by Holly Hart
“Run, Penny,” Kevin shouts in a gurgled yell. “Get out of here!”
An expression of incomprehension appears on Charlie’s face. “Seriously – who the hell is that guy?”
“It’s a long story,” I mutter.
Then, as the adrenaline begins to fade, the real reason I was running out of the museum hits me once more. I grip Charlie’s arm, terrified.
“Charlie – I don’t know what you must think of me, but I need your help. My dad – Landon Winchester’s got my dad!”
Charlie’s forehead wrinkles, and an awkward expression appears on his face.
“Actually, Penny,” he says, chewing his lip. “I do.”
118
Charlie
I can’t help but cast an appreciative glance at Penny’s ass as she steps into my limousine. Even after everything that’s happened, the one thing that hasn’t changed is my wife’s stunning beauty.
“What are you looking at?” Penny mutters, casting an anxious glance back.
I make no bones about my interest.
“You,” I growl.
You know how they say you don’t know what something’s worth until it’s gone? That’s the way it is with Penny. I knew how much I liked her from the moment I made contact with her sizzling blue eyes.
But I didn’t realize how hard I’d fallen for her until she left.
Penny makes a strangled sound. “Oh.”
I climb in after her, and slam the passenger door closed. Suddenly the hustle and bustle of an awakening New York fades away. The privacy screen is up, and it’s just Penny and me – sitting across from one another. I have a burning desire to take her hand and kiss her, but I fight it off.
I can’t. Not yet.
“You need to tell me everything, Charlie,” Penny says. She’s calmed down since she ran straight into my chest, but it’s obvious that she’s still on edge.
“Why are you here? Why was that guy following me?”
I scratch the tip of my nose.
“I could say the same thing to you…” I grin. “Well, maybe without the following bit…”
Except that’s not true, is it, I think. This whole thing started with you picking me as a target.
Penny flushes. It’s obvious she can hear exactly what I’m thinking.
“I was going to steal from you,” she blurts out, “ten million dollars; that was the plan.”
The revelation rocks me back against the leather seat. It’s not exactly a shock – I knew all this logically – but there’s nothing logical in my mind when it comes to Penny Thorne.
“Okay,” I say, kinking my eyebrow, “nice to see you too.”
My lame attempt at humor ricochets right off Penny’s anxious face. If I was hoping to make her smile, I realize I’m going to have to try a damn sight harder.
“What are you doing with my dad?” Penny demands to know. “Where have you taken him? Charlie, I swear –”
I hold my hands up to cut her off. “Penny, wait.”
She gives me a hunted look.
“Your dad’s safe. The second I found out about him, I knew that he had to move. No one gets better in Brookdale. He’s being looked at by the best doctors in the city now. My guess is that they’ll have him in surgery inside a week. I’m covering everything.”
Penny stares at me, her eyes popping out, her jaw literally dropping open. “What –?”
I bite my lip; then decide to throw caution to the wind. As far as grand gestures go, paying for your woman’s dad’s healthcare has got to buy you a few brownie points.
I reach forward, and take Penny’s hand. I press it between both my palms.
“You mean everything to me, Penny. Whatever your name is, whoever you are – I don’t care.”
“You don’t know what you’re saying,” Penny mutters. She squeezes her eyes shut, as though hiding from me, and a tear trickles out of the corner of her right eye.
I laugh. “Not a lot of people tell me that,” I say.
“Maybe they should,” Penny says in a strangled voice.
I can tell she’s beating herself up. Hell, she has every right to. The thing is this; I don’t hold a grudge against her. I really don’t. Penny might have intended to steal from me – but when push came to shove, she didn’t.
– Except my heart.
Only, there’s one last thing I can’t figure out.
“Penny,” I say.
Something in my voice causes her to open her eyes and look at me. Maybe it’s the raw honesty I feel pouring out of me.
“I’m falling –, no. I’ve fallen for you: hard. I’ve never felt like this about a woman before. Not Tilly’s mom, not anyone. Beat yourself up about what you did, fine. But don’t fight this. Don’t fight us. Don’t fight me.”
“How can you say that?” Penny groans. “After everything I’ve done. Everyone will know what I did. I can’t let you do it. I’ll ruin your reputation.”
“The hell they will,” I growl. “Besides – who cares? The dinner party circuit in this town is hella boring. You’ll be the most interesting girl in the room. Think about the kudos I’ll get – the billionaire who married the girl trying to rob him!”
I act on impulse, stand up, hunched over, and switch seats, so I’m sitting next to Penny. I’m still clutching her arm. I placed two fingers underneath her chin and lift it up, just a couple of inches. I stare directly into her eyes.
“And besides, Penny Thorne. You don’t tell me what I can’t do, you get that? Especially when that happens to be loving you.”
As the words leap from my mouth, my heart skips a beat. The clear, ringing truth in them startles even me.
Penny’s lips act out her killer goldfish impression. “You –”
I don’t give her a chance to finish whatever she was about to say. Still on my impulsive tilt, I lean forward and press my lips against hers. I loop my arm around Penny’s back and kiss her like she’s never been kissed before.
I bite her bottom lip, grazing it with my teeth. I don’t stop, don’t let up, don’t give Penny a moment’s respite.
I don’t want her to think this through. I want her to give in to what she already knows – that we are meant to be together. That it doesn’t matter how we met, or what.
“You used me, Penny,” I growl hoarsely as I pull back from the kiss.
Penny’s eyes flicker with shocked surprise. I don’t blame her. Her emotions must be on a bungee cord right now – or else in a washing machine, on spin.
“But I used you as well,” I say. “When you told that woman from CPS that we were married, my mind slowed down. It does that, sometimes – when I’m under pressure. I thought things through. I could have laughed what you said off as a joke, but I didn’t. I saw the opportunity to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat, and I took it. You played me, but I played you right back.”
And then I’m out of words. It seems kind of anticlimactic to stop there, but that’s it. I’m done. I haven’t got anything else to say.
So I wait.
“Oh,” Is all I get in return.
“Girl,” I grin. “We gotta work on your vocabulary…”
Penny licks her lips.
“Charlie,” she whispers. “You said you loved me? You’re not… You’re not –?”
“Playing you right now?” I laugh, shaking my head; “Hell no. I meant what I said, Penny Thorne. Or Penny Walters, or whatever you want me to call you. I love you. I’ll shout it off the roof tops, if I need to.”
Penny’s lips form an ‘O’. I feel my eyebrows rising, and she must notice, because she jams them shut.
“You’re not going to leave me hanging, are you?”
Penny shakes her head, and then tears are glistening in her eyes. She sniffles and hugs me – as though a thousand emotions are surging through her all at once, and she doesn’t know where to look, or where to turn.
“No,” she sniffs. “No. Charlie, I don’t want to change a thing. I love you too: you, and Tilly,
and everything. I know I shouldn’t, we shouldn’t. I’m so young, and –”
“Are you calling me old?” I grin, kissing Penny again just to stop the freak out that’s raging through her mind.
Penny’s eyes flare with apology. As she’s ramping up to say she’s sorry, I cut her off again. “Well, if I am, then I’m old enough to make my own damn mistakes. You’re a lot of things, Penny, but I know one thing for damn sure. You’re not a mistake.”
This time it’s Penny who kisses me.
Her kiss is different than mine. It’s soft, and tender. Her tongue probes my lips, gently forcing a way through. Her fingers stroke my cheeks; the lightness of her breath kisses me gently.
“You don’t know that,” she whispers. Just as I’m readying myself to assure her that I do, she cuts me off.
“But I’m glad you’re willing to find out.”
Because that’s the truth: I don’t know how this is going to go, or what’s going to happen between Tilly and Penny and I.
No one does. No one can. Life’s just a series of mistakes, and humans trying to muddle through as best they can.
“I want to muddle through with you,” I whisper.
Penny’s forehead kinks with confusion. “What?”
“Nothing,” I smile. “There’s just one thing I don’t understand.”
Penny looks at me with a hint of concern – as though she’s worried I’m about to pull the rug out from beneath her feet. She’s got nothing to worry about. I feel content right now: happy in a way I haven’t felt for years, not even with Tilly by my side.
Life’s a journey you’re supposed to traverse with kids – sure – but also with a woman by your side. Penny’s my woman: nothing’s going to change that. Not now.
“What the hell were you doing at the Natural History Museum?” I frown. “I found the box, Pen: in your room. I know Landon tricked you there last night. The second I found it, it all made sense.”
“The box…” Penny whispers, squeezing her eyes shut. “I forgot.”
I don’t stop. “But why go back?”
Penny’s eyes spring open. A strange, fiery smile stretches across her face. Combined with her glowing red hair, and even the tired redness to her cheeks, she looks downright scary.
“Because,” she growls, hefting her ass up in an awkward dance to get at whatever’s in the back pocket of her denim jeans, “of this.”
Whatever it is, she grabs it from the skin-type material and presents it to me triumphantly. She turns her fists over, and opens her fingers, revealing – something – on her flat palm.
“What is it?”
“A flash drive,” Penny grins.
“I get that,” I say. “What’s on it?”
“Watch it and find out,” Penny says, the satisfied smile lingering on her face.
I pluck the drive from her fingertips, withdraw my laptop from my briefcase, and plug it in. Penny leans over, fast forwarding a fairly dull clip of the museum closing up, then some workers sitting out what appears to be a drinks party, and then –.
And then my mouth falls open.
That bitch from CPS comes on screen. I knew she didn’t give a rat’s ass about children’s welfare the moment I met her.
“Take Landon’s money, Penny,” she says, with Landon fucking Winchester right there by her side. “Take the money, and the cash for your dad’s treatment, and run. Get the hell out of this city.”
“Or what,” Penny says.
“Or I’ll take Charlie’s damn kid from him, and there’s not a thing he’ll be able to do about it.”
My jaw drops open at that point. I can’t tear my eyes away from the screen. It is must-watch TV – and I watch the whole damn thing right through: twice.
“You’re incredible, Penny,” I moan. “This is it: proof.”
“Is it enough?” She asks with anxiety on her face.
I keep quiet for a second. “Do you know how they got Al Capone?” I ask.
She shakes her head.
“Tax evasion,” I crow. “The most psychopathic gangster in US history, and they took him down for not paying his taxes. That’s how we’ll get him, Penny. Not for the illegal shit he does in the markets. The SEC doesn’t come after rich guys like him –”
“And you…” Penny grins, rolling her eyes.
“And me,” I add.
“But the State takes a very dim view of people bribing public servants. A couple of easy leaks to the media, and they’ll bring him down. And it’s all because of you, Penny. You saved my family, and you saved my company.”
I lean forward, and I kiss her again. “You’re a goddamn hero, Penny Thorne.”
Penny smiles an exhausted smile. “I’m not sure I feel like one… yet.”
“What’s it going to take?” I grin.
“Landon Winchester behind bars,” she says.
It’s music to my ears. God, I can’t remember the last time I heard something that sexy.
“Then let’s take the motherfucker down!”
Epilogue - Penny
Two weeks later
“Come back to bed,” Charlie growls.
I catch a glimpse of myself in the reflection of the plate glass window on Charlie’s bedroom wall. Our bedroom wall, now, I guess. It’s inky black outside, and New York twinkles beneath us.
I’m wearing one of Charlie’s white shirts. It drapes down past my thighs. I grab a black bowtie from the inside of a closet door that’s standing open, and loop it around my neck. I give it a twirl.
“What do you think?”
“I think,” Charlie’s throat thrums. “You look good. Damn good. But you know what?”
I bite my lip, and smile coyly at my lover. “What?”
“You look better in bed. Naked,” Charlie grins. “So get your sexy li’l ass over here: now.”
My phone buzzes on Charlie’s dressing table. I frown, and glance down. It’s blowing up. There must be at least half a dozen text messages and notifications, and more appearing every second.
“Penny…” Charlie groans. “Don’t leave me like this.”
“Just a second…” I mutter.
I pick up the phone, swipe it open, and my mouth drops – all in one. “Charlie,” I stammer. “Turn on the TV.” Excitement burns through me like wildfire.
“Are we making a sex tape?”
“I’m not kidding, Charlie,” I say, turning back to face him with fire in my eyes. “besides – that’s not how cameras work…”
Charlie winks at me, “You’re the expert…”
I grind my jaw together, but in truth, Charlie just makes me laugh. And if he asks, I probably would make a sex tape with him…
“Fine,” Charlie groans, reaching for the remote. “But –”
“Trust me,” I grin, walking back toward the bed. “You’re going to like what you see.”
Charlie punches a button on the wall, and the TV appears as if by magic from the foot of the bed. “Which channel?”
“News: it doesn’t matter which. It’ll be on all of them.” I say.
I jump into bed, and Charlie breaks his attention from what he’s doing for a second – just a second – to plant a kiss full on my lips. “I love you, you know that?” He mutters.
“Hurry up,” I say, winking at him, “because you’ll love me more in a second.”
“Not possible.”
A news jingle plays in the background as Charlie finally gets his act together, and he slumps back against the mattress.
“– Nightly news: bringing you stories from around the nation. Tonight’s breaking news –”
“No shit,” Charlie says. “It’s really happening.”
He sounds breathless with excitement.
I crawl up the bed and curl up next to my husband and lover. He’s entranced by the pictures flickering on the TV screen, but even so, he spares me a hungry look.
“We bring you this footage, live from Wincorp’s headquarters right here in New York City, where just
minutes ago, CEO Landon Winchester was led off in handcuffs by the FBI. As you know, Katy, after the news broke last week of Mr. Winchester’s involvement in corruption at the highest levels of both state and city government, a veritable tidal wave of allegations against both Mr. Winchester and his company have come to light.”
“Thanks, Mike. Is there any news on possible charges?”
“That’s a great question, Katy. Nothing from the prosecutor’s office yet, but we’re expecting announcement on charges regarding at least a dozen crimes, and a minimum of a decade jail time.”
Charlie kills the TV.
“Hey!” I yell, slapping his belly lightly with dismay. “I was about to get the popcorn.”
“I’ve seen enough,” he says, his voice burbling with gruff delight.
It’s a sound that always brings joy to my heart, and a whole different feeling between my legs… I swear, it’s a miracle this man hasn’t left a trail of babies around New York City. He’s got a voice that could charm the pants off a pack of nuns.
Hell, maybe he has.
I really, really don’t want to know.
“So,” Charlie says. He rolls over, and rests his head on his elbow. “What now?”
“What about Thorne Enterprises?” I ask, still slightly anxious. “Are you in the clear?”
Charlie doesn’t answer at first. He leans over and grabs his phone. I hear a couple of clicks, and then he sets it down. “Pick a number between one and a hundred.”
“Mmmm – thirty.” I say, my forehead furrowed with confusion.
“Higher.”
“Fifty.”
“Higher.”
“Seventy.”
“Close enough,” Charlie grins. He leans over and grazes my lips with a kiss; “Seventy-two. Wincorp’s stock is down 72% since last week. It is down 30% today alone. Trust me; his merger attempt is dead and buried. Plus, you know what?”
“What?” I smile, feeling a huge sense of relief wash over me.
I hadn’t realized exactly how nervous I still was about what might happen with Landon Winchester. Knowing he’s going to jail smashes down the last brick in my prison of nerves. Charlie, Tilly and I are all safe.