Love Under Two Benedicts (11 page)

“Sweetheart, are you awake?”

“Yes.”

“Good.”

Matthew dipped then surged up, his cock brushing against her ass then sliding down and around until he caressed her pussy lips. One more nudge and his dick plunged all the way into her cunt.

“Ah!” She shivered and then moved, working her inner muscles to squeeze him while he began to thrust in her. Her hot, wet sheath felt so good. The rippling around his cock aroused him so much, he didn’t know how long he could keep from coming.

“You feel so damn good.” He bent down and placed tongue kisses against her neck and the shell of her ear, chuckling when she shivered in response.

“Please!” She raised herself right up on her knees, the needy sounds coming from her telling him how close she was to her own climax.

He rested his weight on her just a little and reached under her with one hand. He stroked her slit with his fingers, and she tilted her pelvis toward him. Her clit stood up, eager little thing, and he grabbed it between his forefinger and thumb and squeezed it gently.

“Come with me, baby. Let go and fly with me.”

Her scream of completion pushed him over the edge. He slammed into her and held himself deep and tight against the bud of her cervix.

As he felt his seed explode from his body, he imagined, for one moment, that he filled her with life.

Chapter 10

“You sure have been smiling and humming lot in the last few weeks.”

Kelsey looked up from the chicken and dumplings she was preparing for Lusty Appetite’s Sunday buffet. Tracy had begun filling the cream puffs they’d made that morning with fresh whipped cream. It was nearly twelve-thirty. The restaurant opened for the Sunday buffet in just under two hours. In the corner, a radio turned to low volume played country hits.

Kelsey hadn’t realized she’d been humming along with the radio, but now that Tracy mentioned it, she shrugged.

“I guess I have. Probably because I’ve been in a pretty good mood the last few weeks.” That was nothing less than the truth. These last few weeks, she’d been feeling better rested than she had in years and more energetic, too. She almost felt…normal.

Tracy said, “I would be in a pretty good mood, too, if I was having regular sex with two incredibly hunky men.”

When Kelsey felt her eyes go wide, Tracy laughed. “Yeah, I know they’re family, sort of, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have eyes. Those particular Benedict brothers are Grade A Texas Prime.”

Kelsey grinned. She certainly couldn’t deny Tracy’s assessment. Neither could she deny that sex with two hunky men likely accounted not only for her good mood but her sleeping better, too. Although she’d gone into this ménage relationship with a lot of pent-up sexual frustration, she’d had some doubts, as well. She’d doubted it would take long for her sexual appetite—never very huge at the best of times—to be sated. She’d doubted it would take long for the men in question to get tired of her, or tired of sharing her, or both. She’d doubted people would continue to look favorably on the three of them as time passed when it became known that they were all engaged in a sexual affair.

Yet here she was, nearly a month into, as Tracy put it, having regular sex with two hunky men, and not one of her doubts had proven out.

Since Tracy wore a teasing grin, Kelsey shrugged. “I highly recommend the activity.”

“You don’t have to sell me on the benefits of having two lovers. Although my parents are a single couple, my aunt and uncles are a threesome, and they’re very happy together. As a matter of fact, I don’t believe I’ve ever seen Aunt Pammy without a smile on her face or a bounce in her step.”

“It doesn’t seem strange to you? That so many families here in Lusty live alternate lifestyles?”

“Not at all. It’s always been that way. Normal’s just what you’re used to,” Tracy said.

Kelsey couldn’t argue with her logic. Neither could she believe that she never noticed the proclivities of the locals to live as they did until she began having her affair with Steven and Matthew Benedict. The fact was that here in Lusty, Texas, families with just one husband and wife were the anomaly.

They both got back to work. Tracy put the first tray of cream puffs into the fridge and began work on another. The restaurant also offered several different pies in the dessert bar on Sundays. One of the ways the Lusty Ladies Auxiliary raised money for their civic projects was by selling fresh-baked pies to Lusty Appetites. This was a win-win situation as far as Kelsey was concerned. She not only received delicious pies for her restaurant, she could be guaranteed that on most Sundays many of those women’s families came to eat, too.

“Will you be heading to the ranch again after closing?” Tracy asked.

“Mmm.” Kelsey slid her tray of chicken into one oven and set the timer. She walked over to the sink, washed her hands, then checked the large pot of barbeque sauce she had simmering. Tonight’s buffet would also feature pulled pork done in the rich sauce and the perennial favorite, prime rib roast beef.

Kelsey set right to bringing the roasts out of the fridge and preparing them for the oven. She realized she’d avoided answering Tracy’s question. It was just that answering it would mean admitting she’d been spending a lot of time lately at the ranch. Looking back over the last few weeks, she couldn’t say she’d spent more than three or four nights on her own in her own apartment. Of course, it made sense that if the three of them were getting together to have hot monkey sex they should do it in the one bed available to them that was big enough.

Even though she asserted at least once every few days that this relationship was just sex, and the men agreed with her, that wasn’t how it was beginning to feel.

It was beginning to feel like a real relationship with real feelings and expectations and everything.

Well, of course there would be feelings. It’s a good idea that I really like the men I entrust my body to.

True enough. Kelsey wasn’t altogether certain the feelings she had for Steven and Matthew Benedict were
only
feelings of friendly affection.

“You know, when I was first hired on here,” Tracy said, “I never thought I’d get used to having Monday and Tuesday off, but I have. I can still do all the things I used to do on Saturdays, but the places I go aren’t as crowded.”

“Yes, I think closing the restaurant Mondays so everyone can get at least one regular day off makes sense.” She herself left early on Friday, and Sunday was a short day, only from eleven to about eight.

She looked over at Tracy and wondered if the other woman had somehow deliberately distracted her from thinking about her relationship with Steven and Matthew. Kelsey shook her head.
This
was why she didn’t give herself much time to think lately. Her mind could come up with the damndest things. Like her friend and
sous-chef
could be devious enough to keep her from thinking too deeply about her lovers.

Or like trying to convince herself she had fallen in love with the brothers Benedict when they were all only friends—friends with benefits.

* * * *

Kelsey knew her staff was giving her sideways glances. She pretended not to notice, though, as she stayed in the kitchen, supervising what didn’t need supervising.

Sunday buffet was the one event during the week she particularly liked to be visible to her customers. Life in small town Texas was several speeds slower than life in Pennsylvania but never more so than on Sunday. She’d learned early on that folks liked to say hi and chat about the weather or their families. The warm, open, and friendly way of the people of Lusty had eased her jitters when she’d first arrived and had, to a large part, contributed to the final stages of her healing.

Up until an hour ago, she would have affirmed that she
had
healed. After all, she’d taken on not one, but two lovers. Wasn’t that proof that Kelsey’s out of her long blue funk and back to normal?

Now she knew she’d been lying to herself.

She’d gone out to check the supply of food and to meet and greet neighbors, regulars, and new customers.

Her gaze had landed on a little boy.

He’s about four
.

The same age her Sean had been.
 
His soft brown hair looked in need of combing. That and the serious expression on his face as he set about the business of eating his french fries acted like a giant claw tearing at her heart. Sean had eaten with that singular devotion, and he’d eaten slowly, and nothing she could ever do would hurry him up.

Oh, God
. Her eyes flashed to the parents of the little one. Neither of them looked familiar to her.

Her gaze caught the attention of another diner, a man who’d been coming in twice a week for the past few weeks, and she nodded absently to him when he seemed to want her attention.

She turned her gaze back to the young family. The look of sheer, absolute, and total devotion on the face of the little guy’s mother twisted that claw around her heart. Her eyes flooded, and she turned, hustled back to the kitchen, then on into the staff washroom.

For long moments, she’d gulped back the tears and the overwhelming grief that at one time had been an ever-present black hole, sucking her in and sucking her deep.

I wish I’d gone into the store with him. Why didn’t I go in? I’d wrap my arms around my baby and keep him safe. Or die with him. I should have died with him. Oh God, why didn’t you let me die with him?

Kelsey splashed cold water on her face, and after a few long minutes, the grief began to ebb. She sat on the closed toilet, her focus on breathing and on trying to gather those emotions back up and stuff them back in their box.

It had been a very long time since she’d had a grief attack. For the first couple of years after she’d buried her husband and her son, they’d come unpredictably, hard, and often. She never would have thought a body could hold so many tears. Then, as time had passed, the moments came less and less often.

Kelsey blinked as she realized this was the first attack she’d had since moving here to Lusty. The first one in more than six months. That wasn’t to say she never thought about her baby. She thought about him at least once, every single day, but, somehow, she’d been able to get through the days, to function, even to laugh.

The best thing to do when the attack hit was to just keep busy. And avoid whatever it was that had triggered it. No, that was something she’d just made up now, but it made perfect sense to her. She’d stay in the kitchen for an hour or so, just until she could be sure that young family had left.

Kelsey knew she was being a coward and was fine with that. So she concentrated on making more salad, cleaning the kitchen, and refilling trays. She focused, worked, and ignored the looks her staff sent her and prayed for that hour to pass.

She didn’t know why she looked up when Michelle came into the kitchen. The look of worry on the woman’s face made her heart thud and sweat break out all over her body.

“What’s wrong?”

“Kelsey, you better come out here. I think we have a problem.”

Since Michelle turned and went back into the dining room, Kelsey followed. The woman had stopped and had her attention fixed on a particular table. Kelsey followed her gaze and swallowed hard.

The little boy who looked like her son had fallen asleep in the booster seat.

For a dreadful moment she thought he was dead. Then she saw him twitch, saw a smile come and go, and realized he was dreaming. She exhaled shakily.

“His parents are gone,” Michelle said.

Kelsey looked at her, the words not making sense. “What do you mean, gone?”

“I mean, they left. I didn’t see when. I’m sorry. I noticed the little guy drift off and the mom stroking his hair. I noticed because she looked kind of sad. Then I got busy, and the next thing I knew, they were gone. I thought at first they’d gotten up to go to the bathroom, and although I wouldn’t have left my child alone like that, I could understand how some might, especially if the little guy was sleeping.”

“His parents can’t be gone. How could they make a mistake like that and leave their baby behind?” No way, that’s how. Kelsey had seen that look on the mother’s face. She’d felt that look,
lived
that look. There was no way she would have forgotten…

“Oh, my God.” Kelsey turned to Michelle, who was nodding because she, Kelsey, had finally gotten it.

The little boy’s parents hadn’t forgotten him. They’d
abandoned
him.

Kelsey didn’t think. She just reached into her pocket and pulled out her cell phone. She punched number three on her speed dial. The phone was answered on the second ring.

“Sheriff Kendall, it’s Kelsey Madison over at Lusty Appetites. Could I speak to Matthew, please? It’s important.”

* * * *

“For a man who’s getting regular sex, you’re a mite tense there, Deputy Benedict.”

Matthew narrowed his eyes, his gaze slicing right through the man who’d spoken those teasing words. His steely-eyed glare might work on most men, but it seemed to have absolutely no effect whatsoever on his cousin Adam. And since his cousin was also his boss, he supposed he could let the comment slide.