Acres, Natalie - Propositioned by Outlaws [Outlaws 2] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) Read Free Page A

off the brim, Victoria admired his head full of black curls. He was downright cute with the waves of ringlets pushed away from his face.
    Distracted, Victoria tripped over a rock as she stomped across the grass. Art caught her by the forearm and saved her from an embarrassing fall. She landed against his hard chest and her forehead fit right under his chin.
    “Now then, this is a lot better, ain’t it?” he drawled, looking down on her with eyes as black as coffee. “I’m Art. This here’s Lane.”
    “Yes, you introduced yourself already,” she reminded him. “I’m Victoria . You can let me go now.”
    He held her still tighter rather than releasing her, but she didn’t make a fair enough effort to move, either. In fact, when his arm bracketed around her waist, she found it was all she could do to keep from imagining she belonged there.
    A few more seconds of this and she might get way too comfortable. She backed away in haste, acting as if she were in a great big hurry to get someplace, and that’s when Art informed her, “I was trying to save you from a good blushin’, but if you ain’t got a problem showing ’em, I ain’t opposed to seeing what you got there pressing against your shirt.”
    His gaze dropped to her breasts. Lane was already gawking. He even managed to stretch his neck and make a show out of the fact.
    “Me either,” Lane said, still staring. “I was just sitting here thinking about the last time I saw the best part of a woman. Now, I won’t be thinking on that matter anymore.”

Chapter Two

    Victoria wrapped her arms around her chest and glared back at them. If she’d been like her ma, she would’ve chosen a man and started groping him with her eyes, too. Instead, she rubbed her arms, trying to knock off the late afternoon chill often found at the close of a Colorado early summer day.
    “How is it that you snuck up without me hearing you?” she asked, glancing from one man to the next.
    “We didn’t,” Art informed her, tilting his head toward a blue spruce tree. “We’ve been over there whittling. You never looked up from whatever it was you were a-readin’, so we let you mind your business. We tended to ours.”
    She peeled the wet locks of hair away from her face and avoided eye contact then. “Oh my goodness,” she whispered, but her words sounded like a strangled cry of pure embarrassment. When she lifted her gaze, she was staring straight at Lane, who looked like a man with something on his mind.
    She could only imagine what.
    “I was reading a letter left behind by someone I once knew. I didn’t know I had an audience and if I’d known, I wouldn’t have found cause to read the words out loud. It wasn’t meant to be heard by mixed company. It was private and the two of you ought to be ashamed of yourselves for listening.”
    “Your momma wrote the letter, did she?” Art asked.
    “Sounded like some interesting reading from where I sat,” Lane remarked.
    “It was a letter written by someone who wanted to offer advice for young women. That’s all,” she said, kneeling down to snatch the scattered pieces she’d tossed away in the middle of her snake escape.
    “Whatever it was, it sure made a man stand up and pay attention.”
    “Every part of a man,” Lane added, arching a brow. He extended his forefinger and waved the digit in front of his body. “You proud of what you got again, or just forgetful of the fact you wanted to hide behind your hands?”
    She folded her arms over her chest, tucking the letter beneath her breast. “If you’ve already seen me bathe, I don’t know why you’re making a fuss.”
    Art rubbed his chin. “He likes seeing your pretty skin blush.”
    A flush of heat washed over her. He liked seeing her blush? “Oh my,” she whispered, trying not to move from side to side as she reveled in the compliment.
    Now she understood her ma a little better than maybe she had the hour before.
    A tall, handsome man thought she was pretty,