Second Chances (6 page)

“Hi,”
he smiled and pushed away from the doorway. Claira’s insides melted as he leisurely approached her then brushed his knuckles over her cheek. “I’m glad you came.”

She felt
heat rise in her cheeks to meet his touch. She looked away and caught Matt watching them. She had expected to see jealousy, or shock, but instead saw an answering passion in his eyes. What was he thinking?

“You look beautiful
, sweetheart.” Mason said as he withdrew is hand and crossed the small space to stand next to Matt, who grinned and nodded in agreement.

Claira felt the room
shrink. She clasped her purse in her lap and tried to keep from pressing her thighs together. With both of them standing side by side in such a small space, the testosterone level became like a life force all to itself. She couldn’t help but stare. The similarities were overwhelming, but now she could also see their differences. Matt was a little more tan and thicker in the chest. Mason’s hair was longer but had more sun streaked highlights than Matt’s. They were both lean in the hips and as far as she could guess were probably just a little over six feet tall.

She realized she was staring and dropped her gaze to the wine glass she found herself holding onto as tight as a drowning victim would a life preserver. “Sorry, you probably get that a lot.” She shook her head and took a sip of the wine. “I didn’t mean to…it was rude of me to stare.” She felt herself blush
again and stared back into her glass.

“Hey, don’t be sorry.” Matt chuckled as he turned to the
stove and removed a covered dish from the oven. “And you’re right, we do get our fair share of attention because of the twin thing. It’s not all that bad.” He wiggled his eyebrows and was rewarded with another giggle. Man he could listen to that sound for an eternity and never get tired of hearing it.

“Yeah, being identical twins has its definite advantage
s,” Mason said as he whipped around with a stack of plates in his hand. He placed the plates on the island, setting three places for her, himself and Matt. She immediately noticed the missing place settings.

“Speakin
g of twins, where are Con and Car?” She knew it was going to be a struggle keeping her hay-wired hormones in check even with the rambunctious boys to keep them distracted. How was she going to get through a whole dinner with just the three of them? She was
so
going to need another glass of wine.

“They spent the afternoon with our parents.
They live on the south side of the ranch, just down the road. They should be dropping them off in a couple of hours,” Matt said as he sat the hot, aromatic dish on the island counter and he and Mason sat down on either side of her.

Mason noticed the uneasiness in her posture and the uncertainty in her eyes. “We thought it would give us a chance to talk. You know. About Con and the problems he’s been having i
n school. Come up with a plan.”

Claira let out a breath and watched as Matt dished out a healthy portion of lasagna onto her plate. That made sense, she guessed.
Just as she reached to pick up her fork her purse began to slip and she clenched it back into her lap.

“Here, I’ll set it on the table in the entryway for you.” Mason reached out for it but she grasped it to her torso.

“No, that’s ok. I’ll just keep it here with me, next to my chair.”

Mason drew his hand back and looked at her quizzically
as she reluctantly set it down. “We won’t go snooping through it until you’re out of the room, I promise.”

Oh, God. They must think
I’m an escaped mental patient. Wapner at seven.
She could hear the Rain Man’s voice in her head. “It’s not that. It’s just,” How did she explain that she was so used to picking up in the middle of the night, or any time really, and running for her life.

One
of those times she had been in the gym, at a hotel in Los Angeles, when the Marshals came to get her. She didn’t have time to go to her room to pack her things. She’d lost her phone, her identification, her money; everything. It took them weeks to get it all replaced but she never saw the pictures of her mother and brother again. That was all she’d had left of them.

“It’s okay,” Matt shrugged and shared a look with Mason that she didn’t understand. “We get it. Women and their pu
rses are like men and their p…”

“Matt
hew!” Mason coughed into his hand.

“What?” Matt
paused, his fork perched at his lips, and grinned. “I was going to say men and their pick-up trucks. What did you think I was going to say?”

Again, Claira couldn’t help t
he laugh that bubbled out. The whole dinner went that way. Easy. Any time she began to feel uncomfortable, Mason would say something soothing and Matt would make her laugh. As the time went by she found herself so at ease with them and their bantering, she had barely even touched her second glass of wine.

They talked about nea
rly everything, except tutoring Con. She tried to feel uncomfortable about that but couldn’t. She’d learned that Mason bred horses and was a really good trainer. Matt ran the day to day operations of the ranch, from managing the hands to mending fences. Their older brother, Grey, had both agricultural and finance degrees and managed the business end of their three-way partnership. They all lived here. Together.

When they asked her questions about herself, she tried to follow
Daniel’s advice and stick to the truth as much as possible. She hated lying to them. It was difficult at times not to let anything slip that could reveal her old identity. She had almost told them where she was born, but managed to change it from Maryland to Maine at the last minute. Daniel had told her it would get easier, that after time she would almost believe the made up version of herself to be the truth. She knew it was just a matter of conditioning, but she also knew she’d never really forget.

By the time
Mason filled his glass with the last of the wine, she’d learned everything there was to know about raising horses, herding cattle and mowing hay fields. The one thing that never came up was Con and Car’s mother. She felt the need to know fighting against her common sense. Surely if they wanted her to know they would tell her. She finally gave in and had to ask.

“The twin’s mother?
Is she still…in the picture?”

Mason and Matt shared another one of the
ir knowing glances and Mason cleared his throat before he spoke. “Sarah,” he paused and glanced at Matt again. Matt inclined his head in a slight nod and returned his attention back to Claira. “Our wife passed away just after giving birth to the twins.”

Claira felt her heart drop.
She didn’t know how it felt to lose a spouse, but she definitely understood the pain of loss.
Wait
. “What?”
Did he say
our
wife?

A small grin that blended into a grimace pulled at the corner of Matt’s lips. “Yeah, you caught that, huh?”

Mason turned in his chair and met her confused stare head on. “Sarah was our wife. Con and Car’s mother.”

She had to have heard that wrong.
Twice
. “As in, you were both married to her…at some point?”

“At the same point.”
Mason immediately clarified. He tried to smile but he knew it looked the same on him as it did Matt. Painful. He found it more difficult than he thought it would be to talk about Sarah with another woman. The desire he felt for Claira mixed with the small pain he sometimes still felt for Sarah and the combination made his chest ache a little.

“
But… Isn’t that…illegal?” Claira asked, her head swelling with so many questions she had blurted out the first one that sounded coherent in her head. She considered herself open minded about the different types of relationships, but two men married to the same woman, at the same time? Did they even have a name for that?

“Technically, on paper, she was married to only one of us, but in our hearts we
all belonged to her.” Matt said, his voice weakening to a near whisper. He reached out and took one of Claira’s hands in his as Mason took the other. They laced their fingers with hers and the raw emotion she saw in their eyes nearly broke her heart and set her on fire all at the same time.

Suddenly she found it hard to breathe. He
r heart raced and she felt her spine turning to jelly. What were they doing to her? She pulled her hands from theirs and took a sobering breath. She couldn’t think with both of them touching her that way; looking at her with such intensity. When she was within sight of either of them she was completely overwhelmed with emotions she had never experienced before.  She was good at working with children, but she was a walking wreck when it came to her body’s reactions to these men.

“Claira?
Are you ok?” Mason asked, his thumb gently stroking the back of her arm where she rested it on the counter.

“I’
m fine. I just…” She blinked and gave her head a quick shake to clear the lust infused fog from her brain, but she still struggled to find the right words to explain. Should she explain? She was probably just overreacting because of her inexperience. These feelings were probably common for men like them but she felt like the butterflies in her stomach had gone on a bender at an all-night kegger.

Matt had dealt with bigots and ass-hats before, those that didn’t approve of the way they chose to love, but he would have never imagined she would be one of them. He studied her expression and could see no contempt in her eyes, but she was obviously distressed at the revelation. “You disapprove.” Matt
finally said, the playfulness in his eyes replaced with a frigid coldness.

“Oh
. God, no!” She jerked her gaze up to meet Matt’s and then darted a glance at Mason. “It’s just a surprise. I’ve never heard of the type of relationship you described.”

Matt studied her as she spoke. She glanced up to see suspicion in his eyes that hadn’t been there before and she wondered what she had done to cause it. “I’m sorry i
f I gave you that impression. I didn’t mean to imply that I thought there was anything wrong with it.”

Mason’s lips curved up into a soft smile and he reached for her hand again. “While it’s a familiar way of life for us, it’s not a common situation. We’ve all had to deal with those that were less…accepting. We wanted you to know.”

They thought she was judging them? “Mason, I’m no one to judge how anyone else should live their life. I…I’ll be honest,” she paused and fiddled with the napkin in her lap, her inner psychologist doing back flips at the thought of delving into this one. “That is…I don’t want to seem nosey, but truthfully, I’m fascinated. I have about a hundred questions I’d love to ask you both about how that family dynamic works, but no one’s opinion matters as long as it works.”

Beside her, Matt let out a reliev
ed breath and took her other hand back into his own. “I’m sorry, Claira. When I saw your reaction I thought…”

“No! That’s not what I
have a problem with. I mean…” She lowered her gaze back down to her hands in theirs and felt her womb tighten and her nipples pebble beneath her shirt. Mason caressed gentle circles in her palm with his thumb and she closed her eyes as she tried to remember what she was saying.
Oh, yeah. That I can’t think when they touch me like this.

“Oh,” Matt chuckled and her eyes
flashed opened to see a haughty grin plastered across his face.
Oh my Lord, what have I gotten myself into?

Please, please, please let me not have said that out loud!

Wit
h one of his hands laced with hers, Mason’s other arm came to rest on the back of her chair. He rubbed small circles at the base of her neck, fiddling idly with strands of her hair. Claira felt her shoulders relax, only to tense up again as Matt leaned toward her. Her eyes fluttered closed and she could feel his hot breath brush across her lips. Mason’s fingers slid up her neck, gently caressing as they progressed to the base of her skull, sending a rush of chills down her arms, a flood of moisture between her thighs. Causing her lungs to short circuited and refuse to release her last breath.

“I have that same problem when I’m with you.” Matt’s voice vibrated over her skin and his lips feathered over hers so lightly it t
ickled. He teased her with tiny nips and caressing glances of his lips on hers.

Claira swallowed as she fought against the need to lick her lips.
The dire need to breathe began to burn in her chest and, God help her, she wanted to taste him. “Wha…what problem is that?” She finally asked on a long sigh, her lungs clawing at the inside of her chest for her next breath.

She could feel Matt’s
grin against her lips. His breaths came in short, rapid puffs as his tongue lightly traced her bottom lip with barely there touches. “I can’t seem to keep my thoughts in my head either, when I’m around you.”

His hand came to rest
on her cheek, the sudden touch startling her into a gasp. Matt captured the sound and took her mouth with his own, ever so gently prodding her to open to him.