“And yeah, I got angry. Angry that I wasn’t there, angry that the woman we’d loved all our lives was taken from us for something so senseless as faulty wiring. I came home, but nothing was the same. We poured ourselves into the work, but the pain didn’t go away. It’s been awful between us ever since.
“But since you arrived here, Audrey, everything’s different. Max, I’m not angry anymore, with you or with myself. What happened is long over, and hating yourself isn’t going to make a damn bit of difference.”
Max locked eyes with his little brother and saw the honest truth of his words. A silent moment passed between them, the tension of the past three years seeming, at least for that instant, to lift from his shoulders.
* * * *
After the silence passed, Silas cleared his throat. “There’s something else we’ve been keeping from you, Audrey, and I feel like we need to discuss it since it affects everyone in this room’s safety.”
Max’s eyes darted at his, but he knew this couldn’t wait a moment longer.
“We know where Sasha is,” Silas began unsteadily.
“At least we did until yesterday,” Max admitted, looking down at the floor. “But I am completely confident we will have his whereabouts in the next twenty-four hours.”
Audrey looked stunned, her face turning pale in the glow of the candlelight still burning at the dinner table.
“How? Where?” she managed to say quietly from across the table.
“After your accident, we spent hours trying to piece together any information we had on him. We put together a team of private investigators in Dallas and quickly realized that we’d actually come into contact with him,” Silas explained.
“Wait…you’ve met him?”
“He approached us with a business deal just days before you arrived in Dallas. We both got an uneasy feeling from him, but he made some big, enticing promises about helping us break into the European market,” Max continued.
“We decided to hold off on signing anything with him, and we put everything aside when you came to stay with us. We lost touch with him for a few days, because we were a bit…distracted…you might say. After your accident, all I could think about was your dream. I was haunted by the one image you shared with me, your nightmares filled with Sasha’s bitter, icy eyes.
“It took me a while to remember that Sasha is the Russian nickname for Aleksandr, the name he’d used when introducing himself to us. But when I thought of your words, I immediately remembered those frigid eyes from our business meeting. I’m not sure if he was trying to hide his identity from us, but it didn’t work for long.”
Max took a deep breath and continued, “Once we figured out that we knew the bastard, we began tracking his every move. We kept in contact with him and played dumb, trying to reel him into a meeting so we could have him arrested.”
“On what grounds?” Audrey asked, her brow furrowed with concern.
“With attempted murder, baby,” Silas said softly. “We’re sure that he was after you when you fell from the horse.”
Just thinking about it made Max’s blood boil with rage. He did everything in his power to remain calm, but it was easier said than done.
“He agreed to meet with us, and we were ready with a whole backup team to get him. But he never showed.”
Audrey looked on the verge of fainting. Silas, looking desperate to soothe her, took her hand. “Baby, we have men monitoring the whole property for any sight of him. You are safe here. We would never allow anything to happen to you. You must know that. We will find him, have no doubt in your mind about it. We won’t rest until we do.”
* * * *
Audrey nodded silently, taking in everything Max and Silas told her and let it settle over her.
“Please let us promise that we’ll always be honest with each other, from this moment forward,” she said quietly, her eyes shifting from one brother to the next. “We can’t waste our time living like this. Life is too precious, no? “
Both Silas and Max nodded in agreement.
“I love you, Audrey Rousseau. I never want to do anything that will push you away, and I’m sorry we kept these things from you. We were only trying to protect you,” Max said softly. She had never seen him like this before, and his statement clearly surprised Silas as well.
“You must have known that I’ve loved you since the moment I saw you speeding away from the store, that I’ve loved every moment of being with you since you burst into our lives. You’ve known that, haven’t you, Audrey?” Silas added, his hand reaching for hers across the kitchen table. She nodded silently, overwhelmed by the men sitting across from her.
“And I love you even more since I’ve tasted your cooking,” he added with his playful grin.
“I don’t know how or why it’s happened, but it has. I’m in love with you both. Me, Audrey Rousseau, French orphan turned fashion designer, is in love with two Texas cowboy brothers. The world moves in mysterious ways. Thank you both for being the best surprise I have ever received in my whole damn life,” she said with a laugh. She truly couldn’t believe this all had happened, but here she was, professing her love to the Abrams brothers.
“We need to get our minds off of things, you two. We need to celebrate,” Silas said as he leaned into Audrey and kissed her gently on the mouth. “Let me get something special for us,” he said as he stood up from the table.
“Let’s meet in the den, little brother,” Max said and he stood and bent to lift her from her seat.
“God damn it, Max. I’m not broken! I feel fine!” She resisted with all her might as he pulled her small frame into her arms.
“Just give it up, darlin’. You’re mine now, and I’ll do as I like.”
“I’ll never give up, Max Abrams. And don’t you forget it,” she asserted, despite relaxing in his arms as he swiftly moved them into the living room.
The evening was the coolest she had felt since arriving in Texas, although it was far warmer than she was used to in France at that time of year. As they stepped into the living room, Max lay her down on a chaise longue in front of the massive fireplace and began to prepare a fire for the three of them.
“Is it really cool enough to have a fire?”
He looked up with a smirk. “If we get hot, we can always turn on the house’s cooling system,” he replied.
“Max Abrams, that is the most absurd thing I have ever heard.”
“You’re in Texas, my dear. Get used to it. And wouldn’t a fire be nice with whatever Silas is digging out of the wine cellar?”
She nodded silently, admitting defeat. She knew when to give into their charms, but would never admit how much she loved to be taken care of by them.
As Max stoked the growing fire in the hearth, his younger brother joined Audrey, who had moved to the floor and lay propped up carefully on a mound of pillows. In his hand, Silas vigilantly balanced three tulip-shaped glasses of amber liquor.
“Is that what I think it is, darling?” she said as she accepted her glass and looked carefully at its contents.
“1811 Cognac,” Silas replied mischievously. “I’ve been saving it for a moment like this.”
Audrey breathed in the fine scent in the glass. “They say 1811 was a very rare year, that the Great Comet shone in the sky for all of that autumn, visible to the naked eye. That it was because of this that the grapes were so fine.”
Max rejoined them on the floor as the fire began to roar with strength. The three of them clinked their glasses together, and she let the small droplets linger on her tongue, filling her senses with complex flavors of nutmeg, honey, and apricots.
“As much as I enjoy your outfit this evening, I think we need to get this off of you,” Max said as he slowly began to unbutton the work shirt she’d stolen from him. He slowly stripped the loose garment off of her, his fingers wandering her slightly moist skin made hot by the heat of the fire and the cognac in her belly.
“I can’t wait until you’re all better and we can do what we really want to you,” Max whispered in her ear as he pulled her with him onto the chaise longue behind them. “But until then, we’re gonna treat you right, Miss Rousseau.”
Max seated her firmly on his lap, her lower half splayed across him. Silas came to kneel on the plush fur rug beneath them, his eyes full of anticipation as he gently lowered her pants to her ankles, leaving her completely nude save for the fabric gathered at her shins.
Max brushed her hair to the side of her face and began to slowly kiss and caress the sensitive area descending from the nape of her neck to the space between her shoulder blades. “You need to tell us where you’re sore, darlin’. Promise us, won’t you?”
“I’m fine, you two. I swear. I can barely notice anything happened to me, at least physically,” she replied, doing her best to quiet the look of concern that had spread across both men’s faces.
“How about I make you come and then Max massages you from head to toe until you fall asleep?” Silas asked with a glint in his eye.
Her pussy immediately soaked at his alluring proposal. She nodded vigorously and murmured in agreement. Who could say no to being completely pampered by these two gorgeous men?
“Bet you didn’t know I was an expert masseuse, huh, darlin’?” Max whispered as his gentle touches down her back evolved into a vigorous rub.
Silas didn’t hesitate to start, immediately cradling her thighs on his shoulders as his tongue took deep laps at her clit.
“I needed this. I never want a day to go by where I don’t taste you, Audrey,” he said as he let two fingers trail their way towards her puckered hole. As his digits explored her damp cunt, he took his glass in his hand and let several droplets of the fine cognac drip down her mound.
She braced herself as the tiny sting of the alcohol droplets mixed with the immediate sensation of Silas’ tongue lapping furiously at the trail down her delicate folds. Max held her firmly in place against him as Silas ravenously consumed every inch of her, his masterful tongue exploring every tender surface.
The rhythm of his actions built to a frantic pace as the pleasure mounted with every passing second.
“I can’t imagine anything more perfect than this,” he said quietly as he watched the amber droplets drip down her clit.
She laughed and then let out a deep sigh of arousal “It’s quite a man who loves to consume fine cognac while pleasuring his woman.”
“There are no two tastes I could enjoy more,” Silas replied as he unrepentantly immersed himself in the experience, driving her closer and closer to the edge of ecstasy as his pace continued to swell.
“I can’t take it anymore,” she heard herself say as the waves of sensation rose and fell inside her. Max held her closely against him, his hands firmly stroking the rigid buds of her nipples as she ground herself against Silas’ grasp.
The heat of her orgasm seemed to pass through her relentlessly, her body barely her own anymore. All thoughts ceased as the sensations took over, each uncontrollable spasm ricocheting through every part of her. The men watched hungrily as Silas continued torturing her cunt by tracing the outline of her mound with the tips of his soaked fingers. Every light touch seemed to bring another wave of pleasure, even as he almost ceased to touch her completely.
Her heart raced as she tried desperately to catch her breath.
“Nothing turns me on more than watching you come,” Max growled in her ear as she felt his stiff cock rub against her backside.
“I can’t wait to feel you both inside me,” she said, locking eyes first with Silas below her and then turning to Max’s face mere inches from hers.
“Not until the doctor gives us his final approval. Until then, you’re going to have to wait for us,” Silas ordered, despite the raging erection she could see bulging from his slacks.
“I want it so badly. Please give it to me,” she begged.