by Gigi Moore
Thayne put a hand on his shoulder and squeezed. “Just remember communication is your friend, Dakota.”
Dakota grimaced. “I will remember that.”
“And when all else fails, hugging it out is always a good idea.”
Thayne gave his brother a reprimanding look and punched him in the shoulder.
Rather than violence, Dakota detected playfulness not malice beneath the act, and not for the first time he missed the kind of camaraderie that existed between siblings, but specifically between brothers.
Spending the first twelve years of his life as an only child raised among the white man, Dakota had been ill prepared for the simultaneous affinity and enmity of his people when his grandfather took him in. He had assimilated quickly, however. His survival among the tribe depended on proving his worth to the other young braves.
Life among the Kiowas was much different than among the white man. Even those who looked down on his half-breed status deemed him family to be protected against outsiders. It was a strange inconsistency, one for which Dakota suspected he had his grandfather to thank.
He wondered now what life would have been like if he had had a sibling, someone close to his age and the same sex with whom to confide his deepest fears and dreams the way Thayne and Cade seemed to have.
Did their relationship with each other make it easier for them to be with Maia or more difficult? he wondered. Could Dakota and Wyatt achieve a similar kinship despite the fact that they did not share the same blood? Could they find a middle ground for the sake of Lily’s well-being, pleasure, and happiness?
Dakota wanted to believe that they could, that anything was possible. He did not want to be Wyatt’s enemy. Indeed, he felt a connection to the man that he had never felt for anyone he was not related to and he thought this might be because of their affection for the same woman.
Dakota took a deep breath, deciding that Thayne was correct and communication was the best thing for him, Wyatt, and Lily. He was not yet sure about this “hugging it out” concept of which Cade had spoken.
“Well, I’m sure we’ve taken up enough of your time. We’ll leave you to getting him settled in,” Cade said as he backed toward the front door.
“Have a good evening, Dakota.” Thayne touched the brim of his hat then followed suit.
Dakota followed the brothers to the door.
Cade opened it and stepped outside.
Thayne paused for a moment and turned back to Dakota, searching his face for a moment before he said, “Please give Lily my regards. And tell her she’s welcome to the house anytime. Maia would love to have her.”
“I will tell her.”
Thayne and Cade left and Dakota watched them get into their wagon and ride off.
When he closed the door and turned back to the great room he was surprised to find Wyatt wide awake and standing right in front of him.
Dakota smiled, genuinely glad to see Wyatt up and around and looking none the worse for wear. Before he had a chance to greet Wyatt, however, the other man hauled back an arm to throw a punch. Luckily, Dakota’s reflexes had not unduly suffered from his injury. Still, he only had a split second to lean back and evade Wyatt’s fist.
Dakota circled him warily, arms held wide as he anticipated Wyatt’s next move.
Were that anticipation able to prepare him for getting the wind knocked out of him when Wyatt crouched, ducked his head, and charged Dakota like an enraged bull.
Dakota landed on his ass with an oomph and slid from under Wyatt just as the man would have straddled him. He leaped to his feet an instant before Wyatt did, surprised by the other man’s agility. He did not seem drunk at all and Dakota wondered if he had been playing possum or he had had enough time to recover during the ride from town.
“You do not want to do this, Wyatt.”
“What? Punch you in your face? Trust me. I want to do that right and proper.”
“This is not what Lily would want.”
Wyatt stopped midswing and stared at him for a long moment before finally dropping his fist. “Ah, hell.” He raked his hand through his hair and collapsed into the nearest chair.
Cautiously, Dakota approached, crouching before Wyatt and wincing at the small twinge in his side. The pain was an unwelcome reminder of how close he had come to dying and not realizing his most fervent dreams—getting to know Lily and her husband better, helping make things right between them, and reuniting Lily with the child he knew she believed had perished in the raid. From the looks of it, however, he was not doing a good job of making things right.
Wyatt glared at him suspiciously but said nothing before finally dropping his head in his hands and groaning.
“You are angry with me and I understand why.”
Wyatt dragged his face out of his hands to glare at him again.
“Lily loves you, Wyatt.”
“Sometimes…sometimes I wonder.”
“Do not doubt her feelings for you.”
“What about you?”
“Lily does not love me,” Dakota said despite knowing she had very strong feelings for him. Whether or not her feelings constituted love remained to be seen.
“I see the way she looks at you. I hear the way she talks to you. She hasn’t looked or sounded like that in a long time. Not since we first married.”
“That doesn’t mean—”
“She loves you.”
Dakota did not know what to say, so he said nothing while the feelings of hope filled his chest to bursting. Deep down on some level, he knew Wyatt was right. Lily was not the sort of woman to share herself lightly and the affection that she had shown to him so far went beyond that of a good and attentive hostess. Lily wanted him as much as Dakota wanted her.
“Do you love her?” Wyatt asked and Dakota sensed how difficult it was for him to say the words out loud to him.
I have loved her from the first moment I saw her bruised and battered and half-buried in the woods, beaten but not defeated.
He could not say that, however, and swallowed hard, keeping his thoughts to himself.
“You do. I see the way you look at her, too.”
“You are her husband.”
“That doesn’t matter none if she doesn’t love me anymore.”
“What are you saying, Wyatt?” Dakota rasped. A sense of optimism and dread suffused him as he watched Wyatt’s Adam’s apple bob up and down when he swallowed hard.
“I ain’t letting her go, so don’t go getting your hopes up.”
Dakota released the breath he did not know he was holding and chuckled.
“What’s so funny, Indian?”
As if in answer to Wyatt’s question, a floorboard creaked at the bottom of the staircase an instant before Lily appeared.
“I’d like to know the answer to that question myself.”
Chapter 9
Both men turned to Lily with wide eyes. They looked like naughty boys who had been caught with their hands in the cookie jar.
She almost smiled at the whimsical thought except for the seriousness of the situation, and the idea of Dakota laughing just a few seconds ago.
Lily didn’t think she had ever seen him so lighthearted before, and it warmed her heart as much as seeing the two men she loved together.
Love…I love them both. Oh goodness me!
She knew it as surely as she knew they had been fighting earlier, the noise of their brawl waking her a few minutes ago. However, they seemed at peace for the moment, unlike her heart, which beat erratically at the idea of having such deep feelings for these two very different men.
Wyatt and Dakota rose in unison and made their way over to her. She watched them with a sense of dreamlike unreality, her mouth totally parched. She reached for the sofa behind her and flopped down just as they reached her.
Both men knelt on one knee before her, the scene like something out of her favorite fairy tale. She felt like privileged royalty being attended to by two loyal subjects.
How did she b
ecome so lucky in one lifetime and how was she supposed to tell these two men how she felt without hurting either of their feelings?
Lily choked back a sudden sob, slapping a hand over her mouth as tears sprang to her eyes. She wasn’t usually a weepy female and was totally mortified when both men rushed to comfort her. Wyatt moved close to hug her around the waist with both arms and Lily barely held in a gasp at the feel of his head in her lap. She ran a hand through his soft hair, regretting the moments like this they had missed during her pregnancy, regretting that Wyatt had never gotten to know his little boy, to hold his beautiful namesake.
Dakota put his hand on her shoulder and it momentarily grounded her. When he gently began rubbing her back in a hypnotic, rhythmic gesture, however, her mind roamed back to the past, to the day she gave birth and named her and Wyatt’s little boy. She’d wanted to honor the man who had made such an indelible impact on her life, her husband—while also paying homage to her rescuer and his people who had taken her in and helped her recover. Thus, her son had been christened Wyatt after his father and Dakota after the stranger who had been her dakota, her “ally.”
Lily jerked her eyes open to stare at Dakota.
“All will be well, Lily. Please do not cry.”
The cultured tone, the gentle touch, the enticing scent…How could she have not recognized him before now? “I don’t—” She stopped herself suddenly when she realized she was about to express her confusion and disbelief out loud, in front of Wyatt.
Obviously, Dakota had a reason for not telling her who he was, that he was the one who had rescued her all those years ago, that he was…
The man I fell in love with. “I don’t want you two to fight.” She said the first thing that came to her mind without divulging what she’d been about to say. She didn’t want Wyatt to know what she knew, not yet, not until she confirmed what her heart already knew and could deal with it. Wyatt was already ambivalent about Dakota, bordering on hostile. Lord knew what he would do if he found out that Dakota had been anywhere near her five years ago. He’d as much as accused her rescuer of being her actual attacker.
No, she couldn’t let either of them know what she suspected—what she knew—not yet.
Wyatt took his head out of her lap and exchanged a look with Dakota before they both looked at her, the personifications of innocence. She didn’t buy it.
“Who says we were fighting?” Wyatt asked.
She knew he didn’t want to upset her, but it didn’t matter. She was already upset wondering where he had been earlier, wondering to where she had driven him. “Were you with another woman?” she blurted.
“How can you ask me that?”
“I know. I have no right to, but I…I just want to know.”
“Lily was very upset when you left.”
Not to mention my head is spinning with what I have learned about you, Dakota.
“So was I,” Wyatt said and shook his head as if to clear his mind of an unpleasant memory. A pang of regret struck Lily square in the chest knowing she had caused him pain by kissing Dakota. And don’t forget, enjoying it! “I went to Hank’s and bumped into…some old friends.”
Lily had a feeling she knew who the “old friends” were and she didn’t want to go down that road with Wyatt, so didn’t pursue it. Wyatt knew very well how she felt about Brand Westyn. They’d had numerous arguments about his questionable character and bad influence. “I’m just glad you’re home safe.”
“You’re not getting rid of me that easily.”
“Wyatt, I don’t want to get rid of you.”
“Are you sure?”
She saw him cut his eyes at Dakota, who still knelt nearby. She cupped Wyatt’s face with one hand. “I love you. You’re my husband.” She leaned forward and placed a soft kiss on his lips. When Wyatt teased the seam of her mouth seeking entry, she parted her lips, gasping as he thrust in his tongue. He tasted of hard liquor and tobacco with a hint of the pure, appealing him just beneath, enough to tempt her hunger and make her pussy wet.
Wyatt cupped her face with both hands, rough and possessive as he stroked her tongue with his, demanding and primal in his need.
Lily closed her eyes and moaned deep in her throat, vaguely aware of Dakota’s presence in the room. She squeezed her eyes tight, but couldn’t shut out the kiss she had shared with him so many hours ago, different, but just as pleasing and wanted as Wyatt’s. Worse—or was it better?—she couldn’t shut out her newfound knowledge of his identity. She remembered how he’d lifted her from the litter once they’d arrived to his people, how his arms had felt around her—at once solid and tender. Those memories merged with her memories of him in the woods when she and Wyatt found him, and how he’d looked at her, his blue gaze stark and…hungry.
How long had he wanted her like that? Why had he not said anything about their history? More importantly, how did he come to be near their property and who had shot him? Did it have anything to do with her attack? Had the same savage that harmed her hurt Dakota, too? Did Dakota know what had happened to his people and where any possible survivors had settled?
Lily felt Wyatt’s hand on her, slowly skimming down her body, from her throat to her breasts, to her belly. She panted into his mouth, so aware of his fingers in that spot where their child had once dwelled, their precious baby boy, Little Wyatt.
They never had a chance to know each other!
Lily launched herself into Wyatt’s arms, taking him off-guard when she straddled him and buried his mouth in desperate kisses.
Wyatt cupped her face and breathlessly pulled away, and when she opened her eyes to look down at him, she saw the shocked expression in his blue eyes.
“Tarnation, woman, what’s chapped your hide?”
“I want you, Wyatt,” she whispered. “Don’t you want me?”
“Of course I do!”
“Then…” Lily paused and followed her husband’s wary gaze, glancing over her shoulder to see Dakota now standing behind her.
His blue eyes burned bright in his face, his desire washing over her skin like a lake of fire, making her underwear even wetter. She involuntarily clenched her pussy muscles and became aware of Wyatt’s cock hardening as he lay still between her legs.
Boldly she let her gaze travel down the length of Dakota’s body, settling on the large bulge between his legs.
They both wanted her. What was she supposed to do about it?
She turned back to Wyatt and gasped at the heated look in his eyes.
Was he angry with her, at the idea that she wanted him and Dakota? Did he think any less of her for desiring, much more, wanting to entertain two men?
As if to answer her silent questions, Wyatt reached up both hands to cup her face, his touch light yet firm. “You are so beautiful, Lilybelle. Do you know just how much I want you?”
Her cheeks heated at his soft words and beneath his caress. She remembered how things used to be in the early days of their marriage, before the savage took everything away from her.
Had he really taken everything from her, though? Hadn’t she come back to more than she deserved in Wyatt, an embarrassment of riches in Dakota? She had two men, two decent, handsome men who wanted her. How many women had one decent man who wanted her?
She moved against Wyatt and listened to the satisfying sound of his breath hitching in his chest. The deep sound emboldened her and she rubbed her ass against the hard ridge of Wyatt’s cock beneath her. She closed her eyes, sighing as she carelessly arched her neck, feeling wicked and free for the first time in her life.
Like most women in the territory, Lily had been brought up to be chaste, virginal, and a proper wife for her future husband. What she didn’t know about pleasures of the flesh, she’d learned in their marriage bed with Wyatt, who knew quite a lot more than Lily where a female’s anatomy was concerned. He had been Lily’s teacher, pleasing her while also helping her discover the parts of her body that could make her melt and sizzle. He helped her discover the parts of hi
s body that would make him melt, too, totally unshy in the security of their bedroom. Out of the bedroom, however, Wyatt was the sweetest, most quiet gentleman.
With Wyatt, Lily had become a woman, but even then she’d had her limits, still inhibited and demure about her body around her new husband. Now, she felt like she had something to prove—to herself, to Wyatt, to the world.
Was this what it was like for women like Rebel and Maia? Was this what it felt like to take what she wanted and claim her womanhood? Reclaim her husband?
“Ah, Lilybelle…” Wyatt’s words were strangled as his hands circled her waist.
She thought for a moment that he meant to stop her gyrations, but he didn’t. Instead, he braced himself as he arched his hips and ground his cock against her scorching, throbbing core. She felt him pulsating, too, his arousal heavy and hard between her legs, like a living thing.
Lily leaned forward and put her hands on his shoulders to support herself as she circled and rocked her hips against Wyatt as if she was riding his Gambit. She bit her lip, working up such a head of friction with her movements that delicious warmth spiraled from her belly and spread down, finally settling in her core. She released a needy, unrecognizable cry, quivering as she tumbled head over heels into blinding completion.
“Lily!” Suddenly Wyatt jerked up to a sitting position, his arms curving around her and tightening as he thrust against her once, twice, three times.
Lily burrowed her fingers through his hair, reveling in the silky softness of the wavy blond strands as Wyatt buried his face against her breasts. She wrapped her arms around his strong, wide shoulders and held him through the climax that stampeded through his body like a herd of startled cattle.
After a long moment Wyatt slowly lifted his head, his stare slightly dazed and unfocused when he looked at her, the pupils of his eyes enlarged. “You are mine.”
The ferocity of his words surprised her, but she found her voice to say, “I…yes.”
Wyatt glanced over her shoulder again to look at Dakota, but Lily was afraid to do the same, afraid of what she’d see shining out of her Indian’s eyes. She was also faintly ashamed by what she had just done—while she was fully clothed no less—in front of Dakota. Yet, she was thrilled at the idea that he had witnessed what she’d done to her husband, that he knew the sort of passion of which she was capable.