of a lot worse with all this bullshit. Get it through your head, Caelen, you ain’t getting Jamie. Not on my watch.”
“Get this through your head, Linc, ain’t nothing going to keep me from what is mine. Not you, not God, not the devil. Nothing.”
“You’re going to make this difficult, aren’t you?”
His brother sounded just defeated enough for Caelen to risk a smug grin. “I’m going to win.”
Maybe that had been a touch too much. Caelen figured yeah when Linc growled. That’s all the warning he got before two hands planted themselves against his chest and shoved. Naked and off balance, Caelen crashed right through the window and went tumbling down the porch roof to land hard in an undignified pile on the ground.
That hurt. From the slicing pain of the glass cuts to the vibrating throb of smacking into the Earth, that really had hurt. Caelen just laid there staring up at the night and thinking that fate had gotten the last laugh. Only for the night, Caelen swore silently. Tomorrow will be different .
That thought froze as actual laughter peeled down from the heavens above. Rolling his head on the ground, Caelen caught sight of Jamie, leaning out the window right next to the one he’d crashed through. Linc’s room. Damnit! She’d been sleeping with Bridgette, and that possibility had never occurred to him.
Holding a candle aloft, she had another hand covering her mouth, but it couldn’t hold back the giggles tumbling madly out. With as much dignity as Caelen could muster up, he rose to his own feet and shot back a warning at her…and fate.
“Laugh it up, darlin’. Tomorrow’s my day .”
Despite being naked, cut, and bruised, Caelen still managed a swagger as he stormed off, Jamie’s laughter rolling in his wake.
Chapter 9
Jamie didn’t have much to laugh about the next day. Nor any of the other four that followed. Linc’s protective attitude didn’t turn out to be as sweet as she’d thought and certainly didn’t work to her advantage in the slightest. In fact, the man had brought all of her schemes to a halt with his rules and orders.
Brodie and Caelen weren’t allowed in the house, except for meals. She wasn’t allowed out, except for chores during the day when Linc drove Brodie and Caelen far from the ranch to find work to keep them busy and tired. Since the day she’d arrived, she might have seen Brodie and Caelen for all of an hour combined.
Just long enough for them to glower at her with dirty thoughts darkening their gazes and putting the itchy heat back into her stomach. Jamie had grown damn tired of enduring the itch that she’d intended to make them suffer.
Sleeping with her sister didn’t give her anytime to see to it on her own. Not that she had anything other than her own hand to play with. None of the men had been willing to ride into town to retrieve her bags. Laziness hadn’t put the chore off. To a man, Jamie knew none of them wanted her wearing her own clothes.
An inch bigger in every direction even when she wasn’t pregnant, Bridgette’s old dress hung like curtains from her shoulder. She might as well be flat and assless, because she didn’t have even the hint of a curve to tempt her twins with.
“Ohh,” Bridgette groaned, drawing Jamie’s eyes over toward her. “My back is killing me today.”
“Maybe you ought to go rest.” Jamie eyed the way Bridgette rubbed her rump with concern. “Standing out here scrubbing like this can’t be good for the baby.”
“If I don’t stand out here and scrub, neither will you.”
“I’ll do it,” Jamie snapped, more than a little indignant over the testiness in Bridgette’s tone. There were moments and times when the old Bridgette showed through, but mostly, Jamie suspected she got left with Bridgette because Linc had tired of getting bit so much.
“Do it right?”
“Bridgette Mary Traynor, I know how to do laundry!”
“It’s MacAuley, and since
“Get this through your head, Linc, ain’t nothing going to keep me from what is mine. Not you, not God, not the devil. Nothing.”
“You’re going to make this difficult, aren’t you?”
His brother sounded just defeated enough for Caelen to risk a smug grin. “I’m going to win.”
Maybe that had been a touch too much. Caelen figured yeah when Linc growled. That’s all the warning he got before two hands planted themselves against his chest and shoved. Naked and off balance, Caelen crashed right through the window and went tumbling down the porch roof to land hard in an undignified pile on the ground.
That hurt. From the slicing pain of the glass cuts to the vibrating throb of smacking into the Earth, that really had hurt. Caelen just laid there staring up at the night and thinking that fate had gotten the last laugh. Only for the night, Caelen swore silently. Tomorrow will be different .
That thought froze as actual laughter peeled down from the heavens above. Rolling his head on the ground, Caelen caught sight of Jamie, leaning out the window right next to the one he’d crashed through. Linc’s room. Damnit! She’d been sleeping with Bridgette, and that possibility had never occurred to him.
Holding a candle aloft, she had another hand covering her mouth, but it couldn’t hold back the giggles tumbling madly out. With as much dignity as Caelen could muster up, he rose to his own feet and shot back a warning at her…and fate.
“Laugh it up, darlin’. Tomorrow’s my day .”
Despite being naked, cut, and bruised, Caelen still managed a swagger as he stormed off, Jamie’s laughter rolling in his wake.
Chapter 9
Jamie didn’t have much to laugh about the next day. Nor any of the other four that followed. Linc’s protective attitude didn’t turn out to be as sweet as she’d thought and certainly didn’t work to her advantage in the slightest. In fact, the man had brought all of her schemes to a halt with his rules and orders.
Brodie and Caelen weren’t allowed in the house, except for meals. She wasn’t allowed out, except for chores during the day when Linc drove Brodie and Caelen far from the ranch to find work to keep them busy and tired. Since the day she’d arrived, she might have seen Brodie and Caelen for all of an hour combined.
Just long enough for them to glower at her with dirty thoughts darkening their gazes and putting the itchy heat back into her stomach. Jamie had grown damn tired of enduring the itch that she’d intended to make them suffer.
Sleeping with her sister didn’t give her anytime to see to it on her own. Not that she had anything other than her own hand to play with. None of the men had been willing to ride into town to retrieve her bags. Laziness hadn’t put the chore off. To a man, Jamie knew none of them wanted her wearing her own clothes.
An inch bigger in every direction even when she wasn’t pregnant, Bridgette’s old dress hung like curtains from her shoulder. She might as well be flat and assless, because she didn’t have even the hint of a curve to tempt her twins with.
“Ohh,” Bridgette groaned, drawing Jamie’s eyes over toward her. “My back is killing me today.”
“Maybe you ought to go rest.” Jamie eyed the way Bridgette rubbed her rump with concern. “Standing out here scrubbing like this can’t be good for the baby.”
“If I don’t stand out here and scrub, neither will you.”
“I’ll do it,” Jamie snapped, more than a little indignant over the testiness in Bridgette’s tone. There were moments and times when the old Bridgette showed through, but mostly, Jamie suspected she got left with Bridgette because Linc had tired of getting bit so much.
“Do it right?”
“Bridgette Mary Traynor, I know how to do laundry!”
“It’s MacAuley, and since
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