STORY EXCERPT

The elevator stopped, and the door opened. Anna inhaled deeply as she stepped out into the corridor. She looked to the left, and then walked toward the large wooden door with the name of the company, C & J Jessop Inc., in big brass letters.

No more time for dithering, girl. Put it all away and open the door. She turned the doorknob, remembering only at the last moment to paste a smile on her face.

Anna stepped into a lovely reception area, complete with a very posh-looking desk behind which the name of the company was once more proclaimed, this time in white letters on a clear glass background. A tastefully decorated seating area ensured that callers would wait in comfort.

And there was not a soul in sight.

A framed archway to her right led, presumably, to the inner offices. Anna stepped toward the reception desk.

It was clear of everything save a large blotter and a telephone. She squinted her eyes as she focused more precisely. A thin coat of dust suggested that no one had sat at this desk in quite some time.

Now what? She contemplated walking through to the offices within and had nearly made up her mind to do so when first one and then a second man burst into the reception area from that direction.

“Miss Cooper.”

By his voice, she knew he was Mr. Craig Jessop. She’d known he wasn’t an old man, but hadn’t given him any thought beyond the bare facts she’d learned about him, his brother, and their business.

In other words, she hadn’t thought about him being a man with a capital Mmm.

The word “bare” echoed in her mind as she tried to process the very bizarre fact that she was attracted to him. Black hair, dark eyes, and a whisper-thin mustache decorating his top lip, he could have sprung from the pages of a romance novel whose hero was described as tall, dark, and handsome.

Oh good heavens, it’s all my mother’s fault. All that harping on me snagging a rich up-and-coming businessman for a husband, or getting a job just so I could marry the boss.

It took every bit of nerve in her to push all those thoughts away. “Mr. Jessop.” She extended her hand.

He smiled and shook his head as he gently took her hand in his. Anna’s body temperature shot up about fifty degrees—or so it felt. I’m entirely too young to be having hot flashes.

“No, just Craig, please. May I call you Anna?”

She very nearly told him he could call her anything he damn well pleased. “Of course.” She realized he still had her hand. She tugged—rather more than tugged, truth be told—and he let her go, and then had the audacity to wink at her.

“This is my brother, Jackson—but he’s mostly called Jack.”

Anna extended her hand to the blond man, certain that she wouldn’t have the same reaction to his touch as she had his brother, only to discover she was wrong.

“How do you do?”

“How do I do what, Bella?” His light blue eyes seemed focused intently on her. She looked for signs of teasing, and found none.

She had no answer for him. Instead, she tilted her head to the side. “Bella?”

“Italian for beautiful. The nickname suits you.”

“You’re too kind, Jackson.” She didn’t know what else to say, so she looked at the reception desk, and then back at Craig, one eyebrow raised.

“Yes, I know. It’s a travesty, don’t you think?” Craig shrugged. “We moved into this office several months ago, fully intending to hire a receptionist. But then with one thing and another, we got busy and forgot.”

“You’ll discover we do that on a regular basis. Get distracted and forget things, that is. We also tend to finish each other’s sentences.”

“Well I imagine that, being brothers, you’re likely attuned to each other.”

“We’re not just brothers,” Jackson said.

“We’re twins. Fraternal twins, which is why we don’t look alike.” Craig met her gaze. “Twins run in our family.”

“I’m an only, myself.” And she’d often wondered if her parents had had more children, perhaps her mother would have been less obsessed with her—her weight, her clumsiness, and her many other myriad flaws.

“We have two other brothers—Howard and Gareth. Both are younger.” Jack seemed to realize that he still held her hand. He let it go, and then stepped back and looked to his brother.

“Won’t you come in, and we can get comfortable and get to know each other. I’m sure we have questions for each other.”

Anna began to suspect that, just as this was her first job interview, it was also theirs. That was fine, and perhaps even better than fine. They might not know that they should interview several applicants before making a choice.

She decided, right then and there, that she really wanted this job, and that she really wanted to work for these men.

And she tried very hard to tell herself it had nothing to do with the fact that they were both very potently masculine.

“Certainly. Please, lead the way.”

She fell into step behind Craig, and when Jackson took up the rear, she had the oddest sensation, just for a moment, being between these two men.

Then they entered a large, airy, multi-windowed open expanse. Craig stepped aside and Anna came to a dead stop. The gasp she emitted was unconscious, and she truthfully didn’t know what shocked her more—the beautiful view of the city of Dallas spread out before her, the fact that there were only six pieces of furniture in the entire, very large room—or all the…stuff scattered about. 

For the first time ever, she said what was actually on her mind, without filtering. “Oh, my. You do need help.”

“How clever you are to discern the problem so quickly.”

ADULT EXCERPT

Oh, God.

Anna had never experienced anything like it. Craig and Jack had put lotion in their palms, warmed it between their hands, and then began to massage the cream into her skin. The faint aroma of almonds combined with the movements of their fingers worked to completely liquefy her bones—or so it felt.

She’d believed the stress of the day had already been defeated by the steamy bath, but she’d been wrong. This was total relaxation, and she could honestly say it was a state she’d never achieved—not even in bed at night before dropping off to sleep.

Anna didn’t even try to hold back the moans of pure pleasure that escaped her throat. Shoulders and arms, back and bottom and legs were all caressed, squeezed, and massaged until she wondered if her body was going to melt into the mattress. She was on the verge of thinking she was going to fall asleep, when she felt a light brush of a hand on her bottom, a brush that extended down between her cheeks and finished with a teasing stroke against her pussy.

With just that one touch, she was aroused again.

She felt motion on the bed, and then the heat of their bodies as they stretched out, one on either side of her, made her moan in need.

“Turn over, please, sweetheart. Your men need you.”

Her men. She was aroused, no question about it, and she wanted them, too. But she was also very nervous. She rolled over on the bed. The towel beneath her was soft, but it felt odd.

She blushed as it occurred to her why it was there.

Nothing else they could have done, even if it was done for a good reason, could have underscored the difference between them, experience wise.

 “I don’t know what to do.”

“All you have to do, Bella, is feel.”

They positioned her, arms above her head, legs slightly parted. And then her worries and thoughts vanished as they began to pet and stroke, kiss and lick their way down her body. Craig nuzzled her left breast, licking and then sucking her nipple into his mouth. Electric currents of excitement sang through her body, making her hips undulate. She felt that wetness Craig had asked her about, and the sensation of it coating her slit made her hotter.

“Anna.” Jack whispered her name. She turned her head toward him, opening her eyes, and she saw such hunger there, she didn’t even think. She just lifted her mouth for his kiss. His flavor drenched her. Their tongues dipped and danced, swirled and slid, and Anna drank his essence into her. She loved being kissed by both these men.

Jack lifted his head. “I could kiss you all night.” The words bathed her face as he placed butterfly kisses on her cheeks and chin and eyes.

Anna read emotions in his eyes she couldn’t name, emotions that made her melt inside. She’d suspected that the qualities in him that made him appear aloof were actually just vestiges of shyness. There was nothing aloof about Jackson Jessop. He was a passionate man who felt things deeply.

“Kiss me again.”

Jack grinned and did just that, and this time he went wild. Anna returned his heat, her own mouth avid, her soul just as determined to mate with his.

Then he eased back, and looked down her body.

She looked where his attention seemed to be and met Craig’s gaze. She’d felt his kisses and caresses moving down her body even as she’d drank his brother in. He laid on his belly on the bed, between her now widely spread legs.

Jack pressed against her right side, and cupped her left breast. “Craig is older than I. He’s going to be your first. And I think he’s about to shock you.”

Anna didn’t have to wait long to know what Jack meant. Craig grinned up at her, and then he leaned forward and used his tongue to give her pussy a long, lusty lick.

“OhmyGod!” Anna lifted her hips, and her entire body shivered as the erotic sensations zinged from her pussy to her nipples, to every part of every atom in her being.

Craig looked up. “You taste even better than you did in my dreams. I’m going to feast on you now and make you feel better than you ever imagined.”

“I already do. Oh, please, Craig, do that again!”

Anna gasped and she squirmed and she pleaded as he did just that. Craig Jessop taught her what it was like to gorge on arousal. His lips moved over her slit, wet and suctioning even as his tongue snaked out and entered her. Then it flicked something at the top of her slit and her entire body jerked in response.

“You’re so responsive.” Jackson’s whispered words of praise added to the thrills. “So hot and sexy and ours. Craig found your clit. It’s one of two hot buttons your body has, designed for your pleasure. The other is your sweet spot, inside you. He’s going to find it with his fingers, and when he does, Bella, you’re going to fly.”

Anna whimpered because Jackson’s words turned on her mind, and his brother’s tongue completely turned on her body. It was a one-two assault on her senses, and the most exciting thing that had ever happened to her.