I looked to Matt and he gave me a nod.
“We want you, Rachel.”
The words sat there for a moment, a physical presence in the room, hanging between the three of us, waiting for someone to say more.
“You want me,” she repeated. Her voice held a question.
“We want you,” Matt repeated, taking a step closer to her. “We want you in every sense of the word. We want your body, soul, and heart.”
“We want you to be our woman,” I said. “For the long term.”
She was staring blankly, like maybe she didn’t hear us.
I looked to Matt. “Forever,” he added, as if there might be any doubt.
Her silence was torture.
When she shook her head it felt like a knife slicing into my gut. “I—I…” She cleared her throat. “I don’t understand.”
Relief came so quickly it nearly knocked me sideways. She wasn’t saying no. Yet I hadn’t thought our words were very confusing.
I reached for her hands and was grateful when she didn’t try to pull away. It was the first time I’d ever touched her and it seemed poignant that it happened in this moment. When I said these words. “We’ve known from the very beginning, Rachel. You’re the one for us.”
“It’s always been you. Only you.” Matt stepped up beside me so the three of us were so close our shoulders were touching. We were a unit. A family. Now we just needed her to see that.
She shook her head again but this time it seemed like she was trying to clear her thoughts. Like she was having difficulty making sense of what we’d just said. Had we given her too much space? Had we taken our plan so far that she didn’t think we were interested in her at all?
Maybe it really was coming as a shock to her that we’d been lusting after her all these months. Maybe she hadn’t realized how serious I’d been when I’d told her how it could be between us if she was ours, or that we’d been joking. Was that why she’d given us the cold shoulder, because she’d thought we were playing with her?
She glanced up at me, then Matt. “But, I’m not your type. I’m not…I’m not…I’m not good enough.”
“What are you talking about?” Matt demanded. “Whoever said you weren’t good enough? I’ll kick his ass. Shit, Rachel, what kind of men have you been dating that you’d even think that?”
Her eyes were wide as she stared up at him. “You said that. That day at the rodeo, you said yourself that I was out of my league.”
I glanced at Matt. I knew he’d fucked up with her that night, but this? What the fuck?
He looked like someone had just punched him in the gut. His mouth fell open and the blood drained from his face. He recovered quickly and cupped her chin in his hand. “Baby, you got it all wrong. When I said you were out of your league, I meant you were too good for every loser in that place.” His lips pulled up in a lopsided grin. “Including me.”
“Oh,” she said softly. Her cheeks flushed pink and her shoulders relaxed. I could actually see the tension drain out of her small frame. “Really?”
He groaned and I had to fight the urge to slap him upside the head for getting such a stupid idea into hers. Four months. Four fucking months of confusion because he’d said something stupid. Four months wasted. Four months where I could have done more with our girl than hold her hand.
“Baby, I promise you, the moment I saw you coming, I knew you were special,” Matt continued. “I had this crazy need to protect you, to keep you from sullying yourself with the assholes and players who were at that rodeo. I know I went about it all wrong, and for that I am so sorry. Can you forgive me?”
I held my breath as I waited for her response. When she finally nodded I let the air out of my lungs. On impulse, I pulled her into my arms and pressed her to me, my lips coming down on hers in a gentle kiss that left me aching for more. Yeah, this was what I’d been missing. The lush feel of her pressed against me, her breasts pillowed into my chest. Her mouth. I groaned. It was sweet and soft and perfect. And the way she gave herself over to it? Incredible.
When I pulled back, she stared up at me with a dazed look on her pretty face. God, I couldn’t wait to see what she looked like when she was being pleasured. By us.
I wanted to make her moan and beg and…shit, we had to get the hell out before I became an unwitting sperm donor right then and there. And I wasn’t taking her damn virginity in this place.
I stroked her hair back from her face, trying to rein in the hope that was threatening to burst out of control. “I know I should phrase this as a question, to let you decide, but...no. You’re ours. We’ll date. Court. Woo. Hell, even fuck, but we’re not letting you go now.”
When she bit her damn lip again, hesitating, I hurried to continue. “Let us show you how good it could be.”
She licked her lips and I heard Matt groan beside me. My bet was I wasn’t the only one with hard cock in this room.
“I don’t know if I can make you happy.” Her voice was so quiet I had to strain to hear her. “I don’t know what I’m doing…you know…in the bedroom.”