Imperfect Penelope (Wild Crush)

by Sami Lee

  “These are for you.”

  Greg walked forward, proffering the blooms. Penny took them and tried not to let her fingers touch his. “You shouldn’t have bought flowers.”

  “I saw them when I stopped to get the wine. They reminded me of you.”

  Penny inhaled their scent. They were bright and fun, and they smelled divine. And Greg had said they reminded him of her. Her heart flipped over, which made panic chock her throat. “I mean it, Greg. You shouldn’t have. I don’t want to get…confused.”

  He quirked a brow. “And geraniums confuse you?”

  “Don’t play dumb.” Because flowers deserved a long and happy life as much as any living thing, Penny went to the cupboard and got a vase down. While she filled it with water, she continued. “This isn’t a date, and I’d rather you didn’t give me the impression it is by bringing flowers and looking at me the way you just looked at me.”

  “I got the flowers because I thought you might like them,” he said. “And I looked at you like that because I couldn’t help it. You’re stunning.”

  “You see? That’s the kind of thing you can’t say to me.”

  “Why not?”

  Penny set the vase on the counter, huffed in frustration and whirled back around to face him. “Because it’s romantic. And you and I aren’t having a romance.”

  Greg inclined his head. “I’ll admit offering you cereal after you gave me the best night of my life was not my finest moment.”

  Her heart fluttered and flopped wildly at that best night of my life comment. Surely he didn’t mean that. Then again, maybe he did. It had been the best night of hers. Penny shoved that thought aside, along with the subsequent thrill she got out of the idea of being the best sex Greg had ever had. She had to focus on what was important.

  Protecting her heart from this man who seemed all too dangerous to it.

  “This has nothing to do with the cereals you keep in your cupboard. I eat Weet-Bix. It’s the breakfast of champions.”

  “I agree. Now that we have that sorted,” he drawled, “do you think you could show me how to cook Pad Thai? All this talk of food is making me hungry.”

  He was smiling in that way he had today at Summer’s Retreat. All goofy and unGreg-like. It threw Penny’s thoughts into a spin until she couldn’t quite remember what she was complaining about. “You’re kidding.”

  “I’m not. You didn’t think I’d invite myself to dinner and not offer to help in the kitchen, did you?” He slipped his suit jacket off and hung it over a dining chair. He started loosening his red silk tie. “Besides, I need to start learning to cook more healthy meals. No more picking up takeaway on the way home. Doctor’s orders.”

  Penny got the gist of what he was saying but the actual words escaped her. Her attention was too drawn by the whooshing sound Greg’s tie made as he slipped it free of his collar. He draped it over the jacket and started undoing shirt buttons. Pop. Pop. Two buttons open. Penny prayed for one more, but he started undoing his cuffs instead.

  “For the record, I have no objection to you looking at me like that. But if you want to get through dinner, I suggest you don’t.”

  Had his voice thickened or was her hearing playing tricks on her? Greg was rolling up his shirtsleeves, revealing his strong and lightly haired forearms. Penny wasn’t sure of anything other than the fact her libido was enjoying the show.

  “Penelope.”

  Oh boy. He growled her name in that tone. Far from warning her off, it made her instantly wet. Penny struggled to control herself, when all she wanted to do was run over there and…

  Greg’s head dropped suddenly, breaking the spell. Penny’s gaze followed his to see Mr. Rumplepants had done his hit-and-run routine. This time he retreated only as far as the dining room, where he settled himself underneath a chair to watch Greg with a mildly pathetic “please love me” expression.

  “I think he has a crush on you,” she said, regaining enough equilibrium to at least sound casual. Saved by the socially inept cat.

  “At least someone does.”

  Penny’s heart twisted as she held back the words I have a crush on you too. Lord help her, she did, although understanding why was beyond her. He was confusing the hell out of her when he wasn’t jerking her around. Well, he also turned her on like mad. Occasionally the man was even funny, not to mention surprisingly self-deprecating for someone who had it all going on. He had charm, when he deigned to use it. And he talked dirty in bed, which was hot as hell, but made even hotter by the fact he didn’t seem like the type of person who would.

  Recognizing the return of the I have to have him now mood, Penny forced her mind to focus on what they were supposed to be doing, which was…meal preparation. That’s right. Use that brain for something other than lewd thoughts, Pen.

  “Why don’t you chop the veggies,” she said as she opened the second drawer and showed him the knives. She didn’t trust her trembling hands with a sharp blade. “I’ll marinate the tofu.”

  “Tofu?”

  She smiled sweetly at his dubious tone. “It’s healthy. Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it.”

  “All right, I won’t,” he promised, as he retrieved a knife and chopping board from the drawer and set them on the counter. “This vegetarian thing you do—mind if I ask why? Is it a health thing or something to do with your social conscience?”

  “A bit of both, I suppose. And before you start talking about iron and protein, there are other ways to get those besides from red meat.” Penny cut open the packet of tofu and set it in a dish ready for the marinade. “When it comes down to it, I have a problem with the idea that we call some animals friends and some food. I mean, I wouldn’t eat Trevor.”

  She gestured to the couch, where her fat ginger friend was spread out on his back, snoring away with his belly on display for the world to see.

  “Neither would I,” Greg concurred. “But you don’t keep cows as pets.”

  “I might if I had room. They’re not as dumb as people think. Look into a cow’s eyes sometime.” Penny’s gaze narrowed on Greg’s. “She knows the score.”

  One dark brow cocked over an amused eye. “You commune with cows?”

  “Don’t laugh at me.” Penny elbowed him in the ribs, although she was trying to suppress a smile. She did sound sort of kooky. “And don’t get me started talking about caging conditions in the mass-market beef industry, or the live-export trade. I tend to get passionate.”

  His voice dropped an octave. “Oh, we wouldn’t want that.”

  Penny’s breath quickened, and she suddenly had trouble replacing the cap on the bottle of soy sauce. After setting down the knife, Greg put his hand over hers and helped her secure the lid. His palm was warm where it enveloped her knuckles, his dexterity far superior to hers because he didn’t seem to have any trouble doing the basic kitchen duty. His capability in the face of intense sexual chemistry was seriously attractive.

  Was she actually getting turned on because he recapped a soy-sauce bottle?

  “Thanks,” Penny said, sounding breathless. His cologne wafted over her, smelling a damn sight better than marinated tofu. Perhaps she ought to eat Greg for dinner. It was all she seemed to be hungry for.

  Her stomach growled, reminding her that she was actually hungry for food too, and Penny moved away to put the sauce back in the cupboard. It gave her a little breathing space, which she desperately needed. When she turned back, she saw Greg had returned to chopping carrots. His back was to her as he concentrated on the task. It looked broad and strong, and it filled out his business shirt well. The tailored trousers did great things for his ass too.

  “Are you the only one in your family with a social conscience about beef?” Greg asked without turning around.

  “You want to know the ideology of all my family members?”

  “I want to have a conversation
with you. But if you keep staring at my ass, I’ll soon forget I’m trying to be a gentleman.”

  Penny wrenched her gaze away from the glutes in question and busied herself getting wine glasses down from the cupboard. “I doubt that.” Was that her voice sounding all husky? “I think you’re too well trained in gentlemanly behavior to forget.”

  “Don’t test me, Penelope.”

  The spark of rebelliousness that ignited told her that was exactly what she was doing. Testing his boundaries, trying to work out exactly what he was doing here besides asking for lessons in Thai cookery. The sexual tension was as thick as molasses, and Penny was having a hard time imagining letting him leave here without demanding he do something about it. If he’d only stayed away from her, she could have spent the rest of her nights touching herself to the memories of how expertly he’d made her come. That would have been safer.

  Nothing about them sharing space in her kitchen felt safe, but the urge to play with the fire he’d started merely by being here persisted. “What I mean is…” Penny began as she opened the red wine and poured some into the glasses. She carried them both over to where Greg stood and slid one on the bench in front of him. “I get the impression you’re very well bred. For someone who says fuck a lot during sex.”

  A slice of carrot went flying off the chopping board as Greg’s hand jerked. Trevor woke abruptly at the sound of food hitting the floor, flopping back into sleep mode when he saw the offering was one measly cube of vegetable. Penny watched the cat and sipped her wine, ballsy enough to bring up the whole sex issue but apparently not brave enough to look Greg in the eye while she did it.

  At length, Greg said, “I went to a very good school. The best money could buy.”

  “I see.” It wasn’t only the two-hundred-bucks-an-hour thing that had him sitting pretty financially. His parents had money. “I suppose you get a great education that way.”

  “Not necessarily. It’s more about making connections with the ‘right’ people than mastering calculus. That’s the way things work in the world I’m from.”

  “You make it sound like a different planet.”

  “Sometimes I think it is. It’s all a lot of hierarchical nonsense, and I fear all my expensive education has failed to prepare me for someone like you.”

  Penny took another sip of her wine, gathering the courage to look at him. He’d set down the knife and was leaning one hip on the counter, watching her. “Someone like me?”

  “Someone who enjoys pushing my buttons.”

  She’d deny that’s what she was doing, but she was far too honest to pull off a lie of that magnitude. “The women you knew in Sydney didn’t give you any trouble, huh?”

  “Not often, no. They were usually happy to fall into a predetermined plan.” Something flashed in his eyes, something that told Penny there was an unspoken until her on the end of that sentence. He turned to face the array of chopped vegetables on the bench. “We need noodles for this, don’t we?”

  “Oh. Right.” Penny returned to the pantry for the necessary packet, tamping down the urge to pursue the topic of Greg’s past relationships. She didn’t want to know.

  Yes you do. She’d sensed all along there was a wound in him that he was only halfway expert at covering up, and her guess was it involved a woman. Maybe if she knew all of it, if he explained why that experience had soured him on relationships forever, it would stick in her brain that he wasn’t willing to offer her anything. She could quash for good the niggling optimism that was trying to compel her to get excited about the flowers and his apparent interest in her as a person.

  “I’d love to hear more about how people date in upper-crust Sydney society.” She switched on the jug for the boiling water she’d need to soak the rice noodles. “It sounds very different to how things go down in Leyton’s. We’re too quirky for predetermined plans here.”

  “How so?”

  “You already know about Summer and Ty doing things backwards.” Penny let him deflect the discussion from himself for the moment. “Well, there’s also my sister Emily. You remember, Jet, my almost brother-in-law?”

  “How could I forget? The man shows off when he dances.”

  Penny smothered a smile. He was still jealous, even though he knew there was nothing between her and Jet. It was… Oh God. It was giving her that little spurt of hope that she had to kill. No rose-colored glasses anymore, Pen. “Well, he’s one of two unofficial brothers-in-law my sister has given me.”

  His dumbfounded expression was so comical, Penny laughed. “You’re not serious.”

  “Sure am. My big sis hit the jackpot.”

  Greg’s brows lifted. “That a fantasy of yours, is it?”

  “Not really.”

  But I have others, Penny thought, her glance shooting to the red silk tie draped over the back of her dining chair. Why did he have to wear red when he came over here? In her naughtiest dreams, the satin sheets were always red, and now she mentally added red silk ties to the fantasy. Thinking about Greg, that silk tie and her wrought-iron headboard made her nipples peak inside her tank top.

  “Where did your mind just go?”

  Penny snapped her gaze back to Greg’s, which was studying her far too shrewdly for her liking. “Nowhere interesting.” Little white lies she could tell—when she had to. “Don’t grill me. It’s your turn. I asked about the dating habits of the Sydney elite. So educate me.”

  “I’d hardly call my family part of the elite, but we were definitely from staid, stiff-upper-lip British stock,” Greg told her. “My grandfather emigrated from London, brought his three children here with him along with his very elegant wife named Elizabeth. They were both from the same circles—she was the descendant of a duke, and was considered quite a catch.”

  “I’ll bet,” Penny said.

  “The story was my grandfather courted my grandmother for precisely eight months, before asking her father for her hand. They married in a lavish ceremony held in the duke’s country castle.”

  “Country castles are handy when there’s a wedding to be held.”

  “You shouldn’t ask questions if you’re going to make fun of the answers.”

  “You’re right. Forgive me. I’m not as well-bred as you are.”

  “But you obviously have fantastic genes,” he countered, looking her up and down with a lasciviousness that wasn’t as subtle as his breeding called for. Penny’s already beaded nipples reacted, and sexual desire made her stomach muscles clench. He asked softly, “Have you heard enough yet?”

  Penny cleared her throat. “No. Tell me about your parents. I’m guessing they’re both suitably elegant people who conducted their courtship in the proper manner.”

  “You guess right. They proceeded to have two strapping sons, one who dutifully followed in his father’s law-school footsteps. My father is a judge, the Honorable Lionel Danvers of the Supreme Court.”

  “Wow. My dad’s an electrician.”

  “Which is probably a more honorable profession than the law can be at times,” Greg quipped.

  “Your dad must be proud of you for going into law.”

  “I did what was expected and was a lesser disappointment than my brother, but pride isn’t a word I’d use.”

  If Lionel Danvers hadn’t been proud of Bryan before, Penny couldn’t imagine he was thrilled with how things were going for his youngest son these days. “How is Bryan doing, by the way?”

  “All right, I think. I haven’t heard from him in a few days.” Greg looked at her sidelong. “It’s nice of you to ask, considering.”

  “I don’t wish him any ill-will. I hope he sorts himself out.” For your sake if nothing else, she added silently, not liking the idea that Greg had to deal with a sibling in such turmoil. It would put him in turmoil as well, seeing how protective he was of his brother. She didn’t want Greg stressed out, she wanted to see
him happy.

  And that’s just the kind of mushy-mushy thinking that makes having cozy conversations with this man dangerous. You care about him a little too much.

  “Does your dad know about Bryan’s…problem?” Penny asked quickly to distract herself from her thoughts.

  Greg shrugged. “Unlikely. Bryan would never have gone to him for money. When my father decided to divorce my mother, he did that in the way it’s done where I’m from. Cleanly. He paid a generous settlement and left the child-rearing to my mother, that being the woman’s domain, you see.”

  Penny didn’t see, since her parents had a much more egalitarian approach to family life. They loved each other like husband and wife and shared the duties in an organic way that seemed to somehow work out fairly equal. They didn’t assign tasks to each other like colleagues. “That doesn’t sound clean as much as…cold.”

  “That it does.” She felt him studying her profile as she put the noodles in a bowl and poured boiling water over them. All was silent save for the noise made by the splashing water, and the sound of a lone car driving up the street outside. At length, Greg said, “I don’t usually tell people any of this.”

  His soft admission made Penny’s throat constrict. “I know.”

  “I want to tell you things, Penny. Whatever it is you think you need to know in order for you to trust me. I know I screwed things up the other morning, letting you think that I didn’t want you again. I did. I never meant for us to be a one-night-stand, but I didn’t know how to give you anything else. Not then.”

  His not then made her pulse jump. Her hands trembled as she set the jug back down on the counter.

  “Ask what you really want to ask.”

  At his prompt she turned to face him, clinging to the counter behind her like an abseiler clings to the rope. She was nervous for reasons she didn’t understand, but she broached the topic at the heart of the matter, because she had to.

  “Who did you court in the proper way?”

  Chapter Twelve