WILDER

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“Princess, where are you?” I asked, leaning against the railing of Sarah’s front porch. I could hear the tinge of panic in my words, but since she answered her cell, I knew she wasn’t dead.

“On my way home now,” she said, her voice clear through the phone. “Why?”

“Your car’s in the driveway. We thought you were on the floor and injured or something.”

“I got picked up.” She paused. “You’re at my house? Did I miss that you were coming over?”

While we’d made no plans today, I could barely get any of the paperwork I’d pushed off on Friday finished. I hadn’t expected to run into Sarah and have my entire world change while I’d been away. Not that I minded. Fuck, no. My dick was hard just thinking about what we’d done. How she’d responded. How she’d come. Again and again.

My mouth watered just remembering her sweet taste.

I’d half-assed my reports to get them finished, then texted King. He’d been right there with me, ready to see our girl again instead of waiting until morning. So when we pulled up to her house expecting her to be home, we’d both panicked. Her car was in the driveway and she wasn’t answering her door. We’d rung the bell twice, even pounded. Nothing.

King had gone around the back, peeked into the back windows as I did the front. Nothing. She was a good girl and had most of her blinds closed—no fucker should be snooping about like we were—and everything was locked up tight. But that hadn’t eased our minds. I’d envisioned her sprawled in her tub with a head injury or bleeding to death from a knife slice in the kitchen. Carbon monoxide. Spider bite. Every fucking possibility that could befall our girl.

Instead, I took a deep breath, turned rational and called her. I could’ve texted, but I wanted to hear her voice. To know someone hadn’t kidnapped her and was texting for her. Yeah, I was fucking losing it.

“No, we hadn’t made plans, but King and I have something for you and we decided to drop by.”

“Oh, great.” She sounded pleased. “I’ll be there in a few minutes.”

She hung up and I looked to King. He’d heard it all since I put it on speaker.

It was cold as fuck, even with the sun out. The snow sparkled and I pushed my sunglasses up my nose.

“We’re going to have to get ourselves in check,” King said, pacing on her front porch. I rubbed my hands together to warm them.

“No kidding. We’re going to have to keep from panicking every time she leaves the house.”

“Or our sight,” he added.

I smiled. “Then we’ll just have to keep her in bed, won’t we?”

He grinned back. “Naked.”

“There’s two of us. She can have a dick in her at all times.”

We grinned at the possibility—no, probability—and I adjusted myself in my jeans. Once we married her tomorrow, I had no intention of letting her out of bed, or off our dicks, for a long, long time. We had lost time to make up for.

A big truck pulled up in front of the house and Riley Townsend climbed out, went around the hood and opened the door for Sarah. She hopped down, saw us and smiled.

“Fuck, the dimple,” King whispered.

Yeah, it was pretty fucking ruthless and she had no idea of its simple power.

Of hers.

She came up her shoveled walkway, her eyes on us the whole time.

“Hi,” she said, her cheeks pink. While she seemed eager to see us, she looked…shy. Even after everything we’d done together, she was still innocent.

Barely. Only strong willpower and our jeans had kept us from claiming her the night before. And this morning.

“You know Riley, don’t you?” she asked.

He stepped forward, shook my hand, then King’s. “Of course. Been awhile.”

He was a lawyer and a few years ahead of us in school. We’d played in a summer league softball team together a while back.

“Let’s um…get out of the cold,” Sarah prompted.

“I’ll say goodbye then. They’ll see you to the ranch, I assume,” Riley said, glancing down at Sarah.

The ranch?

“Oh, um…” She flicked her gaze to us, then back at Riley. “Yes. I hope the addition of two more won’t be a problem. Can I bring something?”

Riley grinned. “No problem at all. Kady and the other women are going to be thrilled. As for bringing something, just bring them.” He pointed at us.

With a small wave, he turned and headed back to his truck, most likely eager to get back to the heater.

“Are we headed somewhere, princess?” I asked.

She gave a slight shiver, then pulled out her house key. We moved out of the way to let her open the door, then followed her inside.

She tugged off her boots and I stared at her ass in her jeans as she did so, remembering what it looked like bare and all pink from our palms.

“Want something to drink?” she asked as we toed off our boots in her wake.

“What’s the matter?” King asked. “You look nervous.”

She did. Her hands slid up and down her thighs, as if they were damp with sweat. She bit her lip and her breathing was different. Definitely nervous. She couldn’t hide anything from us.

She took a deep breath, let it out, then blurted, “Aiden Steele is my father.”

What.

The.

Fuck?

Okay, I’d been wrong. She could definitely hide something from us.

“What?” King asked after a long, long pause as we processed her words.

She sighed, went into her small living room and paced, ran her hand over her hair. “I hadn’t meant for it to come out like that, but you guys have this death stare thing going on and I can’t not tell you things when you look at me like that.”

We followed her into the room, but we remained just inside the doorway.

“That’s good to remember, but you missed the important part,” King continued.

She turned and looked up at us. Tilting up her chin, she said, “Aiden Steele is my father.”

Yeah, that was what she’d said the first time.

“How long have you known this?” I asked.

“All my life.”

All her life?

“Your mother—”

“Yeah, she’s my mother all right,” she grumbled. “You’re well aware she likes to collect rich husbands. I guess Aiden Steele was her target about twenty-four years ago. While she hasn’t admitted this, I’m thinking she tried to trap him, but he never took the bait.”

“And Riley’s your lawyer,” I said, putting some of the pieces together. I was friendly with Townsend, but not close. Knew he was a lawyer, even knew he was the executor of the Steele estate. Hell, everyone in town knew it. I worked with Archer Wade, the town sheriff, and he’d told me he’d fallen for Cricket, one of the daughters who’d come to Barlow because of the inheritance.

I didn’t know too much about Aiden Steele. I’d seen him in town a few times over the years, but we’d never spoken. From the Barlow gossip mill, I knew he’d never married and up until he died, no one knew of any kids to inherit his ranch. It had been a Steele property for generations. But that same gossip mill had tons of fodder after his death when it was discovered he had five daughters to whom he’d left the ranch. Three of them had been found. Riley, along with Cord Connolly, had married the first heiress to arrive. Kady.

I didn’t remember her maiden name, but I knew she’d married them. Yup, both of them. She was also very pregnant with their first child. The other two women, Penny and Cricket, had also come to Barlow last summer. I’d met Penny once as she’d married Jamison, who was the foreman at Steele Ranch, and Boone. As for Cricket, we’d yet to meet, but she’d hooked up with three guys—one of them being Archer—and lived on the ranch.

Maybe claiming Sarah together wasn’t as rare as we’d first thought, especially now that she was a Steele. No, she’d always been a Steele.

“How come he didn’t claim you as his daughter? I mean, you lived in the same town,” King asked, his hand rubbing the back of his neck. “You’re not bothered by that?”

Yeah, this was heavy shit.

She shrugged. “I always knew who he was to me. My mother never hesitated to bash him, but she did it quietly, at home. She still does,” she grumbled. “She didn’t want anyone to know. Whatever.” She rolled her eyes. “He paid child support, gave me money for college. I think he did all he could.”

“He could have loved you,” King tossed back. While his parents were dead now, they’d loved him. No doubt about it. When he had kids—no, when we had kids with Sarah—he’d be as hands-on as his dad had been.

“True, but I don’t know if he was capable of it. I mean, he had five daughters. Claimed none of them until he died. I think the money for college was proof he cared about me in his own way. I’m fine. Really,” she added. She looked okay, but shit like this could fester. And since her mother was a bitch, I was still surprised she didn’t need counseling.

I was mad. Really mad. How could a father not want Sarah?

“I’m angry for you then,” I told her.

She came up to me, lifted her hand and cupped my jaw. “I love that about you.” Her tongue flicked out, licked her lips. “I love you.”

Those words. Fuck. I’d been hoping to hear those from her for years.

“Don’t distract me from wanting to kill your father.”

She smiled and that dimple popped out. “Good thing he’s already dead. I’m sure there’s a big line ahead of you anyway. I mean, Kady, Penny and Cricket all have men who probably hate Aiden Steele, too, for the same reason.”

“Yeah, but from what I hear, they never met him, never knew he even existed,” King added. He was pissed, too.

“Why didn’t you tell us sooner?” I asked.

“Because until last night, I didn’t think things were going to work between us.”

“And now?” King asked. “Legally, you’re marrying me tomorrow at the courthouse. You’ll be Wilder’s too, but you’ll get my name. Our kids will inherit the Barlow Ranch.”

“And part of the Steele Ranch, it seems,” I added, thinking of the huge ranch outside of town. It’s only rival for size was King’s. “That’s why you were talking to Riley?”

She cocked her head to the side. “Sort of. I’m going to get a Coke. You guys want one?” she asked, walking into the kitchen.

We followed.

“Princess,” I prodded as she took a can from the fridge.

“When I was younger, I kept who my father was a secret because of my mother. She’d made it a secret and it was difficult enough dealing with her.” She held out a second can and I took it from her, wanting to do something with my hands other than making a fist. I hated her mother.

“I really dislike your mother,” King said, voicing my thoughts, skipping the word hate, although I knew that’s what he wanted to say.

He shook his head when offered a can of his own.

I popped the top, took a swig.

Sarah closed the fridge, moved to her small dining table set in front of a bay window that overlooked her snow-covered backyard. “When I was older, I kept it a secret because, well, I thought I owed it to my father. He paid for all of my college, housing, books. All of it so I didn’t have to work at the same time. Since he hadn’t told anyone about me, I chose to do the same about him.”

“You mean he paid for your silence,” King added, dropping into the chair across from her, his long legs sticking out across the wood floor.

I leaned against the counter, set the can down and crossed my arms over my chest.

She shook her head. “He paid for my college—not that my mother knows that. He lived a year past that. Let it go. That’s not the point here.”

King pinched his lips together when he realized she wasn’t going to budge. She might not hate him, but we could.

“Even after, what, seven or eight months, I haven’t told my mother that I inherited. She thinks I didn’t get a dime and I want it to stay that way. The minute she heard he died, she called me. Asked if I’d inherited the ranch since I was his daughter, that it was owed to me. At the time, she didn’t know about the other sisters, no one did. She started making all kinds of plans about the main house, what she was going to do to it, the furniture she was going to buy, how she was going to sell all the animals and then talk with a developer to build a golf course or something.”

Oh shit.

“I lied. I told her I hadn’t even been named in the will. Riley is the executor of the estate and I asked him to keep me a secret. Since he’s my lawyer, he has followed my wishes. While people know now there are five daughters, no one knows one of them is me. Until now, until you.”

She took a sip of her drink, used the back of her hand to wipe her mouth. So unladylike, but I doubted she even knew she’d done it.

“Riley has helped me set up a trust for the money so it’s not obvious that it’s mine. But now, I guess it will be out there.”

“Why?” King asked.

“Because I’m marrying you.”

“That’s right, you are,” he said, taking her hand in his, kissing the knuckles in a remarkably gentle gesture. “But that doesn’t change a thing. I don’t give a shit about that money. If you want Riley to write something up, a pre-nup or whatever that’s fine, but he better do it tonight because you’ll be legally mine come morning.”

“And mine,” I added. “I don’t have a ranch to give my wife like King does.”

I didn’t. My dad was a dentist and my mom was a homemaker. While they weren’t rich, they’d certainly never hurt for money. I’d had everything I could have ever wanted growing up. The important stuff like family. Love. The safety of belonging. Sarah never had that.

Sarah stood and came over to me, wrapped her arms about me. I pulled her close, put my chin on the top of her head. “I don’t want to be rich,” she told me. “I never did. I like this house, my quiet life. I knew going in that a library science degree wasn’t going to make me lots of money.”

“A quiet life we can give you. As for this house? We won’t all fit. We’ll live at King’s ranch if that suits you. Lots of room for a family.”

She tilted her head up, smiled. “All right.”

I kissed her. There was no way I could resist. She tasted sweet like her drink and beneath, just like her.

“Where are you taking us later, princess?” I murmured, staring into her dark eyes, which were now hazy with need from the kiss. “Riley mentioned you bringing us with you somewhere.”

“To Steele Ranch. Sunday dinner.”

King stood, turned Sarah to face him, cupped her jaw with his hand. “I thought you wanted it to remain a secret.”

“The trust is in place. That’s all set so my inheritance isn’t in my name. I’ve also had Riley list you both as beneficiaries, that way if something happened to me, it wouldn’t go to my mother. That’s what he drew up today because it would’ve otherwise. While I don’t know my half-sisters really at all, they’re probably really nice and I don’t want them to be stuck with my mother.”

I hated the idea of something happening to her, to have her even talk about that kind of eventuality, but she was smart. Realistic. Without stating a beneficiary or leaving a will stating otherwise, her mother would get Sarah’s estate, and that included one-fifth of Steele Ranch. And since we’d sprung the marriage thing on her last night, no wonder she’d had to rush and meet with Riley today.

“We don’t want your money, princess,” I said, making sure she understood. “We only want you.”

“That’s right,” King confirmed.

She smiled sweetly. “I know, but tomorrow you’re going to be my husbands. What’s mine will be yours, and I really don’t want any of it being my mother’s.”

“Fuck, princess. I love you,” I growled, kissing her again. She was so unlike her mother. She didn’t have a selfish bone in her body.

When I let her up for air, she said, “I had to tell you about my father, about Steele Ranch before we married. A wedding meant the three of us would become a family and I realized I already had some. Kady, Penny and Cricket are my sisters and I’ve avoided them because of this secret. Really, because of my mother. I don’t want to miss out any longer.”

King pulled her up so she went on her tiptoes and he kissed her, too. Open mouthed. A touch desperately, as if we hadn’t kissed her or spanked her ass this morning.

When he pulled away, she was breathing hard, her cheeks were pink, this time definitely because of us.

“You said you had something for me?” she asked, her eyes excited for the idea of a gift.

King grinned. “You’ll never guess this present.”

“Jewelry?”

King’s pale eyes met mine. I shrugged. “You tell her.”

“You’re good, princess. Definitely jewelry. And you’re going to be gorgeous wearing it.”