Southern Seduction [Bride Train 8] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) by Reece Butler Page B

eyes went to the narrow waist that curved out into hips and a lovely pear-shaped bottom. He followed the curve of her backbone up. Angry red lines crossed her back, running from side to side. They weren’t whip marks, but something else. She turned, and he found the same lines on her perfect breasts.
    He pounded his fist against his ribs to get his heart restarted. Below those breasts was a narrow ribcage. A swirl of brown curls marked the apex of her thighs. In awe, he raised his eyes to her face. Matching short brown curls danced around her ears. Her face was that of a pixie, with a sharp chin and pert nose.
    Those, he recognized. This was no dream. It was a nightmare.
    “Casey?” He gulped, blinking to clear his eyes.
    She had a sliver of soap in one hand. Keeping her eyes closed, she slid it over a small breast with a raspberry nipple. Her lush lips opened as she began to sing.
    “Oh, my God.”
    Cole whipped around so fast he staggered. Drops of sweat popped from his forehead, temples, and other places. His cock throbbed in time with the pain in his head. He stumbled to the barn and collapsed against a beam. His fingernails dug into the wood, shoving in splinters. He welcomed the pain. It matched the one in his pants as his cock throbbed desperately for release.
    There was a grown woman in his kitchen. Naked. And her name was Casey Wright.
    He blinked, but the image was burned into his brain. Seared onto his eyeballs. A vision of wonder, she was dang near everything he wanted in a woman. Physically. He slammed his forehead against the beam. It changed nothing. The clear voice still wove its way through his ears and into his soul.
    He’d asked the spirits of his grandparents to send a wife. Grandma always said to be careful what you pray for, as God works in mysterious ways. God had got him this time. Casey was beautiful, a good cook, was hardy enough to survive life on a ranch, and could outsing an angel. But she spoke and acted like an unschooled savage. No matter how well he dressed her, as soon as she opened those rosy lips everyone would know her origins. Unless she was singing.
    Byron insisted Casey could learn to speak well, but she’d never learn all those social graces needed by his wife. Those little things might seem unimportant, but they’d make a cabin in the wilds of Montana Territory something close to the cultured home he’d grown up in. He groaned, rubbing his face in frustration at his dilemma. He wanted that vision in his bed, eagerly bucking under him. But he didn’t want her in his life for anything more.
    No decent woman would marry him if he kept an unmarried woman in his home all winter. But he’d promised Sophie they’d keep Casey Wright here for the winter. Whether Casey was a boy or a woman, Cole would not break his oath.
    The image of her soapy hand caressing her breast exploded into his mind. His cock near did the same. A groan erupted from deep in his lungs. She was temptation in the flesh. Until she spoke.
    Maybe he could handle her that way. When the temptation to touch her got too great he’d ask her a question. That atrocious accent would keep him from kissing those plump lips, both the ones above her chin and those between her legs.
    A sudden thought caused a surge of outrage to blast away his thoughts of bedding her. Had she done this to trap him into marriage? He dropped his head and rubbed the back of his neck. No, Casey hadn’t trapped him. She’d done everything she could to hide the fact she was female. He groaned, thinking of what Byron said about why Casey and Willy left home
    No wonder she hid as a boy. With a body like that she could be sold for a lot of money. Her voice would make her even more valuable to those who liked to have something special to keep to themselves.
    His deep groan echoed through the empty barn. No matter how much he wanted to plow deep between her thighs, she was not good enough to be his wife. He picked up a rake and began working off his