I shook my head again. "I can't be one to go about kissing other men."
"We won't be just kissing," Connor added, his voice deep. I saw something in his eyes, something like heat and...desire there.
My mouth fell open at his words. "See? He thinks I am a...a loose woman."
"Loose woman? Have ye ever been kissed before?"
I felt my cheeks heat and that seemed to be answer enough for Dash.
"I thought so. Connor knows ye are my wife," Dash replied. "His wife, as well. It is the way it’s done here at Bridgewater. Ye dinna need to worry that anyone will judge ye. Tis what yer brother wanted for ye."
"Please, put me down," I pleaded, looking Connor squarely in the eyes. How could Cecil have intended this for me? I was hurt, crushed by the knowledge that he thought of me in such a way. Had he saved me from the arranged marriage my father had planned only to give me to two men? How he must have laughed at night thinking of his coup. He'd gotten even with the man by using me.
Connor must have heard my disappointment, for he moved to a chair that was by the door and sat down. Instead of letting me go, however, he held me about the waist and had me stand between his legs.
"You find my touch intolerable?" Connor asked. For such a large man, I heard a touch of insecurity in his words. If they'd been planning to share a bride for a long time, perhaps years, then my rejection of him would change their dynamic. Had Cecil used them as he had me?
"No," I answered. His touch wasn't intolerable. In fact, it was rather nice. But I shouldn't be finding two men's touches nice. "It's not that. Cecil, he...I was misled." I remembered my manners just in time, remembering not to share emotions or speak ill of the dead. However important it was not to complain, I had to speak up. "I will not fall so low as to be a wife to Dash and a mistress to you."
Both men remained quiet and I turned my head to look up at Dash, then back to look directly into Connor's eyes. He nodded. "I understand."
I sighed in relief.
"You do?" I asked.
"Yes, and it is easily remedied," Connor answered. I expected him to lift me from his lap and hand me off to Dash, my husband, but he didn't.
I furrowed my brow. "It is?"
"Aye." He set me back from him and stood. "We're going to town."
"Right now?" I asked.
I saw a look pass between the two men. They were of a friendship close enough where they did not seem to require speaking to communicate.
"Aye," Connor repeated.
"Why? I was there this morning."
"We are getting married." He tugged my hand and pulled me out the door.
CONNOR
Two hours later, we stood before the doors to the church in town. I spent the ride silently watching our new wife. Wife! It was either insanity having her appear over lunch, or serendipity. She was the loveliest—and primmest—thing I'd ever seen. Sure, Ann and Emma and the others were beautiful, but they weren’t mine. There was a difference when the woman before you—from the silky dark hair on her head to the snooty tilt of her chin to the perfect flare of her hip—belonged to you. Aye, I'd wager her spine was stiff and straight without the tight corset she wore, but it would be my pleasure, and hers, to fuck the starch right out of her.
Rebecca was less than pleased about my intention to wed her, but her upbringing obviously prevented her from complaining. She'd spent the ride to town worrying that plump lower lip with her teeth. She'd used the term loose woman. She was the complete opposite of a loose woman. There wasn't a woman alive that needed kissing and touching and fucking as much as she did. A few sweaty, powerful orgasms would do her a world of good. Unfortunately, she believed that even liking a kiss from both of us made her immoral. Clearly, her brother hadna prepared her for the both of us and now we had to fix this. It started with saying 'I do' in front of a man of God.
"I am married to Dash," she said. "I can not marry another. Surely the minister will know."
"When you stayed at the boarding house, did you tell anyone of your proxy marriage?" I asked. I had a fair idea of her answer.
"No."
"Because you were worried I would reject you?" Dash's words had her looking his way and I could see a hint of hurt in her eyes. After traveling halfway around the world, having her brother die in front of her, and then wed to a stranger, neither of us could blame her for that consideration. If she'd been rejected, she could turn around and leave town without anyone the wiser, although what she would have done then, I'm sure she didna know. We weren't rejecting her. Like bloody hell. We were giving her more husbands that she wanted and this was a problem she never consid
ered even in her wildest imaginings.
"Everyone in town, then, will know of your marriage to me," I said. "We," I pointed between the three of us, "will know you are legally wed to Dash and to me."