Their Reluctant Bride (Bridgewater Menage Series Book 6) (13 page)

I followed the men. As Roger poured, the others took seats in the comfortable armchairs. Allen had raised Olivia after her parents had died, under the pretense of being a bachelor, all the while being in a plural marriage with Roger and Belinda. He had lived elsewhere with Olivia until a man set fire to their house. Then, Olivia had married Simon, Cross and Rhys and Allen chose to move in—finally—with his own family.

“I saw him,” Tyler said as Roger handed me a glass with two fingers of whiskey.

My fist clenched around the glass at his words.

“From what Tyler said, this man needs to be taken care of,” Roger commented, taking a sip of his whiskey.

“Hell, yes,” I replied.

“We need to let the ladies go shopping,” Roger admitted. I could tell he wasn’t pleased with the idea either.

“You’ll let him confront them?”

“Absolutely not!” Allen said, slamming his glass down on the desk. “They will shop, we will follow. Xander, you can watch the women with me and Tyler and Roger will grab the bastard before he even gets close.”

I shook my head. “No way. I want the man. Emily’s my responsibility.”

Tyler leaned forward, placed his elbows on his knees. “Are you sure you want to tangle with the law?”

I looked at my friend closely, saw concern there. It was time I let my past go. Emily was my future and I had to ensure nothing—or no one—got in the way. “For Emily? Absolutely.”

EMILY

“What do you mean, they went after Ralph?” I asked, placing the pile of boxes containing my purchases on the entry table. My voice was shrill, my heart beat frantically. I couldn’t help it. The idea of Tyler and Xander confronting the man scared me. The enjoyment of shopping with Belinda disappeared and was replaced by fear. “We need to go to them. Stop them!”

Tyler’s fathers, both formidable men themselves, didn’t seem concerned about it in the slightest.

“No, Emily. They want you here safe,” Allen said, taking my arm and guiding me into the parlor.

“They weren’t supposed to go after him!” I countered, turning to face them. Belinda was tugging off her gloves and paused.

All three of them frowned. “What did you think they would do when the plan was to lure Ralph out into the open?”

I shrugged my shoulders and paced. “I thought he’d come up to me and I’d tell him that Xander and Tyler knew what happened, that it wasn’t a secret any longer. He’d leave me alone.”

Roger offered me a kind smile. “Do you think he’ll ever leave you alone? He might threaten to tell the authorities about what you did, or perhaps Tyler and Xander’s business associates.”

I never considered that. My idea was all at once ridiculous.

“He won’t stop, Emily. You have to know that,” Allen added.

“Then I should leave them. They don’t need this kind of burden. I don’t want their business hurt. I don’t want
them
hurt.” My throat burned with tears.

“You’re too upset. You’re not thinking clearly,” Belinda said softly.

I was brushing my hands over my skirt, fiddling with the fabric.

“You don’t think your husbands can defend themselves from one man?” Allen asked.

I thought of Ralph. He was no competition physically, but that didn’t mean something bad couldn’t happen.

“I… I guess so, but he’s… he’s
mean
.” 

“Darling, you have to trust that your men will take care of this. That they will take care of you.” Belinda placed her hands on my shoulders, looked me in the eye, then pulled me in for a hug.

I cried then, realizing in that moment how much I cared for Xander and Tyler. I hadn’t wanted one husband, let alone two, now I couldn’t imagine not having either. They were risking their lives for me.

Then there was Belinda and Roger and Allen. God, they were wonderful. They were parents. Real parents. There was so much I hadn’t even known I’d been missing. It took two men to show me what real love, real commitment was like. Caring. Protection. Devotion.

I saw it in the way Allen and Roger looked at Belinda, cared for her. I felt it with Xander and Tyler.

“I don’t want them to be hurt,” I murmured. “I don’t want Xander to go back to jail.”

“Xander won’t be going to jail. Ralph will,” Roger said. He was so sure of himself, of my husbands that it offered me some comfort.

Realizing I was a blubbering mess, I wiped my eyes and stepped back. Roger gave me a handkerchief.

“You love them,” Belinda commented.

I looked to her as I wiped my cheeks, saw the pleased smile on her face. “I don’t know. I’m not really sure what love is. Frank, my first husband, wasn’t… nice.”

Allen came over, placed a gentle hand on my shoulder. “It’s love, dear. You’ve got those two boys in knots. I’ve never seen Xander so… fierce before. And Tyler, well, he’s more worried about Xander keeping you for himself than anything else.”

My mouth fell open. “Why would Tyler worry about that?”

“Have you seen the way Xander looks at you? He
needs
you in a way Tyler doesn’t. You soothe something in Xander. We can all see it.” Belinda looked at her men and they nodded. “We’ve known him a long time. It might not be lightning, but it’s… special.”

“I want Tyler, too!” I admitted.

They laughed. “Of course, you do,” Roger said. “Just remember, just because they’re big and bossy doesn’t mean they don’t hurt, too. Be… gentle with them.”

I thought of Xander’s words, how he’d said he could never be gentle with me. While he touched me, he wasn’t gentle. I craved the rasp of his callused palms. The press of his body into mine. The dark bite of his voice. And yet he was out slaying my dragons for me. He was ridding me of my one heavy burden—Ralph. It might not be gentle, but it was what I needed. What our little family needed.

I was about to respond when they came through the front door.

I stood and spun around, saw that they were in one piece and ran out of the parlor and into their arms.

I took deep breaths, savoring their scents. With them standing so close to me, it was a mix of peppermint, leather and pure male. Their hands roved up and down my back, over my hair as I wrapped my arms around them both.

They pushed me back far enough to look at me. “You’ve been crying,” Xander said as he glanced over my shoulder at Tyler’s parents.

“We didn’t make her cry. You did,” Allen said.

Xander looked down at me and frowned. “We made you cry, sweetheart?”

I nodded, then smiled. “I… I love you,” I admitted.

Both men stared down at me with utter shock on their faces for a moment before something shifted. Their looks changed. Xander’s eyes narrowed, his jaw tightened. Tyler’s looked the same, but I saw something almost reverent there as well.

Xander bent and tossed me over his shoulder and went up the stairs. His arm banded over the backs of my thighs. I wasn’t going anywhere and this time—carrying me like a sack of grain—I didn’t resist.

“What about Ralph?” Roger called.

“Jail. We’ll share details later,” Tyler said. I saw his legs as he followed us up the steps. “Emily comes first.”

I didn’t hear any response from below, but Xander made quick work of the stairs and we were down the hall, our bedroom door kicked shut before I could even think straight.

Instead of being placed on the bed as I’d expected, Xander slowly lowered me to my feet, my body sliding down the entire length of his. My nipples pebbled at the hard feel of him.

“Is he really in jail?” I looked between the two.

“He is,” Tyler said with a resolute nod of his head.

“I didn’t know you were going to go after him,” I admitted.

He frowned. “What did you think we’d do?”

“I’d talk with him. Reason with him as you watched from afar.”

Xander spun me back to face him, gripped my arms. He even bent at the waist so our eyes were level. “There’s no reasoning with that bastard. If you think we’d let you get within ten feet of him, then you don’t know the first thing about either of your husbands.”

A dark intensity burned in his dark eyes. A fierceness that wasn’t directed
at
me, but was
for
me.

“I am… I am just starting to see that,” I replied. “Our marriage, I wanted it because I
needed
your protection.”

“If you think we’ll give you up now because Ralph’s in jail—”

I cut off Tyler’s words. “No. That’s just it. I married you so you could save me, but I want to keep you because this,” I waved my hand in the small space between us. “This is so much more.”

“You saved us right back, sweetheart,” Xander admitted.

I frowned. “How could I save you? Look at you both. You don’t need saving.”

The idea made me laugh.

Xander scooped me up and sat down on the bed, settled me into his lap, my head tucked beneath his chin. “You are so brave. So strong. Me?” He gave me a quick squeeze. “Not so much. I let what happened to me in the past have a hold on me, a cruel grip, that made me bitter and miserable. I was content living on the ranch away from people.”

“He was downright cranky,” Tyler added. He came to kneel before me. “He’s not that grumpy anymore, is he, baby?”

The corner of Tyler’s mouth tipped up and I smiled. “He’s still bossy,” I admitted.

Xander angled me back so I was staring up at him. His face, while all harsh angles and planes, wasn’t… rough as it had been even a few days before. It was clear in his eyes that he wasn’t haunted any longer.

“You like me bossy.”

I swallowed, thinking about all of the ways he was bossy. “Yes, I do.”

“As for me, sweetheart, I grew up with two fathers. They groomed me to the custom and I wanted to share a bride. I had no brother to do that with, but Xander became my brother. Not by blood, but a bond much stronger.”

He looked down and I saw some of his confidence slip. “I see the two of you together, how you respond to his touch, to his command. I’m not like that.”

“I don’t need two husbands like that. Xander’s enough that way, trust me.”

Xander lowered his head and kissed me, a quick brush of his lips over mine. It was more of a tease than anything else. He sat me back up and tucked me into him again before I could even think to ask for more.

“You balance each other. You balance
me
.”
Reaching up, I stroked Tyler’s cheek. “I want both of you. I
need
you.”

“You said something different downstairs. Do you regret the words?” Xander’s body stiffened beneath mine, afraid that I would take my feelings back.

I remembered Roger’s words; while they were both big and brawny and brave, I could hurt them with just a few words. The power I had was almost dangerous.

I moved from Xander’s hold and turned to stand before them. I took Xander’s hand, then Tyler’s. “I can’t really say I know what love is. Well, I never
knew.
What I feel for you both is… is amazing. Scary. Powerful. I’d say that’s love.”

Tyler tugged me into his arms. As he was still on his knees, he titled his chin to look up at me. “Baby, I love you, too.”

“Don’t forget me,” Xander added, turning me into his embrace. I cupped his jaw, the beard soft against my palm. “You’re exactly what I didn’t know I needed. I love you.”

“It’s time, baby. Time to show you what it can be like. Both of us, together.”

My pussy clenched at his words.

“We’ve trained your ass,” Xander added. “You take the largest sized plug so beautifully. You’re ready for my cock in your ass.”

“We’re going to fill you right up, baby. Both of us at the same time. Do you want that?”

“Do you want to be taken by both your husbands?” Xander continued. “You’ll connect us. You’re what makes this family.”

There was only one answer. “Yes,” I replied breathlessly.

That was all I had to say before their hands were on me, undoing the buttons of my dress, pulling the pins from my hair, stripping me bare, just as they’d stripped my emotions so they could see all of me.

When I stood before them, my nipples hard and my arousal slick on my thighs, I murmured, “I want to see you, too.”

Tyler grinned, his hands going to the buttons of his shirt. “You want us naked too, baby?”

I nodded and licked my lips as I saw the broad expanse of his chest become exposed, one button at a time.

They stripped off their clothes with a ruthless haste until they stood before me deliciously naked. Xander’s body was so deeply tan and sprinkled with dark hair. He was as hard as his temperament. Sinewy muscle corded his forearms, his fingers long and blunt. His cock stood thick and erect from his body, curving upward to touch his navel, a glisten of his arousal sliding down the flared crest.

Tyler was leaner, yet his muscles even more defined than Xander. His chest was free of hair, the flat nipples dark. His stomach was smooth and ridges defined it. I itched to stroke my fingers over those tense muscles. His cock, too, was long and thick, pointing straight at me, eager to be inside me.

“Are you ready for us?” Xander asked.

I licked my lips. “Yes,” I whispered.

“Show your husbands,” he added.

I frowned. “How?”

“Touch your pussy. Good girl. Are you wet?” Tyler spoke as I did as he bid.

I gasped at the hot feel of my flesh, eager for being touched, played with. Used.

 “Show us,” he added.

I held up my fingers so they could see my arousal thickly coating the tips.

Xander groaned deep in his chest. “Up on the bed.”

I scooted past him and crawled into the center of the bed, laid down on my back. “Spread your legs for me, sweetheart. You know which part of you I want.”

Bending my knees, I placed my feet on the soft blanket and spread my knees wide. Both men’s eyes  locked onto my pussy, bare and wet and swollen for them.

“You want to lick my pussy,” I told him.

With one foot on the bed, Xander knelt, then lowered himself so his shoulders pushed my thighs even wider apart. “What does Tyler want?” he asked, his hot breath fanning my folds.

“My breasts.” My voice was breathy and light.

“That’s right, baby.” Tyler came around to the side of the bed, moved so he could cup one breast in his palm and began stroking the nipple with his thumb.