Imperfect Penelope (Wild Crush)

by Sami Lee

  “You bastard!”

  Penny had never truly believed that Greg was down here in Sydney having cozy time with Rochelle. Not when the shock of hearing her name on the other end of the line had made her drop her phone in the street, only to have it subsequently run over by a kid on a skateboard, shattering it beyond repair. That had been shock pure and simple.

  Neither had she truly believed it when Hope had sworn a blue streak and told her she had to get on a plane to Sydney and give him a piece of her mind. She’d agreed to let her sister drive her at speed to the Billings airport, which ran a lunchtime service daily between there and Sydney. She’d barely made the plane, her heart pounding a mile a minute, because she’d been worried, yes, about what Rochelle answering Greg’s phone could possibly mean, but she’d never thought he might be sleeping with her, not even once for old time’s sake. He wouldn’t do that to her. Not Greg, who took being a gentleman so seriously that he’d once apologized for fucking her against the bathroom sink.

  A gentleman is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Where had she heard that saying? It didn’t matter, because it wasn’t accurate. What the saying should be is gentlemen are full of shit. They told you they loved you and then disappeared, only for you to find them squiring some other woman out on a Friday night.

  “Son of a bitch!” Penny yelled, her rage renewing at the thought of Rochelle in the other room, waiting to be squired. It made Penny sick, and she kicked Greg in the other shin.

  “Penelope! Jesus!” Greg said, grabbing his abused leg. “What the hell are you doing?”

  “What am I doing? What do you think? I’m chasing you halfway across the damn state only to find you going on a date with your ex, that’s what.”

  Greg straightened and glowered at her. “You told me to come see her.”

  “I didn’t tell you to take her fucking dancing! God damn it, I’m so stupid!”

  She was angry at herself for misjudging him, putting absolute faith in him all the way here in the plane, all the way through the terminal and during the taxi ride. She’d told herself there had to be a good explanation, and that when he gave it to her, she’d tell him she loved him, like she should have done the other night. Then she’d stood outside this fucking mansion in a waterside suburb, the address of which she’d gotten from his secretary, and asked herself a thousand times how she could ever offer anything to a man who’d grown up here.

  She was as nervous as hell as she’d crept up the stairs to the front door, feeling sorta—no completely—inadequate, scared to death he’d changed his mind about loving her, when all along he’d been…

  The rage revitalized itself, and Penny lifted the heavy shoulder bag on her arm, the only bag she’d brought with her, and aimed it at Greg’s head. He was too fast for her this time, and he stuck out his hand and grabbed the bag before it could reach its target. He pulled it out of her grip and dropped it to the ground behind him. “Would you please stop trying to maim me?”

  “No. I feel like maiming you.”

  He had that cross look on his face he got sometimes when he thought she was being unreasonable. “You’ve lost your damn mind.”

  No, just my heart and my faith in mankind forever. She should probably get out of here, flee before the numbing rage started to eke out of her and the pain came in to replace it. She was going to blubber for sure, and she sure as shit didn’t want Rochelle to witness it.

  “I’m leaving,” she announced, trying to move around Greg to retrieve her bag.

  He shot out an arm, banding it around her waist. He growled, “Like hell you are.”

  The body contact seared her, made her remember what it was like to be held by him. Penny’s throat started to close over. Her voice rasped out of her. “Let me go.”

  Greg’s tone lowered, but sounded more steely than before. “Never, you crazy loon.”

  “Am I interrupting something?”

  They both turned at the question. Penny saw an elegant woman who appeared to be in her late forties but might have been older. The honey-brown color of her hair was definitely a bottle job, albeit a very expensive one that looked more natural than naturally brown hair. The woman was glowering at Penny as though she’d peed on the rug.

  “A little old for you, isn’t she?” Penny muttered to Greg, going for humor when a refrain of oops, oops, oops was already throbbing a steady beat in her brain.

  Greg straightened and released Penny. The loss of his touch made her sway on her feet. “Penelope Irving, I’d like you to meet my mother, Zoe Danvers.”

  Of course this was his mother, who must be in her fifties after all, and who lived in this house where Greg had grown up. The woman was formally dressed, obviously on her way out somewhere. With her son. Who was apparently not squiring his ex around town, after all.

  Big oops. Huge.

  “Hello,” Penny croaked when Zoe didn’t speak. “Nice to meet you, Mrs. Danvers.”

  For good measure, Penny threw in a curtsy. Well, she’d been traveling all afternoon and probably stank. She figured a handshake would be summarily rejected. Greg’s mother merely lifted a sardonic eyebrow, and Penny thought, That’s where he gets that from. Zoe transferred her gaze to Greg. “This one, Gregory? Are you quite certain?”

  Penny’s gaze darted to Greg’s profile. He looked austere, except for the wry twist of his lips. He nodded once, and Penny wondered, What did she mean ‘this one’? “She’s quite lovely when she’s not committing assault.”

  Lovely? Me?

  “I’ll wait to make judgment,” Zoe said, but Penny got the feeling she was lying through her teeth. She’d already judged her, and harshly too. Shit. Way to make a first impression on the mother of the man you love.

  Penny’s stomach twisted. Was it possible to screw up any more?

  “Excuse me,” someone said from behind, and they all turned to see a man in a chauffeur’s uniform standing in the still-open doorway. “I’m here for the Danvers’ party.”

  “That’ll be me, party of one,” Zoe said, and Penny read the surprise on Greg’s face. Zoe squared her shoulders and pulled her wrap more securely around her shoulders. “I might try attending one of these things on my own, after all. All the better to meet eligible men without my son hanging around, and clearly, you have your hands full, darling.”

  Zoe rested a hand softly on Greg’s face as she passed. Penny only got a final, disapproving once-over. “Be gentle with him, dear.”

  A moment later Zoe was gone, and the front door was shut behind her. Penny stood in the hall feeling awkward and clumsy in her cotton dress and fake leather boots and her airplane hair, which was flat and lifeless. She hadn’t thought about what she was wearing when she hastily changed at her house before the mad trip to the airport. It hadn’t occurred to her that Greg would be wearing a freaking tux.

  She looked at him through sane eyes for the first time since he’d opened the door. Her knees almost gave way on her. Greg in jeans and T-shirt was hot. Greg in a suit and tie was hot. Greg in a tuxedo?

  Dynamite.

  “Are you going to tell me what that was all about?”

  He was looking at her with that austere countenance and Penny’s legs wobbled some more. “Um…no?”

  His jaw set in a tense line. “Wrong answer.”

  The intent flashed in his eyes, but the warning came too late. Penny couldn’t evade him before he picked her up. No romantic Rhett Butler-style sweeping her off her feet this time. He hefted her like a sack of potatoes over his shoulder and carted her unceremoniously into another room.

  “Hey!”

  It was a wheezy protest at best, and before Penny could add any more words she was down, flat on her back on a big soft leather couch with Greg leaning over her, his eyes filled with exasperation. “Now do you want to tell me why you lost your mind?”

  “I wanted to make a good first impression
on your mother,” Penny quipped.

  “Penelope…”

  His warning tone made her shiver. “I thought your mother was Rochelle, okay? When she yelled out from the other room. I thought it was Rochelle and I went a little…nuts.”

  If anything her explanation seemed to make him more furious. “You thought I’d cheat on you with the woman who jilted me. You think this of me?”

  “No. Not really,” Penny answered. “But you did rush off for what you told Charlotte was urgent business, and I ring and another woman answers, a woman I thought you might have had residual feelings for—”

  “I don’t.”

  Penny looked up and saw no reserve, only truth, in his eyes. Oh, and still some serious aggravation aimed directly at her. “You don’t?”

  “I told you I loved you, Penny,” Greg said crankily, not looking much like he loved her in that moment. “When I say something like that it means I love you and I don’t intend to sleep with any other women.”

  “Oh,” she breathed, thinking that sounded very much like some sort of commitment. Her heart moved into triple time. “But Rochelle…”

  “Rochelle was very presumptuous in picking up a call that was for me. And I was only talking to her because you asked me to.”

  “I realize that, thanks. You don’t need to point it out, I feel dumb enough.”

  “Penny, you’re not dumb. A little unbalanced possibly, and we might have to work on your violent jealousy, but you’re not stupid.” He brushed a wild hank of her hair back from her face, and Penny melted where he touched her. Some of his frustration softened. “You were right. I did need to see her. Our talk was illuminating.”

  “It was?” Penny’s blood chilled. This was some rollercoaster she was on. “What did she say?”

  Greg shook his head. “No. You’re the one answering the questions. I called you half a dozen times to try and explain. Why the hell didn’t you answer me?”

  “My phone broke.” When he looked at her dubiously, Penny crossed a finger over her chest. “I swear. I dropped it, and a kid on a skateboard ran over it. You wouldn’t read about it.”

  “You weren’t ignoring me?”

  “No. I was flying here to see you. Why would I ignore half a dozen phone calls from you?”

  “That’s right, you were flying here. On the spur of the moment if the fact you only have your handbag with you tells me anything.” He narrowed his eyes and dipped his head until his face was very close to hers. “Why? You thought you’d catch me in the act with Rochelle?”

  “No. I told you I never believed that was going on until I saw you at the door and got the wrong idea,” Penny said. “I know you better than that.”

  “Then why?” he repeated, his voice a soft, steely thread. “Tell me why you flew halfway across the state on impulse to see me, or do I have to kiss it out of you?”

  Penny’s heart tripped. Her mouth dried out. He was leaning over her looking James Bond-level hot in his tux, threatening to kiss her, and every female cell in her body was thrilled at the thought of being interrogated. “You’d still want to kiss me after I went all crazy and kicked you?”

  “If it’s for the cause,” he muttered, and dipped his head so close to hers that Penny held her breath. He stared into her eyes, and she saw the frustration of before had turned to a smug satisfaction. “You chased me all the way from Leyton’s Headland, and I want to know the truth.”

  “I didn’t chase you,” Penny objected, not appreciating how pathetic that made her sound.

  “You did,” Greg insisted, and lowered his body until it settled over hers, six feet of gorgeous, formally dressed man pressing her into the couch. Penny’s blood responded with a hot rush of relief and pure carnal desire. “Tell me, Penny. Tell me why you came here, damn it, before I lose my mind too.”

  “I love you,” Penny said, and figured she’d be a pretty terrible spy if this was how easily she gave up the goods. But she looked into his eyes, this man who’d had his love rejected before, and knew he deserved to hear all of it. “I love you, and I was wrong not to tell you the other night. I was terrified you could never love someone like me, someone with a lot of weird quirks and a bad track record. I’m still terrified, because you’re too good to be true, and if there’s one thing I’ve learned it’s that if it’s too good to be true, it probably is.”

  “I’m not that good, Penelope.” He tilted his hips, proving his point by letting her feel the nudge of his big, bad erection. “I have a bad track record, and if you want to compare weird quirks, your violent attack upon my person appears to have turned me on.”

  “Oh, that is bad of you,” Penny said, losing her breath. “And good to know for future reference.”

  “I don’t think so. My shins can’t take another beating.”

  “Just don’t let another woman answer your phone, like ever, and we won’t have a problem, mister.”

  “I’ll have to warn Charlotte.” He framed her face with both his hands, stroking his thumbs over her cheekbones as his gaze bored into hers, a passionate light making his eyes glow gold and bright. “I love you too, my crazy yoga girl.”

  He bowed his head, finally, and kissed her. Penny arched off the sofa, wrapping her arms around his neck and holding on to him, because it at last felt like she had him, for real, and no way was she going to risk letting him go this time. They clung to each other, kissing like their lives, and their futures, depended on it. Lips melded, tongues danced. Penny writhed beneath him, needing to be closer, wanting his flesh and hers bared so they could fully connect. She wanted to be one with him, and that sounded cheesy but was the only way she could describe the desperation to crawl inside his skin and exist there.

  This true love was pretty heady stuff. She’d never felt it before, something she’d realized on the flight here. She’d never been truly panicked about losing someone, frantic to see their face and tell them how she felt. Penny Irving, unlucky in love. It wasn’t true. She’d simply never felt love before. Every other silly affair was mere preparation for this, the real deal. And because she had this, she felt like the luckiest woman on earth.

  Eventually, Greg came up for air, and Penny missed his kiss immediately, thinking in that moment that air was pretty overrated. He still had her face framed in his hands and he looked at her with love and relief and pure happiness swirling around in eyes that crinkled at the corners. “I was coming home tomorrow. You could have spoken to me then and saved yourself the trip.”

  Home. He thought of Leyton’s Headland as home, despite the grandeur of this place they were in. The thought made Penny smile. “Now is better, because you’re wearing a tux, and I wouldn’t have wanted to miss that.”

  “Yes, now is better,” he agreed, his grin turning cocky. “Because you chased me halfway across the state to tell me you loved me, and I did enjoy that.”

  Penny rolled her eyes. “I’m never going to live this down, am I?”

  “I’m going to remind you every anniversary.”

  Her heart went pitty-pat. “Anniversary?”

  “I’m a goal-oriented man, Penny. You know this.”

  Her heart was practically convulsing, but she knew she had to admit something before she let the very serious gleam in his eye derail her. She touched his face, held his gaze. “I shouldn’t have said what I did about wanting to get married. No stupid wedding is as important as the person you’re with, and all I want is to be with you.”

  “And I you.” He turned his head and planted a kiss on her palm. “And you ought to know that I intend to be with you too. I want us to have a relationship, and by that I mean I want to be in your life, and I want you to be in mine.”

  The thought of sharing her life with Greg, of being included in his, was so wonderful that tears welled in Penny’s eyes. “Are you asking me to be your girlfriend?”

  “That’ll do for the moment.
After an appropriate length of time I’d like us to move in together, because I’ve come to hate sleeping without you, Penny.”

  She’d detested spending the last two nights without him by her side too. “What is an appropriate length of time before cohabitation takes place these days?” she asked, smiling at his impatience, which was thoroughly adorable.

  “Three days.”

  Penny laughed. Greg did too, and swooped down to kiss her neck. Penny’s laugh petered out into a sigh of delight as his warm lips moved over her skin. His tongue licked over her pulse point, which throbbed excitedly at the sensuous contact. His hot kisses started tracing the neckline of her dress, brushing lightly over the slight swell of her breasts. Penny sank her fingers into Greg’s hair and arched her back.

  “This dress has buttons down the front,” Greg noted, as he slipped two of them free of their buttonholes. “How convenient.”

  “Hmm,” Penny hummed, her breath growing shallow as Greg slipped another button free, and another until the material parted and revealed her simple lace bra. Pushing up on the flat of his hands, Greg examined what he’d exposed with hot eyes, and his scrutiny was enough to make Penny’s nipples pebble and press against their lace covering.

  He raised his eyes to hers, and Penny’s breath stilled at the determination, the possessiveness in his gold-brown irises. “You’re mine,” he growled. “This is real, and you’re mine.”

  Penny bit her lip and nodded. “Yes. And you’re mine.”

  He dipped his head and kissed her so thoroughly that Penny lost herself in him, and he in her, until their clothes were gone, and all remaining doubts were gone, and all that was left was the two of them. And right there on the expensive leather couch with jackets and dresses and shoes sprawled all around them, two became one.

  * * *

  Many hours later, Greg drew Penny close to him in bed, feeling more complete than he ever had in his life. A year ago he would never have predicted that this willowy, slightly off-center woman would end up being the right woman for him, but he knew she was, knew with every beat of a heart that throbbed and swelled and felt full and alive in his chest. He felt as though he’d finally come into himself, was at last heading towards becoming the man he was supposed to be.