Love Under Two Benedicts(3)

“Susan said that just about everyone who lived in Lusty was family of a sort.” Kelsey’s voice sounded distracted. She looked at the photo again.

“Amanda was Sarah’s cousin, came west from Richmond on a quest. Once she got here, she met Adam and Warren, who already were a couple,” Matthew said. “They fell in love with her and had to work to convince her to stay.”

“The men were bisexual in the eighteen hundreds? That would have been dangerous for them—for all of them!” Kelsey said.

“It was dangerous and illegal,” Steven said. “It was actually the Jessop-Kendalls who conceived of the idea of a town, an autonomous place where they could live as they chose and in privacy with their friends nearby. As you can imagine, our great-greats signed on to that. It never says in any of the journals why they named the town Lusty, though.”

“Perhaps they thought the answer to that question obvious.”

There were photos of the Big House, as the original Benedict homestead was called today, and of the “new house,” the large mansion built close to it that was the original home of the Jessop-Kendalls.

Kelsey continued to peruse the items on display. As she did, a door in the back opened and a middle-aged woman came into the room.

“Hey, Aunt Anna,” Matthew said in greeting.

“Why hello there, Matthew and Steven. You’ve brought your girl around, I see.”

Kelsey’ jaw dropped, and she looked as though she was in shock. Matthew made a mental note to speak to all his well-meaning relatives. He didn’t want them scaring Kelsey off before they had her.

“Kelsey, you’ve met our aunt, Anna Jessop?” Steven stepped into the breach, and Matthew sighed in relief.

“I don’t think we’ve been introduced,” Kelsey said.

“You make very good food.” Aunt Anna shook Kelsey’s hand. “Just go on and look around. We’re very proud of our history here in Lusty. And we have a fine collection of photographs and other relics. ’Course, there’s more up at the Big House.”

Matthew led Kelsey over to a series of photographs. “Once they’d formed the town, they invited select people to come and live with them. The first were Amanda’s mother and a friend of Amanda’s who also happened to be a lawyer and who knew Warren Jessop. His name was Terence Parks, and once Terence felt settled and secure, his friend and lover Jeremy Jones came and joined him. He was an artist, a photographer, and took all the photos on display here.”

Matthew let her look, sending questioning glances to his brother behind her back when she leaned in to look at the inscription below one particular portrait.

“This card says that’s Bat Masterson with the Benedicts.”

“That’s right,” Steven said.

“The Bat Masterson?”

“Yeah, he was a friend of the family,” Matthew said. And then, because he was so damn proud of his forebears, he pointed to another photo. “Another family friend,” he said

“Wyatt Earp.” Kelsey’s tone reflected awe.

She continued to look at the photos, at other generations of their family. Matthew felt pride in his roots and knew Steven did, too. There was so much more he wanted to tell Kelsey but contented himself with simply following her as she stopped at each photograph and display case. She didn’t rush but seemed to take everything in. The museum wasn’t large by anyone’s definition of the word. Soon they were back where they’d started, near the front door.

Kelsey turned and faced Matt and his brother.

“I think I’m beginning to understand. It’s natural for you to think in terms of sharing a woman sexually. So you haven’t been playing some kind of one-upmanship game with me at all. You’ve both been, to use your word, wooing me, because you want to have sex with me. Both of you. At the same time.”

Matthew couldn’t read Kelsey’s mood or her state of mind. Her expression blank, she’d spoken almost clinically. He supposed he couldn’t blame her for that, though he’d wanted to wince when she’d said “have sex” instead of “make love.” If another woman had said that, it wouldn’t have bothered him. But this was Kelsey, and while he knew that when he and Steven finally had her between them they’d be making love to her, he understood where her thoughts had led her.

So he nodded and said, “Yes. Steven and I both want to have sex with you at the same time.”

Steven nodded, then slipped his hands into his jeans pockets, a sure sign he was nervous. Kelsey looked from one to the other of them for a long moment. Finally, she nodded, a curt little jerk of her head that told Matthew her decision had just made her very nervous.