Free His Brother's Wife by Lily Graison

lavishly
dressed to do that. Most would prefer you as I saw you last
night.”
    His blatant stare, and the
grin on his face, caused Grace’s face to heat again. She was
blushing, damn his eyes! When he lifted his gaze back to her face,
the knowing look he gave her heated her skin again and caused her
stomach to clench. “You willing to let just any ole' saddle bum in
town into your bed, Grace? To make love to you and sire his
children with you?”
    She swallowed the lump in
her throat and turned away. She took her biscuits out of the oven
without even checking to see if they were done. His question
rattled in her head long after he’d gone outside.
    The entire conversation
repeated in slow motion again and again and she wasn‘t sure what
his intent was. Did he want her to leave? Did her being here upset
him in some way? She discarded that idea the moment she thought it.
She’d caught him staring at her too many times to believe that. The
way he looked at her last night caused things low in her stomach to
clench, caused her breasts to ache when his gaze lingered
there.
    Did the thought of her
marrying Jesse anger him? Or was it that she would marry another
man at all? She cast the thought away. Why would he care? He’d been
downright churlish with her on most occasions. She couldn’t
remember a kind word he’d said to her since laying eyes on him back
at the stagecoach station. He wasn’t friendly. He hadn’t even
thanked her for all the things she'd done for him. For anything
really. From almost every angle she looked, it would appear Rafe
Samuels had a passing interest toward her and that was only when
she'd been stripped bare and standing before him like some Greek
goddess offering herself to him.
    So why did her stomach
clench in anticipation every time she laid eyes on him?
    Sighing, she set the rest
of the food on the table and tried to put him out of her mind.
She’d never understand him anyway and honestly, she didn’t want to.
He was a miserable person and living in the same house with him
would be pure torture but she had no other choice.
    She should have married
someone in Boston like her friends begged her to do but her sense
of adventure was her undoing. Just as her father always said it
would be.
    Hearing the wind whistle
against the house, she peered out the window toward the barn,
trying to remember if Rafe had put his coat on. A glance at the peg
by the door showed it gone. At least he wouldn’t freeze.
    Not that she cared, she
reminded herself.
    Jesse entered the room
moments later, making his way to the table. He was dragging his
feet and wiping his eyes with one hand. He looked so young then.
His hair was rumpled, his shirt buttoned wrong, and she realized
she liked mothering him more than the thought of being a wife to
him.
    When he took his seat and
looked up at her, she smiled and grabbed his plate. “Good morning,
Jesse. I have flapjacks, bacon and home made biscuits for you this
morning.”
    He threw her a lopsided
smile and looked at his plate when she set it down in front of him.
“Thanks.” He didn’t wait for Rafe and had consumed four of the
flapjacks before the back door opened and Rafe walked
inside.
    Grace grabbed his plate,
filled it and set it on the table harder than she should have. She
ignored him when he glanced her way, looking up at Jesse instead.
“I need some things from town, Jesse. You’re running low on flour
and sugar and a few other items.”
    Jesse looked up, his mouth
full. He glanced at Rafe before turning his attention back to her.
He swallowed the food in his mouth and said, “I can take ya. We
have an account at the mercantile.”
    She smiled and nodded.
“Once I have the breakfast dishes washed up I’ll get ready. That
will give you time to get started on your chores.”
    Rafe reached for another
biscuit and buttered it before looking at Jesse. “We have to ride
the fence line today so don’t dally in town longer than you have
to.”
    Jesse threw him