“It was.” Cody sighed. “But it’s over, now. I survived, thank God—and thanks to Greg.” He gave her his best smile. “Did you know that he’s been to that area and helped some of those folks so much, when they heard I’d been taken, they mounted a full-scale operation to find me? Talk about the rewards of paying it forward!”
Rebecca tilted her head to one side. “Actually, I haven’t known much about what Greg’s been up to—at least not until last night.”
“He does tend to hold everything either close to the vest, or way out to here.” Cody extended his arm.
He turned his attention back to the view. There were clusters of trees here and there as the land gently sloped to the southeast. He’d surfed the web, just after he’d first met Greg, filled with curiosity about the area in Texas the man he loved was from. He knew they were on the very edges of the Texas Hill Country, and on a piece of the continent called the Edwards Plateau. He’d learned facts and figures, but nothing compared to this view.
The trees weren’t the kind of trees he was used to, having grown up in New York State. The ground appeared rocky and uneven, covered in scrub grass in some places, and bare dirt in others, with bits of rock poking through.
Before he’d known Greg, before he’d looked it up, he’d been certain that all of Texas was dry, barren, and flat.
Rebecca’s question echoed in his mind.
“I’d use filters to even out the light, maybe shoot it in sepia. This view doesn’t need anything to enhance it, to make it special. It just is.”
“Hmm.” She seemed to be focusing with singular attention on what for her must have been a very familiar view.
He knew she wasn’t humoring him. She, like him, was an artist working in a visual medium. He’d seen some of her work in New York, and in Paris.
Rebecca Jessop’s paintings were highly sought after—but more, she was a damn good artist.
“I think I might use mostly muted colors. The trees, of course, would be blurs, and I’d put flecks of color on the ground, to hint at the wildflowers yet to come. We get a few, here and there.” She met his gaze and grinned. “It’s a shame I’ve never felt compelled to paint this.”
Cody leaned against one of the porch posts, and studied the compelling view Rebecca represented.
“Now you…I think if I were to photograph you, I’d do what I rarely do, and pose you.”
“You would?” Rebecca leaned against the opposite post and gave him a sweet smile.
“I would. I think I’d have you kneeling on top of a round hay bale, in autumn, with the eastern sky before you, about an hour before sunset. Maybe I’d go for a bit of sun shining on you. I see you in cut-off denim cheek shorts, a tied-off gingham shirt, and a straw cowboy hat. Arms akimbo, you’d be looking off toward the north—or maybe at your lovers who were headed your way.”
“Really? You wouldn’t pose me as a Goth?”
“Hell, no. You’re brimming with life and color. Who the hell sees you as a Goth?”
“Well, pretty much everyone. I tend to wear black sometimes.”
“You’d shimmer, even in black.” Then he focused his gaze on the cabin. “I’ve been picturing you in that hot tub, upstairs wearing nothing at all but that sexy smile of yours.”
“Is that right?” Rebecca blushed, which told Cody that despite her being such a big deal in the art world, she likely didn’t have as much experience between the sheets as either he or Greg could boast. Not only was his cock beginning to perk up and notice that he was still alive and there was a sexy, very attractive woman nearby. His emotions began to stir as well. Maybe I can take one step in that direction, test the waters, so to speak.
“So tell me, Blue Eyes, do you kiss on the first date?”
“We haven’t been on a date,” she said.
“I beg to differ. We had late-night drinks, and breakfast this morning. By my reckoning, that’s two dates.” He reached over and caught her hand in his. When he tugged gently, she came to him.
Greg came to the open door. He leaned against the doorframe, folded his arms in front of his chest, and nodded.
“This is kind of a watershed moment for us, Blue Eyes. I think Greg is a hot kisser, and I bet you do, too. If this is going to work, there has to be that same kind of heat between the two of us.”
Rebecca loped her arms around his neck. “I’m glad you realize that. I haven’t kissed very many men, because quite frankly, not a one of them has come close to Greg.” She looked over her shoulder, then, telling Cody that she’d felt Greg’s presence. “I realize that might give you an even bigger head than normal, darlin’.”
“As long as it’s the one below the waist, darlin’, you can only benefit from that.” Greg grinned and for the first time in a good couple of weeks looked relaxed, lighthearted, and interested.
When Rebecca turned back to face him, she was smiling. He didn’t waste a moment, but bent down and captured that smile with his lips.
Heat surged, a heady kind of heat that told Cody all systems were definitely a go. His arms tightened around her as he drew her up and drew her in. He drank her, using his tongue to slide against hers, to gather her essence, to indulge.
Her flavor aroused him, seduced him, and Cody knew he needed more. The wet slide and wonderful glide, the inhalation of scent and taste fed him an elixir he’d dreamt of, but never sipped.
Her nipples pebbled against his chest, her hips surged against his, and God, he could smell her arousal.
Slowly he tapered the kiss, needing to see passion in her eyes, needing that visual to confirm what his instincts were telling him—that here in his arms was the final part to himself that had been missing all his life.
As he raised his head, he felt Greg close in, stand between and beside them both. His lover stroked a hand down his back and he shivered. Rebecca’s eyes drifted open and yes, passion had turned those already hypnotic orbs of hers a deep, shimmering, violet.
“Christ, you two just got me hot as hell.” Greg ran a hand down Rebecca’s head.
When she looked at him, he said, “One more thing we need to know, baby.” He turned his head and met Cody’s gaze.
Cody felt Greg’s fingers fist in his hair, and his cock pulsed in response to his lover’s primal grip.
Cody met him halfway, opened his mouth under Greg’s, and dove. Always hot, always delicious, with the remnants of Rebecca’s flavor on his tongue, Greg’s essence evolved, and there, yes, there, was the holy grail of Cody’s personal quest. That taste, that wonderful, nectar-of-the-gods taste filled him up, heart and mind and body and soul.
Cody’s tongue danced with Greg’s, following his partner’s lead, and the heat between them neared the flash point.
Greg eased back, and Cody felt his heart turn over. For the first time he understood how deeply Greg had been worried about him, and how much he’d missed their intimacy.
Because they were standing, all of them so close, Cody felt Rebecca shiver and heard her gasp the same as Greg did. With Greg, he turned his attention on her. Eyes closed, Rebecca seemed to be struggling for breath.
“Why, darlin’, did you just come?” Greg’s tone, affectionate and maybe a little cajoling, brought a smile to Cody’s face.
“I didn’t mean to.” She opened her eyes and met his gaze, and then Greg’s. “It just sort of happened.”
“Well that certainly answers all of our questions, doesn’t it?” Greg said.
“It certainly answered all of mine,” Cody said.
Rebecca blushed. “This is moving fast, and I need a chance to think.”
“It was only a couple of kisses, Blue Eyes. We weren’t moving that fast.” Cody thought he might enjoy learning how to tease Rebecca Jessop.
“You’re a cautious woman, Becca. You always have been.” Greg leaned toward her and gave her a brief, though delicious-looking kiss. Just like tossing a cherry bomb into my fire.
“I can’t help that.”
Cody could practically see
the nerves on her. “No one wants you to help that, Rebecca. Neither one of us wants you to change.”
“Maybe what we need to do is head into town. You only would have had supplies on hand for one, not three. How about if we go in, get some things, and have lunch.” Greg ran his hand over Rebecca’s hair again so that she looked up at him. “We’ll visit cousin Adam, and tell him all about the scary stalker chick.”
“Damn it, Greg.”
“Damn it, Rebecca. You know that we have to.”
“Who’s Adam?” Cody asked.
“Lusty’s sheriff,” Greg said.
“Yep, we’re definitely stopping in to see the man.” Then he reached over and lifted Rebecca’s chin so that she could meet his gaze. “It’s what men do, honey. They take care of their women. But most importantly…”
“It’s what your men do,” Greg finished for him. “So get used to it.”
Cody was certain he saw not only resignation, but relief in Rebecca’s eyes. Those were two emotions he could certainly identify with.
* * * *
Rebecca relaxed against the passenger seat, taking a moment to try and shore up her defenses and put everything that had just happened into perspective.
I had an orgasm watching Greg and Cody kiss.
She never would have guessed something like that could happen. And speaking of kissing, there was no doubt in Rebecca’s mind right now that whatever it was Greg possessed that got to her, Cody had it in equal measure.
Rebecca realized she stood at the very precipice of achieving her heart’s desire—and she felt a little afraid to take that next step.
“You really should have let Adam know, as soon as you came to town, that you had a problem,” Greg said.
“I’m staying on family land in a cabin that’s about as remote as it’s possible to be. I figured that was good enough.”
“Well we don’t think so,” Cody said. “Look, I know you think this is overkill, but you’re not looking at the situation the same way we are.”
“I’m glad you feel that way, sweetheart,” Greg said. Rebecca knew he was addressing Cody in the backseat, because his gaze kept flicking up to the rearview mirror. “Because our second stop of the day will be the Lusty Clinic.”
“Well, hell and damnation, Greg.”
Rebecca turned around. “Hey, if it helps, you could just think of it as meeting some of my family.”
Cody’s mouth was turned up in a kind of snarky smile that Rebecca thought was cute as hell. He met her gaze. “Someone who works at the clinic is in your family?”
Rebecca laughed, “Everyone who works at the clinic is in my family.” Then, because it just occurred to her, she said, “And no telling my big brother Robert about the crazy stalker chick.”
“Well now, Blue Eyes, this seems to be one of those moments in life that calls for a bargain.”
“It does, at that,” Greg said. “So tell me, darlin’, what’s it worth to you? Our silence where Doctor Robert Jessop and your crazy stalker chick is concerned?”
“That’s not a bargain! That’s blackmail!”
“A rose by any other name…” Greg said.
From the backseat, Rebecca recognized the sound of smugness in Cody’s laughter.
She sighed. Actually, she wasn’t as peeved as she sounded. It never hurts to hold on to a little bit of negotiating space. Besides, this was a good way to introduce something she hadn’t known how to broach. “Fine. I seem to be saying that to y’all a lot, but fine! If you don’t tell Robert about the crazy stalker chick, then when we get back to the cabin I’ll show you my tattoo.”
“You have a tattoo?” Greg looked as shocked as he sounded. “When the hell did you get a tattoo, and do I have to break some guy into pieces because of it?”
“I’ve got your back, lover. Even if the dude’s a six-foot, three-hundred-pound biker dude named Killer, I’ve got your back.”
Rebecca wanted to laugh, but held on to her aplomb. “All right, let me see if I cover all your questions. Yes, a few weeks ago, and a lot of folks around here would prefer that you didn’t because they like him. Besides, Seth is a total professional—a real artist. And he is very much in love, and happily married to a woman I consider a friend.”
“Only a few weeks ago? What were you thinking of to put yourself in that kind of danger? Tattoo shops can be dangerous.”
Rebecca shrugged. They’d just entered Lusty, and Greg pulled to the curb across from the sheriff’s department. “Maybe tattoo shops can be dangerous in the part of the world you’ve been inhabiting, but I can tell you without a doubt that Seth Carter runs a very clean place over in Divine. Actually, Robert knows him, and was okay with it. As to what I was thinking of, it’s not what, but whom.”
“What do you mean, ‘whom’?” Greg asked.
Rebecca reached for the door handle then looked over her shoulder. “Why, lover, when I got that tattoo, I was thinking of you.”
Chapter 7
Rebecca wanted to crawl into the nearest hole in the ground and disappear.
Adam Kendall had just given her a very pissed-off look, and then laid down his pen and covered his face with his hands. She heard the scratching sound of his palms brushing over his morning’s beard growth and wondered if that action—rubbing his hands over his face—was his way of counting to ten.
Finally he looked up and skewered her with another very potent glare.
“Do you know what I would like to do? I would like to travel back in time, to that moment in our families’ history when Warren Jessop was detailing the setup of the Town Trust.”
“Oh yeah? Why’s that, Adam?” Matt Benedict, sitting over at his desk, looked and sounded like he was having entirely too much fun at the moment.
Rebecca wasn’t sure she wanted to know the answer to his question.
“I’m glad you asked that, Matt. It would be so that I could beg him to add a few ‘thou shalt nots’ specifically aimed at the women of Lusty. As in, thou shalt not grab the sword and the shield and prepare to slay the fucking dragons without the help of the men.”
“Well, at least you don’t mind us handling the swords and shields every once in a while.” Rebecca said that as sweetly as she knew how, but it could very well be she was out of practice at being sweet because her cousin just scowled at her.
Cody snickered, Greg made a different kind of noise altogether, and Adam just shook his head.
It occurred to Rebecca, at the sound of Greg’s choked-off laughter, that her words could have been taken another way. Heat suffused her face.
“All right. Now that I got that out of my system, I need a complete report from you, young lady. Why don’t you tell me about the first time you saw that stalker chick?”
“Crazy stalker chick,” Rebecca said.
“I stand corrected.”
Rebecca sighed. “It was the opening night of my last show in Seattle, at the Eugenia Carstairs Gallery. That’s a small and prestigious private gallery owned by the people behind that big hotel chain. They always showcase only the crème de la crème in the art world. I was tickled to be offered a show. In preparation for the event I worked with Brady Alexander, their private shows manager.
“Anyway, during the opening, we were standing in front of one of my paintings, you know, smiling, talking to guests, sipping champagne, the way you do at these things.”
“No, I don’t know, but I’ll take your word for it,” Adam said.
“You were working,” Cody said. “It’s all a part of the ‘face’ you put on for the art-buying public. Some folks are into your art, and some are just into being seen talking to artists. Waste of time, and generally you wish you were anywhere else, but it’s the penance you pay for being an artist, and having talent.”
“Exactly!” It was kind of nice to have someone there who got the whole art scene. “Anyway, I got this really uncomfortable feeling, like someone was staring daggers at me.”
Remembering the moment now, she couldn’t
help but shiver. She had never seen such hatred on a person’s face before.
Cody, who was sitting beside her, took her hand in his, and Greg, who’d been mostly pacing, came to stand by her other side and set his hand on her shoulder and squeezed. The feel of their touch steadied her.
“I finally looked around and I saw this woman—makeup and clothing so 1980s—and she was staring at me. You know that old saying, if looks could kill?”
Cody squeezed her hand and Greg inched just a bit closer.
“Yes,” Adam said. “Then what happened?”
Rebecca thought his tone had softened, somewhat. “Anyway, Brady looked to see what had captured my attention. He got this scowl on his face, and headed toward her. Wow, when she looked up at him, her entire countenance changed.”
“Like he was the man of her dreams?” Adam asked.
“Exactly. Until he reached her. I don’t know what he said to her, but it was as if she simply deflated right before my eyes. Then he took her arm and walked her to the door.” Rebecca inhaled, and worked to put that entire scene out of focus in her memory. She didn’t like the combination of images, in light of what had happened since.
“Did you and Alexander get involved, then?” Adam asked.
Rebecca didn’t miss the warning glance he sent Greg and Cody, and she didn’t think they missed it, either.
She appreciated the gesture, but there was no need.
“He did ask me out—had a couple of times already, in fact. I finally had to tell him—” She paused and looked up at Greg. “I finally had to tell him there was someone else in my heart, and that I couldn’t see him, or anyone.”
Rebecca shrugged, and tried to ignore the heat in her face. She’d hoped to keep a little back from the man standing beside her. He could be as bossy and arrogant, sometimes, as her big brother. “After the show was over, I was already getting ready to come home when I heard Brady had been struck and killed in a hit-and-run accident. It really upset me, because he was a genuinely nice man. I went to his funeral, and there again I had a feeling I was being watched. I looked around, but saw no one. I had that feeling a few times after that. Then, my apartment was broken into. So was my studio—I rented a separate space for working in. Fortunately, since I was planning on moving home, I’d already crated up all my work and sent it to the gallery. They’ve offered to ship home what doesn’t sell.”
Love Under Two Adventurers [The Lusty, Texas Collection] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) Page 7