“Where did she go?”
“Who? Abigail?” He looked both ways down the street.
“No. Tennessee Bennett.” I sighed, rolling my head from side to side. “It is a thorough tale, but she’s the woman I told you about.”
I’d shared my desire for Tennessee with him, my intentions to marry her and make her mine. In time. Well, the time was now, and it seemed she’d disappeared.
“She knocked you out?” A smile spread across his face. “I admit, she has me intrigued.”
I sighed, then grumbled, “No, she didn’t knock me out. She couldn’t punch a feather pillow and leave a dent. She made a commotion, said I’d kidnapped her and a brute of a man came to her rescue. By punching me.”
I winced again at the pain in my face as he tilted his head back and laughed. Heads turned at his outburst, especially the ladies. With his fair hair, chiseled face and large physique, many a woman had tried to lure him into wedlock. None had succeeded as long I’d known him.
“I told her we would marry.”
“Told?” He tipped his hat to two older ladies passing by. “No wonder you were punched. I’m surprised, along with that shiner, you aren’t wearing your balls for a necklace. Sweet words for a sweet disposition, perhaps?”
I huffed out a laugh. Tennessee, a sweet disposition? I looked down the sidewalk in the direction we’d been walking but saw no glimpse of a pale blue dress or wheat colored hair. “The woman is a menace and needs a keeper.” I gave him a pointed look. “Two, actually. You’re marrying her as well.”
His eyes widened in surprise.
“I’m sick, Jonah. A bad heart.”
“Who told you that?”
I explained about Doctor Bruin visiting the house when I’d had the summer cold, but instead of telling me to remain in bed and drink lots of tea, he’d told me I would most likely collapse from heart failure.
“I can’t believe I’m done for the world yet. I feel fine. I’m not going to deny myself what I want just because an old quack says I have a bad heart.” It was hard to admit, I had not come to terms with the possibility. In fact, I refused to believe it, although it did make me more determined. “I will marry her, but she needs two husbands.”
“A Bridgewater marriage,” he replied in his calm, quiet way. He was friends with the men from the Bridgewater Ranch, knew of their ways, the reasons. Seen how successful the relationships were.
I nodded. He would want Tennessee. He was learning her fiery nature without even setting eyes upon her. But when he saw her, when his cock pulsed at the first glimpse of her, I had no doubt he’d be less casual in marrying.
“She is younger than Abel,” he reminded. His son was twenty and Tennessee just nineteen. “I would be more of a father than husband.”
I studied my friend. From what he’d told me, his marriage after the war had not been of love, but honor and duty. It had been short, less than a year before he became a widower with an infant son. He was jaded toward the fairer sex, even after two decades.
“Tennessee’s father used her to gain a rich alliance and she prescribed to that notion.” I briefly shared how Tennessee had set her sights on Grimsby for his large bank account. “The man had been pleased as he’d been eager for her money in return. When it came to light neither actually had any, blackmail and extortion ensued. She needs more than sweet words. She is wily and cunning.” I put my hand up to my eye as proof. “Guidance and a stern hand are required.”
My palm itched to spank her. My cock twitched to fill her.
“Even though it was at her father’s bidding?”
I lifted my hand to my eye again, winced. “Not all of it was at his bidding.”
“And we’re the ones to give it to her?”
I thought of any other man besides Jonah and myself touching her. “Fuck, yes.”
He tilted his head to consider my words. “That’s all well and good, but first we need to find her.”
Sighing, I was content he didn’t outright say no. I set my hands on my hips as I took in the busy thoroughfare. Where would a woman such as Tennessee Bennett hide in Butte?
2
TENNESSEE
“Put this on.” The woman shoved an emerald colored gown into my hands. Her gaze was more intense than the most eager of men, studying me with an experienced eye. “Spend one night on your back and you’ll make all the coin you need for your trip home.”