Just then Carol laughed. That sweet, bubbly sound drew his attention like a moth to a flame. He took in the smile on her face, and the pleasure in her eyes when Susan Evans-Magee sat next to her and began to chat. Carrie said something, and all the women snickered and nodded in agreement.
He met Ed’s gaze again and sighed. As long as Carol was having a good time, neither of them wanted to pull her away too soon.
He and Ed were both quite aware that except for Friday after work when she and one or more of her coworkers went to Lusty Appetites, she really didn’t get out much.
“You might as well sit down and relax, Warren,” Grant said. “That pretty young lady isn’t going to want to be leaving anytime soon.”
Oh, those cousins were crafty. He only just now realized that not only had they all come over and “joined them,” they’d arranged things so that Carol was sitting over on the other side of the massive table, surrounded by the women.
Warren took a chair, beside Ed, and closest to the more prankish of the men.
“I have to say, when I looked up and saw the two of you were actually here with a real woman, and dancing—well let’s just say I thought the pit of hell had done gone and frozen over.” Ryder Magee smiled as he said that.
“Here, have a beer.” Colt said as he set two cold bottles of Shiner on the table in front of them. “I figure if we’re going to wreck your plans for the evening, the very least we can do is buy you a beer.”
Ed nodded, picked up his beer, and “air toasted” the pair. “Just exactly why are you wrecking our plans for the evening?” he asked.
“Wasn’t my idea,” Colt said. “It was Ryder’s.”
Warren looked over at Magee, who shook his head. “Hey, I was just passing on the message,” he said. “It was all really Adam’s idea.”
“Don’t blame me,” the sheriff of Lusty said. “Grant called me, and said we needed to orchestrate an intervention.”
Warren turned his attention on his first cousin, and boss. He said, “I know how to slip a laxative into your coffee at the firehouse. A laxative you’ll never even taste.”
“Now that is downright mean, Warren.” Grant looked at his brother, Andrew. “Did you ever think Warren could be mean, Andrew?”
“No,” Andrew admitted. “But then I never would have guessed he could be a randy little horndog, either.”
Ed snorted. He looked at Grant and Andrew and said, “No, because the two of you thought you’d cornered the market for the family on that behavior.”
“Hey!” Colt protested, but quietly, so as not to alert the women. “We may have been married for a while, but I’ll have you know it ain’t checkers the three of us are playing at night.”
Their cousins all just laughed. Warren had the sense he was being watched. He looked down the table and met Carol’s gaze. Her smile was soft and her eyes bright. But what filled him with the most satisfaction was the hint of frustration he could read in her eyes. Apparently he and Ed weren’t the only ones who were regretting the loss of intimacy and privacy.
She shrugged as if to say, “What are you going to do?” He smiled and winked at her. Hoping the others wouldn’t see or, if they did, had the good manners not to make an issue of things, he mouthed the word “later.”
He guessed by the flush that kissed her cheeks and the slight unfocused look that came into her eyes, she understood his message. Her slight nod and wink in return confirmed it.
He looked over at Jake who was watching him closely. When Warren just sat quietly and continued to meet his gaze, Jake said, “I like her. So does Ginny. The ladies just wanted to make sure that she was doing all right tonight—that the idea of taking on two men wasn’t overwhelming her.” Then he grinned. “The fact that we would end up giving the two of you a hard time, why, that was just like a really cool bonus.”
Warren nodded. “We appreciate your intention, if not your attention,” he said. “As long as y’all understand that when the lady lets us know it’s time to leave, we’ll be leaving together—and alone.”
“We wouldn’t dream of interfering in your personal life,” Grant said.
“There’s a word I’d say in response to that assurance, cousin, were it not for the ladies being in such close proximity and all,” Warren said. “But since you all probably can guess what it is, consider it said. And with a smile, too.”
Some of the women wanted to know what the men found to be so funny. Warren sat back with his brother and let their cousins handle their wives, and fiancée’s, rampant curiosity.
Chapter 6
Carol licked her lips and looked from Warren to Edward. She wanted this, but thinking of actually asking the question made her more than a little nervous. “Will you come inside?”
There was just something sexy about the way Warren turned off the truck and then turned to look at her. It had been a very short drive from the community center to her house, not even five full minutes. And yet in a way, the trip had seemed to last forever. Situated between the two men in the front of Warren’s crew-cab pickup truck, she could feel the heat from their bodies seeping into hers. She breathed in their scent and it did delicious things to her whole being.
The arousal that had been building hot and fast on the dance floor had cooled slightly when they’d been joined by so many Kendalls, Jessops, and Benedicts. Carol fought her grin thinking about how peeved Warren and Edward had both looked—and how peeved she’d felt at the time. But she’d enjoyed the evening with their cousins. Being a part of a large group wasn’t something she’d ever experienced and it had been a lot of fun.
But her arousal had only cooled, not died, and the moment they began to walk from the hall, the moment they each caught up one of her hands in theirs to lead her out to the truck, that arousal had begun to grow anew.
They hadn’t even really touched her since that one very hot slow dance they’d all shared, and yet she felt as if she was going to go up in flames any moment.
Warren reached over and used one finger to trace an unseen pattern on her shoulder. Her flesh pebbled, her body’s instant response to the man.
“All those cousins came over to our table tonight,” he said, “to give you the chance to recover from our potent charms and have the opportunity for sober second thought.”
They had? She really must have totally missed the undercurrents tonight. She thought it had all just been an impromptu party. “Why on earth would they do that?”
“Because they care about you,” Edward said. He, too, turned in his seat. She liked being in between them, liked that she could so easily see both their faces at the same time.
“They didn’t want us rushing you into the next step, I guess,” he continued. “They knew it was our first date.”
“Have you had second thoughts?” She had to wonder at the way they seemed to be hesitating. Maybe the fact of her virginity was something they weren’t willing to deal with, after all.
She still worried that they might not want to make love with her, that they might not want the responsibility that decent men associated with taking a woman’s virginity. Oh, please, don’t let them have changed their minds!
“Hell, yes,” Warren said. “We’ve had second, third and fourth thoughts.”
“And they’re all the same as the first,” Edward said. “We want you.”
“I want you, too.” Not that long ago, really, Carol had believed she would never find someone who would want her—someone who would make her feel desired, sexy—normal. When she’d learned the truth of what her mother had done for all of those years—what she’d believed for all of those years—she’d decided to leave Abilene—leave home. But even as she’d headed toward Waco, she’d wondered if she would ever truly be able to leave behind the echoes of the past.
Whimsically she wondered if having both men want her, and wanting them in return, was some sort of recompense for the past. Sort of the universe’s way of trying to balance the scales for her.
“I really
want you, too,” she said again. “I want both of you. And while this may have been our first official date, we’ve been meeting every two weeks for a few months, now. All those times you came for those manicures—you were really just courting me, weren’t you?” Courting was an old-fashioned word, but really the only one that fit what they’d been doing.
Warren and Ed exchanged a look, and then they angled toward her, edging closer. “We were courting you, sweetheart,” Warren said. “In our minds, and in our hearts, that is exactly what we were doing. We both wanted you so much that we were afraid of making the wrong kind of move and blowing it.”
“So we did nothing, and we both feel as if we came really close to blowing it, anyway.” Edward stroked her right shoulder in much the same way that Warren had stroked her left. “There is just one thing, though, and it’s pretty important. We don’t want you to think that this—whatever it turns out to be between us—is casual. It’s not.”
“I don’t think that.” Carol closed her mouth for a moment. She’d made a promise to herself earlier, and she was beginning to see where that promise might have been a bit naïve. Still, she didn’t like to break promises—not even the ones she made in secret to herself. So she would be honest, even at the risk of sounding naïve. She inhaled and said, “What I feel toward the two of you isn’t casual. I think I’ve been falling in love with you both since the first moment I looked up and saw you. I’ve never been in love, and I’ve never—” she stopped and laughed. “I’ve obviously never done anything with anyone. So I kind of need you both to take over now, please.”
“It’s all right, baby.” Edward leaned forward and kissed her lightly. “You have to know we’ve been falling in love with you, too. We’ve got you, now, and we’re going to take really good care of you.”
“Damn straight we are.” Warren used one finger under her chin to turn her toward him. He, too, kissed her. She felt the trembling. She found it amazing that these two handsome, very virile men should be quaking with nerves the same way she was.
“I guess the first thing we have to do is get out of the truck, huh?” Somehow knowing she wasn’t the only one nervous, or anxious, or excited calmed her, just a little.
“Briefly, yes,” Warren said. “We want you to pack an overnight bag. We want, very much, for you to come home with us. Your bed is too small for all three of us.”
Carol opened her mouth in shock. “But it’s a king-sized bed!”
“The bed in our master bedroom is Jessop-sized. That’s bigger,” Edward said.
“Jessop-sized? You have a bed size called Jessop-sized?”
Both men chuckled. “It’s also called Benedict-sized or Kendall-sized, depending upon who’s doing the talking.” Edward grinned.
They opened their doors at the same time, and hopped down out of the truck at the same time. Edward reached for her, sliding her toward him.
She met his gaze and loped her arms around his neck. Heat lurked in that gaze, and oh, so many other emotions. Some of them she recognized but the meaning ran so deep she didn’t know if she could express them in words.
She only knew she felt an answering echo in her own heart.
Edward kissed her nose, grinned, and set her on her feet. He took her right hand, and Warren came around the truck and picked up her left.
“I haven’t been inside this house in years,” Warren said. “Billy Parker used to live here—well, with his mom and dads.”
“Billy was probably even more introverted than we were, growing up,” Edward said. He grinned. “Used to always smell vanilla when we came to hang out with Billy, remember, Warren?”
“I do. His mom loved to bake. And she loved this house. They could have had any house they wanted, but she loved this one.”
“Where is he now? Your friend? Is he still in town?”
“Actually, we don’t know for certain where he is. He joined the Army right out of college. Last I heard he was at the Pentagon—after having served a couple of tours over in Iraq.”
“Well, you won’t smell vanilla in here today,” Carol said. “But I do like to bake. Cooking and gardening are my two hobbies. I was over the moon when Jake told me I was free to plant anything I wanted in the gardens here. So I’ve been spending a portion of most Sundays and Thursdays—that’s my other full day off—getting my fingers into the dirt.”
“Oh yeah? Our mom likes to garden, too.”
Carol grinned. “I know. She’s one of my clients.” She noticed that both men’s smiles went soft.
“She mentioned to us yesterday, over breakfast, that she’d been treating herself to pedicures,” Warren said.
“She really enjoys her ‘me time’ with you,” Ed said. “You take good care of her. We both appreciate that.”
“I like your mother a lot.” Carol grinned. “She looks like Mrs. Santa Claus, but she’s no pushover. She’s sharp as a tack and has a wicked sense of humor.”
She thought it telling that both men’s voices had changed their tones, slightly, talking about their mother. Carol had toured the Lusty Historical Society Museum, and spent almost two hours learning about the history of the families from Anna Jessop a couple of weeks before.
Carol unlocked the door, and stepped into her small house. She’d left a single light burning in the parlor.
“Sweetheart?”
She turned toward Warren. “Yes?”
“We both love our mother very much. But could we not talk about her anymore tonight?”
Edward had closed the door behind him and now, with his brother, stepped very close to her. Her pulse raced, her heart pounded, and her mouth felt incredibly dry. Excitement sped through her, the sensation not much different than she’d experienced the one and only time she’d had too much to drink.
That’s it, exactly. I’m drunk on them.
“All right. What would you like to talk about, then?”
“Oh, we don’t want to talk at all, right this minute.” Warren eased her into his arms, his movements seeming deliberately slow.
Carol had the sense that despite everything she’d said to them, he was giving her time to change her mind.
Emboldened by the heat in his gaze and the stirrings of her heart, she stepped forward, slid her arms around his neck, and lifted her mouth for his kiss.
He gathered her in, and wrapped his arms securely around her body as he laid his mouth on hers. Hot and wet and wild, his kiss consumed her. She tasted the beer he’d sipped, but more, she tasted Warren. Already she knew his was a flavor she would never be able to do without. His tongue invaded and conquered, and Carol felt her knees go weak. She pressed closer and moaned as she slid her tongue against his, a seductive, sly kind of dance hotter than anything they’d done together earlier on the dance floor. The hot, erect cock pressing against her belly seemed to get bigger and harder. When she whimpered, Edward moved in, bringing his body flush against her back.
“That’s so hot, watching you kiss my brother. Give me some of your passion, beautiful one.” He combed his fingers through her hair, making her shiver. In a move that felt familiar as time, Warren released her lips and Edward turned her head so that he could kiss her, too.
Edward’s lips were sweet and seductive sliding over hers. He suckled at her mouth, drinking her, and the passion that had pooled at the base of her stomach turned fiery hot. The flavor of both men combined on her tongue and she could have sworn her hormones leapt with joy at the taste.
Carol cried out, her need beyond anything she knew could exist.
“Lord, woman.” Edward lifted his head, but kept his hand on her, his palm cupping her head. Warren stepped back slightly, and Edward turned her in to him and he held her while they both fought for breath.
“Come on, sweetheart,” Warren said. “Let’s grab a few things for you and head over to our place before we all three combust.”
With little thought to details, Carol simply grabbed some clothes for the next day, and her toothbrush. She didn’t even consider
taking a pair of pajamas. Her face heated when she realized she probably wouldn’t need the clothes until it was time to come home tomorrow.
In barely five minutes they were back in the truck. Warren had taken her bag and placed it and her purse in the crew-cab backseat, so she didn’t have anything to hang onto.
Then Edward reached for her—she thought, so he could fasten her seat belt. Instead, he scooped her onto his lap, and so she held on to him.
He pressed her close, and snapped the seat belt around them both.
Then he moved one hand up her back and into her hair, and fastened his mouth on hers again. She barely registered that the truck was moving. She didn’t even worry about the fact that the way they were riding in the vehicle was technically illegal.
All she cared about was tasting him again. I think I’m getting the hang of this. Her tongue slid against his as she sucked on his mouth. The sensations of their oral dance, wet and wicked, skittered through her, raising her excitement to new heights.
When he broke their kiss, he grinned at her. She returned his grin but jumped when the door beside them opened. Warren reached in, unfastened the seat belt and pulled her out of the truck and into his arms.
She looked up at the house, a nice brick two-story on one of several residential streets in Lusty. She’d been so preoccupied, she couldn’t, with assurance, point out the direction her own house was in. “Oh. We’re here.”
“That’s quite a compliment, brother,” Warren said.
“And that was quite a kiss, too,” Edward said
Warren began to walk toward the front porch with her in his arms. “What about my bag?”
“The truck is locked. You won’t need anything for a while.”
She loved the way he could sound so bossy sometimes. He’d done that twice now and each time she melted a little more inside.
Love Under Two Responders [The Lusty, Texas Collection] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) Page 6