She walked away to join Christa at the counter. That was one trap she would never fall into again.
* * * *
Jack watched Abigail’s fine ass sway as she walked away from them.
“What just happened?” Sam slid back into the booth, his eyes tight with obvious worry.
“I don’t know.” Jack’s gaze never left his rapidly retreating prey even as he took his place across from Sam. He looked down at his burger. It didn’t look as good as it had before. “She was responding to us. She practically purred when I held her hand. I would have sworn she was aroused.”
“Maybe you come on too strong, Jack.” Sam sounded bitter.
“Oh, I come on too strong?” Jack rolled his eyes. “Seriously, Sam. You think I wasn’t watching you last Saturday? You nearly sucked her toes into your mouth when we were sitting on the couch. Don’t think I didn’t see that. You are the most orally fixated person I have ever met. You have to put everything in your mouth.”
“Well, blame my mama,” Sam shot back. “I wasn’t breastfed. It had an effect. We need to try harder. This whole courtship thing isn’t working.”
Abigail was talking to Christa behind the counter. Jack would have given a lot to be in on that conversation. The two women whispered, and Christa laughed lightly. Something had happened to make her suddenly wary. She had enjoyed their attentions for the past week. His plan had been working. From the moment he realized she might be amenable to a ménage, he’d been carefully preparing her for it. She was a serious woman, and he intended to treat her right. They were taking it slow, allowing her to get used to being between the two of them. She had been ready to move on to kissing, and he intended to do that tonight. He and Sam were going to talk her into coming out to the ranch to watch a movie and then they would kiss her. Sam had argued for doing a hell of a lot more than that, but Jack was sticking to his courting plan. He wanted everything out on the table before they took her to bed. They would talk about what a relationship could be like between the three of them. He might have to rethink that plan. Now she was afraid.
“You don’t think Christa warned her off of us, do you?” He really hoped that wasn’t true. They had a good business relationship with the café owner. Beyond that, Sam considered her husband a friend. Mike Wade was Sam’s drinking buddy. He’d hate to see that go away.
Sam snorted. “Damn, Jack, who do you think told me to open that box of books? Christa told me where to find them and everything.”
Jack was relieved, but it didn’t solve the core problem. “I think we should pull back and give her some space.”
“Screw that.” Sam looked a little desperate. “It’s been a month. I can’t take another night. This whole dating thing is crazy. Can’t we fuck her now and date her later?”
“No, Sam. You asked me to give this a chance, and I’m giving it the best chance I can. She’s not a one-night stand,” Jack said firmly. “She’s nervous now. We need to set this on the right footing. We need to let her know we’re going to treat her like a lady. Let’s ask her out to the ranch. We’ll have a nice meal and show her around. She’ll see how serious we can be.”
Sam looked disappointed, but he rarely argued. “All right. I’ll follow your lead, but damn, Jack, don’t take too long. I’m likely to die of sexual frustration.”
Abigail walked back up, two drinks in her hand. She placed them on the table. “Is everything all right with the order?”
He hated the flat, professional voice she was using. There had to be a way to get her back to the vivacious woman she normally was. “This burger better be good, darlin’. I won’t have my product being mistreated.”
Curiosity flashed in her hazel eyes.
Sam took the ball and ran with it. “This burger here is 100% organic beef. It’s the best you can buy.”
“Really?” She looked down at the burgers. “Christa buys your beef?”
“Straight off the Barnes-Fleetwood Ranch,” Sam said with a smile. “We’re becoming quite big. When we started, we barely had a couple hundred head of cattle. Now we run several thousand and have a bunch of ranch hands helping us out. We have a packaging plant, too.”
“We’re still smalltime, and I like it that way.” Jack could talk about business. “If we get much bigger, we’ll have to hire more hands and deal with more people. The quality will go down, too. There’s a reason organic ranching is hard.”
Her eyes sparkled with interest. “So you don’t give the cattle antibiotics?”
“No, unless they’re actually sick, of course.” Sam slathered his bun with ketchup. “We won’t let an animal go without if she needs it, but we don’t proactively dose our herd. We take care of them. They’re grain fed.”
“Yes, I’ve read about that,” she replied, her head shaking. “Those big ranches feed them protein and sometimes they feed them other cows. It sounds horrible.”
“It’s a way for them to cut corners,” Jack explained. “It’s cheap. The public wants cheap beef, so they use the parts they can’t sell to feed their herd. It’s easier to keep the cattle in pens than to let them roam and feed naturally. It’s why we’ll have to stay small and local.”
“So you don’t pen up your cattle?” Abigail pushed a stray strand of hair behind her ear.
Sam popped a French fry in his mouth. “We’re old-school cowboys, darlin’. We let the herd wander our spread. When we bring them in, we do it on horseback.”
Jack shook his head slightly. Sam did like being a cowboy. “One day I’d like to try to add a dairy farm. I think we could sell to the local stores and even feed into Dallas–Fort Worth.”
Abigail smiled shyly. “That’s sounds like a good plan. I like the fact that you take care of your cattle.”
“Jack and I personally give each heifer a kiss good night,” Sam interjected, causing her to laugh. “You should come out to the ranch sometime. You would find it interesting. I’ll take you riding. We’ve got some gentle mares.”
“It has been a long time since I was in the saddle.”
Jack bit back a groan at the thought of riding Abigail. Sam was right. This dating thing was going to kill them both. “You’ll like our horses. We take care of them, too. We take damn fine care of everything that belongs to us.”
Sam looked up at her. “How about you come out to the ranch tonight? We could show you around and take you riding, and then we can have dinner, maybe watch a movie.”
A bubbly laugh came from her mouth, her face flushing. “Well, Sam, you make that almost sound like a date.”
“Then I wasn’t trying hard enough, darlin’,” Sam said with a serious expression on his face.
“You’re asking me on a date?” She looked between them, her confusion plain to Jack.
“I apparently wasn’t doing a good job. Yes, Abigail Moore, we would like to ask you on a date. Will you go out with us?” Sam seemed as confused as Abby. “What does she think we’ve been doing for the last week, Jack?”
“I don’t know.” Jack turned to her. Maybe he’d been too subtle. “Abigail, what do you call it when a man takes a woman out, picks her up, pays for everything, and then politely takes her home?”
She gnawed on her bottom lip. Her gaze shifted between the two men. “I thought we were being friends. Like Will and Grace, if you two were both Wills. A lot of gay men like hanging out with women.”
“What?” That came out way louder than he’d intended and suddenly everybody in the café was watching their table. In all the scenarios that ran through his brain, Abigail thinking she was auditioning to be their Grace hadn’t come up.
Sam seemed unperturbed. His blue eyes were lit with laughter. “Jack, I believe she thinks we’re gay.”
Jack stood up suddenly. It was obvious she was under a misconception that he intended to remedy. “Darlin’, I have never been accused of not enjoying a woman. While I don’t have any problem with a person’s sexuality, I don’t swing that way. I haven’t been spending time with you hoping you’l
l give me the name of your hairdresser. I’ve been spending time with you to try to get you into bed.”
Sam could barely talk for his laughter. “Well, if we’re gay, Jack, at least I’m the pretty one.”
Her hands twisted around her notepad, crushing it slightly. “It’s a perfectly reasonable assumption. You two are unmarried, successful men who spend almost every moment together with no visible female in either of your lives. I’m sorry if I offended you. If it helps, I thought you made a very attractive couple.”
“Damn it, that does not help, Abigail,” Jack said.
“Abby, we’re not gay.” Sam slid out of the bench to face her.
“I’m getting that now.” Her eyes were wide.
“But we do like to share.” Sam patted Abby on the back almost sympathetically.
Her mouth formed a perfect O before she turned and fled. She was running by the time she entered the ladies’ room.
Sam stared after her. “Guess that whole dating thing is over.”
Jack felt his eyes narrow. Everyone was watching, but he had no intention of backing down. He’d tried to take things slow. He’d tried to be a gentleman. That was over. If she thought he was backing down, she had better think again. “Time for a new plan, Sam.”
He strode toward the women’s bathroom.
“Hallelujah!” Sam’s shout rang throughout the small room like a battle cry.
Chapter Six
Abby stared at herself in the mirror, the quiet of the ladies’ room almost deafening. What the hell had happened? She’d been dating two men and hadn’t even known it? And Jack Barnes was wrong about dating. A date ended in kissing. She hadn’t even been kissed.
The door to the women’s room slammed open. Abby practically jumped, ready to beg whoever was walking through to give her some privacy. Jack filled the doorway with his presence.
“You can’t come in here, Jack.” She smoothed down her uniform and swept back her hair, trying to retain as much dignity as she could.
“Why not, darlin’? I am going to admit that I’m not a man who tends to let things like social conventions keep me out of a place I really want to be in.” Jack walked right up to her. The man really wasn’t big on personal space.
Sam walked in and closed the door. He leaned with his back against it. One boot rested negligently against the painted pink door.
“Sam, tell him he can’t come into the women’s room.”
“You’re the one who chose the venue for this particular conversation, Abigail.” There was nothing vaguely resembling a joke in Jack’s voice now. Abby looked to Sam for help.
Sam shook his head. He was grinning like an idiot. “Hell no, honey. You’re gonna have to learn that when Jack gets that hard edge to his voice, he means business. Besides, I’m happy with the way things went. Thank you, baby. You made this so much easier. Jack was talking about dating you and treating you like a lady. That was gonna take forever. It’s much simpler this way.”
“What’s simpler?” Abby was unable to keep the trepidation out of her voice.
“Taking you home, taking you to bed, and showing you where you belong,” Sam replied with a wink.
“Where do I belong?” Abby couldn’t take her eyes off Jack. There was a simple smile on his face that held a wealth of arrogance. He’d been serious. He really had been playing the gentleman. Abby got the feeling she was about to get a full dose of Jack Barnes, and damned if she wasn’t looking forward to it.
“Always between me and Sam.” Jack reached out and put his hands on her shoulders, his expression intense. “Tell me you don’t want us, Abby, and I’ll walk away right now. I won’t bother you again.”
“Don’t give her ultimatums.” Sam sounded a bit desperate. “I thought we’d give her a taste before we forced her to make a decision. Baby, why don’t you let us play around a little? I promise you’ll want us.”
She looked up into Jack’s forest-green eyes. They were very serious as he stared at her. His hand came up to cup her face. He forced her to look at him and Abby felt his will. It should scare the crap out of her, but she found it amazingly sexy. This was a man who would always keep his promises, no matter what it cost him.
“She already wants us.” Jack brushed his thumb across her mouth. It was all she could do to not open her mouth and suck his thumb in. “She just needs to admit it. Can you tell me you haven’t spent the last few weeks thinking about this? Thinking about you and me and Sam coming together in bed?”
“No,” she said. Jack’s eyes flared, and she felt compelled to continue. “I have thought about it, but I’m scared.”
The time for honesty was here. She could run, and they would probably accept her decision. She could give in and enjoy the sex and walk away. Or she could ask for what she wanted. She could be brave and tell them what she needed and what she was scared of. If she did that and it all fell apart, then she would have to forgive herself. She’d learned that one of the great joys of maturing was learning how to forgive herself.
“What are you scared of?” A deep crease appeared in Sam’s forehead. He walked up to her and leaned forward. “Honey, we want to take care of you. We don’t want to hurt you.”
She felt tears pricking at the edge of her eyes. Everything in her was screaming for that to be true. She wanted them. She craved them.
“You could be lying to me. You could want to make me look bad.” She could hear her teenaged self in the statement. She felt every bit as vulnerable as she had then. The last month she’d spent with these two disparately different men had been one of the best of her life. Every evening they’d spent together over the last month had made her want them more. More than once, she’d fantasized about them sweeping into the diner and carrying her away. Lately, when things went wrong, her first thought was to call Jack. Now that her fantasy seemed to be coming true, she didn’t trust fate.
Jack’s hands came out and soothingly rubbed the back of her neck. He hadn’t stopped touching her once. “Sweetheart, why would you say something like that? Why would we want to make you look bad?”
“Because the Echols family wants me out of town.” Her heart soared when she saw the complete confusion on their faces. They couldn’t make that up.
“Are you talking about that crazy old biddy who runs the church socials?” Jack seemed to struggle to place a name with a face. “She always looks at me funny.”
“Ruby. That’s her name.” Sam frowned. “She’s real unpleasant to me. Why would we do anything for her? For that matter, why would she care that you’re in town?”
Hope swelled inside her. They really weren’t gay, and they really weren’t working for Ruby Echols. If that was true, then she had to assume they wanted her. It suddenly didn’t matter that they were in a bathroom in a public place. She couldn’t wait to feel their mouths pressed to hers. It wasn’t forever. The universe didn’t work that way, but she could have this moment. She could have a few weeks with them.
“It doesn’t matter. Kiss me.”
“Which one?” Sam asked.
Abby continued to smile, looking from gorgeous man to gorgeous man. “It doesn’t matter, but one of you should kiss me.”
Jack’s eyes never left her face. “Sam, take care of that door. We wouldn’t want anyone walking in.”
Sam cursed and bemoaned his fate, but he walked back and took his previous position.
Jack took Abby’s face in both his hands. “I’m completely crazy about you, Abigail Moore.” He leaned over and finally, after what seemed to Abby like a lifetime of wanting, pressed his mouth to hers.
Abby felt helpless against the onslaught of desire that rocketed through her as Jack took her mouth. He plundered it, his tongue gently forcing its way in and dancing strongly around hers. She held on to his lean waist for dear life as he slanted over her mouth again and again. He poured his will into her and everything inside her responded. She felt that kiss in her pussy and already she was slick and warm. Jack’s hands reached up and pulled
at the band that held up her hair. He set it free and pulled back to look at the mane of auburn locks he’d unleashed.
“You’re so fucking gorgeous,” Jack breathed almost reverently as he stroked her hair. In that moment, with Jack’s green eyes looking at her like she was some goddess he was worshipping, Abby felt gorgeous.
“Why don’t we take this home, people?” Sam’s voice was tight. Abby looked back at Sam, and his blue eyes were dark with passion.
He wanted to go home so he could join in. He wanted to have his turn. The thought should have turned her off, but all it did was get her hotter.
Jack’s lips turned up in a lazy smile. “You’ll have to forgive Sam, darlin’. He’s always so impatient. Always has been.” Jack suddenly lifted her up and set her on the counter. He looked back at his friend with great affection. “Do you have any idea how many times I’ve told him that anticipation is the best part?”
Jack’s hands pushed up the skirt of her uniform.
“Anticipation is damn frustrating, Jack. And I’ve been anticipating for weeks,” Sam complained.
Even from her vantage point, she could see the erection tenting Sam’s jeans.
“Jack? Maybe Sam’s right. People will know something’s going on in here.”
“Hush,” Jack ordered. His tongue traced the shell of her ear. Abby sighed and let her head fall forward against his shoulder. It felt so good she suddenly didn’t care if the whole town knew as long as Jack didn’t stop. His long fingers teased their way into her panties, and she heard a low chuckle come from deep within his chest.
“Oh, Sam is going to love you, darling,” he whispered wickedly in her ear. He gently parted her pussy. His middle finger began to circle her clit.
“Oh, god, Jack,” Abby panted. She couldn’t help it. She pushed back against his hand, wanting to force it lower. She wanted his fingers deep inside her.
“You want to come, Abigail?” Jack’s voice was hard and sexy against her ear.