Lily's Secrets [Elk Creek 1] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (13 page)

He wondered what his grandfather would have to say about his feelings for Lily and the situation with her and her husband. Marrying outside of one’s race like Dakota’s mother had done was one thing, but participating in a ménage a trois was something totally different and would probably be even more offensive to his people.

This should have concerned him except that Dakota did not live among his people and had not for a long time. He visited the reservation often enough to check up on loved ones, especially his grandfather, but he usually did not allow what others thought to influence his actions. His mother, father, and grandfather had raised him to be his own man and not too many years after his mother’s and father’s deaths Dakota had been on his own, traveling far and wide, working for and with white men in numerous capacities as an army scout and tracker and even a cowboy on cattle drives. He had no permanent home, which made it easy for him to keep an eye on Lily and Wyatt, a practice that had probably, regrettably, gotten him shot.

Briefly, he wondered about the man who had attacked him, knowing that the shooting had not been an accident. Living out among nature as he did, Dakota often ran the risk of coming up against the wrong end of a homesteader’s or rancher’s rifle. The attack on him, however, had been expedient and…personal.

He shook his head to rid himself of the unpleasant thoughts for the time being and focused on his current situation.

Despite his independence and privacy, Dakota could not help but worry how this all would affect someone like Lily and, to a lesser degree, Wyatt. They were vulnerable to the views of their neighbors whether they wanted to admit it or not, balancing on a fine edge of isolation from their own people and still tentatively feeling their way around each other like newlyweds.

“How do you know how I feel when I am not yet sure myself?” Dakota rasped.

“Trust us, Dakota. We’ve been there, done that, and have a T-shirt for it,” Thayne said.

“In fact, we’re still there and doing it. Learning new things and feeling our way around each other twenty-four-seven,” Cade put in.

Dakota looked from one man to the other and thought that they spoke even more strangely than most white men he knew. Despite this, he understood the heart of what they were trying to convey. They lived and had an intimate attachment to a Negro woman, making Thayne and Cade more tolerant to other races than the average white man in Dakota’s eyes. He thought they might actually understand his uncommon situation with Lily and Wyatt—a situation that was not yet a situation.

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.”

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 become 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.”