Neither he nor his brother was without certain skills. Ever since the kidnapping of Patty Hearst in 1974, everyone who grew up in Lusty had been trained by experts in ways and means to fend off attackers—and how to go on the offensive if need be.
He and his brother had excelled at that last part.
Craig was on his right, and very close to one of the concrete pillars that dotted the parking garage. His brother’s analysis of the situation would have been identical to his own. It was simply a matter of choosing the right moment to attack.
Sanders used the gun as a pointer. “I’m done talking. Hand over the woman, now.”
Jackson opened his mouth to speak, to give his brother the words that would alert him and get him to move the way he needed him to move. And then his heart froze when Anna spoke.
“It’s all right. Stand aside, my loves. He wants me? He can have me.”
Sanders laughed, but there was no humor in the sound. “I was right. She’s definitely the brains of the family.”
“Sweetheart, there is no way in hell we’re going to let you go.” Craig’s words could have been Jack’s. There was no way that was happening.
“But husband, you’re not armed.”
Jackson’s heart gave a kick. Did he just imagine her inflection of the word “you’re,” or had it really been there? He could feel the sudden tension in Craig, and knew he’d heard it, too.
“Please, darlings.” Anna sounded as calm as a summer breeze. “We need to do the most sensible thing.”
Sanders gloated. “By all means, gentlemen, let’s all be sensible.”
“Everything will work out, I promise. Please trust me. I’d die if anything happened to either one of you. Now, on the count of three, the two of you will take a small step to the side, all right? And then Mr. Sanders will have me, just like he wants.”
“Are you sure, Bella?”
“Sweetheart?”
Clearly Craig was as unsure as he. His heart was pounding, and he couldn’t keep a dozen nightmare scenarios from exploding in vivid Technicolor across his mind.
“Yes, my darlings, I’m very sure.” Anna’s quiet voice conveyed more than the words she’d said. Their wife was asking for their trust.
“You best do what the little lady says. I don’t want to kill anyone, but I will if I have to.”
Anna counted down, her voice steady and sure. “One, two...three.”
Jack and Craig moved as one again, only this time they took a step apart—not completely exposing their wife, but giving her just enough room.
Then Anna raised her gun and fired.
Chapter 22
“Officer, I want that woman arrested. She shot me!”
Anna looked from Carl Sanders—being loaded into an EMT transport vehicle and under arrest—to the officer in charge of the scene.
Officer Larry Crane closed his eyes for a moment, as if he couldn’t believe Sanders had actually said that. Then he turned his attention back to the prisoner. “If you pulled a gun on me in the presence of my wife, she’d shoot you, too, asshole. Only she wouldn’t have bothered to aim for your hand.”
Crane’s partner entered the vehicle behind Sanders, shaking his head and telling the man to shut up. Anna thought she heard the officer mutter the word “idiot,” too, but she wasn’t completely sure.
Craig tightened his arm around her and she rested her head on his shoulder. Officer Crane had already told them they could go soon. The police had taken witness statements, and were just finishing their investigation—though as far as Anna could see, it was all pretty cut and dried.
The sound of tires screeching on pavement echoed through the parking garage. Then came a slamming door and fast approaching footsteps. Everyone’s attention was drawn to the newcomer.
The man who joined them, dressed in a dark suit, white shirt, and red tie, with a white Stetson on his head nodded to the officer then turned to Anna and her husbands. “I just got word of what happened. Are you three all right?”
Craig nodded. “We’re fine, Caleb. Thanks to Anna.”
Anna had, of course, met Caleb Benedict on Christmas Day. This particular cousin was a Texas Ranger. She hadn’t, however, known the man worked in Dallas.
I’m going to need some kind of a chart to keep all the family members straight.
Anna thought that perhaps Caleb knew Officer Crane—a thought that was proven fact with his next sentence.
“So what the hell happened here, Larry?” He looked to Officer Crane, who quite happily explained the situation.
Then the cop handed Caleb Anna’s gun, sealed in a plastic evidence bag. She was a little put out that they had to keep the gun, even if it would only be for a few days.
“There’s no question that the way your cousins told it is exactly how it all went down. Sanders didn’t realize it at the time, but there was another couple in the parking garage, just a few cars away behind that pillar, who saw and heard the entire incident unfold. In fact, Senator Godfrey said in his statement that he was just about to shoot the bast...um, suspect himself, when Mrs. Jessop took care of that little thing.”
Caleb looked from the gun, to Anna. Then he grinned. “Well done, Anna. Grandmother Chelsea is going to be proud as hell when she hears about this.”
Anna felt her face heat.
“She’s magnificent, isn’t she? I have to be honest. I didn’t actually believe she had a gun in her purse, even though she’s more or less told us so a few times. But when she insisted that we ‘let him have her’? Jack and I both realized that not only did she have it, but that she intended to use it.”
Anna met her husband’s gaze, and then looked at Caleb. “Well it’s just wrong to carry a gun if you don’t know how to, or are unprepared to use it.”
“I couldn’t agree more, Anna,” Caleb said.
“There was already a warrant issued for Sander’s arrest, earlier today.” Officer Crane nodded. “As soon as they’re finished with him at the hospital, he’ll be taken to the station and booked—not just for fraud, but now for attempted kidnapping and threatening death.”
“Good.” Caleb turned his attention to them once more. “Y’all headed to the hometown in the morning?”
“We are,” Jackson said. “We’re planning to spend a couple of weeks there.”
“I’ll see you over at the Big House, then. Grandmother Mattie is hosting the New Year’s Day party.”
“We’ll be there.” Craig said.
Having satisfied himself that they were indeed unharmed, Caleb took his leave with the promise to talk in Lusty the next day.
It was nearly two in the morning before they finally made it back to the Penthouse. Anna was exhausted. The door no sooner closed behind them when her husbands enfolded her in their arms between them.
“You didn’t say as much, but I know that was the first time you’d shot someone.” Craig’s words brushed against her hair. “Are you all right, sweetheart? I felt you trembling in the car.”
“I know what I said to Caleb about being prepared to use my gun, but I never knew if I’d actually be able to shoot a human being or not.” Anna felt a tremor snake through her. Her men felt it, too, because they held her tighter.
“You didn’t seem to hesitate,” Jackson said. “When it came to the moment, you did what you had to do.”
“Only because I was afraid that jerk was going to shoot one of you. I couldn’t bear it if anything happened to either one of you. I love you both so much.” She took a deep breath, certain the shaking would stop. Instead, she burst into tears.
They hugged her and petted her, mumbling words that were more sounds than actual words. Craig carried her into the bedroom, and before she knew it they had her naked and tucked into the bed between them.
“It’s called an adrenaline crash.” Jackson spooned her, kissing her shoulder and keeping her warm with his own body. “Perfectly normal, my Bella.”
“What you said about how you’d feel if anything happened to
us? We feel the same way. Sweetheart, my heart nearly stopped when I realized what you planned to do.”
“I know. I knew you’d both figure it out. There wasn’t any time for me to assure you that I’d be all right.” Anna laughed a sound of self-mockery instead of humor. She obviously wasn’t all right, if falling apart like this was any indication.
“I heard the confidence in your voice,” Jackson said. “Scared the shit out of me to do so, but I trusted you.”
“Scared us both. We both may rethink our habit of going about unarmed.” Craig kissed her head. “Sleep now, baby. We’ll keep you safe and warm through the night.” He stroked her shoulder to hip. He used a slow, sensuous rhythm. Anna felt all her energy draining out of her.
“I wanted to come home and make love to you both. At the same time.”
“Did you, now?”
Anna heard the smile in Jackson’s tone.
“Yes, I did. I’d been thinking about it all evening.” Even getting out the words took effort. Anna inhaled deeply, drawing in the scent of her men. Their combined aroma acted like a soothing balm. Her eyes were too heavy to keep open, so she let them close.
“We’ll be here when you wake up, wife.” Craig’s words seemed to echo in her mind.
* * * *
Anna sighed, the comfort and caress of sleep cradling her, even as something else began to tease the edge of her awareness. The scent came to her first, that musky aroma of her men when they were aroused, their cocks hot and hard with their pre-cum coating the tips, glistening, waiting for her.
Anna moaned, because just the thought of them aroused her.
“Anna.”
She turned her head, her eyes still closed, as the last vestiges of sleep left her. She sensed Jackson’s nearness, and opened her mouth when his lips brushed across hers.
His flavor burst on her tongue, the maleness of him ripe and heady. His tongue slid against her own, a duel and a dance and a seduction.
When he lifted his head, she opened her eyes, his smile a wonderful first sight. Movement beside her drew her attention. She reached for Craig, curling her hand around his nape, holding him close as he kissed her.
His mouth felt so avid on hers, she was certain that if she’d been cream he would have lapped her all down. He gentled his touch, his lips wooing now instead of plundering, and Anna shivered at just that small taste of his fierce passion. When he raised his head, he moved her so that she lay flat on her back, equally between them. Their hands moved on her, stroking, petting, and then they lowered their faces to her once more. What joy to be kissed by one husband as the other suckled her nipples. An all-encompassing thrill filled her as Jackson tugged that invisible thread of desire that connected her breast to her clit.
She played the fingers of each hand over a male head, sifting through the silken strands of their hair, reveling in the attention and the affection and the love.
They loved her and nothing in life had prepared her for the sheer wonder of that.
Anna let herself relax and accept the pampering and the petting and the slow, devouring kisses. She sighed and stroked their chests and arms, traced the shape of their beloved faces with her fingers, and then wrapped her palms around their steadily growing cocks.
The heat of them, the passion, and the ardor moved her nearly to tears.
“Bella.” Jackson eased her onto him, his hands urging her to do what they both wanted. When he lifted her, she reached down and placed his hard penis at the opening to her body.
She moaned in pleasure as his cock filled her, inch by throbbing inch.
“Ride me, wife. Pleasure us both.”
Anna gave her husband his desire, her hips rising and falling to a primitive drum beat, steady, sexy, and slow. Here, she didn’t feel fat and frumpy. Here, she knew no awkwardness. Here, because her men loved her, she moved with a wanton grace and knew herself to be beauty incarnate.
“You’re so damned beautiful.” Craig moved in behind her and kissed her shoulder. “Down, sweetheart. Let us give you want you want—what you need.”
“Oh, yes, please!” Anna placed her hands on either side of Jackson’s head and then, because she could she swooped in and kissed him.
The sensation of cool gel being smoothed across her anus made her shiver. Arousal soared and she pushed back against Craig’s fingers as he pressed them against her rosebud.
The burn of her flesh stretching drew a moan from the depths of her soul. As he worked his fingers in and out of her, twirling them and widening her, the burn edged into that biting pain—a pain that nipped at the edge of her arousal, morphing it into something new and vibrant, something edgier.
“Tell me to stop and I will.” Craig whispered the words and then placed the condom covered tip of his cock against her opening.
“Please don’t stop. Please, fuck me.”
“Anna.”
The words inflamed him—they inflamed them both. Freedom came wrapped in words so gritty and honest, their meaning could never be misconstrued.
The fierceness of Craig’s grip on her hips matched the fire burning in Jackson’s eyes. These men belonged to her—her husbands. And together they began to claim her as they hadn’t claimed her yet.
Craig pushed his cock in, one long, steady thrust until her sphincter opened, and he slid into her. “Oh, oh!” Who could have imagined such a feeling? How could she have known that it would feel like this, being full to bursting with them?
Everything woman in her began to celebrate as tiny electric shocks enveloped her. Unable to stay still, she pushed back against Craig and then down, onto Jackson. A compulsion, she couldn’t stop herself, couldn’t control the need that had taken her over. Again and again her hips moved, and with each movement, her arousal grew and grew and grew.
“Bella!”
“Sweetheart!”
The compulsion spread, taking them over as well, until there were only the sounds of mating, hauntingly feral, as they all three rode the wave of Eros toward the prize.
Anna’s orgasm ignited, rocketing completely beyond her control. She screamed, a sound of joy and rapture, a sound punctuated by the deeper, but no less joyful shouts of her men as they both came, together, inside her body.
* * * *
This had to be the best Christmas present in the history of the world—and Anna had the women of Lusty to thank for it.
They’d arrived at the Big House late afternoon on New Year’s Day to a warm welcome, and applause. Caleb had, of course, been the one to tell the tale of how Anna—and yes, he even had teasingly referred to her as Anna Oakley Jessop—had thwarted a kidnap attempt and bested the man who’d held them at gunpoint.
The acceptance and celebration of her had been a wonderful gift—but not the only one Anna was to receive that day.
“Anna, I don’t believe my sons have told me what they wrapped up and put under the Christmas tree for you.” Madison’s comment came unexpectedly during a slight lull in conversation. Anna’s eyes widened, and she looked at both Craig and Jackson, who happened to be standing close enough to have heard. She didn’t know how to answer her mother-in-law.
Most of Christmas Day had been spent right here in Lusty. She and her men had left Dallas under less than ideal circumstances. Just thinking back to that day made Anna emotional. Once they’d arrived and toured her new house, her husbands had loved on her, determined to heal the wounds to her heart. It didn’t matter those wounds had been inflicted over the last several years. They had been bent on making it all better.
Before she could answer, Jackson sighed aloud. “Mother, I’m afraid both Craig and I have been remiss. Neither of us thought to give Anna a single thing for Christmas.”
No, there hadn’t even been a tree, let alone a gift under it. But in her heart she knew that didn’t matter one whit. She shook her head. “Well that’s just not true. You gave me something I consider priceless.”
“Did we?” Craig’s question, in his soft voice, was adding to the emoti
ons that seemed to be running fast and loose within her.
“What did they give you that was priceless?” her father-in-law, Philip, asked.
“They gave me their love—and their name. I’m the luckiest woman in the world.”
Madison looked at her sons for a long moment. “I worried about the two of you far more than I worried about your brothers. You two can be so caught up in your business, I wondered how you would ever look up long enough to find a good wife.” She took a moment and looked at Anna. Approval shone from her mother-in-law’s eyes. “I worried for nothing, for you’ve chosen the perfect wife.”
“She is that,” Craig said. He and Jackson came over to her and took her hands in theirs. “Thank you, sweetheart. You humble us with your generosity, your love, and your eagle eyed aim.”
Anna grinned while the family surrounding them chuckled.
“But, if you could have any gift from us, my Bella, what would it be?”
Anna thought she would tell them the absolute truth—that she didn’t need anything at all. But then she realized there was just one thing she wanted. “That Commitment Ceremony you told me about. I want that, because I need to proclaim my commitment to you—and to the three of us, as a family.”
“Done.”
Anna thought that they would choose a time and a place and they did. Apparently it was going to be there and then.
“There’s no need to wait,” Grandmother Chelsea said. She grinned. “I took something out of storage the day after Christmas. I’d like you to have it.”
Miranda and Samantha went over to the New House to fetch that something, and the next thing she knew, Anna was upstairs in the master suite of the Big House, the women of the family around her.
Anna believed she really was the luckiest woman in the world. She looked at herself in the mirror. The antique ivory lace and silk wedding gown fit her as if it had been made for her. The creamy richness of the gown, and the high neck, gentle waist and long sleeves suited her to a T. In it she looked...beautiful.
A Very Lusty New Year [The Lusty, Texas Collection] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) Page 20