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protectors of the human species demanded and received fealty as their due.
Hardly a righteous thought for a modern woman
. No, but a part of her, that part which was purely physical and instinctual, recognized the truth in it.
Her tongue played with Alex’s, and her hand fisted him, held the essence of his masculinity in her palm and felt elated he gave it to her, for her pleasure.
Alex’s mouth left hers. He wrapped his arms around her from behind, as if bracing her.
Josh stroked his hand over the opening of her slit and then speared two fingers into her. Groaning in bliss, Penelope rode those fingers as they moved in and out of her. Her nipples hardened, a visceral reaction to the arousal shimmering through her.
“Oh, yeah, you’re hot, wet, and ready.” Josh placed a kiss on her navel then sank to his knees. “I’m going to drink some of your heat, pretty Penelope.”
His last words vibrated against her pussy, and then he set his mouth on her, lips and tongue rubbing, tasting, devouring her.
Arousal burst into flames high and hot, searing her flesh and electrifying every part of her. She cried out because the burn happened so fast, shooting her higher and farther in seconds, carrying her close, so close to rapture. Alex held her steady, taking her weight when her knees buckled. She could feel his cock nestled against the small of her back, and she loved the feeling—hot, pulsing, preparing itself for her.
Josh’s tongue flicked over her labia, teasing her clit from its nest.
Penelope shivered as her excitement grew.
“You taste so good.”
Oh, his words spoken against her wet cleft felt so delicious, she tilted her hips just a little bit closer to him.
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“Please.” She hungered, she burned. She knew she’d become sopping wet and knew, too, those juices weren’t all from his wonderful mouth.
“Here, then.” He inserted fingers into her again, then sucked her clit into his mouth.
“Oh,
yes
!” She came in a torrent, a flood of ecstasy so grand, so thrilling, she wondered her heart didn’t stop. Controlling her completely, the orgasm wrung sobs and sounds from the very heart of her, turning her inside out, leaving her a heaving, quivering woman.
Joshua got to his feet, scooped her up, and laid her on the bed. He came down over top of her and laid his mouth on hers, sharing her essence, the flavor of them both, in his kiss. He reached for a condom, never taking his gaze from hers as he tore the package open, rolled on the rubber, and surged into her.
Penelope gasped, the length and the girth of him stretching her, the strength of his cock as he withdrew then thrust into her again so awesomely powerful, so powerfully good.
“You feel good inside me.” She wrapped her arms and legs around him and pushed up against his thrusts. Penelope thought their movements were just this side of desperate.
“Oh, sweetheart, yes, I just need—” He closed his eyes, a sign he was close to release. She stretched up, fastened her mouth on his neck, and sucked—an old-fashioned ploy she’d never tried on any man. These men brought out the primitive in her, the need to mark them as her own.
Josh made a sound, half groan, half growl, and Penelope used her inner muscles to squeeze him, to push him over the edge. She held him close as he came, as his orgasm robbed him of strength, and wondered that such a moment made a woman feel so powerful and special.
He collapsed on her, breathing hard, but only for a moment. These lovers of hers were both so careful of her, for in just a few short breaths, he raised himself onto his arms, sparing her his weight.
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“I’m wrecked.”
Penelope chuckled, the idea that a strong man would say such a thing tickling her sense of humor.
“Maybe for a moment you are, but I have seen your powers of regeneration, sir, and they are remarkable.”
“No, you’re remarkable.” He eased out of her, off of her, and rolled to her right.
Alex cozied up to her left side. He rubbed his hand over her breasts, first one, then the other. “Your nipples are rock hard. I think you’re still up there. I think you need more, pretty Penelope.”
Penelope turned her head toward him. “I’m horny,” she said baldly. “What are you going to do about it?”
Alex nuzzled her, his tongue sneaking out to tease her ear. She shivered as she always did when he did that.
“I’m going to have my way with you and show you so many fireworks you’ll think it’s the Fourth of July.”
“That’s quite an impressive boast.”
“I can be quite the impressive lover.”
Penelope wanted to laugh. She loved this playful side of Alex, loved that he would put on the mantle of a Lothario to make her smile. She’d always thought that here, in bed, there should be more than just the heated pursuit of orgasms. There should be tenderness and, yes, humor.
“Go ahead. Impress me.”
Alex grinned in response to her sultry tone. He reached out, stroked her face, then leaned in to kiss her.
Gentle at first, his lips wooed hers, his tongue stroked gently, begging her to open to him. Unable to resist, she surrendered, his taste, now wrapped in the scent of cooling bodies and spent sex, even more alluring, even more potent.
He moved over her, his mouth avid in tasting, teasing, taking what he would. Penelope closed her eyes in bliss as he left not an inch of
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her unloved. His hands caressed and shaped, fingers delved, and she lifted her hips, following that touch, crying out for that taste.
When he eased her over on her stomach, she went, moaning with delight as he kissed a trail from the top of her spine down to the tiny dimple at the top of her ass. He moved, his heat emanating off him in waves, so she felt comforted and aroused at the same time. He tented her, his hands on either side of her head, his knees on either side of her legs. He urged her bottom up, and she raised herself for him, for his pleasure, and for her own. One leg pressed, and she spread hers, opening her body to him, becoming, for him, completely vulnerable.
Heat on her right side made her turn her head. Josh lay there, close, propped up on his side. His eyes glittered with excitement. She opened her mouth to comment on his recovery, then closed it on a hiss.
Alex’s fingers traced up and down over her anus, spreading a cool lubricant, shooting her arousal even higher.
“I’ll be careful, sweetheart.” Alex bent down and kissed her shoulder, and then he inserted a finger into her ass.
“Oh.” She couldn’t believe how sensitive she was there, how, instantly, threads of almost electric energy shot from her anus to her clit and up to her nipples.
Josh leaned over, placed a chaste kiss on her cheek. He reached out, and in a breath of time, she felt his fingers on her slit, rubbing back and forth, seeking and finding her clit.
“Mmm.” The twin stimulations worked together, not pushing her over, but seeming to expand what she could take, how high she could soar. “I love this.”
“Staying high, like a kite?” Alex asked.
“Yes. Yes! I love coming, but this…mmm.” Words fell away, giving over to the sensory stimulation that swirled and pleasured and teased.
“A bit more, baby.” Alex’s voice seemed to quiver. She felt additional pressure and guessed he’d given her a second finger. The
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burning hovered at the edge of pain, but even the discomfort aroused.
Nothing had ever felt like this.
“You want this, don’t you? It’s like your ass is just opening for me.”
“Yes, I want this. I want you. Please, fuck me. Fuck my ass.”
“Oh, yeah.” His voice did quiver. She heard the sound of the condom pack being opened and the distinctive glide as he rolled the protection into place.
“You can tell me to stop, sweetheart. Anytime. I don’t want to hurt you.”
It was on the tip of her tongue to assure him she would never ask him to stop. And then she felt it, the hot, huge end of his cock pressing against her. His hands gripped her ass, spread her cheeks just a little, and the pressure grew.
She inhaled sharply, as the slight burn she’d felt morphed into a stretching burn that nearly brought tears to her eyes. But the sound she made wasn’t one of distress. She recognized the noise even though she’d never made one like it. It was a plea for more.
“Let go, sweetheart. Let go for me.” Alex bent down and kissed her shoulder.
She felt her sphincter open, a little at a time. The burn turned to pain, and she nearly clenched against it. And then she realized she was clenched, and that’s what Alex had asked her to let go of.
She pressed herself against Josh’s hand, sought more of the stimulation that kept her high, kept her needy, even as she willed her muscles to relax, to give over—to let go.
“Oh, baby, yes.” Alex’s words slid out of him as his cock slid into her. He inhaled sharply and held himself still.
“Penelope?”
“Move.”
“Out?”
“God, no. Move!” She thought she’d explode if he didn’t fuck her, if he didn’t…
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“I’ll go slowly.” He pulled nearly all the way out then pushed back in again, a small movement that felt good, oh, but not nearly good enough. She needed more. She needed so much more.
Instinctively, she pushed back, just a little, meeting his thrust, meeting it and taking him deeper.
“I can’t control…sweetheart, hold still…” His voice strangled off on a curse.
Penelope didn’t want to hold still. She thrust back again, taking more of him until she had taken him all.
“Oh, God.”
She could almost hear the tether of his control snap. He held her ass harder and thrust into her, then out and in again, this time his pace sharp, fast.
Penelope felt the spasms of climax hover. Then Josh moved closer and inserted two fingers into her pussy.
“Come for us, sweetheart.”
“Yes.” Her one word ended in a hiss and a cry as her release flooded her, an inundation of sensation so huge, so massive, it stole her breath and her sight and her hearing. She came in wave after wave of the most delectable ecstasy, shivering and sobbing as the orgasm drowned all that she was, a purging pleasure that changed every atom of her being. She felt Alex hold himself deep, the vibration of his sobs of triumph shivering over her, and knew she wasn’t the only one changed.
As he eased himself down on top of her, as she absorbed the heat from his body and Josh’s gentle, comforting sounds, she understood something irreversible had just happened.
The brothers Benedict had just claimed a portion of her soul, and she’d fallen all the way in love with them.
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Chapter 14
Alex’s legs burned, his lungs struggled for air, and sweat ran down his back between his shoulder blades. He preferred exercise the old-fashioned way—either riding his horse across miles of Texas pasture, or slugging away on the ranch. The exercise room in Benedict Towers came in a distant third in preferences, but the workout had value despite that.
Beside him, Josh was having a very similar reaction to his elliptical program. Alex put his attention back on the television screen above him, only half-listening to the news program. He and Josh weren’t competing, but they matched each other’s pace and effort in most things.
Some of the people he’d met in college had been siblings—hell, some even twins. They all suffered to some degree from sibling rivalry. He guessed the difference was how they’d been raised.
He’d clicked with Josh as soon as he’d been old enough to understand that he could like one brother a whole lot more than either of the other two. The feeling had been mutual. He considered his brother Josh—one year his senior—to be his partner, not his rival.
In many ways, they were like two versions of the same person.
Alex checked the time and saw he only had a couple of minutes left to go. Thoughts of Penelope intruded, and he lost his rhythm.
She’d been prettily mussed and sleepy-warm when their sister Susan had called earlier, inviting her to go shopping.
“You okay?” Josh had stopped his workout and leaned on the instrument panel.
“Yeah.”
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“Penelope?”
“Yeah.” Alex smiled. It was pretty good when your best friend was your brother who understood you completely.
“Want to hit the pool?”
“No, let’s head up. I need coffee.”
They scooped their towels and water bottles and headed for the penthouse elevator. Not many of their fellow apartment dwellers were out and about this Saturday morning. They sometimes would encounter people in the corridors or in the workout room, or the pool, but never in the elevators. Unless, of course, one of the family was visiting.
“So tell me, bro, what’s on your mind about Penelope?” Josh headed straight to their one-cup coffee machine. He scooped two coffee pods—one would be a breakfast blend for Alex, one a medium blend for himself.
They did have a few differences in tastes and preferences.
“I’ve been feeling as if we’re, I don’t know, taking Penelope for granted.”
“Because every time we’re alone with her, we’re on her and in her? I’ve been having the same thoughts.”
“We brought food over to her place the other night, but other than that we haven’t taken her anywhere. Not to dinner and a movie. Not to the symphony. That’s not our usual style. We can do better than that. Hell, she’s brand new to the state
and
to the city, and we haven’t shown her any of it.”
“I don’t know what it is about her that’s so different from any other woman we’ve ever dated.” Josh handed Alex his coffee then set about making his own.
“I know. It’s like we met her, then, bang, we leapfrog over all the steps in between meeting and sex and jump her the first night.”
“Do you have any idea what we could do to maybe balance it out a bit? Aside from not having sex with her because at this point, I don’t know if I can leave her alone.”