Twin Cowboys for Tamara (22 page)

“One track mind doesn’t count.”

“What is it about you, about both of you, that makes me want to rip off your clothes when I look at you?” She watched his eyes darken Ebook piracy is stealing. It is a federal offense.

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with desire, almost sorry she had opened her big mouth. But she had only said the truth. Just the sight of Jax and his brother made her feel unnaturally carnal. She’d never wanted two men so much before.

“So, we’re just sex objects to you?”

She almost laughed at his joke until she noticed the shade of sadness beneath his grin.

She didn’t see them as sexual objects, not totally. Sure, the sex between them had been mind-blowing, probably the best sexual encounter she had ever had in her life. But, and she really thought herself sick for this part, she still saw them as her boys, the kids she had been surrogate mother to. She still saw the kids she used to take care of and protect.

She knew if she told Jax any of this it would be a bigger blow to his ego than her thinking of him as a sex object. She’d been approached by several younger guys who’d gotten offended when she’d referred to them as
babies
once she’d discovered their ages. The gaps gave her pause—gaps about as big between their ages and her age as there existed between her and Jax and Jess.

Tamara curved an arm around his waist and drew him close. “You know how I feel about you two.”

He turned to look at her, his expression doubtful. “Not really.”

“Oh stop. You know you’re both my b—” She cut herself off at his grimace.

“Boys? Is that what you wanted to say?”

She shrugged.

“C’mon, Tam. Didn’t last week prove anything?”

“Sure. It proved a lot. That you two are bad influences.”

“You’re not even going to take a little responsibility for what happened?”

Tamara leaped up from the bed and began to pace as she raked a hand through her already tousled hair. “Of course I take responsibility!” Actually, she took full responsibility. The woman controlled the situation, her job to say no, if necessary. At least this is Ebook piracy is stealing. It is a federal offense.

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what her father had taught her. She had to have a level head in situations like last week because left to the man things would always degenerate to the lowest common denominators—sex and violence.

Men could not be trusted to think straight, or with anything but their penises, when the situation involved their testosterone. Jax had said it himself earlier when they’d been interrupted by Maria. He wasn’t thinking straight.

How could she expect him to see the folly of what they did? She had to be the strong one, the logical one.

“I’m thinking Maria came up to let us know breakfast is ready or would be soon.” The scents wafting up to her from the kitchen confirmed this.

“You’re not getting off the hook that easily.”

“What? I’m hungry.” As if to confirm the point, her stomach growled.

“We still need to talk.”

“About?”

“About us—you, me and Jess.”

Just what she needed, another confrontation and discussion to look forward to in addition to the one she needed to have with her father—a complicated confrontation and discussion. “Can we just eat first? I’m not ready to handle this on an empty stomach.”

“Just as long as you know we need to talk.”

“Fine. We need to talk.” Like that would be all they would be doing. She knew as well as Jax did that, as soon as they got alone together again, talking would be the furthest thing from their minds.

She had been avoiding them for as long as she had for exactly this reason.

Jax stood and draped his arms over her shoulders in an affable manner that totally belied the intensity of his stare.

Damn, she’d barely been back two weeks, and she already found herself neck deep in a threesome and hadn’t even begun to smooth things over with her father.

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I’m involved in a threesome.

When she thought about it, the situation didn’t even seem real, certainly didn’t seem like something in which she, a respectable New York attorney, would be involved.

Jax bent his head to give her a brief, hard kiss on the lips, sliding his hands down her body to grasp her ass before releasing her.

When he pulled away, his eyes seemed such a crystal clear blue, they froze her. “I’ll see you downstairs at breakfast then,” he whispered.

Breathless, Tamara watched him leave, taking yet another piece of her with him that had nothing at all to do with sex and physical satisfaction and everything to do with passion and love.

Damn.

* * * *

Jax tried to convince himself the incident at the stream had been an aberration, that he hadn’t had sex with the same woman, at the same time, as his brother. But he couldn’t accomplish it. First, it would be a lie. Last week hadn’t been an aberration or a one-shot-deal, especially not when he wanted to repeat the act so bad he could taste it. Second, it hadn’t been just sex, and that more than anything else he had done with Tamara and his brother, scared the holy crap out of him. They had made love more than a week ago—love not just had sex. He felt it in every fiber of his being, had never felt this way before after sex with a woman—so attached, needy and possessive.

Strangely, he didn’t think the sex would have been as good, as emotionally involving, as it had been had his brother not played a part. Watching Tamara please Jess, watching them together had been half the enjoyment for Jax, and had made him come as forcefully as he had.

It made him wonder why the thought of sharing a woman with his brother had never occurred to him before. But then nothing that had Ebook piracy is stealing. It is a federal offense.

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happened at the stream had been premeditated. He hadn’t known his brother would show up, and he certainly hadn’t expected that Tamara would be up for a sexual encounter, though he’d hoped and been prepared, just in case, thanks to his Boy Scout training.

Jax forked a hand through his hair and practically jumped out of his skin when Jess walked up on him a second later.

“Your hair looks like you stuck your finger in an electrical socket.

What’s got you all ruffled?” Jess slapped him on the back, tone bright and jovial.

Up until several minutes ago, Jax had been just as jovial, ready and willing to conquer the world. He’d been prepared to see Tamara and prove to himself that what he had felt at the stream was a passing fancy, but he knew now that this was the furthest thing from the truth.

Jax turned to his brother and grabbed him by an arm.

“What the—?” Jess let Jax lead him back to his bedroom down the hall, push him inside and close the door.

“Before we go down to breakfast, I need to talk to you.”

Jess arched a brow. “I suppose that’s fair, seeing as how we haven’t really had an opportunity to talk since...”

“We’ve had plenty of opportunities. We just haven’t used them.

We’ve been avoiding the issue and each other, just like Tamara.”

“I suppose.”

“You suppose?” Jax frowned. “Why are you acting so calm?”

“Why shouldn’t I?”

“More than a week ago you almost cleaned my plow when you saw Tamara and me together, and today you’re all Buddha serene.

What gives?”

“I’ve had some time to come to my senses.” Jess paused, looking thoughtful before he added, “I should be asking
you
what’s chafing
your
hide.”

Jax released a long sigh and stared at his brother without saying a word. After a long moment, Jess finally threw up his hands and paced across the room.

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“Okay, fine. I admit it upset me when I first saw you two together.”

“That’s putting it mildly.” Jax rubbed his jaw where Jess had slugged him. It still felt a little tender to the touch, and up until a few days ago, there had been a slight bruise just visible between his jaw and chin. Either it hadn’t been noticeable enough to cause alarm or it had been noticeable and Maria and Pop had been discreet in not mentioning it so far. But after this morning with Maria catching him and Tamara together, he didn’t think either of them would keep silent for much longer.

“Look, Jax, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hit you at the stream, and I’ve been meaning to apologize to you for a while now. Just never found the right time.”

“I wasn’t fishing for an apology.”

“You still deserve one. I shouldn’t have taken my frustrations out on you.”

“I had it coming.”

Jess chuckled and closed the space between them to fling an arm around Jax’s shoulder. “Maybe you did, maybe you didn’t. It just wasn’t my right to dole out your punishment.”

He didn’t like having Jess angry or upset with him, never had.

And it seemed everything he did, especially the way he led his life, upset either his brother or Pop.

How upset would they be when they found out what he did with his free time away from the ranch? How upset would they be that he got ranch hands to cover for his mysterious days off and absences?

Jax didn’t even want to think about it.

“So, did you see Tamara this morning?” Jess asked.

“Why do you ask?”

“Guess that’s my answer.”

Jax felt the coolness enter his brother’s tone, but he still didn’t seem particularly angry. He guessed that boded well for their Ebook piracy is stealing. It is a federal offense.

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relationship. “You might as well know we kind of got into it right before Maria walked in on us a little while ago.”

Jess just shook his head and laughed.

“I don’t see what’s so funny.”

“Well, it’s not like we could keep something like what happened at the stream a secret forever, not around here.”

“I wanted to. At least until the three of us decide what that day meant to us and what we’re going to do about it.”

“Interesting point.”

Jax raised his eyebrows. “Well?”

“You’re asking for
my
opinion?”

“I’d like it.”

“What did Tamara say?”

“She seemed a little evasive.” More like a lot evasive. She’d looked trapped when he’d said they needed to talk—trapped and terrified.

“I can see that.”

“We can’t just run away from what happened.”

“And I didn’t say we would.” Jess rubbed his chin with his thumb and forefinger. “The thing is I think Tamara’s a little skittish about more than just our threesome.”

“Our age?”

Jess nodded. “And maybe our race and who knows what other kind of excuses she can come up with or demons she’s running away from back in New York. I got the feeling she’s had some recent bad breaks in the relationship department.”

He did not want to hook up with a woman on the rebound. He probably could vouch for Jess on this too. “We need to find out for sure.”

“Are you going to ask her?”

Yeah, like that would happen. It wasn’t like Jax excelled at communicating and his interpersonal skills when it came to women, he’d been told, started and stopped at the bedroom door. But Ebook piracy is stealing. It is a federal offense.

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somebody needed to bring up the issue. Not to mention the fact that Tamara wasn’t here to stay. That part of their little conundrum just got swept under the rug what with all the other excitement going on.

And at that moment, Jax couldn’t even imagine her leaving him and Jess again—probably a big mistake on his part.

Damn, they weren’t two whole weeks into this relationship, and he already fell under romantic and unrealistic delusions of longevity.

This thing between them all was moving forward full speed ahead whether any of them liked it or not, and Jax wanted to try and keep them from crashing headlong into heartache and disappointment if he could help it. He had enough of each in his life already.

“We’re going to have to talk to her eventually. We can’t avoid this,” Jax said. For the first time in his life, he experienced a little bit of what it must feel like to be Jess. Jess always seemed so serious, so reliable, so
responsible
, driven by the need to take the weight of the world on his shoulders, or at least the weight of their immediate world on his shoulders.

“We won’t avoid this, not anymore.” Jess gave him a reassuring smile that strangely did the job all his own talking-to hadn’t been able to do. “We’ll sit down with her together and get this all out in the open.”

Jax felt better knowing they’d have each other’s back because he had a feeling going up against Tamara the legal eagle he and Jess would need all the support they could get.

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Jess looked at Maria at the stove scrambling eggs. She had her profile to him, but he could just make out a flush of color creeping up her neck to her cheeks and wondered just how far Jax and Tamara had gone by the time the housekeeper had walked in on them.

Jealousy flared in his chest, but more at the thought that Jax had been with Tamara alone, and
he
hadn’t been there to share her with his brother rather than the fact that Jax had been with her at all.

Getting a hold of his emotions as they involved Tamara proved difficult enough. Adding how he felt about his brother and Tamara together just royally balled him up to a point where Jess wondered if he shouldn’t just take a cue from Carson and Sam and stay to himself.