"You're both bad boys." She started to get up, but Mark held her down.

"Not so fast. I'm not finished bathing you yet. Just relax and let me finish."

"I can bathe myself. You don't have to." Alexis c.o.c.ked her head in confusion.

"I want to bathe you. Neal and I argued over it and I won."

"He always wins," Neal grumbled.

Alexis lay there as Mark finished bathing her. Then he helped her stand up. She found that her legs didn't want to hold her. He picked her up out of the tub and both he and Neal dried her off before carrying her to the bed where they tucked her in between them.

100.

"Oh, almost forgot your belly ring." Neal climbed out of the bed and grabbed her kit and tended to it. "How's it feeling?"

"I really had forgotten about it after we got off the bikes. I could feel it on the bike, though."

"Doesn't look irritated." Neal finished up and got back in the bed.

"How do you feel, baby?" Neal asked.

"Really, really good." She yawned. "I think I could sleep for ten hours."

"You just relax and enjoy it. This is what it really feels like," Mark told her.

"Hmmm," she managed before she dozed off.

Not long after she fell asleep, she woke back up with her mind going ninety miles an hour. The men were snoring away. Where had that last thought come from when she was flying so high? She couldn't be in love with them. She couldn't be in love with even just one of them. She barely knew them.

You knew them well enough to sleep with them and move in with them for the month. Aw, h.e.l.l. What had she gotten herself into?

They made her feel so good. She actually relaxed around them even without the s.e.x. How was she going to leave them at the end of the month? She had to. Her home and her job waited for her. She couldn't just give it all up for them, could she? Besides, they hadn't asked her to. For all she knew, they didn't feel a thing for her.

And didn't that suck? Knowing that she felt something for them that she refused to call love at this point, and they didn't feel anything for her. Maybe she needed to leave now. Leave as soon as they got back home. She squeezed her eyes shut. Now she was referring to their place as home. Confusion swirled in her mind.

She must have been restless in the bed, because Neal woke up.

"Hey, you okay?" he asked in a whisper.

"Yeah, just woke up and can't go back to sleep."

"What's on your mind? Something's bothering you if you can't sleep after what we just did."

101.

"What did we just do, Neal?" she asked.

"What do you mean?" he hedged.

"I don't know what I mean. Just ignore me."

"Naw, baby. You don't get off that easily. What's going on in that head of yours?"

"Something happened when we, um, f.u.c.ked. I guess I'm starting to care about you two, and it worries me."

"We didn't f.u.c.k, we made love," Neal insisted. "And what's wrong with caring about us?"

"I'm leaving in a little while. Where does that leave us if something is going on?"

"I guess that's up to you. You are always welcome with us." Neal watched her.

She wasn't comfortable with his intense scrutiny. She felt like she had to say something, but what?

"Go to sleep, Alexis. It will all work itself out in time. Just relax and enjoy your time here and know that you're always welcome with us."

She sighed and snuggled deeper into the bed between the two men. Sleep was a while in coming, but finally, she slipped into a dreamless slumber.

Neal rose early the next morning and slid out of the bed. Mark rose up and lifted an eyebrow at him. Neal jerked his head toward the door. They each got dressed, leaving Alexis in the bed with the covers piled around her.

Mark followed Neal out the door. He waited for Neal to speak first.

"She's beginning to fall for us, Mark. We have a chance with her."

102.

"What does that mean, Neal? Do you really think she's going to give up her career to move in with a couple of biker construction workers? Because I don't see it."

"How do you feel about her, Mark?"

"What does it matter? Nothing is going to come of it."

"I think we can make it work if you'll just try." Neal watched Mark run a hand through his hair then pace off for a few steps before returning with a furious expression on his face.

"It doesn't matter what I feel for her. Her place isn't with us.

She's got cla.s.s and a future. We've got nothing to offer her."

"I think you're wrong. I think we have a lifetime of love to offer her."

"Are you saying you love her, Neal?"

"Yeah. I love her." He wasn't afraid to admit it.

"f.u.c.k!" Mark paced away again, but this time he stayed several feet away and looked up at the sky.

"Yeah, I love her. It doesn't change anything, Neal. She's not for us."

103.

Chapter Twelve.

The trip back to Dallas was made in a subdued mood. Alexis wasn't sure what was going on, but something had changed. Then again, so had she. She'd realized she loved two men who lived several hours away from her. Two men. She couldn't get past that part, either.

She couldn't love two at the same time. It wasn't right. It wasn't legal.

Once they made it back to the house, they split up and went about their own agendas. Alexis wasn't sure what Mark was doing outside with the bikes, but Neal was cooking. She decided on a long bath.

Maybe she could soak some common sense into herself.

The warm water felt divine against her skin. She wished she had added her lavender bath salts, but she had forgotten them. She'd been in too much of a hurry to get into the tub and relax. Relax. There was that word again. She'd learned how to relax with the men. As long as they were around her, she felt that way and enjoyed it, enjoyed doing nothing but lying around or watching a movie. How would it be when she returned home?

Alexis feared she would be right back where she started. The rat race would pull her in. It was her life, after all. She lived for it. Didn't she?

The last few days had shown her another way to live. Maybe she was living the wrong life. Maybe she was talking herself into a heartache, too. She closed her eyes and sank beneath the water until only her face was above it. She loved the floating feeling and hoped it would calm her racing mind.

104.

"Hey!" Mark pulled her out of the water. "Are you okay? Did you fall asleep?"

"I was fine. I was just relaxing in the water," she fussed, frowning up at him.

"d.a.m.n, I thought you were drowning. Don't scare me like that."

"I didn't realize you would be up here. You were down with the bikes."

"I came looking for you."

"You found me."

"You were really quiet on the way back this afternoon. Is something wrong?" he asked.

"Why would you think that?"

"You're usually a lot more talkative." He leaned against the tub and dragged his hand through the water.

"I'm fine. Just thinking too much. That's why I was trying to relax, so I wouldn't think so much."

"What were you thinking so hard about?"

"What is it with you and Neal that you want to know my innermost thoughts?" she asked with a frown.

"I guess because we wonder if maybe we're part of them."

"And if I said you were, what then? What does that matter?"

"It matters because you're in our thoughts. You're in our hearts." Mark's face was totally serious.

Alexis drew in a deep breath and slowly let it out. Careful what you say, Alexis. What did she say to that?

"I'm not sure what you want me to say."

"Maybe that we mean something to you, as well." He ran his fingers along her lower leg toward her knee.

"I'm not sure what I feel for you. I care a great deal. Maybe it's something more, but I just don't know." Why had she lied?

It gnawed at her almost as soon as she said the words. Why didn't she tell him that she loved them? Maybe because she knew she shouldn't love both of them at the same time. Well, that and the fact 105.

that she couldn't pick between them. She didn't want to pick between them. She wanted both of them, but that wasn't right.

"I'll take that. It's a start."

"Mark? Alexis? Are you up here?" Neal's voice called up the stairs.

"In the bathroom, Neal," Mark called back.

Neal popped into the bathroom with his mouth open to say something, but he looked from one of them to the other and a serious expression took over. Then he sighed.

"I came up to tell you that dinner is ready. Is everything okay?"

"Everything's fine, Neal. I'll get dressed and be down in a few minutes." Alexis stood up in the tub.

"Don't dress on my account," he teased.

Mark immediately stood up, as well and steadied her. It ate at her heart how caring both men were. She'd never had that before. Neal disappeared from the bathroom as Mark grabbed a towel to dry her off with. Once she was dry, he left her to dress.

She chose a pair of red panties and an extra-large T-shirt, forgoing pants. She figured they would either watch TV, a movie, or go on to bed. She didn't see the need to fully dress around them. She was much more laid-back now than before.

When she walked downstairs, both men paid attention. Mark's eyebrows went up and Neal stood up from where he'd been lounging in the recliner.

"Um, ready for dinner?" Neal asked.

"Yeah, I'm famished." Alexis hid her smile. If she'd realized they would enjoy her eating almost nude, she might have done it sooner.