Bewitching Bret Read online

  “You know Evan would never let anything…or anyone,” I emphasized, “threaten our family.”

  “I know. But I’ll rest easier out there, knowing you’re here.”

  I changed tactics. He just couldn’t leave behind. Not now. Not when all my thoughts were centered on having my way with our wife. I had to convince him to let me go and leave Evan for this job.

  “Edna won’t like it.”

  “I don’t give a flying fuck what that woman likes or doesn’t like,” he hissed. “This is Carston Ranch, not Barker’s Bakery, or some shit like that.”

  I couldn’t help but chuckle. My oldest brother wasn’t usually one to come up with pithy quips. Spinning a yarn and witticisms were Drew’s area of expertise.

  Which always worked well to keep up spirits on the trail. And Evan did mention wanting to get some of his traps set out early. Of course Cole staying behind was never an option when there was work to be done. He just always had to be right in the thick of it all.

  Which meant I was really the only one left to hold down the fort from any potential invaders.

  “Well, I guess I am right in the middle of training that colt,” I admitted. “Maybe it’ll be best for me to stay behind and finish while you’re gone.”

  Cole offered up one sharp nod as if he knew I’d acquiesce given time. “And a few of the hands’ll stay behind to help with chores and any shit that comes up around here.”

  Seth and Drew came out of the stables, leading one of the wagon teams.

  “Since you’re taking Drew, he’ll want to ride Billy so do you want to take the Black Prince?”

  “Hell no. That damn stallion is too high-strung for my taste. I’ll just take Buck as usual.”

  I sighed. “You really need to start getting used to working with another horse. Let Buck retire to the pasture and enjoy lazy days fucking mares.”

  He slapped a hand on my shoulder and stopped us in the middle of the yard. “Tell ya what…you let Buck fuck a couple of your mares, and I’ll consider one of his colts for my new mount.”

  He strode off toward the barn, leaving me standing alone. “But that’ll still take a couple of years before one’s ready for the likes of you to ride.”

  “Then you’d better get him busy when we get back.”

  “That’s not how it works, Cole!”

  But he just waved to me and headed into the barn, leaving me to go take care of saddling his horse. I kicked a rock then turned on my heel to head over to the stables.

  If I had my druthers, I was about ready to saddle up the Black Prince for him to ride simply out of spite. Or Nightmare.

  But all that did was make me imagine letting Essie ride me. My cock responded by immediately rising to attention.

  I sighed. These next days were gonna be the longest of my life.

  Ah fuck.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Estella

  Abby had remained quite incapacitated with the headache these last few days since her arrival. So I was surprised to see her up and trying to get around when I brought the breakfast tray up to her room.

  “Abby,” I said, sliding the tray on the dresser. “You should have waited for me to help.”

  She turned from the window, dressed in a fine pair of satin and lace bloomers that fell below her knees and a close-fitting camisole with a high-ruffled neckline to match. The wire-framed bustle around her hips jiggled awkwardly as she held out the corset by the laces.

  Tears swam in her soft brown eyes. “I was feeling so much better this morning, but…I can’t seem to do anything with this…this…thing.”

  I was glad to know she felt better physically, but I had a feeling those tears weren’t merely the result of a misbehaving corset.

  I gently took the garment from her and began the laborious process of strapping her in. “Corsets are such dreadful beasts and can only be secured with help.”

  “I have no idea how I’d have managed without Mrs. Barker along to assist.” She sucked in her breath as I pulled and tugged. “How on earth did you manage?”

  “Since I no longer wear them, I manage quite well.”

  “No.” She turned to face me once I’d finished. “I meant…I mean how…you were all alone when you left.”

  “You mean five years ago.”

  She merely nodded, her carefully piled hair already brushed and pinned to perfection. Abby rarely ever did anything halfway when it came to keeping up with appearances. Our mother had managed to instill that in both of us from the time we could walk – and after several years in Washington DC’s high society, it had apparently stuck with her.

  I glanced over the all-black ensemble she’d already laid out on the bed, a confection of satin, lace, ribbon, and even feathers poking out of the hat. I started with the underskirts.

  “You may think me quite scandalous,” I began. “But I’d gone to a shop rather out of the way that I’d heard of to order some specially made undergarments, including a unique corset with laces in the front, of all things.”

  “That would certainly have made things somewhat easier.” She raised her arms as I slipped the skirt over her head and fluffed it over the bustle. “Still…it couldn’t have been an comfortable journey by yourself.”

  Old hurts welled up like a rock on my chest. Abby and Edna staring after me from the platform as the train slowly pulled away. A desperate search among the stovepipe hats scattering about for a familiar – and once beloved – visage. A face that never appeared.

  But I wasn’t about to relive those memories. I simply brushed them aside like a tear. “One thing I’ve learned out here is that hardships are a part of life. It’s what we do when we face them that defines our character.”

  She turned toward me and grabbed my arm as I reached for the beautiful overskirt. “Father should never have allowed you to make that trip alone.”

  “Yes, well there’s no reason to fuss about it now.”

  We finished getting my sister all put to rights before she took a few sips of coffee and nibbled on a biscuit. But even after so little food the last few days, Abby’s appetite had yet to improve.

  Or perhaps it had more to do with my cooking.

  As the wife of a junior senator, Abby had grown accustomed to dining out at the finest restaurants and eating the most luxuriant meals, I assumed. But from the looks of her thin frame, she’d had little appetite for much longer than the past two weeks. More like since the loss of her beloved husband a year ago.

  Our father’s recent passing had likely only contributed to her lack of appetite, especially if Edna was correct that her headaches had grown worse and more frequent of late.

  Perhaps between the two of us, Edna and I could fatten up my sister a bit during her stay.

  “Do you feel up to a tour of the house?”

  She glanced around at the small room Cole once slept in briefly after my arrival. As the oldest son, he’d gotten the largest bedroom upstairs, which was still small by the standards at which we’d been accustomed growing up.

  Even so, I don’t think it met with Abby’s approval. “That would be…lovely.” Her nose wrinkled slightly with that last word.

  “This used to be Cole’s room…when he was a boy,” I quickly amended.

  I made quick work of pointing out the other rooms upstairs without letting her see inside Evan’s or Drew’s. I had no idea how they’d left their rooms before heading out to the barns and didn’t wish to frighten her unnecessarily if they were out of sorts.

  We didn’t dawdle long over Bret’s room, just so she knew where I’d put Edna. And the two new rooms were still bare. She was intrigued by the addition the Carston men and our hands had built a few years ago and touched by the effort they had put into it all.

  However, it wasn’t until we arrived downstairs that Abby’s interest perked up. “Your loom.”

  The first smile since she’d arrived graced her face as she ran her delicate and uncalloused fingers over the wefts, tracing the design I’
d started so long ago. After all the work to bring my loom indoors, I’d only managed to complete one small tapestry to hang in the children’s nursery, while the second remained little more than half-finished.

  With four men, three children, and a household to manage, I had scant time these days for pleasurable pursuits.

  Outside the bedroom, that is.

  “Oh, and your books.” Abby crossed the room to take in the assortment of bookcases that lined the walls.

  “Drew has promised to build me a house with a real library someday.”

  She pulled books from the shelves one-by-one and inspected the spines in the light from the large window. “Drew is the youngest, is that right?”

  “Yes. Cole then Evan.”

  “Whom I met in town.”

  I nodded. “Then Bret and lastly Drew.”

  “Bret is the…” She glanced over her shoulder and peeked through the open doorway toward where we’d come before dropping her voice to a conspiratorial whisper. “…the savage.”

  I ground my teeth briefly, hoping only that my sister didn’t treat her as Edna already had demonstrated. “His father was from the local tribe, yes. But they all share the same mother. They’re brothers.”

  My sister’s eyes widened as she slid a book in place and mindlessly drew another from the shelf. “I meant no disrespect.”

  “That’s more than I can say for Mrs. Barker.”

  “Well, she is from another…” Her comment stopped in mid-sentence as a sprinkle of laughter filled the room and brought three sets of eyes peeking out from behind the nursery door. “My dear sister, when did you develop an interest in animal husbandry?”

  I looked over her shoulder then joined her laughter as I plucked the book from her hands. “That belongs over here, with Bret’s books.”

  Abby followed me to the shelves on the far wall away from the window and inspected the rows of medical journals and veterinary books Bret had collected over the years.

  “My goodness...Bret actually reads and understands all of these?”

  “He will read anything he gets his hands on,” I commented proudly. “He was even enrolled in that prestigious veterinary school.”

  “So he’s formally educated too?”

  I winced. “Not…exactly.”

  “Why not?” She stopped perusing the books she held and looked up at me. “If he’s truly as well-versed in the latest medical journals and veterinary medicine as this shelf alone implies, he could get into any university back east.”

  “That’s what he thought.” I carefully opened the nursery door wider to encourage the children to come out.

  “Then what happened?”

  I dropped my voice. “When he showed up for classes, they took one look at him and refused him entrance.”

  Abby gasped. “But that’s so…so…wrong.”

  “Tell that to Edna.” I finally gave up trying to gently encourage the children to leave the nursery. “Come along now, children, and meet your Aunt Abby. She’s feeling much better today.”

  Though I’d been dreading this moment, Abby’s statement about Bret portended that this might just go a little easier than I thought. However, I continued to steel myself for the worst as the twins came scurrying around the doorframe to hide straight in my skirts.

  Abby bent down as best as the constricting dress allowed. “You must be Jake and Jude.”

  But my sister’s smile tempered almost as quickly as it had appeared when Meghan came around the corner. I held my breath as black glossy hair came to rest under my hand. Stormy gray eyes looked her aunt up and down just as Abby’s gaze traced my daughter, taking in every inch of her sun-drenched skin.

  Just like those school administrators had once done to her father.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Bret

  Slinging hay out of the barn loft was hard, backbreaking work. Cole and Evan were already drenched in sweat and had removed everything except their trousers, gloves, and hats by the time I arrived from the stables.

  Steam poured off of Cole when I handed him the canteen. “Take a breather.”

  He’d hardly sat down and gotten the thing to his lips before gulping in great draughts then handing it off to Evan. “Thanks, brother.”

  I didn’t even bother waiting to work up a sweat before I stripped to my skin and picked up right where they’d left off. My two brothers had already heated up the loft just from sheer exertion, and the scent of sweet hay and musk was more than overpowering. Mine swirled with theirs in no time.

  Reminding me once again how much such scents spurred on our joint lovemaking with our wife.

  I grunted and pushed myself to move faster. Ignored the stretching and straining of muscles. The cramping in my hands. Anything to help me forget about what I was missing with Essie.

  Until I noticed the pileup of hay bales down below. I stopped just before my brothers were ready to join in again to figure out why things had slowed down with the wagon.

  And heard the culprits almost immediately.

  Instead of picking up what we’d been throwing out, Seth and Sean had stopped loading the wagon to hide around the far side as they watched something toward the house. Their work ethic had surprised me in the week since the twins had shown up, so I was somewhat surprised to see them slacking off, looking as if they were busy concocting some sort of scheme right in front of us.

  However, the moment I heard the sprinkle of feminine voices, I had a pretty good inkling what was really going on and what they’d stopped to observe even though I couldn’t see for certain from this angle.

  “I’ll be right back,” I muttered to my brothers.

  I scrambled down the loft ladder and crept my way around the side of the barn to where the wagon sat half-filled with a tumbling pile of hay just below the open loft. The cousins’ heads were just visible, their shoulders shaking as I slid silently behind the wagon.

  But it wasn’t laughter that shook their torsos. Those two idiots had their cocks out, tugging on them for all they were worth, grunting and gasping as they watched Essie and Abby on the front porch of the house.

  Cole and Evan had moved to the open loft door to peer down at me. I put a finger to my lips in silent entreaty and motioned for them to stay put. From their angle, they probably couldn’t see exactly what the twins were up to. But if they heard the groans these two were making, it wouldn’t take any stretch of the imagination.

  The slip and slide of hands up and down cocks increased in speed until spurts of cum shot in tandem across the dirt at the cousins’ feet. I didn’t bother waiting for them to finish and tuck away before stepping out behind them.

  I ground away my teeth. “If Estella is what’s got you two fuckers all worked up, pack your bags and get the hell off our land.”

  They jump around in a last spray of cum before they both scrambled to get themselves put to rights. Sean’s ragged white scar was on full display, with a streak of his brother’s cum underlining it.

  “Bret…we…uh.” He quickly wiped off his side and grabbed his shirt from the wagon.

  Seth donned his shirt too, buttoning up with shaking hands that still glistened with his milky release. “No, nothing like that. We was…”

  “It’s just that we ain’t never seen such a…”

  “Well, such a fine lady.”

  “You know.” Sean shrugged. “All dressed up in such finery.”

  “Not even none of them high dollar whores out near the mountain claims.”

  Damn fucking assholes, the lot of them. I was pretty sure they didn’t mean to equate Essie’s sister with a two dollar whore, but they’d come mighty close to it in my book. But I could see where they were coming from.

  Abby’s cheeks were pale and her eyes still held a pinch of strain, but she’d gone through the motions of society females and trussed herself up to put on a presentable appearance.

  Yet even through all of the silk, lace and ribbons, Essie’s sister couldn’t hold a candle to our wi
fe. Whereas Essie had curves that made me want to drown in their luxurious embrace, the corset only served to make her sister look even more gaunt, flattening whatever feminine curves she possessed under all that frippery.

  That didn’t stop Seth and Sean from making a beeline toward her, taking either hand and assisting her down the last few porch steps. Great. I wondered how such a fine lady would feel about taking the hands of two boys who had just jacked off watching her – and hadn’t even bothered to wash the results off their hands.

  My brothers had disappeared from the loft and now strolled across the yard toward the house, having put at least their shirts on and taken off their gloves. I stripped my hands and wiped bits of hay off against my trousers before I set off after them. But there wasn’t much I could do about my bare chest.

  Abby had been incapacitated since her arrival and had yet to make an appearance outside of her room, so I hadn’t gotten a read on how she’d receive me. Essie and Mrs. Barker saw to her needs these last few days, giving me a reprieve from any further awkward interactions.

  “Seth Carston, ma’am,” the twin on Abby’s right proclaimed with a boyish grin.

  “Sean Carston,” the other stated just as eagerly.

  Abby appeared a bit taken aback, the first hint of color rising to her cheeks. “I…I thought your names were…”

  “These are our cousins,” Cole stated, stepping forward with a hat tip. “They’re helping out around here and thinking about getting into a ranch of their own.”

  Abby took Cole’s offered hand in familiarity. “You remember Evan.”

  “Yes, good morning Evan.” A tentative smile of recognition.

  A silent touch of his hat was the only acknowledgment offered.

  Scrabbling came from across the yard as my little brother slid to a stop in between Cole and Evan. “This is Drew, the youngest of our brothers.”

  Drew’s stare darted between the sisters. “You don’t look very much alike…especially in the…”