by Jane Jamison
“Is that so? Does that mean she knows about you three?”
Knows what about them? She took another few steps closer and pressed her back against the wall, putting her just out of sight but as close as she could get to hear even better.
“Not yet. We’re talking about letting her know we want her.”
Mike’s words set off a rush of emotions. Excitement tingled through her, along with apprehension and a bit of irritation.
They want me!
Oh shit. They want me. What does that mean?
Damn. Do they think they can just decide they want me and I’ll fall into their arms?
Isn’t that what I want to do?
She moved into the open at the top of the stairs. “Thanks, Shawna, but I’ll take it from here.”
All sets of eyes shifted to her. The Lennox men, looking better than ever, stood side by side, like a small army approaching the battlefield. A smug little smile was on Shawna’s face, showing how much she was enjoying the whole thing.
Trying to stay calm, Stella started down the stairs and hoped her weakened knees would hold her up. Her hand shook as she slid it along the railing, but she managed to keep her head up and didn’t look down at her feet.
“Is there something you guys need?” Before letting them answer, she lifted her eyebrows at Shawna, silently telling her to leave.
“Oh. Okay. Well, I guess I’ll leave you four alone.” Shawna touched Stella’s arm as she pivoted around. “I’ll be close by if you need me.”
“Thanks.” But I won’t. She shifted her complete attention back to the men. “Well?”
Had she thrown them? Alex and Danny looked at Mike who hadn’t even blinked yet. She waited, unsure if she was ready to hear his answer.
“We came to tell you that we want you.”
Had she heard him right? She bit the inside of lower lip. “I don’t understand.” Yet hope flickered to life. Was she ready?
His dark eyes glistened with bits of amber. “We want you. Plain and simple.”
“You want me?” Did she sound as idiotic as she thought she did? Yet she had to make certain she understood before she could know how to respond. “As what? Your friend? A ranch hand?” The possibilities, plausible or not, dashed through her mind. “Your maid?”
Danny’s chuckle stoked the fire already burning in her pussy. If any of them touched her, she’d go up in flames.
“As our mate.”
“We want you as our mate,” added Alex.
“Your mate?” She still sounded stupid, but she couldn’t help it. “You mean like your… girlfriend?” The word lover had been on the tip of her tongue, but she hadn’t had the nerve to speak it.
“As our woman.” Mike’s rigid stance loosened. “This isn’t going the way I thought it would. Not that we had much of a plan, but still.” He ran his hand over the back of his neck. “We’ve been watching you—”
“Oh, yeah. That sounds better,” quipped Danny.
Mike shot his brother a scowl. “Anyway, we like you, and we want you to consider being our mate. Our woman, our wife, whatever term you want to use.”
“Just like that?” Talk about not having any warning.
“Yeah. Just like that.” Alex took her hand.
“All three of you? At the same time? Together?”
Oh hell yeah.
“That’s the gist of it.” Alex’s expression was so eager. “So? What do you say, honey? Will you say yes?”
Almost every part of her wanted to take them up on their strange but wonderful offer. Almost every part. As soon as he’d touched her hand, her body had come alive, thrilling at the simple gesture. She wanted them physically, sexually. Of that she had no doubt. But the one part of her that wasn’t thrown into abject need was her brain. Fortunately, her brain kept her mouth from saying the wrong thing.
Instead, she gave the only answer she could. “No.”
Chapter Three
Danny blinked as though she’d snapped her fingers in front of his face. “What’d you say?”
Oh, how she wanted to change her answer! But she couldn’t. Nothing about saying yes made any sense. “You heard me. I said no.”
“Seriously?” asked Danny.
“Did you really think you could just waltz in here, asked me to be your mate or whatever, and expect me to jump into your arms? I don’t even know you guys.”
“You’ll get to know us.”
Was Mike serious? Yet she could see he was. She laughed, both at the ridiculousness of the situation as well as the idea that she actually wanted to accept their proposition. “So you’re basically asking me to marry you like one of those people on a reality show, right? Without really knowing each other or having anything in common.”
“You don’t know if we have anything in common yet. But it’ll be fun finding out.”
She knew them well enough to know Danny was the jokester, but this was going too far. “Is this a prank? Trying to fool the new girl in town? Kind of like asking me to go snipe hunting?”
“We don’t want to go hunting with you, but if that’s what you want to do, then we’ll do it.” Alex shrugged and checked with his brothers to see if they understood what she was getting at.
“I don’t want to go hunting. Snipe hunting is where you take someone out into the boonies to hunt birds called snipe and then just leave them out there. There are no such things as snipes. Get it?”
“This isn’t a joke or a prank. We’re as serious as a tick on a dog.” Mike grinned. “I should’ve used a more romantic analogy, but you get my point.”
“Why?” she asked.
“Why what, darlin’?” asked Mike.
“Why me? Why not one of the other girls in town? Fate has a lot of other women, including a few other newcomers like me. Like Arizona and Krystal. Why not them?”
She was surprised at how intense their expressions became. Their gazes locked on her as though they could capture her with only a look.
“Because they’re not you.” Mike’s hard gaze softened. “We don’t want just anyone. We want you.”
They wanted her. Knowing that they were sincere sent another kind of warmth surging through her, the kind of warmth she hadn’t felt in over a year. Not since she’d last believed in Bruce’s love for her.
The memory of her fiancé and his ultimate betrayal was like getting a bucket of cold water poured over her head. She stepped back, suddenly afraid to listen to any part of her other than her mind.
“You can’t have me.”
They looked stunned. Alex opened his mouth to say something then shut it. Danny didn’t even try and, instead, simply stared at her.
Mike shook his head as though he could dismiss what she’d said. “Don’t you feel anything for us? Any of us?”
Yes.
The word almost slipped out. “I think you’re all very attractive. I mean, what woman wouldn’t think so? But that’s a long way from wanting to make a commitment to you.”
“You can’t turn us down.”
She studied Alex, knowing he had to be kidding. That was the only thing that made sense. And yet, they hadn’t been kidding from the first word they’d spoken. “I can, and I just did.”
“But why?”
Poor Danny. She almost felt sorry for him. He seemed so distraught. “I told you why. I don’t know you.”
“But—”
Mike held up his hand, effectively silencing Danny. “It’s okay, guys. We’re coming at her head-on without giving her any way to take this all in. We’ll back off.” He shrugged, his expression one of sadness. “If we’re too much for her to handle, then we’re too much. I guess we overestimated our future mate.”
She started to object then stopped herself just in time. “Don’t go trying reverse psychology on me, Mike. It won’t work.”
He held up both hands now. “Hey, I’m just coming to terms with the reality of our situation. You aren’t ready to accept us, and I respect that. We all will.”
She narrowed her eyes, knowing he was playing her, yet unsure how to deal with it.
“Around these parts, folks tend to go with their gut. My gut’s telling me that you’re the woman we want to share our lives with. That you’re the woman we’ll move heaven and earth to make happy.”
Damn that sounds good.
“But if you say you’re not that woman—”
“I didn’t say that at all.”
He feigned surprise, his eyebrows lifting, his eyes widening. “You didn’t? Then I must be missing something ’cause it sure sounded like that’s what you were saying. What are you saying, darlin’? Are you saying you might want to be our woman?”
He’d cornered her, and they both knew it. Hell, all four of them knew it. And, if she were a betting woman, she’d bet her last dollar that Shawna was nearby listening and knew it, too.
“I’m saying that I don’t know you. That means I don’t know if I could be your woman or not.” She tried hard to keep control, not willing to let him goad her into doing something she didn’t want to do. She should just tell them no and be done with the conversation. Yet didn’t she want to say yes down deep?
“So there’s hope for us?”
She wanted to wipe the smirk off his face. Not with her hand, but with her mouth. “I’m saying I’m not saying anything.”
Shit. Back to sounding stupid again.
“That doesn’t make a lot of sense, sugar.” Danny was playing along now, too.
Mike moved closer, moving her backward until the backs of her calves were against the bottom step. “How about this? How about we get to know each other? It’ll be fast and furious, but I can promise you one thing.”
“What’s that?” she whispered.
“It’ll be fun as hell.”
And sexy as hell, too, I’ll bet.
“Are you up for it, darlin’? Or are we still too much to handle?”
She bit her inner lip again. What could she say? She didn’t really want to turn them down, yet that was the only sane thing to do. Mike had laid down a challenge. Did she run like a scared little girl? Or did she dare him to make her say she wanted them?
He leaned closer, making her bend backward a little. Her gaze settled on his firm, masculine lips. Before she realized what she was doing, she’d slicked her tongue along the seam of her mouth. She hurriedly tried to cover what she’d done, but it was no use. He and his brothers, their amber-flecked gazes locked onto her mouth, had seen her do it.
She cleared her throat and tried to swallow with a suddenly dry mouth. “Okay. Fine. But this doesn’t last a long time. We get to know each other, but as soon as I say it’s a no-go, you back off. All of you.”
“Let’s call it a done deal.” Mike glanced over his shoulder. “Right, boys?”
“Right,” answered Alex.
“I’m game if you two are,” said Danny.
“Great. We’re all in agreement. Game on, darlin’.”
She wasn’t sure it was a safe thing to do, but she put her fingertips against Mike’s chest and gave him a little push. Her fingertips tingled. “Now get out. It’s way past nine, you know.”
“Oh, we know exactly what time it is, honey.” Alex shot her a wink as he turned around and stalked toward the door.
“Damn straight.” Danny followed his brother.
Mike stayed where he was a moment longer. “You know you want to say yes, but we’ll do what you want. Just be ready, darlin’. You’re going to say yes sooner rather than later.”
“We’ll just have to see, won’t we?” She drew in a long breath to soak up his tantalizing aroma. Whatever aftershave he used—although he always seemed to have dark stubble lining his jaw line—drew her like a primal call of the wild.
“Yeah, we will.”
She felt bereft, lost when he stepped away. Staying where she was, she held her head high, plastered on a slight smile, and watched them leave.
Holy hell. Did I just accept a challenge?
* * * *
“They said what?”
Stella motioned for Arizona to lower her voice. “Keep your voice down. I don’t want everyone in the diner to hear.”
Stella and her new friends loved meeting at the Lick Your Plate Diner. The place was cozy, with red vinyl booths along two of the walls and metal tables in the center. A long metal counter boasted red stools. The food wasn’t great but it was filling, though the main draw was the friendly atmosphere of townspeople and ranchers getting together over a cup of coffee or a hot meal. Most of the time it was the three of them that got together, but Krystal had bowed out at the last minute, saying something had “come up.”
“Didn’t you say Shawna overheard the whole thing?”
“Every word.” Stella’s heart sank whenever she thought about it. In fact, Shawna had cornered her after the men had gone and given her a “congratulatory” hug. She hadn’t known how to react other than to give her a weak smile and escape to her room as fast as she could.
Arizona scoffed. “Then I hate to break it to you, but the news is already around town. That woman can put AT&T to shame.”
“I think you may be right.” Stella pushed her food around her plate. Was that why Sugar Makeland, the owner of the diner, was gabbing it up with a few of the customers sitting at the counter? Every once in a while they glanced their way.
“And we’re talking all three of them, right? All three said they wanted you? To share?”
“That’s what they said.” The idea would’ve been preposterous anywhere else. But in Fate, ménage relationships seemed to be the norm rather than the exception.
“Wow. Talk about exciting.”
She couldn’t help but let the smile inside her rise to the surface. “Yeah. It is. I couldn’t get any sleep last night thinking about it. Three men for just me?”
“Have you ever thought about being in a ménage before?”
It was one of those times when she wasn’t sure whether to confess the truth or not. Yet, although she hadn’t known Arizona long, she already trusted her. “A few times. But it’s not like I thought I’d ever actually be in one.”
“Still, you basically made a deal with them. They challenged you to get to know them”— Arizona made air quotes—“so they can make you their mate.”
“That’s about the size of it. Could I be any dumber?” She let her fork drop to the plate, making a big enough racket that many of the nearby diners turned toward the noise. “Sorry, everyone.”
“Are you kidding me? I think you made a very smart move.”
“I did?” Was Arizona ribbing her? “How?”
“You like the Lennox brothers, right?” Arizona leaned forward, yet her voice wasn’t much lower than it had been before.
“Well, yeah.” She more than liked them, but she wasn’t ready to admit it to anyone, even Arizona.
“Then what’s the problem? They said they wanted you, so that’s good to know. Now the power’s in your hands.”
“I’m not following you.”
“It’s like this. You know they want you, but they only hope you want them.”
“O-kay.” Yet she really wasn’t all that certain.
“Don’t you get it? You don’t let on that you really like them until you’re ready. Until you do, they’ll bend over backward to please you.” Arizona’s big brown eyes grew even bigger. “You can have those guys jumping through hoops to make you happy. Girl, you’ll have them wrapped around your little finger in no time.”
At first, the idea sounded great. But was that any way to start a relationship?
“I don’t know. Doesn’t that seem kind of underhanded? I wouldn’t want to be treated that way. Would you?”
Arizona sat back and clasped her hands in front of her, resting them on top of the table. “No, I guess not. Then again, you really do want to get to know them, so where’s the harm?”
“Yeah. I suppose you’re right.”
What would it be like to call all three men hers? Would th
ey really want her at the same time? Yet even if they’d have sex one at a time, wouldn’t it still be amazing? She’d spent a lot of the previous night imagining how they’d look without their clothes. If the myths were true about shoulders… or big hands… or how tall they were… She smothered a sigh. If any of the myths were true, she could count on being more than sexually satisfied. She couldn’t wait to go down on her knees and have each one of the men move in front of her to take his turn. Or would it be better to simply get on top of the bed and let them show her how they liked it? She shivered, even as the heat between her legs grew warmer. She could already see Alex as he crawled between her legs…
“So how’s everything, ladies?”
Stella jerked back to reality. Sugar, her generous belly pushing against the table, smiled down at her. “What did you say?”
“I asked you how the food was.”
Stella resisted the urge to tell the woman the truth. Although not horrible, the food wasn’t why most people came to the diner. Thankfully, Arizona answered for them.
“Just great. Loved the combination mustard and catsup on the hamburger. Reminds me of the special sauce, you know?”
The smile died a fast death. “Don’t go comparing my homemade sauce to the sauce that burger place with the arches puts on their food. Mine is made with love.”
Arizona acted properly chastised. “I wouldn’t dare. I can taste the love for sure.”
“Harumph.” But Sugar recovered from her sour mood fast enough. “Is there anything else I can get you girls?”
Stella wondered what the difference between girls and ladies was since Sugar used them interchangeably. “Not for me, thanks.”
“Are you sure?” Sugar leaned in, dropping her voice conspiratorially. “Maybe a little advice for dessert?”
“Advice?” Stella winced and wished she could put the word back in her mouth.
“You know what, or should I say who, I’m talking about.” Sugar winked. “I know everything there is to know about the Lennox men. Just ask away. Maybe I can help speed things along.”
Speed things along? Which meant, of course, that Sugar had just confirmed that Shawna had spread the word. “Oh. That’s nice of you, but I’m good.”
