Love Under Two Honchos (24 page)

But had she, really?

Penelope’s inner voice was whispering to her that she’d missed something along the way. She sat for a long moment, casting her thoughts back over everything that had happened since Kate had contacted her back in New York, asking her to come to Texas. She reviewed everything the woman had told her, and everything that had happened since.

“Well for goodness sake!” There was no doubt in her mind whatsoever that she’d been brought to Texas, offered a plum contract for one reason, and one reason only—and it
wasn’t
because Kate
Love Under Two Honchos

183

Benedict wanted to ensure the ecological integrity of Benedict Oil and Minerals.

She’d been brought here specifically to meet Joshua and Alex Benedict.

She felt as if she nearly had it, her own personal epiphany.
Now
why would that good woman want me to meet her grandsons?
And why, when it seemed as if she was ready to bolt, had Kate arranged this deception?

Then everything fell into place for her as if a great fog had lifted, and Penelope had her answers.

Kate’s manipulation, if it could be called that, was nothing at all like what her mother had done. Her mother had sent her away because a ten-year-old daughter was in the way of her desire to begin a new life with a new man. Her mother’s actions had been selfish and self-serving in the extreme.

What Kate had done was to arrange for Penelope to come to Texas to meet her grandsons. And that’s all she’d done—arranged things so they could meet. Not out of selfishness, but out of love.

Grandma Kate once told her that nothing made her more content than when those she loved were happy.

She’d always known Kate had loved her, nearly as much as her own grandmother did. Penelope had felt as if she’d been left alone in the world when Eloise Wright passed away, but she hadn’t been, really, because Kate had been there.

She wasn’t alone at all.

The animal sound came again, sounding a whole lot closer and a lot more eerie. A flash of movement to her left caught her attention, and she tilted her head, just a little, to see what had moved.

Oh, my God, I’m really not alone out here anymore, either
.

A few hundred feet away from her stood the scruffiest looking dog she’d ever seen. Not very big, its ears stood straight up, similar to a German shepherd’s. His body, scruffy fur that likely had never seen a brush, looked a dull gray with flecks of black. But his skinny legs
184

Cara Covington

had an almost orangey-brown color to them. His tail, long and at the moment hanging straight down, seemed full, lush, and carried a black tip.

“Nice doggie.” Her voice came out a little more ragged than she would have liked. The animal didn’t look overly friendly. Then he opened his mouth, gave a couple of yips, and then a particularly long, loud howl. He took two steps closer. Then he looked to her left.

Not a doggie
.

“Sweetheart, don’t move.”

Josh’s voice washed over her, and the relief that rushed through her nearly made her faint.

She saw them then, him and Alex, out of the corner of her eye.

They each carried a rifle, and each raised those guns slowly, pointing them at the animal.

“Don’t kill him!”

“Baby, he’s not a doggie. He’s a coyote,” Alex said.

“I don’t care. He has a right to live. Please? Can’t you just scare him off or something?”

The brothers didn’t answer her, they just looked at each other.

“You’re the better shot,” Alex said. “Keep your gun trained on him. I’ll shoot into the air.”

“If he charges you, sweetheart, I’ll kill him.” Josh’s tone sounded dead calm, and Penelope knew that was the best chance the coyote was going to get.

“Okay.” She kept her fingers crossed the poor creature would escape to safety.

“Try not to jump,” Alex said. Then he fired two rounds off into the distance.

The coyote started at the first shot, then turned and ran, fast and low, off toward the east with the second. In seconds, he was completely out of sight.

Love Under Two Honchos

185

Penelope barely had time to exhale and let the fear slide off her.

Josh and Alex both laid their guns down and covered the distance between them in seconds.

Josh hauled her off the rock and into his arms. She returned his embrace, holding tight, only letting go when she felt Alex put his hands on her and turn her into his arms.

He hugged her, kissed her hair, and then held her away from him.

“Jesus Christ, woman, you could have gotten yourself killed. What were you thinking?”

Penelope opened her mouth to answer, then snapped it shut again when Josh grabbed her and turned her around to face him. “If you ever scare us like that again, I swear to God I’m going to turn you over my knee and paddle your ass!”

“We both will!” Alex said.

Penelope blinked slowly and looked from one scowling male face to the other. “I love you, too,” she said.

“Do you?” Josh didn’t give her a chance to answer. “We came up with the Legacy Project last month as a way to look for a wife. That’s true. But once we met you, you were the only woman we focused on.

And you’re the only one we want.”

“It just took us longer than it should have to realize we were all the way in love with you,” Alex said.

“I’m sorry I dumped all over you. I never should have done that. I just—I saw that file, and I went a little crazy. It reminded me…it felt like—”

“Hush.” Josh pulled her close and wrapped his arms around her.

“We know what it felt like to you. You were right about one thing.

We really aren’t good enough for you.”

“But we’re keeping you anyway,” Alex said.

Joshua kissed her, his lips firm, his tongue insistent as he tasted her, as he drank her. When he ended the kiss, she reached for Alex, and reveled in the taste, the touch and the flavor of him.
Forever
. It felt like forever since she’d been held by them, kissed by them.

186

Cara Covington

“Let’s go back to the cabin,” Josh said.

“We need you naked and under us,” Alex said.

Penelope drew in a deep breath, then took one step back, one step away from the brothers Benedict. Josh and Alex looked at each other, then her, their expressions confused.

Penelope wanted nothing more than to go with them, be with them. Honesty compelled her to speak up. She didn’t know what the next few moments would bring, but she couldn’t keep silent.

“Wait. Before we go any further, there’s something you really should know.”

Love Under Two Honchos

187

Chapter 22

Penelope blinked, because identical expressions of confusion and uncertainty turned soft and warm and so full of love, her throat tightened with tears.

“What do you want to tell us, sweetheart?” Josh asked.

“Um…” How did a woman tell her two lovers who’d practiced very safe sex that they were quite probably going to be fathers? Her hand went to her middle, to rest above the spot their baby might, at that very moment, be sleeping.

Two gazes followed the gesture. Two mouths curved up in smiles she could only call joyous.

“Do you think you are pregnant, sweetheart?” Alex asked. Then he frowned. “We hope so, but how do you feel about that?”

“I want your children.” Penelope felt her face color. Well, that was rather graceless, wasn’t it? These two hunks hadn’t even said one word about a future, or the long term, and here she was…

“Damn good thing,” Josh said as he hauled her into his arms.

He held her tight, and Penelope sighed as she laid her head on his shoulder.

“Because we want you to have our children,” he said.

“Lots of them.” Alex grinned. “We tend to have large families.

It’s the Benedict way.”

“And, we’re getting ahead of ourselves.” Josh smoothed his hands up her back, then placed them on her arms. He eased her away from him, just a little.

188

Cara Covington

Alex stepped closer, ran a hand down her back, then leaned in and kissed her forehead. “I love you, Penelope Primrose, with everything that’s in me.”

“I love you, Penelope, and I will for the rest of my life,” Josh said.

“You’re the perfect woman for us. Will you marry us?”

“Please marry us, sweetheart,” Alex said. “We can’t do without you.”

Penelope had never felt so safe and secure, and so loved. The heat of these two wonderful men surrounded her as their arms surrounded her, as their love enveloped her.

She would never feel alone again.

“Yes. I’ll marry you.”

Josh kissed her, his mouth seeming voracious to taste and to tease.

He pulled her deep, and every care soared free so that all she wanted was more, and then still more, of him.

“My turn.”

Alex turned her into his arms, and his lips and tongue proved just as eager and just as arousing. She tasted him, his unique flavor combining with the taste of his brother, the two of them the most addictive and pleasurable elixir in the world.

“Let’s go back to the cabin, sweetheart,” Josh said.

“Yeah, we need you. It’s been more than twenty-four hours since we’ve had you!”

Penelope was well aware how long it had been since she’d felt their flesh against hers. Alex slipped his hand in hers, and Josh did the same. They stopped to pick up their rifles.

“Thank you for not killing that coyote.” She was glad the wild creature had escaped.

“I would have,” Joshua said then. “To keep you safe, I would have.”

“I know.”

Love Under Two Honchos

189

The walk back to the cabin didn’t seem as far or as hard with a lover on either side of her as her journey out had been. Before she knew it, the beautiful building came into sight.

“Um, that reminds me,” she said softly. “I don’t know how to tell you this, exactly, but…well, I think your grandmother has played her hand at matchmaking.”

She looked at Josh, then Alex, waiting to see how that tidbit of information sat.

Both men smiled. “See how perfect you are for us? We both came to that very same conclusion just recently, too,” Alex said.

“And you don’t mind?” Once Penelope realized that Kate had orchestrated everything, she felt certain both Josh and Alex would be mad as hell.

“Funny thing about that,” Josh said. “Alex and I had both watched Grandmother try her hand at matchmaking with a couple of our Kendall and Jessop cousins.”

“And we agreed that if we ever got wind of her trying the same with us we’d be some pissed about it,” Alex said with a smile on his face. Josh was smiling, too.

“But then we met you, and fell for you before either of us was even aware of it.”

“So how could we mind? We’re even willing to suffer grandmotherly gloating,” Alex said.

Then Joshua laughed. “Of course, once word gets out of Grandma Kate’s success, the rest of the family who’re unwed will begin to shake in their boots.”

Alex grinned. “She seemed to have her eye on Morgan and Henry,” he said. “I feel it only fitting that we tell them that very thing.”

Penelope shook her head. “Henry was only flirting with me to get the two of you riled up. Even
I
knew that.”

“Still,” Josh said.

“Exactly,” Alex agreed.

190

Cara Covington

Their smiles vanished, and each of them looked at her as if she was the most beautiful, most desirable woman in the world. Her heart turned over in her chest, and her nipples hardened. They got to her emotionally, physically—every way a woman could be touched by the men she loved, they touched her.

“Please.” She knew she didn’t have to elaborate.

“You’re so damned beautiful,” Alex whispered. He moved closer, slid one arm around her shoulders, then used a finger to tilt up her face. He placed a gentle, chaste kiss on her lips. “Our very own goddess, come to seduce and enthrall us.”

“I’m hardly a goddess.” Before these two beguiling brothers, no man had ever made her feel so feminine, or so powerful.

“You’re
our
goddess,” Joshua whispered. “And it will be our pleasure to worship you for the rest of our lives.”

The time for talking was over. Joshua scooped her into his arms, and she threw hers around his neck, though she had no worries that he would drop her.

She clung to him to feel the closeness of his body, to inhale his potent male scent.

She’d barely taken notice of the beautiful house they’d called a cabin. Josh swept her up the stairs, and she paid only scant attention now.

He carried her into a bedroom and set her on her feet at the foot of the bed. Cupping her face, he placed a string of gentle kisses across her cheeks. Then he took one soft, slow sip of her lips.

Joshua stepped back, and Penelope blinked. She caught sight of the bed. It had to be at least as large as the one in their penthouse—

and the one at Susan’s ranch.

“The beds are always so huge.”

Alex chuckled in her ear as he stood behind her, his arms slipping around her waist. His fingers began to open the buttons of her blouse.

“That’s the Benedict way. A couple of members of the family went into the custom furniture business, way back.”

Love Under Two Honchos

191

“I suppose they had a ready-made market,” she said. She tilted her head back as Josh began to kiss the skin his brother uncovered on her.

“The company they formed is still in existence, and thriving.

They’re going to be getting another order soon. We want to build a house in Lusty.” Josh straightened. His gaze met hers. “Is that all right with you?”

The words swirled in her head with a sense of wonder that these two compelling men actually wanted to marry her, spend the rest of their lives with her.

“Yes. I’d like that. I want our children raised there.”

Josh’s gaze shot to her middle, then up to meet his brother’s. “We want to see.”

They made very quick work of getting her out of her clothes. Josh slipped to his knees and placed a gentle kiss on her stomach.