Read Covington, Cara - Love Under Two Lawmen [The Lost Collection] (Siren Menage Everlasting) Online
Authors: Cara Covington
Covington, Cara - Love Under Two Lawmen [The Lost Collection] (Siren Menage Everlasting) (2 page)
Her green eyes snapped temper, and he swore she was actually vibrating as he teased her. He slid a sly glance toward Warren, not surprised to discover his lover looking at the woman with lust in his eyes. They both had, on occasion, enjoyed intimate encounters with attractive women.
Miss Amanda Dupree certainly filled that bill. She also seemed completely unaware of the nature of their interest and scrutiny. She was too busy trying to get in Adam’s face.
Sarah would have his hide if her cousin arrived at the ranch upset. Time, he guessed, to bring the situation under control.
“Anyone ever tell you you’re pitifully easy to tease?”
Amanda blinked at him as if he’d just spoken a foreign language and took one half step away from him. He missed feeling her heat and knew from the way she furrowed her brow she’d not realized she’d moved quite so close to him.
“Actually, I’m known for my calm demeanor.”
“No, you
used
to be known for your calm demeanor.” Warren tried not to laugh when he said that. Then he nodded toward her valise.
“Did you have just this one piece of luggage and your carpet bag?”
“What? Oh, yes.”
Warren hefted the valise and turned toward where they’d tied the horses and buckboard.
“It’ll take us a couple of hours to get to the Benedict spread.” Adam scooped the carpet bag and followed his lover. “They’re going to hold dinner for us, so we should be heading out.”
“A couple of hours? I thought Sarah lived in Waco.”
Adam turned and gave her what he knew was a considering look. “A couple of hours
is
just right outside of town.”
“Back home, a couple of hours’ journey is clear into the next county.”
“Things are different in Texas.” Adam placed Amanda’s carpet bag on the back of the wagon, beside her valise. Warren stepped up into the driver’s seat, so Adam lifted Amanda onto the seat beside him, laughing when she squeaked.
Adam’s horse, Houston, was tied beside the wagon. Warren had spent the night at the Benedict ranch the previous evening, as he’d needed to go over some ongoing legal matters with Sarah and Caleb and Joshua. Early this morning, he’d driven one of their two-horse buckboards into town in order to provide the easterner with a ride to the ranch.
“Ready?” Warren asked.
Amanda nodded, even though she still looked dazed. She took a moment to scan her surroundings. Then she turned in her seat to face Warren.
Adam mounted his horse and came alongside.
“I just told you I’m a private investigator, and neither of you batted an eye or made any kind of comment in response. Don’t you believe me?”
“Of course we believe you,” Warren said.
“And you’re not going to tell me that a woman’s place is in the home?”
“Why would either of us say something we don’t necessarily believe?” Adam looked ahead, then back at Amanda.
She opened her mouth, then closed it again. Adam clicked, and his horse began to walk. Warren snapped the reins of the horses hitched to the buckboard. The wheels creaked as the small wagon began to move.
Casting a glance over his shoulder, he noted Amanda, sitting in the wagon, still looked confused. That was fine. They had two hours between here and the Benedict’s ranch, plenty of time to explain things, and plenty of time to satisfy some of his curiosity.
The woman was a private investigator, and he’d bet she figured a few things out on her own before long.
Like the fact that both he and Warren were very attracted to her.
Chapter 2
Amanda had been born and raised in the city of Richmond, Virginia. While she had traveled outside the city with her mother from time to time and had even taken the train to New York City once, she couldn’t say she’d ever encountered so much empty space as she had in this last week journeying west.
She was also getting very tired of traveling.
Autumn had arrived, and yet the heat of summer seemed to linger here. The grass, shorter and coarser looking than back home, was saved from being all brown by holding tenaciously to streaks of green.
The buckboard’s movements were neither as smooth nor as gentle as the train, which hadn’t been smooth or gentle at all. She wondered if her bottom would ever recover from the abuse it had suffered so far on this journey.
Mr. Jessop had made a little polite conversation while they were yet in Waco, but once they’d left the city behind, he’d fallen silent. Amanda had never minded silence overmuch. Today, however, she needed the sound of voices and the meat of conversation to help her get her mind off her sore body.
“You said Sarah was unable to meet me herself.” Amanda was only just
now
remembering that, more than an hour into the journey to her cousin’s ranch. Some investigator she was.
“We did,” Warren turned to her, his smile gentle.
Amanda couldn’t help but notice his smile made his eyes twinkle. “Is she ill?”
Captain Kendall answered her question. “No, she’s with child, and although she has a couple of months before she gives birth, her husbands didn’t want her traveling.” He rode beside her, his horse keeping pace with the wagon.
Amanda met his gaze and read the challenge there. “Did you say
husbands
? As in more than one?”
Kendall nodded. “I did. She has two husbands, Caleb and Joshua Benedict, and they are both very good friends of mine.”
She tilted her head as she considered him. She’d only known him an hour, but damn if she wasn’t beginning to understand him already. If anyone else had said that, she might have thought they were trying to provoke her. Amanda didn’t think that was the captain’s purpose at all. He obviously felt the need to test her, and it didn’t take a lot of intelligence to figure out why.
“Lucky woman.”
She could see she’d totally shocked him with her response. Beside her, Mr. Jessop inhaled sharply but said nothing.
After a moment, Captain Kendall said, “Interesting reaction.”
Amanda had never been good at the social games people played. She much preferred saying what needed to be said flat out, as opposed to couching her meaning amid disingenuous words and false flattery. “If you don’t want me to meet my cousin, then why did you volunteer to bring me to her?”
“It isn’t that at all.” Kendall said.
“Isn’t it?”
“Why don’t we take a break here?” Mr. Jessop stopped the wagon, then turned to meet Amanda’s gaze. “We’re protective of Sarah—”
“I get that. And I appreciate your concern. Just because I’ve never met this cousin doesn’t mean I don’t care about her. Do you mind if I get down and walk around for a moment? I feel as if I’ve been traveling for a year instead of a week.”
Captain Kendall quickly dismounted and lifted Amanda from the wagon. Her limbs had stiffened, and she nearly fell. If not for the lawman’s quick reflexes, she would have and that wouldn’t have aided her self-image in the least. It was, she mused, hard to put her best foot forward when the foot in question didn’t want to move. On the heels of her exhaustion and stiff muscles, the attraction she felt for both these men had her completely off balance.
“Please don’t be offended by our concern. Sarah has been through a lot.” Mr. Jessop seemed much softer spoken than Captain Kendall. “Her father arranged for her marriage to Tyrone Maddox without her knowledge or consent. Maddox, it turned out, planned the whole time to have her murdered for her inheritance. Now, just a few months later, here comes a cousin Sarah’s never heard of before. Of course,
she’s
excited and looking forward to meeting you. But the timing—”
“I only learned of Sarah’s existence about a month ago, when my own father passed away.”
“I’m sorry for your loss.” Captain Kendall said the words without inflection, and while she didn’t doubt his sincerity, she knew he held fast to his determination to protect his friends’ wife regardless.
The man seemed entirely too self-assured and arrogant for her tastes. She’d seen his kind all her life. Young, handsome, sure of his place in the world, and determined to make his mark, no matter who he needed to step on to do so. Yes, she knew his kind well.
Why she was attracted to the man, why he heated her blood and made her belly flutter was a mystery beyond her abilities at the moment. She needed to find her starch.
It was time to shake the lawman up, just a little. She had already figured out who and what he was. It was time to turn the tables and offer a little candor of her own.
“Don’t be. It really was no loss to me, since my father never acknowledged me publicly or privately, even though I was his only surviving child. In fact, the fact that he left me a small inheritance was quite a surprise, since I’m the bastard daughter of his mistress.”
* * * *
Warren had to work to hold on to his laughter. He’d told Adam what information he had of Amanda Dupree. Through the years, Terence Parker had mentioned one friend, one person who’d always treated him kindly and with respect despite knowing
all
his secrets. He’d called her Mandy, and it didn’t take great brains to figure out that “Mandy” was, in fact, Miss Amanda Dupree. Terence’s mother had worked with Amanda’s for a time until she’d died of consumption when Terence had been twelve. Old enough to work, he’d been making his way as best he could when a reverend and his wife had taken him in. The reverend had seen to Terence getting an education. Unable to bring himself to be a preacher, Terence had decided on the law as a career.
Warren had met the man when they’d both been young clerks in Philadelphia. Shortly after Warren had left that city for Texas, Terence had gone back to Virginia. They’d kept in touch by letter faithfully.
Warren brought his attention back to the scene unfolding before him. Amanda stood toe-to-toe with Adam. With her hands on her hips and her cheeks flushed with indignation, she was quite possibly the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. He wouldn’t mind sinking his teeth and his cock into her.
He was pretty certain Adam felt the same way, for he’d seen his lover look at her with a lust-filled gaze. Warren felt his cock stir as he considered the possibility that they both might nibble on the luscious Miss Dupree at the same time. He would have to discuss the possibility with Adam tonight.
“Are you trying to shock me, Miss Dupree?”
“I thought that was your tactic, Captain Kendall.”
“Look, I just—”
“Yeah, yeah, you just don’t want Sarah to get hurt. It occurs to me that any woman capable of satisfying and keeping peace between two husbands likely doesn’t need protection from the likes of you.”
“You said that as if the idea of one woman with two men didn’t bother you.”
“Bother me? It’s a refreshing change, seeing as a lot of men seem to harbor the deep, dark desire of having two women all to themselves.”
Adam’s brow went up, and Warren had to hand it to Amanda. She’d managed to make Adam sputter.
“We’re not your enemies, Mandy,” Warren said.
She jerked her head in his direction, her gaze meeting his. “Terence calls me Mandy.”
“I know.”
“Why are you here?” Adam asked.
“I…” Amanda turned away from Adam. When that man’s curious gaze turned to him, Warren could only shrug.
They both kept silent while Amanda took a few paces away from them. The day had turned hot. Dressed in dark clothing, what Warren guessed was Mandy’s version of widow’s weeds, she had to be sweltering.
“When my father died, he left me something. It was then I learned about Sarah. I’ve never had a sister, and I couldn’t help but wonder about her.”
“Why do I think there’s more to it than that?” Adam asked.
“Because there is. I was going to ask her for help, but
not
for money. There’s something I have to do, and I thought she could point me in the right direction.” Amanda laughed then, and Warren thought the sound rather sad. “I didn’t know about her second marriage or that she was with child. I actually thought she might like to come along with me as I look for…” Her voice trailed off then. As if she’d just realized all she’d said, she turned and looked at the both of them. Her gaze went to Adam, then back to him. She tilted her head to the side, and Warren felt his face begin to color.
She’s figured us out
.
“Look, if Sarah’s husbands are even a half as protective as the two of you, then I imagine I’ll be explaining everything to them, too. If you don’t mind, I’d like to get there and freshen up first.”
Amanda focused her attention on his lover, instead of him, waiting for his answer. Adam looked over and cocked his right eyebrow, silently asking for Warren’s opinion.
“Sarah’s going to be angry if we don’t bring Miss Dupree to her,” Warren said.
Adam nodded. “I know.” He turned his gaze back to Amanda. “Your cousin insists on getting her way lately.”
“I like her already,” Amanda said.
That got a smile from Adam. Warren knew his lover was attracted to the woman and imagined he was fighting it, putting his concern for Sarah first.
