“Yeah, but what if it was too much? What if she just wants two regular guys, not the Ellis brothers?”
“Uh, we are the Ellis brothers, and that’s not going to change anytime soon. We’ve got a corporation to run, a town to help oversee.”
“No shit, Garrett. But it’s not about that. She gets that. What she doesn’t get is that our worlds really aren’t that different.” Garrett pinned him with a glance. “All right, that’s a stretch, but the thing is that she doesn’t think she fits in. She doesn’t think she has a place with us.”
“Well, brother, I think we’re just going to have to convince her otherwise.”
Dalton felt the conspiratorial smile growing on his face. “My thoughts exactly.”
* * * *
Madeline looked up from her ledger, all the numbers big and small that would determine whether or not she would be the head of a non-profit at the end of the month, and debated on answering the door.
She shrugged. They would knock again if it was important. She was not expecting anyone, anyway, and she did not have any extra spending money right now. Every extra cent she had went to buying things for the center.
Someone knocked again, and she sighed heavily as she dragged her feet to the door.
She unlocked the door, and it swung open on its hinges.
Dalton and Garrett stood on the other side of the threshold, looking and smelling like sin incarnate.
Garrett skimmed her body with his gaze, her skin feeling the hot beam of his attention as though he were pressing his body against hers. Then he grinned at her—that cock-sure grin that should have pissed her off but made her pussy wet every single time. “Hey, babe.”
Madeline gulped. “H–hey.”
Dalton regarded her with that quiet force of his, and she felt so open, so exposed that she was tempted to slam the door in their faces to protect herself from his all-seeing eyes. Curse him. He knew exactly what he did to her.
She’d missed them terribly but would be damned if she’d let them just flounce back into her life and pick things up where they left off as if nothing had happened. Even she could admit—to herself—that she might have overreacted a little bit before, but there was still truth to her misgivings. She sucked her nerves up and glared back at them. “What are you two doing here?”
Dalton regarded her for a moment. “Get your things. We’re taking you somewhere.”
“Oh, I don’t think so. Not after the way you’ve completely dropped off the face of the earth for weeks.”
His eyes flashed with something dark and hard. “We’re the ones who’ve disappeared? Are you serious? You’re the one who pushes us away and then we’re suddenly the ones who fucked up? I don’t think so.”
“Don’t you get high and mighty with me, Dalton. I’m not one of your cute little secretaries you can boss around.”
“Whoa, we never said you were,” Garrett interjected.
“Where the hell are you getting these ideas, Madeline?” Dalton sounded as though he was about to run out of patience.
“How could I not get these ideas?” she snapped.
They just were not going to understand, were they? How the hell would this work with the two of them? It would be hard enough for her to assimilate to their world with only one man, but two? She needed to step out of this fantasy before she got too enmeshed in it—before she lost her whole self to them and never got it back.
Dalton stepped over the threshold, and she retreated before she even realized it. “When are you going to learn, Madeline?”
“Learn what?”
“Learn that you belong to us now and we’re not letting you go.”
Garrett completed their circle. “Now go get your stuff. We’re taking you somewhere.”
“But I have work to do. I have meetings and lessons I need to plan—”
God, she did not trust herself to be alone with them right now. Not with her resolve crumbling as her arousal rose. No! This should not be happening. She should tell them to go, to get out of her life unless they just wanted to be friends and business partners.
As if you would be able to handle that, a voice all but screamed inside her head.
Garrett laid on the charm, stepping close enough to her that she felt his body heat and running his fingers down her arms. “Come on. It’ll only be for the afternoon. We’ll have you back before your curfew. We swear.”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” she hedged.
Garrett’s brows lowered. “Why not?”
“What is this really about? Why are you all of a sudden so interested in spending time with me now when you haven’t even said as much as ‘hi’ in two weeks?”
“Maybe we missed you. How about that?” Dalton’s words melted away the tension that had built up in her body during the hours she spent without them. And so did the tight look on his face. He hated expressing his feelings.
“Fine,” she conceded, “but no fooling around. I really do have a lot of work to do.”
“But it’s a Saturday,” Garrett complained.
“Yeah, well, I have to work this one.”
“Well, hurry up, then, and get your stuff,” Garrett said. “If we get going now, we can get there before it gets too hot.”
“Where are we going?”
Dalton looked down at her from the corner of his eye. “It’s a surprise.”
Oh, no. The last time they surprised her, she woke up in a different hemisphere. And loved every moment of it.
Garrett snickered. “We’re staying within county lines, Maddie. Relax. We’re just going to go do something almost everyone does at this time of year.”
“And what’s that, Garrett? Skinny dipping in the river?”
“We could do that, too.” He stepped closer. “I would love to reach out to you and feel nothing but your slick, wet skin and your slick, wet—”
“Okay, fine. You’ve made your point. Let’s go.” Madeline grabbed her purse and keys and shooed them out the door. Garrett’s words turned her on beyond belief, and it was all she could do to keep herself from breaking down and throwing herself at them, or worse, breaking down and crying in front of them.
She hurried to keep up with them as Dalton rounded the hood of a beat-up, old Jeep while Garrett opened the passenger door for her.
“Thank you,” she said as she slid into the seat.
Garrett smiled, his gaze fastened to her cleavage. “Pleasure is all mine.”
“So, how do you like the new ride?” Dalton asked, looking as childlike as she could imagine a big man could.
“It’s certainly different. Not your usual.” Madeline smiled.
“We’re just two normal guys today, taking you out on a normal, frugal date.” Garrett kissed her cheek as he rose from the backseat.
“Two normal guys? Right, whatever you say.”
The journey to wherever they were going was fraught with meaningful silences and stolen glances. Madeline sat with her hands tucked in her lap, watching the scenery change from city to grassland until, finally, Dalton turned onto a country road and drove down until it ended.
A sweet-looking cottage stood surrounded by ancient oak trees, and the dirt road curved in the front. Bougainvilleas and wildflowers decorated the front of the house, and just behind it, she could see the lines of little plants stretching as far as she could see.
“Wow. This is beautiful. How did you find this place?” she asked as she got out of the car and walked toward the fields, their steps crunching over the gravel.
“It’s a family place,” Garrett answered. “A strawberry farm, actually.”
“Family place? Oh, so you came here a lot when you were younger?”
They rounded the house, and the fields spanned out in front of her. The strawberry plants were arranged in straight rows that marched toward a huge patch of oak trees in the distance.
Dalton shrugged. “You can say that. We own it.”
“This is all yours?” She gestured to the per
fectly straight rows of lush green plants.
Dalton and Garrett flanked her on either side and stood still beside her for a moment. The Dalton said, “Yeah. When Bea was little, the only fruit she would eat was strawberries.”
Garrett snorted. “She thought they were some sort of special fruit because they’re kind of heart-shaped. I can’t tell you how many times I walked into the kitchen to find her trying to make a love potion.”
“That sounds like something Bea would do.” Madeline could just see it.
“So one day she asked our dads if she could grow strawberries in the backyard,” Dalton continued. “They didn’t say anything at the time, and she kept pestering and pestering them. Finally, one summer they took us all on a car ride and took us here. She was so excited. I don’t think I had ever seen her so excited.”
“They bought a little girl a strawberry farm?”
“Sure, why not?” Dalton asked, shrugging. Then he turned his body toward hers, and his eyes spoke volumes. “They wanted to make her happy.”
His body seemed to grow bigger, more imposing, and she thought, hoped, that he would kiss her—that they would both kiss her. But he just put his big hand on the small of her back and led her forward. “We’ll show you around.”
They led her toward the raised plant rows, and the closer they got, the more the fragrance of the ripe berries floated in the air.
“It’s a pick-your-own place. It’s all ours today, but usually a lot of people from all over the state love coming here,” Dalton said.
“And all the plants are organically grown. Mom was a stickler about organic foods. She hated anything with pesticides or stuff she couldn’t pronounce being in our food.”
“There are also blackberries and melons on the other side of the farm, and there are a lot of honeybees, too,” Garrett added when Dalton stiffened and went silent next to her.
Madeline bent down to take a closer look at the strawberries and to retreat from Dalton’s silent intensity. She still could not figure out what exactly happened to their parents, but from the way Dalton always shut down when they were mentioned, he didn’t like to speak about it.
The fruit she saw was ripe and plump, ready to be picked and devoured.
Garrett knelt beside her. “Go on. Pick as many as you like.” He handed her an adorable straw basket with a red gingham handkerchief inside.
Madeline turned to face him. “Why did you bring me here?”
This place was more personal, more intimate than Bariloche. It was not that she did not have the time of her life in South America, but this was closer to home, more revealing about who they were and how they got to be that way.
“We thought it would be nice to show you something more…ordinary, I guess.” Garrett went silent for a moment. “We thought we scared you away.”
“No!” Madeline felt herself blushing and glanced at the rich soil beneath her feet. “You didn’t,” she said quietly this time. “Argentina was beautiful—a dream, a fairy tale. It was one of the most memorable experiences of my life. It’s just…”
“Just what?” Dalton asked from above her.
Madeline felt his eyes on her, burning up her skin like the sun itself. She took her time picking some strawberries and stood up to face Dalton.
“It’s just that it reminded me of how different we are, especially when you brought my kids those toys.”
Dalton’s jaw tightened.
“It’s not about the toys, Dalton,” Madeline hastened to say. “It’s about the fact that you have the luxury to do that when I work with people every day who don’t have the luxury to even buy food sometimes. And I certainly didn’t have such—such resources when I was growing up.” She looked him in the eye and tried her damndest to see past his blank façade. “It’s just hard to imagine why you would do all of that for someone like me, someone who is so different from you.”
“How did you come to this conclusion?” Dalton asked, his gaze flicking over her face.
“When you went and got a ten thousand dollar sex toy for me, when you just decide that, oh, you need a plane or a new mansion or a new yacht, and just go and buy it. The rest of us have to scrape and live on a budget. That’s my reality. That’s my world. And I was lucky enough to have been raised middle class!”
Dalton released a breath. “You need to get rid of all of those bullshit ideas.”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “Excuse me?”
“Whatever ridiculous ideas or notions about you not being able to be with us, get rid of them now.”
“Are you calling my reasons for being upset ridiculous, Dalton?”
Garrett sidled up next to her and ran his big down her back. “No, babe. What he’s saying is that we don’t want anything to keep us away from you. Nothing. We don’t want you having any doubts about how we feel about you or where you fit in. We want you, plain and simple, and we’re going to do anything and everything in our power to make sure you stay with us. It was a long few weeks without you.”
Garrett’s words made her heart soar, as did Dalton’s grunt of agreement, but how long would they want her? And how long—
Dalton approached her and cupped her elbows. “Stop it. Stop doubting yourself and how much you mean to us.” His eyes and voice burned with intensity, making the words in her head dry up and blow away with the lazy summer wind. “I don’t ever want to see you beat yourself up about this again. We want you. End of story. It’s not going to change. Ever.”
“Oh,” she breathed.
“Now, come on. We have a surprise for you.” Dalton smiled, a true, radiant smile. “A little one, we promise. Nothing over the top.”
They led her toward a copse of trees, and there was a blanket laid out under the shade of a huge oak tree. A basket sat in the middle of it with a bouquet of wildflowers piled on top. It was the picture of rustic Texas elegance.
“Oh, my God.” Madeline’s cheeks hurt from how big her smile was, but that didn’t matter. What did was that they had gone out of their way to make the afternoon simple and special for her. “This is beautiful. Thank you.”
She picked up the flowers when she got to the blanket and reveled in their understated beauty. Texas had to have some of the most beautiful wildflowers around. She glanced behind her. And men. She was particularly partial on the subject, but she knew the Ellis brothers were two of the best catches around. And for some reason, they’d decided they wanted her. She didn’t know how that happened, or why, but she came to the conclusion, as she glanced around at the scenic picnic spot, that she would just try her best to let go. She had done enough worrying and feeling sorry for herself lately. Today was when she would start a new chapter in her life—the Madeline stops over-analyzing everything in her life chapter.
Madeline sank down to the blanket, and Dalton and Garrett followed, arranging themselves on either side of her. The cicadas’ trills rang out in the lazy heat of the afternoon, and a warm breeze shifted the hairs on the back of her neck. She reached for the picnic basket and rifled through it—citronella candles, napkins, utensils, Pyrex containers filled with sandwiches, bottled water and juice, a remote control vibrator and lube.
Wait.
“Hey!” She waved the bottle around. “What kind of picnic is this?”
Dalton’s eyes darkened. “We’re eating out.”
Garrett gave her his sexy smile. “Alfresco.”
“Alfresco, hmm?” Madeline eyed the bottle and put it back in the basket. Best to save that for later, for after she had enough nourishment in her system to handle two Ellis brothers at the activity they were masters of.
“Speaking of which,” Dalton said as he grabbed a citronella candle and a length of rope and stood, “I don’t want any little bugs getting in the way of anything.” He straightened to his full height and slung the rope over one of the branches overhead and caught it. Then he wrapped the rope around and around the candle’s base and knotted it, effectively creating a holder for it but leaving enough room at
the top so that the rope would not catch flame when they lit it.
The image of her tied to the bed while they fucked her flashed through her mind, heating her up faster than any Texas summer day could. Her nipples beaded against her bra cups, making her painfully aware of how much they wanted her while they acted all cool and calm. So unaffected. Those bastards.
“So,” she said, grabbing the Pyrex with the sandwiches, “who’s hungry?” Her voice shook with her arousal, but she just smiled through it and hoped they did not notice it. She had gone way too long without them, and now, sitting here with them, she felt every single moment of their time apart.
She took a bite of the sandwich, expecting it to be as delicious as it looked. But it was not. She spit it out in her napkin.
“Please don’t take this the wrong way, because I love that you went out of your way to make this special, but I think you left the mayo out in the sun too long because it’s sour now.” Laughing, she dug into the picnic basket and reached for a bottled of iced mint green tea. She tilted her head back and drank until the tang of the sandwich left her mouth. When she straightened, she felt a drop of the tea land on her collarbone.
She’d reached to wipe it off when she glanced up and saw Dalton and Garrett eyeing her like the predators they were.
She sensed their need for sex, for that crazy, out-of-control intimacy. It was as palpable to her as her own. It did not surprise her. For Dalton and Garrett, anything and everything could and did lead to sex, and since she had been with them, their appetites had begun to influence hers.
Holding her gaze, Garrett gave her his naughty smile and reached into the picnic basket. “It’s a beautiful day to try out your present.”
Madeline watched as he pulled out the vibrator. Her body heated up from the inside out as he approached her.
“It’s solar powered.” He grinned, pointing at the thin, palm-sized charger. “We figure that since we’re in the energy business and all that we should try out different methods of charging everyday household supplies using eco-friendly methods.”
She felt herself smirking. “First of all, I’m pretty sure vibrators are not a staple in everyone’s household. Except for yours. And secondly, are you telling me that you attached a palm-sized solar panel to that thing?”
Mitchell, Ava and Holiday, Sydney - A Bride for Two Tycoons [The Male Order, Texas Collection] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) Page 8