“Look at me,” I countered, knowing I was plain and homely and bookish. “It’s fine for you, of course,” I replied diplomatically. “I don’t even know what to do with one husband, let alone two.”
She smiled brilliantly, then it faltered. “I don’t really like to think of my brothers in this way, but I can assure you, they know what to do.”
I felt my blush as I pushed my glasses up, even though they didn’t need it.
“You do not seem too upset about your proxied husband dying.” She must have seen the worried look on my face because she continued. “It is a very impersonal way to wed. I know. I did it, remember? I do not judge you for not feeling keen for a man you never knew. I had five older brothers keeping suitors at bay. You know two of them. The other three are in Kansas. I ran away and became a mail order bride when the real bride died. I took her place. Those men in there?” She pointed toward the front of the house. “Spur and Lane were to marry someone else.”
“Oh, my.” That was quite a story and I didn’t know what else to say. It was quite warm in the kitchen and I stood, took off my coat and instead of folding it carefully, I tossed it over the back of the chair. I sat once again, this time in not quite so ladylike a fashion.
Piper leaned forward, looked me square in the eye and said, “What’s your story?”
I wasn’t one to tell tales, even true ones, but Piper seemed to be truly interested and I felt more relaxed than I ever had before. I took another sip of coffee. “The short story? My stepsisters spread slander by accusing me of seducing the gardener, signed me up to be a mail order bride and purchased me a train ticket to leave town, all for their amusement.”
Piper’s mouth fell open. She stared at me without making a peep for what felt like a minute. “And the long story?”
I had some more coffee, then shared every sordid—or not so sordid—detail.
CHAPTER FOUR
Jed
“What the hell can they be talking about in there?” Knox asked, his voice tipped low. We’d heard Piper laugh once, but nothing else.
We were in the parlor while the women chatted. While we should have been more proper, considering we were guests—Eve would sit on the very edge of the chair, ankles crossed, hands folded in her lap and her spine as straight as a fucking arrow most likely—I wasn’t a gentleman with my legs stretched out long and straight before me. Knox was slouched down enough where his head rested on the back of his chair. The baby had fallen asleep on Lane’s shoulder.
“Women’s conversations are a mystery and I have given up trying to understand them,” Lane offered, patting his daughter gently on the back, although she wasn’t waking up anytime soon.
“I’m a doctor and I still have no idea,” Spur added.
“That woman is wound up tighter than a child’s top,” Knox said.
All of us knew he spoke of Eve. There was no way in hell Piper—our sister and their wife—was high strung. I couldn’t agree with him more in his assessment. She needed someone to allow her to relax, to give her a safe place to share her burdens. To breathe.
“Not much longer,” I told him.
Knox frowned, then leaned forward so his forearms rested on his knees, eyeing me closely. Besides being brothers, we were best friends. He could read me like a book. “What did you do?”
I offered him a small smile. “Put some whiskey in her coffee.” When the three of them just stared at me, wide-eyed, I added, “What? She needs a bout of wild, steamy fucking.” I shrugged. “A few orgasms would certainly loosen up that spine. Liquor should help nicely.”
I shifted in my seat, my cock getting hard at the idea of letting all that wild hair free, getting her naked and pressed up against a wall. Hell, on my lap would work, too. Then I could watch her breasts bounce as she rode my cock. She’d be wild then, her mind focused on her pussy being crammed full and nothing else.
“Fuck.” My cock was not letting me think clearly. “Since that’s not going to happen until I get a ring on her finger, then I want her to be relaxed.”
Knox pointed toward the kitchen. “That woman? She’s mine.”
I shook my head slowly and narrowed my eyes at Knox. “No, she’s not.”
“She—”
“She’s not either of yours,” Spur said, cutting off Knox’s retort and stating the obvious. “What do you know about her?”
“She’s whip smart, reads books,” Knox told Spur, but kept his eyes pinned on me. Was he worried I’d run into the kitchen, toss Eve over my shoulder and carry her away? Probably.
“Tell us things we don’t already know,” Lane countered.
“She mentioned she was a schoolteacher,” Knox added.
I nodded, remembering her mentioning that in passing. “Yes. And when she thought we were teasing her about you both being married to Piper, she mentioned she was pestered at home. I don’t know if she has brothers like Piper who meddled with her, but she was very riled. Angry, even.” I shrugged. “I’m hoping a little whiskey will go a long way to have her share.”