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

sweet-smelling perfume and lotion. Not to mention so many tittering women with nothing better to do than exclaim over all the colorful, magical healing potions within. He wouldn’t have come in when he had if he hadn’t been worried about Lily being without him for such an extended period of time. Since the abduction five years ago, he didn’t trust his wife being out of his sight for too long, not even if she was in town surrounded by people with whom they had basically grown up.
    Heck, he’d only made the particular trip into town because Lily had made a special request and he was hard put to deny her anything, especially now. She’d wanted to show her support for Maia’s and Sabrina’s new venture and, like everyone else in town including him, she was curious about what exactly “healing magick” meant.
    Wyatt knew he should have had more faith in Lily’s abilities to take care of herself. She had never been a shrinking violet, and her parents had raised her to be self-sufficient. Aside from her mother and father instructing her in the basics of maintaining a home and farm, her father had taught Lily and her mother how to use a gun and rifle. Lily was a crack shot, fairly putting him and other cowboys to shame. Before the abduction, he had no reservations about leaving her to her own devices. Whenever she did accompany him into town it was because he wanted and enjoyed her company, not just because he feared for her safety or didn’t trust her to be alone.
    “You didn’t need to be so rude to Maia and Rebel,” Lily said.
    Wyatt glanced at her from the corner of his eyes as he jerked on the horse and buggy reins and clucked his tongue. The carriage took off with a little jolt as the horse trotted forward and Wyatt’s heart stuttered at the hint of his wife’s spirit. That was the woman he used to know and loved. So many times in the last several months he’d wondered where she had gone. He’d wondered what those savages had done to filch her fire.
    Five years ago he would have thought nothing of Lily wanting to work. He had been proud of her accomplishments as a teacher and her ability to stand by his side and work with him in the field. He encouraged her independence. Since the abduction, all that had changed. He’d become an overprotective mother hen. He knew it was wrong to mollycoddle her so. He knew it was even worse for their marriage, but he couldn’t seem to stop himself. It was as if he was possessed with the idea of cosseting her in a shell to which only he had access. He’d allow nothing or no one else in that could harm her.
    Wyatt couldn’t bear the thought of losing her again.
    The day of the abduction had been the only day he could remember her complaining of an illness that kept her from working their farm and going into town with him. Even when she suffered from the symptoms of her monthly she soldiered on, taking enough laudanum to kill the pain without knocking her out for the count.
    Wyatt had relived that day over and over again in his mind, chiding himself for leaving her alone, doubting his judgment, and wondering if things would have been different had he stayed behind and pampered her despite her insistence that she would be okay alone.
    How he wished he could turn back the clock so that day had never happened.
    “I wasn’t being rude. I was just stating the particulars.”
    Like he’d told Maia, Lily didn’t need a job, not as long as he was alive and kicking. He appreciated the woman’s concern and grudgingly respected her grit, but he didn’t need her or that Rebel woman to tell him how to take care of his wife.
    “They were only trying to help.”
    Wyatt turned briefly to look at Lily and she returned his look, her striking gray eyes burning and her high cheeks flushed.
    “Are you mad at me for speaking up or upset that I caught you?”
    “You make it sound like I was up to no good, Wyatt. I was simply thinking about taking on a job. That’s all. I wasn’t