Compromised Cowgirl (7 page)

“Do you think Jessie’s doing all the cooking?”

“Shall we wake her and ask?”

He pointed to the neatly made bed in the corner. Jessie lay on her back, fully dressed except for boots. A cap of short brown curls covered her head. He could make out the stubborn Elliott chin, though it was the size of an elf in comparison to her huge brothers. Freckles speckled her nose and cheeks. From what he could see of her limbs, she was like a yearling colt, slender and muscled.

“How could anyone think that darling young woman is a boy?”

“Men see what they want to,” replied
Rosa
.

She walked over to the table, putting her boot heels down sharply. Jessie startled and shot to her feet. A knife appeared in each hand, poised and ready to throw.

“Who the hell are you?”

* * * *

Jessie blinked at the older man and woman. She’d forgotten to make her voice sound low, but it was too late. The old man looked a bit embarrassed, but the woman snorted like a horse.

“Ross teach you how to defend yourself with those knives?”

The woman didn’t wait for Jessie to answer. She turned her back and bent over the table to empty a basket. She pulled out a pie plate and lifted off the cover. Jessie’s mouth flooded at the smell of cinnamon and yeast.

“I’m
Rosa
, and that handsome man is Doctor Henley. Now, are you gonna put those knives away and have a cinnamon bun, or should I leave all these for your men?”

Jessie absorbed both knives back into their holders and stomped into her boots.

“They’re not my men,” she automatically replied. “Welcome to the Double Diamond, Miss Rosa, Doc. I, uh, better not eat anything you brought. They wouldn’t like a hired boy taking what’s theirs.”

“I brought these for Jessamine Bonham Elliott. I know that’s you, so get your skinny ass over here and hold out your hand.”
Rosa
cut a square and set it on a tin plate.

Jessie decided to eat now and worry how they knew who she was later. She moaned when she bit into the light dough. She tasted sweet butter, raisins, and spices. She chewed, the texture like nothing else.

“Her ass isn’t skinny,
Rosa
. It’s round, and fits her body just right.”

Jessie choked on a mouthful. Doc winked at her.

“It’s skinny compared to mine!”

“I like a woman’s ass to be big and round and kissable.”

“Kissable?” squeaked
Rosa
. Her face, from forehead to the tight edge of her collar, flushed the color of her name.

Jessie stared as she finished chewing. They looked at each other as if unaware she was in the room. She suddenly realized they were sparking!

“Every inch of you is kissable,
Rosa
. Inside and out.”

“Excuse me, maybe I’d better go to the barn and let you two, uh, talk.”

“George Henley!”
Rosa
stuck both fists on her hips and glared.

“You’d better give that present to Jessie before one of the men returns,” said Doc. “Jessie needs it. You can tell me off all the way back to town.”

Rosa
, face still flushed, stomped around the table. Doc winked as she passed. She grumbled and almost shoved Jessie out the door. She stomped over to the buggy, took a cloth-wrapped parcel from under the seat, and continued to the barn. Jessie followed, not sure what was going on but willing to find out.

* * * *

Sin unsaddled his horse and turned it into the remuda. He’d seen the trail of dust heading for the cabin but had to take care of a few things before he could get home. He hurried behind the barn on his way toward the house.

“Take off your shirt and show me what you’ve done.”

Sin stopped so fast his upper body kept on going. He caught himself and stood still. Jessie’s little room was in this corner of the barn. The voice was deep, but sounded female, thank God.

“Dammit, girl, how many days and nights have you worn those bindings?”

“Just since I started here. Um, three days? Four?”

It was Jessie’s voice, but she spoke clearly and used proper grammar.

“I’ve come just in time. Get it off.”

Sin waited, imagining Jessie unwrapping cloth bindings from her chest. His cock twitched in his pants.

“Goodness. You’ve got enough for two women your size!”

A vision of Jessie’s slender body with a set of large, full breasts made his cock ache. He’d expected her to have small breasts to perfectly fit his mouth. Any extra was a bonus.

“They just kept growing,
Rosa
. I wish they were smaller.”

Rosa
was here? That meant Doc was around.

“If you’d worn those bindings any longer, those welts would be even worse. Let me rub on the ointment Doc sent.”

Jessie hissed. Sin heard nothing for a minute. His imagination went wild.

“There, how much does it hurt now?”

“About the same as when Fin MacDougal almost broke a couple of my ribs.”

Sin’s fists formed instantly as rage flowed into him. How could anyone beat a woman, especially one half his size?

“You do anything to get back at him?”

Jessie’s laugh floated past, sinking into his soul. He wanted to make her laugh like that. She sounded somewhat like Henry’s middle sister, the nice one.

“One night Fin drank so much he passed out by the fire. He’d left his pants unbuttoned after he took a leak. I smeared honey over his cock and made a trail to a red ant nest. He was so drunk he didn’t realize until his pants were full of them chomping down. He swelled up so much he couldn’t walk for a days.”

Sin winced when both females laughed. He’d remember that Jessie had an evil mind. In this case the punishment was just.

“There’s many a gal would love to have a figure like yours. Hourglass, they call it. Stuff you in one of those dresses that almost shows your nipples, and you’d rent for lots of gold.”

“How much?”

What? Only the Double Diamond men would ever touch this woman!

“If you did it right, you could sell your virginity six or eight times. Thousands in gold dust. With your looks, if you acted all innocent, you could get away with doing it for a couple of weeks, a different man each night. Put a sponge soaked in chicken blood inside you first, and you’d prove your virginity each time.”

“Eew!”

“I hear you’ve been riding horses astride since you could walk. That usually means you won’t bleed the first time. You’d better use a sponge on your wedding night so your husband will think you’re a virgin.”

“No sponges, thank God. I’m never going to marry and be owned by a man.”

Sin gave a quiet snort. Jessie was ripe for marriage. She just didn’t know it.

“There are so many single men here that you might not have a say in it. More than one innocent girl was married against her will. Now slip your arms into this corset.”

“Why don’t they leave?”

“After a gal’s been raped a few times, she thinks no one would want her.”

Rosa
spoke so quietly Sin could barely hear her. Everyone knew
Rosa
rarely left Miss Lily’s Parlor, or invited any men into her kitchen. For some reason she got along well with Ross, though he resembled the men who held her captive. Now he knew why there was so much shock when she started taking buggy rides with Doc.

“Pull the strings tight. Start at the top to squash them down.”

It was a crime to press Jessie’s full breasts flat. He wanted them to be free, and proud, and in his hands. Or mouth. He wasn’t particular as long as both happened often.

“What about love and children?” continued
Rosa
.

“Love made me an orphan, and I don’t need to marry to have a man in my bed. When I’m a partner on the Bitterroot with my brothers, any children I have will belong to us.”

“If your belly starts swelling without a ring on your finger, there’s gonna be a whole mess of Elliotts and MacDougals tracking down whoever done it to you. They’d catch him and make you marry him so fast—”

“Every single one of them has hopped into bed with dozens of women and never married them. They know I wouldn’t marry a man I didn’t love, just because we had sex.”

“I thought you said you didn’t want love.”

Sin leaned closer for Jessie’s answer.

“I meant that you can love too much. My father died rather than live without my mother. I would never love a man that much. And if I don’t marry, my children would always come first. Why put up with a husband when my children would have all those uncles?”

“A man has different ideas about what he does to women, and what another man does to his sister. Put your shirt back on and tuck it in.”

“Nothing could make me marry unless I wanted to!”

Sin thought of his parents. Though they detested each other, they married to keep certain property within the families. They’d coupled enough to provide the required heir and spare, though it took eight years before the spare arrived, meaning himself. His dark-haired father cursed him all his life, saying he was his wife’s adulterous child from a common blacksmith or farrier. His mother denied touching another man before Sin’s birth, though she moved to Town and left him behind as soon as possible. She only returned to host weeks-long parties filled with bed-hopping games.

For some reason the village farrier and blacksmith, both dark-haired men with sweet wives, took a liking to him. While they gave him the love and attention he craved, it only fanned the rumors. Though he learned both trades and grew into his muscles, he had few friends other than Ace and Henry. Unless his friends were visiting, he stayed in the cottages where he knew he was welcome.

Title and property or an ancient name meant nothing to him. It was what was in the heart that counted. If Jessie had no one and nothing but the clothes on her back, he would feel the same way about her.

Ace, however, needed society’s touch of approval. The Elliotts were the local gentry according to Western society. They’d lived there the longest and created their wealth rather than inherited it. All Henry wanted was a big family and a chance for adventure.

Jessamine Bonham Elliott was perfect for all of them.

She might insist her brothers couldn’t make her marry, but Sin knew different. Jessie loved her brothers and would not want to be banished from the valley for refusing to marry. If she was compromised, he had a good idea what the Elliotts would do to the man who refused to marry her. He’d make sure Ace wouldn’t get beaten to death.

Chapter Eight

“If that damned kid can do it, so can I.”

Ace shook out the loop in his lariat until it was just the right size. He held it between his thumb and finger. He wiggled the other fingers, keeping them loose. With one motion he swung the rope over his head, around once, and let go.

He grinned. The loop was perfect. It sailed up, up—

It jerked to a stop and fell to the ground with a thud six feet from the stump he aimed at. He looked at his left hand. It gripped the rope instead of letting it flow to follow the loop.

“Blast!”

Someone cleared their throat. He gathered up the rope, keeping the loops in the right direction. Sin or Henry would speak up instead of asking for his attention. No, they knew him so well that they’d stay far away when he was this furious.

“Unless you wish to be horsewhipped, I strongly suggest you turn your horse around and go your merry way.”

“Cain’t rightly do that, Mister Ace.”

The boy sniffed loudly and then spat. Ace compressed his jaw. If he jammed his teeth together, he wouldn’t grind them. He wanted to grind the boy’s face into the dirt along with the grin at his expense he was sure the lad sported.

“And why is that?”

“Cuz I got me a message fer ye.”

“Because you have a message for me.”

“Yep.”

“Say it.”

Silence. Another sniff. “It?”

Ace whirled around. The boy slumped on the ugly white horse about ten feet away. Both of them looked lazy and half asleep. Unfortunately, he knew it was just an illusion. Boy and horse could work him into the ground any day and twice on Sunday, blast it! Brawn would come to the boy as he grew, but never a brain. Ace could keep that thought from driving him mad.

“Because you have a message for me,” Ace repeated.

The boy blinked. If Ace did that to any of the prefects at school, he’d be bent over and have six of the best applied to his backside. Ace’s cock jumped at the thought of applying his hand to Jessie’s bare ass. He fought it down again. He enjoyed women, not boys, especially one who didn’t have enough brains or education to speak properly!

“Say, speaking exactly as I do, ‘because you have a message for me.’”

“Bee-kauze yew have a mes-sage four meee.” The boy nodded. “Only I gots one fer yew. Doc and Miss Rosa brought them cinnyman buns fer ye. They’s almost gone so’s if’n ye wants one, ye’d better get home quick smart.”