Their Conquered Bride (Bridgewater Ménage 9) (Grace Goodwin)

Her words made my stomach sour. I’d forgotten, what with being spanked and fucked and plugged and all, about the proxy marriage letter. Ford and Logan had saved me, but I was actually married to Mr. Jenkins.

“Yes, from what they said, he was going to share me with his sons.”

“That’s nay what your men are doing with you,” Connor said. He leaned a hip against the sideboard and crossed his arms. “Giving you to his grown sons is akin to rape. Logan and Ford married you. While not legally for both of them, but Logan sees Ford’s name as his in that church ledger.”

I swallowed at the vehemence of his words. “I know.”

“Are you all right then, with everything they do to you?” Emily asked, her voice low, but with the way the corner of Connor’s mouth turned up, he heard just the same.

This time none of them could miss the hot blush on my cheeks. I delayed an answer by scooping up the crispy potatoes into a bowl. Connor came over and took it from me, carried it into the dining room. I waited until he was gone to speak.

“Emily, I… I have a confession.” Ford and Logan had shown me that I shouldn’t be ashamed of my feelings. Watching Emily and her men that night had, in a strange way, set me free. I was no longer ashamed of it, but I felt I needed to let her know why I’d been acting so strangely.

“Oh?” she asked. She took a pitcher of water from the pump sink and gave it to Connor when he came back in. Taking the hint, he turned around and left once again.

“I… um, I saw you, in Drummond.”

“That’s all right. But now I feel badly that I didn’t say hello. You must have been terrified to come here. I could have talked to you about it. Helped.” She was so nice, so thoughtful and yet I knew she liked her men to pull on her hair and fuck her hard. I glanced away.

“No, I mean, I saw you in your hotel room late that night. With Xander and Tyler.” I bit my lip, then took a deep breath. “I didn’t know who you were back then. I was in the room next door. I thought you were in pain. I got up to help, went out onto the balcony, and saw you all—together.” I exhaled and turned back to the potatoes.

She was quiet for a minute, yet Anne was laughing.

Emily tilted her head to look at me as if I were truly odd. “That’s why you’re petrified of Xander?”

“I’m not petrified. I’m just embarrassed, really. I should have turned away, once I figured it out. But you were so—I mean, I saw you… well, you know.” I spoke to the potatoes, not Emily.

“If I remember correctly, oh God, yes, that was a very good night.” She leaned over, inserting her face between mine and the potatoes so I would have to look at her. “They took me together that night. Have your men truly shared you yet?”

“It’s too soon. They have to prepare her first,” Anne said, coming up to stand on the other side of me. Her words brought to mind the large plug Logan had placed in my ass the day before. I felt stretched and slightly sore, but that was all. If it meant I could have what Emily had—well, I wasn’t going to say no.

Emily took my silence for shame and tried to ease my mind. “Don’t be embarrassed. Bridgewater men are different. They are more dominant and demanding—”

“Caring.”

“Possessive.”

“Rugged.”

Emily ran her hands up over her abdomen and slid them, shamelessly, over her full breasts as if remembering her lovers’ touch. “Our men are more virile than others. Trust me, I was married before and I know. Perhaps it was because they’ve been to war. Perhaps because of the customs of Mohamir. Maybe their fucking is so intense because it’s always two of them claiming you at once. I don’t know the reason, and I don’t care. With my husbands, I always come first.”

Anne laughed. “Usually more than once.” She began to lift the bacon from a frying pan with a long, sharp fork. “Rebecca will have to tell you about the time Connor and Dash dragged her away from the lunch table and fucked her over Kane’s desk while the rest of them finished their meal.”

I know my jaw dropped, but I closed it quickly and looked at Anne to see if her words were a jest. They weren’t and I blushed at the thought of Ford and Logan fucking me, making me cry out and beg while an entire table full of people finished a meal in the next room.

The thoughts were a distraction I did not need, so I focused on

scooping the potatoes into a bowl Emily handed to me before they burned.

“Ach, we did at that,” Connor said, coming in and taking the filled bowl. He winked at me with a sly grin. “Anne, I believe, was so needy one day that her men spanked her and then fucked her in the living room during dinner.”

Anne did flush then, but she smiled as she thought about it. “My milk had come in and I was tired and fretful and needy. Andrew and Robert knew what I needed.”

“A good orgasm—or three,” Emily said, then burst out laughing.

I was stunned by their casual approach to fucking. It was not kept behind closed doors and the men didn’t treat the women as whores to be fucked and used, but as their cherished brides. It was how Logan and Ford made me feel: cherished. Special. Adored.

It was then that Logan stuck his head into the kitchen. “Everything all right in here?” he asked, clearly checking on me. Heat spread through my chest at the sight of him, and it had nothing to do with lust, and everything to do with a strange new feeling I wasn’t ready to face yet.