Amazed that she was still able to blush after her wanton actions, she nodded. “Very much so.”
A warm, hard male body slid up behind her and Garret wrapped his arm around her waist, as Edward scooted closer to her front. She soon found herself comfortably sandwiched between the two men, who were grinning over her head like fools. They were careful to keep their pelvises away from her, but during their maneuvering, she had felt their erections. Very large ones at that. She didn’t have a lot of experience with men, but she’d caught glimpses through windows of her male neighbors in the building across the street walking naked past their windows. None of them had been nearly as good looking as Edward and Garret, and none of them had the men’s length and girth.
It made a little shiver go through her that was pure desire, but the men mistook for her being cold.
“Here,” Edward said as he pulled another sheepskin over them, “this should help.”
“Thank you,” she whispered, suddenly unable to meet his gaze.
Edwards’s gentle, thick fingers tilted her chin up as he stared down at her, his face mostly in the shadows of the firelight, “Your feminine juices are sweeter than anything I’ve ever tasted. Here, let me show you.”
Moving slowly, he lowered his head until their lips brushed. She gave a soft moan as new sparks of pleasure detonated inside of her. He was so big, but the way he cradled her head as his soft mouth seduced hers was highly erotic. Yes, she could taste herself on his mouth. Tart and sweet—she was relieved to know that she didn’t taste bad. Or maybe it was just the fact that she was enjoying the longest, slowest, most drugging kiss she’d ever experienced. While Garret kissed her with fire and passion, fierce and devouring, Edward kissed her like he wanted to savor her. Both different, but equally phenomenal.
So phenomenal, that when he stopped kissing her, she made a little mew of disappointment and tried to pull him back. “More.”
“Lass, you tempt me like no other, but this isn’t the time or the place.” Garret helped her sit up a little bit and handed her a canteen. “Take another dose of the tonic the doctor made. It will help you sleep. I can tell you from experience, sometimes it’s a few days after a beating that the real pain kicks in.”
She did as he said but grumbled afterwards, “I didn’t even like kissing you anyways.”
Both men laughed, and she had to duck her head to hide her own smile. The whole situation was just so out of her realm of experience that she had the odd urge to both giggle and cry at the same time. Garret leaned over and wrapped her up in his arms as Edward leaned forward and brushed his lips softly over hers.
“Are you really saying my kisses were unbearable? Were those sweet, erotic moans you made ones of protest, not of pleasure?”
One of those moans wanted to escape right then as her desire instantly flared to life. “Maybe they weren’t terrible.”
Another of those teasing, soft kisses before Edward pulled back and studied her. “I would love nothing more than to kiss you until you don’t know your own name, but I will not be celebrating our wedding night on the road. I want you spread out for us on our big, soft bed at home, wearing nothing but all that golden hair.”
“Wedding night?” She tried to elbow Garret to get him to stop kissing on her increasingly sensitive skin to let her think. “What wedding night?”
“We have decided,” Edward said with a huge smile, “that you will be our wife.”
For a long moment, she stared at him, then she started to laugh. “Your wife? As in married to both of you, like they do in Lady Uriel’s court? That’s preposterous! Two men can’t marry one woman in the United States. It simply isn’t done!”
“Yes, it is,” Edward said with a small smile. He didn’t seem in the least perturbed by her rejection. “Maybe not everywhere, but more than you think. In Bridgewater and some of the surrounding areas, it is our way of life.”
“You’ll see,” Garret said as he helped her lay back onto her sleeping pad. “Perhaps, once you’ve meet some of the other wives, you’ll understand that what we are offering you is very real.”
“I can’t marry you,” she whispered as tears filled her eyes. “Ted is coming back for me, and we’re going to California together. I promised my father I would.”
The tonic was starting to slow her system, spreading a warmth that wasn’t carnal through her limbs. Even her thoughts began to slow, and her eyelids started to feel so heavy.
“We’re hoping we can convince you otherwise,” Edward’s voice rumbled from next to her ear, but she was already drifting off to sleep.
4
ROWAN
The wind was really picking up and the late morning sunshine dimmed as thick, dark clouds raced over the western sky. As they drew closer to Bridgewater, she had to admit the land itself was beautiful in a rough, powerful way she’d never experienced in the city. They crested one of the endless hills leading to the mountains, and the view was striking. Sitting next to Garret on the jockey’s box, she looked to where he pointed. In a gap between two large hills, a small town nestled in the valley between. Smoke rose from various chimneys, and she could see little moving dots that had to be cattle in one of the fields.
“Bridgewater is another three hours north of here on the other side of the hills,” Garret said, raising his voice as the wind gusted and roared through the leafless trees in a rush. “I don’t want to risk getting caught in this storm, so we’re going to stay in Dove Springs at a friend’s inn. Thought you might enjoy sleeping in an actual
