Page 217 of Mountain Men Heroes

“Guys?” Clara dug in her heels and lurched backward as Eeli tried to tug her inside. She landed smack in the middle of my chest. And damned if it didn’t feel good to have her body against mine.

I placed my hands on her shoulders and gave her a gentle squeeze. “We need to talk, babe.”

She peeked up at me over her shoulder. “Are you guys going to lecture me?”

I could feel the grin tugging at the corners of my mouth. “Can’t say a lecture was what I had in mind.”

I raised my eyes to Eeli and found amusement lurking there, too. Something eased in my chest. Something hard and tight that I didn’t even realize was there until it started to unravel.

“Let’s get inside.” I used my hands on her shoulders to propel her forward.

Eeli shut the door behind us and I ushered her into the open concept living room. With a measure of regret, I let her go. She sank onto the brown couch that took up most of the back wall of the living room.

For the first time since we’d moved in here, I felt restless inside these walls. One of the reasons this cabin had been empty was because the windows were small and high up. Most people preferred walls of windows that made the forest and hills and meadows feel like part of their homes.

Eeli and I had preferred the cabin just the way it came. We felt less exposed, less vulnerable here.

But now, with my restlessness mounting with our woman so close, I suddenly found myself longing for the forest, the sky, the green earth. And glancing around the place—the well-worn furniture, the layer of dust along the ceiling, the lack of windows that brought the outdoors inside—struck me as wrong. This was not the place I wanted to bring her home to.

Eeli’s shoulder brushed mine as he came to stand at my side. For long moments we stood together, looking down at Clara, none of us speaking.

Shit. I knew we had to talk, but fuck if I knew how to get this conversation started. Did we ask her to pick one of us? And then how would that work? Eeli and I still couldn’t stand being apart. The need for Clara might be growing, but it didn’t diminish my need for the reassurance of Eeli’s presence.

Honestly, discovering my need for this woman was about the worst thing that could have happened right now. Add to that, Eeli believed she was also his soulmate, and the whole situation had clusterfuck written all over it.

But here we were.

“So if you guys aren’t going to lecture me, are you going to do something besides stand there and stare at me?” Clara shifted and kicked off her black and white Converse sneakers. She yanked off a hoodie and tossed it so it hung over one of the living room chairs. She wiggled back into the cushions and pulled her feet up, tucking them underneath her as she propped an elbow on the armrest and rested her chin on her hand.

I couldn’t fight a smile. I loved that she was so obviously not intimidated by the two of us, even though we were all but looming over her. That she looked so at home in our space caused something warm to unfurl in my chest.

I glanced at Eeli. His lips were pressed together, his eyes narrowed on her.

“Seriously, you guys are starting to freak me out. I know you’re big on the whole strong, silent thing...” she waved a hand between us, “but this is ridiculous.”

I shrugged and moved to the chair closest to her spot on the couch. I dropped to the edge, my elbows to my knees, my hands hanging between them. “Sorry. We just don’t know what to say.”

Eeli moved to sit on the coffee table so he was directly across from her, his knees inches from where she sat. We had her cornered, but not in a predatory way, though I’d be lying if I said some of that wasn’t there. Instead, it felt comfortable and right—the three of us together, our closeness and body language suggesting intimacy.

“Did you bring me here to talk about my band?” she asked.

“No,” Eeli said. “But we’ll get to that eventually.”

“Oo-kay.’ Her gaze darted between us and her teeth sank into her lower lip, the gesture so unconsciously sexy, I had to fight back a groan.

Fuck. Was this wrong? Every instinct in my body might be telling me Clara was mine. But there was still the tiny part of me that remembered she was also my best friend’s little sister.

She leaned forward. “Is this about the fact that we seem to have some weird triangle thing going on between the three of us?”

My breath left me in a rush and a quick look at Eeli showed me I wasn’t the only one shocked at her words.

I hadn’t thought about what it meant that Eeli and I both wanted to stake our claim on her. Hell, we’d only figured it out a few hours ago. I hadn’t even really dwelled on the fact that I wasn’t bothered by Eeli’s feelings for the woman I knew in my heart was the one woman made just for me.

But here Clara was just throwing it out there.

“You think there’s something going on between the three of us?” I managed to ask.

She rolled her eyes. “I don’t know if wires got crossed or if there’s something wrong with me or what. But when you and I were out in the woods the other day, Dyson, made me feel something so deep inside me it scared the crap out of me. Everything in me told me you’re mine.”

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