“Dillon?”
Her soft query, laced with uncertainty pulled at his conscience, or was it his heart? No. His heart was not involved. He’d learned his lesson long ago; never give another person the power to hurt you. An image of Isabel rose to the forefront of his mind and he pushed it away with a hard shove. Not welcome. He rolled to his feet without answering, striding nude to the bathroom to grab two thick, terry cloth robes. Penny was a tool, he reminded himself. A means to an end. He returned and handed her a robe before lounging on the bed again, having retrained his focus on the part he was supposed to play. “That was amazing,” he said, not needing to lie about that. He found it ironic that in all the world the one woman who’d rocked his world sexually was the one who was arguably the least experienced. But, even so, Penny had a sweet sexiness about her that was hard to ignore. And those little gasps she made when she came...his cock began to thicken again at the memory. Focus, Dillon. Get your head in the game. His brothers were going to know how it felt to lose something of value, starting with their newest pet. “How’s it feel to be bad?” he asked, grinning.
She blushed and tucked her feet under the safety of the robe, suddenly modest. “I don’t know. Good. Terrible. Equal parts of both, I suppose.” She quieted and Dillon felt exposed by the speculative silence. Finally, she met his stare with a mistrustful one of her own. “What’s going on?” she asked. “Are you playing with me to get back at your brothers for something?”
Her pointed question struck at him as if she’d sucker punched him with brass knuckles. He didn’t want to lie but he couldn’t tell her the truth. Vince and Nolan deserved every bit of their heartache for their misdeeds and his purpose was to deliver retribution. It was an unfortunate circumstance that Penny was in the middle. “You’re very beautiful, you know that?” he said, content to enjoy the view for a little while longer. He loved how she blushed when complimented, as if she couldn’t quite believe that someone would find her curves incredibly sexy or that her face could haunt a man’s dreams. “Tell me about Miss Penny McDaniel.”
Her surprise at his interest was enough to put her off her former line of questioning and for that he was grateful but he was also curious about who the real Penny McDaniel was, not the bought-and-paid-for sexual plaything of his brothers.
She tucked her cascading hair behind her ears and rubbed her nose, an endearing little gesture that betrayed her nervousness. He realized with an uncomfortable start he could spend days getting to know the real Penny and still want to know more. When she seemed reluctant to share, he nudged her playfully. “Come on, the suspense is killing me. How does one go from mild-mannered accountant to sexy vixen in such a short time frame?”
“Sexy vixen?” She laughed, the sound ripe with derision, to ask, “Are you blind? I’m hardly what I’d consider a raging sexpot.”
“Then you’re the one who is blind,” he countered. “Listen, sexy is a state of mind. You’ve got a phenomenal body that was made for a man’s touch and a sharp intellect. Once you realize just how sexy you truly are...you’ll be a dangerous woman.”
-9-
Penny’s cheeks heated but her flattered smile spoke volumes. Dillon liked the way her lips teased with a smile, as if she were trying to hold it back but simply couldn’t manage to quell the happiness flowing through her. The fact that he’d put that silly smile on her face? Dillon was fairly certain he was treading on unstable ground. A few more smiles like that and he’d yearn for more, which wasn’t on his agenda. “You’re the one who is dangerous,” she murmured, shaking her head. “You’re like the pied piper, seducing women with the sound of your music, watching as they dance their way straight into their own doom.”
“I’m not sure if I should be flattered or insulted,” Dillon said. “But I think I’ll choose to be flattered in this case.”
“You would.”
“Clever deflection but I’m still waiting to hear Penny’s story. Something tells me it’s a good one.”
“Then get ready for disappointment.” Penny shrugged. “My story isn’t all that interesting. I came from very humble beginnings. My papa worked hard to put food on the table and a roof over our heads but he taught me what was important in life.”
There was something in her voice that caught his attention, something that she probably would’ve rather remained hidden. She was ashamed of something. “Where is your father now?” he asked, keying in on the note of pain in her voice.
“Gone. Congestive heart failure. He died in his sleep. The doctor said he probably never knew what hit him.” At the mention of her father, Penny’s eyes watered and he felt compelled to comfort her, which was no small tragedy to have her back in his arms, though he had to remind himself he was playing a part, not auditioning for a permanent role. She settled into the cove of his shoulder and rested her head on his chest. Why’d she have to feel so perfect snuggled up to him? He shifted subtly, uncomfortable with his own thoughts but Penny didn’t seem to notice and continued sharing. “He was all I had. Losing him had been the worst blow of my life. I never thought I’d recover. I’d always dreamed that my papa would walk me down the aisle, play baseball with his grandkids, and be there forever. I never saw it coming that he’d been sick. I should’ve been more diligent about making him go to his yearly doctor appointments but he hated doctors and hospitals. He said the best way to get sick was to hang out where the sick people were.”
Dillon chuckled. He wasn’t much a fan of hospitals and doctors himself. Back before he’d said sayonara to the family, there’d been an expectation that he’d go into medical school if not the family business. That hadn’t turned out well. Dillon had never handled being domineered very well. Too much piss and vinegar as Granddad used to say with a delighted chuckle. The old coot had been a funny bastard with an odd sense of humor and Dillon had loved him for it. Penny pulled herself upright to meet his gaze. “Enough about me. You didn’t come up here to hear my life story. Ever since you arrived Vince and Nolan have been on edge and now, I have all these questions swirling around in my head. No one will tell me what’s going on and I’m getting tired of being in the dark.”
Dillon regarded her with quiet consideration, wondering how much she would want to know about her precious twin masters. Likely he could shatter her illusions with a few choice stories but that plan could backfire and he couldn’t take the chance. “My brothers and I had a falling out.” He shrugged. “Nothing more exciting than that. Happens in the best of families I’m told.”
“You’re lying to me,” she said flatly, surprising him. “You’re just as bad as the twins. I’m good enough to fuck but not good enough to spend the night and sleep beside or share personal details that matter. I’m a person, not a lamp for crying out loud.”
Her impassioned outburst colored her cheeks with bright spots of pink and he knew the wrong response would be to simply push her down to the mattress and fuck her silly, though the idea held strong appeal, but she was downright delectable in her passion. “Penny, you make it hard to concentrate,” he admitted, his gaze straying to the gap in her robe, reminding him of the first time he’d caught a glimpse of her creamy globes back in the apartment. He’d sprung wood so quickly he was surprised he hadn’t knocked the breakfast table over. “If you belonged to me, you would never sleep alone.”
But even as her face flushed at his declaration, Penny wouldn’t be distracted by pretty compliments this time. Her jaw tensed and her gaze hardened. “I want to know about Isabel.”
All jocularity fled at the mention of Isabel’s name. It was hard to remain the cool, impassive wall of stone when your defenses were breached unexpectedly. Penny had a way of catching him off-guard that was certainly a liability. “I told you already. She’s dead.”
“You also implied Nolan and Vince had something to do with her death. What happened? They won’t tell me. Will you?”
“I’ll tell you about Isabel...if you tell me why you sacrificed your morals and everything you believed in
to sign on the dotted line of my brothers’ contract.”
She stared, her bottom lip trembling. “What makes you think I’m ashamed? Maybe I’m perfectly content belonging to Vince and Nolan. They are very good to me.”
“Because it’s written all over your face when you talk about your father. He’d be appalled at what you’ve done, wouldn’t he? Was your particular arrangement what he’d had in mind for his little girl?”
“That’s none of your business.”
“Fair enough.” His tone hardened. “Neither is Isabel.”
Heavy silence weighed between them for a long moment but Dillon caught the stubborn tilt of Penny’s jaw and knew she wasn’t going to give up just yet. “Isabel meant something to you,” Penny said, cocking her head as she regarded him with open speculation. “Did you love her?”
“Yes.” The sound came out more bitter than he’d meant to allow but the pain, no matter how many times he’d tried to bury it, always managed to leach its way to the surface.
“Did she love you?”
“I thought she had. But then, when you’re a Buchanan, who knows how anyone truly feels about you. I was a young fool,” he said, twisting his mouth in a parody of a smile. “Something, I assure you, I am not any longer.” He no longer wished to talk about Isabel, no matter that he’d baited her with the information. Dillon hadn’t been prepared for the emotional backlash created by sharing such a painful part of his past with Penny and he was feeling like an inept schoolboy for his failure to prepare for all possibilities.
“This is a conversation without a happy ending. Let’s leave it at that.” Please Penny. Her deep, dark eyes bored into his soul, promising salvation that he didn’t want or trust. At this stage in his life, he’d learned the only person you could trust was yourself. Particularly when beautiful women were involved.
###
Penny didn't know how she felt about the revelation of Dillon and Isabel. It wasn't as if she’d expected that the Buchanan men hadn’t lived full lives before meeting her, but she’d be lying if she didn't admit to territorial feelings towards them all. “I'm a good listener,” she said, hoping that Dillon would open up to her in a way that neither twins would. She ignored the fact that he'd already practically growled at her for even mentioning Isabel's name. She sensed that there was a deep, dark wound festering inside of Dillon and she felt the need to help him. "If you were in love with Isabel, how were Vince and Nolan involved?"
Dillon looked away, but not before Penny caught a glimpse of the raw pain inside. “You're like a badger, tenacious to a fault.” It didn’t sound like a compliment by the way he phrased it but Penny refused to be stopped. She needed to know what secrets were tearing apart the Buchanans.
“I guess that's not the worst thing I've ever been called.” Penny waited. When Dillon realized she wasn't going to give up he sighed and relented, though why he wasn’t sure. He hadn’t planned to reveal too many details about Isabel until it furthered his purpose but a part of him needed to share with Penny, if even superficially.
“Isabel was my fiancé.”
Penny absorbed this information. Whoever this Isabel was, she'd managed to wrangle Dillon into the promise of marriage. That in of itself seemed like a feat worth admiring. As much as Vincent and Nolan professed to care for her, Penny clung to no illusions. When her contract was up, she'd likely have to look for a new job because it would be downright awkward to keep passing them in the halls when she went back to being an accountant instead of their privileged assistant. “Did she die in an accident?” Penny couldn’t imagine any woman voluntarily leaving a Buchanan.
Dillon's expression hardened. "Do you want to know what killed Isabel? Greed. Bottom line. And I'm finished with this conversation.”
“Dillon, wait...” Penny called out as Dillon strode from the room in open agitation. She swallowed her cry of frustration. She had no more answers than before and now she had more questions. Something bad had happened to Isabel. Something that had to do with all three Buchanan’s. She had no doubt that all three were guilty in some way and all three were shouldering the weight of that guilt in different ways. It was hard to fathom Vince and Nolan doing something heinous to a woman knowing how much they loved women but she also knew that Dillon wasn't lying to her. Isabel was dead but her ghost followed the Buchanan family.
While Dillon was out of the room she took the opportunity to clean up. By the time Dillon returned with the tray laden with food she was hoping his mood had improved. She didn't want to spend this time with Dillon fighting. “I'm sorry for prying,” Penny said. “I just hate to see everyone fighting. Wasn't there a time when you and your brothers got along?”
Dillon's mouth played with a smile. “Are you hoping for a three-way with the Buchanan boys?” He asked almost cruelly. She blinked back tears. No, that wasn't what she’d been thinking. Frankly the idea made her feel a little nauseous. Her dignity was hanging by a thread and doing that would likely snip it in half. Dillon took her silence as a sign that he'd wounded her. His expression softened. “I'm sorry, that was uncalled for. Sometimes I'm a real bastard. But then you probably knew that already.”
“I'd heard rumors,” she said with a wan smile, not quite sure how to go forward. “I get the message loud and clear. Don't pry. You think you're so different from the twins but you're really not. They don't like the prying either but they are just nicer about their methods of dissuading me. But here's the thing, I'm a human being with thoughts and feelings and the fact that none of you seem to care about that, makes you all the same.”
“I'm nothing like my brothers.”
“I find it funny that you don't see it. But in my unique position, it's quite obvious.”
Penny could tell she wasn't making any points. She didn't care. Someone had to say the raw truth even if none of them wanted to hear it. She didn't know if the rift between the Buchanan brothers was so wide that it could never be bridged but she did know that she didn't want to be in the middle. “Why did you want to be with me?” Penny asked.
“I think I've already established the why. I'm attracted to you. Was there any doubt of that fact?”
“I think your interest goes deeper than simple attraction. As much as I would love to think that I am just an object of undeniable desire, I'm not blind to the fact that I would be a useful pawn in your little game. What I'm telling you is that I am not stupid and if you're using me at least give me the courtesy of knowing.”
“You're unlike any woman I’ve ever known. And I've known a lot of women. I don't say that to rub in your face or to brag but to show you just how special you are. Don't get me wrong — I didn't expect to feel this way about you. And it messes with my plan but I could no more stay away from you than my brothers because you have something special. You're like a drug. And I don't know if that's a good or bad thing. All I know is that I can't get enough of you. And I sure as hell don't want to share.”
Penny sucked in a tight breath. To have Dillon admit that she was under his skin felt like a win, even though she didn't know the game rules. “What happens next? Vincent and Nolan will return once they realize you were the one who manufactured the reason for them to leave and when they find out about you and me... It's going to get ugly.”
“They don't deserve you.”
“Well, that’s a matter of opinion,” Penny murmured. “I feel that I've betrayed them in the worst way and they didn't deserve that. They've given me more than I ever imagined possible. They introduced me to sex and all that it entails, but more importantly, they introduced me to you. I don't know if that's a benefit or tragedy. Sometimes it feels a little bit of both.”
“I could say the same about you.”
She smiled. “So we have a few days. I feel as if we’re wasting precious time that could be better spent doing other things.” Penny's heart leapt when Dillon's smile warmed with her implication. “Everything might change when my masters return but we belong to each other right now.”
Dil
lon shed his robe, his glorious body causing her to heat with desire, and joined her in the bed. Penny realized there would never come a moment that she wouldn’t savor the sight of Dillon staring at her with open hunger. He didn’t see her plump body as something that needed fixing but rather as sexiness in its purest form. In Dillon’s eyes she felt like a goddess. “Why couldn’t I have met you first?” she whispered as Dillon’s mouth descended on hers. He saved them both by not answering because the answer didn’t matter.
Penny lost herself in the sensation of being Dillon’s girl. The fact that he didn’t want to share — that he wanted her all to himself — made Penny mad with need. Although the twins made her feel desired, at times, she also felt used, which always crashed the good feelings. But with Dillon, all she felt was wonderful goodness. When she was in his arms, the world — and all of its ugliness — disappeared.
Was this what love was supposed to feel like? She didn’t know but she wanted to think that love felt as wondrous as this.
Was it more naïve silliness on her part to even consider the possibility that she was falling head over heels in love with Dillon? Likely. But she didn’t care. It didn’t matter that she’d only known him a very short time. Everything about him felt right. Particularly when he made love to her.
Yes. Made love. She’d said it. Vince and Nolan liked to fuck. But Dillon made love to her, she was sure of it.
Dillon held her head, his touch as urgent as the nudge of his cock against her ready heat, and she sank into his possession of her body, savoring every sensation. He nuzzled her breasts, sucking in each nipple and drawing hard on the sensitive berry until she was gasping and writhing beneath him. His mouth did terrible things to her ability to think straight and she was about to lose every bit of sense God gave her, offering up anything Dillon wanted, if only he would ask. “Your skin feels like perfection,” he murmured against her flesh, moving from one breast to the other, teasing the hardened tips of each breast until she ached with need and pure lust. “So perfect.”
Crazy About Curves: 10 Luscious Reads Page 62
