“Yeah.” Kelsey stretched that one word out, and Carrie figured she didn’t need any more information than that.
“I’d better get some drinks out to my customers.”
Kelsey shook her head. “Yes, and I’d better get these orders filled instead of standing around daydreaming.”
“I’ll give you a hand.” Tracy washed her hands at the sink, and then grabbed another pair of latex gloves.
Michelle was coming into the kitchen as she headed back to the dining room. More people had come in for lunch, and for the next half hour or so Carrie was kept busy.
She didn’t begrudge the work, or the steady influx of diners. She mentally laughed at herself. Other times she’d tried to escape talking to the brothers Benedict and now, when she wanted to spend a few minutes chatting with them, she couldn’t get near them except to deliver their meals.
Finally the rush eased. She had time to take the tea around again, offering free refills. When she approached Chase and Brian, she sighed. They were still there, seemingly in deep conversation with each other.
Despite wanting to give them the chance to ask her out, she decided she’d best just refill their glasses, take their empty plates, and move on. She definitely didn’t want to interrupt them.
Chase reached out and touched her wrist. “Can you take a small break and sit with us for a moment, sugar?”
She’d kept their table for last. She figured she had a few minutes before she needed to start delivering checks so her customers could be on their way. She also knew Kelsey never minded if one of her staff wanted to sit for a moment with their customers.
“I can take five minutes.”
“Sit down, darlin’. I’ll get you a glass and you can have some of that tea you’ve been pouring for everyone else all day.”
Brian was up like a shot, made his way over to the drink station, and was back in seconds with a clean glass.
Carrie sat, and Chase poured her the tea.
“How long until Kelsey finds herself another waitress, do you think?” Chase asked.
“Your guess is as good as mine. There’re a couple of young girls who’ve applied to come on as summer help. Kelsey’s waiting until Ginny gets home to let them start.”
“Makes sense,” Brian said. “If the kids have never worked before, it’ll likely be a while before they’re any real help at all.”
“Exactly. I don’t mind pitching in. There’s still time to help in the kitchen between meals. A lot of the cooking happens before the actual meal rush.” She realized they’d always kept their conversations centered around her. She thought it was well past time for her to take an equal interest in them. “How’s the ranch coming? It was deserted until you decided to take it on, wasn’t it?”
“Unoccupied,” Chase corrected. “We’re getting there. We’re nearly done riding the fence line and making repairs to it. The barn is ready to house the mares we plan to buy, and we almost have a solid business plan in place. There’s just one thing we’d like to see to, but we don’t have time. Brian and I were talking about it, and we think you can help.”
“I don’t know anything about ranching.” Carrie shrugged. She didn’t have to feign disappointment. She wasn’t sure if she regretted her lack of cow punching experience, or if she had wanted the men to ask her a more personal kind of question.
“What we need doesn’t have anything to do with ranching, darlin’. We heard you telling mom at the ceremony the other day that you do have experience as an interior decorator, and that’s what we’d like you to help us with,” Brian said.
Chase put his hand on her wrist again, and Carrie couldn’t deny the sizzle and snap that worked its way up her arm. He stroked the inside of her wrist with his thumb and it was all she could do not to moan and shiver.
“You have to rescue us, sugar. We’re living in 1930s bordello hell.”
Chapter 3
“Oh my God, it really does look like a 1930s bordello!”
Carrie had been certain Chase and Brian had hit her with a unique variation of the “come over and look at my etchings” line.
Apparently, they were serious. Bummer.
“You thought we were just shooting you a line to get you alone at our place,” Brian said.
Carrie didn’t often blush, but she felt her cheeks heat and knew a moment’s difficulty meeting either of their gazes.
She inhaled deeply, then womanned up, and looked him dead in the eye. “Yes, I did.”
Chase nodded. “Smart woman. We were shooting you a line to get you alone here. You came anyway, even suspecting that’s what we were doing. This gives us a great deal of hope, so we’re being honest. But, we also really do need help with this house.”
Oh, boy. She had given them a message of intent in coming out to their lair, as it were. And, okay, that was what she’d meant to do. She had told herself she was going to say yes if they asked her out, and they did and she did.
She just wasn’t altogether certain what the hell was supposed to happen next. She looked from them, to the room around her.
From the outside, their ranch house, although large, had appeared…normal. Shaded porch on the front, two story, and constructed of a combination of stone and wood, the building had seemed to call to her homebody instincts. She’d expected open rooms, wood floors, and large, masculine furniture.
What she was looking at was red and gold brocade-upholstered Queen Anne–style furniture, with a couple of pieces of Louis XIV thrown in, a rich Aubusson carpet in pink, teal, and gold, and a gold-painted grand piano that Liberace would have enjoyed.
“I don’t know where to start.” She turned to look at the brothers Benedict and gasped slightly. She hadn’t even noticed them moving so close to her.
“Oh, that’s easy. You start right here.” Chase reached for her, his hands hot as they clamped onto her upper arms. He pulled her gently toward him, giving her plenty of time to stop what was about to happen.
Panic once more flared to life, but she killed it dead. She wanted this, even if she wasn’t one hundred percent certain she knew what all “this” would turn out to be.
The heat of his body pulsed against hers. She inhaled deeply and could smell woodsy soap and man. When he slid his hands down her body and around, so that they held her ass, she slipped her arms around his neck.
“Hello, sugar.” His soft greeting puffed against her face as he moved in on her.
“Hey, cowboy.” She could smell him, was surrounded by him, and was filled suddenly with a deep, hungry craving for him.
He grinned, his eyes mesmerizing, and then he settled his mouth on hers.
Soft and gentle, his lips sipped at hers, brushing back and forth with a tenderness she never expected. He tasted hot, savory, and she wanted more. Unable to prevent it, a humming, yummy kind of sound vibrated out from her throat.
He eased back, just a little. “Okay so far? Wanna go a bit deeper?”
“Yes, and yes. I need more.”
“Hang on to me then, sugar. Here we go.”
Oh she’d been so right about that deep basso timbre of his voice and how it tickled all her nerve endings, nipples to clit. She wondered at his warning even as she let her hands caress the top of his back and his shoulders.
He eased her hips closer, and she felt the ridge of his erect cock press against her stomach.
He groaned and then put his mouth on hers again. This time, he plundered.
With lips and tongue, Chase surrounded her with passion and drenched her in a warm, wet tasting that seduced the strength from her legs and fired her libido. His tongue swirled in her mouth again and again, and Carrie felt herself melting into him. Her heart pounded, her flesh felt electrified, and his flavor seeped into her bloodstream. This was passion, raw and new, and something never sampled.
Her brain short-circuited, her intellect’s final words, I get it, the beginning and the middle and the end of everything. She pressed against his body, close, and then closer still as h
er head tilted back, her lips opened wide, and she began to drink him in as thoroughly as he drank her.
She whimpered when he weaned his lips from hers and when he edged back just slightly. She opened her eyes. Her gaze met his and there was no mistaking the lust she read there.
And then two hands touched her shoulders, stroked down, and turned her in to another solid masculine chest.
“Come here, darlin’. I’ve been wanting to taste you forever.” Brian gave her no time to think. There was only time to feel, and to respond in kind.
Carrie moaned, leaned into him, and opened her mouth wide to receive his kiss.
Tart and tangy, hot and wet and wonderful, Brian Benedict proved as thorough a kisser, as magical a seducer as his brother.
She’d never kissed two men in such rapid succession, and the reality of two distinct masculine flavors on her tongue, the realization of two hot, hard, denim-covered cocks pressing against her at the same time was an attraction she nearly couldn’t grasp.
Her nipples peaked as her tongue danced a slow and sexy tango with his. Her panties felt damp and Carrie gave in to the urge to flex her pelvic floor muscles, as if she held one of their cocks within her already and needed to caress it.
She felt hot, hungry, and horny. As the brothers Benedict continued to touch and caress, to kiss and sip, she reveled in the wonder of wanting, and being wanted.
“Shh, darlin’. We didn’t mean to let things get so far out of hand.” Brian gathered her in and held her while Chase stroked her back in a slow, gentle caress.
She trembled and figured that was what had pulled them from the brink.
“Come here, sugar. We’ll sit and snuggle for a bit.”
Carrie squeaked when Chase so easily picked her up in his arms. He carried her the short distance to the sofa and sat down, holding her on his lap.
Carrie sighed. There was such pleasure in the simple fact of being cuddled. She couldn’t help but nuzzle her face on his chest and snuggle in even deeper. Brian had walked away, but before she could wonder where he’d gone, he returned and handed her a bottle of water.
“Thanks.” She uncapped it and took a long drink. The trembling had stopped, but she had no intention of leaving her perch—unless it was to climb onto the lap of the man who sat next to them.
Brian lifted her legs and placed them on his lap. Then he removed her sneakers and socks, and began to massage her feet.
Carrie groaned, the pleasure nearly bone-melting. “Oh, God, you have about an hour to stop that.”
“Just enjoy, darlin’, it’s the least I can do in repayment for that oral delight.”
“May I say, sugar, you are one hell of a kisser.”
“Ha! That wasn’t me. That was all the two of you. Y’all got some serious talent there. I swear, too much more of that and my clothes would have melted right off my body.”
“So we figured,” Brian said. “Not that we would really mind, you understand.”
“But the first time we have you in bed between us, Carrie, we want to be sure it’s what you want, too.” Chase kissed the top of her head.
“And even though we’ve known each other since you came to town, I don’t reckon you’ve been thinking of us that way until recently. Have you?” Brian’s question, his voice quiet, pinged her conscience.
Carrie sighed again. Who knew these two cowboys were going to prove to be gentlemen as well as being so damn hot? “No, you’re both right, on all counts.”
“You were pretty resistant to us—until Saturday. We think something changed for you then.”
Chase tipped her face up toward him, his finger gentle on her chin. “If we were interested in just a few fast lays, sugar, we’d be there right now. But we want more than that from and with you. At the very least we want a relationship with you that is real and honest, on all sides.”
“You’ve got secrets, darlin’, shadows that haunt you. Maybe others don’t see them, but we do.”
“Everyone has secrets.” Carrie couldn’t help the feeling of defensiveness that rose up in her. She’d spent a lifetime alone, keeping her thoughts and her words to herself. Damn straight she had secrets. She wouldn’t have been able to survive if she hadn’t learned how to hide—both literally and figuratively.
“Yes, everyone has secrets.” Chase stroked her face with his finger. “But not everyone is the woman we love. You can’t expect us to share your body if you’re not also willing to let us share your soul.”
Well, hell. She’d been hoping to find out just what these shivery sensations would lead to. And then the words he just used echoed loudly in her head and Carrie shot up straight in Chase’s lap and gasped.
She would have climbed off him but he held on tight.
“Love? You don’t love me! It doesn’t happen that way. That was just…just…kissing!”
Instead of being pissed off, Chase just smiled. He shared a look with his brother, and so naturally Carrie had to look at Brian, too. They were both grinning like fools.
“Maybe you don’t love us yet, and that’s okay, sugar. We’re not going anywhere and we have lots of time to court you properly.”
“Truth is, darlin’, it happens to Benedicts all the time—though not to us before we met you.”
“And one more thing, sugar. That wasn’t just kissing. That was foreplay, and not even our best effort at it. And sex isn’t happening until you admit that you’re in love with us.”
“And that will happen sometime after you tell us what you’re hiding from.”
Well, hell. Carrie didn’t know if she wanted to cry—or praise God.
* * * *
Nothing had ever felt as good as holding Carrie in his arms. When he’d picked her up and sat down on the sofa with her on his lap, she’d snuggled into him just like an affectionate little kitten.
Right at the moment she still looked like a little kitten—a mad, spitting one.
“You can’t possibly expect me to just roll over and let you rifle through my closet, looking at all my skeletons.”
“Not right now, no.” Chase didn’t know a lot for certain in this life but one thing he knew without question.
Something had hurt their woman, something she was still dealing with. He had no idea—not for sure—what it could be. He had his suspicions, and those suspicions twisted his guts.
He knew Brian thought and felt the same thing.
“You don’t need to be gettin’ all riled up, darlin’. I can see you’re mad at us. Please don’t be. We are on your side. We love you.”
Carrie just shook her head. “I’m not mad. Well, not really. I’m mostly just confused.”
“You feel something for us.” Please, God. Chase didn’t know if they’d just made a huge blunder with her, not following where their hormones wanted to so merrily lead them.
Stopping had just felt right to him, and judging by the way Brian had supported him, he wasn’t alone in that.
Carrie sighed. Then, thank you, Lord, she relaxed again in his arms and snuggled back down. Up until the last couple of days, it had been as if she’d been sporting a flashing neon sign above her head that proclaimed, “Don’t touch.” That had changed, but he and Brian both figured there was a damn good reason she’d spent so much time and energy protecting herself.
“Yes, I feel something for you. I feel something for you both, but I can’t say right this minute with complete certainty that it’s love.”
“Fair enough, darlin’.”
“I just don’t know what comes next.”
Chase could get awfully used to having Carrie snuggled in his lap. He made a plan right there and then to see to it they spent some part of every single day just like this.
“What comes next is we court you. We get to hold you and kiss you while you get to know us and we get to know you.”
“And, darlin’, if you could find it in your heart to help us with this seriously ugly house, we’d be grateful.”
Carrie laughed out loud. She move
d to sit up, and Chase helped her. She looked around the room. “It is ugly. Does the rest of the house look like this?”
“Yeah, pretty much,” Chase said. “Apparently the Benedicts who decided to come out of town and ‘work the land’ in the 1930s had no intention of really doing so. The place has been rented out a couple of times since then, most recently by a retired history teacher from Abilene. She finally moved a year or so ago to an assisted living facility close to her great-nieces and nephews, in Waco.”
“Jake said she loved the decor,” Brian said. “Apparently she told him it felt as if she was living in a museum.” He laughed. “Jake said the few times he came out to visit her, or to bring contractors out to do repairs, she’d greet him at the door wearing costumes from the twenties and thirties.”
Carrie just shook her head. “And of course, no one in town would think anything of that woman living out here dressed in dated garb, because she was happy.”
“She was sane, and paid the rent on time. How she wanted to live her life was her business, wasn’t it?” Chase ran his hand through her short black hair. He’d wanted to get his fingers in it ever since he’d met her. At first look, he’d thought she was some sort of Goth girl. The first time he’d laid eyes on her, she’d worn her hair in a spiky kind of do, sported red, red lipstick, and had a rainbow of stud earrings in her left ear. Her right ear only had two studs, and he’d wondered at the time if the look was a fashion statement, or if she’d run out of money before getting the right ear done to match the left. And still, with that first sight, Goth girl or no, he’d wanted her.
“I have the feeling that’s the motto of Lusty, right there,” Carrie said.
“Have you visited the museum yet, darlin’?” Brian was still massaging her feet and Chase could tell that was something their woman really enjoyed.
Carrie lay back on Chase and groaned, likely in response to the foot rub. “You’re the second person to ask me that in recent days. I haven’t been there yet. I have the feeling I should make time to visit it soon.”
“We want to take you there.” Chase kissed the top of her head. He found his own spot to massage—right at the base of her neck, and across her shoulders. He felt her go boneless on him and grinned.
Love Under Two Cowboys [The Lusty, Texas Collection] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) Page 4
