The woman opened her purse, and set a check down in front of Craig. Jackson looked, and saw it was in the amount of ten thousand dollars.
“Do we have an agreement?”
Is this what Anna had been dealing with? This harridan in mother’s clothing? No wonder his woman had been stressed.
“We do, but I doubt it’s the one you’re looking for.” Craig met Jack’s gaze. He knew what his brother wanted to do, and wholeheartedly agreed. He’d let Craig handle the verbal response. He took care of the nonverbal.
Jack reached for the check, noted the woman’s self-satisfied smirk, and watched it turn to confusion as he tore her check into pieces.
“We both agree that you need to leave. Now,” Craig said. “And perhaps you can ponder on this. Just because someone doesn’t appear to be up to your so-called standards, doesn’t mean they’re beneath you in any way. And in your case, madam, I would suggest, in fact, just the opposite.”
“I’ll have my husband contact the owners of this building and have you thrown out. I believe you’re nothing but charlatans, and that you intend to take advantage of Anna. She’s not very bright when it comes to people.” Clara Cooper got to her feet, the look of superiority a sneer that made Jack, for the first time in his life, itch to slap a woman.
“Mrs. Cooper, your daughter is one of the smartest and most intuitive and most beautiful women I’ve ever met. Now please leave, or I will have security remove you by force, if necessary.”
Clara Cooper sputtered, her pinched-looking face even more scrunched. Jack couldn’t recall ever seeing a more sour expression on anyone’s face, ever.
It occurred to him that the woman couldn’t possibly be happy. And, under the circumstances, what a wonder it was that Anna was such a vibrant and sweet woman.
Jack escorted Clara to the door. The moment it closed he heard Craig on the phone. His instructions to Frank were crystal clear. Mrs. Cooper was not welcome to remain in the building, not for one moment.
The front desk guards knew they owned the building, and would see to it the woman was gone—hopefully, well and truly gone before Anna returned.
Jack stood just inside the archway and met Craig’s gaze. Then he pointed to the torn check. “We’re going to have to tell her about this.”
“I know. God, no wonder she looked stressed if that was what she was dealing with all this time.”
“Anna must have had some sort of a confrontation with her mother this morning,” Jackson said. “In fact, I bet she came away from it thinking she’d won.”
“That’s what I think, too.”
“We have to do something, Craig.”
“I know we do, and I have an idea. Tell me what you think.”
As Craig spoke, Jack knew what his brother suggested might very well be considered their taking advantage of a “ripe” situation. Under the circumstances, he’d plead guilty to that charge—as long as it got them what they wanted more than anything in the world.
Jack nodded. “Let’s do it.” Whether or not their plan worked would be entirely up to Anna.
Jack resumed his seat while Craig made the necessary phone calls. He looked at the clock and calculated Anna would be back around one. This is going to be the longest half hour of my life.
* * * *
Anna felt on top of the world. For the first time in more years than she could remember, she felt as if everything wonderful was possible, if she just believed it could be so.
She slung the strap of her bag over her shoulder and clutched the rest of her parcels—a box of letterhead, two smaller boxes of business cards, and a bag containing three of those delicious hoagies both Craig and Jack liked so much. She’d always shied away from eating such a large sandwich, because of conditioning. Her mother had harangued her about her curvy figure since she’d begun to blossom as a teen. But years and years of dieting hadn’t resulted in her becoming the stick figure embodiment of her mother’s youthful self.
Enough thinking about Mother. Anna wasn’t lulled into any sense of security where Clara Cooper was concerned. She knew better than to believe the battle of wills between them had been so easily won. However, she’d stood up for herself and the world hadn’t ended. She could learn to get better at it.
After all, I’m twenty-one, and an adult in the eyes of the law. What can she do to me, really?
Anna would do her best to assert her right to be her own woman, while maintaining as amicable and respectful a relationship as possible with her mother.
Anna smiled when she entered the building. Frank saw her coming, of course, and practically jumped to his feet. He met her at the elevator, inserting his key for her so she didn’t have to juggle her parcels to do it herself.
“Thank you, Frank. That’s very kind of you.”
“You’re most welcome, Miss.” He touched his hat in deference. He’d done that the first day she’d come for her interview, but Anna thought they’d gone beyond that stilted kind of role-playing in the last few weeks.
She gasped when she stepped out of the elevator and saw both men waiting for her at the open door. Jack stepped forward and relieved her of her packages. She met his gaze and knew in an instant that something was wrong.
“What is it? What’s happened?”
“Come inside, Anna.” Craig’s voice sounded gentle. That worried her—not that he didn’t often talk to her in gentle tones, but the fact that his gaze looked so somber.
Oh, God, I hope nothing’s happened to someone in their family! Or, God forbid, my own!
Craig led her toward his desk. Then he stopped, and met her gaze. “We had a visitor not long after you left.”
He didn’t say anything more, but instead looked at the torn pieces of paper on his desk. One piece showed a signature...Anna’s heart dropped. She picked up the paper to be sure she was seeing what she thought she was. She then looked from Craig to Jackson.
“Your mother came by and after...well, after saying a lot of horrible things about us all, offered us ten thousand dollars to fire you. Apparently, our names are not in the social register, and therefore, neither of us would be—in her opinion—a suitable husband to you.”
The strength left Anna’s knees and she sank to the chair in front of Craig’s desk. She could feel herself shaking, felt the tears on her cheeks.
She’d known her mother’s silence, as she’d left the house, meant she was marshalling her thoughts, preparing for the next encounter. But she’d never imagined Clara Cooper would do something like this.
Anna was mortified.
“I...I don’t know what to say. I’m so sorry. I didn’t hire on here looking for a husband. My mother thinks that’s all I’m good for, and only because of my trust fund...I...” She couldn’t even put her emotions into words. She guessed it was inevitable that they’d fire her now. Who wanted to be involved with a fat and frumpy loser with the baggage of a mother like Clara Cooper?
“Anna, don’t cry. Look at us, please, Bella.” It was the use of Jack’s name for her that got Anna’s attention. Jack and Craig were both squatting before her, and each of them held one of her hands.
Then Craig reached into his pocket and pulled out a perfectly pressed linen handkerchief and held it out to her. The gesture seemed so bizarre in the moment, the words left her without thought.
“Whoever carries a linen handkerchief in this day and age?”
“I do.” He pressed the cloth into her hand.
There was such kindness, such affection on their faces, the dam within her broke. “Sometimes, oh, God, sometimes I just hate her. I’ve never been good enough, could never be good enough to meet her vaunted standards. When I was fourteen, and growing, and becoming curvy like her own mother, she made me wear this tiny, very tight black wool dress. She told me it was just a bit small for her, but I could stretch it out for her because I was so fat. We had company coming for dinner and I was humiliated because I had to wear it then and it looked hideous on me...and ever since, she tells me what
to eat and what to wear...it’s my fault, because I never fought back until today. I tried to respect her, tried to just get along. I’ve tried to make her happy, but I can’t...and...I never will. And now she’s come here and you must...oh, God, you must hate me for that.”
“Hate you? No, darling, we could never hate you.” Craig kissed her hand. Then he reached up and took the hankie from her. He gently wiped the tears from her cheek. “What do you want to do? Anna, if you could do anything in the world right now, what would it be?”
Anna didn’t even have to think about her answer. “I’d like to make it so she has no more power over me—so she can’t threaten me or treat me like I’m not good enough, not ever again. I want to move out of her house and be completely untouchable to her.”
The brothers exchanged a look. “We were hoping you would say that. There is one way we can help you make that happen.”
It was the best news Anna had ever heard. “You can? I’ll do anything. Just tell me what to do.”
Craig kissed her hand again. “You can marry us. Today.”
Chapter 7
“By the power vested in me by the State of Nevada, I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss the bride.”
The words sounded surreal. Anna looked up from her left hand, held in Craig Jessop’s right hand, sporting the most beautiful set of rings she’d ever seen in her life. Her gaze met his, and the reality of the last few hours hit her full force.
Her thoughts went back to that moment in the office, when Craig and Jackson had offered a solution that would give her what she wanted—complete freedom from her mother.
“You can marry us. Today.”
Stunned that they would even make such an offer, more than a little in love with them both already, she’d said the only thing she could think to say under the circumstances. She’d said yes.
It wasn’t until they were buckled into their seats on the aircraft that doubt began to flood her. Marriage was an extreme solution, wasn’t it? She’d caught sight of her reflection in the small window of the plane. Her eyes were still red-rimmed, and she hadn’t even taken time to fix her mascara. She looked like an overfed raccoon.
An overfed raccoon who was flying off to her own elopement.
As if this bizarre situation had somehow unlocked the Pandora’s box of emotions within her, fear and insecurity filled her.
In her secret heart of hearts, Anna had been certain that her mother’s “master plan”—to get her married off—was nothing more than a cruel insult. After all, hadn’t Clara done everything in her power to make her feel fat, frumpy, and useless? So why, why would either of these two men want to marry her? What did they really want? They were handsome, and wealthy in their own right. Maybe this was just a lark to them. She knew of more than one young man, scion to a wealthy family, who would indulge in frivolous activities of all sorts on a whim. Her inner voice of reason that insisted neither Craig nor Jackson was like that was being drowned out by her negative emotions. Anna Doreen Cooper you are a pathetic human being.
Anna blinked, her recent thoughts dissolving as one new reality asserted itself. She was no longer Anna Cooper. She was now Anna Jessop—and though she had only one legal husband, she had agreed to be the wife of two.
I have lost my ever loving mind.
“Sweetheart?”
Anna looked up and met Craig’s gaze. And as she continued to do so, calm descended. Everything was going to be all right. She wasn’t certain why these two wonderful men would do what they’d just done—tied themselves to her, just to rescue her from an overbearing and manipulative mother. But she would be forever grateful that they had.
“Yes, Craig?”
“I think we should do what the man said, don’t you?”
“Oh.” She thought back to the words just spoken by the jolly faced gentleman and felt her cheeks heat in a blush.
Craig gave her no time to think. He tilted her chin up and then covered her mouth with his.
Our first kiss. How much of an anachronism was she that her very first kiss with either of these sinfully sexy men was happening when they’d just said “I do”? And then, God help her, her brain circuits fried as the reality of being kissed by Craig Jessop consumed her.
His lips wooed hers, and the brush of his tongue against the seam of her mouth sent a shiver down her back. Unable to resist the silent command, she opened to him. His flavor melted on her tongue, a taste and a heat that made her heart race and her nipples harden into tiny peaks. And then, oh no, please, it was over. He lifted his head, his gaze locked with hers.
Even as unschooled a virgin as she knew smug when she saw it on a man’s face. He brushed the pad of his thumb over her bottom lip, and then he turned her toward his brother.
Jackson’s look was as serious as she’d ever seen it. “I’ve wanted to taste you since the moment I set eyes on you. Come here, my Bella.”
Her feet took the decision away from her as they brought her a step closer to him. Her head raised, and her tongue licked her lips in anticipation.
Jackson kissed her, his lips and tongue overwhelming her senses and flooding her soul. For one delicious heartbeat of time, his flavor mingled in her mouth with his brother’s and the combined taste nearly buckled her knees. And then she feasted on a banquet that was all Jackson. Light, heady, making her drunk in an instant, and—when he, too, lifted his head—craving more.
“Congratulations, to all three of you.”
To all three of us? Was ménage more popular than she’d known?
“Thank you, Michael.”
“Please give my regards to your parents, gentlemen.”
“We will,” Craig said. He must have read the confusion on her face. “Michael here has been performing marriages in Las Vegas for many years. Our parents were among his first celebrants.”
“Oh!” Well, that answered that question. Then she cocked her head at Craig. “I think that’s a story I have to hear.”
“We’ll be happy to enlighten you. Later.”
There was a limousine waiting at the curb outside the Happy-Ever-After Wedding Chapel. Night had fallen, and the lights of Las Vegas burned bright, flashing neon against the black desert sky.
For all of her mother’s posturing, and all the wealth that had been in the Cooper and Watterson families for generations, this was only Anna’s second limousine ride. The first had occurred just an hour earlier, from the airport to the chapel.
“Would you like a glass of champagne?” Jack asked.
Positioned between them in the back seat, she hadn’t even noticed the car had a bar in it until just now.
“I’ve never tried it,” she said. Then she sighed as she realized they were in a limousine on their way to a hotel and their wedding night. She couldn’t stop her blush. “Um, there are a lot of things I’ve never tried.”
“You have no idea, wife, how happy we are that we get to share so many of your first times.”
Wife. The reality of the moment once more exploded. This time, she covered her hot cheeks with her hands. “I’m your wife!”
Craig tilted her chin, so she had no choice but to look at him. “Regrets, Anna?”
How could the man possibly feel hurt? Anna really didn’t know a lot about life, or men, or marriage....or anything. But she did know that the last thing she wanted to do, ever, was hurt either one of these men—these modern day knights in shining armor. They had rescued her as surely as any medieval knight had rescued any damsel in distress. So even though she did think, with a tiny part of her mind, that she had perhaps lost her marbles, she decided to keep those doubts to herself. She needed to show a little more gratitude.
“No, Craig. No regrets. Just a moment of realization that my life has changed now, and I have no idea what comes next.”
His expression softened. “What comes next is you trust us to take care of you. Can you do that?”
Could she? Everything had changed for her over the course of the last few hours, and y
et one very important thing hadn’t really changed, and that was her feelings where Craig and Jackson Jessop were concerned.
She’d told them—was it only this morning?—that she did trust them. That hadn’t changed. She knew, at least intellectually, what came next as far as the wedding night was concerned.
Could she trust them? She not only could. She did.
“Yes, all right. I do trust you.”
Those were apparently the right words, because Craig’s slight frown completely disappeared, replaced by the sweetest smile.
“Good girl.” Craig easily popped the cork on a chilled bottle, then poured three glasses of the bubbly wine. He handed one to her, and then gave one to Jackson.
“To the three of us and the beginning we’ve made here today.”
Anna wanted to look away when each of the men clinked their glasses with hers. Instead, she decided that if this was a new beginning, maybe she could be new, too.
Half an hour later, she wondered if she’d been a little rash in that decision. The limo had pulled up to the Carstairs Las Vegas, and the three of them were received like visiting royalty. Their three small suitcases—at least they had luggage—were whisked away, as were they.
The manager himself showed them up to the penthouse suite. More champagne awaited them there, and the door hadn’t closed yet when a knock sounded.
The manager smiled. “That will be dinner. Mrs. Carstairs herself called me to ensure that you were treated with the utmost care.”
Anna was used to luxury, but not the deference with which she was treated by everyone of the hotel staff she’d encountered in the last few minutes.
“If there is anything we can do here at the Carstairs Las Vegas to make your stay more enjoyable, or to serve you in any way, please let us know.”
“Thank you. This all looks perfect.” Craig shook the man’s hand as he kept walking him backward, until he was at the threshold. Then the door closed, and the three of them were alone.
“They’re very efficient at the Carstairs hotels,” Jack said.
A Very Lusty New Year [The Lusty, Texas Collection] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) Page 7
