Love Under Two Benedicts (14 page)

“Boy’s asleep,” Adam said. “I’ll wait downstairs.”

Matthew eased Kelsey onto the seat between himself and Steven. His brother, tissues in hand, lifted her face and dabbed at her tears.

“I’m sorry,” Kelsey said.

“Don’t you ever dare apologize for this.” Steven grabbed another tissue, folded it, and held it to her nose. “Blow.”

She did, around a laugh that was weak, but a laugh just the same.

 
Matthew held the glass of brandy to her lips. “Take a sip, baby.”

She did, coughing slightly. Matthew patted her back, and Steven rubbed her thigh.

She exhaled, her breath shaky. Her eyes were red-rimmed, her face blotchy, but he’d never seen a more beautiful woman in his entire life.

“I saw Benny with his mother. It must have been an hour before Michelle told me he’d been left.” She paused and took another sip of brandy. “He was eating french fries, one at a time, exactly how my Sean used to eat them. And then he looked at his mother and made a face.” She stopped, and fresh tears spilled over her eyes, but she didn’t sob. Steven mopped her face again and placed a kiss on her nose.

“I turned away from him because the sudden flood of memories hurt so much. I locked myself in the bathroom until I got myself under control. Then I went back to work. Work saved me. Before, too, you know? Keeping busy was all I could do.”

“We’ve never lost anyone,” Matthew said. “We can’t know what it feels like. But we love you, and your pain is now our pain.”

She jerked at that and turned her widened eyes to him and then Steven.

“Sorry, sweetheart,” Steven said. “We do love you. Totally and completely. We lied about this being just physical for us.”

“Oh.” Kelsey looked as if she didn’t know what else to say.

Matthew smiled because that one word conveyed volumes.

“And we’re not going to let you hide from us emotionally anymore,” he said to her. “You’re not the kind of woman who can give herself in sexual abandon to anyone she doesn’t love, so don’t go and try telling us you don’t love us. We know you do and have from the start.”

“You’re kind of macho all of a sudden,” Kelsey said. He looked at her face and couldn’t read any real anger there. Confusion, yes. And, if he wasn’t mistaken, he could see hope in her eyes as well.

“Honey, I’m from Texas. We
invented
macho.”

Kelsey shook her head and chuckled just a little. “So I’m beginning to discover.”

She sat quietly for a moment, still inhaling shakily.

Matthew reached down and twined his fingers with hers. Steven did the same with the fingers of her right hand.

“We want you to share them with us,” Steven said. “Sean and Philip, too. You loved them both, and they’re a part of you.”

“Can you do that, baby? Can you share them with us?” Matthew asked.

When she met his gaze, he kept his level, hoping she could see the love he held for her shining in his eyes.

She met Steven’s gaze as well. He knew they were asking for a greater intimacy than she’d been prepared to give them. To his way of thinking, it was time.

“Yes, all right. I’ll…I have a picture album. It’s in storage. I’ll get it.”

“Thank you.”
 
Matthew kissed her, keeping the caress light.

Steven turned her face to him and gave her a gentle kiss as well. She responded to them both as she had from the first, sweetly and with unlimited heart.

“Do you want us to ask Adam to come back tomorrow?” Steven asked. “He won’t mind.”

“No. He’s here now. Let’s see what he has to say.”

* * * *

“I don’t understand,” Kelsey said just a few minutes later. “Are you telling me she knew me? That she left Benny at my restaurant
on purpose
?”

Adam handed her the note, and she read it, the same words he’d just finished reading aloud to them all. The message, written on plain white paper, the penmanship poor, was short and to the point.

I read about your place in the paper and about how you lost your boy. You have a kind face, and I think you could come to love my Benny. I’ve got no work, and I can’t feed him. And Deke doesn’t like him much. I worry sometimes that he’ll get mad and start beating him, too. Benny will be safe with you
.

“That poor woman.” Kelsey looked up, focusing on Adam and then her men.

“We got a pretty good description of her and the man she was with. I dusted the letter for prints and got a partial, and I’ve sent it off. We have an idea of the make and model of the car they were in, though no plate number, of course.”

“No, that would be too easy,” Matthew said.

“We questioned Benny last night, but all he told us was his name,” Adam said. “Can hardly blame the little guy. He was terrified, still fighting off the drug he’d been given. We’ll try again tomorrow. He’s only little but he likely knows his last name, at the very least. Anyway, I thought it might help, understanding why his mom thought she had to leave him.”

“I’ll be in the office first thing in the morning,” Matthew told Adam. He turned to look at Kelsey. “You’re off tomorrow, and Steven will be here, but we need to think about Tuesday, in case we don’t find Benny’s mom right away.”

“I bet Mom would be happy to come babysit,” Steven said.

“That’s what I was thinking. Kelsey?”

She couldn’t deny they’d have to make some sort of arrangement for the little guy if they still had him on Tuesday. “Maybe she could come for coffee tomorrow,” Kelsey said. “Then Benny could meet her.”

“Sounds like a plan.” Adam got to his feet. “Oh, before I forget...” He left the front parlor and went to the entrance hall. Scooping up a box, he handed it to Kelsey. “Shirley sent that over. It’s a baby monitor with three different receivers. She said the instructions are inside the box, along with new batteries.”

“Perfect! I’ll have to call her and tell her thanks in the morning,” Kelsey said.

Matthew and Steven both wore such confused looks, she laughed. “I know he’s not a baby, but with this we’ll hear him if he wakes up.”

While Steven and Matthew walked Adam out, Kelsey made her way upstairs with the monitor. Benny was sound asleep, one of the toys Heather had collected and given them—a blue walrus—clutched tight in his arm, his thumb in his mouth. She set up the monitor, ensured it was working, then left him to his slumber.

In the master bedroom, she set one of the receivers on the dresser and turned it up. She could hear the ticking of the clock on the wall in Benny’s room.
Good
.

Alone, the quiet of the evening settling around her, Kelsey walked out onto the balcony. The residual shakes from her crying jag seemed to be gone. Stepping close to the railing, she caught just a slight breeze and inhaled deeply. The air smelled of approaching rain, fresh and clean, as if moisture had already scrubbed the air, making it new again.

In some ways, she felt new again, too.

Kelsey didn’t hear a sound, but she knew when Steven and Matthew were standing behind her.

“You said you love me.”

She turned then and faced them. To their credit, they stood solemnly and took her scrutiny.

“We did,” Matthew said.

“I don’t know how I feel about that.”

“We know,” Steven said. “You don’t have to know how you feel about it, Kelsey. Not right now.”

“All you have to do,” Matthew said, “is let us love you.”

Kelsey trembled inside, a different feeling from the one she’d just gotten over. These men reached something in her she’d thought to keep hidden forever. They made her
feel
when she’d convinced herself she was perfectly happy with numbness. She didn’t think she was ready for that. She didn’t think she really had a choice in the matter.

She’d stayed numb because she’d been afraid. Now, she thought that maybe, just maybe, the brothers Benedict could keep her safe so she wouldn’t have to be afraid anymore.

It was, she thought, time to begin emerging from her self-imposed cocoon. “I’m not really sure I know how to do that, either. I’m not sure I know how to let you love me.”

 
Steven and Matthew traded a look. Then they both held out a hand to her. “Let us show you,” Steven said.

Kelsey hesitated for one moment. Then she stepped forward and took their hands.

Chapter 13

They led her into the bedroom, to the side of the bed they’d already stripped of blankets. Matthew cupped her face and kissed her, his tongue brushing her bottom lip, then sliding into her mouth. Hot, bold, he tasted her completely, a sipping, sucking kiss that made her feel as if he drank her. He stepped back, stroked a finger down her face, and gave her the most tender smile she’d ever seen. He walked over to the bedside table, took a long match out of the drawer, and struck it.

Steven turned her to him and ran his hands down her arms. “You are so very perfect for us. I’d feared we’d never find you.”

Kelsey felt overwhelmed by his declaration. What did they want from her? She opened her mouth to ask that, but Steven gently placed his finger on her lips.

“No. Don’t say anything. Just accept what we feel for you, what we give you, however we give it to you, as a gift.”

Another macho male
. Before the thought could rile her, he slipped his arms around her and laid his mouth on hers.

Instantly carnal, his kiss ignited the embers that seemed to lie banked within her, just waiting for one of these men to set them ablaze.

With slow, lazy strokes, Steven’s tongue seduced her. Kelsey felt her muscles weaken and anchored her arms around him. The action brought her closer to his body, and the sensation of his denim-covered erection pressing against her set off tingles in her belly.

Steven broke the kiss gently, then locked his gaze with hers as he began to undo the buttons of her white blouse.

Matthew pressed himself against her back. He’d turned off the lights so that the room, bathed in the glimmer of candles, took on an even more intimate ambience.

“Will you let me take that pretty ass of yours tonight, sweetheart?”

Just the suggestion of anal play made her shiver and burn. Her cunt released moisture, and arousal began its upward spiral, setting every nerve ending in her body ablaze.

“Yes. Anything. Everything.” Never had she believed she could feel the heat and desire these men made her feel. Every touch melted her resolve to stay aloof. Every kiss melted her bones, making her feel as if, any moment now, she would become a puddle at their feet.

Steven removed her blouse while Matthew opened her bra. Sliding the lacy garment from her body, Matthew bent and nipped her shoulder, then kissed the small sting away.

Steven petted her from her collar bone to her navel, his work-roughened hands arousing her nipples into hard, eager peaks. Matthew nibbled where her neck met her shoulder, and she let her head fall back where it was cradled on his shoulder, giving him freer access. She felt his fingers at the fastening of her skirt. The garment loosened and then fell.

Steven knelt before her. “Easy.” He lifted one foot at a time, pulling her skirt free, tossing it aside.

His hot breath brushed her sopping pussy when he leaned forward to pull her thong panties off her.

“You smell so delicious,” he whispered. “Your own particular nectar is the most arousing thing I’ve ever inhaled.”

His words completely stole her strength. She whimpered. As if that was all he’d been waiting for, Matthew scooped her up and laid her on the bed.

“Open for us, baby. Let us look at you. Let us love you.” The deep, sexy timber of Steven’s voice rumbled in her belly, and Kelsey was helpless to resist him. She didn’t want to resist. She just wanted to give and take and bask in the attention these men lavished on her and the sensations they created in her.

She spread her legs wide and watched them devour her with their eyes as they peeled out of their clothes. Steven’s chest was broader, more ripped than Matthew’s, likely the result of never-ending ranch work. Matthew’s muscles appeared more subtle, but she knew from the ease with which he could pick her up that he was as strong as his brother.

Both of their cocks were big, bold, and beautiful.

They came down onto the bed, one on each side of her. Together the men began to touch and kiss, to cup and caress and squeeze, and Kelsey felt a moan of pure delight flutter out from deep in her soul.

“Have you ever seen anything more beautiful than our woman when she’s aroused?” Matthew asked.

“Never,” Steven said. “Passion looks good on you, Kelsey.” He bent down and sucked her right nipple into his mouth. His draw, steady and deep, tugged at her belly and fluttered her pussy.

“That feels so good.” When they moved her arms above her head, she relaxed and let them arrange her as they would. Open, vulnerable, she knew with absolute certainty she was safe with them. They could do anything they wanted to her.