Chapter Three

CHAPTER THREE

Nick

It’s a good thing Penny sleeps like the dead. Otherwise, I don’t think either of us would feel comfortable working night shifts while the other was home alone with the girl. If we were ravenous for her before, that hunger has only escalated. We stand over her bed for an hour after the pleasure, watching the rise and fall of her chest, tracing the curve of her ass with single-minded possession.

Mine.

That word beats in my veins like a snare drum, never ceasing. But I have to find a way to come to terms with Penny being…ours. I don’t question her determination. Her bravery in the hospital told me all about her metal spine. Not to mention the way she issues ultimatums to two males twice her size. The sweet, sexy fairy I’m living for has nerve—and if she says she’ll leave if we don’t get on board, I believe her.

Last night, Zeke and I couldn’t decide who would sleep beside her, so she ended up in the guest bedroom, at an equal distance between the other two bedrooms. I ached to hold her—and I could tell the other man did, too—but I’m not ready to climb into bed with him. It’s too… vulnerable an act. Too foreign. Something must be decided soon, though, because I can’t guard her to the best of my ability unless she’s wrapped in my arms.

And I must guard her. I haven’t forgotten her father’s final words. Not an accident. Neither Zeke or I have spoken about that warning—but I doubt he has forgotten, either. It has gone unspoken between us that she’s never to be alone and unprotected, but hell, I’m guessing that would be the case, even if she wasn’t in potential danger. We’re already in competition with each other. We sure as shit don’t need any other men sniffing around what’s ours.

I hear the shower shut off, my cock turning to iron in my pants knowing Penny is behind the door, naked and wet. Innocent of men. Tasting like fucking honey between her thighs. Zeke has been on shift at the firehouse since late last night, leaving me to drive Penny to school this morning. I’m far too eager for the act. I want to carry her book bag, kiss her on the forehead as she walks into class. Not for the first time I wonder if I’m some kind of sick fuck. I’ve never wanted these familial duties with another female.

No, it’s all for Penny. She makes me want to provide, to soothe, to be the one she runs to with her problems. Fix it, Daddy.

Penny chooses that moment to emerge from the bathroom, steam clinging to her dewy skin and adding a touch of dampness to her white T-shirt, which stops way too high on her thighs. “I assume you have pants to go with that top.”

She giggles, before sobering. “Oh. You’re serious.”

Her attention drops to my stiff dick and I raise an eyebrow. “That’s exactly why you need pants, sweetheart.”

“But, Nick…”

“Don’t argue with me. You bend in any direction, everyone will see the pretty cunt I licked last night.” She jolts a little at my language, so I clear my throat hard and add, “Pants, please.”

Still, she hesitates.

God, I love the fight in her. I’m known as a grade-A asshole around the firehouse, so arguments are nothing new to me. They’re a part of my life. But I’ve never wanted an argument to end with a girl face down over my lap, my right hand jerking down her panties. Daddy, no!

When she tilts her head at me, I realize some of my thoughts must be showing on my face. “What time is your first class?”

“In about fifteen minutes,” she says, wincing. “I overslept. I was kind of…worn out last night, I guess.”

I move toward Penny, stopping just short of touching her, thanks to the rule I made last night. I hate the fucking rule, but it’s necessary. Without it, I’d be taking her on hands and knees, while her virgin blood dripped down onto the floor. “Go put on pants and I’ll get coffee and a yogurt ready for you to eat in the truck.”

A few seconds of silence pass. “You like taking care of me, don’t you?”

“Yes,” I rasp. “Do you like it?”

Thoughts race behind her green eyes. “Yes.” She turns on a heel, giving me a maddening view of her twitching backside. “But that doesn’t mean I’m always going to obey on command,” she murmurs over her shoulder.

It’s through sheer force of will that I don’t follow her to the bedroom. I’m not going to screw up this arrangement, though. If one component of it doesn’t work, the whole thing could fall apart. And in a short time, this girl has become the center of my gravity. I won’t lose her by being too greedy, too fast. There will be time for greed. I’ll make up for my suffering then. Oh yes, I will.

During the drive to school, I want her to get some food in her stomach, so I focus on the road, content to watch her fiddle with the stereo controls. I’m in a good mood because I won the pants battle and she’s got leggings clinging to her incredible legs now. Legs I want to pry apart, so I can sink into the tight hole in between. But I do my damnedest to ignore the erection pressed to the steering wheel and get her to campus. I park in the lot, turn off the ignition and cross to the passenger side, giving her a pleased grunt when she waits, letting me open the door for her.

“Such a gentleman,” she whispers, climbing out. “Are you going to walk me to class next?”

Again, her father’s words invade my thoughts. Not an accident. “Damn right, sweetheart.” I take the book bag from her hand and toss it over my shoulder. “And then I’m going to wait outside.”

Am I imagining the relief that dances across her features? “Well, if you’re going to be around anyway…” She floats backwards toward the three-story building, mischief in her eyes. “There is something you can help me with.”

Ten minutes later, I’m being assaulted by soft measuring tapes, fabric and pins. Never in my wildest dreams could I have predicted I’d be standing in the middle of a Structured Silhouettes fashion class, chiffon and silk spinning around me. At first, when Penny asks me to act as her model for a male apparel project, I keep my arms crossed and give her an unequivocal “hell no.” But I cave immediately when her eyes fill up with tears and she tries to act like she doesn’t care.

It was a good decision, despite my suffering. I haven’t seen her smile like this before, all bright and excited. In the hospital, her smiles for visitors were forced. This one is real. Her movements are even a little clumsy, because she’s flustered at having gotten her wish. And I somehow managed to make it happen, despite holding the title of world’s biggest bastard.

Penny makes me want to be less of a bastard. Not only that, she makes me want to be…good. For her. I just want to give her the good.

Her nimble fingers move the measuring tape around my collar and she goes up on tiptoes, whispering near my ear. “I know we need the rule. It keeps things from being unfair, but…are hugs allowed?” She sinks her teeth into her lower lip. “I really, really want to hug you right now.”

My heart rides up into my throat. “Won’t it mess up your pins?”

“I can re-pin them,” she says softly, shifting the tape once, before setting it on the work table. “It would give me more time to hang out with you.”

“You…” I shift in my boots. “You like hanging out with me?”

Her nod is slow as she winds her arms around my waist, pressing her cheek to my chest. “Uh-huh. Even when you’re being all growly.”

Knowing Penny can hear my heart galloping like a fucking racehorse makes me nervous. She’s my weakness and now she knows it. But I can no more pull away than I can stop the sun from setting. “I’m not working a shift today, but I have a lieutenant’s meeting. It starts soon and I’ll have to leave,” I say, lifting my hand to stroke her hair, but letting it drop. Damn rule. “Zeke will be here to take over and drive you home.”

She steps back, head ducked and smiling. “Will you be home for dinner?”

“Yes.” I pause, bringing her eyes up. “Until then, sweetheart, you behave and follow the rule.”

“I will, Nick.”

An hour later, when I pass Zeke on his way into the building, though, I see the starvation for Penny in his expression. And I know it’s not Penny I have to worry about.

* * *

Zeke

I rushed topick up Penny, because I didn’t go straight to the school after my shift at the firehouse. Nah, I’ve been thinking nonstop about her father’s final words and I’m not leaving her safety to chance. Best I can tell, he wasn’t close to many of his family members, but his sister—Penny’s aunt—seemed uneasy while visiting Penny in the hospital. So I went to her first, hoping to get some information about who would want to hurt Penny’s father. I’m not a cop, but I’ve watched a fuck ton of Law & Order , so possible grudges seemed like the best place to start.

“He came to me for money,” she said, blowing cigarette smoke out the kitchen window. “Our father liked to play the ponies. Figures he’d fall into the same trap. His wife probably saw it coming and got the hell out.”

Thinking of Penny losing her mother, I wanted to go find my girl and kiss her until she smiled. But I kept going with the questions. “Did you lend him the money?”

She snorted. “Nope. It looks like I’ve got stacks of cash lying around?”

No, it didn’t. Actually, the place was a wreck and five days was too long for Penny to have stayed there. “Who else would he go to for a loan?”

The aunt seemed impressed by my detective work. Maybe I have a second calling. “I don’t have a name, but my brother said something about a Russian. Said he might try going to…Tatiana.”

“A woman?”

“Women can’t be loan sharks?”

That was around the time I decided I wouldn’t get anywhere with Penny’s aunt. I made it to the school in time to pick Penny up, passing an expressionless Nick on the way into the building. When Penny’s saw me, her smile bloomed in a way that made my heart pound. I vowed to keep looking for the person who killed her father…and most likely meant to take her out in the fire.

No way this girl gets hurt on my watch.

Right now I’m facing a whole other kind of problem, though. A pressing one. Penny loses the leggings the second we’re inside my apartment.

What the hell is a red-blooded man supposed to do?

I brought her back to my place, instead of Nick’s house, because that was the tight-lipped understanding we came to last night, after Penny went to sleep. Now she’s prancing around the place, the hem of her top floating up and down like a cock tease. I’ve adjusted myself so many times, I’m going to wear a hole in the front of my department-issued uniform pants. But Jesus, my dick has never been this hard. It’s lust. It’s jealousy. It’s the fact that she’s my one. I shouldn’t have to wait.

During today’s shift, I had to talk myself off a ledge more than once. I paced the locker room, needing like hell to go check on Nick and Penny. To make sure he didn’t have his goddamn hands on her. Did she walk out of the bedroom this morning, all drowsy and sexy from sleep? Would Nick have been able to resist that?

No. No man could. I’m practically slavering as she glides past me, smiling at the curious way she looks at the pictures on my wall. Her pumpkin and cinnamon scent wraps around my neck like a rope, dragging me after her, my hands flexing at my sides. One move. One move and she’d be pinned between me and the wall. A few seconds of my tongue on her neck and she’d be begging for sexual relief. And why shouldn’t I give it to her? Nick had the privilege last night. It’s my turn.

“Where was this one taken?”

Her sweet voice lures me back from the dark side. Kind of. “Uh.” I move down the hallway to stand beside her. “San Diego. Near the naval base in Coronado.”

“Palm trees,” she sighs, clasping her hands beneath her chin. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen one in person.”

“No?” I turn to face Penny, leaning an elbow on the wall. If she thinks I don’t notice her gaze falling, falling and landing on that couple inches of abs I reveal, she’s mistaken. It makes me want to unzip and let her see exactly where that happy trail leads. “Seen one, you’ve seen them all, I guess.”

“Have you ever climbed one and grabbed a coconut?” She twists a little, clearly flirting with me. “Or do they only do that in cartoons?”

“Waiting until one falls on my head is more my style.” I push closer, walking her backward until she hits the opposite hallway wall. “Or it used to be. Waiting until something falls in my lap has always been the way I operate. Until you.”

She takes a shuddering breath, holding her hands out. “Zeke…I want you to touch me, but we have to wait.”

“I knew when I saw you through the damn smoke, Penny. You’re mine.” Tightness travels into my chest, my throat. “Do you know how hard it is to wait for another man’s permission?”

“He’s waiting. I’m waiting, too. Everyone is.”

“Are you? Is he?” I plant my hands above her head. “You’re telling me he spent a whole day with our little hot-to-bang virgin and didn’t try to fuck her sideways?”

I let out a hot breath against her neck and she moans. “H-he wanted to. But he didn’t.” She shakes her head. “Zeke, this isn’t going to work if you get jealous every time we’re not together. There has to be trust.”

My laughter is dark, my fists twisting on the wall. “It’s so goddamn hard, baby.” Her cunt is wet underneath that shirt—and it’s one inch away from my cock. I could ram myself right through the crotch of her panties and have that cherry popped. One fucking drive. “I need you, Penny. This is torture.”

“I know,” she breathes, eyes closed. “But even if the three of us didn’t have the rule…I wouldn’t want us to go any further yet. Not when you don’t believe Nick and I followed the rule today. It feels wrong, not having that trust.”

I mash my forehead into the wall, her body heat tempting me to the edge of my breaking point. “Give me a reason to believe there are two men alive capable of keeping their hands off your perfection. Give me a reason to believe you.”

“I’m attracted to each of you for different reasons,” she murmurs, after a few seconds. “With you…it’s so physical. Chemical. You’re gorgeous, intense and fun a-and, I just want you to touch me. Claim me.”

“This isn’t helping,” I rasp, liquid leaking from the tip of my cock. “Jesus.”

“It’s different with Nick. He…makes me want to be a good girl. While you make me want to be bad. He’s my caretaker and you’re the spark. It confuses me sometimes. But I need both. I love both.” She meets my eyes and I swear to Christ, the earth moves under my feet. “I won’t break your trust. And I won’t break his.”

I didn’t think it possible, but I believe her. They didn’t touch behind my back. My jealousy is still at the forefront, but it’s dimmed slightly. Something about her explanation clicked. Felt right. I’m not sure how I can come to terms with another man being in her life. Maybe it’ll still take me longer, but being the one who calls to her physically, while letting Nick give her something emotionally…it’s enough to appease the beast for the moment. Almost.

“He licked you last night,” I grind out. “He’s tasted you and I haven’t. It’s making me insane.” I drag my hands down the wall, letting them hover on either side of her hips. “The scales aren’t balanced. Pull up your shirt and let me look. I won’t touch, but I need something just for me.”

“Zeke, no…”

“Come on, Penny,” I say, a breath away from her mouth. “I’ve got pre-come dripping out of me, baby girl. I’m in hell. Just give me a peek of that tight slit. Need to imagine the wet lips of your untrained pussy stretching to take me. You want to show me that, don’t you?”

“Y-yes.” She’s panting by the time I’m finished speaking, her fingers curled in the hem of her shirt. “You promise not to touch?”

“It’s not going to be easy, but I’ll manage.”

Lip caught between her teeth, Penny lifts the shirt and eases her panties down, just enough to let me see her cunt. Fuck. It’s blonde and tiny, just like the rest of her. Sealed tighter than an envelope. Just like last night, the sight of what I want most in the world makes me crazy. Makes me salivate and reach for my dick so I can stroke off to the sweetest young pussy every created—

“I guess you need more than just a rule,” Nick’s voice says from the end of the dark hallway. “You need someone to enforce it.”