Love Under Two Honchos
Lusty, Texas 3
Love Under Two Honchos
Josh and Alex have devised what they believe to be a sound, logical method for finding a wife. Then Penelope Primrose enters their lives, and suddenly they’re not as interested in their logical plan as they had been. The more the brothers indulge themselves in Penelope, the more they want her.
Penelope accepts a job offer from Kate Benedict, never expecting to find love under two honchos. She can neither explain nor deny the instant passion that brothers Josh and Alex Benedict ignite in her. But life has taught her only a fool counts on a happy ever after, and she’s no fool.
But then she finds out about the Legacy Project, and suddenly Penelope is no longer willing to settle for what she thinks the brothers Benedict are offering her.
Will Josh and Alex be able to convince Penelope that she can have her happy ever after with them before she walks out of their lives for good?
Genre:
Contemporary, Ménage a Trois/Quatre, Western/Cowboys
Length:
61,388 words
LOVE UNDER TWO HONCHOS
Lusty, Texas 3
Cara Covington
MENAGE EVERLASTING
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
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A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK
IMPRINT: Ménage Everlasting
LOVE UNDER TWO HONCHOS
Copyright © 2011 by Cara Covington
E-book ISBN: 1-61034-318-2
First E-book Publication: February 2011
Cover design by
Les Byerley
All art and logo copyright © 2011 by Siren Publishing, Inc.
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Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
Letter to Readers
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Love Under Two Honchos
by Cara Covington from BookStrand.com or its official distributors, thank you. Also, thank you for not sharing your copy of this book.
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LOVE UNDER TWO HONCHOS
Lusty, Texas 3
CARA COVINGTON
Copyright © 2011
Chapter 1
Joshua Benedict wanted to scream.
He tried to be discreet when he checked the time on his Rolex Daytona watch. His brow furrowed as he calculated the time it would take for them to drive from Lusty to Houston, park in the underground lot, take the elevator up to their penthouse, check their messages, shower and change and head out for their date with luscious Lola.
Josh made a note to stop thinking of the lady in question as
luscious Lola
, because sure as hell that moniker would slip past his lips. He and his brother Alex were going to do their level best to show Lola Dell, accountant, that they respected her brain, her feminine integrity, and that they considered her to have value as a worthwhile member of society, and that she was, in every way, their complete equal.
Although he would admit, under duress, that he really didn’t understand women very well, he did know one thing. If she thought for one moment that it was her G-cup bra that had been the first thing to draw them to her, and the main reason they had put her on their list in the first place, they would be toast.
He shot a glance to his brother, Alex, and noted his closest sibling seemed equally concerned about being late for their date, too.
2
Cara Covington
The quarterly meeting of the Lusty, Texas Town Trust usually only ran for two hours, tops. This one was already twelve point eight percent over that median. Of course, there’d been the official introduction of the soon-to-be members of the family—Josh and Alex’s future brothers-in-law Colt Evans and Ryder Magee.
That had been an important item on the agenda, and now that their sister was officially engaged, Josh supposed it would be appropriate for him and Alex to boast about being the ones to get them together in the first place. Even if their reasoning in doing so had been less than laudable, and the end result the complete opposite of what they’d been aiming for.
“Well, I think that’s about it,” Caleb Benedict, one of Josh’s fathers and today’s meeting chairman, said. “If there’s nothing else?”
Before Josh could jump to his feet and make a mad dash for the interstate, the door to the Trust’s boardroom—fittingly in the back of the Lusty, Texas Heritage Museum—burst open.
The woman who stood there wouldn’t measure up to Josh’s shoulder. She was tiny, white-haired, and had not that long ago celebrated her ninetieth birthday. One sight of her, and Joshua knew with absolute certainty that he and Alex weren’t going to be racing off to luscious Lola tonight. Under the circumstances, that was fine with him. The lady drawing everyone’s surprised attention at the moment was the only one he’d willingly miss a chance at those G-cups for. A big grin split his face. He figured the other members of his family were just as surprised—and as pleased—as he.
She may have been the smallest of the combined members of the Benedict, Jessop, and Kendall families, but by God, she was the mightiest.
Her name was Katherine Wesley Benedict, Josh’s grandmother, and she was the undisputed head of the families.
“Just keep your shirts on, people. That especially applies to the ladies among us. This meeting isn’t over until
I
say it’s over.”
Love Under Two Honchos
3
His sister Susan was the first to recover. “Grandma Kate! You’re back!”
Once that dam burst, everyone started calling out greetings and getting in line for hugs from the oldest and most loved—and, not coincidentally, the most feared—member of the Lusty Town Trust.
Josh joined that line, of course, because he loved his Grandma Kate almost more than he loved his own mother. Every time he put his arms around her, like now, he was mindful that she was getting older, and that her bones, if not her spirit, were becoming more delicate with each passing year.
“I’m so glad you’re here,” she told him as she patted his face.
He didn’t hear that sentiment directed to any other member of the family. With his chest puffed out, he returned to his seat.
Grandma Kate received the last hug and then made her way to the head of the table, where Joshua’s father, Caleb, held his chair for her.
Then Grandma Kate looked at Josh, and then Alex. “This is a very difficult time to be in the oil business, isn’t it?”
Josh raised one eyebrow and looked over at his brother. They hadn’t shared with anyone in the family the nasty letters they’d been getting in the last month. It simply defied comprehension how Grandma Kate could always know so much about what was going on in everyone’s life. After all, there were so many of them!
“One company behaves irresponsibly, causing ecological devastation,” the matriarch continued, “and we’re all tarnished with that same brush.”
“There’s no question that share prices have dropped some,” Uncle Carson, the former CEO of Benedict Oil and Minerals said. “But since share prices have dropped for every company, across-the-board, there doesn’t seem to be much we can do about it.”
Grandma Kate tilted her head to the side. “My immediate concern isn’t share prices.” She looked at Josh, and then again at Alex. “My immediate concern is demonstrating to the public at large that the Benedicts aren’t like those other big, multinational conglomerates.
4
Cara Covington
Spoiling our environment is most definitely
not
the Benedict way. I want the world to know that, and the sooner, the better.”
“Son, is something going on with the company that you’d like to share with the rest of us at this time?”
Josh resisted the urge to wince and close his eyes. His father Caleb was retired from the Texas Rangers, but being retired didn’t mean a damn thing. The man was a cop down to the bone. He could put two and two together faster than even he himself could, and Josh had been a math scholar.
When denial is impossible, downplay
. “There have been a few letters in recent weeks—you know how it is. Being a large company sometimes makes you a target. And when things go wrong, such as the recent disaster in the gulf, well, then, the target gets a bit bigger.”
“Damn, boy. I swear you ought to run for political office,” Uncle Carson said.
“Carson, watch your language,” Grandma Kate said. “There are ladies present.”
“Sorry, mother.” Carson looked sorry, too.
“So, there’ve been threatening letters. I trust you’ve alerted Houston PD,” Caleb said.
Alex sat forward. “No, sir. Josh and I felt that since the letters were more rants than actual threats, we’d just give it some time to blow over. We did, of course, give them over to our head of security.
He also felt they weren’t particularly immediate. One thing we can be pretty certain of is that at some point in the near future, some other company will earn the derision of the public. The blogospheres will explode, and our letter writer will have a new target.”