Hers to Choose (Cannon Cousins) (2 page)

Well, she’d have to get
past that quick. This wasn’t the time to get sidetracked, even if just looking
at them was pushing all her buttons. Somehow that struck her as even more
absurd than the rest of it. She, who vowed never to get involved with another
man as long as she lived, who couldn’t care less if she remained celibate
forever, now had buttons pinging left and right.

 “Alexander Cannon,”
the nearer one said, holding his hand toward her. “We spoke on the phone.”

She reached out to shake,
her hand swallowed in his big warm grasp. Just like his voice that had
intrigued her from the first phone call, his presence surrounded her, warm and
compelling. His smile swept over her as she stared at his stunning face,
perfect from his cobalt blue eyes down to his sensual narrow lips. Musky scent
wafted past her nose. Her belly clenched at his touch.

“Mr. Cannon.”

He laughed, sending
shivers down her neck.

“Please, call me Alex.
This is Dan.”

The other man—Dan—stepped
forward, just as muscular and drop dead gorgeous. His hair was blonde and his
eyes a lighter shade of blue. His even stronger grip momentarily seized her
attention. Something about him wasn’t as warm as Alex, but...she stopped
herself. What the hell difference did that make? This was business.

“Come in,” she said,
waving them through the front door. “I’ll take you down to the cabin in a
minute, but we need to decide about the meals.” She led them into the kitchen
where her papers took up one corner of the big round table.

“Great place,” Alex said,
pausing at the back door to stare out the window.

“Thanks,” she said. “Now
about the food, I can bring breakfast down whenever you say, but I’d like to
avoid driving down there again until dinner.”

“So, already
compromises?” Dan said with a glance toward Alex. “No lunch?”

“That’s not what I
meant,” Bryn retorted, frowning at him.

“Just bring us some
sandwiches when you bring breakfast.” Alex smiled, leaning slightly toward her.
“Would that work?”

Alex’s presence felt so
close her body flashed in another wave of heat. “Yes, that’s what I had in
mind, actually.” She glared at Dan.

She hoped she sounded
more assured than she felt. Her eyes flickered briefly over Dan’s big hands and
she swallowed. What exactly would he expect her to do?

“Great!” Alex smiled.
“Then we’ll start with dinner. We drove through lunch, so could we have
something early this evening?”

Damn!
The
groceries.
With the last of her meager reserves spent on cookie
ingredients and sheets for the cabin bunks, she had planned to take their
payment and buy all the supplies she would need. These men would know the
miserable state of her finances if she told them she didn’t have enough money
to feed them until they paid for their two weeks. Shut-off notices for
electricity and her phone/cable lay on the table. Why hadn’t she realized the
time frame would be so tight?

“Uh, well, I postponed
buying groceries…until I knew for sure you would be here,” she prevaricated,
gathering up the pink notices and shuffling them under papers in the hope they
hadn’t paid attention. “I’ll run to town right now and have dinner for you by
six or six-thirty at the latest. If we can get your payment squared away...will
it be cash or check?”

“We did make
reservations,” Dan said, shooting a look at Alex. “If this is the kind of
service we’re going to get...” He pinned her with an annoyed stare before
glancing back at Alex. “Alex, I think we should only pay for three days. We can
see the cabin, check out the place, and if we don’t like it, she won’t have to
give us any refund.”

His words flared through
her like a lash. He didn’t like the place.
Didn’t want to be
here.
Alex looked at her sympathetically, she thought.
Or maybe annoyance?
Damn
damn
damn
.
If they left…
She closed her
eyes at the thought. “Of course,” she said, forcing a smile.
“Whatever
you prefer.”

Alex pulled out his
wallet and placed four one-hundred-dollar bills on the table. She wrote a
receipt then followed them back to their truck and showed them the lane toward
the cabin, hoping they could appreciate the vista. Across the nearby pastures,
overgrown grass had fallen into a bleached tan sea. Further down, the line of
woodland hosted a few brightly colored leaves lingering on the oaks. Otherwise
the woods had taken their winter colors of gray and brown—beautiful in a stark
and vulnerable way.

Like her. Not that she
felt beautiful. But stark, as in, down to the last chance. She had agreed to
submit, but to what? ‘Vulnerable’ hardly covered it.

***

Alex kept his eyes ahead as he drove,
waiting for it. Dan’s critique wouldn’t be favorable. A run-down Ozark farm out
in the middle of nowhere wasn’t exactly Dan’s style. The truck rocked over the
uneven lane tracking between two overgrown pastures. But this place was all he
had hoped for: rugged, scenic, remote.
The perfect setting to
get a new lease on life.

“This place is a dump,”
Dan muttered, staring out the side window as the lane entered a wooded area. “I
don’t want to get involved with this woman, even if it’s spanking her. This is
too strange.”

“Yeah, strange maybe, but
Jesus, Dan, did you
see
her?” He bit his tongue. So she blew his socks
off with those luscious lips and intense blue eyes, a lean frame with amazing
curves. More than that, what she had agreed to
intrigued
him. Who was this Bryn McClure and how in the hell was he going to make it
through this without things getting personal?

He shook his head. What
he thought of her didn’t matter. The point was
,
could
she help Dan? He briefly considered her in Dan’s hands and took a deep breath.
Whatever happened, he wasn’t planning to watch. “And look around, Dan,” he
waved his hand to the mountains framing the horizon. “You can’t beat this.”

“Alex, please. I’m trying
to go along here. But this whole thing feels wrong. I don’t even know where to
start.”

“So talk to her, ask what
she likes. Or tell her what you want to do.”

“I don’t care what she
likes.”

“Dan, you’re pissing me
off. This is a chance to feel better, have a little fun,
take
a vacation.” He slowed the truck as a small rustic cabin came into view.

“Yeah, I know what you’re
trying to do,” Dan grumbled.

Fatigue and fear draped
over Alex. He hadn’t realized how tired, how fucking stressed out he’d become.
“Damn it, Dan, you’re a basket case. You’re wrecking yourself and you’re
wrecking Cannon Company. Now we’ve narrowed it down to three days. Let’s try it
out.” The truck rolled to stop near the cabin entrance and he turned to face
Dan. “Just try.
All right?”

***

Sacks of groceries crowded the
kitchen counters as Bryn sautéed fresh mushrooms and onions in butter, threw in
a splash of sherry and then carefully spooned the fragrant mixture over the big
patties of browned chuck she had cooked first. Cooking happened to be one of
her first loves, perfected during those heady few years when she did everything
to please Ethan. The fried potatoes were done and she hoped they liked corn on
the cob.

She jerked open the
refrigerator, glancing at the clock. Five after six already. It would take
fifteen minutes to load and get down there. She yanked out a bag of baby
greens, grabbed the bottle of vinaigrette, and stuffed it into the big box
where she had packed everything else.

It was twenty after by
the time she actually swung her legs into the four-wheeler and started down the
lane. Who knew if they wanted sweet or unsweetened ice tea, with or without
lemon? At least they would have a big bag of homemade cookies. She shook her
head, gripping the handle bars as she guided the vehicle down the rough
roadway.

There was no way to
hurry, not with the road dark and the four-wheeler lights barely making a dint
in the gloom. Wind had picked up, threshing her long hair against her face. It
should have been tied back like she usually had it but in the rush of
everything today somehow the ponytail had dissolved. She tried to stifle the
worry that kept sending spears of nerves through her stomach.

Okay, this was the first
day, she consoled herself. It would get better. Tomorrow she would get up at
five thirty a.m., cook biscuits, sausage and eggs.
Strong
coffee.
Get them off to a great start.

The glow of kerosene
lamps beckoned through the cabin windows. She didn’t want to know what time it
was. The door opened as soon as she shut off the vehicle.

 “I’m really sorry
to be so late.” She lifted the heavy box and staggered through the cabin door.
They had stuff sitting all over the table. She eased the box to a chair.

“Oops, sorry,” Alex said,
swooping up behind her to clear space.

They had built a roaring
fire in the woodstove, and, compared to the brisk outside air, the place was
sweltering. Combing through her tangled hair with her fingers, she tried to
catch her breath.

“Think you’ve got it hot
enough in here?” she joked, peeling off the flannel shirt and working in her
t-shirt to set out dinner.

Alex laughed and yanked
the door open. Cool air flooded into the small cabin. The twenty-by-twenty
space held bunk beds on either side of the door, a round table with several
wooden chairs, a big cast iron wood stove at the back wall, and a shelf that
ended at a back door that led to the wood pile and the outhouse.

 “Please enjoy,” she
said, folding the foil off the plates of hot food and standing back proudly.
The canister of tea, the glasses, silverware—all of it was
arranged, a decent table setting and a good meal at the old wooden table.

She closed the door while
they sat down, conscious of them watching her move, stares on her butt in the
tight jeans, the pull of her breasts inside the t-shirt.
The
thought of having sex with both of them flashed through her mind, followed by a
surge of wetness in her panties.
Where the hell did that come from? That
wasn’t part of the deal. Not that she had a guidebook on exactly what she was
supposed to be doing. Discipline, Alex had said.
Some
restraint.
General servitude.
All beginner level stuff.

The thought flashed
through her mind that it wouldn’t break her heart to get laid.
Especially by Alex.
She caught herself taking another hungry
survey of his beautiful body. But this was exactly what she couldn’t do, let
herself start wanting or feeling. Hadn’t the disaster with Ethan taught her
anything?

“I hope you don’t mind me
jotting down a few notes while you eat,” she said, pulling the pencil and pad out
of her pocket. “I want to make sure you have what you need.”

“Well, for one thing,”
Alex began, holding up his hands and looking at her with a questioning
expression, “you didn’t bring any napkins.”

“Oh, damn. I’m sorry.”
She shook her head, writing a note.

“And I don’t like sweet
tea,” Dan said, making a face after taking a gulp.
“From now
on, only unsweetened for me.”

“I like sweet tea,” Alex
said, “no problem there.”

“Okay, sorry, and food
allergies? What about eggs for breakfast?”

She took more notes while
they ate. They seemed to be enjoying the food, wolfing down the large portions
she had heaped on their plates. She worried it wasn’t enough. They were big
men.

Her stare locked on
Alex’s tongue as it slid over his lips. Somehow her mind focused on how she
would love for that mouth to plunder hers. The lips curled slightly, a kind of
half smile. She glanced up to see his intense blue eyes watching her. She
frowned and stared at her note pad. What was she thinking? Maybe her time at
the farm had left her
more needy
than she realized.

“Well, if there isn’t
anything else…”

“We’ll want breakfast
about an hour past sunrise,” Alex said.

Did he run his gaze up
and down her body simply to show her he could? She got gooseflesh from his expression.
Probably more of her overworked imagination.
She
hadn’t even registered on how tired she was, or the fact that she was pretty
much on her last nerve about this whole thing.

No matter whether she
felt attracted or if it was exhaustion, she wasn’t going there. Yes, discipline
made her hot. But it wasn’t sex, and the last thing she expected was to drift
off into some kind of sexual fantasy. But then, she hadn’t seen them when she
set all this up in her mind.

Alex—my
god.

She parked the four-wheeler
and sat at her kitchen table, carefully steering her thoughts back to business.
She wrote down exactly what all she would need to do first thing, not just
breakfast but also lunch, and then turned off the lights. Whatever this
attraction to Alex, it had no future, she promised herself. Even the idea of
caring about a man made her angry.