Colter's Revenge (23 page)

“Is that all you can think about? Sex?”

“I didn’t mention anything about sex, Starry Eyes. I’m just wondering if my brothers were admiring you.”

“We had a mad, passionate orgy while Blade and your wife were tending to you.”

“Did you enjoy it?”

Oh boy! His eyes were growing even darker. She recognized that look. He wanted to bed her.

Sweet mercy, she wanted to be bedded too.

Her pussy heated at the thought of Colter touching her, kissing her, penetrating her, and with the others within hearing distance. Maybe even joining them?

Despite trying hard not to, heat flushed through her face.

“You’re blushing, Ashley. Does the idea of several men making love to you turn you on that much?”

“You’re insane,” she whispered, noticing his expression was filled with lust. Noticed her pussy creamed with anticipation.

“Am I? You wouldn’t have mentioned it if the thought wasn’t already in your mind. Times have changed, Starry Eyes. Sharing women is the norm nowadays. My brother Tyler’s woman is now married to four men. He’ll probably kill all of them when he comes home and finds out. I know I would.”

“You would?”

“Yes, I would kill your husbands, Ash. I would kill them to get to you. To get you for myself. Just as Tyler will do once I give S.K.U.L.L. the cure and they stick to our agreement and get him out.”

“Is that why you were after the cure? To rescue your brother?”

Colter nodded.

Ashley swallowed at the shiver of excitement and fear crawling up her spine.

“Having a man love her so much, to kill the men she might possibly have fallen in love with after all this time just to get her, it could backfire. His…girlfriend might not be receptive to murder.”

“It’s not up to her, now is it?”

“What about Luke? Doesn’t he feel that way about you and your brothers making love to Callie?”

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Without warning he leaned closer and kissed her. A soft, sweet whisper against her lips that made her tremble with need. Made her want more.

“Callie and Luke are married only to each other in their hearts,” he replied. “Yes, Luke shared her with us. And Callie shared her body with us, not her heart. Sex is just sex these days, sweetheart.”

“Sex should be an intimate act between a man and a woman who love each other.”

“No, Starry Eyes, that’s called lovemaking. Sex, on the other hand, is enjoying each other’s bodies. Hot, no-strings fun.”

His warm breath washed all over her face, making the heat there burn so erotically she was close to swooning.

“You wouldn’t share me again…would you?” She recognized the hope in her voice and mentally kicked herself for being so obvious.

“Only if you were willing.”

“And if I said I was willing?”

Oh boy! What was she saying? Was she teasing him or was she serious? She wasn’t in the least bit sure. Whatever was happening between them, it sure was turning her on hotter than a firecracker.

His warm lips brushed across her mouth again ever so gently and she found herself whimpering. Found herself helpless as he lifted both her arms over her head and kissed her again.

Deeper. Harder.

Oh yes, he sure did know how to kiss.

“Then I’d say we’d have to wait,” his warm breath whispered softly against her mouth.

Ashley blinked. “Wait?”

“Until I was in top shape. Until then…”

To her surprise she felt a handcuff clamp down around her wrist and then the other. It was quickly followed by the clink of chains.

Shit! She looked up and saw the shackles. Fury gripped her. Anger at falling for this so easily.

“Colter! You bastard!”

He smiled smugly.

“There…now I’ve got you right where I want you again.” He chuckled and got out of bed.

At the foot of the bed he lifted another chain. Cuffs dangled and clinked. Cuffs for her feet, no doubt.

She tried to move her legs away but he was faster. Capturing one and then the other, he had her clamped and trapped in no time flat.

“How convenient. Do you and your brothers do this to your wife?”

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“Wouldn’t you like to know?”

As a matter of fact, yes, she would like to know. Did his wife lie here in this bed, her arms and legs shackled while all the Outlaw brothers had their way with her?

Heated liquid pooled between her pussy lips.

She watched him stalk around the other side of the bed. Sympathy zipped through her when she noticed the thick white pad Blade had taped over the bullet wound on the back of his upper thigh. The bed moved as he wearily slipped beneath the covers. The sympathy dissolved when he reached out and turned out the bedside lamp, dousing the room into darkness.

“Good night, Starry Eyes,” he chuckled.

The bed moved slightly and then a moment later she heard the soft sound of his even breathing.

He was already asleep!

But what about her? His kisses had inflamed her. His talk of ménages had made her aroused. She needed relief or she’d be on edge all night long. How dare he leave her so sexually frustrated?

Screw him! She’d just have to find relief in her own way. Lifting her cuffed hands, she moved her arms downward and cursed softly when the chain stopped just short of its mark.

Damn him!

She couldn’t reach her aching pussy, nor could she lift her legs or budge upward. He’d planned her capture very well and she found herself wondering if maybe his wife Callie had been in on her capture too.

* * * * *

A loud crash made Colter wince as he sipped his late morning coffee and watched Callie put the final touches of chocolate icing on the chocolate cake she’d baked earlier that morning.

“There goes that antique ceramic lamp I fixed last week. Sounds like she’s smashed it against the wall,” Mac grumbled from where he sat at the end of the kitchen table. Ever since Colter had joined them in the kitchen Mac had had his head stuck behind the weekly farm newsletter. He’d been searching for a used engine part to get their second tractor running but had come up with nothing. Their next step would be to pay an exuberantly high price through the black market, and if S.K.U.L.L. didn’t come through with the money promised for getting the cure, they’d be right back to square one. No money for tractor parts. No parts, no tractor. No way of getting the seed into the ground. No seed. No vegetables to sell. And no money to pay the mortgage. But if S.K.U.L.L. came through, then things would really be looking bright. Another loud bang echoed from somewhere near the back of the farmhouse. 131

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“I think that’s the bathroom door shutting. She must be going in for a shower,”

Cade’s voice sounded tight as he sat opposite from Colter. His dark brown shoulderlength hair was mussed from the wind. His face unshaven and so tanned he could pass for a dangerous renegade Indian. Since before sunup he’d been out plowing the fields with their remaining rusty tractor. For the past few weeks—with the threat of foreclosure looming over their heads—all of them had been nervous, uptight and constantly working the farm. Sometimes one of them would suggest that maybe they should just give up the farm and let the evil Barlow brothers who owned the bank and their mortgage simply foreclose on them. But the thought of giving in to those bastards who’d Claimed Tyler’s woman would always offer them an incentive to work harder.

“Good grief. How long are you going to keep her locked up in that stuffy bedroom?”

His three brothers chuckled at Callie’s question as she waddled over from the counter, chocolate cake in hand, and heaved her pregnant frame at the kitchen table. She looked absolutely stunning this morning. Her cheeks were flushed pink, her eyes sparkled and she’d put her long shoulder-length hair into an updo with two curls drooping down on each side of her pretty face. They sure didn’t kid around when they said pregnant women had a certain glow about them.

However, that’s not what had his immediate attention. His gaze zeroed in on the chocolate cake she placed in front of them.

“Damn that smells delicious.” He couldn’t stop his mouth from watering at the heavenly aroma drifting beneath his nostrils. Nor could he stop himself from wiggling with excitement in his chair. A niggle of pain from his bullet wound to the thigh made him stop short. Not more than twelve hours after getting shot he was feeling a heck of a lot better thanks to the supply of painkillers and numbing cream he kept in his house office medical cabinet.

These days, having chocolate cake was a rare treat, especially with the skyrocketing cost of food since the economy had collapsed.

“You didn’t answer my question,” Callie said coolly as she began cutting some huge slices.

“I’ll let her out when she settles down,” he admitted.

“She doesn’t strike me as the type who’s going to settle down, bro. And she won’t put up with too much of your shit, either,” his brother Luke chuckled from his perch on the kitchen counter as he kept one eye on the chocolate cake and the other eye to the window and the driveway.

Blade had said he’d come as soon as he got any word about Tyler being released. Everyone was understandably on edge. They had no way of knowing if Bev would give in to Colter’s demands of him not handing over the research papers and cure unless his brother were out of danger.

Anything and everything could go wrong. Especially where Tyler was concerned. Their baby brother had a knack for getting himself into trouble. He was the hothead of 132

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the family. Acting first and thinking second. It had gotten him into a lot of fights during his young life, and no one had been too surprised when he’d turned up missing during the Terrorist Wars.

“If anything, you denying her her freedom will only make her more mad,” Callie replied.

“She’ll be fine,” Colter replied, not really believing what he was telling Callie. He doubted Ashley would forgive him easily for trussing her up as he had last night. But he’d been tired and weak, and with the help of Callie he’d managed to outfit the bed with restraints. He still couldn’t believe how easily she’d melted against him when he’d kissed her, how quickly her anger had diminished and how easily she’d trusted him, enabling him to capture her yet again. It gave him a fragment of hope for their future together. First though, he needed his questions answered and he wasn’t about to let her go anywhere until she answered them.

This morning when he’d awoken, she’d still been sleeping and before he’d snuck out of the bedroom he’d unlocked the cuffs from her wrists and ankles, all the while admiring her stretched-out luscious form. There had been an odd smile on her sleeping face. A smile that, if his instincts were correct, was anything but kindly towards him. Oh yeah, she was definitely going to be pissed off when he showed up and let her out of the locked bedroom. But he’d much rather deal with her when his stomach was full of that chocolate cake.

“She is a feisty one, isn’t she?” Luke chuckled as he scraped a finger full of chocolate icing out of the empty bowl on the counter. “She sure didn’t much enjoy you dragging her off to the bedroom last night. I’m sure she must be a spitfire in bed when she’s mad.”

Callie threw him a stern scowl. “You aren’t helping, dear husband.”

Luke winked at Callie, and Colter noticed her relax. She knew Luke was only kidding. Ever since Callie had come back home, Luke hadn’t so much as looked at another woman…not that there were any women around there to look at, with all the groups of men keeping their Claimed women under virtual house arrest and not letting them go anywhere on their own. It was for a woman’s protection to remain out of sight these days. Life for any woman was becoming increasingly dangerous, especially for the ones who still opted to live unClaimed and unprotected in the Maine wilderness and other areas throughout the States.

There were hoards of men who didn’t have a woman to love. Men who were frantic to have kids of their own. To have a woman’s soft touch on their skin. The warm, nourishing companionship of the opposite sex.

The water pipes began to groan and squeak, indicating Cade was right. Ashley was taking a shower.

Now would be the perfect time to go in and calm her down. He eyed the chocolate cake…or maybe he should stay and enjoy that cake before his brothers wolfed it down?

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Chocolate cake? Or Ashley?

It shouldn’t be such a damned tough decision.

But it was.

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Chapter Ten

Colter Outlaw slipped into the bedroom and tiptoed toward the bathroom. The shower was still running, but the door to the bathroom was locked. She’d been in there a long time. Probably getting herself off without his help. He grinned.

A locked door never stopped him when he wanted something. All he needed was a credit card, which he just so happened to have. He slid it out of his wallet, slipped it between the crack and the door latch, and voila.

The doorknob turned and he walked into the hot, steamy bathroom. The closed shower curtain moved back and forth with the breeze of the powering water. He stepped toward it and his cock pulsed with heated lust. In a moment he’d be able to see her lusciously nude body all wet and soft, and maybe, if she weren’t too mad at him, she might let him bring her the relief he’d denied her last night. Man, he’d sure been an asshole last night. Selfish and arrogant in grabbing her and embarrassing her that way by dragging her away in front of Blade, his brothers and Callie like she’d been a child instead of a stubborn, sexy woman. He’d tucked her into his bedroom just so he’d be able to sleep easier knowing she was right there lying beside him.

He found his smile widening as the moist steam from the shower seeped through the sides of the curtain and slapped against his face.

Déjà vu
. He’d done the same thing back at Pleasure Palace, sneaking into the shower when Ashley had first shown up there. Then he’d barely kept himself from stepping into the shower stall with her. Had told himself he wouldn’t get emotionally involved. His mission at the time had been purely sexual revenge. His only motive to sexually torture her and leave her wanting him just as she’d left him wanting her. Things sure had changed in the course of a few days. Now he couldn’t wait to mount her. Couldn’t wait to figure out how they were going to get around this Claiming Law, because there was no way he could accept anyone being her husband except himself.