Beauty and the Beasts [Bride Train 6] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) Read Online Free PDF

look their way. The good news was that she kept her head up rather than scurrying in fear. Finally the two women brought out dessert. They put a quarter piece of pie on each plate, moving around the table to serve.
    Sarah had emptied her tray and was almost at the kitchen when a grinning miner grabbed her skirt. Oz tensed, but she rapped the man hard on the knuckles with her serving tool. He yelped and released her. She raised her head high and hurried to the kitchen.
    “She hit me!” The deep roar of outrage rang over the background rumble.
    The furious man shoved his chair back and stood up. Oz was on his feet in a flash, Jack right behind. They each grabbed one arm to calm the man. Instead, he fought back.
    “You’re banned from my hotel!” yelled Sophie over the crowd’s roar.
    Oz and Jack hustled the squawking man outside. When he still didn’t stop fighting, they tossed him, still yelling, face-first into the mud. Oz laughed, feeling a bit more settled. If he couldn’t have sex, a good fight was second best, though this little dustup did nothing to soften his cock. They brushed off their hands and returned to the dining room.
    “I like a woman who stands up for herself, even if she is a tiny bit of a thing,” said Oz as they settled into their chairs.
    They finished their pie and coffee. Would Sarah come out of the kitchen to show she was well, or would she hide? He knew she had good reason to be fearful of men, but the fellow touching her wouldn’t. At least, he hoped the word hadn’t spread. Decent women were protected, but it didn’t necessarily hold for those who had been used, even if it was against their will.
    “I think she’s almost as short as Jessie.” Jack smirked. “And you know my sister has more fire and fury than most men.”
    “Unless one of her husbands gives her a look.”
    Jack laughed. “That might calm her down in public, but I’m pretty sure who runs the Double Diamond, and it isn’t anyone over five foot one.”
    “Just like Beth runs the Rocking E?”
    Oz meant it as a joke but Jack looked away. He finally nodded.
    “Beth is the heart of our home. Without her, we’re just three lonely brothers trying to make a living.” Jack winced. “Sorry, old man. I know that’s what you want as well.”
    “I’ll never marry. I’d make a bad husband and worse father. Luke’s the one who wants sons to carry on his name. I refuse to pass down my father’s name, or anything else about him.”
    When Oz decided to fight slavery, his pa said he was dead to them, and if he ever showed his face again, he’d make sure. Considering how often he got the hell beaten out of him, he was glad to go. He liked children, and would cherish a woman, but he was too afraid he’d be like his father. His mother never stood up to the brute, even to protect her little ones. But he couldn’t see Sarah allowing anyone to beat a child. Her fighting attitude was a big mark in her favor.
    “Does the Circle C want Sarah just because she’s the only single, pretty woman within a day’s ride?” asked Jack, leaning forward to speak quietly. “Or is there more to it? Luke complained when Amelia and Florence arrived already married, and when Jessie got hitched to Ace. But he said nothing about Victoria marrying Jed yesterday. He kept his eyes on Sarah unless he was glaring to keep the unmarried men away from her.”
    “Gabe said that when he picked Sarah up in that damn whorehouse, she smiled, sighed, and curled against his chest,” said Oz quietly. “I think one reason Gabe wants her is because she’s not scared of him. It means a lot that she trusted him to carry her, after whatever other men had done to her. Luke was shocked that she didn’t flinch when she looked him in the face. That grabbed his attention like nothing else.”
    “What about you?”
    Oz scratched at a chunk of mud on his sleeve.
    “If this was the East, she’d never look at me or Gabe, even without this.” He waved his hand