right out.”
“Watch that tone of yours.” I point a finger at her.
“I’m sorry.” She lowers her gaze. “I thought you were further away. I was making sure you could hear me.”
I stare at her for a long second. Excuses.
“Hurry your ass up and get dressed. Papa could be back soon. You have to get dinner started.”
“He has the groceries,” she says, offering more excuses.
“Figure something out.” I harden my voice. “If he comes home after spending all this time getting food for your ass, you damn well better show him you appreciate it by having a warm meal ready for him.” Her jobs aren’t fucking hard. No excuse for being lazy.
“Okay, Mark. I’ll be right down,” she assures me. Water trails down her face. With her hair matted to her face, her eyes look larger, more fearful when I don’t ease up on my scowl. She’s pretty like this. In her place.
I let go of the curtain and leave her to finish washing up. I don’t close the bathroom door.
“Have you seen Nicolette?” Elijah meets me in the living room downstairs.
“She’s in the shower.” I jerk my finger over my shoulder. “Why?”
His brow furrows. “In the middle of the day?”
“Yeah. I gave her permission.” Papa makes sure we have everything we need, and we show our appreciation by not wasting any of it. We also keep our personal needs left to the end of the day or before we start chores. Taking time in the middle of the day to get cleaned up is selfish.
“What’d she do to get such a gift from you?” he asks me. Elijah thinks he can hide his jealousy from me, but it’s written all over his fucking face. He hates it when I touch her, when she screams with pleasure from my cock. But he has to get over it. We love each other equally, and Nicolette is to be our wife. She can’t show favorites, and he can’t try to claim her more than me.
“She showed me that little trick you told me about. With her tongue.” I smile at the memory. Fuck, that girl knows how to suck a cock. I almost blew my load within the first few strokes.
He schools his features.
“Did you finish the fireplace?” I walk to the stones and squat down to look at his work. Elijah’s a hard worker, and a skilled one. All the stones are firmly in place again. “Looks good.”
“Thanks.” Elijah looks up the stairs.
“If that girl isn’t down here in five minutes, she’s gonna get it,” I tell him, and he shoots me a dark look. It’s flitting. He tucks it away just as quickly, but I saw it. “You can’t coddle her, Elijah. She’ll turn into a lazy, mouthy woman. We have to do right by her.”
He jams his hands into his pockets. We’ve had this conversation before. Too many times.
“I belted her the other day. I know what our job is,” he reminds me. I thought he was going to go easy on her because Papa hadn’t gone with him to the shed, but he didn’t. He laid into her real good. It’s what a good man does: teaches and leads the woman.
“I know you have this little fantasy that Nicolette will always be sweet and pliable, but you have to listen to Papa. She has wicked thoughts in her head. She’ll stray if we let her.”
“Nicolette would never leave home. Not without us,” he tells me firmly.
I shake my head. His love for her blinds him to reality. My love for her keeps me sharp. I want to be sure she’s good for us so we can be sweet to her.
Floorboards creak at the top of the stairs as she scurries from the bathroom to her bedroom to get dressed.
The front door swings open, and Papa walks in, one of his cloth bags hanging from his hand. He stops and stares at us for a moment.
“You gonna stand there and stare at me or get your asses out to the truck to get the other bags?” he snaps.
“Sorry, Papa,” we both say before hurrying toward the door.
He glances down the hallway. The sun’s already fading in the sky and there are no smells coming from the kitchen.
“Where’s Nicolette?” he asks me as I step around him.
“She’s getting dressed.” I roll my shoulders back. “I allowed her a quick shower. She’s going to start supper in a minute.”
He grunts. Going down the mountain to town is stressful. It puts him in