by Saba Sparks
making it to the couch. Jack was on his knees in front of the fire…and the kindling he’d placed inside it was already burning merrily.
“Oh!” Anna said. “I planned to try that out this week. I got the kindling and the fire lighters from the general store. Sally said it was okay to use the logs. I chopped a couple but…”
Jack turned his head to shoot her a grin. “I’ve lit this thing so many times when my sister’s down.”
“And I’ll come down tomorrow and take care of those logs,” Lee
said.
Anna could not refuse. She hadn’t enjoyed trying to chop the logs into small enough pieces, and if Lee was willing.
“It’s my first real fire,” Anna said. “Thank you.”
She placed the coffee on the table. Lee smiled up at her. That
smile…Anna swallowed before turning back to the kitchen.
Once there she got to work putting the first course together. She could hear the men talking in the next room, the crackle of the fire a counterpoint to their words. It made her happy. All of it made her happy.
Anna had spent the better part of the day getting everything ready for her guests. She wanted everything to be perfect for this meal, and the activity had given her something concrete to focus on. She’d pulled out Grand’s cookbook and picked the sort of meal she thought would appeal to them.
Time to find out.
The dining room was accessible only through the alcove on the
far side of the kitchen. Anna grabbed her oven gloves then heaved the pot off the stove. She placed it on the table in the dining room, checked that all the plates were in place then added the basket of bread. Everything smelled great. Everything was great…and the
men…
Anna clenched her fists by her sides as the thoughts that had kept her up late the past few days raced through her mind. Anna wasn’t sure, God knew she had very little experience either way, but at dinner she was almost positive that she had seen something in both Lee and Jack’s eyes that suggested interest.
If Anna wasn’t mistaken they liked her, and not just as a friend.
That thought thrilled her all the way to her core but Anna had no idea what, if anything, she could possibly do about it. She wasn’t sure she was in a good place emotionally to respond to their interest, and then there was the fact that she couldn’t have both.
If anything was going to happen between Anna or Lee, or even
Jack for that matter, it would surely have to be just one of them. And yet, Anna had no idea how she would pick between the two of them.
And she didn’t want to cause any issues between them. The whole
thing was a muddle, and Anna had no idea how to handle it!
Of course, she conceded, she would be wrong. Jack and Lee
might just be being friendly. In which case, Anna really needed to get a grip on herself. Spinning fantasies out of thin air was not a good place to be in.
She gave herself a shake, plastered a smile on her face, and called out. “It’s ready!”
The cottage was small enough that both men heard her through
the walls. They ambled into the room, both smiling.
“Something smells good,” Lee said.
Jack nodded. “Sure does.”
Anna gestured to the places she had laid for them and took a
satisfied breath. The carrot and coriander soup did smell good. The lamb chops and baked potatoes were slow roasting happily and the bread and butter pudding was good to go. All the food was taken care of.
She sat down in between both men, pleased to note that Grand’s
fine china plates looked perfect alongside her own, more modern
dishes. The lamps in each corner of the room gave it a warm,
welcoming glow, and the heat from the kitchen was seeping through.
All in all everything was how she had hoped.
They were going to have a great evening.
And they did.
It set the tone for the next three weeks.
Chapter Ten
Both Lee and Jack had given considerable thought to how they
might seduce Anna. Their original plan had been to do so the first Saturday night they spent together.
That hadn’t happened.
Everything had been so relaxed, so fun between them all that
neither men had been willing to do anything to jeopardize that.
Since then they had spent quite a few evenings a week together,
both having dinner or simply for a drink. Those nights had been, for Jack at least, a combination that was equal parts pleasurable and equal parts torture. The longer he spent with Annie, the more he wanted her.
His desire did not dim.
It simply increased.
He knew it was the same for Lee, and in a weird way their
extended seduction only strengthened the pact they had made with one another. They would have Anna together or not at all, and there was no question in Jack’s mind anymore that they would have her.
Anna was attracted to them both, it was obvious. Her little gestures, the way she looked at them sometimes…it simmered between them
all and it was only a matter of time before it exploded. Jack just didn’t know when.
He thought about all of this as he loaded his truck. He had some logs, ready cut, for Anna’s fire, but in truth he was beginning to wonder how good an idea it was to deliver them to her. It had been snowing steadily for the past few hours and already there was a good few inches on the ground. It was possible that if he dropped them off he would end up staying, and then he might end up snowed in.
He grinned as he considered that scenario. Last winter he and Lee had been housebound for over a fortnight and then a few weeks later they’d been housebound again. Would Anna be able to cope alone in the cottage, he wondered? Oh, he didn’t think that she’d lack for things to do, and she certainly enjoyed her own company, but he
worried that she wouldn’t have enough supplies to see her through.
They’d chopped plenty of wood for her, and Jack had also
installed security lights on both ends of her property. He hadn’t gotten around to installing a gate at the end of the dirt track yet, but it had been on his list of jobs.
“Heading over to Anna’s?”
Jack looked up to see Lee coming out of the farmhouse. He was
in his leather jacket, and had a bag slung over his shoulder.
“I was going to,” Jack said. “It’s coming down pretty hard
though.”
“Then you should definitely go,” Lee said. “Bring her back here.”
“Back here?” Jack said.
Lee nodded. “This one’s going to be a doozy. I can tell already.
Anna shouldn’t be alone in the cottage. I’m thinking you should invite her to stay with us for the night at least. Just in case.”
“You think she’ll go for that?” Jack asked.
“I think she will if you ask right,” Lee said. He gestured to the bag on his shoulder. “I’m going to grit the dirt track. Got all of the salt we had spare in here. It’ll at least give us a way in and out.”
“On your bike?”
“No,” Lee said. “I’m taking the other truck.”
“Right.”
“Go and get here,” Lee said. “For her own good if nothing else.”
For her own good… Jack thought about those words as he made the quick drive to the cottage. Would it be in Anna’s best interests to have her in the farmhouse with them? They both lusted after her.
They both wanted her. Stuck together in the house, with little to do, it was quite possible that the long-awaited seduction would take place…
and it was with that thought that Jack decided he would convince Anna to come.
He wanted her so bad.
And it had been weeks and weeks…a real test of his self-control.
Why not invite her and wait to see what woul
d happen? They
would never force anything on her that she didn’t want. Anna was in charge here. Everything was down to her. If she wasn’t interested in them then they would shake the disappointment off and continue to extend the hand of friendship.
Anna was in, Jack could tell because most of the lights were on.
He jumped out of the truck and jogged across to the back door. Anna opened it a moment later.
“Wow,” she said. “It’s really coming down out there, huh?”
“It is,” Jack said. He hiked a thumb in the direction of the dirt road. “Lee’s going to grit as much of it as he can. We have some grit bins, and he took the salt too.”
“You think it’s going to settle?” she asked as they moved inside.
Jack nodded. “No doubt about it.”
“How many inches?” she asked.
“Several.”
The kitchen was colder than Jack was used to. Clearly Anna had
holed up in the sitting room. Her face was flushed, her eyes bright.
God, she was beautiful…Jack wanted her so bad. “What are you
doing?” he asked.
She shrugged. “Not much. I was thinking about starting a fire,
but…”
“Leave it,” Jack said. “Come back to the farmhouse with me.”
Her eyes widened. “Why?”
“Because,” he said. “I’m worried about how long this snow is
going to carry on for. I don’t want you down here by yourself when it really starts to fall.”
“Jack,” she said. “I’ll be fine.”
“You might be,” he agreed. “But Lee and I will worry.” He
paused, and then, because he couldn’t resist any longer, placed a finger under her chin. He lifted her head until their eyes were locked.
“You don’t want to leave us worrying, do you?” he asked.
Slowly Anna shook her head. “Of course not.”
“So come with me.”
“But what will we do?” she asked.
And Jack smiled then, a deep, satisfied smile, because Anna was
not denying him, and somewhere it occurred to him, that she probably even knew the reason he was asking. “I’m sure we’ll find something to fill our time.”
Chapter Eleven
Anna hadn’t wanted to say no when Jack arrived to invite her to
hole up at the farmhouse until the snow passed. That desire had been based on two very specific things. One, she was not particularly excited about the prospect of being snowed in. The cottage was
lovely, but Anna knew herself well enough to know that after a few days in those small rooms she would get pretty fed up.
Two, Anna wanted to spend more time with Jack and Lee. She
knew that was strange, because she had spent quite a lot of time with them in the past few weeks. Dinners, drinks, even just little
conversations. But Anna yearned for more. Every time she was near the men she felt her belly flip and her heart race. She ached for their company. Ached for the fact that when they were close by she was happy in a way that she never was when she was alone.
Jack and Lee brought out a side of Anna that she hadn’t known
existed.
It’s all down to the spark.
She snorted and moved her hold-all bag from the bed over to the
closet. The room Jack had given to her almost an hour ago was
absolutely huge. A queen-sized bed sat in the middle of it, a large closet covered almost an entire wall, and an en-suite bathroom
branched off to the left. All in all the room was bigger than both the cottage bedrooms. Anna would be comfortable here, there was no
doubt about that, and she would have Jack and Lee close by, but…
She frowned and placed her pajamas on the end of her bed. In all the weeks that she had spent with the men they had never tried
anything with her. More than once Anna had thought they might. Lee often ruffled her hair or said something that she was sure was
suggestive. Jack on the other hand shot her looks that Anna could only describe as smoldering.
Both males liked her.
Anna was sure of it.
But nothing had come of it.
In one way Anna was glad. She still didn’t want to be in the
position where she would have to choose between the two men, but the other part of her, the part that was getting used to the spark inside, wanted to know what it would feel like to be kissed by them, stroked by them, touched by them. Virgin she might be, but Anna had kissed and touched other men before. She’d found it pleasant enough, but nothing amazing. She knew, how Anna had no idea, but she just knew that it wouldn’t be that way with Jack and Lee.
It would be different.
Someone knocked on the door. Anna dropped her pajamas and
swiveled on the spot. “Hello?”
Jack poked his head around the door. “How are you getting on,
Annie?”
“I’m fine,” Anna said. “Got plenty of space in here.”
Jack pushed the door open and walked into the room. It made
Anna extremely nervous to have him so close to where she stood…
right next to the bed.
“This bedroom is odd,” he said. “It’s right in the middle of the house so neither of us have ever claimed it.”
“What do you do with it then?”
He shrugged. “Mainly it’s a guest room.”
“It’s plenty spacious,” Anna said.
Jack nodded and paused right next to her. Anna looked up and
caught his gaze. It was that look again, the one she had noticed so many times.
Smoldering.
“I should…” she began, but Jack halted her by taking her hand.
“We want you to be comfortable here, Annie,” he said.
“We?” Anna asked. “Where is Lee?”
“He got back about twenty minutes ago,” Jack said. “We’ve been
having a discussion.”
“A discussion?”
Jack nodded slowly and squeezed her hand.
“A discussion about what?” Anna asked.
Jack grinned. “About you, Annie,” he said, and then he kissed
her.
* * * *
If Anna had been asked in advance what Jack’s kiss would be
like the answer she would have given was nothing even close to the reality. Jack kissed her slowly, softly, as if he was measuring the slightest bit of pressure, every single nuance. The kiss was beautiful, and Anna was immediately swept up into it.
She lifted her hands and placed them on Jack’s shoulders, both
for balance and because she wanted to touch him. He responded by wrapping his arms around her waist and pulling her close. They
kissed for who knew how long, testing one another, discovering one another, and Anna loved it. She moved her lips, swept her tongue, let out little mews of pleasure. It felt like she had been waiting years for this and finally, finally it was here.
“I want you,” Jack whispered against her lips.
Anna nodded in an instant. She didn’t have to think it through,
didn’t have to analyze it. The spark had taken over, and Anna wanted to follow that spark wherever it was going to lead. “Yes.”
“Right here,” he added.
“Yes,” she said, and then something occurred to her, something
that could not be ignored. “But…”
“But what?” Jack asked.
“Lee…”
“Is right here as well.”
Chapter Twelve
Anna gasped as she spotted Lee standing in the doorframe. He
was bare chested, just a pair of jeans low slung on his hips, as if he had just showered and wandered past. For one moment she felt guilt swamp her, like she’d betrayed him, but then she realized he was smiling, that he was looking at her in the exact same way that Jack was..
.and then everything made sense...
She wanted them both.
And they both wanted her.
Before she could think to say a single thing Jack stepped around her. He bent his head and began to place kisses on her neck. Anna shivered. Her head was spinning, her body on fire, and she knew that there was just no way she was going to be able to stop what was about to happen. No way.
From the moment Jack had entered her room it had been decided,
maybe even before that. Anna knew she could open her mouth and
tell them to stop, knew they would do exactly that, but God help her...Anna did not want to.
Something had changed.
The dinners, the drinks, the conversations. It had all led to
tonight. It was like it had been inevitable all along and she simply hadn’t realized, and though she knew she should not be saying yes, should not be willing to sleep with both of these men, Anna wanted to. Dear God, she wanted to so bad.
Jack’s lips, those magic lips of his, skimmed over her neck,
touching the sensitive spot below her ear. Anna sucked in a tight breath. After another brush of those lips, and any coherent thought she might have been holding onto fled.
She watched, wide eyed, as Lee approached her. His eyes roamed
over her hungrily, his gaze fixing finally on her breasts. He stopped in front of her, paused for just a moment, and then kissed her.
Hard.
Fast.
Demanding.
The opposite of Jack in every way and yet it made her feel the
same. Hot and shivering. Achy and needy. Her nipples hardened. Her pussy clenched. Desires swirled inside and Anna wanted them
fulfilled.
When Lee dropped to his knees and popped the button of her
jeans Anna said nothing. A moment later and he was dragging them down over her hips.
“I knew you’d be blonde,” he said as he pulled her panties off.
“Knew it.”
He reached out to rub her clit at the same time that Jack reached around and pulled her sweater free. Her bra followed and Anna
moaned when Jack took a nipple in each finger.
“Yes,” she whispered. “Yes.”
As if that was his cue, Jack leaned forward and licked right
between her legs. It sent a shot of something firing down Anna’s belly right to the point of Lee’s tongue. She moaned as he sucked and
sucked and the fire kept shooting. She was so turned on. No kiss from any other man had affected her so badly. Nothing had ever affected her like this.
