Their Captivated Bride (Bridgewater Menage Series Book 3) (12 page)

"I don't know any other way," I replied. While I grew up imagining one husband, having three was the only way I knew.

"True, but men are fairly needy. Aren't you tired?" Ann asked, and then blushed. She had been married the longest to her husbands were Robert and Andrew. They had an eight-month-old son who had been crawling on the floor under the supervision of his fathers, who'd introduced themselves as I walked by. "Surely you're tired if you are newly wed to those three."

They all giggled.

"Brody and Mason didn't let me out of bed for two days," Laurel said. She had wed in the winter, and from the story she told, was thankful to be alive since her men had rescued her from a blizzard.

"It seems," I started, then chopped through a large carrot with a loud thwap, "while they like to...to—"

I couldn't go on, for it was hard enough to get used to intimacy with the men, let alone talk about it with these women.

"You can share. We are very open at Bridgewater," Emma said. "My first day on the ranch Kane and Ian shaved my pussy and put a plug in my bottom with Laurel's husband right outside the door."

My mouth fell open. "Outside the—"

Laurel nodded and rolled her eyes. "He didn't see anything. If we need tending, our men make us their top priority."

I frowned. "I think my three are more private. While they like to share, they each also like to spend time alone with me," I admitted. "That's why it's been three days. While they...took me together," I blushed, but continued, "they also wanted time alone with me."

"See? They are needy," Ann commented.

"You are happy?" Emma asked. A baby's cry came from upstairs and she smiled. "Ellie's awake."

"Don't you have to get her?"

Emma shook her head and began to undo the bodice of her dress. "No. Kane and Ian dote on her terribly. One little whimper and they are checking on her. One of them will bring her down to me since she's hungry. Now, before they get here, are you happy?"

I thought about that. Rhys, Cross, and Simon had been nothing but kind to me. Attentive, thoughtful, aggressive, dominant, passionate.... The list was long, but none of them, except perhaps them sticking a plug that Rhys had made into my bottom, but otherwise...I
was
happy.

"So far, yes," I replied, for I thought that was a safe answer. There was a niggle of concern though, for the men were quite secretive. They knew much more about me than I did of them. That could be resolved over time, but not if they didn't share.

"I have a feeling they had difficult pasts," I surmised.

We heard heavy footsteps and silly talk at the same time.

"That would be Ian and Ellie," Emma said, smiling as she adjusted her dress and shift so her breast was exposed. "He's a big brawny man but melts as soon as he gets near his daughter."

In came Ian cradling a baby in his big arms. While Ellie was three months old, she appeared tiny being held by such a large man. He was crooning something to her in a different language, perhaps Gaelic. He kissed the baby's dark hair, much the same shade as her mother's, then handed her off. Emma settled her against her breast. Ian watched his wife and baby for a moment, leaned in and kissed the top of Emma's head almost reverently, then left.

Watching Emma with one of her doting husbands made me feel wistful. While Uncle Allen had doted on me and loved me, he'd had a secret family on the side, one he hadn't wished to include me in. Yes, I'd been involved with the Tannenbaums from the beginning, even being friends with their son, Tyler, who had moved to Billings the year before.

Tyler was two years old than I was, and we'd grown up together. His parents doted him on, but the Tannenbaums weren't his only parents. He had Uncle Allen, too. Was he Tyler's father, and I had never known it? They'd kept me on the periphery all this time. Surely Tyler knew the arrangement of his parents—two fathers and a mother, perhaps he'd even known we were actually cousins—while I hadn't known a thing. My parents had died in a stage accident, leaving me behind on their way to Bozeman.

Finding out about Uncle Allen’s secret life had left me feeling somehow betrayed, as if I’d been an outsider all along.

I felt like an outsider now as I watched Emma, Ian and their baby. The bond was there between them, and with Kane as well. The other women had a place on the ranch, each of them a loving life with their men. But me? I was lost. I felt...extraneous and out of sorts. I didn't really know anything about Rhys, Cross or Simon and that only added to my discomfort.

Once Emma had the baby settled down to nurse, they glanced at each other, then at me. The meal was forgotten, at least for the moment. "You asked after their pasts. I think they've all had hardships, Ian especially." Emma looked both wistful and angry, probably because she wanted to protect her man from the burdens of his past, but couldn't. "I've heard some of what happened to them—Simon and Rhys—in Mohamir, for Ian is the one wanted for the crimes he didn't commit," Emma told me, her voice bitter. "But none of the men have shared details of what the crimes actually are, other than that their commander, Evans, killed innocent people."

"Simon woke up from a nightmare the other night, calling out the word
alea
, but I don't know what it means, or if it is something in that country's language or a name. When I asked if he was all right, he said 'dinna worry yerself' and held me as he fell back asleep." I shrugged. "He just seems to carry the past with him more heavily than most. Cross, too. He wasn't even with them in Mohamir. He's hinted at a terrible childhood, but again, he won't tell me more."

They all held secrets, it seemed.
Everyone
held secrets from
me.

Laurel looked understanding. "Your men are more reserved, as we don't know much either. They'll tell you in time, if they choose. Just be there for him, tend to them as much as they tend to you. They might be big and formidable, especially Simon, but they have their weaknesses, they just don't show them often."

"Don't forget the biscuits," Emma reminded Laurel, who went to the oven to check on them.

"Their biggest weakness is now Olivia," Ann said, moving out of the way for Laurel as she stirred a pot on the stove. "They've taken on your enemy as their own."

When we arrived for lunch, Rhys told everyone about how we met, the threat to my life by Mr. Peters and now I felt guilty, for in truth, besides protecting me through marriage, my men would also have to defend against anything he might do. They'd assumed my burdens, even though they seemed to carry plenty of their own. Had they done this because they felt guilt at buying the horse from the man who may have burned down my house?

"I'm glad it doesn't bother you that the stud horse they purchased came from him," Laurel said, passing by me with a handful of cloth napkins to place on a tray.

I paused in the middle of a cut, knife in the air. While I hadn't forgotten that the men bought the horse from Mr. Peters, I'd put it to the back of my mind. It raised questions I hadn't considered before - questions that only now came about as I was married and entrenched in Bridgewater.

I stood and offered a small smile, wiping my hands together. "Will you excuse me for a moment?"

The ladies looked at me with surprise since I'd abruptly stood and wanted to leave in the middle of a conversation, but nodded. I left the kitchen and followed the men's voices to the room off the front entry. Comfortable chairs faced a cold fireplace. With eleven men in the room, they sat in the chairs but also leaned against the wall, relaxed and in easy conversation. When they saw me, they stood. While they all looked at me, the only men whose gazes held heat and possession were my three.

Rhys came over to me first, followed by Cross and Simon. "Is everything all right?" They gazes raked over me as if confirming nothing had happened to me in the short duration I was out of their sight.

"Why did you keep Mr. Peter's horse?" I asked.

Simon's brow quirked at the question. "Is there something wrong with the animal?" he asked.

I shook my head. "He seems a fine horse, but if you dislike the man who sold him to you so much, why do business with him?"

"We didna know his actions toward ye before the deal was done," Simon said. "Remember, I hadna met you at the dance as these blokes had, for I was with Peters at the saloon." He didn't seem happy about it either.

I remembered the first time I saw Simon—outside in front of my house in just my robe—and how he'd looked at me with worry and something else. I didn't know it then, but the look was most definitely lust.

"Yet you gave your money to a man I dislike, whom my uncle dislikes, and from what I understand, you don't like him either."

Rhys leaned against the back of a chair so we were of similar height. "We wanted the horse, not him. Our relationship with the bloody man is done."

"Why do business with such a...bloody man?" I put my hands on my hips. "You know how I feel about him."

"Do you want us to return the horse, is that what you're asking?" Cross asked. "Are you making us choose between you and the horse?"

Was I? I felt irrationally angry all of a sudden, as if they were content giving money to a man who was so....dishonorable.

"I just didn't consider it before now, as you are all so mind-consuming." Wicked grins spread across all three men's faces. "It just seems as if you are condoning his behavior."

Rhys narrowed his eyes in thought.

"And we are condoning your behavior right now," Rhys countered. "What's the matter, love? You seem as if you're itching for an argument. You've known ever since the dance we bought the stud horse from him and have not mentioned a concern before now. If you need attention, love, all you had to do was ask."

"I am not—"

Rhys held up his hand.

"We are a large group and I would think daunting for you," Cross said. He looked to Simon, who nodded.

"We were going to take ye home and fuck ye good and hard, but it seems ye canna wait." Simon reached for her hand. "Come, we will fuck ye now."

Simon tugged me across the room, the other two following. "What? Wait!" I dug my heels in but there was no way I could compete with Simon in strength. "We can't...I mean, the men, they're all staring!"

Heat flooded my cheeks at the thought. Simon pulled me out of the room, down the hall and into what appeared to be an office. I could barely hear the men's voices from the other room and we were on the opposite side of the house from the kitchen. Rhys closed the door behind him, and I was surrounded by my men with nowhere to go. The room seemed so small with them looming.

"I don't need to be fucked now, truly. Let's go back out there before they start thinking that's what we are doing in here."

"Nay, lass, ye're getting your fucking now."

"But—"

"We may be many here at Bridgewater, but the four of us are a family," Cross said. "You are the center of our world even if we are not in the room with you."

While I believed
he
believed in what he said, I doubted him. I wasn't the center of Uncle Allen's world. I thought I had been, but I wasn't.

"We are newly wed and if we must continue to prove this to you until you believe it, then we will," Rhys said, forcing me to walk backward until I bumped into the large desk. "Turn around, love."

Simon stood next to Rhys, but Cross went around to the other side of the desk and moved the chair out of the way. When I didn't respond as he bid, Rhys put his hands on my waist and spun me about. A large hand on my back had me bending forward over the wooden surface of the desk.

Cross began undoing the front placket of his dark pants and his cock sprung free—his hard, thick cock, clear fluid seeping from the tip. The broad head was plush and I licked my lips with the idea of tasting it.

"I told him how you learned to suck cock, love, and how you took me so deep into your mouth I couldn't help but come on your tongue. Show Cross how good you are."

I felt hands on my legs and cool air on my skin as my dress was lifted.

"You sucked Rhys' cock?" Cross asked, moving forward so the tip of his cock nudged against my lips. "Part those lips and take me into your mouth. I've been dying to be inside there."

"The others...they'll know," I said, glancing up, way up at Cross.

"Don't worry, my cock will stifle all of your cries of pleasure when Rhys and Simon fuck you."

Those words had my pussy becoming wet. Wetter, actually, for I was always wet. With Cross' insistent nudging of his cock, I opened and took him into my mouth. The fluid at the tip tasted salty and clean and made my mouth water. I ran my tongue over the large vein that ran along the bottom, and then sucked on him, just as Rhys had taught me.

"Jesus, Olivia, you're going to make me come like a randy teenager."

I basked in the warmth of his words, as well as the way his hand stroked over my hair, knowing I was pleasing him. I heard as much as felt my drawers rip before sliding down my legs.

"No more drawers, lass," Simon said. "They are just in the way."