Imperfect Penelope (Wild Crush) (3 page)

She turned and started walking back up the beach, not caring at that moment if Greg even followed. He did, and his presence beside her made her feel hot and unnerved.

“Our father left when Bryan was only eight,” he explained. “I was almost sixteen. It didn’t have the same effect on me as it did him.”

“Are you trying to make me feel
sorry
for him?”

He made a sound in the back of his throat, a muted growl of irritation. “Are you incapable of that?”

“No,” Penny shot back. If he knew her at all, he’d know she had a reputation for being
too
soft on people, too forgiving of their faults. She’d been like that with Bryan at first, but no more. “But I’m no longer in the mood to cut your brother any slack. If that offends your sense of familial responsibility, I’m sure you’ll deal with it.”

He snorted. “You are some piece of work.”

“I’m just a woman trying to live a good life. A decent life, with people in it. I like relationships. I want them. That’s made me a little too quick to get involved in the past. I was definitely too quick to get involved with your brother.”

“Oh, you moved fast all right. Like lightning.”

Penny trudged up the dune towards the car park, her footfalls sending sand flying behind her. Beside her, Greg’s body was tense, as tense as her own. “You have a serious problem, you know that? Are you calling me a…a tramp? If I slept with Bryan too soon, it isn’t any of your business!”

“I couldn’t give a damn about your sexual habits. I care about my brother.”

Penny stalked to her bike and untied her hoodie from the frame with jerky motions. She shoved her arms into it even though she was hot. Hot from the spring sun and seething rage.

She turned and faced Greg. He was glaring at her with baleful eyes, and there were slashes of red color on his cheeks. He was an imposing man, especially in his current state of anger, anger that apparently came from a place of protectiveness so powerful it defied logic or compassion for anyone but the person he sought to defend.

Penny tried to understand. The Danvers patriarch had left his family to take up with another woman, that much Bryan had told her. She could see how that could negatively affect a person, but it was no reason to take money that didn’t belong to him.

Apparently Greg didn’t draw the same line. He’d do anything to protect his family, the only people he allowed in his life. She supposed if family was all Greg had, it made sense that he’d put them first. No matter what.

But that didn’t mean she had to listen to him do it.

“Under the circumstances, I don’t think I ought to teach you yoga anymore,” she said.

His dark brow arched. “Are you giving up?”

Penny scoffed. “I’m not the one who fell on my ass.”

He glowered at her, but she saw the way the red in his cheeks intensified. He was a man not used to failing, and he was embarrassed to be called on it. Ordinarily, Penny would never do such a thing, but she was finding exceptions to her rules of tolerance and acceptance were easy to make for Greg Danvers.

Without a word, Greg strode away. There was an electronic beep as he unlocked his car. Did the man never say goodbye when he left a person’s company? Shaking her head, Penny hopped on her bike. She was prevented from riding away when Greg came to stand in front of her.

“Here,” he said, thrusting a fistful of money at her. “That ought to cover the whole week.”

Thinking he might throw the cash into the breeze, Penny grabbed it instinctively. She looked down and counted seven crisp one hundred dollar notes. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d even seen a hundred dollar note. Who carried hundreds around with them?

Men who earned two every hour, Penny supposed.

She looked back up at him. “Are you serious?”

“Deadly,” he said. “We had an agreement, and
I
intend to honor it.”

The nerve of him to say that, after the way he’d rejected her every suggestion this morning. “If you don’t start listening to me during the sessions, I might as well give this back.”

His lips twitched sardonically. “But you won’t. You need the money.”

Penny felt her own face flush with heat. He had to be aware of what Bryan had done, or else how did he conclude she needed money? How could he know that about his brother and still want to defend him?

Blood ties meant a lot. Penny would do anything for her sisters. She’d defend them to the ends of the earth even if she thought they were in the wrong. Because that’s what sisters did. That was family.

In a strange way, Greg’s loyalty to Bryan was admirable. That didn’t stop it from being infuriating.

“I’ll be back here tomorrow,” Penny said flatly, folding the money. It was all fine to have principles but a girl still had to pay the rent. “Same time.”

“As will I.”

He stalked off without saying goodbye. Again. His car door slammed and his engine started. Penny shoved the money into the pocket of her jacket and zipped it shut. She stuck her feet in the pedals and rode off just as Greg’s car roared out of the parking lot.

She couldn’t imagine she’d helped him lower his blood pressure one bit.

Chapter Three

Penny arrived on her rusty bike, although the temperature this morning was quite a bit cooler than it had been the day before.
Good,
Greg thought.
Maybe she’ll keep her damn jacket on.

He had behaved like a raving lunatic yesterday. It was at least in part because he couldn’t stop checking out the way Penny looked in her yoga pants and skimpy top. Every pose she performed seemed overtly sexy, and he had to wonder if she was torturing him on purpose.

Yes, he’d behaved poorly. He’d been obstinate in ignoring a lot of her suggestions. He’d been dismissive of Penny’s profession. He’d been rude and even raised his voice, something he never did. But any thought of trying to bury the hatchet between them fled when she issued her chilly greeting. “Good morning.”

Greg kept his voice as icy as hers. “Good morning.”

She gave him a look he couldn’t begin to interpret before leaning her bicycle against the fence where she’d left it the day before. She removed her jacket, and Greg was relieved to see she was wearing a thin, long-sleeved shirt beneath it. No crop top today, thank goodness.

He didn’t want to deal with his unwanted attraction. He only wanted to do the things his doctor had suggested, reduce his blood pressure and get this health issue off his to-do list. The last thing he needed was to be plagued by sexual frustrations he could do nothing to alleviate because he couldn’t touch the woman who caused them.

So stop staring at her ass, Danvers.
Greg raised his eyes with a snap when he realized what he was doing. Ten months was too long to go without sex. He needed to find some agreeable woman who lacked interest in romance, as he did. Someone who might satisfy his needs without being a thorn in his side.

He’d satisfy hers too, of course. He’d always been goal-oriented, and he considered making a woman scream with ecstasy his first priority, taking his own pleasure a close second. He’d bet he could make Penny cry out in the throes of orgasm, if she ever stopped talking and lay still long enough to let him show her how it was done.

“Listen, Greg,” Penny began, shocking Greg out of his thoughts. Had he really just pictured going down on her and tonguing her clit until she screamed his name? He’d gone stark mad. “This won’t work if we can’t at least be civil to each other.”

“I was very civil.”
I very civilly pictured reducing you to a mass of pleasured hormones.
“I said good morning.”

“Please don’t be snide. I’d like to work this out. I won’t feel right taking your money if there’s too much tension between us for you to fully benefit from the yoga.”

She wouldn’t feel right taking his money? She’d certainly had no qualms about taking Bryan’s.

Greg forcibly held down a sardonic response, conceding she did have a point. The tension between them had to be counterproductive, and if he didn’t benefit from her tutelage this whole week, and his seven hundred dollars, would be wasted. Obviously she wasn’t going to admit any wrongdoing where his brother was concerned, and trying to force a show of remorse out of her was only stressing him out more.

“Fine. Let’s not allow what happened with my brother to impact our sessions.”

“I can manage that,” she said.

She was no easier on him this morning than she had been the day before. The way she contorted her body was something Greg could only marvel at, and he did a very bad job of mirroring her. Luckily he did an exceptional job of concealing his thoughts because his wicked little fantasies involving a naked, wet and panting Penny persisted throughout the hour. If she performed one more Downward Dog, he was going to burst.

Hell, that’s probably what he needed. One explosive orgasm to relieve all the tension that had been building in his body ever since the day Rochelle had kissed their future goodbye. He’d left Sydney, fled for the first time in his life to come here and start over. He’d hoped he’d find succor in the slower pace of small-town life, but instead he’d brought his problems with him. Rochelle had once said he was too driven, that he strove for a perfection he’d never achieve.

He didn’t know if she was right, or if she’d been unfair in her assessment. He didn’t know if that was why she’d left him, although he’d often wondered. He’d never spoken to her about it after that day because he couldn’t bear to look at her. All Greg knew for sure was he craved release from…something. His persistent erection told him the type of release he needed. But unless Penny was into hate sex, the only way he was going to get it was by using his right hand.

“There. How did that feel today?”

Greg hadn’t realized the hour was up. Time flew when you were sexually objectifying your teacher.

“It was good.” To his surprise he didn’t have to lie. Somehow during the emotionally tumultuous session, he’d managed to stretch his body in ways that made it tingle pleasantly. He felt energized. Alive.

Of course that could be his reawakened libido talking.

“I’m glad. We might actually be getting somewhere.”

She smiled, and the expression appeared so genuine that for a second Greg forgot who she was and what she was like. He smiled back, and a moment passed between them, like electricity passing from one pole to another. His blood sang and he felt the effects all the way to his toes.

Whoa. This was not good. Staring at her ass while she stretched was one thing—understandable under any circumstances. Smiling and sharing a moment was quite another. Greg dropped his smile and did his best to shut down his physical response to Penny’s. “Then we’re done for the day.”

He turned abruptly and began stalking up the beach before he could more closely examine whatever it was he’d felt when she’d smiled at him.

Penny called after him, her voice snippy. “Did your mother never tell you it was rude to leave someone’s company without saying goodbye?”

His mother hadn’t needed to. It was a basic concept for a man from his background. Gentlemanly conduct wasn’t so much taught as ingrained, which was why it was troubling that he couldn’t seem to behave decently around Penny Irving.

She scares you, Danvers.

Greg stopped in his tracks and turned around, taking a few steps back the way he’d come. He didn’t like being afraid of anything, and he didn’t like the flicker of remorse he experienced at the realization he’d been brusquer with Penny than he’d been with anyone he wasn’t opposing in court. He knew he ought to apologize for his behavior but the urge fled when he saw the mocking look on her face, a face that he couldn’t help but notice looked rather striking when it mocked. Damn it.

“We are not keeping company with each other,” he said emphatically.

“Ha! As if I ever would.” She rolled her eyes as she said it, underscoring the point. “The last thing I’d want is to get involved with another Danvers man. You guys have screwed me over enough already.”

A muscle in Greg’s jaw ticced. “Don’t you have that the wrong way around?”

“No, my memory works fine. A girl doesn’t forget a man making her think he’s in love with her then stealing her rent money before blowing town.”

Greg stared at her, stunned. “Are you out of your mind? Do you expect me to believe…
Bryan
did that?”

“Why not?” She appeared puzzled. “It’s what happened, and you know that already.”

Greg shook his head. “All I know is what Bryan told me. He had money saved up to buy into a business a friend of his wants to set up, but he met you and suddenly the money disappears. He told me he bought you all the things you wanted because he was in love with you, and when he ran out of funds you dumped him.”

Penny took a step back, her expression registering pure shock. “My God. He really told you that, didn’t he?”

“He was distraught,” Greg said tautly. “He told me you broke his heart.”

She let out a half laugh. “He never cared about me at all, no way was his heart that involved. I wasn’t even the only woman he was seeing, although I was the last idiot to know that.”

“What are you trying to tell me?” Greg asked, his mind reeling with confusion. “That my brother lied to me? Why would he?”

“I don’t know, but he did. And you believe it. Of course you do. He’s your brother and I’m nobody to you.”

She turned away from him to face the ocean, but not before he saw the way her face paled. She covered her mouth with her hand as she stared out at the waves, as though she was afraid she might throw up. Greg watched her, and for a moment felt on uneven footing. Her distress seemed genuine. If she was acting she ought to have an Oscar in her hand.

“Well at least I understand now,” Penny said at last.

There was a catch in her voice. Greg swallowed over the answering lump that unexpectedly formed in his throat. “Understand what?”

“Why you’ve been treating me like a cockroach that crawled across your dinner plate.”

Greg frowned, and opened his mouth to deny it. Granted, his normal gentile instincts seemed to malfunction around her, but he wouldn’t say he’d treated her like an insect.
Wouldn’t you? You questioned her ethics on more than one occasion, were gruff as a poked bear whenever she looked at you, and the whole time you’ve been fantasizing about having angry sex with her.

His mouth slammed shut. An uncomfortable prickle ran up his neck. His treatment of her had been far less than exemplary. Even if Bryan’s version of events was accurate, did she deserve that? Like she’d said yesterday, Bryan was a grown man. He made his own mistakes and no longer needed his big brother to clean up for him.

But you did, didn’t you? When he came to you depressed and out of funds, you gave him money.

Greg clamped down on the insidious thought and the doubts it engendered. He had no reason to disbelieve Bryan’s version of events. His brother wouldn’t play on his sympathies to get a loan out of him. Surely not.

A sick feeling swirled in Greg’s stomach. Okay, Bryan could be a bit of a screwup. But he’d never out and out lied to Greg.

Had he? How would he know?

Greg steeled himself against the suspicions. He couldn’t believe Penny over Bryan. He hardly knew her, and Bryan was his brother. Still, the earlier rancor was gone from his voice, to be replaced by mystified disbelief. “I don’t know what you expect me to say, Penelope.”

“Don’t say anything.” She held up a hand. “Believe whatever you want. I have to go.”

She turned without another word and started disappearing up the beach, leaving Greg with his doubts and a niggling sense of shame he couldn’t shake.

* * *

The next day Penny woke when the sky was pale gray, tingling all over from a dream she’d had before. It involved a four-poster bed, satin sheets and a naked Henry Cavill. It was her all-time favorite naughty fantasy, and it never failed to put a smile on her face.

Something about it had been different this time though, and as wakefulness came to her, Penny struggled to identify what it was. The sheets had been red, when they were usually pink or blue. Actually a lot of the décor had been red, with splashes of purple and black, bold colors that had made it all seem much more intense. Henry was usually such a tender lover, but this time he’d been aggressive, bossy even. When he’d covered her body with his and whispered in her ear, he didn’t purr her name so much as growl it. And he’d called her Penelope.

With a horrified gasp, Penny shot up in bed. Nobody called her Penelope. Certainly not her fantasy Superman. The only person who called her that was…

Him.

Ack. Greg Danvers had been plaguing her thoughts all day yesterday, annoying her like a persistent headache. On the one hand, she couldn’t expect him to believe her over his own brother. On the other, it was extremely insulting that he thought she was some kind of malicious gold digger. She’d been obsessing over the situation and his intractable behavior so much he’d infiltrated her sacred Henry Cavill sex fantasy. She frowned to herself. Greg Danvers, Leyton’s Headland’s biggest jerk and now destroyer of dreams.

Penny got up and did a few stretches, trying to shake thoughts of Greg from her mind. She had to deal with him during the yoga sessions, one hour a day for a week. Only five more days. She didn’t have to let him ruin all her other waking—or sleeping—hours. After the stretches she felt better, more energized and strong enough to deal with whatever lay ahead.

Even having to face the man who’d starred in her very vivid sexual fantasy. What was wrong with her? It wasn’t as if she liked him in any way, shape or form.

Well, his form… Okay she could admit it was fine. She’d noticed his looks the first time she’d met him. Bryan had introduced Greg on that double date of months ago, and for the briefest second she’d thought,
Holy cow, I chose the wrong brother.
But he’d acted dismissive of her, as though it was too much trouble for him to even look her in the eye. Summer had said he’d been nice to her, but Penny had trouble believing it. He’d never even smiled at Penny.

“I’ll get through the week, won’t I, Mr. Rumplepants?” Penny said as she walked out to the kitchen for a glass of water. “I’ll be unfailingly polite and utterly reserved. I won’t get emotional and I definitely won’t ogle. It would be dumb to ogle an ogre.”

In response, her tabby cat wound his way around her ankles and rubbed his head on Penny’s leg.

“Are you hungry?” she asked, and the cat meowed a yes.

At the word “hungry” Maleficent and Trevor popped their heads up over the back of the polka-dot couch, ears pointed high. Trevor was a fat ginger tom and Maleficent was a regal-looking Siamese who tolerated the two tomcats only under sufferance. The sole thing the three moggies had in common was that they’d been abandoned by their first owners and left at the local animal welfare league until Penny adopted them.

Penny let her feline friends smooth out her bad mood. It would be okay, she thought as she organized her pets some food. She wouldn’t bring up personal topics with him again, and she certainly wouldn’t mention Bryan. She couldn’t fight the faith one sibling placed in another. They’d simply continue to conduct their sessions in silence until the week was up. Penny would earn the money he’d paid her, get her car back from the mechanic’s and refrain from noticing Greg’s corded biceps or his tight glutes.