So Joe had decided to take matters into his own hands. He’d waited and learned and planned. And now that the sixth anniversary of his son’s death had arrived, Joseph knew that the time for waiting and for planning was over.
The time had come to do one last thing for his boy.
He would win justice for his Joey, finally, by killing the man responsible for his death—Edward Jessop, paramedic.
* * * *
It felt just as delicious being in Edward’s arms as it had being in Warren’s. She could tell, by the way he hummed along to the music, that he had a wonderful singing voice.
She shivered when an image of him humming as he kissed his way down her body flashed in her mind. She’d read books and imagined plenty, but had never imagined any one man doing the things she’d read about.
As soon as she’d met the brothers Jessop she’d been thinking about them both doing everything she’d read about, and more.
“Are you cold, beautiful?”
Edward’s tone, soft and sexy, seemed to caress her deep inside. She shivered again and said, “No.”
“Aroused, then?” Edward’s darkly intimate question brushed the shell of her ear. The scent of him, of his body and his breath, pure, masculine, went straight to her head then down to her toes, tickling all her girl parts along the way.
In the past she’d heard women talking. That had been the real eye-opening part of going to work in Abilene. She had no idea that relationships between men and women were so complicated, so manipulative. As she’d listened, she’d made a decision.
When she finally found herself in a relationship with a man, she wouldn’t hedge or lie or play games.
So there really was only one way to answer Edward’s question and that was honestly. “Yes, I am aroused. First by Warren, and now by you. Something about the way you both hold me, something about the way your scent gets to me. I never knew I could feel this way.”
“It turns me on to know that I arouse you—that we both arouse you. Tell me, Carol, are you wet right now?”
It was the most intimate question she’d ever been asked, and it just made her hotter. She didn’t have to ask him what he meant because she could feel her own moisture. The sensation of her juices sliding from her body to coat the outside of her slit felt both new and intriguing.
She found that the desire for honesty conflicted with the way her body was responding. Unable to speak for a moment, she simply nodded.
The band announced they were taking a ten minute break. Carol hadn’t even heard their rendition of an old favorite, “I’m Already There” by Lonestar, come to an end.
Edward tipped her chin up with one finger. His kiss was just as light, and just as alluring as his brother’s had been.
She licked her lips, trying to gather more of his flavor, and his eyes flared with heat.
“Come on, love.” He took her right hand and brought it up to his lips. “Let’s go back to the table.”
Warren had bought her a Coke and snagged a couple of bowls of snacks, too. One bowl held chips, the other peanuts, and they were meant to fill the void until the small buffet was served, around eleven or so.
She watched the men plow into the nuts, and had to fight the urge to grin. “Didn’t you eat before you picked me up, tonight?”
“Not much,” Warren said.
“Too nervous,” Edward said.
It appeared as if they, too, weren’t interested in playing games or being anything but completely honest. That suited her just fine.
“I couldn’t eat much, either. Same reason.” Honesty. There was one misconception she needed to clear up before they went any further. She took a sip from her Coke, licked her lips, and said, “For the record, Bradley Long never asked me out on a date. That was just Chloe, giving y’all a boot in the butt.”
“No, sweetheart, he hadn’t asked you yet.” Warren met her gaze with an unblinking stare. “Personally, I’m grateful to my almost cousin-in-law for giving us that boot. Because whether he had or not, the truth is it was only a matter of time before he did. How could any man see you, and not want you?”
“None have before you.” There. That was the one teensy bit of information she’d had no idea how to deliver. She sat back and waited to see if they understood what she’d just told them.
“Well, now.” Edward’s mouth slid into a slow, sexy smile. His gaze on her warmed her right to her toes. The way those eyes of his sparkled made her stomach quiver, reminding her of how nervous she’d been just before she’d opened the door to them tonight.
“Thank you for telling us that, Carol.” Warren caressed her hand, a soft back and forth kind of petting that excited her.
They weren’t sitting all that close to her, and yet she felt surrounded by them in a way that seemed to be unique to them. It was the same way she’d felt every two weeks when they would come to the spa for their manicures. They would be across the table from her, yet she would feel encompassed by them.
“We wouldn’t want to frighten you,” he continued, “and we might have, otherwise.”
“No, you wouldn’t have—at least, not for long.” Every time she’d been alone with these men, even though she’d tried to behave in a professional manner, there had been a core shyness within her that had risen up and governed her behavior. That inhibition seemed to have thinned tonight. “I think the two of you are tuned in to me, and more than just a little. And if I reacted as if I was frightened, you’d stop. You wouldn’t press on. I know this in my heart.”
“I hope we prove worthy of your trust in us,” Edward said. “But we’re still men, love. You need to remember that, because men, for all their posturing and civilized appearances, are base creatures at heart.”
Carol nodded. “I feel that, with you. Before, when you’d come to the spa, it was there, but leashed. You’ve a rawness just under the surface—disguised, but there.” Total honesty. “But much like my innate shyness, that control of yours seems to be less, tonight.”
Warren nodded slowly. “We may be tuned in to you, but you’re equally tuned in to us.”
She licked her lips. Having admitted to her lack of experience, she knew it was more than possible that these two hot, compelling men would step back, a little. She’d heard that some men didn’t want the responsibility of dealing with a virgin, of being the first. She worried that these men might even feel this way.
She hadn’t saved herself deliberately. What she’d told them had been the truth. No man had ever indicated that he wanted her.
Maybe that’s not true. Maybe my parents had seen the men who were interested and sent them away because of what they believed about me.
But she was glad now that she had, that they would be the first. Oh, it might not happen tonight, though that would be all right with her. But they would be the first. She could wait a little while if she had to.
As long as they didn’t pull back, slow down, and proceed cautiously.
That wasn’t what Carol wanted. She’d lived her entire life so far with an overabundance of caution, both her own innate nature’s and that which had been imposed upon her.
Looking from one man to the other, breathing them both in, feeling the heat from their bodies seep into her soul, she didn’t want caution.
She wanted to fly. In fact, she wanted to soar rather desperately.
The band returned to the stage and took up their instruments. “Now a little Savage Garden for all you lovers out there.”
Carol wondered if it was kismet that the band would play this particular song right now. Because that was how she thought she wanted these men. Truly, madly, deeply.
“I don’t want that rawness leashed. I want to feel it, touch it, be consumed by it. I want you to teach me how to fly.”
The men exchanged a look. They stood and each held out a hand to her.
“Then come and dance with us,” Warren said.
“Come, feel what it will be like to be between us, to feel the heat of our bodies and
the beats of our hearts.”
She gave them her hands and let them lead her to the dance floor. A virgin she might be, but she understood, in that moment, that she gave them more than just her hands.
She gave them her trust, and maybe a good-size piece of her heart, too.
Chapter 5
Carol discovered something rather profound as the men surrounded her right there on the dance floor.
Dancing between Warren and Edward, moving as one to the languid rhythm of the band’s instrumental version of the song, was a form of making love. The vibrations of the beat of the music combined with the beats of their hearts, and yes, the aura of those barely leashed emotions, excited her beyond measure.
So thrilling, this heavy pounding, this wet awakening, flowed over and through Carol until nothing else existed but this moment, and this place, with these two men.
She didn’t even notice they danced her toward a corner, away from everyone else. Not until she felt the light cupping of her breasts, and the sensuous brush of caressing hands against her bottom.
“Your nipples are hard, sweetheart. And I know you’re wet. I can smell you.” Warren’s dark words affected her the same way his brother’s had. “I want you to kiss me, now. And then we’ll turn you around so Ed can taste you, too.”
Where was the shy man, the hesitant petitioner? Warren’s statement had brooked no argument, and bore no resemblance whatsoever to the hesitation she’d come to associate with him.
Statement? That was no statement. It was a command—and a masterful one, at that.
A command she not only felt compelled to obey—but eager to do so.
She didn’t give herself a moment to even wonder how he wanted her to kiss him, or even if she was doing it right. She simply lifted her face up to his, offered him her mouth, and knew instinctively that he would handle it from there.
Would he treat her to another soft brush of lips, his desire tempered by her so-recent confession? As light as that end-of-first-dance kiss had been, it had made her knees weak and her desire spike. It had whetted her appetite for more.
Warren Jessop closed his mouth over hers and plundered.
A maelstrom of hunger, need, and greed swirled around her and pulled her under, pulled her deep.
She opened her mouth wider under his and drank his flavor down. His tongue stroked hers, a slow slide, a gentle glide that stoked the arousal these men had both kindled in her.
Electric thrill-filled sparklers ignited all over her body, as if someone had set loose a dozen little cherry bombs. Her hands went from a languid caress of his nape to fisting his hair in a heartbeat.
Exciting, compelling, seductive, this kiss from this man was all of those, and all she wanted was more.
Carol whimpered when he weaned his lips from hers. He placed tiny little butterfly kisses all over her face until finally he rested his forehead against hers. Trembling, she breathed in his breath and sighed. Oh, yum. She was so glad she enjoyed kissing him.
“Hot holy hell, woman.” Warren’s voice sounded raw. Feminine pleasure filled her, because she had done that to him—she’d reduced him to a man struggling for breath and fighting for control.
“My turn.”
She felt Edward’s hands on her shoulders, turning her. She went, gladly. Angling her head up, reaching for him, she opened herself wide to his kiss, to the wondrous new sensations drenching her.
Nothing existed but this new craving within her, this full-blown addiction for the taste and the essence and the heat of these two men.
She knew how to kiss now and she took her minutes-long knowledge in stride, used it to give Edward back as much as he gave her. He tasted different yet just as darkly delicious to her as his brother. Together the two men were like an intoxicating combination of sweet red wine and chocolate—going straight to her head, and her pussy.
She didn’t recognize the sound that emerged from her soul when Edward eased his lips from hers. Like his brother had done, he rested his forehead against hers.
“Damn, beautiful, I need more of you. Your taste is in my blood now. Incredible.” He licked his lips to show her he cherished every bit of her taste, and she shivered.
Behind her, Warren pressed close and she had no trouble feeling the outline of his erection snuggled up against her bum. Edward’s cock against her front felt just as large, just as hot as his brother’s. Layers of clothing separated them but she could almost believe they were naked, so sensitive was she to the heat of their hard cocks.
Mercy, have these two men ever been blessed in the cock department.
Warren ran his hand down her back as he stepped away. Edward wrapped his arms around her and the hug he delivered eased her back from the edge of desperation brought on by those devastating kisses.
“Come on, beautiful.” Edward tipped her face up toward his. “We need to slow things down just a bit, honey. We don’t want your first taste of rapture, or our first taste of you coming for us, to happen out here on the dance floor for everyone to see.”
Carol had, on occasion, witnessed couples—usually younger couples—lose themselves in a kiss-and-grope session out in public. Until just a few moments ago she would have declared quite staunchly that such public displays of affection were not only not for her, they were incomprehensible.
Now, she understood because until Edward had spoken she’d completely forgotten they weren’t alone.
She gave the men what she knew was a self-deprecating smirk. “Oh, is there a dance floor around here?”
Both men laughed, the timbre of the sound low and sexy and filled with the same irony as she felt.
“Exactly,” Warren said. “It makes me hot to know you got just as carried away as we did.”
“Just between us, I’m tickled pink.” After the life she’d lived, being raised as she had been, it was a hell of a revelation to know that she could be like everyone else.
“Good. But we do have to watch it. We’re in danger of blowing our clueless rep,” Edward said, “and I never thought we’d ever do that.”
“Y’all aren’t clueless!” The assumption, the charge, hit home. Had someone let these wonderful, gorgeous men believe they were…less than?
“Yeah, actually we are for the most part,” Edward said. “And until tonight I would have told you we’re both pretty clueless except when it comes to our work. Now I’d have to say, except when it comes to our work—and being with you.”
“Amen to that.” Warren picked up her left hand, kissed it, and led her back to their table.
Carol didn’t know how to take that confession, but she did think that maybe—just maybe—their pulling back really was a good thing.
At least until they left the dance and could really be alone together.
* * * *
Warren wondered just how much longer they needed to stay at the dance. Not that he didn’t enjoy dancing with Carol. He loved it. He loved holding her in his arms, inhaling her unique fragrance, and he especially loved the way she looked at him—as if he was her hero.
He wanted to be alone with her and his brother—he wanted them to go back to her house where he and Edward could do another slow dance with her between them—this time, preferably, naked.
Or nearly so. Warren blew out a breath. He had to work damned hard to remind himself that the woman he and his brother had fallen in love with at first sight was a virgin.
They needed to pedal it back, and fast. She deserved a hell of a lot more from them than a fast lay.
He looked over at the way Carol was responding to his cousin, Ginny Kendall. The Kendalls had just come over to their table, and Warren and Edward had gotten to their feet to greet them. He’d thought he would have to introduce Carol, but apparently there was no need. He’d only just found out that Ginny had taken her shopping that very afternoon. He hadn’t realized they were such good friends. Not that he could fault Ginny for being taken with their woman. Carol was smart, and sweet, and very easy to like.
; Their woman. Just thinking those words in relation to Carol Ashwood made him feel ten feet tall.
“Hey there, guys. I didn’t know you were going to be here tonight.”
Warren turned at another familiar voice. Their cousins, Grant and Andrew with their fiancée, Chloe, approached.
“Um. Hi. Yeah, we’re here.”
“I can see that,” Grant said. “We’ll just grab another table, pull it close. That way we can join you.”
“We’ll make it two, so Ginny and the guys can sit with us, too,” Andrew said.
“Oh, a party!” Chloe said. She grinned at him and Ed and walked over to chat with Ginny and Carol.
Grant and Jake brought a couple of extra tables over from the back of the room, moving the chairs, putting the tables together, and redistributing the chairs around the new larger area.
“Oh, good, look, a party! Mind if we join you?” Warren looked over to see Carrie Benedict, with her husbands, Chase and Brian, in tow.
“Of course not. We’d be delighted for you to join us.”
Warren recognized Ed’s tone. He couldn’t fault his brother for being polite. Their mother would have their heads if she ever got word that either of them had ever been rude to a lady, let alone a lady who was a member of the family.
Sweet hell, all we want is to be alone with her and instead, the party keeps getting bigger and bigger. He met Ed’s gaze and knew his brother felt the same frustration he did.
Colt, Ryder, and Susan Evans-Magee came over and joined them, too. Warren resisted the urge to shake his head in disgust. He loved his family, but man, there were times when he wished they didn’t love him and Ed quite so much. He caught a look between Grant and Adam. When they caught him staring at them, they just faced him and laughed.
Well, son of a bitch! Clearly their cousins understood very well exactly how frustrated he and Ed were getting and thought it was funny as hell. Using his very good brain, and flipping back over the glimpses he’d caught of all of his cousins over the last half hour or so, before everyone had homed in on them, Warren came to a startling conclusion. Not only did the male members of his family present think their frustration was funny, they’d damned well instigated this “impromptu” party on purpose!
Love Under Two Responders [The Lusty, Texas Collection] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) Page 5