Boots Optional

by Nicole Edwards

  The two of them combined made him want to be a better man. Wow, now that sounded like a stupid cliché. But hell, if it weren’t for them, he’d probably be working at a fast food joint right about now because he’d have burned more bridges than their small county even had.

  “Have you always wanted to kiss him too?” Gracie asked, and Grant’s eyes opened wide.

  Lane’s nearly bugged out of his head too, so yeah, his friend managed to maintain his composure significantly better than he was. Sure, Lane had known Gracie had watched them, but to hear her call them on it wasn’t quite what he expected.

  “Yes. Does that bother you?”

  Holy fuck.

  Lane stared at Grant, his mouth hanging open. He looked like an idiot, he was sure, but shit. What the hell else was he supposed to do? You damn sure weren’t supposed to tell a chick you wanted to get with that you’ve wanted to kiss a guy.

  They generally didn’t take it well.

  “So fucking with me is just for sport?”

  See. Perfect example.

  “No one’s fucking with you, Gracie. Goddammit!” Grant yanked his Stetson off his head and slammed it against his jean-clad leg, turning away from Gracie.

  “Sorry if I just don’t understand, Grant. Why don’t you explain it to me, huh? Tell me how it is that you want to kiss both of us? Are you that hard up? Or can you just not make up your mind?”

  Well, hell.

  Lane was damn glad he wasn’t in Grant’s boots right about now.

  □●□●□●□

  If there was a manual on how to seduce a woman, Grant needed it. Stat.

  He was going down fast and he knew it.

  Then again, if he’d known that Gracie had been snooping where she didn’t belong on Friday, he might’ve gone about this differently.

  Oh, shit. That meant she’d also seen… “Wait. Why were you at my cabin?”

  Gracie didn’t speak and he knew she was trying to come up with an excuse.

  “Why, Gracie? Why’d you come to my cabin?” It was an important question because, in all of the years he’d been hot for this woman, she had stayed as far away from him as possible. So why wasn’t she copping to it now?

  “It doesn’t matter. What matters is that the two of you were pretty hot and heavy which was probably why you didn’t answer the door when I knocked.”

  “Bullshit,” Grant argued. “The door was fucking open. You didn’t need to knock.”

  He was stalling now, too. He knew it.

  And no, he wasn’t confused, but he knew it didn’t matter what he told her, she was going to use it against him.

  Yes. He had kissed Lane. Fuck yes; he liked the shit out of it, too. And hell, when Lane had sucked his dick Grant had been floating on a fucking cloud. Even hours after that, after Lane had gone back to his own cabin.

  Closing his eyes as he smashed his hat back onto his head, Grant realized he should’ve been telling her all of these things.

  Turning slowly, he glanced at Lane first, then Gracie.

  “It’s complicated.”

  “I’ll say,” Lane spouted. Always a damn comedian.

  “Is that what you want too?” Gracie asked, this time her question directed at Lane.

  “What? Both of you? Shit yeah.”

  Okay, so it clearly wasn’t all that complicated for Lane.

  Grant pinned him with a glare. He wasn’t helping.

  “Both of us?” Gracie’s voice had lowered to tolerable levels as she stared up at Lane, her pretty pink mouth open. “Are you… Serious?”

  “Hell yeah,” Lane said.

  Sometimes Grant wished he had the confidence Lane had. For as long as he’d known him, the man spoke his mind. Not that that was always a good thing. But at least he didn’t keep it all bottled up the way Grant did.

  Grant looked up to see Gracie staring back at him. An “Is this guy serious?” expression on her heart shaped face. Grant shrugged. And okay, that didn’t help at all.

  “Please leave,” Gracie finally said. “I… I don’t have time for this shit.”

  It was Lane’s turn to address the situation apparently because he stalked Gracie the same way Grant had when he’d first walked in. The big man didn’t stop until Gracie’s back came in contact with the wall that separated her living room from her bedroom.

  Do not think about her bedroom, asshole.

  Yup. He was now thinking about her bedroom.

  Gracie lying prone on the bed, gloriously naked, Lane between her thighs…

  Oh, fucking shit.

  Grant was pretty sure he was having a heart attack.

  “Sweet thing,” Lane told Gracie as he pulled his hat off his head.

  That’s all he said. Two words. And Gracie was looking up at him as though she were about to consume him whole.

  And then Lane kissed her.

  The emotion that rendered Grant speechless wasn’t jealousy, but that’s about all he knew. As he watched, Lane plundered her mouth, his big hand gripping her thigh and pulling her leg up almost to his hip as he ground against her. And Gracie was fully on board, her arms circled around his neck as she attempted to climb his body.

  “Holy fuck,” Lane whispered, his eyes still on Gracie as he pulled back.

  “That’s the same thing you said when you kissed him,” Gracie spouted, pushing Lane away.

  Damn the woman was giving some serious mixed signals here. She’d just kissed them both like she wanted to have them for dessert, yet she was still pushing them away. Then again, they were sort of tag teaming her. Which really wasn’t fair.

  Grant had spent plenty of time thinking about this scenario. It usually came about when he was ready to throw in the towel because it was clear, neither of them were going to get a date with this woman.

  Or so he’d thought before tonight.

  But now, there were so many questions running through his mind. But not one of them was how would it work or how would they get to this point? Those questions no longer needed answers because somehow, they were already here and in the span of five minutes, they had both kissed Gracie.

  And that wasn’t the only surprise. Grant hadn’t figured he would just out and out tell her that he wanted to kiss her as much as he wanted to kiss Lane, but he’d been blinded by what she made him feel. It was potent.

  “You were watchin’ us, Gracie,” Lane stated. Grant realized it wasn’t a question at about the same time Lane continued. “Did you like what you saw? The way I pressed up against Grant, my cock rubbing against his through our jeans. Or were you more fixated on the way I inhaled him when I finally got my mouth on him? Or how about when I sucked his dick? Huh? Which was it?”

  “Don’t be an asshole,” Grant bit out; the realization that Lane had known she was there settled in and pissed him off.

  Gracie didn’t say anything, but Grant noticed her chest rising and falling rapidly. Lane’s graphic depiction of what happened between them last Friday was turning her on.

  “Do you want to watch me kiss him again?” Lane asked Gracie, obviously ignoring Grant completely.

  Gracie nodded.

  Oh hell. She nodded and Grant had to blink twice to make sure his eyes weren’t playing tricks on him.

  Lane must’ve seen it too because he turned toward Grant, his objective written plainly on his ruggedly handsome face.

  Grant didn’t back down the way he had the last time. He didn’t let Lane corner him because he wanted this as much as Lane did. He’d wanted it for a long damn time, but he’d been a coward, afraid of what people would think. It wasn’t a secret that Grant wanted Gracie. He’d been chasing after her for years, despite her daddy’s warnings.

  There would surely be plenty of questions when people realized that Grant wanted both of them, but he couldn’t find it in himself to care at the moment because Lane had turned the brunt of his attention on him.

  Lane came up to him, his eyes hard, intent. They were almost the same height. Almost. Lane had an inch
or two on him and he was bigger, wider. His chest was ripped, his biceps thick, unlike Grant, who was leaner. Not quite as bulky.

  “I’ve been counting down the minutes until I could do this again,” Lane whispered, his breath fanning across Grant’s face. He smelled like cinnamon. Like the gum he was always chewing.

  When Lane’s hand cupped his cheek, Grant’s breath lodged in his throat.

  And then nothing mattered because Lane was kissing him. Hard. Solid. So fucking sweet. And Grant was kissing him back, his hand latching onto Lane’s belt buckle and pulling him close so that they were touching from hip to chest.

  Lane growled, his hand sliding behind Grant’s neck as he held him to him, their tongues sparring as the inferno consumed them. Nothing else mattered right at that moment.

  When they came up for air, neither of them turned away immediately, their gazes locked. The silence between them spoke volumes. Regardless of what happened with Gracie, what was happening between the two of them was like a freight train going three hundred miles per hour.

  It was right then that Grant realized something.

  Whatever this was between them wasn’t about to be stopped. They were going to finish this sooner or later.

  Grant prayed it was sooner.

  Chapter Four

  Grace couldn’t believe what she was seeing.

  Well, no more than she could’ve believed it the last time she saw these two men kissing. It had been just as intense then as it was now, only they knew she was there this time.

  So why wasn’t she running for the door?

  Nothing made sense at the moment, especially not her reaction to these two men. The fact that they had both kissed her as though they’d been ready to inhale her should’ve been enough to have her panicking.

  She’d kissed both of them. Both. Not one. Two.

  That was twice as many cowboys as she’d kissed in, jeez, it had been close to two years.

  And then they’d kissed each other – which they were still doing – the same way which was… Holy crap it was scorching.

  When Lane pulled back from Grant, neither man turned to look at her and she practically saw the flames licking at them, ready to pull them under.

  “Gracie.”

  Grace didn’t move when Lane said her name. She wasn’t sure what she was supposed to do or say, and she wasn’t even sure her vocal cords would work. She was stunned silent.

  “Does that answer your question?” Lane asked, turning to face her finally.

  What question? She’d been asking a question?

  Both men moved toward her and Grace realized she was still leaning against the wall where Lane had left her a moment ago.

  Still unable to form words, Grace watched as they both invaded her personal space, crowding her with their big bodies, penetrating her with their lust-filled eyes.

  “Do you understand yet?” Lane asked.

  “Understand what?” she asked, the words little more than a croak.

  “We want you,” he answered.

  “Me?” Gracie cleared her throat. And her mind. This was bullshit is what this was. “Me?” she asked again adding another dose of incredulity for good measure. “From the looks of it, y’all want each other. Not me.”

  “Gorgeous, things aren’t always as black and white as you want them to be,” Lane offered.

  “I don’t even know what that means,” she told him, glancing over at Grant. The man was looking at her mouth, probably remembering the kiss they’d just shared just a few short minutes ago because Lord knows she remembered it now.

  Crap.

  “I don’t think –”

  “Don’t think,” Grant ordered, cutting her off. “Don’t try to make sense of it. You never will.”

  “You’re right, I never will. I think the heat has gotten to both of you. You’re delusional.”

  Lane’s gaze darted over to Grant’s briefly, and Grace couldn’t decipher the look that passed between them.

  Not that she had time to, because a second later, Lane was kissing her again. And damn it all to hell, she was kissing him back. The hard ridge of his erection was pressing into her belly as she tried to get closer, tried to pull him down to the floor with her because there was no way she could continue to stand up. Her knees were weak.

  Heeelllllo!

  Grace felt Grant behind her. At some point in the last three-point-five seconds, Lane must’ve turned her because the wall was no longer at her back. Instead, Grant’s equally hard body was there, his erection pressing into her lower back while he leaned in and…

  Her head was spinning.

  Grant’s lips were on her neck, Lane’s were on her mouth and Lord have mercy, Grace was sandwiched between them. It didn’t escape her that she wasn’t trying to get away. Not at all.

  In fact, she was trying to get closer. To both of them.

  One of her hands was gripping Lane’s soft hair, the other was clutching Grant’s thick thigh, pulling them both against her. And she couldn’t stop herself.

  Someone was moaning, getting louder as each second passed and when the sound was the only thing filling her head, she realized she was the one moaning. She was practically begging them to get closer although the only way that would be possible was if they were naked and…

  Oh, God. What was she doing?

  Grace released them both, shoving them away as she darted to the opposite side of the room. Hoping to catch her breath, she placed her palms flat on the kitchen counter, keeping her back to them because there was no way she could look at them. What the hell would they think of her now? She had pushed them off for years until they come knocking on her door and all of a sudden, she was ready to do them both?

  Nope. No way. That’s not how this was supposed to work.

  Grace pushed her hair back from her face as she took a deep breath. This was too weird.

  “It’s not weird,” Lane said, and Grace turned to face him.

  Had she said that aloud?

  “It is weird,” she assured him. “It’s weird and it’s not… natural.”

  Lane laughed, but the sound was gruff and there was no amusement in his dark brown eyes.

  “Gracie,” Grant called her name and she looked over at him. “Baby.”

  “Oh, hell no. Don’t go and ‘baby’ me. I’m not your baby. I’m not… I’m not your anything. And the two of you need to leave. We’ll pretend this,” she twirled her hand around to encompass the three of them, “never happened.”

  Both men stared at her like she’d gone mad, but Grant was the one who spoke up. “Darlin’, that’ll never happen. Trust me; I’ll never forget this. Not in a million years.”

  “Well, you’re gonna have to try.”

  □●□●□●□

  Grant was doing everything in his power to keep at least a few feet between himself and Gracie. And Lane.

  The fact that the three of them were in the same room – one that was sealed off to the rest of the world – was more than he had hoped for. At least at this point.

  Shit, he was just getting used to the idea of kissing Lane. Now he had the memory of Gracie’s lips on his, her hand on his thigh, the fresh scent of her hair, the soft, silky skin of her neck… Yeah, he was in some big trouble here. It had been hard enough to keep from wanting to touch her before now, and now that he’d had even a brief taste of her, he wanted more.

  And more.

  Hell, he wanted all of her because one taste would never be enough.

  But…

  As much as Grant didn’t want to let go of the moment, he knew they had to take baby steps with her. Gracie wasn’t the type of woman who just hopped into bed with any man. Hell, Grant wasn’t even sure she wasn’t a virgin. Although that bastard she’d dated a few years back had been more than happy to share details of what was supposedly an intimate relationship with the woman.

  It was a damn good thing Lane hadn’t been around at that time because Grant was pretty sure his friend would’ve put the
asshole six feet under. As it was, Grant had been held back by a couple of the wranglers. And that was the only thing that had saved the bastard at the time.

  “I really want you to go,” Gracie told them now, her eyes full of emotion.

  She was serious.

  “We’ll go,” Grant told her, making his way to her. She didn’t back away which was a good sign. “But, baby, this isn’t over. I’ll give you some space, but… I’m not sure how long I’ll be able to stay away.”

  To his surprise, Gracie didn’t argue. The subtle nod of her head looked more like acceptance than anything else. But he knew when to lay off.

  “Come on,” Grant nodded at Lane, who was standing there staring at them both.

  Lane nodded his head, but he didn’t speak. His gaze was locked on Gracie and Grant saw, for the first time, such a strong sense of longing in the other man that it made his chest hurt.

  Yeah, this wasn’t going to be easy. Not on any of them.

  When Grant was outside a few minutes later, he stood with his eyes focused on the giant moon. The night was clear and the moon was high, the radiant beam of light shining over the rolling hills that seemed to go on forever.

  God he loved it here.

  “You okay?” Lane asked as he stepped up beside him, his arm brushing Grant’s.

  “No,” he said truthfully. “I’m not sure I’ll ever be okay again.”

  Lane didn’t respond, which was just as well. Grant didn’t want to get into why he had suddenly become so sappy. Tonight had been something he’d wanted for as long as he could remember. But kissing Gracie was only the beginning. Taking her to bed was definitely on his mind, but it wasn’t the most pressing thing he was thinking about.

  No, Grant needed to figure out how this was supposed to work. Between the three of them.

  Because he didn’t want it any other way.

  “I need to head home,” Lane finally said.

  Grant turned to look at him. He wanted to invite the man back to his cabin, but he knew it was too soon. Especially after what had transpired between them tonight. That kiss… It wasn’t just about sex although he had no doubt in his mind that sex with Lane would be off the charts. His dick stirred at the mere thought of Lane naked, pressing up against him while Grant was buried deep inside of him, moaning his name…