Alex stroked her back, and when he and his brother urged her onto the bed, she went. Alex stretched out on her left and gathered her hands in his and drew her arms above her head. His other hand he stroked over her breasts, tweaking her nipples, making her burn. Josh spread her legs and knelt between them.
“You’re so beautiful. So lusty and generous. I need to taste you, too,” he said.
Penelope watched as he lay down, as he cupped her ass and began to lick and kiss her inner thighs, gentle, teasing movements that made her shiver, made her wetter and hotter.
“Smells good.” He whispered those words so close to her slit. She heard him inhale deeply, and she shivered, arousal sizzling along her nerve endings as she felt herself begin to climb.
Love Under Two Honchos
45
Then he licked her, one long, broad stroke from her anus to her clit. Penelope gasped because that touch against her rosette shot an entirely different kind of heat through her.
“Mm, that’s very promising,” Josh said.
Then he closed his mouth over her cunt, his lips swirling on her, his tongue stroking inside her. Over and over and faster and faster, he licked, kissed, sucked, edging her arousal higher and higher. She felt him touch her with his fingers, and then he pushed them into her and found her G-spot. The combination of his mouth and fingers hurled her into the fire.
When he sucked her clit into his mouth, her climax overtook her, and she cried out as bliss rained over and in her, as her orgasm filled her up and emptied her out until she thought she’d melt right into the bed.
46
Cara Covington
Chapter 6
Had there ever been a more beautiful day?
Alex whistled as he strode from his parking space in the underground parking lot to the elevator. He had a hell of a lot of work ahead of him, since he and Josh had ended up spending the rest of the afternoon and evening yesterday with pretty Penelope, rather than attending to business.
He supposed he might be in for a bit of tongue-lashing from Stella, their admin.
I wonder if that’s really why Josh is coming in
later.
But no, Josh was taking a breakfast meeting with Andrea Martin, a member of the Chamber of Commerce and number two on the Legacy Project list. The meeting had been set up a few days before, and by the time Josh remembered about it, it had been too late to cancel.
Alex reviewed what he knew of Ms. Martin as he rode the elevator up to the top floor of the Benedict Oil and Minerals Headquarters.
The lady had graduated top of her class from Texas State University with a degree in Advertising and Mass Communication.
She worked for a private ad firm in Dallas before relocating to Houston last year to take the position with the Chamber of Commerce. Her IQ was reportedly just shy of genius.
She liked camping and fishing, horseback riding and archery. In addition, she was an avid reader, and her motto, which she’d posted on her Every Face social networking page, was “Never stop learning, never stop growing.”
Love Under Two Honchos
47
She had most—but not all—of the qualities he and Josh had listed as desirable for the successful candidate for the Legacy Project.
In short, Ms. Andrea Martin would make them a good wife.
With the last of their siblings having become engaged just a month before, Alex and Josh had decided the time had come for them to get serious about finding a wife and domestic bliss for themselves.
So they’d done what they did best—sat down and brainstormed the problem, with a view to finding a logical, practical solution.
The result was the Legacy Project, their pet name for the list they’d made of the candidates for the position of Mrs. Benedict.
So far they’d conducted a preliminary interview with just one candidate, luscious Lola Dell, a CPA with a high IQ and an unbelievable G-cup bra size. Alex had interviewed her at a breakfast meeting last week, and they’d made plans to have dinner with her the night before last.
He’d had to cancel that, of course, in light of his Grandma Kate’s arrival home.
Maybe I should have sent flowers.
Alex shook his head.
There’d be time to discuss strategy later, when Josh returned from his breakfast with Ms. Martin, and they discussed the next step.
The doors to the elevator opened to the executive floor. Five offices branched off from this central reception area like spokes of a wheel. One of the offices was in fact a conference room, which made attending meetings more efficient than if he and Josh had to go to separate floors, or, heaven forbid, across town. Only two of the remaining four offices were occupied full-time at the moment. The other two stood available to whichever family member—be they Benedict, Kendall, or Jessop—had need of them.
Alex smiled, for sitting at the enormous reception area, in true control of the Benedict empire, sat fifty-seven-year-old Stella Wyse, administrative assistant extraordinaire.
“Well it’s about time one of you showed up,” Stella said by way of greeting.
48
Cara Covington
“Sorry, Stella. We had dinner the night before last with the entire family. Grandma Kate’s back!”
“Yes, I know, Kate and I had lunch yesterday.”
“Oh. Well, good. And I’m afraid Josh and I took more time than we’d planned on helping our new environmental consultant get situated—you know, new apartment, new car. I guess Grandma told you about hiring her.”
Stella peered over her glasses at him in a way that reminded him of his grandmother. “Since I was the one to arrange for said apartment and car, yes, she did indeed tell me. Ms. Primrose, by the way, being the one new to town, car, and apartment, had
no
difficulty arriving by eight a.m. sharp. As per your grandmother’s instructions, I’ve settled her in the blue office.”
The blue office was one of the two spare executive offices on this floor. “Penelope’s in?” He and Josh had both assured her, as they’d left her dozing in her bed that morning just shy of five, that they certainly didn’t expect her to come in to work today.
“She is. And your father has commandeered the gray office, and has called a meeting of your security personnel, some department heads, and you and Josh for ten.”
“My father’s here?”
“He is, and asked to be notified, in his words, ‘When my sons get around to showing up for work.’”
Alex flashed a grin. That quote told him which father had arrived, though of course he should have foreseen that he would.
He and Josh had deliberately not told any of the family about those letters they’d received so as to keep Caleb Benedict, Texas Ranger, retired, at home.
His fathers both needed a hobby, but of the two, Alex thought that Caleb needed it more.
“I’ll go see Dad now.”
Love Under Two Honchos
49
“A wise decision. By the way, Kate thought that Ms. Primrose could use an admin of her own, since she is, in fact, a one-woman department.”
“Good idea,” Alex said. “If you could advise Human Resources, please…”
“Already done,” Stella said. “She’ll begin interviewing candidates in about a half hour.”
“Wow. That’s…great.”
Stella smiled at him. “No need to waste time, is there?”
Since Stella had only repeated one of his grandmother’s favorite sayings, Alex could only agree—despite the fact that something about the way she’d said that bothered him.
Stella’s words also reminded him of the real reason why Josh was as yet absent. He hoped his brother’s extended breakfast was a good sign.
“No,” he said aloud, “there’s no need to waste time.” And with that, he directed his footsteps toward the office that held his father.
* * * *
Penelope knew as soon as the young man shook her hand that she’d found her administrative assistant. His name was Andrew Wildes, and since he’d been the first one mentioned as a candidate for the position by Mrs. Wyse—Stella—she gave a mental salute to the older woman’s intuitive insight.
They clicked right from the first moment. Andrew had come to Texas two years before and had been raised in Albany, New York—
only about fifty miles away from where she’d lived with her Grandma Wright.
As Penelope set out to get to know Andrew, she thought that, likely, Mrs. Wyse knew this company and the staff better, she’d wager, than those two hot honchos she’d spent the night with. Again.
50
Cara Covington
I have got to get those two studs out of my thoughts, at least
during working hours.
She hadn’t lied when she’d told Josh and Alex, yesterday at breakfast, that she had no trouble compartmentalizing her life. She wished now she’d thought to tack on the word “usually” to that statement. She hated it when circumstance made a liar out of her.
Penelope brought her attention back to the young man who sat across from her at the round meeting table in a corner of her office.
Her office
. Penelope certainly liked the sound of that, something she never would have guessed about herself.
“I see that you’ve spent some time in the public affairs-communications department here, as well as in accounting,” she said.
“Can you tell me what attracted you to such dissimilar jobs?”
“Actually, Ms. Primr—Penelope,” he blushed, she guessed, because he’d forgotten her request that he call her by her first name,
“there are similarities in the two disciplines. You need to be able to work in a methodical fashion, and with attention to detail, in both.
Sometimes you need to think outside of the box, too, although not quite so much in accounting as in public affairs.”
“If you’ve a good eye for detail, then I do believe you’re my man.”
“That’s great. Brian—he’s head of P.A. and communications—
said that if you chose me I was to begin right away, as Mrs. Benedict has let it be known the work you’re going to be doing is important to her. So, where do we start?”
Penelope blinked. It would seem that Grandma Kate had been busy since she’d been back. Funny, but when she’d offered Penelope the position, she hadn’t indicated that she thought it would be such a big deal.
Probably didn’t want to make me feel under pressure
.
Penelope had already determined to do the very best job she could. Now she was doubly determined. “What I would like for you to assemble, please, is a list of every site, past and present, that has
Love Under Two Honchos
51
been developed by the company. My understanding is that the Benedicts tend not to sell land once the element in question has been extracted. So we’re looking at a fairly extensive list, I would imagine.”
To his credit, Andrew began to make notes as soon as she’d begun to speak.
“How far back do we go? Do we key our list after any specific legislation was passed?”
“No. We’re doing this in-house, at the direction of the Benedict, Kendall, and Jessop families. My instructions were to leave no stone unturned, so we go back to the very beginning.”
“The beginning?”
Penelope smiled. She thought that her personal knowledge of the family was going to come in especially handy now. “That’s right. We begin with all the land that Sarah Carmichael Benedict inherited from Tyrone Maddox, and the very first oil well drilled by the Benedicts near the end of the eighteen-hundreds.”
Andrew’s eyes widened. “That is going to be a lot of properties, and a lot of different venues,” he said.
“Yes, I know. So I guess we’d better get started.” She looked at her watch. “Mr. Benedict asked that we attend a meeting next door in the boardroom at eleven. After that, we’ll check with Mrs. Wyse about getting you an office to work from, but for now, please feel free to use mine.”
“Thanks. Since there’s an hour until the meeting, I’ll get started down in the archive room. They have a workstation down there, complete with computer. That’s likely the most efficient place for me to begin amassing our list, anyway.”
Penelope smiled. Her new admin had used the word “efficient.”
This was definitely a match made in heaven.
* * * *
52
Cara Covington
“So you think Ms. Martin makes it to the next round?” Alex stood just inside the door to Josh’s office.
They only had a few minutes before they had to attend the meeting their dad had called. Josh smiled now, thinking of the breakfast meeting with Andrea. “She definitely made it to the next round. I found her to be clever and attentive.” Of course, not quite as clever as Penelope had been, and neither had he felt quite so relaxed at the table as he had yesterday morning.
But then the intimacy he and Alex had shared with pretty Penelope was bound to add shadings of comfort, familiarity, and ease when they were together.
“Good. Well, if you feel positive about her, let’s have dinner, the three of us. Say…tomorrow night?”
“I think I’d be more comfortable asking her out for Saturday night, instead. If we call her after the meeting, that should be sufficient advance notice, I think,” Josh said.
“Great. How about Sorrento’s?” Alex named one of their favorite Italian restaurants.
“Sorrento’s will be perfect. Did you reschedule our dinner with luscious Lola?” Josh asked.
“I haven’t been able to reach her. But I’ll keep trying, and I’ll let you know when I do.”
“Good. So, do you have any idea why Dad has called this meeting?” Josh had tried to speak to his father privately when he arrived and learned the man was on-site. But his dad had been off, tracking down some of the people he wanted to attend.
“I think it’s those letters. He was kind of miffed with us for not mentioning them to him,” Alex said.
“Which we didn’t do because then he’d likely come to the city, set up camp in the corner office, and give everyone the third degree…kind of like he’s doing now,” Josh said.
“Yeah, I know.”
“The dads need a hobby,” Josh said.
Love Under Two Honchos
53
“I think we’re all agreed on that one,” Alex said.