Covington, Cara - Love Under Two Benedicts [Lusty, Texas 1] (Siren Publishing Menage Everlasting)

by Love Under Two Benedicts (lit)

  “Jesus Christ.” Matthew had suspected something because the woman had moved stiffly, and she hadn’t wanted to let him near her. He was rather surprised she’d allowed Adam that close. Then again, most women recognized the caretaker in Adam.

  “Kelsey’s going to try and talk her into staying in Lusty,” Matthew said. “She’s going to offer her a job. We’ll get her a place to live, too. We’ll all take care of her from now on.”

  Adam inhaled deeply, then let it out. “Good. Your instincts were right about Ginny. I should have listened to you. I’m sorry.”

  “You did listen. That’s why you were at the diner, out of uniform.”

  The phone rang and Matthew answered it. “Lusty Sheriff’s Department. Hi, Burgess. Any luck with those tapes? Oh yeah? Great. I don’t suppose you got the license plate?” Matthew listened for a moment then frowned. “Yeah, a bit too much to hope for. Still, I’m glad we’ve got the guy going and coming. Send it to my e-mail. Thanks.”

  He hung up the phone and looked over at Adam.

  “That was Burgess with the Waco P. D. They’ve finished scanning the surveillance tapes taken at the mall the day Kelsey was attacked. They show the Taurus arriving at the mall, a female driver getting out, and just a few minutes later, a man getting out of a silver Prius and boosting the Taurus. No clear image of the man and none of the Prius’ plates at that point. And then, several hours later, they show our perp getting out of the Taurus where he dumped it at the commercial unloading area. This one gives us a clear shot of him. Burgess is sending the footage as an e-mail attachment.”

  “Good. Maybe I can take my frustration out on that s.o.b. when we catch him.”

  The door to the office burst open, and Michelle rushed in. Nearly hysterical, she grabbed Matthew by his shirt. “Oh, God. Oh, God. He has her. Do something. He has her!”

  * * * *

  “Who are you? What do you want?” Kelsey had never been so terrified. The sight of the gun had momentarily overwhelmed everything and she’d gotten into his car, unable to do anything else.

  Slowly, Kelsey’s mind cleared. The man drove and kept the gun pointed at her as he followed the route out of town, the route that would take them past where he’d rammed her off the road last Sunday.

  “You can call me Con. You really don’t know, do you? That’s a shame. I couldn’t take the chance that you’d remember me. You might have. Yeah, you probably would have as soon as my mug started getting flashed all over television screens across the state.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about!”

  “I was there that day. The day Jimmy whacked your old man and your kid. He was just supposed to rush in, grab the cash, and get out. Clean and fast. Nobody was supposed to die. Little prick. It wasn’t my fault he was all hopped up on drugs. I was glad when I heard he’d been killed by the cops resisting arrest. No trial and no dropping a dime on me.”

  Kelsey looked at the man, the one Michelle had dubbed Mr. Hottie. He looked different without that extra weight he’d been carrying. She studied him but didn’t find anything else familiar about him.

  Apparently, he didn’t care for her scrutiny. He waved his gun at her and screamed, “You sat in your fucking car and stared right at me, bitch. Don’t tell me you didn’t see me!”

  But she hadn’t. A dam broke in her mind, and images came flooding back.

  They’d fought that morning. Kelsey had found a note in one of Philip’s pockets the week before, a woman’s name and a phone number. She’d believed him when he’d told her it was a business acquaintance, just someone he had to call to set up a meeting with. Except the doubts had been there, fed by small clues and changes in his behavior, and the doubts wouldn’t go away. He’d come home late the night before, very late, and while she’d waited for him, while she’d worried that maybe he’d been in an accident, she’d used her computer to check out the name and the number.

  Doing a reverse phone number search, she’d learned the number connected not to a business address, but a private one. Marissa Lane. Paying the fee the website charged for extra information, she discovered his business contact worked as a waitress at a bar near his office.

  So they’d fought, and he’d told her the truth. And he’d excused his behavior by saying it had only happened a couple of times. That it was only physical. That it never would have happened in the first place if Kelsey would just try to be a little sexier. That it was all Kelsey’s fault he wasn’t fulfilled as a man.

  They were expected at a friend’s for the day. She didn’t want to go, but Philip insisted they keep their word and go. When he stopped at the convenience store, she’d been so mad, she could barely see straight. She’d been so mad, she’d been thinking about asking for a divorce. Until a man’s shout had pulled her out of fury and gunshots had thrown her into terror and grief.

  Kelsey came back to the present, the flashback so fast, so sharp, it felt surreal. This man, Con, had been nowhere in that flashback. She’d been lost in her thoughts and her anger, her gaze on her husband when those gun shots had exploded. Philip had died, and in the aftermath, she’d forgotten that the last words between them had been angry words. Her subconscious had buried that, until now.

  “I’ve straightened out my life since then. I’ve done everything right. I even got married. ” Con continued on his rant, his voice rising, sounding more manic with each word. “I’m going to get into politics. And then there was that picture of you in the paper. Seriously, I’d thought they’d sent you to the nut house. You fucking lost it. I thought you were tucked away in crazy land. Then I see you aren’t. If you hadn’t let them do that article on you, this wouldn’t be happening. I’m entitled to live my life. It’s all your fault that I have to do this.”

  Kelsey thought of Matthew and Steven and the life they could have together, the life they would have together. She thought of Ginny, who gave up her son rather than risk him near a man who’d been turning more and more violent.

  And she thought about this jerk waving his gun, another loser telling her it wasn’t his fault, that somehow she was responsible for his mistakes. This jerk belonged to the past, and she was, by God, done with the past.

  Up ahead the road curved, a long sweeping S-bend to the left. Beyond that, she knew, lay a slight rise, a small hill before a long, straight stretch. It was just there where he’d forced her off the road last Sunday.

  Kelsey didn’t let herself think as her anger rose up, white hot, blinding. The gun swept the air in front of her face back, then forth as Con tried to focus on driving and keeping the weapon pointed at her.

  As soon as they crested the hill, Kelsey screamed and grabbed the hand with the gun in both of hers, slamming it hard against the dash over and over again.

  “You crazy fucking bitch! Let go!”

  He tried to fight her and the car. Kelsey didn’t let up, just kept banging his wrist against the dash.

  The gun exploded, loud, sudden. The force of the recoil threw Kelsey against her seat and the gun into the back seat. The windshield shattered. Kelsey had turned her head but felt but felt sharp prickles on the side of her face.

  Con screamed. “My eyes! My eyes!” Both hands covered his face.

  Kelsey grabbed the steering wheel at the same time she shoved her foot down between Con’s legs and stomped down on the brake.

  The car had nearly stopped when she turned the key off, grabbed it from the ignition, and threw it out through the hole where the windshield had been. It skittered off the hood.

  Her fingers shook as she unfastened her seatbelt and got out of the car and ran. Her ears were still ringing from the gunshot when Steven’s Jeep roared up over the hill.

  * * * *

  She’d been crying and her face was dotted with blood, and he’d never seen anyone more beautiful in all his life.

  He stood close to her while Uncle James assessed Kelsey’s injuries.

  “I’m getting a little tired of seeing you in my clinic, young lady,” Dr.
James said.

  “I’m a little tired of seeing you, too,” Kelsey replied.

  They both grinned.

  Steven stood to the left of Kelsey, her hand folded into his, as Dr. James continued to apply ointment to the tiny cuts on the right side of her face.

  Because he couldn’t resist, Steven leaned over and kissed the side of her face gently.

  The door to the exam room burst open, and Matthew barreled through the door. His eyes swept her, head to toe.

  “I’m okay, sweetheart,” Kelsey said.

  “You’re a crazy woman,” Matthew asserted. He all but pushed Dr. James out of the way so that he could give her a hard, fast kiss. “And when we get home I’m seriously considering putting you across my knee and walloping your ass until it’s even redder than it was the other night. We told you to stay at the restaurant until one of us came to get you!” Then he stepped back and turned to Steven. “Did she tell you what she did to escape?”

  Steven felt his blood run cold as Matthew relayed how Kelsey had escaped from an armed gunman.

  “My God,” Steven said. “You are a crazy woman, and a walloping definitely sounds right.”

  It didn’t appear their assessments or threats fazed her in the slightest. “But you guys still love me anyway, right?”

  “Hell, yes.” Steven’s fervent declaration was echoed by his brother.

  “I didn’t remember him,” Kelsey said as the doctor continued to work on her. “I finally remembered the rest of that day, which I’ve never done. Philip and I had fought. I was so angry my mind was full of our argument. I…I was considering divorce. I truly never even noticed that man.”

  “His name is Wesley Connors, a Realtor from Austin, and erstwhile mayoral candidate,” Matthew said. “Needless to say, he won’t get elected now. Adam went with him to the hospital in Waco. He got quite a bit more glass in the face than you did. He claims it wasn’t him who fired that sniper rifle at the two of you the other day. He’s trying to cut a deal. I hope to hell he fails, but I don’t hold out much hope. He claims he can give the D.A. a really powerful and important man.” Matthew sighed. “We’ll see.”

  “The good news is she’s not badly injured,” Dr. James said. “I’ll give you a prescription for some antibiotic cream to apply twice a day for a couple of days. I don’t think she’ll scar too badly.”

  “The only thing we care about is that she’s safe and sound,” Steven said.

  “Damn right,” Matthew said.

  “Well, then.” Dr. James put both hands on Kelsey’s shoulders and gave her a good stare. “You, young lady, stay out of trouble.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Steven found himself returning Matthew’s grin. How many times had they each answered one or the other of the Doctors Jessop just that way?

  Dr. James leaned forward and kissed her forehead. Then he nodded to Steven and Matt and left the room.

  Steven stroked a hand gently down Kelsey’s hair, so damn glad that he could, that she was here and alive and safe. “Does it hurt, sweetheart?”

  “Just a little. The worst part was the gun going off. My ears just stopped ringing.”

  “You’re lucky that’s all it did. When I think—Jesus.” Matthew choked that out, then stepped forward and wrapped his arms around their woman.

  When Matthew eased his hug, she turned her gaze to Steven. “How did you know where to find me and get to me so fast?” She didn’t have to explain herself.

  “I had the sudden urge to go to town and was just pulling up at the sheriff’s office when Matt and Adam came racing out, heading for their cars. Matt shouted to me that your attacker had you. The first place I thought to go was where that bastard had run you off the road on Sunday. I just floored it. I didn’t even look to see if the light was green or not.”

  “Thank you. I wasn’t certain if maybe Connors wouldn’t somehow find that damn gun and start shooting at me even as I was running away from him. I could barely see anything I was so scared. So I just ran.”

  “Jesus, Kelsey, you don’t have to thank me. You’re my heart. I couldn’t bear it if anything happened to you,” Steven said. He couldn’t stop the shiver that ran down his spine.

  “It’s over.” Kelsey stretched up to kiss Matthew, and then she pulled Steven closer and kissed him, too. “It’s over, and I just want to go home. I want to soak in the hot tub, maybe sip some wine.” She blushed, looked down, then back up, meeting first Steven’s gaze and then Matt’s. “I got hot when you said you were going to spank me.”

  Steven laughed, relief rolling through him. “Good thing,” he said, “because I have a feeling that may be a regular activity for us.”

  “If I like it as much as I think I do, you can count on it,” Kelsey said. “So, can we go home, now?”

  “Yeah,” Matthew said. “Adam will come out tomorrow to take your statement. For now, we can head out.”

  “Of course, there is that crowd in the waiting room to be got through,” Steven said as he helped her off the exam table.

  “Crowd?” Kelsey narrowed her eyes. “What kind of crowd?”

  “Oh, just the usual,” Steven said. “You’ve got your Benedicts and your Kendalls and your Jessops, your Jessop-Kendalls, and Parkers, and Joneses—”

  “And Parker-Joneses,” Kelsey finished for him. “In other words, family.”

  “Yeah. One thing about this town,” Matthew said, “it’s lousy with family.”

  “Nothing lousy about that,” Kelsey countered.

  Steven’s heart had tripped when Kelsey had said “family,” and he knew from the glitter in Matthew’s eyes that he felt the same.

  “So yes, we’ll go home,” Steven said, “and talk about family.”

  “There’s nothing I’d rather do,” Kelsey said.

  Chapter 23

  They didn’t let go of her hands the entire time they’d walked from clinic to the car.

  As predicted, the waiting room was full of family. Bernice hugged her first, sniffing back her tears, then turned Kelsey over to her two husbands. Jonathan and Caleb hugged her, then passed her off to Adam’s parents, and so it went.

  When she saw Michelle, Kelsey held her close. “If you hadn’t stepped outside when you did and then gotten help, I don’t know if I could have gotten away from that bastard. He might have still been able to get to his gun and kill me.”

  “I feel so bad that I thought he was a hottie,” Michelle sniffed.

  “Don’t. He played that role on purpose,” Matthew said.

  Eventually they made their way through the crowd and outside to Steven’s Jeep. Much as they had that first night they’d picked her up, they all three sat in the front. Matthew held her tight on his lap as Steven made quick work of the drive home.

  Ginny and Benny were snuggled together in Ginny’s bed, indulging in an afternoon nap. They crept past her room to the sanctuary of the master bedroom.

  Kelsey had been aware of a fine tremor running through Matthew’s body as she’d sat on his lap. Once the door closed behind them, she threw her arms around him, sensing he needed to hold her tight.

  “Scared the living hell out of us, baby,” Matthew said.

  “Scared the living hell out of me, too.” Kelsey had been able to hold on to her tears all through the ordeal of overpowering Connors, of being treated at the clinic. Now, she couldn’t hold on anymore.

  Sobs racked her. Steven stepped close, and the two men enveloped her completely with their bodies and their love.

  “Adrenaline crash,” Matthew said.

  “Yeah,” Steven agreed.

  They held her until the storm lessened and then they began to undress her. She reached for the buttons of their shirts, but they both batted her hands away, shucking their clothes quickly. When they stepped back to her, she dropped to her knees.

  Two big, beautiful, hard cocks bobbed, waiting for her attention. She loved these men so much. She wanted nothing more than to pleasure them. She filled her hands with them, sque
ezing and stroking their cocks in a languid rhythm.

  She took Matthew into her mouth, sucking deep. A masculine hiss of pleasure and the firm threading of fingers through her hair rewarded her efforts. She pulled her mouth off Matthew, turned her head, and sucked Steven’s cock into her mouth.

  She loved the taste of both of them, marveling that she could tell the difference, their flavors subtly and uniquely their own.

  Steven’s hand joined his brother’s in caressing her hair, and Kelsey pleased herself by lavishing this form of loving on her men by turn.

  “Your mouth is fucking wonderful,” Steven groaned.

  “It is,” Matthew said.

  Kelsey hummed along Steven’s shaft, her tongue stroking as she raised and lowered her head over him, then increasing the pressure of the suction she used until he groaned again and thrust his hips.

  She slid off his cock with a slurp and then took Matthew again, treating him to the same slow, wet loving. She had to flex her pussy when her moisture ran so fast she thought her thighs would be covered.

  “Enough. Our turn.” Matthew said.

  Kelsey sat back, gazing up at her impassioned lovers, but before she could ask what they intended, Steven picked her up and laid her on the bed. Kelsey giggled when they both dove for her.

  “Hold on to the headboard and don’t let go,” Matthew said.

  Something about that commanding tone of his could light her fire almost as much as any touch. Complying, needing to just give them whatever they needed or wanted, Kelsey wrapped her hands around the brass rails.

  “Your cocks feel better in my hands than this cold metal does.”

  “Glad to hear it. Now give me your nectar,” Steven said as he buried his face in her cunt.

  Kelsey groaned, her arousal shooting sharp and high. She arched her hips to press her pussy against Steven’s avid mouth. Matthew caressed her hair, gently turning her head to him.

  His mouth took hers in a kiss more carnal, more feral than any she’d tasted. His mouth demanded surrender, submission, and Kelsey was helpless to refuse him.