on the couch and pulled her down onto his lap so she was facing Merrick but she was nestled firmly against Cade’s chest.
Merrick’s brown eyes were serious and focused as he stared back at her. Everything about Cade’s posture signaled that he was every bit as serious.
“Elle, we’ve actually wanted to talk to you about this very subject. We just haven’t known how to bring it up. The truth is…”
Merrick sucked in a deep breath, and it was then she realized that he was just as nervous as she was. Just as unsure. It baffled her, but there it was. This big, fierce man was worried over how she’d react to whatever it was they wanted to say to her.
Automatically her hand flew to his. She wanted to offer him comfort and reassurance. She curled her fingers around his and kept them laced tightly together.
“The truth is, we both care a great deal about you. You’ve become very important to us. You have been since the day we found you in the gun shop.”
Her eyes widened, and her heart started beating faster. Could it be true that they were feeling everything she was? That they both returned her…attraction?
She was afraid to hope, but what else could he be saying? They weren’t cruel men. They weren’t the type to pull off some sick, twisted joke.
Cade’s hand stroked down her back as he broke in.
“What Merrick is trying to say is that we want you to stay with us. Not just in the capacity as a guest or someone we’re helping. We want to go beyond that. And the thing is, we both want a relationship with you. We want to see where this leads and where it takes us. Which means that the three of us would be involved. Together. You’d be with the both of us.”
Merrick cleared his throat and plowed forward, picking up where Cade left off, almost as if they were both afraid that if they didn’t state their case immediately and get it all out, she’d freak out and run screaming from the house.
If they only knew how often she’d dreamed of them saying these exact words.
“Obviously you’d be making a commitment to more than one man,” Merrick said in a hesitant tone. “But we’d both be making one commitment. To you. And even though you would in essence be with two men, we’d absolutely be faithful to you. You would be the only woman for the both of us, and we would be the only men in your life. Are we making sense?”
There was so much worry in his voice that her heart melted. She pulled up his hand that was still tightly entwined with hers, and she kissed the rough palm. Then she turned to Cade and met his lips softly with hers.
“I understand perfectly.”
“And what do you think of the idea?” Cade asked.
“I think it’s something I want more than I can possibly describe,” she whispered.
There was such relief in both their eyes that it weighed down on her, crushing in its intensity. Cade wrapped his arms around her, holding her so tightly against him, his lips pressed to her temple, that she could scarcely breathe.
He vibrated against her, so much nervous tension leaving him in waves that she shook with it.
She waited until he loosened his hold before drawing away so she could capture them both in her view. What she had to say next made her just as nervous, perhaps more so simply because she ventured into the unknown. Into the black hole of her past, a giant, yawning abyss that frightened her just thinking about it.
“What’s wrong, baby?” Merrick asked gently. “What are you thinking?”
She inhaled sharply through her nose. “I don’t know what I can give you…physically. You both know what happened to me. I know what happened to me. And yet I can’t remember it. I’d like to say that since I can’t remember it, it can’t hurt me, but I’m nervous and a little scared. Not of you,” she rushed to say. “Never of you. But my mind is already obviously protecting me. Who’s to say what else might happen if those barriers are breached?”
Cade pressed another kiss to her temple and then carefully smoothed her hair behind her ear with coaxing gestures.
“We aren’t in a hurry, honey. We’ve got all the time in the world. What do you say we take it one day at a time. See what each day brings and face it together.”
She relaxed,