Team: Echo (33 page)

Penny laughed and shook her head. “No way in hell,” she said
firmly. “Those boys are everything to me. I love those two men so
deeply and the fact that they want to marry me. God I love them and
I look forward to this. So come on big brother, walk me down the
hall to our future?” she asked, her smile just getting bigger and
bigger.

“
They mess with you I’m shooting them,” he said. “And no, you
can’t talk me out of that decision damn it.” Heaving a sigh he
tucked her hand in his arm but still he watched her. When she just
smiled he shook his head and led her towards the kitchen. “Alright
D, signal them, apparently she’s gung-ho to marry them there
fools.”

“
Damn straight I am.” She grumbled and then smiled when Daisy
walked out and the music began. She giggled as Dieter and James
jockeyed for position and shook her head. “Which one am I legally
marrying?” She asked Mikhail. “Just curious is all.”

“
Not a clue, they couldn’t decide and after all the arguing
they figured they’d leave it to you to decide. They had a list of
pros and cons going that would send the government into apoplexy
given the length and depth of it. So, it’s up to you who you
legally marry and who you have the civil tie to. The minister is
performing both at the same time, he just needs the final decision
from you,” her brother said with a shrug.

“
Uhm, no,” Penny stopped as they were walking. “I mean it. No
way in hell. I am so not going to make a choice. I mean it. You
choose.” She told Mikhail. “You choose because there is no way in
hell that I am going to make that choice. I mean it. I love those
boys and there is no way that I am going to make a choice between
them.”

“
Me?” Mikhail squeaked out, honest to God, squeaked. Clearing
his throat he started the walk with her towards the impromptu
alter. “No way am I picking. Woman, just go with your gut. You do
with everything else, P. Do the same with this, go with what feels
right in the moment. It won’t really matter in the end since you’ll
be marrying them both so just pick.”

“
My gut wants to marry them both legally. You choose,” she
said and stopped them again. “I mean it.” She could tell that
everyone was listening in, but she didn’t care. Dammit. “You
choose, or they flip a coin. I am so not choosing between the two
men that I love, period.” Even if they would be joined in civil
ceremony as well.

Rolling his eyes Mik dug out a coin from his pocket. “Call it
in the air.” He flipped it and watched her as it started coming
down. She had only seconds to make her decision before he snatched
it from the air and smacked it onto the back of his
hand.

“
Heads,” she said. “But who is heads and who is tails?” She
knew that Mik would have already predetermined the fact that one
was heads and one was tails. “Come on brother, tell me who I am
going to be marrying.” She held up her hand when Anton maybe called
out to her to hurry up and make up her mind.

He just pocketed the coin and hurried her up the aisle. At
the end he repositioned the men, Dieter to her right and James to
her left and stuffed her in the middle. “She’s marrying him and
then the civil service with him,” he told the judge pointing to
Dieter and then James respectively. Both of her men blinked and
then shot her grins, obviously they were happy the decision had
been made, no matter what it was.

Penny snickered and looked up at Dieter. “Well looks like I
am going to be wed to you. You poor, poor man.” She teased. Giving
his arm a squeeze she leaned in and added, “It’s okay though
because at least you have an amazing co-husband to share me with.
One who is just as insatiable as I am.” Or something like that.
“Now, let’s get this show on the road so that you boys can take me
on a honeymoon.”

“
Right, and on that note,” the minister chuckled. Shaking his
head he shot them all looks and then began the ceremony. Unlike
some he blended them all together so it felt like she was marrying
both men, legally. At the end he folded his hands before him with a
smile. “My dear, you may kiss the grooms,” he teased.

Penny grinned and nodded. She first kissed Dieter, a
lingering kiss that had her toes curling and her hands clenching
the lapels of his jacket. When he released her she was panting.
Pulling back she licked her lips and was turned to face James. The
hungry look on his face was all she needed. Wrapping herself into
his arms she kissed him right back, not in the least surprised when
his large hand found its way down the open back of the dress and
cupped her ass.

“
Oh geez, get a room!” one of the guys yelled out. The
laughter started then, followed by applause and shouts of
congratulations.

James lifted his head slowly and licked his lips. “Remind me
to kill Thomas later,” he said softly to her. He did move his hand
though, sliding it up her bare skin to her mid-back before shooting
a deadly look to the crowd.

“
Yeah I know,” she whispered with a giggle. “Do you know I
think that I will need to do the same. How about we do just that?
How about we get our happy asses out of here and start on our
honeymoon?” If the boys had already gotten this whole wedding
together then they had damn well worked on a honeymoon as
well.

“
We do the whole wedding under her nose and she expects a
honeymoon?” Dieter asked with a chuckle. “I didn’t realize she was
this demanding.”

“
Too late, she’s got her hooks into us now. But we can’t leave
yet, have to do cake at the very least and I promised Honey a dance
so we have to stick for that too. Plus,” James shrugged. “You
should get something to eat babe, we’ve got a ways to go and you’ll
require the energy for all we have planned.”

Penny laughed and shook her head. “I cannot believe that you
boys pulled this off, all of it.” She was stunned. She was
typically far more observant but it was pretty slick how these boys
pulled this off on her. “All right, so after the cake and after the
dances?”

“
After all of that, then we will get changed and head out.”
Dieter kissed her cheek with a grin and squeezed. “Don’t worry
sweetheart, we’ll tell you where we are going when we get there.”
Chuckling he pulled back and turned for a round of back slapping
and congratulations. Or doom and gloom, depending on which of the
guy was there at the time.

She laughed and was pulled through the men who hugged her
right back. Finally she heard music starting and had to laugh. Damn
her boys were good. When she was pulled into one of her husband’s
arms she leaned into him and sighed. “I take it that James is
dancing with Honey?” She asked Dieter but then felt James’s arms
surrounding her from behind as well. It was an awkward and weird
threesome dance, but she wouldn’t have changed it for the
world.

“
In a few minutes, she’s got Gareth out there teaching him the
Viennese waltz currently. We really have to monitor her reality TV
shows more closely,” James said with a chuckle. He nuzzled her
cheek and gave her a loud, smacking kiss. “So, did we do good?” he
asked with a grin on his face.

“
Oh yes, you boys did remarkably well.” She leaned back
against him and smiled. “I still can’t get over the fact that you
all pulled this off without me even catching a hint. Even when
Daisy made me strip and did my hair and makeup I didn’t even come
close to thinking that you guys would have this up your
sleeves.”

“
Then we’ve accomplished our goal,” he said giving her a
squeeze. “Alright, Honey’s free so I’m going to go steal her before
she starts on some other weird dance. But I’ll come back and swap
for you in a number or two.” A quick kiss to her cheek and he was
gone.

“
Sounds good.” She shifted slightly and laid her head back on
Dieter’s shoulder. “I do so love these moments.” She was happy.
Unbelievably and overwhelmingly happy.

“
I am glad we were able to truly surprise you Penelope,”
Dieter said as they swayed to the music. “Mikhail was quite
concerned when we came up with this plan that you’d see through it.
Especially given we were keeping you busy non-stop throughout the
day. He, and even Marius, were positive you’d figure we were up to
something huge.”

“
You really did,” she said with a grin, looking up at him. “I
can’t believe that you guys surprised me but you did. This is only
the start for us isn’t it? This is the beginning of our own
personal happily ever after’s?”

“
This is no fairy tale, love. This is very real and all from
our hearts. When we started planning all of this a month ago we had
no idea if we could pull it off. The more we had to do, the deeper
we got into it, the more we realized it would either be brilliant
or a complete disaster. But, we had to try, to show you just a
small part of how much we love you. We created a wedding just for
you Penny and, while there is much more to come in our lives,
including tonight, this was purely from our hearts to
yours.”

Penny felt her heart melting and sighed. Good lord, could
these men get any better? “Heaven’s sake you make me so happy. Now,
what do you think about us escaping as early as possible? Let Honey
cut the cake and us just abscond with each other so we can start
our honeymoon now?” She hoped.

Laughing softly he kissed her. “We shall see,” he said. Then
he gave her a spin that ended with her in James’s arms. As she
looked around she saw Honey dancing away with Dieter, deep in
conversation.

“
Are you enjoying yourself?” James asked with a huge
grin.

“
I am.” She looked up at James and laughed. “I was just asking
Dieter if we could get out of here early. I’m in quite a hurry to
get started on our honeymoon. I can’t wait to see where you boys
are taking me to be honest with you. Because you both have
seriously outdone yourselves so far, I want to know what you do
next.”

“
Well, hopefully, you’ll enjoy every little bit of it. We’ll
be gone a total of four and a half weeks with three different
stops. Other than that, you will have to wait and see where we are
going. And no, you won’t be able to discern it from the airport
since we’re borrowing the jet for the first leg. After that you’ll
be able to pick it up since we’ll be going commercial. As to
leaving,” he smiled enigmatically and shrugged. “After cake we will
just have to wait and see. Oh, need to bolt,” he kissed her. A
quick spin and she found herself dancing with Mikhail.

She was laughing when her brother had her in a dance. “Oh
lord those boys.” She shook her head. “I keep trying to talk them
into us skipping out on everything, but they keep disappearing on
me. So are you good with having those two men as your brothers
now?” she asked with a smirk. “Because they are family
now.”

“
They are the in-laws,” Mik said with an indignant sounding
snort. Then he grinned. “I love them like brothers. Now I have
legal authority to make their lives hell,” he chuckled. “But don’t
worry, I won’t start on that until you guys are back from your
honeymoon. I’ll even give you a week to recover before I get busy
being the older brother. From the sounds of things, it should be
pretty damn exciting.”

“
Well thank you for that.” She said with a grin. “I really and
truly think that after the week we come back they will be ready for
someone to come in and save them and give them trouble.” Which
would be nice honestly. “They will likely be so freaking ready to
be rid of me that they will take whatever punishment that you dish
out to them.”

“
Somehow,” he spun her out and then back in before moving her
around the dance floor. “I seriously doubt that,” he continued when
they slowed a bit. “Those two love and adore you. They will likely
try to come up with a plan so they can keep you to themselves even
longer. It’s actually sort of disgusting just how in love they are
with you. And don’t even get me started on you with
them.”

Penny searched for her men and finding them she sighed.
“Yeah, it is kind of sickening huh?” She said it in that wistful
loving way that had him cringing. However when she turned back to
him he knew that she was about to say something that would cook his
goose. “However it’s nothing compared to you, Daisy and Gareth. Try
to say it is. I dare you. Hell, I double dog dare you big
brother.”

“
Don’t have the foggiest idea what you might be referring to.”
But he was grinning and it was huge. As the song came to an end he
hugged her close to him. “We may not have found one another in the
most traditional sense, Penelope. But you’re family and I love you.
Be happy and live life to the absolute fullest. That’s all I want
for you baby girl.” Drawing back he pressed a kiss to her forehead.
“Time for cake, some embarrassment and then you can make off with
your guys.”

“
I think that sounds like an amazing time. Let’s do this
before I crawl out of my skin.” Hell if it had been up to her she
would have stolen her men the moment that she got her men to say
yes to her. She knew that was crazy and terrible, but there it was.
She was more than a little ready to take off with her
boys.

“
You do know that patience is a virtue right?” he asked,
guiding her toward the deck. Chuckling he rubbed her back. “You
should practice it now and again. Would shock the fuck out of
everyone that knows you if you did.” Helping her up onto the deck
he pointed her towards the cake and, apparently, a pile of
presents. When she stopped he snorted. “Didn’t I mention there
would be some embarrassment coming?”