Maizy the Bear Charmer(Diving Creek Ranch 16)(59)

She noticed then that all three men had already cut up their food and she understood why when Spencer speared a piece of her meat with his fork and held it for her. That way, they had both hands free.

“You want to feed me?”

Hello, Mister Romance Novel Fantasy Man!

“Yes. Is that all right?”

“Yes.” Hell fucking yes. Her inner angel cringed at her inner devil’s potty mouth.

She accepted the bite, chewed, and smiled at Heath. “Medium rare. Perfect.”

While Spencer chewed a bite of his own steak, he offered her a forkful of the baked sweet potato, which was delicious as well.

The next few minutes were filled with quiet talk and a subtle increase in tension as their warm gazes lingered on her while they ate. Sitting there in only the shirt, which was parted to reveal a large portion of her breasts and abdomen was turning her on. She got a little wetter each time Spencer slid his hand beneath the shirt and caressed her bare hip.

Cody finished first and said, “Maizy, we don’t want you to think that you’re ever choosing one of us over the others. If you’re with us, we see you as being with all of us. When you came in the room and you weren’t sure where to sit, why did you hesitate?”

“Well, my first concern was that if I chose one of you, then I’d be leaving out the other two. My next thought was that you’d probably expect me to sit with you, Cody, since you seem to most consistently take the lead. I wanted to make all three of you happy and if you hadn’t said something, I might’ve dragged a straight-backed chair from the dining room to sit on. I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings.”

Spencer gave her another bite of her steak and followed it with sweet potatoes as Cody said, “We want you to feel taken care of, baby. Not because we think you’re weak or because you need looking after, but because it makes us feel good. If you worry about offending us when making choices like this, then you’ll always be second-guessing yourself. We’ll find a balance between the three of us. Sometimes we’ll give you the choice, or we may decide for you, based on your needs and ours. Will you satisfy my curiosity about something?”

“I’ll try.”

“Why did you choose Spencer?” When she hesitated, he added, “There’s no wrong answer and you won’t offend us. Something made you choose him.”

She looked at Spencer, and then over at Cody, as she slid her hand up the back of Spencer’s head and stroked his dark, close-cropped hair. “I thought the afternoon was stressful for him. He beat himself up about letting me come into the store with him. He saw firsthand how the people in authority over me treat anyone who steps out of their little model of perfection. And I think he could tell how much worse it would be if I was seen in public in a ménage relationship. I felt guilty, too. You weren’t happy when you found out what happened and I knew that made him feel worse. I could tell by the way he held me in the bathroom that I needed to go to him for now.” She worried that she sounded like she could read Spencer’s mind and stopped talking. But she’d spoken only the truth as she knew it.

Spencer gave her a bite of asparagus and a little smile and a nod. She nuzzled his temple and took the next bite of steak when he offered it.

They sat in the quiet for a few seconds and Cody said, “We want you to follow your instincts. When one of us needs time alone with you, we’ll ask or help you make time for us. And when you need one of us by ourselves, to the best of our ability we’ll be there for you. We won’t keep score, or make you feel guilty if you need to be completely alone either. If things begin to feel out of kilter we’ll talk about it. There will be challenges and we know that. Life won’t suddenly be perfect because we’ve gotten together but our goal is to make it worth it to you.”

“Okay. What about in public?”

Cody sighed. “That’s where it gets complicated. We have to negotiate some boundaries with you and it may be difficult. I’ll say that much from the get-go.”

“I understand,” she murmured and leaned against Spencer when he kissed her temple.

“For now, at the Twisted Bull, you can be with us the way you were last night. Depending on if we’re working or there on our free time, Heath and Spencer could dance with you, spend time with you, and even show affection, like last night. And they’ll need that from you, too. But you’ll be seen predominantly as my girlfriend. Our closest friends will know of course, since I’m sure word has gotten around to all of them that we’ve finally found you. They’ll be supportive and understanding which is good because the rest is going to be hard at first.”