Lily's Secrets [Elk Creek 1] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (8 page)

He thought that the idea of the three of them together should repulse him, but it did not. Indeed, he became aroused at the image of him and Wyatt having Lily at the same time and giving her pleasure. The idea of watching her writhe beneath both his and Wyatt’s hands and mouths excited him.

Unconsciously, Dakota caressed the back of Lily’s hand with his thumb but did not stop when he realized what he was doing. He simply held her gaze and followed her pink tongue as it dipped through her parted lips to lick her mouth. His cock jumped at the sight of that agile organ of taste moistening her plump lips and he hastily cleared his throat to center himself. “I am awake now and here to listen.”

She smiled, placing her palm against his cheek. “You have no idea how much you’ve helped me just being here.”

“I would like to help even more, if you will let me.”

“I don’t think you can do anything for me except what you’ve done already.”

“I have not done anything.”

“Oh, but you have.”

“If you don’t get your cotton-picking hands off my wife, injun, I’m going to clean your plow right and proper!”

“Wyatt, Dakota is a guest in our home. Please pull in your horns.”

“Guest or not…” Wyatt didn’t finish his sentence, just glared at the pair of them as he crossed the threshold and made his way over to the bed.

By the time he reached them, fists at his sides, the savage had already released Lily’s hand and moved away from her touch on his cheek.

The savage, at least, had some sense.

Lily, on the other hand, seemed to be lost at their guest’s detachment and determined to maintain their previous closeness. She didn’t move from her spot on the bed. She simply glanced up at Wyatt with a mutinous and reprimanding expression that made him feel as if
he
had done something wrong for which he needed to apologize.

Wyatt was torn between jealousy and gratitude, especially since he had stood outside the bedroom watching Lily and the savage for a few minutes before making his presence known. He had wanted to see just how far the pair of them would go, yes, but he also hadn’t been in a hurry to separate them because for the first time in a long time he had seen Lily smile. Tarnation, she had even made a joke with the sav—

Wyatt stopped himself from thinking the term again, hearing Lily’s censure in his head.

She didn’t like when he referred to their guest as a “savage.” She said Dakota hadn’t done anything to deserve that title, thus he didn’t own it.

“He has a perfectly good name and you need to use it.”

Lily had even gone on to explain to him that “Dakota” was an honorable and good title that roughly translated to “ally.”

Wyatt didn’t know what bothered him most—Lily’s obvious interest in the Indian that had led her to learn what his name meant, or his own animosity toward a man who had done absolutely nothing to him.

He had tried to be a good host these last few days, appreciating the positive things in Lily that…Dakota’s presence had wrought.

He had caught Lily singing a time or two, though she’d stopped herself as soon as she realized that she had an audience in her husband.

It was for this reason Wyatt had been taking special care to enter the house on more quiet feet, unwilling to make Lily uncomfortable in doing something she loved to do. He’d looked forward to catching her in the act again. He’d had no idea that he’d walk in on such an intimate scene between his wife and their guest, however.

He supposed he should have, though. Lily had been showing an inordinate amount of pleasure in Dakota’s company as if he brought out something in her that had long been buried.

Wyatt hated to admit it, but Dakota’s presence brought out the parts of Lily that Wyatt had been missing since her return. By just being around and requiring her nurturing and assistance, Dakota had brought back the old Lily.

My Lily
.

Wyatt didn’t know whether to thank the man or throw him out of his house and as far away from Lily as he could get him.

He didn’t want to seem ungrateful, but neither could he let another man come into his house and give Lily the things she wanted and needed when he was here and perfectly ready and willing to provide what his wife desired and required.

Lily seemed to think otherwise, though.

Wyatt watched as she stood from the bed and ran her hands down the front of her dress and the apron tied around her waist.

“I’m going to see to the food.” Lily turned and left the room before anyone could say a word to stop her, which left Wyatt alone with his…

Ally.

When Lily said the word in conjunction with the Indian, she made it seem perfectly natural, perfectly right.

When Wyatt glanced down at the man in bed all he saw was a challenger for his Lily’s affections. It almost made him wish
he
had been shot and injured.

Would Lily fuss over him the same way she had been fussing over Dakota, though? Wyatt wondered, as Lily acted like she could take him or leave him since she had returned. It was as if she had returned more out of resignation and desperation than the desire to return to her life and be reunited with the man she loved.

Maybe this was the worst thing of all, knowing that if his wife could choose between him and the Indian, she would choose the Indian.

“I am not here to cause you sorrow or stress, Wyatt Baldwin,” Dakota murmured as if he could read Wyatt’s mind.

“It doesn’t seem to matter none what I think or how I feel. Lily’s in charge of this show.”

Dakota grinned and Wyatt felt his own lips tilting upward in answer. He couldn’t help but see the humor in the situation. Lily had had him wrapped around her little finger from the moment he’d met her, and their unplanned, five-year separation had done nothing to change this.

Wyatt realized then that he would do anything to make Lily happy.

He wondered what Dakota’s feelings were on the subject.

He knew that the Indian cared for Lily and he couldn’t blame him falling for her as easily as everyone seemed to—male or female.

Lily was a beautiful, generous, and vibrant woman, one any man would be proud to call his own. Wyatt wondered exactly how far Dakota would be willing to go to call Lily his own.

He hadn’t exchanged more than a few words with the Indian since he and Lily had brought him home, and Wyatt decided now would be a good time to change that. Not that he had nearly enough time to go over what he needed and wanted to. He figured that would take more than the several minutes Lily’s absence afforded.

He turned and pulled a chair up to the bed before sitting in it and peering at Dakota over his pyramided fingers for a long moment. He had to hand it to the Indian, he didn’t flinch or fidget, simply held Wyatt’s steady gaze with one of his own.

Wyatt admired his directness and could understand what Lily might see in him, how his innocent, unsophisticated wife might be attracted to Dakota’s uniqueness.

The sharp blue eyes staring at him from the Indian’s light copper face disconcerted him more than anything. ’Twasn’t right for him to have a white man’s eyes. The odd sight threw Wyatt off-balance and made him forget what he wanted to say or even why he had been so upset when he’d first arrived. The sight also reminded him that he wasn’t dealing with a full-blooded Indian, but a half-breed.

He tried to tell himself that Dakota’s mixed status didn’t make him any less a savage than the Indians responsible for attacking homesteaders and settlers throughout the territories for as far back as Wyatt could remember. The logic, however, didn’t wash, not when he remembered the gentle way Dakota had held Lily’s hand, and not when he remembered the soft-spoken, refined sound of Dakota’s voice.

Was that what Lily wanted, someone more polished than a farmer and a homesteader?

“You do not need to worry about Lily’s affections for you.”

“Who says I’m worried?”

“Lily has a big heart.”

“You’ve got another thing coming if you think you can wheedle your way into it. Lily and her heart belong to me.”

“Lily is her own woman.”

Wyatt leaned forward in his seat, hands fisted against the tense muscles of his thighs.

Where did this savage come off telling him about his wife? He knew perfectly well how independent and stubborn Lily was. They were two of the many qualities that had attracted him to her in the first place.

“I know exactly what Lily is to me. The question is what you think she is to you besides a kind and generous hostess.” Wyatt was out of his chair and hovering over Dakota in the bed when Lily loudly cleared her throat behind him.

He glanced over his shoulder to see her standing on the threshold of the room with a tray full of food and Elk Creek’s doctor, Thayne Malloy, standing behind her.

“Just wanted to check on our patient and see how he’s coming along.” Doctor Malloy shouldered his way by Lily and made his way over to the bed.

Wyatt stepped aside, making room for the doctor at Dakota’s bedside as Lily came into the room and placed the tray of food and tea on the bedside table.

As soon as she was done with her task, she grabbed Wyatt by the biceps and pulled him away from the bed and out into the hallway, closing the door behind them.

Even though she had to tilt back her head a little to look him in the eyes and compensate for the half-foot difference in their heights, Lily made a formidable presence when her gray eyes glinted with temper.

Wyatt could see how all-fired angry she was and it occurred to him that he hadn’t seen her express any sort of real annoyance with anything or anyone since she’d returned from her ordeal. She’d been quiet, resigned, sad, and withdrawn. She’d been all of the things that his Lily was normally not, but she had yet to be angry before now.

For some odd reason, her displeasure with him lit his fire, too, and made heat spread through his groin, hardening his cock.

“I leave you alone for one minute and you’re at the man’s throat. That is simply not an acceptable way to treat our guest, a man who’s injured.”

“I’m not one of your students you need to chastise, Lily.”

“Then behave like a civilized human being so I don’t need to chastise you.”

Wyatt glared at her for one long moment, and when she didn’t back down, he stepped closer, caging her between his arms as he planted his palms on either side of the wall behind her.

He hadn’t expected her to back down. He would have been disappointed if she had, so when she defiantly raised her chin to glower at him, back against the wall and all, Wyatt grinned, chest filling with pride and cock throbbing painfully in his pants. “Do you want him, Lilybelle?”

Her eyes widened and her mouth dropped open, but she didn’t say anything.

Wyatt stepped closer and bent his head, nudging his cheek against hers and inhaling her soft lavender scent. He closed his eyes, a wave of lust washing over his entire body until he felt like he was in the grip of a high and lethal fever. “Do you want him?” he rasped.

“That’s a plain crazy question, Wyatt.”

“One I want an answer to.” He opened his eyes and pulled back to stare at her. He saw that something had changed in her gaze. The anger had melted away and what replaced it was even more dangerous and worrying. Lily looked plumb confused and conflicted, as if she didn’t know what she wanted, or maybe she did and was just afraid to tell him.

Lily reached up a hand to cup his cheek and it immediately brought him back to the moment when he had walked in on her and Dakota and how she had touched the Indian the same way. He swallowed down his own rage, fearing what she’d say next.

“I want
you
, Wyatt.”

Only
me?

The question rested on the tip of his tongue, but he didn’t have the gumption to ask her. He didn’t want to hear the answer.

Or did he?

If he was being completely honest with himself, Wyatt hadn’t been as jealous at the sight of another man touching his wife as he thought he should have been.

Despite the innocence of the touch, he’d seen the hunger in the Indian’s blue eyes. He knew how much Dakota wanted Lily and how much restraint it had taken for him not to do more than hold her hand. He wasn’t sure how much more restrained he would have remained, however, had Wyatt not come home.

How much more intimate would he have found the pair of them had he returned home just a few minutes later?

The idea of, not just another man, but Dakota giving Lily pleasure when he lately hadn’t been able to made Wyatt suddenly hot and hornier than a bull. When he gave freer rein to the image of the Indian between Lily’s legs, pushing inside of her, his red-brown complexion contrasting against Lily’s fairer one, Wyatt thought he would burst out of his pants from hankering.

What was
wrong
with him to be thinking like that? How could he want to see his wife, the woman he loved, being pleasured by another man? Was he off the reservation?

Wyatt pressed his body against Lily as if to ward off the aberrant mental picture, but it only made things worse. He bent slightly at the knees to press his throbbing cock against the warm juncture of her thighs. When she moaned and pressed herself against him in response, he nearly lost it right then and there.