"Damn right," Liam added.
"I don't want control, Seth," Rachel murmured. "I just want my chance to ruin you."
I raised my brows at her words. She'd spent months thinking of me. She wouldn't have avoided me and tried to deflect my intentions otherwise. By marrying her, I'd given her the freedom to be as passionate and wanton as she wanted. As I could make her. But I hadn't yet let her do all the tawdry and licentious things she'd imagined. Denying her this was wrong.
My cock hardened in anticipation of what she might do and Rachel's eyes widened as she felt it hard and thick against her ass.
"You're not staying for dinner, are you?" Liam asked.
I turned and looked at my friend. "Hell, no. I'm about to be ruined."
A WIDOW'S DESIRES
CHAPTER ONE
BEN
"Aren't you two matchmaking old biddies," I grumbled, standing with my friends Liam Anderson and Seth Barnes. We milled around outside of the church with the other men of the congregation while the ladies organized and readied the monthly pot luck at the tables set up beneath the large shade trees. The hymns were sung, the sermon delivered and now it was time to socialize. The weather was perfect, sunny and warm, a slight breeze blowing the tall Montana grasses. "Since when have you decided I need a woman?"
"Decided? Us?" Liam negligently pointed at Seth and himself. "We didn't decide. You've already chosen her."
"Leah needs a protector and we've seen you eyeing her like a fifteen year old with his first crush," Seth countered.
I rubbed the back of my neck at their blunt scrutiny of my personal relationships. I had no relationship with Leah Caruthers, hadn't even spoken with her. I had, however, watched her closely, went out of my way to keep a careful vigil over her whereabouts as she had no man in her life. Not that her husband had been any kind of real man even when he was alive.
"First crush? He looks like a man that knows exactly what he wants," Liam added. "The question is whether he's man enough to go about getting it."
"I don't need help with a woman," I countered. I kicked a pebble across the churchyard as I thought about Leah Caruthers and her delectable body. She was everything I ever wanted, although I didn't know it until the first time I saw her several months ago. She's filled my thoughts and all of my fantasies of late. No other woman compared. Even the scantily clad women at the saloon didn't make my cock stir the way just the hint of Leah's perfume did.
"Then how come we've each got a woman warming our beds at night and you don't?"
I didn't like Liam's question and if we weren't in front of the house of God and Reverend Pick wasn't chatting nearby, I would have punched him in the nose. If I had my way, Leah wouldn't just be warming my bed, but me as well. She wasn't like Liam nor Seth's new wife for she was wary of men in a way that was akin to downright fear. She needed gentle persuasion, not the brute possession my friends had used to obtain their brides.
"You followed Charlotte for three months before you claimed her." I pointed at Liam first, then to Seth. "You needed Liam to kick your ass to get you to make Rachel yours and you had to publicly seduce her to get her to the altar."
Seth's jaw clamped tight. "Do you want Leah?"
The serious look in Seth's eye indicated he wasn't jesting any longer and I could only nod in affirmation, all the while I clenched my right hand into a fist just in case. "Why are you nudging me in her direction all of a sudden?"
Seth looked uncomfortable for a moment, then grinned. "Hell, Rachel's worried about Leah and if you don't do something about that woman, I'll be required to put effort forth on real matchmaking."
I gave my head a sad shake. My friends had gone soft in the very short time they'd been married. They might be in control in their marriages but it seemed the women had all the power.
"You know Paul Caruthers' claim didn't pan out," Liam stated.
"I don't want her for her fucking money," I added. "I've got plenty of my own as you well know." As Seth's partner in the Monarch Mill Mine, neither of us were destitute.
"Caruthers gambled away whatever he made, which wasn't much, and whatever fortune they brought to town. I assume it was hers as he would have wasted it all sooner. That vein wasn't as big as he thought," Seth said.
A shout that the food was ready had the men moving toward the heavily ladened tables. We remained where we were letting the hungry men leave us behind.
"Charlotte didn't like the man," Liam said. "She said she'd never been near him, didn't want to."
Paul Caruthers had been a fucking asshole when he was sober. Before he died, he was seen more often than not with a whiskey bottle in his hand. He'd been a belligerent, nasty drunk. I'd watched him with Leah and knew she'd been vastly unhappy. The thought of Leah being at that man's mercy made my skin crawl and every bit of protectiveness well to the surface, like a bubbling spring and just as hot and volatile.
Charlotte and Rachel approached with glasses of lemonade and I took mine with a thanks. The way they smiled at their husbands was a blatant sign of their happiness. "We'll be right there, baby," Seth told Rachel, giving her a kiss on her brow. "Save us a place in line."
They noticed we were well into a conversation and left without questioning.