Shotgun Bride [Tasty Treats 12] (Siren Publishing Everlasting Polyromance) Read online

  “Possession? Of me?” Ella had a really bad feeling. “What in the world does that mean?” Was this a kidnapping?

  “It means we plan to put you to work in one of our brothels. That way we can earn some money on you like we’d planned before you fucked everything up by whoring yourself out for free to Westmoreland and Drakestone.”

  “They’ll come after me.” Ella was almost convinced of that. She wasn’t sure her tone of voice conveyed any certainty.

  “So what? Let them try to find you. We have lots of secret places where you can work off what you owe us. Even if they do come after you, it’ll take them forever to find where we put you. And we can move you around as we need to.”

  Ella closed her eyes and slumped against the door. She should have known she wouldn’t have the life she dreamed of. Not even for a minute, damn her bad luck.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Colton was operating on the notion of in for a penny, in for a pound, even as Matt decided to go the conservative route with regard to their future prospects as landowners.

  After the first day, he was making plans in his head regarding where to start, how many cattle to buy, and whether or not their cousins, Alex and Rafe, would be willing to help them out with any leftover or unused equipment.

  To that end, he and Matt decided to come back early and discuss it. And as a bonus, they’d get to see Ella a day earlier. They both already missed her. Matt wasn’t shy about telling him so either.

  “Admit it, you miss her, too.”

  “Of course I do. We’re on our way back aren’t we? I’m planning on grabbing her up, squeezing her tight, and burying my face against her throat as I inhale the fragrance of her soft hair.” Colton could almost feel her against his body. She probably still wasn’t ready for that wedding night yet, but he didn’t even care. It would be enough to just hold her in his arms and snuggle close to her all night long.

  “Not if I beat you to it.”

  “I’ll race you.”

  Colton nudged his horse’s flanks with his knees, spurring his borrowed mount into a faster trot. “Let’s go.” He kneed his horse into a full-fledged gallop. Behind him, he heard Matt whoop and start gaining on him. Matt came up alongside him, and they raced neck and neck to the top of the hill. Then Matt pulled ahead with a burst of sudden speed. Ahead on the incline, Colton edged closer and closer to Matt’s horse as they crested the hill and barreled down the other side.

  As he raced down the hill, Colton’s horse found some spirit and he passed Matt. He then noticed the large mobile medical vehicle, the one they’d made an appointment with for Ella, was headed their way on the road at the base of the hill they were galloping down.

  Why was the Med-Van here today? Had something happened to Ella? Colton slowed his horse. Matt did the same and came alongside him. He nodded once at the vehicle. They traded a concerned gaze and wordlessly sped up, going at breakneck speed down the rest of the hill.

  He and Matt slowed to a trot and made it to the road just as the van slowed in front of them. Colton flagged it down and dismounted. Flinging his reins to Matt, Colton pounded on the side entry door.

  The doctor they’d hired answered. He had a smile on his face, but Colton thought it looked forced.

  “Hey, doc. I thought you weren’t coming out here until tomorrow.” He noted that the doctor kept his body in front of the door opening as if trying to keep him out. That only made Colton want to enter all that much more. He took a step closer. The doctor held his ground.

  “Oh. Well, I had another appointment in the area that canceled so I stopped by to see if your wife was available.”

  Matt also dismounted dropped both of their reins and walked over next to him. “Did you already do the testing?” he asked.

  The doctor cleared his throat. “I…uh…” That was as far as he got before someone behind him pushed the doctor to one side. A gun emerged from the narrow gap in the door.

  Colton launched at the wrist holding the gun as the weapon fired. The charge went into the air. He bent the gun hand of the shooter back and twisted the gun from his attacker’s fat fingers. He then pushed his way inside the vehicle. Matt was on his heels.

  He subdued Owen Stevenson—who was screaming like a hungry, angry baby about his broken wrist—pulling his unbroken arm behind him and pushing a knee into his back to hold it in place. Matt entered in time to see Otis, with his arm around Ella’s neck, pushing her down a short hallway from the back of the vehicle. The sonic gun from before was gone, replaced by an old-fashioned pistol.

  “Let him go or I’ll put a bullet in her head.”

  Colton didn’t want to lose ground by releasing his quarry, but likely Owen had lost most of his fight anyway. He hesitated. Catching Matt’s gaze, he wondered how to be victorious in this standoff without risking Ella’s life.

  “Hey, you! The driver up there in front,” Otis called over Ella’s head. “Get moving!”

  From the driver’s seat of the vehicle came the nervous voice of one of the doctor’s assistants. He said, “Umm…I can’t move.”

  “Why the hell not?” Otis squeezed the pistol grip, scraping it down Ella’s face. She closed her eyes briefly as the gun moved to one cheek.

  “Well, there’s something in my way. You should take a look out here.”

  Otis gripped the pistol handle tighter, digging it into Ella’s face. “What’s out there?”

  “A whole bunch of men on horseback. They’re blocking my way.”

  “So what? Get this thing moving. You’re bigger than they are! Mow them down if you have to.”

  The driver said, “I don’t think that will work. There’s too many…shit!”

  A shot rang out, and the front left side of the vehicle tilted down as the bullet-ridden tire deflated. Another shot, and another tire went down. The Med-Van was suddenly listing forward like it was kneeling.

  In the distance, sirens wailed, signaling law enforcement on the way.

  “Let her go,” Matt said. He edged closer to Otis.

  Ella sagged in her captor’s arms all of a sudden. With her shift in weight, he loosened his grip on Ella briefly. She then drove her elbow solidly into his belly, stomped on his instep, and knocked the gun from his hand before Matt even took his second step in her direction.

  Matt scooped up the gun from the floor, pointed it at Otis, and motioned Ella into a hug. She threw her arms around his neck, squeezed him deliciously tight, kissed his cheek, and then released him and headed in Colton’s direction.

  Colton remained in position, pinning Owen to the floor as Ella leaned over, grabbed his face with her hands, and kissed him, too. He’d never been so glad feel her lips against his.

  “You’re back early,” she said with a smile. “I can’t even begin to tell you what great timing you have.”

  “It wasn’t timing. We just missed our wife.” He hooked a hand around her neck and kissed her soundly once more. He couldn’t seem to get enough of her.

  There was a knock at the door. The doctor opened it and Alex stepped inside. Rafe was on his heels, but given the crowd in the vehicle, he merely stuck his head in.

  The sirens grew louder and louder, stopping directly outside of the now broken-down, forward-slanting, RV-size medical van.

  “Thanks for stopping this vehicle,” Matt told Alex as the Stevenson brothers were carted away in police custody.

  “Thank my wife. She sent an urgent message and told me to take everyone I could round up and stop the Med-Van from leaving the property. Apparently, she wanted to talk to the doctor, but after Ella disappeared inside, he wouldn’t let her even come into the reception area without calling in for an appointment. That made her very suspicious. The Med-Van’s very purpose is having a walk-in clinic.”

  “Brianna wasn’t feeling well this morning,” Ella said, casting a sideways glance at both Alex and Rafe. “I overheard her come to the outer door of the van asking to be seen after I was subdued in the exam room. She was very surprised w
hen he turned her down and told her to call for an appointment. She was equally insistent to ask him a simple question, but the two dumbasses here wouldn’t let the doctor even talk to her. I heard the door slam in her face.”

  Colton slipped an arm around Ella. “Are you really okay, honey?”

  She shrugged. “I wish I was like Brianna.”

  “What’s that? Beautiful, fierce, and strong? You already are.”

  “No. Certain that I was able to produce sweet little babies like Zack.”

  Alex and Rafe both suddenly sported expressions of manly pride over their son.

  Rafe added, “I expect he’s about to have a sibling, too.”

  Ella sucked in a breath as if shocked. “You already know she’s pregnant?”

  The two men exchanged a knowing gaze between them. “Yes. But we’ll wait for her to tell us in her own good time.”

  “Don’t give up, honey. You never know what will happen.” Colton squeezed her arm with gentle reassurance.

  She nodded. “I know, but having you rescue me from the basement before I drowned was the first recent miracle. Getting to marry you two instead of the deplorable Stevenson brothers was the second miracle. Having you not discard me after my father was a prick was the third one. Can I really expect yet another miracle? Seems very unlikely.”

  Colton and Matt truly needed her to have a baby in order to fulfill their legacy landownership ambitions, but they’d also never leave her if she was barren.

  “Don’t they say that the fourth time’s the charm?”

  A half smile curved Ella’s mouth. “I don’t think so, but I sure do wish for that.”

  “Me, too, honey. Me, too.”

  The doctor approached the three of them from the back of the van where the exam room was and said, “Well, we’re stranded here until a service truck can come out and replace the front tires. If you’d like, I can do the conception test now, as long as you don’t mind the slight tilt forward of the van.”

  “No,” Colton and Matt said at the same time.

  Ella narrowed her lids. “Why on earth not? I don’t care if the room tilts.”

  He and Matt exchanged a look. “Because it doesn’t matter.”

  “Of course it matters,” she said. “You need it for your land, for an heir, and at the very least for a bank loan.”

  “The only thing that matters is that we are together. We’ll certainly put forth our best effort to get you pregnant, but we don’t need a conception test to determine our future.”

  Matt kissed her cheek. “We’re keeping you regardless. So we’ll just discover your conception ability the old-fashioned way.”

  “Exactly. If it happens, fine. If not, our lives together will still be amazing.”

  Colton was completely at peace with this decision. He loved Ella. He wasn’t going to give up until the last day of his five-year limit. It was true that they’d already had some good luck. Perhaps it would continue and they’d be bouncing a baby on their knees before the turn of the new century.

  Either way, Colton figured they were damned lucky to have found the perfect woman to share their lives. And that was good enough.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Matt surveyed the inside northwest corner of the bunkhouse with a critical eye. This space constituted their bedroom now. Previously it had been the foreman’s room. The important thing was, they were about to move into their own place. The bed was from the home he used to rent in town. A king-size, thankfully. The two nightstands and dresser were a matched set with the bed frame.

  Fuck it. The place was barely livable and Ella was going to rue the day she’d ever met them, let alone married them.

  Getting their bride price money back from Ella’s father, after winning a lawsuit against him for using the bogus fertility certificate, had helped tremendously with their future.

  They’d gone full force to build up the ranch, spent more money than they had, borrowed what Alex and Rafe could spare, which was actually a lot, and made use of the left-behind things from the ranch. Like the bunkhouse.

  The ranch hands were housed in small temporary shelter trailers, but they seemed happy to be working.

  “She deserves better,” Colton said, making Matt jump. He hadn’t heard his brother come in.

  “She does. I totally agree with you. But it’s the best we can do right now.”

  The door opened, and Ella entered. They turned to look at her. The smile she had in place could light the world.

  “Looks great,” she said enthusiastically. “Better than the temporary trailer anyway.”

  “One of these days we’ll build you a new house.”

  She shrugged as if a new house wasn’t important and approached the bed. Smoothing the coverlet with her hand along one edge, she glanced seductively over one shoulder. “I think we should break this bed in the right way.”

  He and Colton exchanged a glance. “And how would you like to break it in?” Matt asked but figured it out when she started unbuttoning her shirt.

  “The way where you both try your damnedest to get me pregnant.” She shrugged off her shirt, and the fabric hit the floor before either he or Colton reacted properly. Beneath the shirt she’d discarded, Ella wore a sexy, pink corset that pushed her breasts up and made them more enticing. If that was even possible. She usually made his mouth water anyway. Then they both started peeling clothing off as quickly as possible.

  “So…corset on or off?” she asked with a grin.

  “Off,” Colton said and went over to help her out of it. “But I do appreciate how sexy it looks on you.”

  “Thanks.”

  “You aren’t upset, are you?” His hands stilled at her back momentarily.

  “Nope.” She laughed. “Truth be told, it isn’t that comfortable. I just thought you might like the way it looks.”

  “I like the way you look.” She smiled as he finished loosening the constricting garment.

  “I love the way you always know the exact thing to say to make me feel good.” His only response was to drop a quick kiss on her shoulder.

  With Colton’s further help, Ella stripped to nothing and slid between the sheets of the bed Matt had just finished making. He grinned and joined her on one side as Colton slipped into the opposite side of the bed.

  Matt kissed her hard. She turned toward him, pressing her lush naked body against his. Colton fastened himself to her back, trailing kisses along her neck and shoulders. She soon turned in his arms and kissed Colton in the same way. Matt pressed his forehead to her shoulder, so grateful she was in their lives. He moved back to watch Colton and Ella make love.

  Nothing made him hotter than watching the two of them. Discovering he had such a vividly developed voyeuristic streak had surprised him, but luckily, Ella and Colton were willing to oblige him when the three of them were in bed.

  Colton and Ella kissed and moved seductively against each other until Colton finally mounted her, likely stroking his cock deep inside of her body, if her moans were any indication.

  Ella’s leg came around Colton’s back, and he increased the tempo of his thrusts. The exuberant kissing increased. Ella moaned, writhed, and moved in tandem with Colton’s powerful plunges forward against her lean body. Matt’s cock pulsed hard while he watched. He stroked himself to ease the ache in his stiffened shaft.

  Moments later, Ella arched her back and a shriek of pleasure escaped her lips. Colton made a low noise and fucked her even harder. Faster. Until he, too, groaned deeply, made one final deep thrust, and stiffened against Ella. This was Matt’s favorite part. The moment when both of them had climaxed, poised together, still deeply connected and in the ultimate demonstration of love.

  Matt moved in and kissed Ella as Colton moved to one side and onto his back, turning his head only to watch the next round. Ella turned over. Sometimes she liked for him to take her from behind. She said variety was the spice of life and that his cock went deeper in this position.

  He didn’t care what sh
e wanted, he’d do it. His goal was always about making her happy. Especially in the bedroom. Easing behind her, pushing his cock into her warmth, Matt thrust deeply into her pussy, barely able to keep from letting go as his mind was still filled with visions of watching her with Colton.

  Matt had his arms clenched around her but soon lowered one, dipping his hand between her legs. He zeroed in on her clit and rubbed a circular motion. She moved seductively in his arms. She needed to come for him. He wanted to feel her pussy squeeze in ultimate pleasure around his cock before he allowed his own release.

  Ella trembled vibrantly each time his finger stroked hard over her clit. Matt sped his thrusts, as he knew she loved. Each time he pushed inside her tight, slick pussy was a lesson in control. He was on the verge of a powerful orgasm.

  She suddenly stiffened in his arms and cried out his name as her pussy tightened rhythmically around his cock. He only lasted three more strokes before his climax blasted out of the end of his dick. Pleasure thrummed through his body. He kissed the back of her neck, then buried his face near her shoulder, trying to remember how to breathe.

  Whatever happened with this legacy land, Matt was happy in the discovery of their one true love. In his mind, having Ella as part of their new world on this ranch was the single most important thing that came out of this venture.

  Even if they never had children, he found it difficult not to be giddy with delight at her mere presence in their lives.

  * * * *

  Ella didn’t feel very well. She’d spent more time in the bathroom hunkered over the stool than she cared to contemplate. Everyone had a theory on why. With her newborn daughter, Sara, cradled in her arms, Brianna had been the first of many who told her she was pregnant. Ella didn’t believe her.

  Next came Colton and Matt, who also felt very strongly that she might be with child. Ella didn’t believe them either. The doctor confirmed her pregnancy, but Ella really didn’t believe him either. They’d only been married six months. It took longer to have babies. Everyone said so. Well, everyone except Brianna. And Colton. And Matt.