But Anthony wasn’t certain he could have children. He’d been married to Georgia for nearly four years and they had no little ones. If he had someone to take care of, it would have helped him with his grief. But nothing. No babies, no family, no one but himself living in paradise alone until Wesley appeared.
Treasure Falls was a beautiful and spiritual place with a legend of seeing dead loved ones in the pool of the falls. But he’d not had the courage to visit the sight. Someday he was going to look for Georgia in the falls. Someday.
“Don’t you think that if there was a price on your head, we would know it by now?” he asked Wesley to push the thoughts of Georgia out of his mind.
“Not if he thinks I’m dead. Sometimes I want to ride back into Helena and surprise him. Show him that his son still lives, but then I fear being arrested. As the sheriff, my father is one mean son of a bitch. That’s one of the reasons I’m not certain that sharing a wife would be a good idea. How would you feel if I was arrested after we married? What would our wife think if I was carted away?”
The kid had a point, but still, Anthony wanted to pass his home down to blood and he wasn’t certain he could have children. And he was tired of being without a woman cuddled up next to him. The nights were lonely and cold.
And he couldn’t help but wonder if a woman would encourage Wesley to set down roots here on the ranch. A good, respectable family could help the man realize what was important in life.
“Maybe there won’t be a woman we agree on,” Wesley said. “You know I like my sex a little rougher than you do. What if the woman doesn’t agree to me spanking her ass? What if she doesn’t like me taking control?”
Raised by a preacher and his wife, Anthony had never experienced the kind of sex with women until he met Wesley. Now he couldn’t imagine it any other way. It was important for the woman to trust and obey them or her life could be in danger.
A mountain lion or a bear didn’t care that she disobeyed her husbands and went cherry-picking. For that reason alone, he would paddle her ass.
He couldn’t go back to staid lovemaking even if he wanted to. It just wouldn’t happen, especially not in Treasure Falls.
“Since the women know they’re marrying two men, you would think they would expect this kind of life. And frankly, even if you decide to leave, I’m marrying one of these women unless they’re all old and homely.”
Was it wrong that Anthony expected his new wife to be a virgin? That he wanted him and Wesley to be the first men who had taken her? That this time, he wanted a woman who was strong both mentally and physically?
Georgia had always had a weak constitution, and while he’d loved her so very much, the trip from Missouri to Montana had been more than she could handle. Halfway here, she’d died, leaving him alone.
Maybe he expected too much. As long as she made a vow to only be with him and Wesley, he could accept she wasn’t a virgin. After all, everyone made mistakes in life and he’d made more than his share. He needed to give the woman a chance.
“Look,” Anthony started, “let’s just give this mail-order bride thing a go. Maybe there won’t be a woman we agree to marry. Maybe none of them will entice us and make us want to rip their clothes off and jump in bed with them. Maybe we’ll still be two bachelors living alone.
“After meeting all of them, if you decide you want to leave, I’ll pay you your half of the cattle and say have a good life.” Anthony waited as his friend considered his words.
“All right. I’ll give it a chance, but she’s going to have to be something worth changing my life over before I consider marrying her.”
Anthony grinned. “All soft womanly curves with a beautiful smile won’t convince you? It’s been so long since we went to that brothel and shared a woman.”
“Yes, that sounds wonderful, but again, she has to be not only stunning, but a woman who I can’t live without for me to marry her. And I’ve yet to meet that woman.”
Just the thought of a beautiful woman getting off that stage and looking for a husband had Anthony’s cock standing at attention.
“Maybe soon,” Anthony said. “You may be the only one who can give our wife and us the babies I want.”
Wesley shook his head. “You don’t know that for certain.”
“I was married to Georgia for several years and she never once got pregnant,” he said.
For both of them, it had been a huge disappointment. One that Georgia cried over every month, right up until she died. She’d wanted a baby so badly.
“But she was also very frail, from what you told me. Maybe she could never have children. Maybe it was her and not you.”
That was a possibility, but Anthony wasn’t certain. All he knew was that he had the ranch and now he wanted a wife and kids to go with it.
But would any woman who got off that stage want an older man set in his ways and a younger man who could be arrested any day? There was uncertainty with both of them, but she wouldn’t get two better men.
Two men who would cherish her and fuck her every chance they got. And hopefully this time, create the family he longed for.
Especially if she liked her sex a little on the zesty side. Because Anthony was no longer the meek and mild husband of his twenties. No, now he was someone who liked it spicy, as in hot and demanding, and she needed to enjoy sex a lot.
CHAPTER4