Free Her Rancher's Caress: (Taken by Cowboys: Part 3) A Billionaire Western Romance by A.L. Loire Page B

least, not since we left New York. I’m not just out to get some. You know me better than that.”
    “I can’t say I know what you’re feeling,” Spencer admitted. “All I know is that it happened. What’s done is done. Jess is a free woman and I’m not going to stop her from doing what she likes. In fact, I told her that if she wanted to pursue her attraction to you, she should go ahead and do that. But I’m not about to—”
    “Whoa, whoa,” Nate said. “Stop right there. What do you mean, you told her she could pursue her attraction to me? You talked about me ?”
    Spencer stiffened. “It just came up. I saw the way you were staring at her like a hungry dog looking at a T-bone steak.” He paused, grimacing. “And the way she was looking back at you.”
    Spencer’s words gave him a small sense of satisfaction, despite everything. “So you told her she could go ahead and get something going with me?” he exclaimed.
    “What the hell can I say? This isn’t a situation I ever expected to encounter—that we’d be after the same woman,” Spencer said. “And that the same woman would be equally hot for both of us.”
    “You think so?” Nate said.
    Spencer looked surprised. “I don’t know,” he said. “But it sure seems like that.”
    Both men were quiet for a moment, the only sound the chorus of insects.
    “It was amazing,” Nate said finally. “She’s amazing.”
    “I know,” Spencer said, his voice strained.
    “So what are we going to do?” Nate asked, searching his best friend’s face. Nothing in his life had prepared him to deal with this situation. “Have a shoot-out?”
    Spencer shook his head. “I don’t know.” His expression, usually so composed, was one of utter loss. “Maybe that’s an idea,” he said after a pause.
    “The shoot-out?” Nate asked.
    “No,” Spencer said. “Asking her to choose between us. Giving her the gun, so to speak.”
    Nate felt his chest tighten. He didn’t like the idea—didn’t like it one bit—but he couldn’t think of another solution.
    “Alright,” he said finally. “I guess it’s all we can do.”
    Spencer shook his head. He looked just as nervous as Nate felt. “It’s either that or both of us.”
    ***
    A hot bath was the first thing that Jess always did when she was feeling overwhelmed by life. It was step one of a three-step process—the next two were opening a bottle of pinot grigio and calling her best friend Dani to talk it out. The pinot she might be able to secure. She wasn’t sure if this was something she could discuss with Dani, though. In fact, she wasn’t sure this was something she could discuss with anyone.
    She undressed as the hot water filled the tub, leaving her clothes in a pile on the floor. It felt good to be alone. She stretched her arms up towards the ceiling. Her back felt amazingly loose after the massage Nate had given her—but the moment of pleasure was instantly followed by a dark flare of guilt.
    Steam was now filling the bathroom. She piled her hair on the top of her head and knotted it in a loose bun, stepping into the tub. The water was almost too hot to handle—just the way she liked it. She sank down into the bath, sighing with relief as the heat enveloped her like a hundred hands caressing her skin.
    Jess had always been a relationship girl. She had friends in New York who went on dates with different men every night and she admired them for the fun they had, but that just wasn’t her style. She wanted a man to commit to her. Unfortunately, though, the men that she got to commit tended to be the wrong ones. They seemed like perfect angels at the beginning, but slowly that façade would start to chip away. She would get so attached that she would avoid facing reality as they turned cold and manipulative. It was exactly what her most recent ex, Todd, had done to her, leaving her devastated.
    It didn’t feel the same with Spencer and Nate, though. She had just met them, it was true, but