Imperfect Penelope (Wild Crush)

by Sami Lee

  “Me too.” Penny touched a palm to his cheek. It was pleasantly rough. Damn, he looked sexy with beard shadow on his jaw and his suit all rumpled with the shirt buttons half-open. Her sex pulsed, remembering how that stubble had scraped across her thighs a few hours ago. “Guess it wouldn’t do for you to turn up to work in the same suit as yesterday.”

  “My reputation would be ruined.”

  Penny’s smile blossomed. “I kinda like the idea of ruining you.”

  For all other women, she added silently. Her smile fell. No, she couldn’t do that. He’d already been ruined.

  By his ex-fiancée.

  Rochelle what’s-her-name.

  Greg chuckled and kissed her—swift and emphatic this time. Still, when he pulled back Penny’s breath had quickened. “Feel like ruining me again tonight? Thought I’d buy you that dinner.”

  “Tonight? You move fast.”

  “Not usually, but with you I find I don’t want to wait.”

  Penny’s heart tripped. The idea of making a controlled, methodical man like Greg impatient was undeniably thrilling—as thrilling as it had been last night when he’d taken her up against the kitchen counter, then afterward when she’d wrapped her mouth around his cock in the shower and licked and sucked until he begged her to make him come. Yep, the simple small-town girl who would never have referred to herself as a femme fatal had made hotshot lawyer Greg Danvers beg.

  Not that she hadn’t done her share of begging as well. The man made her yearn as she’d never yearned before.

  He reached into his inside jacket pocket, pulled out his phone and handed it to her. “I think it’s getting ridiculous that I don’t have the personal number of the woman I…I want to call daily.”

  He wanted to call her daily? Penny’s heart moved into triple time. It was hard to keep sounding casual. “Hmm. I suppose I could give you my number. As long as you promise not to send me pictures of your junk.”

  His shock was comical. “Do I look like the kind of guy who’d do that?”

  No. You look like every girl’s romantic fantasy brought to life. “It’s the quiet ones you have to watch for.”

  He held up a hand. “I hereby solemnly swear to never send Penny Irving pictures of my junk.” He cocked a sardonic brow at that last word, making it obvious he’d never used it to describe his dick before. God he was cute. “Kind of an insulting phrase for an area of my body you seemed pretty happy with last night.”

  “Aw. I was more than happy, baby,” she crooned. “But no one’s penis ever looks good in pictures, and there’s that whole issue with the cloud. Clouds aren’t as secure as they used to be. You wouldn’t want any juicy pics falling into the wrong hands.”

  Greg rolled his eyes and pointed to the phone. “Your number, Penelope. Would you just put it in?”

  “That’s what she said.”

  She giggled when Greg mock growled and dipped his head to kiss her neck. She managed to find the new contact button and add her details, filing herself under yoga girl, just for kicks. She also managed to put the phone down before she scrolled through his list of contacts to see if the name Rochelle was filed under R.

  It wouldn’t make a difference if it was or wasn’t. She knew a man hung up on a woman when she saw one, and Greg was still hung up on Rochelle Myers. Of course he was. She’d been freaking perfect.

  The man in question started moving his lips downward, heading with a slow, lazy purpose to her breast. Penny threaded her fingers through his hair and arched, wanting him although she should have been spent, although she should be more cautious. This was going to hurt like hell when it was over. It already hurt like hell to hold him close while knowing she’d never be able to keep him.

  Last night in the kitchen, she’d been about to make him promise never to lie to her, to always be honest. In the end she couldn’t do it, because she already knew what he’d say. He’d say he’d never lie to her, but it was a promise he’d break eventually. It was inevitable, because he was lying to himself. He wasn’t over Rochelle.

  The way he’d talked about her, gone on about how beautiful and kind she was had scraped at Penny’s heart. He’d fled Sydney and started a whole new life for the sole purpose, she had to assume, of escaping her. You didn’t do that if the person hurt you just a little. That was pain, deep and abiding, the kind of pain you didn’t get over quickly. Yes, it had been ten months, but she was his first since then. Penny had read enough relationship books over the years to know.

  She was the transitional woman.

  “Christ.” Greg ceased playing with her breast before he’d really gotten started, and turned his cheek to rest his head on her chest. “How do you keep doing this to me? You laid me flat all night and it still hurts how much I want you.”

  Penny stroked his hair as a sad smile formed. “I know what you mean.”

  He pushed up onto the flats of his hands and leaned over her. The dark determination in his eyes was clear even in the dim light. “Tonight. I’ll call you with the details. Wear something sexy.”

  “Black dress, no underwear. Got it.”

  Greg groaned and shook his head. “What am I going to do with you?”

  “I’d suggest you have fun.” The transitional woman was supposed to be the fun one, wasn’t she? “You don’t have to do anything but just…be. Let loose. Stop worrying. Not everything needs to be planned out, you know.”

  “Says you.” Greg glanced down at her fingers as they grasped his tie, which he’d left loose around his neck. She began slipping it free of his collar. “What are you doing?”

  “Taking a keepsake,” Penny explained as she reached the end of the tie and started wrapping the slippery silk around her hand.

  Greg’s eyes narrowed. “What is it about my tie you like so much?”

  “Just a little fantasy I have.”

  Penny fluttered her eyelashes. Apparently she could be coquettish. Who knew? The way Greg looked at her made her feel like an irresistible temptress, which made it easy to play the bombshell. And play that she would. She’d be fun and flirty and sexy and wild and the best damned affair Greg ever had. If she was to be temporary, by God for once she wanted to be memorable. He wasn’t going to completely forget her when he moved on to someone more suitable, or back to perfect Rochelle, or wherever he was headed.

  “I was wrong.” Greg’s voice was soft and deceptively silky. “I know exactly what to do with you after all.”

  He kissed her thoroughly and Penny whimpered when he ended it, not feeling quite so much the temptress as a fly caught in a web of her own making. A web of supposedly casual sex that had never felt the least bit casual. He grabbed his phone and left her with a lingering look that sizzled her through the sheets.

  When he was gone she lay there for endless moments, staring up at the ceiling instead of going back to sleep. Holding Greg’s tie and rubbing it between her thumb and forefinger. Occasionally inhaling the scent of his cologne that clung to it.

  Probably not the kind of thing a free and easy temptress would do.

  Oh, help.

  A moment later her phone beeped. Penny plucked it off the bedside table to see a text message had arrived.

  Tried to take a picture of my junk but forgot to put phone in selfie mode. Accompanying the words was a picture of the Alfa Romeo’s steering wheel.

  Penny burst out laughing and immediately texted him back.

  And you with your expensive education.

  A moment later came the response. The best money could buy. Miss you already.

  Her laughter petered out as she put the phone to her chest. Suddenly there were tears in her eyes. He could be goofy. She had never anticipated goofy. Or funny, self-deprecating or sweet. He’d left her bed moments ago but he missed her. A drop-dead sexy irresistible lawyer she could handle. She could protect herself from him because she knew he’d
never take her seriously, a naturopath who would go barefoot everywhere if she could get away with it. But a goofy, funny guy who made her feel special, that was dangerous. A man who’d been hurt before and probably wasn’t over it, he activated Penny’s protective, caring instincts. He was the whole package, one she could easily fall in love with.

  Inside her head, a little voice she didn’t want to hear whispered too late.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Greg grabbed Penny’s hand as they crossed the street, heading for the community center. She liked the feel of his fingers sliding through hers way too much and tried to tug her hand free. Obstinately, he held it firmly in his.

  “It’s not a romantic thing,” he said as he waved to a car that stopped in the street, allowing them to cross. “I’m making sure you don’t trip in those shoes.”

  Penny glanced down at her brown faux-leather ankle boots. “You think I’d have trouble walking in one-inch heels?”

  “You can never be too careful.” He followed the line of her gaze, trailing his attention up and over her floaty floral skirt and soft blue cotton-knit top in a way that made her skin tingle with awareness. “You look off balance.”

  She sure as hell felt off balance after that heated perusal. “Maybe that’s because you’re holding my hand.”

  “Is it?” His lips tilted in what could only be described as a self-satisfied smirk. His grip on her hand tightened. “Good.”

  Penny had a momentary thought of admonishing him, but she was too breathless to do it effectively, so she remained silent as they stood in line for their tickets. Once a month during the warmer months, the community center put on a movie night in the multipurpose hall. They played old flicks that everyone had already seen, but nobody cared too much about what was on the screen. It was a social event where the locals got together to swap gossip and support the community center by paying five dollars for a prewatched movie, and twice that for an oversized bucket of popcorn.

  In the past Penny had often attended the movie nights with her sisters. When Emily had moved to Kingston Vale to run a horse ranch, Penny had sometimes attended with Hope or another girlfriend. Tonight she was here with Greg, and there was no denying it felt very much like a date.

  A week had passed since the night they’d cooked Pad Thai at her place, and Greg had contacted her daily, as warned. He either texted her cute messages or called to arrange to see her. Every time Penny said yes, justifying her easiness by saying they weren’t dating. They were screwing around, and a girl had to eat sometime too. She might as well eat with the guy she was screwing, right?

  Greg had taken her to a fancy restaurant up in the hills behind the town, and she’d worn that black dress with no underwear. She’d loved how telling him that information had set a fire in his eyes, and had teased him about ordering the five-course degustation menu. He’d allowed her to order one main meal only, and they’d taken their dessert to go, a delicious panna cotta which Greg had let her eat while he’d buried his head between her legs and devoured her instead.

  Penny had taken Greg to Zebs for lunch, where he’d tried falafel and declared it edible. She’d had dinner at his place twice, once eating takeaway Chinese on the couch and the other sitting at his kitchen bench with a glass of wine and watching him cook pasta Napoletana. It was an amusing spectacle, what with how intensely he concentrated on measuring all the ingredients as per the recipe instead of simply throwing them in the pan the way Penny did. He had zero creative flair in the kitchen, but he’d gone to a lot of trouble to cook her something vegetarian and Penny greatly appreciated the effort. She’d showed him how much three times that night.

  Things had gone on like that until here they were, walking into the community center on a Wednesday night looking very much like a couple, if the speculative glances people cast their way were anything to go by. Penny had figured the cat was well out of the bag yesterday when she’d run into Greg at the Beach Break Café, and after they’d consumed their takeaway drinks at a window table, he’d leaned over and kissed her right on the mouth. It wasn’t an X-rated kiss, but it had set tongues wagging nonetheless. If there was anybody in Leyton’s who didn’t know she was dating the hot lawyer after that, they knew now.

  Even Penny, who was apparently the last to know. This was no secret hot affair they were having anymore. They were dating. Publicly. Her heart pounded. How had she let this happen? Penny recalled the phone conversation they’d had this afternoon.

  Greg: Do you have any plans tonight?

  Penny: I usually go to the monthly movie thing at the community center. It’s lame, but it’s for charity.

  Greg: Sounds great. What time should I pick you up?

  Penny: Seven o’clock, I guess. Don’t be late. You’re always holding me up, lawyer man.

  (They both knew she was the one who was never quite ready on time.)

  Greg: Then tonight I shall be early, yoga girl.

  He had been, twenty minutes early, and he’d spent the time making out with her on the couch. In the end she’d had to rush to fix her hair and pick the first outfit she could put together. They’d ended up being too late to avoid the queue. They were standing in line for the movies, holding hands for all to see, very obviously dating.

  Well, shit. Not only was this going to hurt when it was over, everyone in town was going to know she was hurt. That dumbo Penny, always falling for the wrong guys and getting her heart broken.

  Greg tugged on her hand. “Hey.”

  She looked at him without quite making eye contact, lest he see the distress she couldn’t help but feel. “Hmm?”

  “You went somewhere,” he noted. “What’s worrying you?”

  That was another thing about him that was annoying, he didn’t miss anything. Although actually that was kind of nice too, being noticeable to someone. It made her feel special, cherished. It was the same way she felt when he put his hand on the small of her back to guide her through a restaurant. It was such a genteel gesture, one that said this woman is in my care. Was that Greg simply being Greg or was there more to it?

  Did he care about her? Was it possible he was falling for her, as she knew she was falling for him? Fast and with absolutely no ability to fight the force of gravity.

  Penny stopped being a chicken and looked at him. “We’re dating.”

  One corner of his mouth tilted upward. “I was wondering when you’d notice.”

  She frowned. “You’re very sneaky.”

  “I am a lawyer.”

  “I thought we were just…” Penny glanced at the middle-aged couple behind them and curbed what she’d been about to say. Instead she made a pumping gesture with her fist.

  Greg chuckled. “Oh, well done on the subtlety. I always have a good time with you, yoga girl.”

  “You do?”

  “Yes.” He held her gaze captive. “When I’m with you, I’m happy.”

  Oh God. She was dying. Dying from an overinflated heart that wouldn’t stop slamming into her sternum. The situation only got worse when Greg leaned close to her ear and whispered, “And it’s never been just that for me, sweetheart.”

  He was called to the counter before Penny could catch her breath. While he was purchasing their tickets and the largest bucket of popcorn known to man, Penny wandered a few feet away, dragging in much-needed oxygen. It’d never been just sex for him. Was he serious?

  If she was honest with herself, it had never been just sex for her either. An irresistible magnetic pull described it better. She’d been no more capable of not falling for Greg Danvers than she was of catching the moon in her hand.

  Somehow she’d done the worst thing possible.

  She’d fallen in love with him.

  Not savvy, not sophisticated, not smart, Pen.

  “Hey, boss.”

  “Charlotte,” Greg said in response to the dark-haired girl who’d
greeted him. He put an arm around Penny’s shoulders and drew her to his side. “Have you met Penny?”

  “Not officially. Hi.” Charlotte gave her a little wave. She was a sweet-looking girl with big brown eyes and a ready smile, who cast a glance between Penny and Greg. “I’m the secretary. And I’m guessing you’re the reason the boss has been whistling a lot lately.”

  “Really, Charlotte.”

  Greg acted put-upon by the girl’s teasing, but he didn’t seem genuinely annoyed. And he didn’t deny he’d been whistling, or that Penny was the cause. In fact he drew her even closer, until the solid warmth of his body infiltrated hers.

  Charlotte giggled, not in the least cowed by her employer’s warning tone. Greg was the type of boss that tolerated an employee’s teasing. Had Penny once thought of him as an ogre? He was sweet and kind and funny and handsome and caring and…

  Perfect. He was basically perfect. Penny was in love with the perfect man, which was something she’d always wanted. Did she dare hope he might return her feelings, that for once she’d hit the love jackpot?

  Charlotte left to meet her friends, and Greg guided Penny to their seats. The hall was lined with old-style canvas deck chairs. Not exactly luxury but it made for a fun, communal atmosphere. To Penny’s surprise she saw Hope sitting two rows in front of them, next to none other than Matt Kendrick, Dylan Wakefield’s business partner. Relieved to be distracted from her own love life, Penny watched them talking for a moment. Their heads were close together in a way that made them appear more than the platonic friends they’d always been. Matt confirmed Penny’s suspicions when he dipped his head and kissed Hope.

  “Wow.”

  “What’s that?” Greg asked.

  “Oh, just my sister. Hang on.” Penny plucked a piece of popcorn from the top of the giant pile Greg held in his lap and tossed it at her sister. The first piece missed, but the second landed right on the back of her neck.