“Don’t worry, sweetheart, I’ll put you down.” He walked inside and down the hall. I heard the back door slam shut, then Spur’s footsteps. “As soon as I get you in bed.”
CHAPTER FIVE
Lane
Piper was like a bright ray of sunshine, a shot of rotgut whiskey and a poked bear all put together in a tiny, feisty little body. Fuck, she made me laugh, and I hadn’t done that in a while. Between the shit with the mine and Lil being sick, the past year had been a struggle. The only person who knew about Lil, at least the truth of her, was Spur. I’d lied about her for so long, it felt like the truth. Everyone in town assumed Lil was a working girl and I was especially—and consistently—interested in her attentions. Hell, even Walker and Luke Tate thought she was my paid mistress. Instead, she was a sixty-year-old woman with cancer who’d taken Spur and me in when we were eight. Our mothers had succumbed to their rough lives as whores and we had nowhere to go.
At sixteen, we struck out on our own. I’d headed to the mountains, mining, then finally settled in Jasper to dig for my own vein of silver. Spur had gone east and ended up in medical school. When Lil had become ill, I’d moved her from Denver to Jasper to be near me. I’d even sent for Spur, who’d left Chicago to treat her, although there wasn’t much for him to do. She’d settled happily into the Frightful Fawn, run by her friend. She didn’t turn tricks, hadn’t for a long, long time, but was content with the brothel life. She was happy, albeit dying, and I visited her often. My visits, though, weren’t of a carnal nature. I wasn’t going to the brothel a few times a week to fuck as everyone assumed.
Even though a finding a bride was the request of a dying woman, neither Spur nor I regretted our choice for a mail order bride. I’d seen how the Tates’ arranged marriage had been successful. Hell, their wife Celia was beautiful and the perfect match for them. They’d put the idea in my head, especially with the new law in Slate Springs. One drunk night, I’d put it to Spur, to marry together, and he’d readily agreed. And it had made Lil smile. I’d do it again and again, just to see her happy. We’d somehow, perhaps miraculously, ended up with Piper.
With her naked and wet over my shoulder, I had a strong feeling that this was going to work out just fine. And when Lil met her, saw that she was a little hellion, she’d love her and know, perhaps, a little divine intervention was involved.
Before heading to Slate Springs, we’d take a day or two to acquaint ourselves with our wife. Starting with me dropping her to the bed. While she was small, she wasn’t going to break and she bounced before coming up onto her knees.
Raring for a fight, she had her hands up, eyes narrowed and I swear I could see smoke come from her ears. When we kept our gazes fixed on her body, she remembered her nakedness and tried to cover herself. But her full breasts were too much to shield with her bent arm and her hand couldn’t hide the bright red curls at the apex of her thighs.
“You stood up to a roomful of inebriated men and you’re afraid of us?” Spur asked.
“I don’t have my gun.”
“You kneeling on my bed, all bare and beautiful with a gun in your hand just might make me come in my pants. That would be a shame because I want to be deep inside your pussy when I do so.”
“Are you afraid of us?” Spur asked again.
She dropped down onto the bed, her knees tucked beneath her, her arm still covering most of her breasts.
“I’m afraid of being naked in front of you. I’ve never… it’s awkward,” she admitted.
“Would it make you feel better if we were naked, too?” he asked.
I didn’t wait for her to reply, just reached down and tugged off my boots, then dropped my pants and kicked them away. I wasn’t modest. Never had been. If seeing me naked eased her mind then I’d damn well be naked. I wasn’t used to a modest woman. Hell, I’d never even bedded a virgin before. Spur seemed to sense things I didn’t, so I was thankful he was keeping me from fucking this all up.
Spur grabbed one of my shirts that was hooked over the back of a chair and handed it to her. “Here. Put this on.”
She stared at the proffered garment, then took it from him. As she put her arms through the sleeves, her breasts were finally exposed, if only briefly. I groaned, seeing the plump nipples, small and pink. My mouth watered to put one in my mouth.
“Only one button,” Spur added.
She looked up at him through those gorgeous red lashes, but complied. Lifting her arms, she pulled the length of her hair free of the shirt and it spilled long and damp down her back.
She was a goddess in my shirt, alluring and very enticing.
“Better?” he asked.
She nodded. The shirt did little to diminish her appeal and soon enough it would be on the floor. If it calmed her until we could do that ourselves, then so be it.
“Good.” Spur stepped to the edge of the bed. “Now that your awkwardness is gone, come over here and give me a kiss.”
Somehow, just the addition of the shirt changed Piper from modest to wild. She sprang from the bed, up onto her knees and into Spur’s arms. He kissed her, at first with eyes wide, then they fell closed. He gave over to the kiss as readily as she did. Grabbing the base of my cock, I just stroked it slowly, easing the ache, as I watched.
“Touch me,” Spur breathed, lifting his head only long enough to speak, then delved back into the kiss.
Tentatively, her hands moved to his chest, roving over it, following the line of hair to his navel. Spur sucked his stomach in as she dipped her finger inside, then began to move lower.
He pulled back from the kiss and watched her, waited for her eyes to open.
“Touch my cock.” His voice had shifted to dark and deep. He was close to the edge of his control.