Is Three A Crowd? (18 page)

“Only by then they’d grown into different people, probably married out of guilt. Neither was happy, according to the divorce papers that were being drafted when he died.”

“All the rest of this is in the folders, isn’t it?” She put up a hand to ward off any answer. “I’ve had enough for today. I’m going to take a nap.” She wandered away, Shin at her heels. “I’ll talk to you later,” she said over her shoulder, not turning to look back.

* * * *

Maris wandered the property, Shin staying close. So, finally she found her history, and it was not what she had expected. She tried to deal with the emotions that swamped her. First, anger. She pulled a few dead plants as she walked about, but it didn’t help. Then came shame, although she knew she was not the cause of her birth, merely a by-product of her mother’s affair. Then came resentment, for all the lost years she grew up without a father. Finally, she accepted there was nothing she could do about her history. There was no one she could scream at or ask for answers. Now she was truly alone. Before, it didn’t seem important. She was an intelligent woman who was self-reliant. She’d just continue on that way—only she knew it was all different.

For five years, she’d wondered who she was and why it was kept from her. Now she knew it was because her mother and father were both cowards who wouldn’t face their actions. While she rationalized that her father was married and apparently didn’t want to divorce his wife, her mother was the one she resented.

Wandering further into the woods, she pulled the collar of her denim jacket up around her neck. The temperature had dropped, the sky darkening, but she hadn’t noticed the storm rolling in. Pausing when she heard the thunder in the distance, she decided to head back. However, when she turned, her stomach dropped. She would have sworn someone was watching her.

“Nathan, Blake, if you’re out there following me, I’m not going to do anything stupid.” She glanced around, but couldn’t pinpoint the person’s position. Deep inside, she knew it wasn’t an animal she’d spooked from its spot. This was someone human watching her. As she turned in circles checking the woods, she became disoriented. Panic set in, and she ran blindly for several minutes until she realized she didn’t know where she was, tripping on a branch and falling flat on her face. Her hands braced her fall, but they were scraped and stinging.

Pausing to catch her breath, she gave herself a pep talk. “Okay, you’ve been here before. Look for a landmark, anything that will give you a direction.” Shin sat beside her, waiting.

“Shin, take us home,” she said, hugging the dog to her. “Shin, home.” Maris was never so relieved as when the dog scampered ahead, even though it was a different direction than she thought to go. She decided it might be the long way out, but the dog would find a way. Within the stands of trees, the rain only sprinkled down. Lightning struck nearby, the light reflecting against the rain. The thunder that followed made her jolt. “Shin, take us home,” she said again and followed the dog. After what seemed like hours, she saw the woods clearing ahead and finally paused to catch her breath.

A few hundred yards further, she caught sight of the Chateau in the distance. The rain was much harder against her face now that the trees gave no resistance, the winds kicking up. Maris didn’t care that she was wet. She just wanted to be away from the woods. She followed Shin’s lead, running across the lawns instead of following the winding paths. When Maris finally reached the greenhouse, it took several tries to open the door against the winds. She was so thankful to be inside, she dropped to her knees inside the doorway. That was when she heard her men arguing.

“We should have followed her,” Nathan said to Blake.

“We can’t be with her twenty-four-seven.”

“Today was not the day to let her wander. I’m gonna call the groundskeeper and get his crew out looking for her.” Nathan paced the small area near the worktable they used earlier.

“We could each head in a different direction until we find her,” Blake offered, but she realized he stopped short. “No, you wouldn’t like that, would you, Nathan? What if I find her first, it would give me an advantage. You can’t handle the thought of her running into my arms instead of yours.”

“Jealousy won’t bring her back. Let’s just agree to find Maris, and when she’s safe we’ll continue this argument.”

Not wanting them to fight over her, she stood on shaky legs, using the planting tables to steady her steps. Shin ran ahead, alerting her men she’d returned.

“She’s back,” Nathan said, rushing towards her. Blake followed at a slower pace.

“I’m okay. I just got turned around in the woods.”

Nathan scooped her up in his arms and brought her to the work area, gently placing her on the edge of the table. Blake switched on the heaters as he passed, bringing the bourbon decanter with him. He poured her a drink and pressed it into her hand, using his to wipe her wet hair from her face. “Maris, are you okay?” He pulled several pieces of pine straw from her hair and jacket. She sipped the drink and relished the heat it brought. “Something happened, besides getting lost. You’re all cut and scraped.”

“Let her catch her breath,” Nathan sniped.

“Stop it, both of you.” She jumped down and realized her legs were still shaky. “I’m cold and wet and highly annoyed.”

“Annoyed at what?” Blake didn’t hold back the smile forming on his lips. “Us, because we didn’t tell you about your history?”

“That, too. But I wasn’t alone in the woods. Someone was out there with me.”

“Who? Did you see someone?” Nathan sounded worried.

“I don’t know who it was, but it was definitely human, not animal.” She hesitated and finally added, “It’s the same feeling I got when I was appraising the woods.”

“The day I found you there and you refused to come with me? You were so close and so angry and so cute, you have no idea how hard it was not to grab you and kiss you silly.” While Nathan seemed to be holding back his anger over his conversation with Blake, he smiled, giving her a sidelong glance. When she caught his gaze, he turned back to Blake. “I told you we needed more security. Anyone can access the property if they know the woods.”

“We can’t fence in all the acreage, Nathan, we’ve discussed this before.” This was the first time she’d seen Blake apprehensive. “From now on, if she wants to wander, one of us goes with her.”

“Excuse me, are you admitting you knew there was someone watching me out there?” Something snapped inside her, and anger rose first. She slammed the crystal to the dirt floor and headed to the doorway. “That’s it. I’m going back to the house for a shower. I can find my own way, and right about now I don’t care to see either of you for a while.” She huffed out of the greenhouse and into the storm, not caring that she was being hammered by the rain and wind. It seemed to Maris the stone house was much farther away than she remembered.

During the strenuous walk, she acknowledged her anger wasn’t outrage at the situation. She’d stormed out because she almost ran to Nathan. That slight smile had opened a door to her past, to their past together. In an instant, it all flooded back, how he made her feel, how they loved each other. How poorly she treated him and Blake, using them both because they let her. “I was a total bitch,” she declared, thankful she was close to the house. “And those two should get a set of balls between them. They should have respected themselves and ditched me, long ago. But we weren’t finished, and neither of them would let go after all this time. They bought a home and business together. They banter like old washwomen, yet they stay together.” She was pushing the back door open, Shin running ahead, when an image flashed before her.

It was the three of them, naked and sprawled on the huge, ornately carved bed in the master suite. They were all relaxed, smiling, their bodies covered in a layer of sweat, their limbs intertwined. Then it was gone, the image faded. “Damn, I took them both to the master suite of someone else’s house and fucked them at the same time.” Maris decided she was a rude bitch to boot. Then it dawned on her that Aminta would know all about her escapades in the Chateau. “Oh, God. I’m definitely not ready to face him just yet.”
 
 

Inside, she stripped off all her wet clothes on the back porch. She stood naked and freezing in the kitchen for several seconds, deciding what she wanted. With shaking hands and numb fingers, she set up the coffee pot and hit the switch as she headed to the shower. Pausing, she grabbed a bottle of vodka from the freezer, not bothering to take a glass. She took a long swig from the bottle and decided to take it with her.

With the hot water spraying over her, she finally started to defrost, the feeling in her fingers and toes starting to come back. Maris stood before the bathroom mirror, her robe snuggled tight against her, her hair wrapped in a towel. With a second slug of the vodka, she wiped the fog from the mirror and looked at herself.

Besides the scrapes on her hand and one on her cheek, she decided she’d live. But she also decided she had to make some decisions, and quickly. Who was after her, and how did her men know about it? And why didn’t they tell her?

She took her time drying her hair and getting dressed in old, comfortable sweats. The smell of the coffee wafted upstairs. Grabbing the vodka, she headed down, only to find Nathan and Blake sitting at the kitchen table, mugs waiting to be filled.

“Well, are you ready to tell me the rest of my horrible past and why someone is stalking me now?”

“Sit down, Maris, we need to talk.”

Chapter Fifteen

It felt familiar, sitting around the kitchen table with coffee mugs before them. She hesitated at the refrigerator door, wondering how many times they’d done this in the past. She took the milk container to the table and retrieved several small glasses from an overhead cabinet, placing them in the center of the table with the vodka bottle, and poured the coffee. She instinctively went to an overhead cabinet near the stove and grabbed two packages of shortbread cookies. One was just a buttery cookie, and the second had a dollop of jam in the center of its swirled layers. Maris opened both packages, placing the plain ones near Nathan and the jam ones before Blake. He didn’t hold back a smile.

“I don’t know how I knew that,” she mused, taking the seat between them and cradling her hot mug between her hands. “I have a hundred questions, but don’t know where to start.” She sipped the steamy brew. “Aminta, he had to know what we did in the Chateau. Why did he allow us to use the house for our sex games?”

For the first time, she saw both her men blush with embarrassment. While Nathan’s cheeks turned pink, Blake’s complexion went white first, then bright red.

“Aminta knew how much you’d come to love the land and the house, much more than the owner. He didn’t spend much time here, as it was an investment he lost interest in and wasn’t willing to fund properly.” Nathan took a cookie from the package and ate it in two bites.

“You lived here in this house while you were working, but you always were in awe of the main house.” Blake turned to look out the back window. “You saw the repairs it needed, and it angered you that he let it stagnate.”

“What kind of repairs?”

“Paint, paper, new roof, the heating needed updating. There was a lot of work to be done, Maris, and we’ve spent the last years bringing her back to this level of habitation. With your input, it could be a grand house again.”

“From what I’ve seen, you’ve already done that.” She reached forward and took a cookie from each package, placing them on a paper napkin before her. She snapped each in half and tasted each kind.

“You’ve only seen the entry and some of the downstairs rooms. The dining room and solar,” Nathan offered.

“The upstairs still needs renovations.”

“What is the hesitation in your voice, Blake?”

He finally looked directly at her. “We, Nathan and I, decided not to redecorate those rooms, because we wanted your input. Wanted you to be comfortable.”

“So you wasted five years waiting for me to pick paint and paper? I don’t think so.”

“Fine.” Nathan stood and pushed his chair from the table. “We didn’t redecorate because we didn’t know which one of us would live in the space. We each took a guest room and bath and made ourselves comfortable there, waiting.”

“Neither of you uses the master suite?”

“No, not after what we shared in that room.” Blake took a jam cookie and popped the whole thing in his mouth.

“Just what did we do in that room?” She leaned forward and took another taste of each cookie. Neither man answered, and she didn’t hold back the smile forming on her lips. “You’re embarrassed, both of you. What happened between us there?”

“Maybe it would be better if you remembered that on your own.” Nathan topped off their coffee cups before taking his seat.