Burning, stretching, Penelope inhaled deeply as the pressure built, as the burn turned to a fine, biting pain. The sensation rekindled her arousal, a fast, sharp rise that made her mew in pleasure and need.
“Do you want me to stop?”
“No! Give me more.”
“Then let go, sweetheart. Let go and let me take you,” Josh said.
Alex stroked his hand down her back, and Penelope relaxed, giving Josh the surrender he demanded.
She felt herself stretching, a steady growing pain that made her pussy clench and her nipples harden. And then she felt him slide in, all the way in.
“Oh, God, hold still.” Josh’s whisper sounded tortured.
Penelope couldn’t hold still. The sensations of Eros, the thrill and the tingle and the snapping sizzle went beyond her control, growing, spreading, taking her over the top into explosive, all-consuming climax.
She screamed as she came, her body clenching and releasing, every muscle contracting at once.
“God!” Both men cursed, both began to move inside her as the rapture that seized her pulled them in.
On and on the shivering ecstasy burned, as she gasped and cried and let it carry her away completely.
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Chapter 16
It feels like Black Monday
.
Alex tried to put his finger on the source of nervous dread that ran through him. He could find no logical reason to feel this way. The weekend had been beyond his wildest dreams of perfect. He’d awakened this very morning with Penelope snuggled close to him.
The three of them had enjoyed a hot, steamy shower followed by hot, steamy sex. He should be feeling on top of the world.
His glance flicked to his desk calendar, and he had the sense he should remember the date. Black Monday, indeed.
Alex didn’t know why his subconscious was so quick to assign such a negative moniker to the day. He decided to take a few minutes and look at the situation analytically. True, there’d been a few fires to put out since he’d arrived at the office that morning, but nothing he wasn’t able to handle in his usual competent style. The feud in the marketing department—thanks to a love affair turned sour—had been the toughest, but even that situation had eventually been diffused. The sudden, no-notice-given departure of one of the junior accountants just before month end he personally put down to that debacle at Sorrento’s on Saturday night, as no other explanation made any sense at all.
The company had an extremely low turnover rate.
It seemed a logical assumption that Ms. Dell, the president of one of the local professional accountants’ associations would be acquainted with Ms. Selma Bracket, late of the accounting department. He wondered if the recently departed employee was the
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source of Lola’s information about the Legacy Project, and if so, how the hell had she come by it?
The Legacy Project was a private matter between brothers. He’d not mentioned it to anyone, and he didn’t have to ask, he knew Joshua hadn’t, either. It irked him that others knew of its existence.
Alex shook his head in an effort to rid himself of the continuing sense of impending doom that wanted to settle on him. He’d been trying to grab a few moments alone with Joshua since they’d gotten to the office, but so far the day had been too jam-packed with one thing after another to do that. And sure as hell, if he went and sat down in his brother’s office to have that chat now, someone would call, or walk in, or something.
“Coffee break.” Alex said aloud as he pushed to his feet. He’d grab Josh and they’d head downstairs to the restaurant for some coffee and serious talk.
It would be natural to assume that if the honchos of the company were in a public coffee shop, anyone would feel free to approach them, but that generally didn’t happen. In fact, they’d often joked the coffee shop seemed to be the one place where they could count on being left to their privacy.
Alex headed across the reception area—Stella was away from her desk, for once—and knocked, then opened his brother’s door.
Josh looked up from a file he was reading. “We have to talk about this Legacy Project,” he said.
Alex grinned. “My thoughts, exactly. But not here. If your morning has been anything like mine…” He let the sentence trail off.
“Yeah, everyone wants a piece of me today. Let’s go downstairs.
Besides, I need a cup of coffee.” Joshua closed the file, leaving it on his desk, and then joined him.
Java Joe’s wasn’t owned by Benedict Oil and Minerals, and at this time of day—about a half hour before most employees in the area enjoyed their lunch hour—was not likely to be very busy.
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Neither of them spoke until they’d gotten their coffee and sat down at a table in the back corner of the café.
“I think we should shelve the Legacy Project,” Alex said.
“I was just thinking the same thing,” Joshua said.
Alex leaned closer to his brother, lowered his voice. “The project made sense when we came up with it. Taking a logical, analytical approach to finding a wife seemed the thing to do because this choice, this decision, is the most important one we’ll ever make. But…it just doesn’t feel right, thinking about interviewing prospective brides when we’re spending so much time with Penelope.”
Joshua nodded. “I suffered a thousand guilty deaths Saturday night.” Joshua paused to take a sip from his coffee. “I feel things for Penelope I’ve never felt for another woman. In fact, I think she’s different than
any
other woman we’ve ever known.”
“Yes! Are we in love with her? I mean, sure, it’s different with her, and she’s special. But is she The One?”
“That’s what I’ve been trying to figure out! I don’t know. How do you know? How does anyone know?” Joshua ran his hand through his hair, a sure sign of frustration. “Matt has said more than once that we don’t have a clue when it comes to women. Thing is, he’s right. We both know that. I get a lot of things in life. Relationships, on the other hand, especially romantic relationships, just confuse the hell out of me.”
“Yeah. That’s why I think we should table the project,” Alex said.
“Let’s spend the next few weeks trying to figure out if we’re, really, truly, in love with Penelope.”
“And not just if we’re in love with her.” Joshua looked as serious as Alex had ever seen him. “We need to know if what we feel for her is strong enough to build a lifetime on.”
“And if it is, we have to figure out how to make
her
fall in love with
us
,” Alex said.
“It sounds like what we need is another plan.” Joshua nodded his head once.
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“Well, there’s no time like the present.” Alex reached into his shirt pocket and pulled out his BlackBerry. “Do we need to start with a mission statement this time?”
“Not this time,” Joshua said. “Unless you want to make a title page. ‘How to make Penelope fall in love with us.’”
“That’s good. I’ll do just that.” Alex keyed it in, his fingers moving deftly over the tiny keyboard. “Okay, what do we put down for number one?”
* * * *
Penelope worked most of the morning, writing her initial report for the Lusty Town Trust. Even though she’d just been to the first of the sites she planned to tour, she wanted to show her employers—all several hundred of them—that she had a plan of action, and that her time, and therefore their money, would be well spent.
The head of the accounting department had called and asked if he could borrow Andrew for the next couple of days, to cover for an employee who’d suddenly quit. Since her admin had been willing to pinch-hit, she’d given him the nod. That made today even more perfect for writing her report.
Penelope looked up at the beautiful sunny day beckoning to her from just outside the window.
The two projects she’d handled before coming to work here in Houston had been for small nonprofit organizations. In each case she’d only been given a tiny desk crammed into a larger office shared by several different people. This office was huge, and eerily quiet when she was all alone in it.
It didn’t take her more than a couple of hours to write her report.
She’d been pleasantly surprised by what she’d found outside of Brady, Texas. The former coal mine was nearly undetectable.
Deposits in McCulloch County weren’t very deep, and some
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companies might have been tempted to rape the land, leaving black, gaping maws in the wake of their harvesting of the lignite.
She thought the term “strip-mining” very apt, as the process stripped the land of all dignity, in her opinion. She’d seen those kinds of sites in other parts of the country, but such was not the case on the land owned by the Benedicts.
The tract of land included a river. She and Andrew had drawn water and soil samples, of course. She’d documented oak, elm, and pecan trees along the river, coastal Bermuda grass on the flatlands, and mesquite trees along some of the ridges.
Not a single bit of barren emptiness existed on the site.
Penelope had even seen signs of animal habitation, including white-tailed deer and Rio Grande turkey. She’d have to wait to get the results of the samples, of course, before she could close the file on Brady. But she believed it was safe to say that when the critters moved back in, one could call the job of rehabbing successful.
Penelope really hoped that the rest of the sites she’d visit were as well rehabbed as this first one had been. Yes, that would mean very little creative work on her part. But it would also be a measure of the Benedicts’ good stewardship of the land.
For the sites still under development, she’d ensure there was no wastewater contamination, no danger to endangered species, and she’d be doubly certain all minimum safety and environmental standards were not only met, but exceeded.
When she was finished with this assignment, Benedict Oil and Minerals could take its place as a leader in eco-friendly business practices.
Penelope shook her head. The pride that rippled through her didn’t make any sense. She wasn’t a part of the family, or even the company, for that matter.
Bad enough she felt possessive of the two men who’d so recently become her lovers. Feeling possessive of the family name and history was completely unacceptable.
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Penelope stopped and set down her pen. Maybe those feelings weren’t unacceptable. Maybe they were only premature.
Penelope tried to push the mind-whisper back into its compartment.
Neither of the men had said anything to her about their feelings.
And while it was true they’d gone out of their way to be romantic Saturday night, and had even treated her to breakfast in bed Sunday morning, none of that meant anything. It didn’t mean they were falling in love with her at all.
Maybe I should come up with a plan to make them fall in love with
me
.
“Penelope Primrose, that is the stupidest thought you’ve ever had.” Her voice seemed to echo in the cavernous office.
A plan to make a couple of men fall in love with her?
The nerd part of her brain was working overtime, no doubt about it. She put her hands over her ears. “Compartmentalize!” She needed to put those sexy men, and what they did to her, both physical and emotional, back into the compartment marked “personal,” and focus on her job.
She read over her report once more then nodded. Concise, well-written, it would do. She printed off a copy. She’d just go over to Josh’s office and give it to him. And if she happened to interrupt him, and if he happened to reach for her, well…
Penelope took a moment to save the file, and then e-mailed it to the Lusty Town Trust.
Printed pages in hand, she left her office.
“I don’t know if either of the honchos are riding their desks at the moment,” Stella said from her large reception console. “Most likely they’ve taken themselves off to Java Joe’s, thinking I won’t know where they are.”
Penelope grinned. She felt a little sorry for Josh and Alex. They’d inherited their administrative assistant from their Uncle Carlson. Josh had told her there was something about having swatted them on their behinds when they’d been three that made it difficult for Stella to treat
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them as her bosses now. Any other executive she had ever met wouldn’t have hesitated to send Stella Wyse to another department and pick an admin who would kowtow to their every whim.
Penelope knew
that
possibility had never even occurred to either of the brothers Benedict.
“Well, I’ll just put this report on Josh’s desk. I might leave him a note, too.” And maybe, she thought, she’d go downstairs and join them for a cup of joe.
Stella was prevented from answering her by a ringing phone.
Instead, she waved her hand, and answered the call.
Penelope walked across the central reception area, passed the comfy-looking chairs, dark side tables, and neat stacks of magazines.
In the week or so that she’d been coming in to work, she’d seen people waiting from time to time, but was also aware they never had to wait long.
Josh’s door was wide open. She still paused to make sure there was no one inside. She didn’t want to interrupt unannounced just in case Stella had it wrong and Josh was inside.
She should have known better, of course. She thought the able older woman likely knew everything under the sun—including the fact that Penelope was having some sort of relationship with the
“honchos” as she called them.
Her stomach rumbled as she crossed the carpeted office toward Josh’s desk. Maybe she’d grab a sandwich to go with that coffee. Java Joe featured freshly made sandwiches and salads and soups, what she liked to think of as healthy eats. She’d already figured out that if she wanted a burger, fries, or traditional Texas barbecue, she needed to head on down the street to any of the many eateries catering to the business crowd in the downtown core.