Mountains since yesterday, and the uneven terrain made riding a little more work than it had been. Warren knew he wasn’t alone in keeping an eye on Amanda. She hadn’t complained, but he could see the effort the long days took on her face. He suspected that’s why Adam considered stopping early.
They weren’t that far from the lake. He could smell the water.
Twenty minutes later, they dismounted. The bank of the lake, at this end of it, sloped gently, the grass that grew next to it long and soft-looking.
“Let’s tie the horses over by those trees.” Adam pointed to a stand a bit away from the water and down wind, hopefully, from where they’d sleep.
Once the animals had been watered and relieved of their saddles, they set about making camp. By now, they’d fallen into a routine of tasks—Warren would lay out their sleeping pallet and get the water for coffee and cooking, while Adam and Amanda set out the gear and then gathered wood for their fire.
Warren kept his eye on the others as he went about his chores. They meshed well together, as if they’d been functioning as a family for years instead of weeks.
They are family. They’re my family.
“That’s enough work. Let’s swim.” Adam accompanied his words by walking toward the water as he opened his shirt.
By the edge of the lake, they all three dropped their clothes. Warren enjoyed the sight of his lovers’ bodies. Adam’s physique made Warren’s mouth water. The muscles roping Adam’s arms and chest seemed more substantial than one would guess looking at the man when he was clothed.
The sight of Amanda’s breasts with her pink-tipped nipples and the sweet curve of her waist, the lovely, rounded globes of her ass, made him hard.
He never would have imagined how glorious it could be to feel two lovers at the same time as he had when Adam had fucked Amanda’s ass while he’d been buried balls deep in her pussy.
Tonight, he and Adam would reverse those positions.
A cool splash of water pulled him back to the moment. Adam had jumped into the lake and had palmed water at him.
Of course, he couldn’t let such an insult go unanswered.
Amanda shrieked when Warren dove in. He’d grown up swimming in the Delaware River, which meant that a body of still water posed almost no challenge at all.
Clean and clear, the water held a hint of the day’s heat so that the shock of sudden immersion was less than it might have been.
“The man’s a damned fish.” Adam kicked out, trying to escape retribution.
Not wanting his lover to be proven a liar, Warren dove deep, eyes wide open. Easily able to distinguish male from female legs, he zeroed in on Adam. Grasping Adam’s ankle, Warren gave a mighty tug and smiled when Adam’s face came even with his own under water.
They broke the surface at the same time.
“Warren Jessop, don’t you dare do that to me!” Amanda’s laughter tickled him. He looked at Adam, felt one eyebrow go up. Adam’s smile was all the answer he really needed.
“Now if you had said, ‘wonderful, handsome Warren, I beg of you please, please don’t,’ you might have had a chance to escape Adam’s fate.”
Amanda surprised him. She didn’t beg, scream, or yell. Instead, she gave him a brilliant smile and then dove down beneath the surface, out of sight.
He and Adam both craned their necks, scanning the area, searching for her. In his head, the seconds added up. His heart began to pound hard when that count passed thirty. He knew alarm showed on his face when a minute had passed. He turned to Adam, who looked on the verge of panic.
The sound of a splash drew his attention. Amanda had surfaced hundreds of feet out into the lake.
“Goddamn it, woman, don’t scare us like that!” Adam yelled.
“I didn’t mean to scare you.” Amanda began to swim toward them, her strokes strong and even.
“You said you could swim, but neither of us imagined you could do it so well.”
Amanda slowed her pace as she neared them. “My mother—”
“Saw to it you had lessons.” Warren wanted to laugh because he and Adam had both finished her sentence for her. Then he caught the look in Adam’s eye.
“I’m glad you’re that good. I won’t worry about you, then.” Reaching out, their lover put his hand on top of her head and pushed her under.
* * * *
After they’d dragged themselves from the water, Adam set about catching fish. He’d done this a few times along the trail, his simple string and hook working well. Amanda had wondered if he’d get any nibbles, considering all the noise and splashing they’d made earlier, the three of them. But he’d walked down past where he’d tethered the horses, and in short order had three good sized lake trout.
While he’d fished, she’d rinsed her boy-shirt in the water, wringing it out hard and laying it on one of the near-by large boulders to dry.
“Fish is ready,” Warren announced.
Daylight ebbed as they sat down to eat by the fire on a large half-rotted log Adam had found and dragged over. She scanned the forest, the trees marching up the mountain, the slope of the rock not as sharp as the Appalachians back East. I
t seemed to her there were a lot of old trees and many that had fallen or died.
She noticed Adam following her gaze.
“Nature is miraculous. Likely in a few years, we’ll get a dry summer so the forest will be parched. Then there’ll be a lightning strike and a fire. Clean up all that brush and dead wood.”
“I read about trees way out in California, big trees whose pinecones only seeded after a fire.” She shook her head. “I guess the earth more or less can take care of herself.”
“If we don’t get in her way,” Warren agreed.
The trout tasted succulent, tender and so good, and Amanda ate more than usual. There was something about being out on the trail, pushing herself to ride farther and faster each day, that fed one appetite in her while creating others.
“I feel free here.” She hadn’t thought to put it into words, but since this amazing feeling had been authored in part by her lovers, she wanted to share it. “Back home, when I’m at home, life is good. When I’m out and about, it’s a little different. I go into town, into shops, or restaurants, even the post office. I can go in feeling wonderful and come out battered because someone recognizes me, well, not me necessarily but rather who I represent to them. I love my mother and wouldn’t change her for the world. And yet, I’m a target for mealy-mouthed old biddies—and some so-called gentlemen—because of her.”
“You have to know it’s not your mother, Amanda. It’s…people. People, as a group, can be mean, nasty bastards. They have standards they arbitrarily enforce, and will cut down anyone who’s different from them—because, I think, they fear that which is different.” Warren said.
“There are all sorts of different kinds of societies in the world, did you know that? I’ve read the accounts of British explorers who have gone into all corners of the globe. I’ve often thought how wonderful it would be if we could make our own society, you know?”
Adam raised one eyebrow. “What would your society be like, sweetheart?”
“Well, for one thing, no one would judge anybody else based on how they’re born or who they love. People would be free to make those choices and it would be no one’s never mind. And women wouldn’t be at the mercy of men—like Sarah was—and would be free to learn and grow and be all they wanted to be.”
“That’s pretty radical thinking there, Miss Dupree.” Warren’s voice teased. Then his expression sobered. “Quite frankly, these are thoughts that Adam and I have had ourselves.”
One of the most amazing things about these men was their willingness to discuss all manner of topics with her, be they mundane or fantastical. Not once had either of them made her feel inferior because she was a woman.
She smiled and picked up another piece of fish to nibble. Warren had already started the coffee brewing, and the scent of it pleased her nose.
“Radical,” Warren repeated, “but I think it could be done—on a limited scale, mind. If there’s one thing I’ve seen in life it’s that people who are rich seem to be able to get away with any damned thing they want. Seems to me if a body had enough money, they could build themselves an oasis—like a town that would be only open to a few people of like-mind. Hell, religious groups have been coming here from Europe and founding their own ‘societies’ since the Mayflower.”
“If you bought enough land, and kept it, only leased out some parcels to people who agreed to live by your rules…” Adam’s words trailed off. His gaze was on Warren. The way the two men sometimes read each other’s minds and finished each other’s sentences was downright eerie.
Warren nodded. “You can make that legally binding in a contract. You can rent or lease out parcels and make that a condition of the lease.”
“Be smart to keep hold of all the land, so your rules could never be changed. Something you could hand down to future generations.” Adam said
“Yeah.” Warren said.
Amanda thought it sounded as if they were actually working out a plan as they talked.
A shiver racked her, and she rubbed her bare arms to ward it off. After her swim, she’d donned just her chemise, and though the temperature of the air still felt warm, she was filled with a sudden chill.
“Cold, Mandy? We’ll warm you.” Warren’s deep voice turned her shivers to heat. He sidled over to her, his movement slow and deliberate. Before he even touched her, the heat of him sank into her, searing her flesh. She’d shied away from thinking of the future beyond this adventure, but already she wondered how she would be able to live without these two virile men once she returned home to Richmond and her life there.
Adam gave her a look that needed no words. Even as he moved closer, the scent of brewing coffee gave way to the scent of her lovers, and it was no longer the dark hot beverage she craved but the hot, hard pounding of their cocks.
Warren slipped his arm around her and pulled her toward him. His mouth, wet and open and demanding, settled on hers. His tongue claimed hers, swirling against hers, sliding along her teeth, reaching into the dark corners of her mouth, drinking her. Her heart sped, her blood thickened and heated as his flavor became hers, as she used her own tongue and lips and teeth to take as boldly, to delve beyond the threshold of passion into need.
Adam pressed against her other side and his hand stroking down her head compelled her to gently leave the lips of one lover to taste another’s. So different, yet the desire each stirred in her was the same—hot, vibrant, irresistible.
As her tongue danced with Adam’s, she reached her hands down to each side of her to caress and tease trouser-covered cocks. Twin ridges of masculine desire rose to her stroke, as if they were feral creatures seeking her feminine touch.
In the distance, thunder rumbled.
Amanda felt the change in her lovers instantly, even as she understood it wasn’t thunder she heard but the fast and heavy pounding of horses’ hooves.
“Oh, God. Amanda, get down!” Adam pushed her down toward the boulders behind them, even as he lunged for his rifle. Warren’s actions mirrored their lover’s.
A high-pitched trill pierced the air, one voice, followed by many taking up the battle cry. Gunfire exploded toward them out of the inky blackness of the night, followed by the ping of ricocheting bullets. Amanda crawled toward her rifle rather than the boulder. She rolled with it until she found a spot close to the rocks but in the open.
She stayed on her belly and aimed toward the unseen attackers.
The charging warriors never came close. It sounded as if a hundred men screamed and fired, a dozen horses cried into the night, a swarm of unseen attackers racing toward them, keeping just out of sight. The night cloaked them, and Amanda felt her heart pound, fear so intense she thought she might puke. The unseen enemy kept shooting toward the fire, and Amanda joined the men in shooting back, their shots going undirected into the blackness. She heard no sound of impact, no cries of pain, so she didn’t think she actually hit anyone or anything.
Then the bandits were gone, riding off in the same direction from which they’d come. The attack had happened and then passed so quickly, Amanda almost couldn’t fathom it.
“I thought I told you to get behind the boulders.” Adam’s attention stayed on the sound of retreating warriors, his gun held fast, aimed, ready.
Amanda ignored the implied scolding. She shot to her feet, rushing over to the men, her hands seeking one and then the other of them.
“You’re not shot? Not either of you?” Logic told her they’d escaped injury. She just needed to touch them to be sure.
Warren turned to her then, giving her the same hands-on inspection. “No, we’re fine.” He sighed heavily. “And so are you. Thank God.”
“I thought we were goners,” she admitted. Now that the crisis seemed over, she began to shake. When Adam reached for her gun, she handed it to him.
“We might still be,” Adam said gently. He pulled her to him and she went, not ashamed to accept the comfort now that the bullets were no longer flying. Warren pressed close, and for a long momen
t, they stood silent, one solid unit.
Adam’s words, however, chilled her, and finally she stepped back to meet his gaze. “Because they might come back?” She asked him.
“No,” Warren answered her. “Because they stole our horses.”
Chapter 16
Colin wanted to kill Big Ben Bodine with his bare hands.
If he thought he could get away with it, he would shoot the bastard and his minions and count it a high point of his life.
As he thought over the last few days, Colin felt his choler rising. First, Bodine and his so-called partners had too much to drink in Denison, giving them all big heads and even nastier dispositions. They didn’t leave the frontier town until after noon the day after they’d arrived, which put them at least twenty-four hours behind the Dupree woman. Then they’d had to make camp after only a few hours on the trail so everyone could finish “recovering” from their drinking binge.
“Ain’t my fault! That whiskey was tainted, I swear to God!” Ira’s complaint may have had some merit to it as he puked his guts out around his words. By the time the man had finished throwing up, Colin had felt like joining in, even though he’d felt fine just minutes before.
Colin never drank to the point of intoxication. He’d seen too many men ruin themselves while foxed. He’d play cards with a drunkard and buy him drinks until he couldn’t see he was being taken, but Colin always limited his own imbibitions.
Then Bodine took two days to find the right trail to follow. One of the horses their prey had rented from the livery had a notch in one of its shoes. Once they realized that, it made following the party—three saddle horses and a pack horse—much easier.
They gained on them, but not fast enough to Colin’s way of thinking. Bodine’s best estimate put them two days behind their target, but Colin wondered about that. It seemed to him the whore and her escorts were making good time on the trail, judging on the distance between their camp sites—a distance that seemed longer than between the ones before they’d reached Denison.
Covington, Cara - Love Under Two Lawmen [The Lost Collection] (Siren Menage Everlasting) Page 13