Emily Anne smiled. “Your fussing over me happens on a regular basis and is fast becoming one of my favorite things.” She held up her arm. “It really is nothing, you know. Yes, it hurts a little, and it’s gonna get very colorful. But I’m sure I’ll be just fine.”
“We’ll have to agree to disagree there. It’s not the degree of hurt that matters, but the person it happened to. If it happened to you, even if it’s only a sliver, it’s not ‘nothing.’ You, Miss Bancroft, are very, very important to both Connor and me.”
“I think, Mr. Richardson, I am finally beginning to figure that out.”
Emily Anne sighed as she got in the car. Mel reached in, fastened her seat belt, and placed a soft kiss on her lips. After a lifetime of feeling not quite good enough, period, being cherished by these two private dicks was a very fine thing indeed.
Chapter 18
“You can’t keep me here, Sheriff. I didn’t do anything!”
Connor heard the whining plea as soon as he opened the door to the sheriff’s office. Adam looked up from his desk and met Connor’s gaze.
“Thank God you’re finally here. I don’t know how much more of this bullshit I can take. I’m tempted to just shoot the little prick, claim it was an accident, thereby putting us all out of his misery.”
Connor’s gaze swept the office. Adam was the only one there. He looked back at Adam as he felt his right eyebrow rise. “Where’s Matt?”
“Deserted the ship, that’s where he is. Said it was a matter of public safety. My deputy has even less patience for whining little snot-nosed boys than I do.”
“Are you charging him?”
“I was waiting to talk to you about that, first.”
It didn’t even seem odd to Connor that Adam would want to talk to him about it and not Emily Anne. This was Lusty, and while the women had done and would no doubt continue to do more than their share when it came to wielding the sword against life’s dragons, the men had their own bottom line.
Dealing with a pesky ex-boyfriend was definitely something the men claimed as their prerogative.
“I’ll let you know,” Connor said.
Adam jerked his thumb in the direction of the single cell, which was just down a short hallway behind where he was sitting.
Billy J sat on the single, very uncomfortable-looking cot, a pouty, angry look on his face. He’s just like Emily Anne described him. Then the boy looked up and met Connor’s gaze.
Connor could see the sly intelligence, and understood in a heartbeat the kind of man Billy J. Cooper was. He’d run into a couple of “foster brothers” just like him when he himself had been a scrawny, too-angry young man.
Billy J schemed and connived, but at heart the guy was nothing more than a wimpy little coward. A coward who would act the bully against someone he perceived smaller and weaker than himself.
“Who the hell are you?”
“I’m Connor Talbot.”
“So what—you’re another cop?”
“Naw, I’m a private investigator.” Connor leaned against the wall, facing Billy J. He put his hands in his pockets and took on the same demeanor he’d done while questioning “persons of interest” around Fallujah.
“So? Am I supposed to be scared, or something?”
“About me being a private dick? No, not at all. About me being the man who’s in love with Emily Anne Bancroft and intends to marry her? Yeah, you should probably start engaging your brain before you open your mouth again, asshole.”
“Aren’t you kind of like, too old for her?”
Connor hissed out a sigh. From the next room, Adam cheerfully said, “Maybe he doesn’t have a brain to engage, Connor.”
“I’m beginning to think,” Connor said. Then he focused on Billy J. The little shit couldn’t quite hide the real trepidation he was feeling. Good thing.
“All right, boy, listen up, because I’m about to tell you where the bear shit in the buckwheat. Emily Anne is off limits to you. Lusty, Texas is off limits to you. She does not want to hear from you or see you, ever again. Out of respect for her, and because this town is off limits, I’m not going to press charges. This time.” Connor found he really had to work at keeping his temper down to a slow simmer. The insolence that came and went on Billy J’s face just pushed his buttons.
“You don’t understand. I need her. A record producer is expecting a demo tape with her singing with us. Without her, we don’t have a chance of getting that recording contract!” Billy J ran his hand through his hair, and Connor got the impression that he couldn’t understand why the producer would ask for such a thing.
He’d heard his woman sing and he understood it completely.
“How the hell were you going to get her to agree to that after the way you treated her?”
“Hell, I figured I just had to grovel a little and she’d forgive me. She doesn’t know how to hold a grudge. I even had it figured how I could score all that groupie pussy without her being any the wiser. Now…fuck!”
Connor thought of the way this man had treated his precious Emily Anne—not just the words he’d said, but the other things he was certain of but didn’t want to mention. He hoped his woman appreciated the restraint he was showing out of consideration for her.
Since Connor had just been staring at him and hadn’t answered, Billy J stepped closer to the bars. “What the hell am I supposed to do about that?”
“I don’t care.” He enunciated the words as if each one was a sentence unto itself. “You are to leave here and never come back. The answer is no. No how, no way. Now prove to me and to the sheriff, that you’re not really as dumb as a box of rocks. Leave town. Do not come back.” Connor took two steps away from the cell, and then turned back. “And don’t go pestering Mrs. Bancroft, either. There is nothing that woman could say that would make her daughter even look your way, ever again. Emily Anne is through with you. And so, by damn, am I—unless you are stupid enough to come back.”
Connor stepped back into the main office. “I’ll take him to his car and make sure he leaves town,” Adam said. “How’s Emily Anne?”
“Just bruised, thank God.” Connor looked toward the cell. It was a good thing that a brick wall prevented him from seeing that sorry son of a bitch.
“Good. Don’t worry about Billy J. I’ll explain that I’m letting him go, conditionally. You go and take care of your woman.”
“Yeah. That’s exactly where I’m headed.”
Connor had new respect for the emotion of love. The prospect of taking care of Emily Anne just made everything else right inside of him. That was love, and he was going to make sure that Emily Anne received an abundance of it from him from now on.
* * * *
Emily Anne couldn’t prevent her gaze from snapping to Connor and inspecting him the moment he stepped into the kitchen. She’d heard the door, of course, and knew he’d come home. It had been almost an hour since she and Mel had left the clinic—and Connor had gone over to the sheriff’s office.
“I’m fine, angel eyes. No blood—either his or mine.” He grinned that sweet grin she didn’t seen nearly often enough, and swooped in for a kiss.
Emily Anne slid over on the bench seat by the window and made room for him. Mel was in the process of putting together an early dinner of enchiladas, and he’d already told her she may not help.
“I can guarantee you, Emily Anne, you won’t be hearing from Billy J again. Man, he took all the fun out of scaring him. I put my best scowl on, stepped toward the bars of his jail cell and he…um…embarrassed himself.” Emily Anne figured that he’d scrambled for acceptable words as if he didn’t know how to say what he wanted to say in front of her—her being a lady and all.
Emily Anne laughed. “He peed himself?”
“Worse. He whined. It was disgusting.” Connor shook his head for emphasis. “A boy, playing at being a man.”
“That’s what I was thinking when I looked at him sitting there at Lusty Appetites. How could I ever have believed th
at he was the best I could do?”
“Because that was what you’d been taught, growing up,” Connor said. He looked at Mel for a moment and then met her gaze once more.
“I grew up in the system up north—in foster care. And by the time I was fifteen, I was headed for a life of crime because that was what I’d been conditioned to believe about myself—that I was no damn good, and never would be. People tell you you’re garbage long enough, you believe it.” He reached out and stroked his hand down her hair. Then he slid his bent finger under her chin. The heat of his gaze seared her. Since meeting these men, she had certainly learned what a look of love looked like.
“People told you, in words and with subtle attitudes, that you somehow weren’t attractive—you weren’t worthy of being loved properly.” He stroked her bottom lip. “Those messages came from people who were your family. How could you not believe them?”
Emily Anne had become more and more self-aware since she’d moved to this town and taken on these men. She’d grown, and she wasn’t ashamed to show them just how much. “They were wrong. I’m only seeing that now, and it’s because of this town, but mostly because of the two of you.” Emily Anne leaned forward and placed a kiss on Connor’s cheek. “So who finally enlightened you as to your true worth?”
Connor shook his head, but he was smiling. He slid his arm around her shoulders and nudged her closer.
She didn’t have to be asked twice. She leaned against him and sighed, because being held by Connor Talbot just made everything better. Not as good as being sandwiched between him and Mel, but it certainly was one of the two next best things.
“A tough-as-leather old master sergeant who happened to be at the cop house in Detroit the one and only time I was arrested. He had a lot of friends on the force and he pulled some strings so that I was remanded to his custody.” Connor shrugged. “His name was Gordon Talbot. Christ, he must have been sixty if he was a day the first time I laid eyes on him.”
“You took his name.”
“I did—my second year of college. Then I went on to West Point. It was because of him that I got that appointment. He lived long enough to see me graduate from there. He told me I’d made him proud. That was the first really good thing I ever did in my life.”
“I never would have taken you for a ring knocker,” Mel said. He glanced at Emily Anne and must have seen her confusion. He smiled and said, “It’s slang used to refer to anyone who’s gone to one of the country’s major military academies.”
“The upperclassmen at The Point during my plebe year had the same impression. But I was determined to show Gordon that he hadn’t wasted his time with me. I got through.”
Emily Anne knew Connor was uncomfortable talking about himself, but now she understood the anger she’d seen on his face when she’d told them about the way her family had treated her. She felt confident that with patience, and in time, he’d open up to her more. For now, her curiosity about her former boyfriend needed to be satisfied.
“Did you ever find out why it was Billy J wanted to ‘get back together’ with me?” When it looked like they were both going to say something about her own self-esteem, she held up her hands, palms out. “Yes, I am worthy of being sought after—but Billy J never loved anyone so much as he loved himself. The first time that Momma tried to talk me into ‘giving that nice young Billy J another chance,’ I knew something was up, and that he wanted something. I just couldn’t figure out for the life of me what it could possibly be.”
Connor nodded. “All right, then. Yes, it turns out you were right, he did have an ulterior motive for trying to win you back.”
Emily Anne listened as Connor explained to her about the recording company rep from Nashville—the one who showed up and precipitated Billy J’s dumping her. He then told her how Billy J had hoped to get himself a harem of groupies that he thought to enjoy under her nose, as it were. She knew her jaw had dropped and her mouth was hanging open, but she couldn’t help it. Finally she shut it and just shook her head.
After Connor stopped speaking she was silent for a long minute. “To borrow from Ginny Kendall, boy howdy, how stupid does that boy think I am?”
“What he thinks of you, precious, has nothing at all to do with you. As you said, he only loves himself—he only sees himself. I’m thinking he doesn’t even see you—and never really has.”
“You’re right.” Emily Anne sighed. “You know the irony of all this? The boy can sing and his band is actually pretty good, too—when he isn’t focused on being such a jerk. He thinks he needs me because that one guy said he liked the sound we made together. But if he wanted to work on it, he could get his break without me. Of course the magic words there were ‘if he wanted to work on it.’”
“Trust me when I tell you, sweetheart, that Billy J. Cooper now understands that having you even in the same vicinity in any way, shape, or form is not going to be happening for him.”
“After we eat, I’m going to have to call my mother.” Emily Ann sighed. “I have to let her know I know why she wanted me to give Billy J a second chance. I also have to tell her that there is no way in hell I would embark on a music career under any circumstances. Not happening, no way, no how.” She looked from one man to the other. “I’m also going to tell her that I’m involved.”
“Involved?” Connor raised one eyebrow, his single word hanging in the air like a dust bunny that refused to land.
“I’d say you’re somewhat more than involved,” Mel said. He gave the word inflection as if speaking about something extremely distasteful.
“Am I?” She hadn’t planned to turn the conversation serious—well, she hadn’t planned to turn it relationship-serious. But thoughts of Billy J had brought back the memory of how she’d sold herself short with him. And while there really was no comparison between that boy and these men, Emily Anne had evolved into a woman who no longer sold herself short.
Not for anyone, or anything. Not ever again.
She was also a woman who was keenly aware that while both of her lovers seemed to really enjoy being with her, something held them back from complete commitment. This ménage they were in was missing something, and she figured she knew just what the problem was.
Now was as good a time as any to start setting things to rights.
Emily Anne really believed she understood where her men were coming from, and she honestly couldn’t blame them. Neither of them had grown up in Lusty, so it was only natural that what others came to be and do so easily here might be a bit more difficult for outsiders.
The time had come for her to put her two men on notice that they each had to start dealing with the nine-hundred-pound gorilla in this relationship. She was pretty certain they were as much in love with her as she was with them, though none of them had ever said it.
Connor turned so that he faced her. One comb of his fingers through her hair anchored his hand in her tresses. He tilted her head so that he could look in her eyes.
“You’re not ‘involved.’ You’re spoken for. Taken. Ours.”
“Because…?”
“Jesus, woman, why do you think?”
Because she was looking in his eyes she knew the exact moment that he realized he was being a bit of a Neanderthal and that, this time, certain words needed to be said.
“Because we love you. I love you. You’re everything I ever could have hoped for in a woman. You’re sexy and sassy and you don’t take any crap from either of us. And Lord”—Connor’s eyes glittered—“you respond to us so instantly. Emily Anne Bancroft, you were made for us.”
She felt Mel slide in close on the other side of her on the bench. “I love you, too, Emily Anne. You’re it for me. My folks always teased me that I was going to die a lonely old single man, because I was never serious about anyone, except that one time. And now I know it was because I hadn’t met you yet.”
“I love you, too. Both of you.” She kissed Connor, and then leaned back so she could kiss Mel, too. “I want us to take
this to the next level—in actions as well as in words. But before we can do that, I think the two of you need to spend some quality time together. You have to decide if you can do this, the two of you, together, with me.”
Guilt flashed quickly in Connor’s eyes. He looked over at Mel.
She figured he must have seen some semblance of his guilt written there on his partner’s face, because he sighed.
“Our woman has a point,” he said. He leaned in and kissed her forehead. “I don’t think either of us realized it showed, angel eyes. And I didn’t realize I wasn’t alone with my intimacy issues.”
Emily Anne felt almost weak with relief. It hadn’t been her imagination, and it hadn’t been a problem with her. Yet the result—if her lovers couldn’t get together to love her—could be just as devastating. But there wasn’t anything she could do about it.
This was something they had to work out themselves.
“What Connor said. It’s not you, precious. I don’t want you to ever think that. It’s me…and I guess it’s Connor, too. We’ll talk. We will work it out.” Mel tilted her face back toward him and kissed her. His tongue swept across her bottom lip and she opened to him, tasting him, sipping him, infusing her senses with his flavor.
“We want this,” Connor said. “We want us. We’ll figure it out, Emily Anne.”
Even as she kissed Connor and let herself sink into him, she understood he hadn’t said the word promise.
Emily Anne could only hope they really could work things out. She’d found her future, her destiny, and it was these two men.
She wouldn’t, and couldn’t accept less than all of them both—hearts, minds, bodies and souls.
“I’m not hungry for food anymore,” she said to them. “Let’s go to bed.”
Chapter 19
Nothing felt better than being immersed in the heat and the scent of the two of them. Emily Anne was very quickly discovering that both of her men were essential to her well-being and her happiness.
Love Under Two Private Dicks [The Lusty, Texas Collection] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) Page 19