“If he was hung, then who the hell followed you?” Luke asked.
I was learning he was not as patient as his brother.
“His brother. Carl Norman blames me for his brother’s death. That I should have been a better wife and pleased John. If I’d done that, then he wouldn’t have strayed.”
“That’s why you were skittish with us,” Walker added.
I nodded and looked down at the floor. “I knew how John really liked to fuck and yet he only pushed up my nightgown and… and took me at night. It was quick and I didn’t like it. There was no pleasure in it and when I didn’t give him a child, he gave up entirely. But he did things with his mistress that… God, that I would have done with him. But I hadn’t pleased him. There’s something wrong with me because I didn’t make him happy and he did stray.”
“Stop.” Walker’s one word cut off my frustrated outpouring. “There is nothing wrong with you. If your husband wasn’t already dead, I’d kill him myself for making you think this way.”
“Damn straight. We’ll talk about that later, trust me. For now, this Norman fucker. Why is he in Denver?”
I put my hand on Walker’s shoulder, felt the hard plane of muscle beneath my fingers. “He threatened me. In Texas, he grabbed me about the throat, said he was going to kill me. He wanted revenge for what I did to his brother.”
“And so you fled.”
I nodded. “Yes. I had no money to leave on my own so I applied to be a mail order bride.”
“And he followed you,” Walker added.
“Yes. He’s insane. I don’t think he’d follow us up here to Jasper, but I have no idea. I was thrilled to hear that Slate Springs was snowed in and he couldn’t get to me. I just want to get where he can’t hurt me.”
“We don’t have to be in Slate Springs to keep you safe. He won’t hurt you, doll. You don’t have to worry about that. Why wouldn’t you tell us this?”
I looked at both men. “Because I don’t—didn’t—know you and I wasn’t sure if you’d agree with him, that I’d been the one to make John stray, to make him be killed.”
“I should toss you back over my knee for that ridiculous idea.”
My hands went to my bottom and I rubbed the smarting flesh. Both men chuckled.
“This problem, doll. This Carl Norman, he’s our problem now. He wants to hurt our wife, we’ll take care of it. All right?”
I looked at Walker with hope. I’d told them and they hadn’t run away. I’d told them and they said they’d take care of Carl. Of me. I felt better, better than I had in as long as I could remember. I wasn’t all alone.
I nodded, wiped another tear from my eye. “Yes.”
“Good. Tell me something, doll. Did you like your spanking?” Walker asked.
“No!” I replied instantly. “Of course not.”
He arched one dark brow. “Really? You said last night you want to be tied up and taken. You want wild abandon.”
I flushed, remembering I had said those exact words. I was impressed that Walker had listened so intently.
“Yes, but not like that.”
Luke came around the table and Walker spun me about to face him, although he kept me in the circle of his legs. “Walker had you pinned down. You couldn’t go anywhere. Could only submit to what he did. You kicked and bucked with wild abandon.”
“Yes, but—”
He put a finger over my lips. “Are you wet, Celia?”
Oh God. His words, so carnal and dark, made me wet. Not that I wasn’t already, I just hadn’t noticed. Without my drawers, I felt the slick arousal on my pussy and thighs. I whimpered, but I shook my head.
“So if Walker slipped his hand over your pussy he wouldn’t find it dripping wet?”
Walker bunched up the fabric of my dress and his fingers slid up my calf.