Bought by the Billionaire Brothers 5 (2 page)

“Because he has the luck of the Irish
,” Nolan answered, sighing as he flicked a tiny piece of lint from the arm of the chair. “You know,” he mused quietly, not quite sure if he ought to voice his opinion on this particular score given how volatile Vince became whenever the past was brought up. “We’ve never tried sitting down and talking with Dillon about everything that happened with Isabel.”

“Are you mad?” Vince barked and Nolan knew his twin was wrestling with the same hefty guilt as he but he showed it in a different way. “What good would that serve?”

“I don’t know. It just seems we’ve let this terrible thing fester in our family…maybe it’s time to let it go.”

“Fuck, Nolan you sound like a woman. First of all, Dillon isn’t going to just ‘let it go’ so we can hold hands and sing
Kumbayah
around the campfire. He believes we murdered his ex-girlfriend. How do you get past that? He never will.” Vince shifted and his gaze bounced away as he added with a shrug, “Maybe it’s a blessing, you know? Isabel’s death…I don’t know. Fuck it, I don’t know what I’m saying.”

Nolan remained quiet
. God, all their hands were filthy when it came to Isabel. How they’d fucked up. They’d been young, dumb and full of cum as the saying goes and no one had been more modeled after that saying than the Buchanan twins. And Isabel had been the prettiest girl they’d ever seen — almost ethereal with her fine-boned features, white-silk hair and delicate disposition…hell, they would’ve done just about anything to get their cocks inside that soft flesh. Only they’d realized too late that Isabel hadn’t been playing a game, she’d been trying to secure a future for the baby inside her that none of them had known about. “Fuck,” he murmured, rubbing at the sudden ache in his chest. The coroner’s report had stated the fetus had been twelve weeks — which meant the baby had been Dillon’s but she’d never said a word to any of them about being pregnant. Nolan wished he could say they would’ve cared. They’d been such selfish pricks — all of them.

And Dillon seemed hell-bent on rewriting history, a history where he came out the victim instead of one of the people who’
d had a hand in Isabel’s death.

“Stop thinking about her,” Vince warned in weary tone as if he only knew Nolan was stuck in the past because
he was replaying a nightmare reel as well. “Nothing we do or say will bring her back.”

“Yeah. I know. Are we making the same mistake? Penny isn’t like Isabel but she’s fragile, too.”

“We’re not making the same mistake,” Vince assured him. “Penny knew the stakes when she signed on the dotted line. We never played with her heart, ever. We can’t say the same for Isabel.”

Nolan nodded but still felt like shit.  “We need to woo Penny. She’s been through a lot and it’s our faults. We can’t punish her for what happened.”

“She’s in love with Dillon,” Vince said. “What do we do about that?”

Nolan winced. “Do you think
it’s love?”

“Did you see how cozy they were playing house? It might not have been real for Dillon but it sure as well was for her. She’s totally in love with him.”

“Damn, you’re right.” Nolan hadn’t wanted to admit it but he’d seen the glow in Penny’s expression right before Dillon had revealed his true nature and she’d been near blissful. It’d been the first time he’d seen her like that and he was certain she’d never looked that way with either of them. The realization twinged a bit but Nolan wasn’t ready to concede defeat just yet. He sat up and a slow smile spread across his face. “The answer to our problem is simple.”

“Yeah?” Vince retorted dryly. “Lay it on me.”

“We need to remind Penny what she loved about us. At one time, she was
our
girl.  It’s time we remind her why.”

Vince returned his brother’s smile as
he warmed to the idea. “Are we talking wine and dine, pamper her like a princess and then fuck her raw?” Nolan’s grin was answer enough and Vince’s bad mood began to dissipate. “Hell yeah. I’m on board with that plan. When do we start?”

Nolan fished his phone from his trousers and dialed a florist. “We start now.” He waited a minute and then said to the awaiting florist. “I’d like two dozen fire and ice roses delivered, please.
Put on the card, ‘To our darling Penny…all is forgiven…’

Nolan disconnected the call and he and Vince shared a laugh as they
jumped from their chairs to prepare for the most epic of all rebounds.

#

When the doorbell rang Penny nearly skittered out of her skin as her hand fluttered to her chest to calm her wildly beating heart. Good God. Her first thought was Dillon and she hated herself for the hopeful leap in her pulse that followed. Stop it, Penny. He’s not coming back for you.

When the florist stood with the most brilliant, breath-taking array of red and white variegated roses, she couldn’t speak for a moment and simply gestured
to the table. The florist smiled and placed the flowers on the table, saying, “Someone thinks you’re special. These are very hard to come by. And very expensive,” she added with a wink.

Penny nodded but she couldn’t get her throat to work. Could the flowers be from Dillon? Flowers didn’t seem his style but then, she didn’t really know his true style as he’d likely been playing a part the whole time he’d been with her. Tears stung her eyes fresh and she ripped open the card, half-hoping they were from Dillon so she could shred the card into a million pieces. But when she read that the exquisite flowers were from Vince and Nolan, she broke down completely. Damn it, why couldn’t Dillon care? She sobbed into her arms, not sure what to do with herself when she felt so completely lost and alone.
Dillon didn’t want her. Plain and simple. But the twins were trying to make amends. She lifted her head and wiped her nose to stare at the blood-red and stark-white blend of roses. Just like the twins to send the very best. She plucked a single rose from the vase and inhaled its sweet scent.
Papa, what should I do?
She had no right to seek the wisdom of her Papa when she knew full well what he would’ve thought of her arrangement with the twins but she missed his firm voice advising her, helping her choose from right or wrong. It was all wrong but the pleasure was sinful, she sighed unhappily. She was a slave to her body’s needs now that the Buchanans had awakened that sleeping part of her. She deserved punishment for how she’d grievously betrayed the twins when they’d been so good to her. Vince was the best at exacting the most mind-blowing pleasure from carefully orchestrated pain. Nolan’s touch was sweet and more giving. She refused to remember how Dillon’s touch had made her forget that anyone else had ever known her body but the memory singed her thoughts.

“Strip for me, Penny.”

Penny squeezed her eyes shut at the recollection of Dillon’s bold instruction but she could still see the burn in his gaze that heated her insides with one smoldering glance. Her thighs trembled in memory, her core melted and ran with sweet liquid, and she knew that if Dillon were to show up this very second, she’d shamefully allow him to fuck her again and again. God, when did she become so weak? She’d never known what she’d been missing back in the days when she’d been the forgotten, chubby accountant at Buchanan Enterprises because she could count the number of dates she’d been asked out on with her hand. Her papa had warned her to guard her treasure — well, she’d guarded it so well, men had stopped looking. Until the Buchanan brothers that is.

She sighed. Dillon wasn’t coming back to her. Was it possible to go back to the way it was with the twins? They’d forgiven her but would there always be this terrible thing between them? Squatting like a fat, ugly toad making its presence
known with a guttural croak each time they tried to forget and move on? Could they truly forgive her for allowing their hated older brother not only get inside her body, but her head?

And heart.

Penny groaned and pushed herself away from the table and those gorgeous roses that she didn’t deserve. She didn’t know what to think any more and she didn’t want to feel either. She wanted to drift into a black sea of nothingness and remain there until Dillon Buchanan was a distant memory.

If only that were possible.

#

“Dillon? Did you hear what I just said?”

Dillon’s attention snapped to the lawyer he’d hired to set his affairs back to rights after his brothers had tried to wipe him from his granddad’s will and forced himself to get back to the business at hand. He’d been thinking of Penny again and how he wished he’d handled things a little differently, possibly less hurtful to her. The point had been to screw with his brothers, not necessarily hurt Penny. Once he’d fucked her, he’d accomplished his objective but he hadn’t really considered the collateral damage.

He kept seeing her stricken expression replaying over and over in his mind. He’d give anything to blot out the image so he could get some damn sleep again.

“Yeah, sounds good,” Dillon said with a mild nod, more interested in catching a glimpse of Penny than he was of the dry legalese his lawyer was spitting out. “Thanks.”

The lawyer, a spindly man with a balding pate and a dour expression that rarely changed, looked with distaste at Dillon’s obvious disinterest in whatever he had to say in spite of his diligent work and collected his paperwork. “The original will and trust will be reinstated as soon as the paperwork clears the state offices. Congratulations, Mr. Buchanan. You are once again a wealthy man.” He closed his briefcase with a resounding click and followed with a brief smile.

Dillon cut him a short glance. “I was already a wealthy man. This was not about money; it was the principle.”

“Of course.” He sniffed. “My office will send the closing bill. Good day, Mr. Buchanan. Pleasure doing business with you.”

Dillon watched him leave and returned his attention out the wide glass window, wondering where Penny was and what she was doing. He already knew she hadn’t been at the office — those twin brothers of his probably had her holed up in the apartment while they fretted and fumed about the situation — and it occurred to him that he might pay her a visit if he wasn’t sure she wouldn’t lob a candlestick or some other heavy object straight at his head.

God, he’d sure as hell deserve
d far worse.

He stared for a long moment without seeing any of the glorious view of the city below and he wondered how things might’ve been different if he hadn’t set the wheels of today’s situation in motion all those years ago. He was a different man than the
hot-headed young man he’d been but it seemed not by much if one were to judge by his current snit.

He was angry with the twins —
 no, angry was too gentle of a word, he’d been furious — but it wasn’t only that they’d tried to underhandedly wrench the last tie he had to the Buchanan legacy, it was that they hadn’t even considered picking up the damn phone and talking to him first. They’d taken the pussy way out and tried to muscle a senile old man into doing their dirty work for them. For that alone, they deserved a swift kick in the ass but their comeuppance was long overdue for what they’d done to Isabel.

Vince and Nolan deserved to have their names sullied, their financial future wiped out, and their
status downgraded but if they deserved such punishment, he did, too.

Every single day he served penance for what he’d done to Isabel. How were the twins paying their due?

Dillon swiveled away from the window and dropped the file the lawyer had left behind in the drawer beside him and for the first time felt uncertain as to what his next move should be.

The next phase of his plan was ready. He had the power to destroy his brothers but whereas before he’d been single-mindedly focused on his goal, now he found himself hesitating. It was all Penny’s fault. Before she came along, he would’ve had no trouble following through with his agenda.

Before Penny, nothing could’ve shaken his focus.

A long exhale escaped his chest as he gave into the memory of losing himself in her plump, soft body. Penny embodied feminine grace with her rounded curves and billowing breasts, though she didn’t have an ounce of self-awareness, which only sweetened that vulnerable part about her that he seemed to have caught a vicious craving for. He could very well lose his mind replaying every touch of her fingertips or slide of her mouth; every sigh and moan that slipped from her parted lips as he pleasured her until she cried and quaked beneath him. He’d never been so consumed by one person and the feeling alternately frightened the shit out of him and drove him to do something reckless —
 such as try and see her.

Step away from the crazy juice
, he warned himself. Seeing Penny was the worst thing he could do and he was clearly off his game for even allowing the thought to cross his mental threshold.

The world was filled with pretty, curvy women —
 hell, he could spend some time in Brazil and find a handful of women to bury himself in who were nothing but tits and ass — he didn’t need to obsess on the one woman whom was the worst fit for him.

He scoffed at the idea of inserting Penny into his world.
What a nightmare that would be. He wasn’t the kind of man who believed in commitment and Penny, in spite of her cockamamie agreement with his brothers, wanted a man to love her and only her. Plus, he traveled in debauched circles that would likely curl her sweet hair into knots. The parties, the orgies…he couldn’t even imagine exposing Penny to such a filthy lifestyle. She deserved better. That was the bottom line and it didn’t matter how he danced around it or tried to turn it into something that it wasn’t…the fact remain clear: Penny deserved more than being relegated to someone’s fuck buddy.