Covington, Cara - Love Under Two Lawmen [The Lost Collection] (Siren Menage Everlasting) (6 page)

“Jesus Christ!”

“What?”

“You traveled
alone
, all the way from Richmond, carrying a thousand dollars? Are you
crazy
?”

Amanda opened her mouth and then shut it again. Sometime in the last couple of minutes, she’d gotten to her feet and now stood toe-to-toe with the Texas Ranger. It suddenly occurred to her that everyone else in the room was watching this exchange between her and Adam with all the attention of spectators at the opera. Or a bull fight. Warren wore a big smile, but the other three just looked intrigued.

“I am not crazy,” she said between clenched teeth.

“No? What would you have done if some yahoo had come up to you and threatened to rob you? Crowded close like I am now and demanded your money…and your virtue?”

“I’d have shown him this.”

The movement was smooth and swift from practice, because despite what the infuriating, gorgeous man in front of her thought, she did know to be careful and she did know how to take care of herself.

That was just one more thing her mother had seen to.

She bent slightly, lifted her right boot, and pulled out her knife, whipping it to within an inch of Adam Kendall’s face.

Adam’s eyes widened as he took a step back. She had to admit it felt good to surprise him.

Caleb whistled. “That is some Arkansas toothpick you have there, Miss Dupree.”

“Thank you, Mr. Benedict. I’m rather fond of Pocahontas, myself.”

“You named your knife after an Indian princess?” Warren asked.

“Well,” Amanda smiled at his tone of incredulity, “we are both Virginian women, are we not? And surely a good poke is this one’s specialty.”

“I hope you know how to use that thing.” Adam had recovered his aplomb, and Amanda knew that she was coming to really like the man, despite his talent for riling her.

“Yes. My mother arranged for me to take lessons from an expert. I can take care of myself, Adam.”

“We’ll see about that.”

“You gentlemen are staying over, aren’t you? Caleb said it looked like rain, and you’ve already traveled a great deal today.” Sarah turned her attention to Amanda and smiled. “That’s one of the good things about having such a big house with lots of bedrooms. I can always offer to put friends up.”

“Thank you, Sarah,” Adam answered her. “I think we’re both too tired to travel any more tonight.”

Amanda looked to her hostess. “Speaking of tired, I hate to be a boring guest, but I’m exhausted.”

“Of course you must be. And there’s certainly no need to apologize. If I had been a proper hostess I’d have sent you to rest soon after you arrived.” Sarah got to her feet. “So I’ll show you to your room now.”

Amanda needed some sleep before she tried to engage any further in a battle of wits with the appealing Captain Kendall. And if Warren Jessop continued to look at her with that sweet expression…well, sleep was just an excellent idea all the way around. No way could she get into trouble if she went to her room and straight to sleep.

“We’ll begin to plan our expedition in the morning,” Adam said as she neared the door to the dining room.

“Yes, I’ll see you in the morning.”

* * * *
  

“Do you think I’m a coward because I’m still nervous when we’re together like this?”

Adam looked up at Warren, reading the expression of self-doubt on his face.

“No, of course I don’t. You’re not a coward. Far from it. And you’re not nearly as nervous as you used to be, either.” He spoke nothing but the truth. In the five months since he’d played his part in bringing down Tyrone Maddox, Warren had displayed not only a greater sense of adventure in the bedroom, but a greater level of self-confidence outside of it.

They’d stayed over as guests of the Benedicts from time to time. Warren had even recently sold his land and moved in to Adam’s house. It galled Adam that subterfuge was still needed, but they were both realists. They had to live in the society of man, such as it was. Being lovers of the same sex was against the law, and there really wasn’t much they could do about that.

Sarah, Caleb, and Joshua had stepped in and quietly let it be known that Adam and Warren were kin—a fact that was true in their own eyes—and that made a difference in the eyes of the citizens of Waco. Since the move happened just after Warren had been shot by Maddox, most assumed that Adam, as the older of the two, had taken his younger cousin under his wing.

It was late, and everyone in the household had retired for the night. Rita Mendez and her husband, José, had a small adobe cottage away from the house, on the other side of the barn. Only residents and guests would bed down under the Benedicts’ roof.

Warren had just returned from the bedroom next door. He’d spent a few minutes there so that in the morning it would appear he’d spent the night in that room. He trusted Sarah and her husbands, but not the staff, and so he was bound to feel nervous.

Adam set away his thoughts and went to his lover. He reached out and gently stroked a finger down Warren’s cheek. “I love you. Be naked with me.”

Adam had never loved like this, and despite the danger, and the need for secrecy, this love had not only flourished but grown stronger every day. Now he took the time to undress Warren, lingering over patches of flesh newly bared, brushing kisses and using his tongue to taste and his teeth to nip.

Warren shivered under his touch. Knowing he aroused him made Adam’s cock stiffen with need. When Warren stroked his shirtfront and began to unfasten the buttons, Adam held still for the caresses his lover lavished upon him.

The drapes had been drawn, and the bedroom door locked. When they stood naked together, Adam leaned in, his lips brushing back and forth across Warren’s. Then they settled, and Adam kissed him. With long, slow sips Adam relished the taste of his lover, and the freedom, at this time and in this place, to drink his fill. His tongue swirled in Warren’s mouth, tasting every bit of him, loving the flavor, loving
him
. He wrapped his arms around him, drew him closer, and shivered when their cocks rubbed against each other. Everywhere Adam touched Warren felt hot with passion. Everywhere Warren touched him quivered with delight.

Adam’s hands trailed down his back, then back up. He caressed the taut, bare buttocks, smiling when Warren clenched those muscles. Their breathing hitched, and Warren’s hands trembled as he caressed Adam, as he reached down and fisted him.

His lover’s hot hand surrounding his cock always filled Adam with such need. He didn’t know how much longer he could last.

Stepping back, Adam took Warren’s hand and led him toward the bed. He’d already turned the blankets down. He reached out to turn off the light that burned softly on the bedside table.

“No.” Warren’s hand stopped his. “I want you to leave it on.”

“Are you sure? I don’t mind putting it out.”

“I’m sure. I want to see you. I want you to see me.”

“Sweetheart.” He whispered the endearment, his voice, like his knees, weakened by this unexpected yet treasured gift from his lover.

He laid down, drawing Warren down with him.

Hands roamed and swept, caressed and grasped. Tongues met and swirled, lips met flesh with loving, tender touches.

Adam wrapped his hand around Warren’s hard, hot cock at the same moment he felt his own stroked and held. Arousal spiked, and Adam knew he needed to taste Warren’s erection, needed to feel his own stiff flesh fuck Warren’s mouth.

Moving quickly, he turned himself around on the bed, then inched closer, then closer still, until the heat from Warren’s body soothed his, until the musky scent of his sex filled Adam with a hunger to taste, a thirst to drink. He nuzzled his lover’s prick, licked and tasted his scrotum, inhaled deeply near the hair that nested his shaft. Then he opened his mouth and drew Warren’s cock inside and nearly groaned when he felt his own surrounded by the moist cavern of Warren’s mouth.

He loved the flavor of him, the salty and savory taste that Adam knew he would recognize anywhere. His tongue stroked while his mouth sucked, and the sound of Warren’s groan thrilled him as much as the sensation of it around his engorged dick did.

Adam’s heart pounded in his chest as his excitement grew. He tried to be gentle as his hips pumped forward, but the arousal climbed until all that mattered was the sweet, searing promise of release.

They reached it together, and Adam swallowed the pungent offering his lover gave him even as he felt his own seed drawn up and out of his body.

Later, lying under the blankets, light extinguished, Adam stroked Warren’s back and reveled in the closeness, the freedom to lavish affection.

“I want Amanda,” Warren said softly. “I want to feel her catch fire between us.”

“Good. That’s what I want, too.”

“She’s as attracted to us as we are to her. Earlier, as you and she were going at each other, I swear I could smell her pussy.”

Adam chuckled. “I had the damndest time keeping my cock from standing at attention then. I think she’ll be a very passionate lover.”

“If she’ll have us.”

“I never would have imagined a woman who would. Until I met her today. I’m pretty sure she’ll have us. Sooner, rather than later.

“Adam?”

“Yes?”

“You do know we could reach Tahlequah much sooner and mostly by train. Right?”

“Well, of course. But that would mean passing up the opportunity to be alone with Amanda, just the three of us, under a magnificent Texas sky. Alone, out on the trail, with no other people to interfere with our pleasures, is a much nicer prospect that a days-long train ride.”

“You have a point.”

Adam thought Warren drifted to sleep. But then he said, “I would follow you to Austin. I would follow you into hell.”

“I know. But I want to stay with you, and close to friends who accept us. This is our home.”

“You’re
my
home. But I’m glad we’re staying.”

As sleep claimed him, Adam’s mind drifted to thoughts of gold and a red-haired beauty who engaged his mind and fired his blood, and he wondered what the next few weeks would bring.

Chapter 6

Amanda groaned in pleasure as the bed seemed to wrap her in loving arms and pull her down into luxurious comfort. The mattress, made of lush feathers, was the most comfortable one she’d ever laid upon. The last week had been taxing, traveling by day, trying to sleep each night in beds that seemed hard, lumpy, or smelled of body odor. Surrounded in soft freshness and as tired as she was, sleep should have captured her instantly.

“Our room is right there, in the corner. This one across the hall from yours is the one Adam and Warren usually use when they’re here.”

Sarah had conducted the tour in her soft, no-nonsense tone, but just those innocuous words started Amanda’s imagination working.

Amanda understood the mechanics of sex and had from the time she’d turned twelve and gotten her monthlies. Her mother had told her, long before she met Terence, that some men preferred men, and some women other women. To Amanda, that was just the way things were, and although she knew such pairings were considered taboo by society, she had never considered them so herself.

Neither had she ever lain alone in a big bed and imagined two men making love to each other. Not until tonight, not until an image of Adam and Warren formed in her mind. The sensations she’d felt earlier, standing close to Adam, looking into Warren’s soft eyes, came back to her now tenfold.

She could imagine them lying together, hands and lips moving subtly over sensitive flesh. They’d made no secret of the fact they were both attracted to her, that they would welcome her into their bed. What would it be like to feel their hands on her skin, their mouths on hers? Closing her eyes, she let the image seduce her until it filled her mind and tingled her belly. Her hands stroked across her breasts, her nipples poking against her chemise, reaching out for the stroke of her own fingers. Amanda sighed as the whisper-light touch of her hand became, in her mind, the gentle caress of another as she imagined the sensation of a hot male body on either side of her.

She’d never wanted a man, never felt the tug of hunger deep inside her. She did now, and as that hunger began to burn, she thought she could understand how a woman would do almost anything to feed it.

She’d touched herself before, of course she had. Doing so felt pleasant enough, but there’d been no urge to continue on or to repeat the exercise. Tonight, the stroke of her fingers over her sensitive body went beyond pleasant. Arousal began to swirl through her, and her sigh turned to a soft moan of need. Her hips moved, a subtle back and forth rhythm they seemed to know instinctively. Parting her legs and bringing her knees up slightly, Amanda felt the soft material of her chemise brush against her cunny.

Oh, that feels good!

Daring to claim more of the delicious sensations, she moved her hand down until she reached her hot folds. Back and forth, she petted herself, and with each stroke the need for more increased. She knew what was happening to her, knew there was a release just beyond her reach, and for the first time in her life, she chased it.