Her Rancher's Caress: (Taken by Cowboys: Part 3) A Billionaire Western Romance (2 page)

She rose from the tub, stepping out onto the bath mat. Hastily she grabbed her towel from the rack and began patting herself dry. Her heart was beating with excitement, both from the intimate pleasure she had just been experiencing in the tub and the anticipation of what was to come.

She wrapped herself in the towel and went to the door. Cautiously, she unlocked it, her heart beating faster. She gasped as she opened the door a crack and took in who was standing there. It was Nate, as she had expected. What she didn’t expect was that Spencer would be standing next to him.

Her gaze darted from one man to the other. Spencer’s face was serious and stoic, while Nate’s betrayed a hint of nervousness. Seeing them standing side by side, she noticed Spencer’s compact physique next to Nate’s taller, more lithe frame.

There was a moment of strained silence as they stood there staring at her. She drew the towel around her. She had been so excited by the knock at the door that she hadn’t anticipated how exposed she would feel standing there like this. And she definitely hadn’t thought that she would be faced with Spencer
and
Nate.

“I’m glad to see you didn’t kill each other,” she said.

A smile came over Spencer’s face, while Nate broke into a laugh. The tension was instantly broken.

“Come on in,” Jess said with relief, holding the door open.

“Sorry to burst in on you like this,” Spencer murmured. He put a hand gently on her hip as he walked past her. She felt a shiver pass from her hip through her abdomen. She bit her lip. Nate met her gaze as he walked in on her other side, searing her with his bright green eyes.

Shit.
As she closed the door, she paused for a moment with her hand on the doorknob, leaning her forehead briefly against the door. She realized she was breathing hard and her heart was beating like a jackhammer.

She turned around. Spencer and Nate were standing in the living room looking uneasy.

“Would you like to have a seat?” she asked. It felt strange being so polite when the air was so heavy with confused emotions. The atmosphere was positively pulsating.

“Look, Jess, we don’t want to stand on ceremony,” Nate broke in. “We’re here to talk about this situation openly and honestly.”

She nodded, letting out the sigh that had been building in her lungs. It was refreshing to hear Nate put the situation out into the open. “Let me put on something more—well, let me put on something,” she said.

“If you must,” Nate said softly. The muscles in Spencer’s face became visibly more taut and his expression darkened.

Oh, god. What have I done here?
She closed the door to the bathroom, hanging up her towel and slipping into her bathrobe, which was hanging by a hook on the door. Spencer and Nate looked equally ready to tear each other’s throats out—and to tear into her. The air was not just thick with emotion, she realized, but with desire. She shivered, a tremor that shook her from her core.

She returned to the living room. Spencer and Nate had taken seats at opposite ends of the couch. She burst out laughing.

“What is it?” Spencer asked.

“You two,” she said, shaking her head. “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to make fun. This whole situation is just…”

“Crazy?” Spencer said.

“Unbelievable?” Nate chimed in.

“All of that,” she said, taking a deep breath in.

“That’s what we’re here to talk about,” Spencer said. “We want you to be okay, Jess. That’s what’s most important to both of us—that you’re happy and you feel good about what’s going on here. You didn’t come to Getaway to invite drama and pain into your life.”

“You’ve had enough of that,” Nate said.

She blinked in surprise. The way they were both staring at her from the couch, both of their faces full of concern, was bewildering. Both of these men knew her, and had
known
her. To have them in the same small room, laying all of their attention on her, was almost too much.

“I’d like to say something, too,” she said, closing the opening of her robe around her and crossing her arms over her chest. “I want to say sorry. I don’t want to get in the middle of your friendship or your business partnership, and I feel like that’s exactly what I’m doing. I never want to be that girl.” To her surprise, she felt tears welling up behind her eyes. She felt miserable.

“Please don’t, Jess,” Nate said suddenly. “I couldn’t bear to see you cry.”

She met his gaze. Then she glanced at Spencer.

“Come here,” Spencer said, at the exact same moment that Nate said, “Get over here.”

The two men looked at each other in surprise. For a brief moment she was worried that the animosity would flare up again, but it didn’t. She crossed the room and sat between them on the couch. She could feel the heat radiating from their bodies on either side, even though neither was touching her.

She glanced up at Spencer. “You’re really not mad at me?” she said in a small voice.

He grimaced. “I’m not going to say that it wasn’t a shock to me to find you…with Nate,” he said. “But when I told you that you should feel free to pursue your interest in Nate, I meant it. You’re your own person and a free woman. I would never want to feel like I was holding you back.”

She felt flooded with relief at his words. She hadn’t realized that there was a tight knot of guilt in her stomach until that moment, when it released.

“How did you know that you were holding me back?” she asked. That was one piece of the puzzle she hadn’t figured out.

“Call it intuition,” Spencer said. “I went to your cabin to find you when I got back, and when you weren’t there, I had the strangest sense that something wasn’t right. I followed my nose, so to speak, and I saw the lights on in the massage cabin, even though no one had booked it.”

Wow. Spencer was so in tune with her that he had nosed his way to her whereabouts?

“My jealousy flared up, I’ll admit it,” Spencer continued. “But I hope you didn’t feel that my anger was directed at you. The last thing I’d ever want to do is hurt you, Jess.” He put his hand to her face as she closed her eyes, relishing the warmth and tenderness of his touch.

She almost forgot that Nate was on her other side—until she felt his hand fall on her lower back. She started and gasped slightly, and the hand was gone. The touch had been so light that she couldn’t be sure that it had even happened.

She turned away from Spencer and stared down at her lap. “So what do we do now?”

“That’s what we’ve come here to figure out,” Nate said, his voice slightly hard. “We decided that there was only one way to resolve this. Short of a shoot-out, that is.”

“And what’s that?” Jess asked. Her heart was palpitating.

“We want this to be entirely your decision,” he said.

She looked up. “Meaning…”

“Meaning we want you to choose,” Spencer said.

She turned to him. This was all too much—if this kept up, she was going to get whiplash. “You’re asking me to choose between the two of you?” she asked in disbelief.

“Do you have a better idea?” he asked.

“I suppose not,” she said, bewildered. She supposed she should have guessed it would have come to this—but now that it was in front of her, she wasn’t prepared to make the choice.

There was a moment of tense silence. “Like, right now?” she asked weakly.

“I don’t think this can remain unresolved much longer,” Spencer said. “Of course, if you need more time—”

“I can make you laugh,” Nate said suddenly, cutting him off. “Remember how much fun we had today?”

Spencer scoffed. “That means nothing. I make you feel safe. Don’t I, Jess?”

She looked from one to the other. This was all too confusing. Memories of the day flashed through her mind. Nate did have a way of bringing out her adventurous side—he had gotten her to ride a horse, for goodness’ sakes. So what if she had almost fallen off?

“I can make you feel so good, Jess,” Nate murmured, putting a hand on her thigh and running it slowly up and down. She inhaled sharply. “You can’t have forgotten that massage.”

She felt Spencer stiffen on her other side. She gasped as she felt his hand move to the back of her neck, massaging the base of her scalp.

“I want nothing more than to make you happy, Jess,” Spencer said. She turned to meet his gaze. His dark brown eyes bored into hers. “I want to treat you like a queen.”

She tried to take in their words and formulate logical thoughts. She was being asked to make a choice, after all, between these two men. She realized that they had each moved closer to her, probably a subconscious effort to win her sympathy. Now they were touching, Spencer’s torso leaning lightly into her own and Nate’s taut thigh flush against hers. She felt like her body was turning to butter from all the heat. A warm coil of desire suddenly sprung in her belly. She closed her eyes tightly and tried to regain her composure.

“I can’t choose,” she burst out finally.

“What do you mean, you can’t choose?” Nate said. “I hate to be cocky, but is it really much of a choice?”

“Oh, please,” Spencer said, his voice heavy with contempt. At her words, his fingers had tensed up at the base of her scalp, raking her hair. Along with Nate’s hand moving up her thigh, she thought she might faint. “I’m sure Jess is just being polite by not rejecting you outright.”

“I…I just need some time to think.” Her insides were churning like a storm brewing over a mountain. She was breathing hard.

“We’ll leave you to it,” Spencer said, standing up. She was grateful that he took her cue. Nate followed suit, and Jess walked them to the door.

Before following Nate out, Spencer turned and gave her a long, lingering look, stopping for a while at her chest. She realized her nipples were hard as pebbles, pushing through the thin fabric of her robe. “I want to take you right now more than I’ve ever wanted anything in the world,” he said softly. She inhaled sharply, the desire that had been growing inside her as she sat on the couch exploding to full life.

But before she could say or do anything, Spencer was gone. He closed the door gently behind him, leaving her alone.

“Oh, boy,” she whispered, then thought,
well, make that, oh boys.

It was so dark she couldn’t see six inches in front of her. She squinted, trying to make out a hint of light. She realized she was moving, and not just forwards—she was also being jostled up and down.

What was going on? Then she connected the sensation to something familiar that she had just experienced. She was riding a horse. But why was she alone in the dark?

Suddenly the darkness turned into blinding light. She had been riding the horse through a dark forest, and now it emerged into a pasture glowing with blinding sunlight. She recognized the horse, cream-colored and dappled with black. It was her old friend Oreo.

“Where are you taking me, Oreo?” she asked. The horse seemed to know something she didn’t.

In the distance, she saw the silhouettes of two men on black stallions. The sunlight was too bright to make them out. She felt a growing buzz of excitement as the horse made its steady way in their direction.

The horse covered the distance between them. Getting closer, she saw that Spencer and Nate were sitting astride the stallions, each dressed only in jeans and cowboy hats. Their muscles rippled as they held on to the reins, taking her in with calm, expectant expressions.

Nobody spoke as Oreo slowed to a gentle stop. Suddenly, she was no longer riding Oreo, but sandwiched between Spencer and Nate on one of the black stallions. She couldn’t tell if the horse was moving. She felt her body being rocked backwards and forwards between the two men. The sensation it produced inside her was unlike anything she had ever felt before. She felt pleasure in the tiniest crannies, delight oozing from each of her pores, excitement, arousal, and the purest feeling of happiness she had ever known.

“Jess,” she heard Nate murmur from in front of her. “Jess,” Spencer echoed from behind. The rocking grew more and more urgent, pulling her towards a pinnacle that was strange and unknown. Harder and harder, faster and faster they rocked her. A sound was building up in her throat…

She opened her eyes with a start. The sound that woke her up was issuing from her mouth, a gasping cry of need. For a moment she wasn’t sure where she was, half of her still riding a horse in a pasture between two strong men as pleasure and joy filled her being.

Then she realized that the bright sunlight that met her eyes was streaming into the bedroom of her cabin. Her heart was hammering.
Wow. That was intense.
She had yelled out loud from a dream—when had that ever happened before?—and a mighty strange dream at that. Her, Spencer, and Nate…strange as it was, it had also been beautiful.

She sat up and looked at the clock. 8 a.m. It was high time she get up, anyway. She felt a fleeting sense of disappointment that the dream had ended. In the reality she lived in, she remembered suddenly, she had a decision to make. There would be no sexy sunlit rides with two handsome cowboys: she had to choose between the two of them.

***

“Meet us by the stables if you want to know which one is able.”

So read the note that she’d found slipped under her door on her way out for breakfast. She’d stared at it for a while, trying to figure out what the cryptic message meant. Meet
us
, it said. That meant the two of them.

She forgot about breakfast. Mind and heart racing, she walked as quickly as she could to the stables. There she found Spencer and Nate, standing outside dressed in jeans, plaid shirts, and cowboy hats. They cut two equally handsome figures against the lush green grass of the pasture.

“Good morning,” Nate said, grinning broadly. “Glad you could join us.”

“What’s all this about?” Jess asked.

“We’ve decided that if you can’t choose between us, we’re going to choose for you,” Nate said.

“Hey, wait a minute,” Jess said. “After that whole speech about me being a free woman you’re going to make my choice for me?”

“Not quite,” Spencer said. “We’re just going to make it a little easier for you to see who truly deserves you.” From the contemptuous glance he cast at Nate, it was clear that he thought that person was him.

“Unless you’re going to choose both of us,” Nate said and laughed.

A rush of heat rose to her face as images of her dream came flooding back to her. “That would be crazy,” she said weakly.

“Right,” said Spencer.

“So how exactly are we going to do this?” she asked slowly. Her heartbeat was picking up.

“We’re going to have an old-fashioned contest,” Nate said.

Spencer and Nate were going to have a contest to fight for her affection? This really sounded like something from a movie.
I’d better put a stop to this before something happens we’ll all regret
, she thought. Still, part of her couldn’t deny being intrigued by what was in store…

“Inside that barn over there we’ll hold the first of three events,” Spencer said briskly, gesturing to the right. “Come on. There’s no time to waste.”

“What are we doing in there?” Jess asked. She couldn’t deny the fact that curiosity was eating her up.

“The mechanical bull,” Spencer responded.

“You have a mechanical bull?” she asked in disbelief.

“Of course,” Nate said. “Don’t you?”

She laughed. “You guys are really serious about this, aren’t you?”

“We’re very serious, Jess,” Nate said. His face was solemn, but there was a definite twinkle in his eyes.

“Right this way,” Spencer commanded. They walked towards a barn that Jess hadn’t noticed before. They were close to the pasture where she had ridden a horse with Nate—and had almost gotten thrown. She winced at the memory. No way they’d be getting her to get on any mechanical bull—she’d had enough of bucking broncos.

Spencer unlatched the large wooden door of the barn and drew it open. Inside, benches were lined up around a rectangular pit in the center. A mechanical bull stood in the middle of the pit, which was covered in straw. “There are mats underneath,” Spencer explained. “But the straw helps cushion the blow.”

“What a funny-looking creature,” she remarked. She had never seen a mechanical bull outside of
Coyote Ugly
. This one even had a stuffed bull’s head with horns.

“Just you wait til it gets moving,” Nate said.

Spencer dragged a bench to the front of the ring. “The VIP seat, miss.” He gestured to Jess.

“Well, thank you,” she said, taking a seat.

He produced a small device on a cord from his pocket. “Take this,” he said. When he handed it to her, she saw it was a stopwatch. “You’re reffing.”

Hey, this is actually kind of fun
, she thought, toying with the stopwatch in her hand as she watched Nate and Spencer loosen up. Nate was rolling his neck around while Spencer arched and stretched his back. They both wore the stone-cold expressions of concentration; boxers preparing to enter the ring. It was a little bewildering to think they were doing this for
her.

Dani always said I needed a man to prove his commitment to me
, she thought. What would her best friend think if she saw her now?

“You guys have done this before, right?” she asked uneasily. From what she’d seen on TV, mechanical bull rides could get pretty rough. She definitely didn’t want anyone to get hurt on account of her.

“Of course we have. Don’t you worry your pretty head about that,” Nate said, replacing his cowboy hat on his head and tipping her a wink. She giggled.

“In that case, who’s up first?” she said.

“We’ll flip a coin,” Spencer said. He reached into his pocket and dug out a quarter. He looked squarely at Nate. “Ready?”

“Flip it,” Nate said. Spencer made a fist and rested the quarter on his crooked thumb. “One—two—three.” As the coin turned in the air, Nate called, “Tails.” Jess leaned forward in her seat to watch the quarter land in Spencer’s open palm: heads.

“I guess that means I’ll be setting the time to beat,” Spencer said, making no effort to conceal his pleasure. “But don’t expect to beat it,” he told Nate as he strode over to the pit. He rested his hands on the wooden railing and swung his legs over, landing gracefully in the straw.

“We’ll see about that,” Nate grumbled.

Spencer walked over to the bull and swung a leg around it, hoisting himself up onto the seat.

“Ready?” Nate said. He was holding a small box with controls on it.

“Don’t I look ready?” Spencer shot back. He was poised with one hand gripping the horn at the center of the bull’s back.

Without a word, Nate flipped a switch on the control box. Jess watched with fascination as the bull began to buck.

“We start off slow and gentle,” Nate explained. “But not for long. Keep your thumb on that button.” He nodded towards the timer.

The bull turned around from side to side. Spencer was holding one hand up in the air. He seemed to be absorbing the bull’s mechanical motions in his body, like a wave passing through him.

The bull picked up speed, bucking harder and turning faster. Still Spencer looked unfazed, riding the bull in a way that was one part athletic and one part undeniably sexy. His plaid shirt lifted slightly as he leaned back deeply to follow the sharp bucking of the bull, revealing his muscled abdomen. She shifted on the bench, her eyes riveted to the sight.

The bull bucked harder and faster, the mechanical whir growing louder as it spun a full 180 degrees one way and 180 the other. It jolted faster and harder, practically touching the straw as it leaned forward and back. Jess let out a yell as all of a sudden, Spencer was thrown from his seat.

Her thumb came down on the button compulsively as she jerked up from her seat. “Are you okay?” she asked in alarm.

“Never been better,” Spencer said. He had already leapt up and was brushing a few strands of straw from his jeans. “That was a pretty damn good ride, considering how out of practice I am.”

Nate snorted. “You call that a good ride?”

“I’m going to choose to ignore that and ask what the lady thought of it,” he said, leaping over the wooden rail.

“I thought that was
very
…stimulating,” she managed. “Not a sight I will easily forget.”

“What time did I make?” he asked.

She glanced at the timer. “Twenty-two point four seven seconds,” she said. “Wow. You sure can do a lot with a few seconds.”

“You don’t know the half of it,” Spencer said with a meaningful smile. She burst out laughing.

“Alright, let’s not drag this out,” Nate cut in. “My turn.”

He handed Spencer the control box and leapt over the railing. It was hard to believe that these two nimble cowboys had ever been Wall Street stooges, chained to their desks and their asset portfolios.

Jess settled back on the bench, her thumb poised over the button. Nate mounted the bull and grabbed the horn with one hand, raising his other hand slowly in the air as he kept his eyes on Jess. She felt a light shiver pass through her.

“Let ’er rip,” he said.

Spencer flipped the switch and the bull began to move slowly back and forth, as it had done with Spencer. Nate’s lithe figure absorbed the movements with ease. “The trick is to go with the bull’s movements instead of resisting them,” he said.

“Yeehaw!” he said, throwing his hat in the air and throwing his head back, as he had done the day before on the horse. Jess gasped, sure that he would fall. The hat landed neatly in his hand.

“Show-off,” Spencer grumbled. The bull began to buck faster, making jerky turns to the right and left. Nate’s body jerked with it. His hat flew off his head, and he quickly ran after it. He jumped into the air and landed in the straw, rolling towards the railing with the momentum.

“Damn!” Jess cried. The throw had been so sudden that she almost forgot to stop the timer. She clicked it off and then jumped up to run to the side of the pit.

“Are you okay?” she said breathlessly.

“Not bad,” Nate said, pulling his foot out from between the wooden rods of the railing. He collected himself and got to his feet. “Not my best ride, though.” He looked around for his hat, which had flown to the opposite end of the ring. He fetched it and placed it on her head. “It looks better on you.”

She giggled. “Just don’t make me get on that thing.”

“Deal,” he said. “For now. So what kind of time did I make?”

She was so absorbed in watching that she’d almost forgotten what this was: a contest. She looked at the stopwatch. “Twenty-two…” She paused dramatically. “Point five eight.”

Nate whooped. Leaping over the railing, he grabbed Jess by the waist and pulled her to him.

“Whoa, whoa,” Spencer said. “You may have won this round by the skin of your teeth, but we still have two events left to go.”

Reluctantly Nate released her. She stumbled a bit, breathless with the sudden rush of heat from his body.

“So what’s next?” she asked.

“Our next event will feature more of an appeal to your senses,” Spencer said. “Follow me.”

An appeal to her senses? What did that mean? She followed Spencer and Nate out of the barn, her heart jerking just like the mechanical bull. They walked across the grass behind the barn to an open field. There was a campfire pit with a stack of kindling next to it, a bright red cooler and a wooden table covered in a cloth.