By the looks on their faces she could tell she’d surprised them. Maybe it was a really good thing Eli Barton and Jeremiah Winthrop had decided to come to her after all. They knew Ms. Jessop, legislative aide to Senator Cyrus Cordell. But if they were going to build any kind of relationship, even a temporary one, then they’d have to get to know Nancy Jessop, book nerd and Texan woman next door.
* * * *
“You live here alone?” Eli didn’t know why finding out Nancy wasn’t staying with her parents surprised him. He guessed he’d equated her “moving back home” with her moving back into her family home.
“Well, as of a couple of weeks ago, yes. I could have had an apartment, but I’m tired of apartment living. This house suits me better.”
“Because it says you’re putting down roots and you’re here to stay?” Jeremiah asked.
Nancy nodded. “That, and I like to garden. It’s something my mother and I have in common.”
Eli thought her house was a lot more settled-in looking after just a couple of weeks than his own apartment was after several years of occupancy.
But then, maybe that was an intrinsic difference between men and women. He’d heard his mother say, when his older sister had been expecting and was going ape-shit crazy over rearranging and decorating her house, that she was nesting.
That thought made him focus in on Nancy as the thought of her pregnant with their child—his or Jeremiah’s, didn’t make any difference—ran through his mind. It was all Eli could do to keep his cock from hardening. He turned and made as if he was checking out the living room. He hadn’t been able to see much detail of the exterior of the building in the dark, except that it was a good size, two story and with a curved front porch. He wasn’t sure, but he thought that perhaps there had been an upper balcony above the porch roof.
Inside, her house was neat as a pin, and while Eli knew Nancy hadn’t lived here for very long, it felt well lived-in.
“So…won’t your parents be upset when they find out that we’re your…um…guests?”
Nancy tilted her head to one side as she looked at him. “No, they won’t. I’m twenty-nine years old, Eli. They no longer feel they have to approve of my every move.” Then she shrugged, and a shadow of vulnerability crossed her face. She folded her arms in front of her chest. “If you’re uncomfortable at the thought of staying here alone with me, I can take you over to the Parkview Inn. That’s a B&B my cousin, Maggie Benedict, runs. It’s only a few blocks away and I know she has space.”
“Maggie…she was the curly-haired woman with three husbands?” Jeremiah asked.
Nancy just nodded to answer Jeremiah’s question, but she didn’t take her gaze from his.
Eli became aware that Jeremiah was giving him a lethal look. Fuck. He’d been sending off negative vibes for the last half hour and he was sorry for it. Being this close to Nancy and on the verge of reaching for what he wanted more than anything in the world had put him on edge.
It was time to do what he’d wanted to do practically from the first moment he laid eyes on the luscious blonde a couple of years ago. More words right now simply wouldn’t cut it. Not after he’d clearly made her feel as if he didn’t want to be there.
Start out as you mean to go.
Ten feet separated him from the woman he and his best friend had wanted for what felt like forever. Keeping his gaze on hers, he took slow, steady steps until bare inches separated them.
He cupped her face and used his thumbs to stroke her cheeks. He could feel her trembling, but he wasn’t worried that she was afraid of him.
Maybe I need a few words after all. “I don’t want to go anywhere, cupcake. We don’t want to go anywhere—except up those stairs, with you.”
Jeremiah moved quietly until he was standing so close to them, his chest brushed Nancy’s back.
Nancy gasped as Eli lowered his head. And then he saw the flash of hunger in her eyes. It was the first clear signal he’d gotten that she really did want this—that she really did want them.
“Wrap your arms around me, Nancy. We’re about to set you on fire.”
He didn’t give her time to think. He laid his mouth on hers and dove right in. Just as he’d known she needed the words, he understood now she needed, not a timid first kiss, but a deeply carnal and commanding one.
His tongue took possession of her mouth and a sense of heat, of arousal, and of rightness filled him. Her hot honeyed flavor shot straight to his cock, and this time, he didn’t try to restrain himself. He felt her arms slip around his neck. Taking that as his signal, he wrapped both arms around her and pulled her body close. His right hand settled on her luscious ass, and he lifted and pulled so she could feel his hardening cock and would have no doubt whatsoever that he wanted her.
Nancy’s kiss felt shy and untutored, and the caveman inside him roared with approval. His tongue led hers, dancing and dipping, teaching her how he wanted her to kiss him back. When she moaned and shivered, he lifted his lips from hers.
Her eyes blinked open and she looked dazed and delighted. Eli grinned, and then nodded toward Jeremiah.
When Nancy turned her head toward his best friend, he eased his hold of her a little, giving them just enough room to maneuver.
He and Jeremiah had shared women twice before—the first time on a lark, and the second to find out if that first experience really was something they wanted for keeps. They’d known it was, and had been looking for the right woman ever since.
Eli had no doubt Nancy was the right woman. She already belonged to him. Now he waited to see how he felt when Jeremiah kissed her.
Chapter 4
Nancy couldn’t stop herself from trembling as she turned her head and met Jeremiah’s gaze. Eli’s kiss had aroused her as no other man’s ever had. Is this what being with the right man is like? More to the point, could the phenomenal experience repeat itself with another man?
This was something she’d wondered all her life. Even growing up in Lusty, even seeing the way her parents were together—the way most of her aunts and uncles who were in ménage marriages were together, she’d always feared it wouldn’t be that way for her.
“It’s going to be all right, baby. Let me taste you, now.” Jeremiah’s whispered words brushed her face just a second before his lips settled on hers.
The zing and the zip, more potent that the strongest liquor, once more sizzled her blood and spun her head. Joy encompassed her as she used her tongue to duel with his in the same way Eli had just taught her. Oh, how awesome was the taste of both men! Nothing had ever tasted this good. She needed more.
Jeremiah combed his fingers through her hair, sending the clip she’d anchored there earlier flying. Then his hand cupped her head and she felt possessed. Arousal speared through her, stirring her juices, making her nipples peak and her slit leak. The siren call of orgasm had never been this strong, and for one instant all she wanted was to shoot at the speed of light for the prize.
Is this what men feel? Is this what makes them rush and be done so fast? She could almost forgive both of her previous lovers for their haste.
Almost.
Nancy knew, somehow, that if just two kisses could stir her this high, then a greater pleasure awaited her.
Jeremiah raised his head, and she saw the heat she felt reflected back at her in his eyes. Unable to affect a sophisticated pose, she shivered. “Oh, God.”
“Yeah, pretty much,” Jeremiah said.
“We’re going to go off like randy, pimply faced boys,” Eli said. He leaned forward and kissed the top of her head.
Nancy grinned. “Nice image there, Barton.”
Eli’s laugh was more of a bark. “I had to do something, cupcake. I just about came in my pants watching you two kiss. I think we need a time-out.”
“But I was having fun.” They’d never dated, though the men had flirted, and they’d talked at least a couple of times a week for the last two years. Those two kisses had somehow gotten through the wall she’d ere
cted to protect herself from them—from men, period. For the first time in her life, she felt utterly natural in a romantic situation.
She just wasn’t sure she could trust the feeling beyond the immediate physical circumstance.
“Yeah, so were we,” Jeremiah said. “But Eli’s right. We really want to make this first time—hell, make every time—count.”
“But especially this first time.” Eli bent and gave her a light, teasing kiss. Then he stroked her chin, lifting slightly, letting her know he wanted her to look at him.
“This is important to us, Nancy. We’re here now, we’re not going anywhere for a good long while, and we’re not kids. We can slow down some.”
They were right, of course. Even though whatever this was couldn’t possibly last forever, there was no need to treat it as if it wasn’t important—as if it didn’t matter.
She pushed away the bit of sadness that thought brought. She’d told herself not an hour before that these were not the kind of men who could live a small-town life. They were big-city lawyers through and through. So this really couldn’t be forever, because she couldn’t see herself ever leaving Lusty again.
She needed, desperately, the stability of belonging, and of being here, where she was understood, accepted, and loved for the woman she was.
Nancy shook out her hair to finish the job Jeremiah had started with his questing fingers. “All right. Patience is not a quality I’m known for, but I’ll try. Would you gentlemen like some coffee?”
“Yeah, that’s a good start,” Eli said. “I was going to suggest a tour of your house, but coffee is a better idea right now.”
“At least until we rein in our libidos some,” Jeremiah said. “Because I have a feeling once we see your bed, all efforts at restraint will be shot to hell.”
Nancy grinned. “It won’t be seeing my bed that does that.” When she’d moved in here, her mother had insisted that she furnish the master bedroom. Nancy had protested that she had no immediate need for the extra sleeping area. And what had Anna Jessop said to that? Her mother had just smiled and said that it didn’t hurt for a woman to be prepared.
“Woman, get your mind off sex. Think of something else.” Eli’s tone reminded her of the way her cousin Robert sometimes talked to his wife, Jillian.
That gave Nancy a whole new dimension of mental fantasy to play in.
“You’re bossy,” she said. “The kitchen is this way.”
“Start as you mean to go,” Eli said. “So it’s good that you realize I’m bossy. By the way, so is Jeremiah.”
Nancy turned and walked backward toward the kitchen so she could see the faces of the men who followed her. “Oh, goody.” And she gave them what she knew had to be the sexiest grin of all time.
“Brat.” Eli turned her around and swatted her ass.
It was all she could do not to moan as shimmery tentacles of heat zinged through her body. I’ve always wondered how I would react to being spanked. Nancy had to hold back the urge to laugh. She didn’t wonder any longer.
It didn’t take long to brew cups of joe because she had a Keurig and a good selection of coffees. She preferred the milder breakfast blends herself, but kept medium and darker roast pods on hand for her many and varied family.
“So Cordell is going to announce his retirement,” Eli said. He made himself at home, searching her cupboards for sugar, pulling cream from the fridge, and opening drawers until he found spoons.
“Yes. I had no idea he was even thinking about it.” Nancy busied herself while the men made their coffee, filling a plate with some of her mother’s pecan cookies, baked just that morning. “But in the last month or so, I thought he’d seemed more tired than usual. I know the constant gridlock was getting to him, too.”
“He’s not a young man, baby,” Jeremiah said.
“I know that. He’s in his mid-seventies,” Nancy said. “But he’s always been so full of vim and vigor, I’ve tended, in the past, to forget that.”
“So when he told you that your job was over, you didn’t put out any feelers? Say, to Senator Davies?” Eli asked.
“No, and in the case of Davies, just let me say hell, no.” Nancy shivered. “One thing my Grandma Kate has said, often, is that you can know the heart of a person through their eyes. When they smile, if that smile doesn’t go to their eyes—well, that’s a clue, right there.” She carried the cookies to the table and then took a seat.
She’d really wanted to head up those stairs to the heat that awaited them all there, but now that she was sitting, she knew taking a small step back probably was the wisest thing to do.
“I don’t know the man,” Eli said, “but I’m guessing his smile doesn’t reach his eyes?”
“It doesn’t, and, I don’t know why, but he just gives me the creeps. There’s no way in hell I would ever work for him.”
“I’ve often thought it unfair that women have to be so careful of not only who they work for, but of who they let ‘in’ to their circle of friends.” Jeremiah stirred his coffee. “I have two sisters, both older than me. Some of the things they’ve told about the jerks they’ve encountered in life have made me see red.”
Nancy shrugged. “Men have to be careful, too.”
“Well, true. But men can generally defend themselves.” Eli sounded chauvinistic.
Not as chauvinistic as some of her cousins and other relatives, but then, he wasn’t Texan. Still, she didn’t think it would be a good idea, going forward, for these two to believe she was a defenseless female.
“I can defend myself just fine, thank you very much. My momma made sure I knew how to handle a gun and shoot straight. And Wes, one of my triplet brothers who happens to have a black belt in Jujitsu, made certain I could defend myself if I was unarmed.”
Jeremiah reached over and took her hand in his. “We don’t doubt that you’re a capable woman, baby. But shooting at a target and shooting at a man are two different things.”
Nancy nodded. That was something she’d learned the night before she left The District. “Don’t I know it? I figure that’s the reason that would-be burglar got away without so much as a scratch. But he also got away without any of my stuff, so that makes it a win for me.”
She felt as much as saw both men go totally still. They looked at her, and their gazes pierced right through to the heart of her. She wasn’t surprised that Eli could look like that—he reminded her in that moment of her cousin Adam. That Jeremiah could appear so hard-edged did surprise her some.
“What burglar?”
Eli’s sharp tone matched his expression. Nancy mentally sighed. Whatever made her think that men who came from other places wouldn’t be as high strung as the men she’d grown up with?
Nancy knew enough to understand that she needed to diffuse and reassure them without ruffling their masculine feathers. The only way to do that was to be as forthright as possible. “My last night in DC, I awoke at about two in the morning. I usually sleep right through, and I didn’t understand why I’d awakened. And then I heard a sound I recognized—it was the sound of my balcony door been slid, either open or closed, I didn’t know which. What I did know was that someone had entered my apartment.”
“Didn’t you have a second-floor apartment in Georgetown?”
It surprised her that they’d know that. “I did. I must say I never imagined myself as a potential victim of a second-story man. Anyway, I grabbed my Walther PPK from my bedside table and went to see who’d come calling.”
Nancy had been certain that honesty would have been the best policy. But now as she sat and watched the many emotions sailing across both men’s faces, she had to admit that perhaps there was a time and a place for prevarication, after all.
“You went to see who had come calling?”
Nancy met Eli’s gaze. “You have very precise enunciation, did you know that?”
“Tell us what happened next, Nancy.” Jeremiah’s voice had undergone some sort of testosterone adjustment. She would swear it ha
d dropped at least two whole octaves as it took on that tone of command.
Might as well get it over with. “I knew where he was because he certainly was making a lot of noise. There was enough ambient light coming through the balcony door and windows in the living room that I could see him as soon as I poked my head past the hallway wall. He had my purse in his hands!” Just thinking about the way that thief had pawed through her things made her shiver in revulsion all over again.
She’d had a couple of tampons in her purse, and had thrown them out once the police had left. The fact that the toiletries were encased in paper didn’t alter their fate. She wouldn’t have been able to use them knowing someone else had touched them.
Aware that both men were looking at her and waiting, she decided to tell them the rest of it. “Anyway, I thumbed the safety off, and I guess he heard that. He looked up. I told him to put his hands up. He threw my purse at me and I fired at him.” Nancy frowned. “Still ticks me off that I missed. I shouldn’t have, that close.” She sighed. “But I did. He turned and fled, right out the balcony door and over the railing. I ran after him, looked down, but I couldn’t see him.”
“Good God almighty, woman, you could have been killed!” Eli surged to his feet, nearly toppling his chair in the process. “What if instead of tossing your purse at you, he’d pulled a gun and shot you? Damn it to hell, you’d have been dead and there would have been nothing we could have done to protect you!” He paced, and then turned, and came toward her, and then lifted her clean out of her chair!
No one had ever lifted Nancy off her feet—well, not since she’d become an adult. “Be careful, you’re going to hurt yourself.”
“What, now you think I’m a weakling?” Eli’s anger both stunned and fascinated her. Again, she could only offer him honesty.
“No, of course not. But I’m far too heavy for you to be picking me up like this.”
“That,” Eli said through gritted teeth, “is absolutely the last straw.” He carefully set her down, and then paced. He spun on his heel and pointed at her. “You have no idea how badly I want to spank you right now.”
Love Under Two Undercover Cops [The Lusty, Texas Collection] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) Page 4
