“You’d allow it for your husbands,” he continued.
The women remained silent, but they were smiling.
“Yes, but—”
Hank grinned wickedly. “Good.”
I stared at him. Wide-eyed. How had I been talked around to marriage? “I’m not marrying you!”
I’m just staying at Bridgewater until I figured out how to deal with Barton Finch. What I’d done with Hank and Charlie didn’t mean I wanted them forever. Did it? Just because my body had responded so intensely… it didn’t mean… what did it mean?
“We’ll have a shootout,” he offered. “You, me, Charlie. If one of us wins, we marry.”
I stood and they stepped back. I paced the room. For the first time in my life, I wanted to cry. Not because of them, but because of me. “I’m surprised you touched me earlier.”
I turned and looked up at both of them. They had matching frowns. “Why is that, love?” Charlie asked in that smooth accent of his.
“Because you can’t be attracted to me. Look at me.” I pointed to my pants, then my shirt. Travis’ clothes. The clothes of a man who’d planned on killing both of them. “You didn’t even ask me to marry, you made it a wager.”
“Do you want us to get on bended knee?” Hank asked.
I rolled my eyes, tossed up my hands. “I don’t know! But I just don’t understand why you want me.”
The men glanced over my shoulder, and I watched as the ladies quietly went outside. Once we were alone, Hank stepped close, cupped my jaw and rubbed my cheek with his thumb. The touch was intimate and gentle, and I couldn’t help but tilt my head into the caress.
“It’s not because you saved our lives,” Hank said.
“It’s not because your pussy takes like sweet honey,” Charlie added. Hank turned his head and stared at him. “
What? I’m not marrying her for that, but I won’t mind tasting it every day for the rest of my life.”
Hank shook his head in disbelief, but he didn’t disagree.
“We want to marry you because we knew the instant we saw you up on that bluff, gun smoking by your side,” Hank said.
“You thought I was a man.”
“My cock knew. There’s nothing you could be except all woman. Pants and all.”
“We want you because you’re not all fancy and prim,” Charlie added. “We want you because you’re a little wild. Untamed.”
“You spanked me because of that,” I reminded.
“I spanked you because you swear like a bunch of randy ranch hands.” He paused. “Sometimes there’s no explanation why a man wants a woman. Why she’s The One. It’s just… lightning.”
Lightning. Out of everything they said, that made the most sense. It was completely ridiculous, but so was what I was beginning to feel for these two in such a short time. I couldn’t believe how I reacted, how I responded when all I’d had before them was hate and anger toward men.
Charlie took my hand, lifted it to his mouth and kissed the knuckles. The gesture was sweet and yet it made my nipples pebble. His green gaze was fierce. “We don’t know much about each other, but time will fix that. I grew up in a London orphanage. It was… worse than anything you could imagine. I escaped by entering the military. There, I found a family of sorts. A band of brothers, but I longed for a wife. Children of my own. But I had nothing. No money, no way to support and care for a wife properly. I came here to America, to Bridgewater, to build that dream.”
He turned our hands over so I could see his scarred knuckles and I felt the thick callouses against my palm. “I worked hard and built the means to support a family. But I hadn’t found the right woman.”
He kissed my knuckles again, rolled my hand over and kissed the inside of my wrist. The brush of his lips there had me gasp, for it was just as intimate as when he had his head between my thighs.
“Until you.”
The words were powerful, but it was the intent gaze, the honesty I saw in his expression. He wanted me. He wanted a life with me. And yet, I’d only intended to come to Bridgewater to hide from Barton Finch.
He wanted everything and I unevenly only wanted his protection. Even that wasn’t true. I didn’t need that from him. I could take care of myself. I just wanted a place to hide. Not him, or Hank.