“Perhaps now is the perfect time to tell you about our marriage,” I interrupted. “The town of Slate Springs is quite small. Mining is one of the main sources of employment and income, therefore there are a large number of men in the community. The ratio of men to women is very skewed. Last year, the town passed a law that allowed a woman to have more than one husband.”
She had been watching Lane closely until now, for clearly he riled her, and by the smirk on his face, he was enjoying it.
“I beg your pardon?” she asked. Her question was so prim, yet I knew her to be anything but.
“You are married to me… and Lane. Therefore, he can and will tell you that you are no longer allowed to visit seedy saloons. Any saloon for that matter.”
“Are you out of your fucking mind?” she asked, spinning away and pacing in circles in the small space. When she realized how close she was coming to both of us, she stopped and faced away, her eyes on the warped boards of the far wall.
Lane laughed. “That’s better. I was worried there for a minute, Piper, that you’d been possessed by a proper lady.”
She spun on her heel and narrowed her eyes at Lane. Her reticule bumped into her thigh and the coins within jingled. Yes, it was a good thing I had the gun.
“I can’t be married to both of you!”
“I assure you, you can,” I countered.
I hated to be the rational one sometimes. While I knew Lane was intentionally riling her, he would be the one to get her passion because of it. We just had to get her past her surprise.
“He lives in Jasper.” She pointed at Lane, then to me. “And you live in Slate Springs, as will I with my real husband.” Then pointed back to Lane once more. “Being married to you will be in name only.”
Lane slowly shook his head and smiled. “Oh, no, sweetheart. This won’t be one of those marriages. I assure you, I take being your husband very seriously. That means wedding and bedding the bride.”
She gasped.
“He’s moving to Slate Springs,” I clarified, hoping to move this conversation along before the livery man interrupted us.
“To sleep beside you every night.” Lane grinned widely and wickedly.
She looked to me for… reassurance? “I see now why I don’t have my gun,” she muttered. “It can’t even be done. Can it? I mean, it’s not… physically possible.”
As a doctor, I’d seen and heard more than my fair share of interesting things. This, though, was… fabulous. “As a doctor, I assure you, it is possible to be bedded by two men. At the same time.”
And I wanted that to be soon. Very soon. I wanted to rid her of her virginity, see if she was as much of a wildcat in bed as she was out and take her with Lane. One in her pussy, the other in her ass.
Lane nodded his agreement, but she just pursed her lips and turned a bright shade of red to match her hair.
“You had a long trip from Kansas. I assume it gave you plenty of time to wonder what our marriage would be like. What did you expect?”
She shrugged. “Besides only one man? Love, attention. Devotion. Fidelity. Attraction.”
“Thank you for sharing that,” I replied. It wasn’t easy to share, especially to two men, two strangers she just discovered were her husbands. She was actually taking the news of being married to both of us much better than I expected. Based on her behavior in the saloon and the knowledge that she had five brothers led me to believe she wasn’t one to simper and cry. Histrionics did not seem to be her thing.
“Love, I hope, will come,” I added.
“As for our attention, you’ve definitely got that, sweetheart,” Lane added. “We can’t take our eyes off of you.”
“Devotion and fidelity are quite similar. We are both sorry to have missed you at the station, but I assure you we are quite devoted to you, to the idea of a wife.”
“As for attraction…” Lane pushed off the wall and walked over to Piper. He stood so close that she had to tilt her head back to look at him. His hand came up and stroked over her hair, as if seeing whether the color was actually real. “As for attraction, you need not worry that pretty head of yours. In fact, I’d be happy to prove it.”
Her eyes widened just before he lowered his head and kissed her. The sound that escaped her throat as his lips brushed over hers had my cock swell. Was this her first kiss? I should have been jealous of Lane kissing my wife, but I wasn’t. We’d shared women before, but Piper was different. Just knowing she was ours made her more.
I knew the second Lane’s tongue touched her lips, for she gasped and he took that advantage. As was his nature, he wouldn’t be tentative, but kissed her quite boldly. Her hands came to his chest for balance, but she needn’t have worried. Lane wasn’t going to let anything happen to her. And neither was I.
“My turn,” I said when my patience wore thin, my voice deep and rough.
Lane lifted his head and smiled, took in her face. Eyes closed, her cheeks were flushed, her mouth wet and swollen. As her lashes fluttered open, I moved to stand before her, Lane shifting out of my way. I didn’t wait, didn’t give her a chance for her mind to clear from the aroused fog that had set in with the kiss.