Lindsey's Wolves (11 page)

She didn’t move. Just waited for Ryan, this morning’s spokesperson, to continue.

They both looked so tired.
And … sorry. For what?

“For causing you such stress.”

Oh, that was freaky. She flinched.

“Your thoughts are getting stronger. It was a long night.” Ryan looked down sheepishly and Lindsey blushed like never before. Heat suffused her face.

“You knew? What I was thinking … dreaming … doing in the night?”

“Most of it, yes,” Alejandro interjected.

“We’re sorry, Lin, honey, but it’s unavoidable. Over time you’ll learn to control some thoughts and feelings, but not this soon.”

“It’ll get worse first,” Alex added.

She held her breath.

They looked so forlorn. Her gut clenched. For the millionth time she squeezed her legs together. The ache in her center wouldn’t subside. It grew stronger.

She wanted them. Both of them. Needed them.

Now if only she could get
that
feeling from her heart into her brain.

Let go of all learned responses and embrace new ones.

“I think if you’d give this a chance, you’d see that it’s going to be okay.” Ryan’s voice shook. His words were planned and hesitant.

He coughed into his hand. “We have an idea. Would you just listen? Don’t say anything yet, just hear us out and then think about it. Okay?”

She nodded. Tears welled up behind her eyes and she willed them to stay at bay. She didn’t even know why she was about to cry. Was it for the life she thought she’d have now a thing of the past? The pain she witnessed in the eyes of these two men she was so fond of?

Ryan reached across the table and squeezed one of her hands in his.

Alejandro glanced his way, but said nothing. Obviously it hadn’t been in the plan to touch her.

“My family has a cabin not far from here.” Lindsey glanced from the hand covering hers to the source of the voice.

A cabin?

“We thought, if you’d agree, we could go there for a few days, maybe a week, and get to know each other better.”

This didn’t sound like a good plan. A week? In the woods … alone … with two men she wanted more than life itself? Not a good idea, not at all. She’d never be able to last even one minute without jumping one of them.
Or both, you dolt.

And, that’s the point
.

“No pressure,” Ryan added, squeezing her hand even tighter. “We just think it’s kind of hard to explore our feelings properly here, with everyone else around.”

She exhaled long and slow. They were right, of course. But that didn’t change anything. She didn’t have to be anywhere particular this week, or next. School would start soon and she’d be teaching, but for now she was free. Sort of. This wasn’t what she’d had in mind for the last few weeks of her last vacation before entering the real world.

Lindsey pulled her hand from Ryan’s tight grip and leaned her forehead on her palms, squeezing her temples. Her head started to pound. It almost seemed … loud … in the quiet silence of the room.

“Okay.” She heard the voice, knew it wasn’t theirs. What the hell was she thinking? Why would she agree to such a thing?
Next thing you know I’ll be doing a strip show for a two-man audience. And then what? Sky’s the limit?

The gasps across the table reminded her of her severe lack of privacy in all matters.

Would nothing be sacred to her anymore?

Finally, Alex spoke. “We promise on our very lives to let this … relationship … move at whatever speed is comfortable to you. We would sooner die than hurt you in any way, emotionally or physically. You have to believe that if you believe nothing else.”

His sincerity cut into her heart and the tears she’d held back for so many minutes tumbled down her face while she stared at first one man and then the other.

Both reached forward and wiped the cheek on either side of her face with the pads of their thumbs. Lindsey leaned into their touch, tilting her head into first one palm and then the other. She felt their earnestness in their touch. And she believed them in her heart.

The drive to Ryan’s family cabin was tense. Lindsey sat in the cramped back seat behind Alejandro. They’d wanted her to sit in front, between them, but she’d vehemently declined. How the hell was she supposed to think with both their thighs pressed against her? Wasn’t happening.

“It’s not much farther.” Ryan glanced back at her, smiling genuinely.

Her fingers ached from gripping the leather seat on either side of her legs. She’d initially grabbed on to avoid fidgeting, but now they were on a gravel road and instinct lead to necessity as she bounced around behind Alejandro.

The men hadn’t said more than a few words to each other. Out loud anyway. Judging by the glances passing between them at regular intervals, she’d bet her pants they were engaged in quite the heated discussion.

Well, maybe “pants” wasn’t a good choice.

Lindsey turned to stare out the window, her face heating at the idea these two were actually conversing silently about
her
. Planning. Plotting. She shivered for the umpteenth time, considering the possibilities.

It unnerved her.

“Is that it?” Lindsey glanced up to see where Alejandro was pointing.

Cabin
? “You said, ‘cabin.’ That’s … well, not a cabin.”

“It is to us.” Ryan chuckled. “I have a large family. When we get away, we need a lot of space.” He pulled the car to a rolling stop.

Lindsey let her jaw hang open as her gaze roamed the front of the “cabin.” “It’s beautiful.” The front porch alone was glamorous enough that she believed she could spend a week sitting on it without even going inside.
Might be safer that way
.

“Is this what they call a plantation?” Alejandro asked. “I’m with Lindsey on this one. When you said cabin, I pictured rough logs, wood floors, rusty hinges.”

Ryan laughed outright as he climbed from the cab. “We don’t really call them plantation homes in the Northwest. But I guess you could say it’s kind of along those lines.” He stuck his head back in to continue speaking. “Sorry to disappoint you both. But we do have wood floors, downstairs at least.”

Lindsey wasn’t the only one smitten. The man in front of her was just as awed as she was. Neither moved as Ryan rounded the front of the truck.

It was just so regal, so mesmerizing. Tall white pillars rose up from the front porch, begging someone to climb the dozen steps and come lean against one for a photo shoot. If the lighting wasn’t quite right, she could always pose on the second floor where a long graceful balcony was supported by the pillars, with French doors exiting onto it at regular intervals. Were those bedrooms behind the tall, slender doors?

Lindsey glanced down and suddenly felt underdressed for such a house. Shouldn’t she be wearing a long flowing skirt, petticoat, and gloves? She giggled.

“What’s so funny?” Ryan asked as he opened the passenger door.

“Nothing. Just thinking.” Alex and Lindsey climbed from the cab.

“I thought you’d enjoy having the space. That way you can escape from us, get away for a while, if need be.”

“Escape?” Alejandro grunted. “I was hoping for a one-room rustic cabin where she couldn’t escape us if she wanted to.” He mumbled, but she didn’t miss a word.

Ryan shot him a glare and playfully, well sort of playfully, punched his arm.

“Hey, no need to get violent. You know you don’t want her wandering off by herself any more than I do.”

“I’ll get our stuff.” Ryan reached in the bed and grabbed three bags. “Coming?” he called over his shoulder.

Lindsey followed the two men, her gaze flitting back and forth between their huge, buff shoulders and the soft yellow home calling to her in the sunlight. “It’s so gorgeous. How is it so maintained? It looks as though someone must come out here every week to keep the gardens so lovely.”

Nestled in the woods, it was a gem, almost completely out of place. At least an acre of land was exquisitely maintained around the perimeter. Trees that didn’t belong in the forest of the Northwest rustled in the slight breeze, calling to her to lie beneath them. Spread out a blanket and read a great novel in their shade.

Well-manicured flowers reached toward the afternoon sun from their beds around the porch, yellows, pinks, blues, and purples.

In the quiet stillness, every bird within miles could be heard chirping from their perches in the trees.

She’d reached the steps and Alejandro was at her side, taking her arm to assist her in the climb.

She wanted to jerk away and toss him an annoyed glance. After all, she was perfectly capable of walking without need of assistance. She’d been doing it just fine since her first birthday. But somehow the gesture seemed perfect for the surroundings. Again she felt underdressed, as though the home knew of her indiscretion and was secretly shaking a finger at her in haughty disapproval.

It wasn’t as if she could have packed to please this house anyway. She didn’t own clothing the likes of which would do it justice.

As they reached the porch, Ryan opened the front door and reached in to drop their luggage. Alex released his light grip on Lindsey’s arm when she turned from him and wandered the length of the front porch.

Even the floor creaked beneath her light steps, and a glance down made her actually believe the home to date in the eighteen hundreds. How did they do that?

“My grandfather built this place, about fifty years ago. It isn’t as old as you’d think, but he wanted it to appear as it does, create the illusion of grandeur, a time gone by.”

“He succeeded.” She didn’t miss the fact he’d just commented on her thoughts … again, and wrapped her arms around her middle at the intrusion.

How would she get used to that?

“Sorry,” he muttered as he approached her. “I forgot. You’re just so wide open. Like a book whose pages are fluttering in the wind, discarded, the user having forgotten to bring it in from the outside. I can glimpse nearly every page, I just can’t quite read the words completely.”

He’d reached her side and lifted a hand to graze her cheek.

“Are you always this poetic, Masters?” Alejandro’s voice had a lilt of annoyance to it as though he wished he were the one to come up with such a comparison.

Lindsey shivered. Would they always fight over her?

“Sorry, again.” Ryan dropped his hand, and she immediately felt bereft at the loss of his warmth. A glance at his face showed the pained war inside his head. He’d undoubtedly “heard” the battle going on in her mind.

“Is the inside as glamorous as the outside?” She moved past both men and pushed open the front door Ryan had left ajar. Her breath was stolen. A masterpiece straight out of New Orleans from the turn of the century greeted her.

Alejandro eased against her from behind, his hand climbing up her back to rest on her shoulder. She’d know that touch anywhere.
How? Why do you know that already?

So personal, like long-time lovers who’d been together for decades and hadn’t lost their lust for each other. Would it be that way for them in ten … twenty years?

Where did that thought come from
?

She whirled around and glared daggers at both men. Sure she was blocking the doorway. Sure they had no choice but to pause behind her close enough she could smell each of their tantalizingly indecent scents. But still, she didn’t like them invading her mind. It was too intimate. And the look on their guilty faces spoke volumes concerning her plight.

Heads bowing, they eased past her and did their best to avoid touching her skin as they awkwardly inched by. Her anger and discomfort turned to amusement on a dime as she considered the power she possessed where it concerned them.

Ryan cleared his throat. “Don’t get cocky, woman. I’d hate for you to believe you hold the power in this relationship.”

“Masters!” Alejandro admonished. His gaze returned to Lindsey. “Don’t listen to him. We are partners here. All three of us. And we will learn to get along.” He looked back pointedly at his unintended accomplice on this ridiculous planet she found herself cohabitating with them. Or would that be, tri-habitating?

Lindsey wasn’t nearly as sure as Alejandro sounded about this arrangement. She’d agreed to explore the idea, at least for a few days, maybe a week. But that was it so far. And only because her hormones were sky high out of this world right now, and she couldn’t begin to think clearly where it concerned these hunks.

Ryan chuckled and turned for the kitchen. She hoped he was laughing at Alejandro’s admonishment, but sincerely doubted that was the case.

Pressing her palms to her temples, she turned away herself and wandered farther into the house. Alejandro did not take the hint and stayed close on her heels.

“Does your head hurt? We could probably find some aspirin or something.”

“I don’t think any amount of aspirin would even so much as take the edge off what I’m feeling.” She glanced back over her shoulder to find him much closer than she’d assumed. “No, I don’t have I headache. I just tend to press into my temples when I’m stressed.”

“And I’m making you ‘stressed.’” It wasn’t a question.

“Yes, Sherlock. You are.”

“Holmes?”

“That’s the one. Good job, Spaniard.”

He chuckled. “I’m well read. My parent’s insisted.”

“You guys hungry?” A voice called from some distant room.

As if on cue, Alejandro’s stomach growled.

“One of us certainly is.” Lindsey moved to get past him and headed for the presumed area of the kitchen.

Alex had other plans. He gently gripped her shoulders, waiting until she brought her gaze up to his to speak.

“I’m sorry. Believe me. If I could turn back time and not walk into the Masters’ home the other night, I would. We were doing so well, you and me. I haven’t slept much thinking about sharing you with … someone I don’t know any better than you do. But trust me when I say, this was meant to be. We will sort this out, and we will make you happy. Happier than you could ever imagine.”

His smile held a certain level of mirth, his own brand of cockiness.