Of course, that attitude might not be good for her husbands’ business. Better, far better, to let Craig and Jackson have complete control in that area, deciding what invitations needed to be accepted and which ones could be politely declined. She’d ask, of course, their reasoning on each one so that in time that would be one more thing she could take off their hands.
Anna sighed. Attending some functions would always be expected. Her mother did love to go out and be seen, and, she readily admitted, some of the events on the woman’s social calendar each year were in conjunction with Edgar Cooper’s company.
Just one thing I’ll have to learn to grin and bear. And why shouldn’t she willingly do so? It certainly wasn’t as if Craig and Jackson hadn’t already done so much for her. They had explained to her the night before that they felt the need to buy her pretty things? Well, she wanted to do things for them, too, to give back a measure of their generosity and kindness toward her.
She barely suppressed a giggle as her inner imp whispered that they’d even gone so far as to marry her and that was certainly above and beyond.
Anna blinked as she looked at yet another charitable donation receipt, the third she’d opened so far today. Part of her knew, of course, that businesses used such devices as tax write-offs. Anna was all for honoring legal obligations and paying taxes. She happened to know that C & J Jessop Inc. contributed handsomely to the coffers of the local, state, and federal governments.
Regular charitable gifts not only lowered a company’s tax burden, they also actually lowered the drain on the public purse by taking over, in the private sector, what sometimes had to otherwise come out of tax revenues.
It certainly made sense that year-end would be a time where there might be more contributions made, as companies assessed what the fiscal bottom line was going to be, and acted accordingly. Yet something about these receipts nagged at her. The latest, from the Daughters of the Republic of Texas, was a receipt for the amount of twenty thousand dollars. That was hardly chump change.
She looked again, and then, eyes wide, suddenly understood what it was that had bothered her about this receipt—about all of them.
They were made out, not to C & J Jessop Inc., but to her, Anna Cooper Jessop!
Anxious now, she opened the rest of the mail, barely glancing at the checks and other items, separating out, instead, the donation receipts.
Sitting back, she exhaled heavily, looking at all eight of the small documents, each one thanking her for her generosity and civic mindedness.
The total, when she added them up in her head, was significant. Nearly a half a million dollars. But that wasn’t the most worrying thing.
No, the most worrying thing was what else each of these eight receipts had in common. Each one was issued by an organization in which Anna’s mother, one way or another, was involved.
* * * *
Craig had been curious when he’d seen the size of the pile of envelopes Anna retrieved from the mail room. He knew that Uncle Marty had acted immediately, after he’d called him last week. On Christmas Day, he’d told Craig that the checks Craig had requested had been sent by overnight courier the same day he’d requested them. Attending the New Year’s Eve ball had been something Craig had come up with after that disastrous visit to Anna’s parents’ house Christmas morning. Fortunately, Marty did indeed have an invitation to the event. It had been a simple matter to have the organizers rush out a new one, naming the Jessops as attendees.
Marty had given him that before they’d left Lusty last night.
He let his gaze wander to the proposal he’d begun to half-heartedly read. There was no sound at all coming from Anna’s office. Sometimes she turned on the small radio she’d picked up, and they could hear music playing softly. Not today.
He needed to get a grip. As excited as he was about all the surprises he and Jack had lined up for her, he didn’t want to look like an eager kid on Christmas morning. He wanted her to discover their surprises all on her own.
He caught Jack’s intent gaze. One look at his brother, and he knew he wasn’t the only one consumed with curiosity.
Not for the first time, he wished they could see her from where they sat. Maybe we’ll rearrange our desks so that we can. It was certainly something to think about.
Anna mattered more to them than anyone else. They were intent on ensuring that people knew she was someone—and not the insignificant no one her mother had tried to make her into for so many years.
He let his gaze wander again to the document on his desk, and he began to read. Amazingly, this time the words caught his attention, and he read in earnest.
“What is it, Bella? You look confused.”
Craig jerked his head up. He wasn’t even aware that a few minutes had passed. He hadn’t noticed Anna leaving her office and approaching them.
She sat in the chair that was in front of his desk. She seemed more than confused. She looked wary. “I am confused. Apparently, I’ve made a slew of high dollar donations to different charitable and service groups based in the Dallas area. Strangely, they’re the same groups my mother supports—either by cash, or by serving on committees.”
Craig met her gaze. He opened his mouth to deliver the well-thought out response, and found he couldn’t. He couldn’t tell his wife a half truth. He tried to think what he’d say, but then his heart took over.
“Do you have any idea how much it hurt us to see the way she treated you? We didn’t care, not one bit, what she said to or about us. That didn’t even touch us. But when she insulted you on Christmas morning? After she’d already done so right here in this office a few days before? We couldn’t let that stand, Anna. We just couldn’t.”
“I see.” She lifted the papers in her hand, and Craig knew they were receipts. “This is a rather expensive bit of nose thumbing, wouldn’t you say?”
“Not really.” He looked over at Jack.
“Bella, you’ve never asked, because our money really doesn’t matter to you. But love, we’re worth millions. We give to numerous charities, all year round. And yes, extra donations are made by us about this time every year, regardless of Clara Cooper’s vexing opinions. The only thing we did differently this time, was where we sent the money, and in which of our names. You’re our wife. What’s ours is yours. So our donations are your donations.”
Anna sat silent for a long moment. She didn’t meet either of their gazes. That can’t be a good sign.
“I love my mother. But I can no longer tolerate her manipulations, or her judgmental ways. She has more or less controlled my life since I was a child. I know it’s my fault for taking the easy way for so long, for allowing her to make decisions large and small in my stead. I should have fought for the right of self-determination long ago.” She looked down for a moment, as if struggling with a decision. “Do you know what it was that finally drove me to confront her that day? The day she came here, the very day you whisked me off to Las Vegas and married me?”
Craig met his brother’s gaze. A sour feeling grew in his stomach. He looked back at Anna. “No. I guess we never did ask you for the details, did we?” He had the sinking sensation that he really should have done that.
“Mother didn’t like the clothes I wore to work—clothing that she picked out in the last year for me to wear in the first place, mind you. Suddenly they weren’t good enough to ‘lure’ a rich husband. So she went out and bought me outfits that were not only too small they were....well, let’s just say very inappropriate for business attire, and leave it at that. She was telling me what to wear, just like she’d told me what to wear and where to go and what to do, for all of my life.
“I finally stood up to her, and I discovered something amazing about myself. I don’t want to be a woman anyone can push around, or dictate to. Not ever again.”
Oh, hell. Craig swallowed hard, took one look at the ashen face of his brother, and understood they’d fucked up, big time.
He got up from his desk, rounded it, an
d knelt by Anna’s chair. He took her right hand and rubbed the back of it. Jack had joined him on her other side. It wasn’t lost on him that the last time he and his brother had come before her on bended knee was the day they’d proposed.
Anna didn’t look up, but kept her gaze down, as if she was reading the papers she held. He knew she wasn’t, of course.
“Sweetheart? The last thing we wanted to do was to make you feel inadequate, or tell you what to do. We...” Craig sighed and looked at his brother for help.
“We wanted to fix everything for you, Bella, because that is what men do.”
Craig’s heart continued to urge him. Maybe the timing wasn’t the best. But the way things were going, it was never going to be the best.
“It’s what men do for the women they love.”
Anna gasped and looked up and met his gaze. “We’re not smooth talkers or silver-tongued devils like some of our more flamboyant cousins, wife,” Craig continued. “And now I realize we probably should have told you the day we ‘whisked you off Vegas,’ because we knew then. We knew the day we met you. It only took laying our eyes on you. I love you, Anna Jessop. I love you with all my heart.”
“I love you, my Bella. My Anna. My wife. You’re the very heart of me.” Jack lifted her left hand and kissed it.
Craig did the same to her right hand.
“We’ve never been husbands before, never even had a serious, long-term relationship with a woman. You’re going to have to organize us in that area, too, I’m afraid.”
“I love you, too. I love you both so much.” Her smile, small but there, made his heart stir. “I want to be the best wife I can be to you. To do that, I need to be myself—and I need to discover what all that means.”
“And we want to be the best husbands we can be to you. We want to give you all that you need, and all that you want.”
“I want us to be partners. True partners who talk, and share.” She gave a watery chuckle. “And yes, who even dare to do something as dramatic as this”—she lifted the receipts—“if we think the need is there.”
“There are no rules on how to have a good marriage,” Jack said, “except the rules we write for ourselves. I like the sound of being partners with you, Anna Jessop.”
“So do I,” said Craig. “What do you say we tie up our loose ends here and go back to the penthouse? I really need to have you naked in my arms.”
“I need that, too. I need to feel you both holding me.”
He and his brother both stood and lifted Anna from her chair. He kissed her, and passed her to Jack.
The phone rang.
Craig picked it up. “Jessop.”
“Sir, it’s Frank down at the security desk. There’s a courier here with a delivery from a Mr. Carl Sanders.”
That was quick. Kudos to the man for finding an efficient courier service. “Send him up, please.” He hung up the phone. “The contract from Sanders.”
“See if the courier will take a return delivery,” Jackson said.
“That’s what I was thinking.” That left only a few loose ends for them to deal with tomorrow and Monday, before they could take the next week or so off.
They’d have to ask Anna, later, if she’d rather skip the New Year’s Eve party, or not. Maybe they’d just get a jump—no pun intended—on their honeymoon and leave early for Lusty. If that’s what she wanted to do they could be there Friday night.
Craig was done making assumptions as to what Anna wanted and needed. He felt as if he and his brother had just dodged what could have been a very fatal bullet, marriage-wise.
And he vowed to never make a mistake like the one they’d already made, not ever again.
Chapter 18
Anna’s heart pounded as they reached the door of the penthouse. They’d left her car behind, and she’d ridden with them in the Caddy—between them, of course, her hands captured and held by the two men she called husband.
The door closed and then the lock clicked, and Craig turned, brought her flush with his body and tilted her chin up. Jackson pressed himself against her back, and the heat of him and the feel of him made her want to hum with pure pleasure.
“You haven’t said a word since we left the office, love. What are you thinking? Your silence is unnerving us both.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean...I guess I’m just still trying to take in the fact that you said you love me. I didn’t think you did. I was afraid...” Anna let her words trail off, fully aware that to complete the sentence would be to show them her deepest fear—the one she’d been living with since Las Vegas.
She didn’t know what message passed between her men—she was convinced that they had a means of communicating with each other without words. Then Craig met her gaze.
“What were you afraid of, Anna?”
“I was afraid to hope that you could love me. I was afraid that you’d get tired of me and then I’d be alone.”
“Never, Bella.”
“Not only do we love you, Anna Jessop. We love you so much that we took shameless advantage of your emotions that day, when we asked you to marry us. If we’d been proper gentlemen, we’d have given you time to consider our proposal, instead of just rushing you off to the chapel the way we did.”
Anna reached up and brushed her fingers against Craig’s face. There was something about the sensation of the very slight beard stubble she found there that turned her on. She leaned against Jackson and when he put his hand on her shoulder, she rubbed her cheek against it.
Until these men had done just that—rushed her off to wed her and bed her—she’d had no idea that such passion existed anywhere except between the pages of a book.
“I’m glad you did. I’m glad you took advantage of me and married me without giving me time to carefully consider. I can overthink things sometimes.” She looked down for just a moment, wondering if she should bare her soul completely. Then she looked up, first into Craig’s compelling dark eyes. She tilted her head and looked into Jackson’s light blue gaze. His eyes shone with love and lust, and she knew in that moment that just as she’d asked for their total and complete honesty, she could do no less than to give them hers.
“I’d already begun to fall in love with you. It shocked me, because I’d never felt attracted to any man before. And yet, that first moment, when I arrived for our interview and I looked up and there you were? A part of me knew I was destined to love only the two of you for the rest of my life. Thank you for loving me. Thank you for rushing me into marriage.”
“Anna.” Craig lowered his head and gave her a sweet, but too brief kiss. He lifted his head, and when she felt the stroke of Jackson’s finger against her chin, she turned to him. His kiss was just as tasty, and just as short, as his brother’s.
She didn’t know if she was shaking, or they were. Or maybe they all were. Craig lifted her hand to his lips. He kissed it, and then smoothed his kiss into her flesh with his thumb.
“We need you, wife.”
“I need you, too, husbands.”
Craig and Jackson took her hands and led her to their bedroom. The soft afternoon sunlight played through the gauzy curtains, sprinkling sunshine like fairy dust on the carpet, walls, and bed.
Fairy dust is an apt phrase, because there’s magic here. Anna believed there was magic between them whenever they came together, whenever they loved. There was no other way to explain the sheer beauty, the complete joy that surrounded them in moments like this one.
They wasted no time setting the mood. Their first night here—was it only just last night?—they’d lit candles and put soft music on the stereo. Today, there was none of that, just a raw, aching need shared by them all. Her men turned to her, and created the most powerful magic of all when they quickly and, yes, with trembling hands, began to remove her clothes.
“You are so beautiful.” Craig and Jackson’s gazes raked her, head to toe, and she knew that she was beautiful in their eyes—and that was all the beauty, in this life or the next, she wo
uld ever need.
“Please get naked. I need to see you and touch you both.” She licked her lips. “I need to taste you both.”
They took one step back, and she understood that was so she could see them both as they rushed to do her bidding. They tossed their clothes off as if they needed to be naked—as if they needed to give her this gift as quickly as possible.
Anna’s arousal grew with each inch of flesh they bared for her. Naked, they took that step back, moving toward her. Before they could reach for her, she dropped to her knees. Hard, luscious male cock filled both her hands. She knew how to pleasure them now, knew exactly how much pressure to apply to make them groan with lust as she stroked them.
Had they only been lovers for eight days? Anna marveled, because the passage of time since she’d taken their name seemed both rapid and eternal. She’d been a wife for just over a week, yet knew their bond would last them for all eternity.
“I never knew I could want this, crave this. I never understood anything at all until you claimed me. And now, I want never to be without you—without this.” She met their gazes, wowed that she had the kind of effect on them that made their cocks so hard and hot. She’d come to them a virgin who’d believed herself less than—and now she knelt before them and knew she was their enchantress, their lover, their wife.
Her fists pumped, while her fingers slyly caressed their heated sacs on the downstrokes, and then she licked her lips and drew first one, and then the other of her husbands’ cocks into her mouth in turn.
Their flavor aroused her. The scent of them right here proved more potent than the most alluring cologne, more heady than the finest of liqueurs. The tiny drops of nectar they gave her mingled on her tongue, and as they trembled and moaned, Anna felt powerful in her femininity and humbled in her humanity.
A Very Lusty New Year [The Lusty, Texas Collection] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) Page 16
