A Very Lusty New Year [The Lusty, Texas Collection] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting)

by Cara Covington

  “You’ll discover we do that on a regular basis. Get distracted and forget things, that is. We also tend to finish each other’s sentences.”

  “Well I imagine that, being brothers, you’re likely attuned to each other.”

  “We’re not just brothers,” Jackson said.

  “We’re twins. Fraternal twins, which is why we don’t look alike.” Craig met her gaze. “Twins run in our family.”

  “I’m an only, myself.” And she’d often wondered if her parents had had more children, perhaps her mother would have been less obsessed with her—her weight, her clumsiness, and her many other myriad flaws.

  “We have two other brothers—Howard and Gareth. Both are younger.” Jack seemed to realize that he still held her hand. He let it go, and then stepped back and looked to his brother.

  “Won’t you come in, and we can get comfortable and get to know each other. I’m sure we have questions for each other.”

  Anna began to suspect that, just as this was her first job interview, it was also theirs. That was fine, and perhaps even better than fine. They might not know that they should interview several applicants before making a choice.

  She decided, right then and there, that she really wanted this job, and that she really wanted to work for these men.

  And she tried very hard to tell herself it had nothing to do with the fact that they were both very potently masculine.

  “Certainly. Please, lead the way.”

  She fell into step behind Craig, and when Jackson took up the rear, she had the oddest sensation, just for a moment, being between these two men.

  Then they entered a large, airy, multi-windowed open expanse. Craig stepped aside and Anna came to a dead stop. The gasp she emitted was unconscious, and she truthfully didn’t know what shocked her more—the beautiful view of the city of Dallas spread out before her, the fact that there were only six pieces of furniture in the entire, very large room—or all the...stuff scattered about.

  For the first time ever, she said what was actually on her mind, without filtering. “Oh, my. You do need help.”

  “How clever you are to discern the problem so quickly.”

  Anna thought Jack must be teasing her, but no, his expression was one of complete seriousness.

  “We know there are such things as filing systems and the like, but as you can see, that’s not our forte.”

  She let her gaze roam for just a minute. There were two large office desks, each with an expensive leather chair behind it, and a smaller, less commanding one in front. When sitting, the men would have their backs turned to the glorious view but could easily see each other to converse. On each desk, just like out at their reception area, there was an ink blotter and a telephone.

  But there the similarities between the outer office and the inner one ended.

  Each desk was covered with paper in one form or another. There were files, and single typed sheets. A stack of unopened mail rested between magazines. And the clutter went on, having spilled onto the guest chairs in front of each desk, and then into semi-tidy piles around each of those chairs. She was put in mind of a rather insidious wild creeping weed, growing and bent on taking over and strangling the entire space.

  Anna knew they were venture capitalists and she’d even begun to form an idea about what that meant. Now she thought that maybe she really didn’t have a clue. She looked from Jackson to Craig. “What is it that you do, exactly?”

  “That’s the thing,” Jack said. “There’s nothing exact about it.”

  “We don’t know, of course,” Craig said. “Not until we get into the matter...gathering information, sifting through news clippings, getting to know the principals involved. We never know.”

  “No, not until we do.”

  The brothers looked at each other, and even though she didn’t know them at all, she could see that they were sharing a moment of perfect understanding.

  Anna shuddered at the odd sense that she’d just fallen into one of her favorite childhood books—Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. She cast her gaze once more over the “office,” such as it was.

  “Did you have space set aside in which the successful candidate for the position of Office Manager could work?” She certainly hoped they did.

  If these two sinfully handsome men...Anna stopped herself in mid thought. No, no don’t think of them as sinfully handsome men, think of them as entrepreneurs. Yes, that would be much better. She purposefully began the thought again. If these two entrepreneurs were the bosses, and no one worked for them, maybe they didn’t have a separate space. Maybe they planned to put her out there, all alone, in the receptionist’s area? Kill two birds with one stone? That would be logical.

  “We do indeed have an office set up for you,” Craig said.

  “We’ve furnished it, but if anything doesn’t suit, you can change things out.” Jack began to usher her toward a door to the left of their very cluttered corner.

  Anna knew quite a bit about the corporate world, in general, thanks to her father. She’d known, of course, that the position of Office Manager implied a position being in charge of a staff, of managing those people so that corporate goals were met. That thought stopped her in her tracks. “Wait a minute. If there’re no other people working here, why do you need an office manager? If you hired me, who would I manage?”

  “That would be us,” Jack said. “And there’s no if about it. You’re perfect for the position.”

  “Actually, you’re more than perfect for the position,” Craig said. “The job is yours if you want it.”

  * * * *

  “We’re trying to discipline ourselves into working a regular work week,” Craig said. “We relocated to this office, from our home, about eight months ago.”

  Anna tilted her head to the side. “Because you were working more than the standard forty-hour work week?”

  “Yes, actually, a lot more. Our parents suggested this as a means of exercising some control over our lives. The other advantage to coming to the city, of course, was that so many of our business contacts are here.”

  That made perfect sense. “I’m afraid I don’t really know what venture capitalists do.”

  “Basically, we help other business owners find financing for their ideas, and their projects.”

  “We, along with a small handful of other investors, provide the capital that these people need to realize their dreams or their ideas. That means, basically, that we invest money into their projects, or companies, for a return on our investment at a future date.”

  “But what if their idea or company doesn’t pan out?”

  “Then we lose our investment.”

  Anna frowned, clearly not pleased about that possibility. “I’d think you’d have to do a lot of research, and learn as much as you can about the proposed venture to ensure that doesn’t happen very often.”

  “We do.” Jack smiled at her. “We have a pretty good success ratio going for us, too.”

  “We don’t lose our investment very often,” Craig said.

  “So what is it you would need me to do?”

  “We know what we’re doing on any given day—we’re able to keep our irons turning in the fire so they get evenly hot.” Jack shrugged. “After all, what we’re doing is seeking new ventures.”

  “It’s after we’ve struck our deals and signed our contracts that things get a bit blurry.” Craig didn’t feel particularly embarrassed admitting that. There was something about Anna Cooper that made him feel as if he could tell her anything, and she’d keep his confidence. He felt as if he’d always known her, as if he’d always been meant to know her.

  Craig pulled his mind out of dangerous territory. He was trying to hire the woman. He didn’t want to scare her away with any indication that he thought she might become much more to them than an employee.

  That would come, in time.

  “That’s why we need a manager. We’re somewhat disorganized.” He and Jack were good at
what they did. It was the attendant minutia they generally sucked at. Note to self. Do not refer to the things that Anna’s going to be doing for you as minutia, at least not within her hearing.

  “Checks arrive, and we deposit them, but...” Jack shrugged. “We’re not accountants.”

  Anna looked at them for a long moment. Then she opened one of the drawers of the desk they’d purchased last week when they’d decided to hire an office manager.

  Craig felt as if he’d done something remarkable when she smiled after having discovered a yellow pad of paper and a selection of pens in the drawer. He liked her smiles, a lot. He liked the way she focused on him when he spoke, and the light of intelligence in her eyes.

  He really, really liked the way her body had such luscious curves in all the right places.

  “You’ll need for me to create a list of your investments, then.” She looked at him. “Will I find that information amongst the paperwork that is so artfully arranged on and around your desks?”

  “That’s some of our more recent and current endeavors,” Craig said.

  “We have another room with a few boxes,” Jack said. “Boxes that contain details of most of our earlier investments.”

  “So the first order of business would be to sort everything that’s in those boxes and get it organized and filed. We’ll need file cabinets, at the very least. You have your bank statements, for the last few years?”

  “So...you’re taking the position?” Jack asked.

  “Well, I would like to know what you propose to pay me, first, before I give you my final answer.”

  Of course she would. He wasn’t very good at this hiring thing. Craig named the salary he and Jack had come up with. It must have been acceptable because she looked down at the pad of paper, and then nodded. “Yes, I’m taking the position. Thank you.”

  “Can you start tomorrow?” Craig asked. Now that he’d met her he wanted her around and didn’t want to have to wait until Monday to see her again. That would be four whole days from now.

  “Yes, I can. Do you want me here at eight-thirty, or nine?”

  “Nine is fine. In the morning we’ll get you set up with a credit card, and have you put on our accounts at the bank as an authorized signatory. Your insightful question reminded me we may not have all the paperwork here you need, and if you’re listed as an officer of the company with the bank, you can get whatever information you require there. You can also feel free to order whatever it is you think necessary by way of supplies, furnishings—whatever. Also, we’ll see to it that a key to the elevator is waiting for you at the front desk when you arrive tomorrow.”

  Had he come on too strong? She blinked as if she’d had difficulty keeping up with his rapid-fire litany. Then she nodded. “Good. Having full access will make organizing things just that much easier.”

  “We can talk more tomorrow, Anna. Welcome to the company.”

  “Thank you. I’ll do my best not to disappoint you.”

  They walked her out to the door. She shook her head as she looked at the reception area. “Do you have a lot of visitors here?”

  “Not that many,” Jackson said. “And none without a prior appointment.”

  “Plus, when that door opens, a bell sounds in the inner office.”

  “That’s good. You won’t have to worry about hiring a receptionist, then, at least not for a while.” She gave them a nod, and left.

  Craig leaned against the empty receptionist’s desk, his eyes on the just closed door. He turned to look at his brother, who wore an expression he recognized.

  “I think she likes us,” he said.

  Jack looked like a man just recently fallen in love. Very recently. Craig knew the feeling intimately because it was the same for him. The moment they’d stepped into the reception area and laid their eyes on Miss Anna Cooper, they’d both known.

  “I’m not sure if she likes us, or if we overwhelmed her,” Craig said. “We’ll know for certain, if she shows up tomorrow morning.”

  “You didn’t believe her when she said she accepted our offer of employment?”

  “I believed her. I’m just telling you I wouldn’t be surprised if she had second thoughts overnight. More than one member of the families has commented that you and I are work.”

  “Bummer.”

  The slang word was so uncharacteristic of Jack that Craig had to laugh. “Let’s get back to business, brother. There’s nothing more we can do about Anna Cooper today. Tomorrow will determine the matter.”

  “I used to laugh at the dads when they told us about meeting Mother. I even remember thinking at the time that I’m a man of logic. There’s no such thing as love at first sight.”

  “Maybe it’s not that we fell in love with her at first sight. Maybe it’s that we just knew she’s the one for us.”

  “You mean like some kind of precognition? ESP? That sort of thing?”

  “Exactly. Who knows how the universe is ordered? But if there is a one and only for us, maybe we’re also wired to know her when we see her.”

  “So what happens if she does have second thoughts, if she doesn’t show up tomorrow? Does that mean we’re supposed to forget about her?”

  “Hell, no.” Craig slapped his brother on the back. “We have her address and her phone number. It just means we have to come up with another plan.”

  “I do know one thing,” Jack said. “I really do think she likes us, but I don’t think she knows what to do about that fact.”

  “I sensed that, too. So we need to try to not come on too strong. Also, I have the sense that she can indeed bring order out of our chaos, which means she’s a logical thinker, too. We have family history and aunts, uncles, and cousins by the dozens. So we know that having a one and only is not only possible, but probable. She quite likely doesn’t have any kind of similar database at all.”

  “So we have to go slow and take things one day at a time. That’s going to be tough.”

  “Yes. It’ll be tough—but I think it will be worth it.”

  Chapter 3

  It didn’t take Anna long to find her footing in her new job. She’d offered to come in to work on Saturday, because she’d really wanted to get busy organizing the brothers Jessop.

  In her opinion, they’d hired her not a moment too soon. She could tell they were torn between wanting to see things improve as quickly as possible, and wanting to be good employers.

  She’d finally convinced them, and wasn’t at all surprised to see both Craig and Jack already at their desks when she arrived on Saturday morning for her second day of work.

  Then a thought stopped her in her tracks. “Oh, dear. I just realized something. You mentioned during our interview that it was your goal to cut down on your obsessive working hours. I hope I didn’t make you come in today when you weren’t planning on doing so in the first place.”

  Both men had looked up the moment she began to speak. By the time she’d run out of breath and words, both were smiling at her.

  “It is our intention to cut down on our long hours,” Craig said. “And to a certain extent, we have.”

  “But most Saturday mornings, here we are. So don’t worry about it, Bella.”

  “All right, I won’t.” Regardless of that disclaimer, her conscience niggled. “But I think perhaps we should only work until noon.” She really didn’t want to be responsible for them missing any of their personal time.

  “That sounds reasonable,” Craig said. “And so does our taking you to lunch when we’re done for the day.”

  “That’s very kind of you to offer, but there aren’t many restaurants open in the business district on a Saturday.” Anna knew from experience that most of the restaurants that had lineups out the door from Monday to Friday were dark on the weekend. The business district in Dallas on a Saturday had more than a passing resemblance to a ghost town.

  “True. But we know of a couple of good restaurants not that far away by car—if you trust us enough to ride with us, of course.�
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  Anna tilted her head to the side. “Of course I do. If you trust me enough not to shoot you with my Beretta along the way.”

  She nearly laughed out loud at the expression on both men’s faces. She wasn’t sure if the complete shock was that she would even say such a thing, or the chance that she actually had a gun in her purse.

  Anna saw the moment they decided she was poking fun at them. Their laughter made her feel as if she’d accomplished something extraordinary.

  “I suppose, all things considered, that was an odd thing for me to say.” Craig didn’t look at all sheepish or discomfited by his admission. These men are so self-confident, they don’t mind admitting their own foibles.

  Anna had never before considered the quality of self-confidence as being sexy, but it was. She thought of her own lack in that area, and could only wish to possess a smidgen of the confidence these men possessed.

  She was also very glad they didn’t ask her if she really had a gun in her purse. Some men didn’t approve of that sort of thing.

  Having perused the “storage room” the day before, Anna was prepared to be busy sorting through the history of C & J Jessop Inc. for the next several weeks. Jack’s “few boxes” numbered more than a dozen, and if the first one was any indication, each was crammed full of...stuff.

  She suspected that with each box opened she’d be presented a new challenge to her talents of discernment and “pattern recognition,” and new clues about the personalities of her employers. She didn’t even once consider that any box would be the same as the last.

  Anna had already made some interesting discoveries. There didn’t seem to be a particular single sector the Jessops invested in. Their ventures so far ranged from oil and minerals to manufacturing, from a cottage industry started by a widowed mother of two, to a couple of small town newspapers. There didn’t have to be the promise of a very big profit for them, either. From what Anna could see so far, if an idea was sound, and looked to have some viability, and if the Jessops liked the principals involved, then they invested in the project.