Barefoot Bride for Three by Reece Butler Page A

sure of it.” He whispered. Only when his breath went through his destroyed voice box did he sound like a monster.   “Look at me, Kate.”
    “I don’t use my second name. Just Elizabeth.”
    “But you act like a Kate. One who needs taming.”
    He sucked her fingertip into his mouth and bit gently as he watched her eyes. It took a moment, but he saw the instant she understood his reference to Shakespeare. Ma read every play out loud except The Taming of the Shrew . Pa read that one with a grin. It got Ma as flustered as a broody hen with a fox camped outside the henhouse.
    “I am not a shrew and I will not be tamed!”
    She glared into his eyes. He held back a smile at the way she took the bait. If their vows had included the word “obey” she was the type to cross her fingers and mumble when she spoke the words.
    “According to Sheriff Chambers, Big Joe, and most of the men in this town, you are.” She tried to yank her hand away but he held tight. Her nostrils flared when he touched her breast again. “I like you just the way you are, Mrs. Elliott. I tame horses. I don’t want a tame wife. I want one who fights back with fire.”
    Her blush heated his blood. How far down did that rosy flush go? To her breasts or all the way to her belly?
    “What happened to your throat? You sound fine when you whisper.”
    “Got roped and dragged behind a horse for a few miles. Wrecked my voice box, but I can whisper and whistle just fine.”
    He changed the subject by lowering his hands, and hers, so his thumbs could brush her nipples. She inhaled and thrust her chest toward him. Though he wanted to jump in, he had to make a few things clear up front.
    “You’re my wife, and I’m your husband. Till death do us part, Mrs. Elliott.” He raised his eyebrows and tilted his head down at her to make his point. “I want respect between us. Respect and complete honesty. I expect someday we’ll have a deep friendship. But don’t get any womanly notions about love. It killed my pa and that won’t happen to me.”
    “I don’t need your love. I’ve lived without it all my life just fine .”
    He searched her face. She looked back, calm and sure. He might have been left an orphan at sixteen, but his parents had cared about him until then. Not as much as each other, unfortunately, but it was more than what Beth grew up with.
    “According to the laws of man and God, I now own you and everything you possess. Including your body.” She squawked like he knew she would, but he didn’t stop. “I don’t take what’s not given freely.” She shut her mouth, pressing her lips tight. At least the woman had enough sense to keep some of her opinions to herself now and then. “I want my wife in my bed. After tonight, I expect you’ll want to be there as well. But no Elliott will force you to do anything you really don’t want to do.”
    He chose his words carefully. He’d be able to remind her of them later when she realized what they would ask of her. Ask and encourage strongly, but not demand.
    “I don’t lie, Beth. Ever. I expect the same from you.” She stared up at him. Emotions flashed over her face so fast he couldn’t decipher them while staring deep in her eyes. “You’re full of fire, Mrs. Elliott.”   He winked. “I like that in a wife.”
    “Good. I’m not changing who I am just because I had to marry you.” She glanced down. “You were also forced into this.”
    A finger under her chin brought her eyes back to his. “Nope. No one forces me to do anything I don’t want to. After I got my voice wrecked, I gave up on thinking about a wife. I told Simon and Jack they’d have to haul one home so the Elliott name would live on.”
    “Why would your voice matter? It doesn’t change who you are.”
    “That’s not what the few single women I’ve run into, and their mamas, thought.” He pushed back memories of flirting women turning pale in horror when he spoke to them. His money and name weren’t enough