Double Chance Claim [Badlands 3] (Siren Publishing Menage Amour) (4 page)

“Aren’t you going to take your pants off and…come inside of me?” she asked.

“No.”

Her eyes opened. “Why not?”

He pushed out a long breath and rested his face against her throat. “It wouldn’t be right. I don’t want to take advantage of you any more than I already have.”

“You aren’t taking advantage of me.”

“My hand is between your lovely thighs, and I just made amazing sounds come out of your mouth. In my mind, that’s the very definition of taking advantage.”

“But I wanted it. I want you.”

“Come back in a week and tell me the same thing and we’ll discuss it.”

“But I don’t know where I’ll be in a week.”

“All the better reason to take some time and consider your options before making any decisions you can’t take back. I appreciate your desire to please me, and I will, in all likelihood, kick myself later, but I can’t in good conscience allow this to go any further.” He shifted his hips from her body and removed his hand from between her legs.

However, he didn’t extract himself from her. He placed his lips on her neck and kissed her with a sensuous slide of his tongue along her skin. She trembled at the sensation he evoked with a mere touch of his mouth. How many men would stop and refuse an offer of sex so as not to take advantage and then kiss her with such sweet deliberation? No one she had ever met until now.

Wyatt was a very interesting man. Perhaps she
would
come back in a week and attempt to take things further. Unless she was already gone. If the telegram she’d sent to her family resulted in a ticket home, she’d be gone as soon as possible. He was right. She didn’t need a complication like this when her future remained so uncertain.

“Then will you kiss me again?”

“Yes. Kissing you is like taking a little taste of heaven,” he murmured against her throat. He lifted his head and sent a particularly scorching gaze into her eyes before lowering his mouth to hers for another soul-melting kiss.

They snuggled together for a long while until Maggie dozed off. When she woke herself turning over later, she was nestled beneath a quilt. Wyatt had exited the bed but wasn’t gone from her mind. She turned onto her side, buried her head into the pillow and contemplated what she might do to tempt him at the end of one week.

Maggie’s vividly sexy dreams were filled with Wyatt and all the other temptations she could think of to instigate. Later in the night, she even conjured the sensation of him sleeping alongside of her, comforting her and consoling her when her dreams turned unbearably sad.

Chapter Four

Wade Chance nearly fell off his horse a half dozen times as he rode the last few hundred yards into the covered space behind the saloon he and his brother owned. The small stable they kept would be too difficult to manage tonight in his inebriated state.

The three generous shots of whiskey he drank before leaving their private property up north had been unwise, as were the next three, but the success of the past week urged him to celebrate a little heavier than usual.

Wyatt would be heading back to the mine in a few hours so he didn’t bother storing the saddle in the storage shed. He simply pulled the saddle from their horse, tied the reins loose enough on the post so that Lucky could get water and feed, and maneuvered himself carefully through the rear entrance of the saloon. He put the saddle on the floor beside the back door and negotiated his way toward Wyatt’s room.

The accomplishment of last week’s gold mining had brought him back several hours earlier than expected. Usually, he arrived just before dawn, but this time he couldn’t wait to tell Wyatt about the new vein of glistening minerals he’d discovered and the quantity of refractory ore he’d managed to pull out in just a few days’ time.

It was grueling, spine cracking work to extract the Black Hills gold, but well worth it so far. They weren’t foolish about the gold-embedded rock they’d collected so far. They both agreed to wait until they finished mining before spending their wealth. The bulk of ore extracted was amassed in a hidden shaft closer to the mouth of the cave they worked.

Once they accumulated as much as they thought they’d ever be able to spend, then they’d cash it all in and make plans for a new life. Until that time, their gold mining operation was a well-kept secret.

No one in town suspected they had a gold mine, and being identical twins helped them realize their dream a little easier and without any nosy townspeople following them around. Knowledge of a gold discovery in a new area always brought a horde of folks in search of the same thing. He and Wyatt vowed to keep this claim completely undisclosed until they left with their treasure.

Stumbling inside the back of the saloon, Wade made it to his brother’s room and called his name twice. Wyatt didn’t move. His brother was sound asleep. Wade suddenly realized it was unfair to wake him in the middle of the night. His brother was about to have an arduous work week ahead. The good news would have to wait until morning.

Unsure he wanted to navigate the stairs to his own room on the second floor, he sighed and moved toward the steps anyway. He needed to get at least a few hours of shut-eye before resuming the saloon duties at dawn. He’d be miserable tomorrow otherwise, so he soldiered up the stairs as quietly as possible.

The grandfather clock chimed twice, signaling the late hour, as he stepped onto the second level. Unsure he was ready to steer himself down the hallway littered with furniture left behind by the previous owners, Wade focused his attention on his bedroom door and the long floor space to get there.

Several curses and bruised shins later, Wade entered his room only to discover it was occupied. A woman’s scent tantalized his nose and identified the sleeping occupant as female before he even saw her curvaceous form. Too drunk to care why a woman was in his bed, Wade stripped down to his long underwear and slipped beneath the sheets next to her warmth.

He pulled the soft woman into his arms, and buried his face in her sweet-fragranced hair before realizing she was sobbing.

Wade pulled back a bit. “What’s the matter, honey?”

Her eyes remained closed but she sighed and murmured, “I miss you, Caleb. I’m so sorry.” She then sniffed a few times and snuggled up closer.

Wade didn’t know or particularly care who Caleb was so he folded her into his embrace, placing her head against his shoulder. “Shush now, honey. It’ll be all better in the morning.”

She didn’t respond, and it became obvious this charming girl was crying in her sleep. He kissed her forehead, leaned his head back against the pillow and fell asleep before he took two more breaths. He barely had time to dream before the poke to his shoulder, an undetermined amount of time later, brought about a very rude awakening.

Wade opened his eyes slowly. In his blurred vision, he saw his brother with an infuriated expression plastered on his face. Wade tried to sit up and realized his arms were still filled with softly-perfumed female. Not the worst way to wake up, but Wyatt poked him in the same tender spot of his arm again and ruined his mood.

He extracted himself without waking her and followed his brother all the way back downstairs to Wyatt’s room.

Once they were alone, Wyatt threw his hands in the air. “You slept with her? What were you thinking?”

“I was thinking how drunk and tired I was, and you’re lucky I didn’t wake
you
up in the middle of the night. The question should be why is
someone
sleeping in my bed! Thanks for the heads up, by the way.”

Wyatt’s eyes widened. He shot his hands in the air again as if in utter frustration and glanced at the ceiling once before drilling his gaze directly into Wade. “I left you a note…as usual.”

“Where?”

“In the back room where I
always
leave notes for you right before you arrive at dawn. I see you came in early.”

Shit
. Wyatt
did
always leave him a note. He’d forgotten to look in his excitement over the news about the mine. “Oh. Yeah. I got here around two.” Wade ran his hand down his face in a futile attempt to wake up and sober up at the same time. “Sorry.”

“Why are you early? And more importantly why are you drunk?”

Wade grinned. “I found the richest vein of gold ore since we’ve been mining here. I worked the spot for only half a week, and I just doubled our accumulated take in the last four days.”

“Doubled? In four days?”

“Yep. And the best news is I didn’t even finish with the new place before it was time to return last night.” Wade smiled at his brother’s awestruck expression. “I hid all the new gold ore farther down the mine shaft so you could see it and left the equipment next to the spot so you can continue this week. I also left you the other half of the bottle I slugged down in celebration, but I don’t recommend drinking it all at once.” He put a hand to the side of his head and rubbed.

Wyatt smiled and then sent his gaze upward to the ceiling. It wasn’t difficult to read his mind. Knowing his brother as he did, Wade knew he wondered what happened between him and the girl in bed upstairs without the words being spoken. “I just held her. That’s all. She was crying in her sleep about someone named Caleb. Who is she?”

“Her name is Maggie Altman. She arrived to town in one of those wagon trains, but they dumped her after her husband died yesterday. She got left behind.” He leveled his stare at Wade with a sappy expression.

Wade tilted his head to one side. “And she sweet talked you into letting her have my bed.”

“Yes. The hotel was full up, and she didn’t want to sleep on a church pew after being in a wagon for the past few months.”

Wade huffed. Probably it didn’t hurt that she was beautiful beyond words. “Thanks for easing the way. You could have told me you took in a stray.”

“I thought she’d be gone before you arrived. I asked her to leave before dawn. And there was that note I left that you didn’t read.”

Wade rolled his eyes. “I didn’t see the stupid note, all right?”

Wyatt looked upstairs again. The expression on his face could best be described as wistful. The beauty upstairs must have pulled some long-neglected heartstrings. His brother didn’t often let any women into his heart. The girl upstairs must be something special.

Wade was sympathetic, but clarity came soon after. “You better leave before she wakes up and sees the both of us.”

“I know.” Wyatt lowered his gaze. “Be nice to her,” he paused and narrowed his focus, “but not too nice.”

Wade sighed. “Right. Nice, but not too nice. Get going. I left Lucky’s saddle in the back room by the door.”

Wyatt turned back. “One other thing, go pick up supplies at Joe and Frank’s store this morning. I told Joe to expect you.”

“Damn it, Wyatt, you always leave that for me every single week.”

“One of the few privileges of being the older brother.”

“Only by seven damn minutes.”

“Still, it’s a privilege I enjoy.” Wyatt exited the back of the saloon carrying the saddle and wearing a big smile. Wade pondered the idea of getting more sleep in his brother’s bed and quickly dismissed it. He needed to wake up. He exited the building and stuck his head in the horse’s water trough directly after Wyatt rode off.

After three vigorous dips, he woke up enough to get back inside, clean up and redress using the clothing his brother had heaped in a pile on the side chair. He rinsed the foul taste out of his mouth and readied himself to resume the duties at the saloon as Wyatt Chance.

He walked out in to the main part of the saloon in time to see his lovely bed companion descend the steps. He couldn’t read the expression on her face.

She made it to the ground floor before announcing, “You slept with me last night.”