STORY EXCERPT

“What in tarnation?”

“Wyatt, put that away! He’s not armed.”

“We don’t know that yet. And I told you to stay at the house.”

Dakota dragged his eyes open to see the couple who had been haunting his dreams and waking moments for almost a year. He watched them emerge from the thicket, Wyatt Baldwin holding his rifle at the ready.

Lily put her hand on the barrel and pushed it down toward the ground so that it wasn’t pointed at Dakota’s chest. “He’s wounded.”

“And we don’t know how he got that way. Maybe he was up to no good rustling and a rancher plugged him full of lead.”

“I mean neither of you any harm,” Dakota rasped, and even through his agonizing fog, he noticed Lily’s eyes rounded as if she recognized his voice.

He closed his eyes to keep from falling beneath the spell of her entrancing gray gaze, such beautiful eyes he had only glimpsed from afar before now.

Only after the tribe’s medicine man had worked on her and she had begun to recover her health had Dakota gotten to see what she looked like without all the bruises and swelling. Even seeing her from a self-imposed distance, he caught his breath each and every time he got a look at the brilliance that finally emerged from such a mantle of severe injuries. Not to mention his cock hardened at the mere sight of her living and breathing in his tribe’s encampment, among his people.

Dakota gritted his teeth against his lustful thoughts, but it didn’t prevent his body from reacting to Lily’s closeness. Despite his injury, his cock grew as hard as a rock, and he hoped that Lily and her husband were too occupied with his bullet wound to notice his arousal.

“Please…I need your…help.” He reached out a hand, desperate now for relief—from his physical and emotional pain. He didn’t think he could go another minute this close to the woman without being able to touch her.

Dakota felt himself fading, though, and didn’t know how long he would last before the other man came out of the thicket to paint him with the broad brush of a wrongdoer deserving the punishment he saw fit to deliver.

Without hesitation, Lily came to his side, crouched down, and took his hand. She glanced back at her husband, and Dakota felt the other man’s heated look like fire across his skin.

“Lilybelle, get away from him!”

“He’s wounded,” she repeated.

“I don’t care. He could be dangerous.”

“He’s not dangerous.”

The concern in her gaze when she looked upon his face worked like a cooling balm against the angry fire of her husband’s glare. He could not blame the man for warning her away and wanting to protect his wife, however. Were Lily his, he would do the same, go through any hell to keep her safe.

But she is not mine.

The coldness that rushed through him at that realization was so profound that Dakota actually shuddered beneath Lily’s touch.

“We have to help him.”

Wyatt came to her side and hunkered down, too. “And how do you propose we do that?”

“Go back to the house and bring back the wagon so we can move him.”

“Are you plumb loco? I’m not leaving you here alone with him.”

“I’ll be fine.”

Dakota felt a rush of admiration at her poise and the certainty in her voice. Either she was utterly crazy, as her husband alluded, or she was too courageous to care about the risks. Whichever it was, he thought he would explode from the affection and desire that only she had ever engendered.

When Wyatt did not move to do her bidding, Lily glanced at him over her shoulder and put out her hand. “Leave me your sidearm while you’re gone and we’ll be just fine.”

“It’s not him I’m worried about being fine, Lily. It’s you.”

“Wyatt, you’re wasting time and I don’t intend to leave him out here alone to die. I…I know what that’s like and it’s not a good feeling.”

Her firm, quiet words must have hit a nerve. In the next instant Wyatt took the gun out of his holster, cursing and grumbling under his breath as he handed it over to Lily butt-first.

Wyatt leaned toward Dakota and growled. “You lay one hand on my wife while I’m gone and there ain’t a doctor around who’ll be able to put back together the pieces left after I rip you apart. Do you understand me?”

“I understand,” Dakota murmured.

Wyatt nodded grimly then leaned in to kiss his wife hard on the lips, blatantly staking his claim in front of Dakota before standing to leave.

As soon as he was gone, Lily went to work opening Dakota’s shirt.

He felt bad that she was getting his blood all over her hands, but felt even worse when she gasped at the sight of his injury. He did not like her being exposed to the harsh realities of life like this yet again. It was bad enough when he had found and had to nurse her back to health all those years ago. He did not want her to return the favor despite his appreciating her nearness.

Dakota watched as she squared her shoulders and took a deep breath as if hardening herself to face the task at hand.

“Let’s see what we’re dealing with here.” Lily ripped off a strip of cloth from the bottom of her dress with her teeth and hands then she balled up the material and pressed it against his wound to staunch the flow of blood.

Dakota panted at the pressure of her hands and watched as his blood quickly saturated the blue gingham material. He was sorry that she had ruined her dress for him, especially since her efforts were probably all a waste of time.

ADULT EXCERPT

“Get over here,” he demanded.

Lily turned her head and the expression on her face told him exactly what Wyatt needed to know. She was excited by the harsh command in his voice. She wanted him to be dominant, forceful. Why else would the thought of two men appeal to her so much?

Wyatt’s cock throbbed at the thought because he needed to exhaust his sudden aggression. He wanted to punish her as well as make love to her.

Was he completely off the reservation for feeling that way?

Lily made her way over to Wyatt, trailing Dakota. She stopped in front of him, tilting back her head as she ran her tongue over her plump bottom lip and searched his eyes.

Wyatt caught her by the arms and dragged her up close enough to feel her breasts press against his chest. He bent his head and she gasped right before he slammed his mouth down on hers. Her soft lips instantly surrendered beneath his onslaught and he drove his tongue past them once they parted. He swallowed her groan as he delved further, sliding his hands down to her firm, round ass and drawing her against him.

He ground his hips into her, and Lily bucked against his hard cock with a whimper.

Wyatt responded to the plea in her voice, pulling away from her only enough to grip each side of her dress and rip it apart.

“Wyatt!” She crossed her arms over her breasts, gaping as she stumbled back.

Wyatt mercilessly studied her, saw the shock in her expression rather than fear, and stalked her. “You have on too many clothes. Take them off.”

Lily automatically reached for the remaining buttons that hadn’t gone flying every which a way—precious few were intact—and began undoing them.

Wyatt noticed the slight tremor in her fingers as she worked each button through its corresponding hole. He closed the space between them until Lily backed against the sofa.

He grinned, pressing against her until she flopped back against the couch cushions.

“Wyatt Baldwin, what has gotten into you?”

“You have, Lilybelle,” he murmured, taking pleasure in her aghast tone as he bent his knee to the sofa between her legs. “You owe me, darlin’, and I intend to take my pound of flesh.”

“Oh my…” She closed her eyes and arched her neck, a shudder rolling through her body.

The act of surrender excited Wyatt beyond his understanding, so much so until he felt as if he was in a fevered state and not in control of his actions.

He stepped back for the moment it took him to work the buttons on his trousers and pushed them and his underwear down over his hips, just enough to free his erection. A creamy pearl of liquid already trickled from the bulbous tip.

Wyatt looked at Lily sprawled against the sofa, naked from the waist down, bloomers, torn dress, boots, and socks all hastily removed and discarded on the floor.

She gazed up at him, smoky-gray eyes clouded with uncertainty and lust.

Wyatt approached the sofa, and Lily licked her lips and moaned as he kneed her thighs apart. He didn’t even check to see if she was wet enough for him, just settled his hips between her bent knees and drove his hard cock home with one powerful thrust.

“Oh, Wyatt!”

Her pussy wept around him, wet velvet heat sucking him deep.

Somewhere on the edge of his awareness he heard a masculine, animallike groan behind him. The raw sound spurred him as much as Lily wrapping her thighs around his waist.

She dug her heels into his ass and her nails into his shoulders, panting as he circled his hips and stroked all the corners inside her with his cock.

Wyatt planted his palms on either side of Lily’s head, reared up, and plunged headlong. He ground against her swollen clit until she cried out and dragged her nails down his back.

Wyatt growled with the intensity of it, the pleasure and pain that roared through him as he rode the waves of Lily’s wild, quivering completion before giving in to his own.

Panting, he bent his head to kiss her, planting his lips against the moist, rosy-hued skin of her neck and sampling the salty taste of her perspiration. He nuzzled her throat, still feeling the sting of her nails. Had his shirt been off, he was sure he’d be bloody. He actually wasn’t so sure that he wasn’t bloody.

“Are you all right?” Wyatt asked. Despite his earlier anger and desire to punish her, he never wanted to hurt her.

Lily smiled and burrowed her hands through his hair. “Right as a trivet.”

He chuckled, burying his face against her clothed breasts. The cotton of her camisole was not nearly as appealing as her silky skin. “You still have on too many clothes.”

“So do you.”

“I can remedy that directly.” Wyatt came to his feet with a grunt and noticed the wicked look in Lily’s eyes as she glanced past him.

In that instant, he remembered the earlier male groan that hadn’t come from him, the distinctive sounds of a man pleasuring himself.

He followed Lily’s gaze and turned without tucking himself in. He wasn’t nearly done with her, still raring to go.

Besides, Dakota had been treated to an eyeful and there was no need hiding now.

Shamelessly, the other man stood before him and Lily, spent cock in his fist and the creamy white deposit from his climax coating his fingers and the front of his shirt.

Like Wyatt, Dakota still had most of his clothes on, except he had pulled his trousers and underwear down over his hips to get a hold of his erection.

“I hope you’re ready for another round,” Wyatt said.

“Because we are,” Lily agreed.

“I am ready whenever the two of you are.”