“No!” My voice was louder than I intended. “It’s not safe for a woman travelling alone. That town has all sorts of rotten jaspers hiding in it. Besides, do you even know where the town is? Which direction to go?”
She looked around. It was clear that she was lost.
“I will be fine,” she insisted.
I will be fine. They were the last words Rose, my fiancé, had said to me. She’d refused to heed my warning and her carelessness had gotten her killed. She’d gone into town by herself, without me, and had gotten caught in the crossfire of a gunfight. I will be fine spoken in Rose’s sweet voice echoed in my head. It had been two years since my Rose had died but it felt like only yesterday. Memories of her came flooding back. I remembered how helpless I’d felt that day. Rose hadn’t listened to me and I hadn’t been able to protect her. I was not going to let that happen again. I was not going to let this foolhardy woman, who didn’t understand the dangers of the west, get herself killed. Not when I could prevent it.
“Bridgewater isn’t far from here,” Roscoe said. “Our home. You’ll be safe there.”
“I’m not afraid of any… what did you call them? Rotten jaspers? They don’t scare me.”
“You won’t get back to town before nightfall,” I warned her, but she reached for the reins Roscoe still held. A growl lodged itself deep in my throat. “If you aren’t the most infuriating woman!” I muttered. In one swift movement I dropped to one knee in the dirt and hauled her over my dusty thigh, wrestling with her skirts as she kicked and squirmed, until finally, I was able to pull them up.
“You let go of me!” she screamed.
I didn’t let her go. Instead, I parted her drawers and laid a crisp spank across her rounded, creamy buttocks.
“I will let you up when you agree to mind me and not before,” I informed her, swatting her sharply again. “It’s a different world out here to back in Philadelphia.” Another smack punctuated my words. “You’re obviously not aware of the dangers and you won’t listen when we try to tell you.” I flattened my hand and spanked her twice more. “My Rose was killed because she was reckless. I will not let that happen to you.”
She was kicking and twisting so much I could see the dewy wetness glistening in the sweet folds of her swollen pussy. The movement of her body against my cock made it strain against my pants. I couldn’t wait to sink it into her. I spanked her again, a little bit harder, watching as her bouncing globes turned pink under my touch. I traced my finger along the edge of a handprint. “Are you ready to mind me yet?”
“Yes!” she gasped, pressing her hands against the ground to lever her body upwards. I held her fast. “I will do as you say!” she promised.
“Good.” I let her up.
3
ROSCOE
Still holding the reins in one hand, I reached out for the lady and helped her to her feet. My breathing was almost as labored as hers was. She’d been wide open to my gaze when she’d kicked her feet wildly during her punishment and the sight of her glistening cunny made my balls ache.
She was ours. She may not know it yet, but she would soon. We would make sure of it. I couldn’t wait to claim her, to fill her holes with my seed.
I wasn’t looking for a wife. After seeing how miserable my lying, cheating parents had made each other, I didn’t want that for myself. I’d left home as soon as I could to escape their constant fighting and Shane had been my only companion. I liked it that way. But now here was a woman, in the middle of nowhere, that we’d come across quite by accident. She had nowhere to go. Returning to Philadelphia obviously terrified her. I wanted her. Me and Shane, we both wanted her. We would share her, claim her together.
The proud carriage of her body revealed a stubborn defiance, as she bravely brushed down her skirts. Her face was flushed. Her blue eyes sparked. Was it anger or arousal that danced there? I wasn’t sure.
I didn’t let go of her arm and she didn’t pull it away. Instead she turned, so she could look at me better, and I felt her gaze rake up and down my body. I saw her lips part ever so slightly. That spark in her eyes flashed.
“I’m pleased to see you have more manners than your barbaric companion,” she told me, in cultured tones. She’d been raised well. The way she spoke suggested an education in an expensive finishing school, not just learning basic reading, writing and arithmetic in a one-room schoolhouse out here in the mountains. Did she have the skills necessary to survive out here? If she’d been honest in responding to Coleton’s letter, she did.
“My barbaric companion saved your life.” I did not smile. “Perhaps he did not act like a gentleman, but he is right when he said you do not understand the dangers of the west. You would not have made it back to town alone; there is no law out here. Not like what you’re used to.”
She wrenched her arm from my grasp and stood between Shane and I. She looked about to cry. “What am I to do?”
“Come to Bridgewater with us,” I told her. “Shane and I, we will keep you safe. Whatever it is you’re running from, we’ll protect you.”
I looked over her head at Shane. He nodded. He wasn’t willing to let her go any more than I was. Not now that we’d found her. She was ours. I was glad we’d found her. Shane hadn’t been the same since he’d lost his first love, Rose, and it would do him good to have a woman again. Rose had been
