“So we figured,” Brian said. “Not that we would really mind, you understand.”
“But the first time we have you in bed between us, Carrie, we want to be sure it’s what you want, too.” Chase kissed the top of her head.
“And even though we’ve known each other since you came to town, I don’t reckon you’ve been thinking of us that way until recently. Have you?” Brian’s question, his voice quiet, pinged her conscience.
Carrie sighed again. Who knew these two cowboys were going to prove to be gentlemen as well as being so damn hot? “No, you’re both right, on all counts.”
“You were pretty resistant to us—until Saturday. We think something changed for you then.”
Chase tipped her face up toward him, his finger gentle on her chin. “If we were interested in just a few fast lays, sugar, we’d be there right now. But we want more than that from and with you. At the very least we want a relationship with you that is real and honest, on all sides.”
“You’ve got secrets, darlin’, shadows that haunt you. Maybe others don’t see them, but we do.”
“Everyone has secrets.” Carrie couldn’t help the feeling of defensiveness that rose up in her. She’d spent a lifetime alone, keeping her thoughts and her words to herself. Damn straight she had secrets. She wouldn’t have been able to survive if she hadn’t learned how to hide—both literally and figuratively.
“Yes, everyone has secrets.” Chase stroked her face with his finger. “But not everyone is the woman we love. You can’t expect us to share your body if you’re not also willing to let us share your soul.”
Well, hell
. She’d been hoping to find out just what these shivery sensations would lead to. And then the words he just used echoed loudly in her head and Carrie shot up straight in Chase’s lap and gasped.
She would have climbed off him but he held on tight.
“Love? You don’t love me! It doesn’t happen that way. That was just…just…kissing!”
Instead of being pissed off, Chase just smiled. He shared a look with his brother, and so naturally Carrie had to look at Brian, too. They were both grinning like fools.
“Maybe you don’t love us yet, and that’s okay, sugar. We’re not going anywhere and we have lots of time to court you properly.”
“Truth is, darlin’, it happens to Benedicts all the time—though not to us before we met you.”
“And one more thing, sugar. That wasn’t just kissing. That was
foreplay
, and not even our best effort at it. And sex isn’t happening until you admit that you’re in love with us.”
“And that will happen sometime
after
you tell us what you’re hiding from.”
Well, hell
. Carrie didn’t know if she wanted to cry—or praise God.
* * * *
Nothing had ever felt as good as holding Carrie in his arms. When he’d picked her up and sat down on the sofa with her on his lap, she’d snuggled into him just like an affectionate little kitten.
Right at the moment she still looked like a little kitten—a mad, spitting one.
“You can’t possibly expect me to just roll over and let you rifle through my closet, looking at all my skeletons.”
“Not right now, no.” Chase didn’t know a lot for certain in this life but one thing he knew without question.
Something had hurt their woman, something she was still dealing with. He had no idea—not for sure—what it could be. He had his suspicions, and those suspicions twisted his guts.
He knew Brian thought and felt the same thing.
“You don’t need to be gettin’ all riled up, darlin’. I can see you’re mad at us. Please don’t be. We
are
on your side. We love you.”
Carrie just shook her head. “I’m not mad. Well, not really. I’m mostly just confused.”
“You feel something for us.”
Please, God
. Chase didn’t know if they’d just made a huge blunder with her, not following where their hormones wanted to so merrily lead them.
Stopping had just felt right to him, and judging by the way Brian had supported him, he wasn’t alone in that.
Carrie sighed. Then,
thank you, Lord
, she relaxed again in his arms and snuggled back down. Up until the last couple of days, it had been as if she’d been sporting a flashing neon sign above her head that proclaimed, “Don’t touch.” That had changed, but he and Brian both figured there was a damn good reason she’d spent so much time and energy protecting herself.
“Yes, I feel something for you. I feel something for you both, but I can’t say right this minute with complete certainty that it’s love.”
“Fair enough, darlin’.”
“I just don’t know what comes next.”
Chase could get awfully used to having Carrie snuggled in his lap. He made a plan right there and then to see to it they spent some part of every single day just like this.
“What comes next is we court you. We get to hold you and kiss you while you get to know us and we get to know you.”
“And, darlin’, if you could find it in your heart to help us with this seriously ugly house, we’d be grateful.”
Carrie laughed out loud. She moved to sit up, and Chase helped her. She looked around the room. “It
is
ugly. Does the rest of the house look like this?”
“Yeah, pretty much,” Chase said. “Apparently the Benedicts who decided to come out of town and ‘work the land’ in the 1930s had no intention of really doing so. The place has been rented out a couple of times since then, most recently by a retired history teacher from Abilene. She finally moved a year or so ago to an assisted living facility close to her great-nieces and nephews, in Waco.”
“Jake said she loved the decor,” Brian said. “Apparently she told him it felt as if she was living in a museum.” He laughed. “Jake said the few times he came out to visit her, or to bring contractors out to do repairs, she’d greet him at the door wearing costumes from the twenties and thirties.”
Carrie just shook her head. “And of course, no one in town would think anything of that woman living out here dressed in dated garb, because she was happy.”
“She was sane, and paid the rent on time. How she wanted to live her life was her business, wasn’t it?” Chase ran his hand through her short black hair. He’d wanted to get his fingers in it ever since he’d met her. At first look, he’d thought she was some sort of Goth girl. The first time he’d laid eyes on her, she’d worn her hair in a spiky kind of do, sported red, red lipstick, and had a rainbow of stud earrings in her left ear. Her right ear only had two studs, and he’d wondered at the time if the look was a fashion statement, or if she’d run out of money before getting the right ear done to match the left. And still, with that first sight, Goth girl or no, he’d wanted her.
“I have the feeling that’s the motto of Lusty, right there,” Carrie said.
“Have you visited the museum yet, darlin’?” Brian was still massaging her feet and Chase could tell that was something their woman really enjoyed.
Carrie lay back on Chase and groaned, likely in response to the foot rub. “You’re the second person to ask me that in recent days. I haven’t been there yet. I have the feeling I should make time to visit it soon.”
“We want to take you there.” Chase kissed the top of her head. He found his own spot to massage—right at the base of her neck, and across her shoulders. He felt her go boneless on him and grinned.
“Okay. I’d probably be better off touring the place with the two of you. I have a feeling you’re more than a little familiar with the contents of that building.”
“We are.” Brian raised one of her feet and kissed it. Carrie seemed shocked for a moment but then she smiled. “It tells the story of Lusty, its founding and the years in between then and now. Chase and I are very proud of our heritage.”
She relaxed on him for another few minutes, and Chase really enjoyed the closeness the three of them developed. Finally she sighed. “I have to work tomorrow, so I can’t stay a whole lot later. If you want me to tour your home and get some ideas, we should get started, shouldn’t we?”
Chase gave her a hug, and then helped her sit up. “We should, but that was nice. I liked sitting there with you on us.”
Carrie’s expression turned soft. “I did, too. It’s been a long time since someone just held me.”
“Then let’s make that a tradition with us,” Brian said. “We’ll see that you get hugs, and held, every day. Foot rubs, too, if you need them.”
“Sounds good to me.”
Chase shot his brother a quick glance as he lifted Carrie to her feet and stood himself. It was enough to let him know Brian had caught that emotion that came and went like lightning across their woman’s face. It had been a look of hope tempered by caution.
Someone had let her down, and badly. Right then and there he made himself a solemn promise. He would move heaven and hell not to disappoint her.
“If this furniture dates back to the 1930s, then some of it is probably antiques. You could probably sell it to collectors.”
“For now, it’ll just go to the warehouse,” Chase said. “We have a huge one just outside of the southern end of town, and it is full of stuff. We can go through the contents accumulated and pick out whatever furniture you think would fit—whatever you like.”
“If you don’t see what you’d like there, we can just take a run into one of the cities and buy new,” Brian said.
“If I don’t see what
I
like? You’re the cowboys who’ve got to live here. It should be what you like.”
She obviously didn’t understand exactly how long term he and Brian were thinking. He and his twin shared a look. Brian came to the rescue which was a good thing, because Chase’s brain refused to work.
“We’re really just a couple of cowpokes at heart, darlin’. What do we know from styles and such? We’re both perfectly content to let you pick what you like. We like
you
so we figure we’ll be fine with whatever you choose.”
“Wait a minute. Didn’t the two of you work with your brothers in New York City for a few years? The same New York City that is known as the fashion capital of the nation?”
Chase gave Carrie the saddest look he could muster. “We did, sugar, we surely did. It was horrible.” And he shuddered, just for good measure.
Carrie laughed, and when he took hold of her right hand, she knit her fingers through his. Brian ran his hand down her back and then took her left hand.
“Are you sure you’re strong enough for this?” Chase brought her hand up to his mouth and kissed it. “It’s a big house, with ugly-ass furniture in every room except our home office.”
“I’m tougher than I look.” Then she cocked her head to one side. “So you managed to fix up your home office?”
“There wasn’t anything to that. A couple of desks, a couple of chairs, and a couple of computers. That part was easy enough.”
Carrie looked around the parlor once more. “Okay, this has all got to go. Do you have any particular style preferences? Colors?”
“We just want furniture big enough we don’t have to worry about breaking it when we sit on it,” Brian said.
“And damn near any color would suit us as long as there is no red or gold involved.”
“You guys are way too easy,” Carrie teased. “Okay, let’s get this party started.”
Chase grinned at his brother. They’d managed to take the first step with their woman, and a significant step it was, too. She’d be here on a regular basis over the next while, and in that time they could court her. And since they told her to fix the place up to
her
own liking, she’d be sure to be comfortable here, once they asked her to move in with them.
“Well, it’s almost that time. Are you ready for the outside world, son?”
George Lockwood kept a tight rein on his emotions, and his polite face in place. He gave the pastor a gentle smile and a nod—what he believed would be the response of a humble man. He felt pleased when the pastor clasped his shoulder in turn.
Sucker
.
Because he thought a few words were warranted and because he really was anxious to get the hell out of prison, he said, “I am, Pastor Jack. I’m looking forward to settling down right here in Huntsville and starting my life all over again. I’ll find myself a good job, I promise you. I’ve been working hard, and I got my certificate from that computer course I took. I do appreciate you helping me out the way you have. I especially appreciate that you’re here for me today. That’s right kind of you.”
“I’m pleased to be here for you. You’re a good man, George. A changed man, I can tell. I’ve watched you these last ten years, and I know this to be true. The course upgrades you took and the time you’ve spent in Bible study are going to be a big help in securing employment for you. Learning how to use computers, how to write programs—that was a smart move on your part, accepting my counseling. You’re living proof that it’s just like I’ve always said. Once you confessed your sins, and resolved to become a better man, everything began to go your way.” Pastor Jack smiled at him, as if sharing a great secret.
George nodded, actually agreeing with the pompous asshole. He didn’t mind that the pastor more or less took credit for having led him to God and affecting his rehabilitation.
Let him
. Actually the interfering bastard’s poking his nose in had suited George. It had suited him personally and served his purposes to have the pastor believe himself the instrument of divine intervention.