Love Under Two Benedicts(19)

I wonder why I didn’t notice that before?

If, before yesterday, she’d been asked to describe her new home town in one word, that word would have been “welcoming.”

Being a newcomer and opening a new business in a small town where so many folks were related or could trace their roots back generations to the beginning of the town was usually a recipe for failure. Small towns sometimes tended to be xenophobic, treating outsiders like outsiders for years, if not decades.

Yet, from day one, her restaurant had been full, and people had been nothing but kind to her. At first, she’d attributed that to the fact they all knew she was “Susie’s friend.” Now she wondered if being the place it was, with people living alternate lifestyles, that simply meant everyone was more tolerant and accepting by nature.

She turned into the long, winding lane of the Benedict Ranch. She’d made the right decision, driving herself here. The short commute had done wonders in lifting the minor stress of the day, making her feel as if she’d just got her second wind.

She crested the small hill and smiled when the house came into view. It was just so pretty, that white two-story home with its green trim, wrap-around verandah and Grecian pillars.

Talk about pretty sights.

The two very buff and extremely handsome men standing on that verandah waiting for her certainly qualified as that.

She pulled her car up to just in front of the house. This close, she could see the men’s expressions, even the color of their eyes.

It wasn’t the sparkling blue of Matthew’s eyes or the deep chocolate of Steven’s that drew her. It was the heat, the expression of arousal and, if she wasn’t mistaken, raw, naked intent they both wore. That look acted like a magnet and pulled her from the isolation of her vehicle.

They held their ground—or rather, their verandah—and Kelsey didn’t know whether to approve that move or not. She couldn’t accuse them of crowding her exactly. And they could point out, if they had a mind to, that she was the one who’d driven from town, and she was the one who now walked, one step at a time, toward them.

Why am I thinking in adversarial terms?

Perhaps her subconscious understood the situation better than she knew. Maybe, when it came right down to it, these men posed a danger to her she’d not quite reckoned upon.

“What’s the matter, darlin’?” Steven’s deep drawl brushed a tremor against her skin. Kelsey tilted her head to the side, her eyes searching and her mind scrambling to find an answer to the question. She’d come to a halt just shy of the steps leading up to them.

“I don’t know. I just…I just felt skittish all of a sudden, as if I was on the precipice of something for a moment.”

“We would never hurt you,” Matthew said. His words, as had his brother’s, shivered through her. She had a sense of something, something big and deep and necessary. And then that sense evaporated. She felt silly. She was being silly.

“I know.” She inhaled deeply. Whatever else was or was not happening here, she did know that. These men would move heaven and hell to protect her, to take care of her. A part of her mind reasoned they’d do as much for any woman they took to their bed, and she believed that.

She also thought that what they were building between the three of them meant she somehow was special to them, and she believed that, too.

She didn’t want to have anything beyond the physical, really. On the other hand, she wanted to matter to them, and she believed she did.

“Then come here,” Steven said. “We’ve been patient waiting for you. But we need to touch you and kiss you and say hello.”

Kelsey felt her smile widen. Steven wasn’t one to spend too much time talking. Of the two brothers, he seemed the quietest. Matthew could talk a virgin out of her underwear. Steven would crook his finger, and she’d drop them gladly.

Kelsey was no virgin, and she felt the double-barrel impact of the brothers Benedict in every part of her body.

Just hearing Steven’s stated intentions already had her nipples hard and her pussy wet.

She inhaled deeply, settled her inner voices, and went to them.





Chapter 7



Waiting for Kelsey to take those few steps up to him was the hardest thing Steven had ever done. He wanted to scoop her up and carry her to bed where he and his brother could just plunder. Energy sizzled through him, and he didn’t have to look at Matthew to know it was the same for him.

He could see a similar awareness dancing through Kelsey, too. One look in her pretty green eyes and he knew she felt the air change around them, though she likely had no idea why.

Steven figured the universe gave off some kind of signal when mates came together. Had to be because that was exactly the sensation rolling through him.