Lily's Secrets [Elk Creek 1] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) Read Free Page A

best of them. Lily still found some of the words that came out of Maia’s mouth a little alien, much like the spelling of “magick” in the store’s name. She put down the strangeness to Maia’s originating from back East.
    “Just complimenting Lily on that fine specimen of a man she has for a husband.”
    “And keeping your hands to yourself?”
    “Does that mean I’m not allowed to look at or think about him either?”
    “Evil thoughts are the same as evil deeds.”
    “Is that a Bible verse, darlin’? Because being the freethinking woman that I am, I wouldn’t be familiar with it.”
    “Stop misbehaving.”
    Lily listened to the exchange as the two women burst out into conspiratorial laughter. She enjoyed their easy rapport and wished she could share it.
    Back with the Kiowas, the females in the tribe had initially been wary of her, though more than willing to “help her heal,” as her stranger had put it. Slowly, they’d adjusted to her presence, and grudgingly accepted her into their ranks when it became obvious that she had no intentions of leaving and they evidently didn’t have the heart to kick her out.
    Over the years with the tribe she had come to realize that her savior must have held a position of some influence among his people for them to accept her at all. She wondered, however, why she never saw him again, not that she had ever seen him to begin with. Eventually, and especially after she began to show, the women had accepted her on her own merits, particularly doting on her baby as much as she did once he’d been born.
    A stone lodged in her throat at the thought of all that had been taken from her. She had just gotten used to being with the Kiowas, feeling as if she belonged. They had been kind and given her a home when she’d had nowhere else to go.
    She watched Rebel and Maia acting so friendly with each other. They were two women with totally different life experiences and nothing much in common except their sex and indomitable spirit. Witnessing their bond brought home everything that Lily had lost, specifically the companionship of females who did not fault or judge her.
    “You are so beautiful, darlin’. You shouldn’t frown so. You’ll get wrinkles.”
    Lily felt Rebel’s touch on her cheek like a feather brushing her skin. Shock flooded through her at the woman’s caress and words. She was used to Wyatt calling her beautiful, though it had been a long time since he had expressed any sort of opinion on her looks, good or bad, much less called her beautiful. Rebel’s words threw her for a loop as much as for their sincerity as that they were delivered by a beautiful woman in her own right.
    “I’d ask you to come work for Eartha at Winchester’s saloon. She’s always looking for girls, but I’m thinking your hubby wouldn’t be too amenable to that.”
    “Rebel!”
    “What?” The woman innocently widened her eyes at Maia and put a hand on her own ample bosom. “Oh please, I didn’t mean for her to work upstairs. I don’t even do that. She’d be there strictly for show, a pretty face to brighten up the place. She wouldn’t even have to be a dance-hall girl like me. She could just bring the men drinks.”
    “Oh,” Maia said.
    “Honestly, Maia, I’m not trying to corrupt anyone, contrary to popular opinion.” She turned to Lily. “At least it’d be something for you to do to get out of your head.”
    “Out of my head?”
    “I see the way you are around town, almost like a ghost, as if you’re not really here.”
    “Must you be so…blunt?” Maia asked.
    “Look who’s talking.”
    “It’s all right,” Lily murmured, and both women turned to her as if just realizing she was still in the aisle. “I reckon I don’t mind it, the bluntness, I mean. I actually appreciate your honesty.” It was a lot more than she got from the rest of the town, her husband included.
    She loved Wyatt, she truly did, but since she’d been back, she got the feeling that he