Opulent Match [Ménage.com 3] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (8 page)

Cyn was already shaking her head. “It’s okay. I got caught up in the moment, too. I’m nowhere near ovulation, so we should be safe.”

Cooper nodded. He didn’t want to pull away. He didn’t want to release her from his arms and face reality. Cooper knew she was going to demand answers that he couldn’t give her. Hearing Brody come down the hall, Cooper sighed as he stepped away from her. Grabbing some paper towels, he helped her wipe off his cum and then buttoned his jeans.

“Did I miss some of the fun?” Brody asked, walking in the room with a smile. Cooper could see the strain around his eyes, and hoped like hell that Cyn didn’t. “How about I fix us dinner and then we can continue what you two seem to have started without me?”

Cyn placed her feet on the kitchen floor, and pulled her skirt back down around her thighs. He knew they were in trouble when she placed her hands on her waist and looked at them with one eyebrow lifted.
Shit
.

“If you guys need money, you know that all you have to do is ask.”

“Money?” Brody blurted out, surprise lighting his face. “We don’t need money—especially your money.”

Cooper groaned and hung his head. He knew his brother hadn’t meant it the way it sounded, but there was no way Cyn wouldn’t take that the wrong way. He gave it three seconds before she blew. He felt bad for Brody, but he started to count anyway.
One, two, three…

“My money? What the hell do you mean
my money
? What’s wrong with
my money
, Brody?”

Brody rubbed his stubble with his hand and looked over at Cooper. Cooper just shook his head, not knowing what to say. Brody had gotten himself into this, so he could get himself out. Cyn stomped over to where Brody was and for a brief second, Cooper thought he would have to go save his brother. Instead, Cyn leaned down and grabbed up her shoes.

“I hear Cooper on the phone telling someone that you two need more time, and that the agreement wasn’t going as planned, and I offer to fix it. But you are standing there telling me that my money isn’t good enough?”

Stomping through the kitchen, Cyn grabbed a set of car keys that were on the side table. Realizing that they had driven her here and that she was about to take his truck, Cooper followed behind her.

“Silk, I’ll drive you wherever you want to go.” Shooting Brody a look that hopefully conveyed his displeasure at things being turned upside down when they had been going so well, Cooper stepped onto the porch behind her. He knew he was paranoid, but he didn’t let anyone drive his truck. That was his baby. Brody had his own vehicle, so he never had to worry about his brother either. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust her. It was that he didn’t trust other drivers. “Let me take you back to the B&B and then we’ll stop by tomorrow when you’ve calmed down.”

Cyn spun around on her bare feet, and he had to bring himself up short not to run into her. Taking in her expression, Cooper realized he had messed things up just as bad as Brody. Damn, and he’d been doing so well.

“Calm down? You two are idiots!” Throwing his keys in the air, Cyn caught it with one hand. “As for your truck, you can pick it up at Elise’s house. I’ll try not to scratch it on my way down their driveway, but I can’t guarantee anything. As for offering to fix any damages, I wouldn’t dream of offering you
my money
. Don’t bother stopping by tomorrow. I’ll be busy.”

Cooper watched helplessly as she made her way to his truck, her ass swaying beautifully in that red leather he was coming to love so much. He couldn’t help but appreciate the view. With her stilettos still dangling from her fingers, she placed her pink toenails on his running board and gracefully climbed up into the cab of his truck. She slammed the door and turned the key, revving the engine. He couldn’t help but cringe.

“Well, that didn’t go so well,” Brody said, rubbing his hand over his head while coming to stand beside him.

“Now why would you say something like that, Brody?” Cooper asked, pissed that his brother stood there like he didn’t have any part in what had just taken place. “I mean, it wasn’t like you had anything to do with her leaving,” Cooper said sarcastically.

Cooper heard the tires cut into the gravel and winced. Driving down their lane, he was at least grateful she remembered to turn on the headlights since dusk had fallen. He could have cried seeing those red taillights fade into the night, knowing that red leather skirt was leaving as well.

“So I shouldn’t have said
your money
, but you know damn well I didn’t mean it that way. We are both old-fashioned when it comes to finances. There is no way in hell that I would ever take any woman’s money and neither would you. We make our own way and take care of our own as well.”

“And you couldn’t have tried to explain that a little better? Fuck, Brody, she thinks we resent the fact that she’s rich!”

“She’ll get over it,” Brody said, turning and walking back into the house. Cooper looked back down the driveway, seeing nothing but dust. Did his brother not care that she had left and taken his truck with her? “We’ll fix everything as soon as we deal with Sonny Jones. What did he want? Are things going the way we planned?”

Cooper gave a big sigh, knowing there was no other way to play this out. They would have to deal with Sonny and then once they were sure the town of Triple was safe, they would fess up to Cyn about what had really been going on. By then, maybe she’d have calmed down enough to listen to them. He followed Brody inside, making a mental note to call Agent Monroe to give him an update on the case.

“Yeah, things are going as planned. As we thought, he is backing away from the fact we want to meet his buyer. I explained to him that since he wasn’t very forthcoming about his contact, he could understand why we were skeptical. I demanded we meet him, wanting to make sure this wasn’t some type of setup or that this guy wasn’t going to cut and run before paying.”

“And he bought it?” Brody walked over to the refrigerator and opened the door. How the hell could his brother eat at a time like this?

“Yeah, he bought it,” Cooper answered. “Are you really going to have dinner now? Cyn just walked out on us, in case you’ve forgotten.”

“Hey, I’m not the only one who fucked things up,” Brody said, shutting the door after having grabbed two beers. “And no, I’ve lost my appetite, but I sure as hell could use a beer.”

Cooper caught the bottle and twisted off the cap. He could use one, too. He had really thought that after leaving the service, life would slow down to a snail’s pace and they would enjoy their new laid-back lives. They would have a business they had full knowledge of and enjoyed, as well as convince the woman of their dreams that they belonged together. Although if Cooper had even given it a second thought, he would have realized that their life rarely went the way they wanted it to.

They both sat in silence at the kitchen table, nursing their beers. Cooper wondered what Brody was thinking of, whether he was pondering the situation with Jones and how fast they could bring things to a head, or Cyn and how they were going to make sure she stuck around long enough for them to explain why they’d had to keep her in the dark. Brody answered his question with his next few words.

“Think she’ll understand?”

“Yes, once we detail how Monroe came to us with a classified assignment and needed our assistance. We just need to make sure she sticks around that long.”

Brody nodded his agreement and they both fell silent again. Cooper let his mind drift to their time with Cyn. Making love to her again was a dream come true, and his dick was starting to say it hadn’t been enough. Flashes of her naked image shot through his head and apparently his cock. He wanted her back in his bed and back in his arms. The more he thought about it, he realized waiting to explain what they were doing wasn’t quite the right way to go about this. She either trusted them or not. It was a gamble, but what else could they do at this point? Draining his beer, Cooper laid out his plan to Brody and hoped it would get them through to the end.

“Do you trust us?”

Cyn looked around the diner, seeing everyone’s eyes were on Cooper and Brody standing at her table. Could they have spoken any louder? Cyn gave a radiant smile to everyone and then turned to them with a scowl on her face.

“Sit down,” Cyn snapped in a low voice, slamming the top of her laptop. She waited to speak until they had both situated themselves across from her. “Did you two not understand last night that I don’t want to speak with either of you? Yesterday was obviously a mistake and one that won’t be repeated.”

“It wasn’t a mistake to make love yesterday,” Cooper answered, louder than she would have liked. She eyed Brody suspiciously when he placed his hand over his mouth. Was he covering up a smile? “What was a mistake was us letting you leave, thinking that we have an issue with you having money.”

“Don’t you?” Cyn stared at them directly, trying her best not to fall for their excuses. “You made it pretty clear that you wouldn’t touch my money with a ten-foot pole.”

“That wasn’t how I meant it, Cyn,” Brody replied, leaning forward on his arms. It was rather chilly today and she was sorry to see that he was wearing a long-sleeved shirt, but the blue coloring brought out the darker hue of his green eyes. “But your money is just that—your money. We earned ours and are very proud of being able to support ourselves, along with whomever we share our life with. Your comment sort of threw me, and I immediately took it as an insult. I apologize.”

Cyn looked over at Cooper to see him nodding in agreement. She hadn’t expected them to show up here today issuing apologies. They had taken the wind out of her sails and now she was struggling with how to handle the fact that they had made love yesterday and she had yet to deal with it due to her anger over a miscommunication. She ran possible scenarios through her mind of how to gain more time to think about her actions.

“I appreciate the apology, but I’m still not positive it wasn’t more than that,” Cyn said, placing her hand behind her head to make sure her clip was in place. “We used to talk about this when we were younger, and both of you said that it never bothered you that I was rich. Let’s face it, I could buy the town of Triple.”

“You could,” Cooper replied, “but you wouldn’t. We know you, Silk. We know the type of person you are, just like we did back then. Your heart is in the right place, and that’s part of the reason that attracted us to you. Money doesn’t mean a thing to us.”

“Come with us back to the house,” Brody said. “Let us show you how important you are.”

“Wait a second,” Cyn said, lowering her voice. “Neither one of you has fessed up as to what that phone conversation was about. Is it connected to why you missed Thanksgiving dinner?”

Cooper was already shaking his head, indicating they weren’t going to give her any information. “Silk, it’s just business. Nothing that concerns you. Will you please come home with us?”

“Shouldn’t we discuss this before we—um—get any more involved?” Cyn asked, still unwilling to just jump back in bed with them as if this wasn’t a life-changing decision. She admitted, she had caved in a moment of weakness yesterday and kissed Cooper, knowing the ramifications. She just hadn’t
really
known. “I’ll confess, I want to spend time with the both of you. I just don’t want emotions to interfere with a good thing.”

“You don’t want—”

Cooper raised his hand and stopped Brody from what she knew would be indignation that she only wanted sex. “That wasn’t what we agreed on, Silk.”

“Agreed on?” Cyn asked loudly, forgetting that she had wanted to keep this quiet and away from eager ears. “I didn’t come up with that stupid stipulation about kissing you—you did! I just finally realized I was sexually frustrated and am willing to extend this, well, whatever this is,” Cyn said, waving her hand in the air.

She suddenly comprehended that the diner had gone quiet.
Shit
. She had just announced to the town of Triple that she needed sex and wanted them to provide it. Who needed the gossip queens when she was stupid enough to spread her business on her own?

Closing her eyes and taking a deep breath, she asked, “Are they still staring?”

“Yep,” Cooper replied, humor in his voice. “How about this? You come with us, we’ll talk at the house and see if we can’t come to some sort of agreement. We want to be in each other’s lives and I’m sure we can reach a compromise on how involved we take things.”

“Am I in the fucking twilight zone?” Brody asked incredulously. She opened her eyes to see Brody’s face looking at them as if they’d just grown tentacles out of their heads. She bit her lip to keep herself from laughing, knowing that Brody had hit his limit. “Cooper, we are not negotiating. And you,” Brody accused, pointing his finger at her, “know exactly what we want and why. Would you like me to announce it to the diner now?”

Oh my, God!
He was talking that dreaded
L
word that Elise had brought up weeks ago. That was so not happening right now. Cyn shook her head, warding him off from doing anything stupid. Picking up her laptop, she stuffed it into its case, all the while trying to think of a way to derail him from this particular conversation.

“Brody,” Cooper warned, “now is not the time for that. Let’s just get home and we can discuss things there.”