Caine's Reckoning (22 page)

“It’s scandalous, but…” Another of those sighs simmered in his blood like the most potent of whiskey.

“But what?”

“Do you think everyone will mind waiting on supper?”

His chuckle took him by surprise. “I expect they’ll find a way to survive until I get your rear in sitting order.”

“I don’t think that’s possible.”

“Oh, you of little faith.”

He balanced his fingertips in the hollow of her spine before drawing them up the lush rise of her buttocks, pressing slightly into the plump flesh. His thumbs dipped naturally into the crease between as he followed the womanly contours down, pausing only when his thumbs snubbed on the tight crinkle of her anus.

Slick with salve, they slid easily over the puckered opening. Her gasp drew him back over the same spot as he palmed his way back up, only to center his fingers and come back down again. This time, however, when he reached that spot, he paused for a more lingering touch. She gasped again and in the aftermath the subtlest of tension entered her muscles.

He lowered his back over hers, letting her absorb a heavier touch as he covered her. “Did you like that, Gypsy?”

She didn’t answer, but her lids fluttered down and her breath caught. He kept circling while he waited for her answer, his fingers working into the swollen flesh beneath. Finally, she nodded.

He tapped the tightly clenched opening. Dishes rattled as she jumped. Her ass flexed in a little kiss. A bead of come dampened his fingers. His come, which he’d given her as she’d orgasmed around him. “Can you feel that, baby? My seed in you?”

A tiny squeak followed quickly by a barely audible “Yes.”

“Do you know how much it arouses me to know part of me is in you here?” He anchored his thumb against her anus, pressing the tight center, just enough to give her the taste of another desire pulsing within him as he pushed two fingers into her tight sheath.

“Caine?”

While she wrestled with her breathing, every muscle in her body shuddering in rhythm with her pulsing channel, he stepped back and lifted his aching cock to the tiny hole, letting his weight maintain the contact. Giving her just enough to tempt.

“Just a little tease, baby. Something to hold on to for later.”

He didn’t know if he was going to make it to later. Just the promise of that crinkled little opening had his balls pulling up snug and lust boiling over. He parted her buttocks, giving himself a better view of his big cock pressing against her, of the tight flesh starting to flatten and give…

“Supper,” she gasped.

She was right. They didn’t have time for this. Caine let his cock slide up the tempting crevice and his thighs cradle her soft ass for a heartbeat before leaning forward so his lips grazed her ear as he whispered, “But after supper, baby, I’ll have all night to pleasure you.”

He swatted the left globe playfully, enjoying the residual jiggle and her surprise. She was such a delightful mix of contradictions, it’d probably take his whole lifetime to sort them out.

“Just like I promised. All in sitting order.”

She reached back cautiously with her hand. “I don’t know if I can move.”

He drew her into his arms, his smile spreading inside as he scooped her up.

“Now there, Gypsy, is just another way having a husband comes in handy.”

Dinner was organized chaos. Big bowls of stew, beans, biscuits, slabs of steak and greens ladened the surface of the long trestle table. Tia appointed Sam to say the blessing. As if the “Amen” were the signal everyone was waiting on, the men launched in to conversation as they dug in. Jokes were exchanged and business was discussed, all in a discordant yet somehow cheerful overlay of noise Desi was content to hide beneath. She took a dab of a couple things, enough to give her something to play with. She was so nervous, her throat so tight, there was just no way she could get food past the knot in her throat to her stomach. She couldn’t believe how she’d been with him, earlier. The things he’d made her feel. No decent woman would have let him do what she had, would have responded as she had. And now Caine expected her to go upstairs and do more. With the same freedom. Her stomach heaved. She chipped off a piece of the flaky biscuit she’d been playing with. Cut it again, and again.

Around her, conversation flowed. As she’d been taught in her former life, she smiled at the appropriate moments, made polite input to keep the momentum flowing. And just like in her younger days, no one paid her a bit of mind. She could have been a bowl of flowers on the table, pretty decoration with no further purpose required.

She sighed and nipped off another section of biscuit with precision. Lovely. There wasn’t much difference in her previous life than her present one.

She mashed the bit of biscuit with her fork tines and brought it to her mouth, pretending to eat the crumbs off the tip. The only difference was, in her previous life she’d been too ignorant to see the truth of her worth, and now her eyes were open.

The sudden silence penetrated her reverie. She looked up. Everyone was staring at her. And everyone was frowning. She wiped her mouth with her napkin before resettling it onto her lap. “I’m sorry, did I miss a question?”

“Nah, we’ve all been too busy eating to chat much,” Sam called down the table.

A glance showed the truth of that. The big bowls were almost empty, the men’s plates wiped clean. She blinked. They did know how to put away food.

They were still staring at her. She glanced at Tia, who was frowning at her plate.

“The boys are waiting to have seconds.”

She pretended an understanding she didn’t have. “Oh.”

And still they stared.

“With this pack of vultures, it’s best to get your preferences in early or there won’t be anything left to scavenge later,” Tracker offered.

“I would like another biscuit,” Tia said, holding out her plate. The plate traveled the length of the table going from hand to hand until it reached the other end before coming back the same way, and on the surface were two biscuits. Tia took the plate and raised her brow at the second biscuit.

“Just in case you get the urge to nibble later,” an older man, who’d greeted Desi but whose name she couldn’t remember, called down the length of the table. Tia’s blush as she took the plate was telling. Though that extra biscuit got a lot of covetous looks, no one grumbled out loud. Tia fussed with her napkin a second, and then, in that dignified way she had, said, “Thank you.”

With Tia’s preferences stated, the men were back to looking at Desi. As hard as it was to believe that the men could still be hungry after the huge amount of food already consumed, there was no mistaking the hum of impatience. They were waiting for her to make a claim on the items remaining before diving in. This she could handle. Desi put on her best company smile and waved them on. “You go right ahead. I couldn’t eat another bite.”

The response was immediate.

“Hell, to take another bite she’d have to have taken a first.”

“You mean she wasn’t just checking the lay of the land before digging in?”

“Shit, a strong wind could take her out and she’s done?”

“A body can’t function without a decent meal to balance them out.”

“Your wife needs to eat, Caine.”

As if the last comment gave the men something to grab onto, they stared at Caine, who sat across the table from her. He scooped the last bit of honey off his plate with his biscuit. Those warlock eyes of his briefly touched her plate and then her face. “I figure if we give her nerves time to settle, her stomach will be back to talking with her backbone.”

“And when that happens, ma’am, what kind of thing would you be liking?” Tucker took her plate from in front of her.

She didn’t have an answer for him.

“Stew’s always better after setting a spell,” Tucker offered.

A murmur of agreement and a ladle of stew went onto her plate and then passed to the next man.

“Hell, Sam, don’t go putting beans on there. They make a body bilious.”

She blinked.

“Tortillas go down easy.” A tortilla took up a position on the edge.

“Greens are good for the constitution.”

“They get soggy,” someone protested.

“They’re healthy,” someone else countered. Ten pairs of eyes fastened on her, and with a nod, greens went onto the plate.

“Red meat’s good for the blood.”

She hated red meat. Caine nodded. Steak hit the plate. Her plate passed to Tucker.

“The biscuits
were
darned good,” Tucker said with a glance at Tracker, the underlying humor in his voice not lost on Desi. There was a pregnant pause. All eyes went to the few remaining biscuits. A muscle worked in Tracker’s jaw.

“She can have this one of mine,” Tia offered.

Another hesitation and then Tracker shook his head, his long hair catching blue streaks from the lamp light. A biscuit hit her plate with grudging care. She felt guilty because whereas she didn’t want it, biscuits were obviously Tracker’s favorite. The plate was passed back up the other side of the table. When it came to Caine, it stopped, nearly groaning from the weight of the food on it. He inspected it and then set it in front of him. “That should do.”

Desi played with her knife and fork, waiting. The plate didn’t budge. Without the food she had nothing to do with her hands. “Are you going to give my plate back?”

He flicked an eyebrow at her. “No sense tempting you to mash it up before your stomach gets to growling.”

Before she could come up with a suitable response, preferably a cutting one, Sam made a lunge for the stew bowl that Tucker attempted to pass by him. “I’ll take that.”

Caine snagged it with a smile. “After me.”

“Hell, there’s nothing left after you.”

Caine ladled stew onto his plate. “As it should be.”

Sam snatched the huge bowl out of his hands and glanced at the contents. “Did you even leave me a sweet potato?”

“Not on purpose.”

Sam put the big earthenware bowl in front of him and grabbed the ladle, swishing it around. “You watch out for him, Desi. The man has a sweet tooth and he’s not exactly scrupulous about feeding it. Ha!” Sam brandished a scoop of stew, an orange chunk of potato sitting proudly on top. “Eat my dust,” he crowed to the rest of the table before passing the bowl on down.

It was the same all around the table, men making bold claims, grabbing at bowls, but no matter how closely she watched, no one took more than their fair share. The competition seemed to be more who could blame the loudest, accuse the most inventively, than to actually take more food than was fair. With a start, she realized they really were a family.

“It is always this way,” Tia sighed. “No matter how much I lecture, they can only be serious for the grace, and then they play.”

“They’re having fun?”

Tia smiled. “Yes, but I can see from your face you are not used to such behavior. It was different in your home.”

The last was a statement and not a question.

“Very different.”

“No frivolity?”

“No.” Frivolity wasn’t encouraged in women who were intended as wives for important businessmen. Though she and her twin had managed to find some fun, it had never been at the dinner table.

Tia looked down the table to where Tracker and the older gentleman were wrestling over the last biscuit.

“I think it would be easier for you to adapt than for us to get them to change.”

Their good humor was infectious. A smile twitched her lips. “I think so, too.”

Tracker emerged victorious with the biscuit. “Ed will pout now.”

She didn’t want diner to end on a sad note. “I can give him mine.”

Tia shook her head. “That one needs to learn not everything he wants will be his.”

Desi frowned. It seemed a strange lesson to leave to a biscuit. Fingers touched hers.

“Tia’s sweet on Ed,” Caine explained as soon as her eyes met his.

Tia’s chair scraped back. She stood to her full height, her chin coming up. She looked down her elegant nose at Caine. “It is not your place to speculate on my life.”

“I don’t mind,” Ed called. “Speculate away.”

Tia glared at him, her hands fisted at her sides. “You have no say in this.”

“Don’t rightly see how that works as I’m half the discussion.”

Tia picked up a biscuit and threw it at him. Ed caught it deftly, a smile on his face, as Tia turned and left the room not one bit diminished by her anger. He wrapped the biscuit in a napkin. “I do believe she’s beginning to soften up, boys.”

“Yup, at this rate you might work up to courting level by the time you’re ninety,” Sam put in.

“Hell, just goes to show what you know, boy. I passed courting about a year ago. I’m now working up to stating my intentions.”

“Well hurry and get ’round to it,” Sam countered. “When Tia gets testy, her cooking suffers.”

Ed shrugged. “Seeing as Caine brought in backup, I don’t think we need to worry about that anymore.”

The satisfied ripple that went thought the men as they turned and smiled at her demanded a response.