Taking a Gamble on Three of a Kind (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (14 page)

“You’re in a big hurry.”

Luke’s voice caused her back to stiffen. “I am,” she said, opening the truck door.

“I forgot your mother had kept your father’s truck.”

“No reason why you would remember,” she said, turning to face him. “What do you want? I’m too tired to fight with you again.”

“I don’t want to fight with you either. Just thought Justin and I would say hello, and since you didn’t stick around, we decided to come looking for you.”

“Cut the crap, Luke. You didn’t find me to just say hello.”

“Would you believe me if I said I missed you, that we all missed you?”

“Right, I don’t have time for this. Have to go.”

“Come back to Justin’s with us. Adam’s there.”

Jenny knew she should just get in the truck and drive off, but something in Luke’s tone of voice stopped her. He had a lot of nerve, but her body was responding to his demand even if her brain was telling her it was nothing but a ploy to get information about their parents’ breakup. She had missed them…a lot. She hadn’t wanted to admit it, but not a day or especially a night went by that she didn’t think about what it was like to be in their bed. She groaned silently, wishing he weren’t standing so close to her.

“That’s not a good idea,” she said, hoping he would simply let her go and not say anything else. She needed to get away from him and Justin. Justin’s eyes were all but devouring her. She felt her resolve weakening. She was tired and that made her vulnerable.

Maybe they heard the weakness in her voice, because Justin suddenly pushed forward and grabbed her hand. “We won’t do anything you don’t want us to. It’s just that you’re all we can think about. We won’t talk about your mom, promise. Come with us, Jenny.”

“I can’t.”

“Yes, you can,” Luke said, drawing her to him. “Yes, you can.”

“I thought you hated me,” she said breathlessly.

“Hate’s a mighty strong word. Believe me when I say, I don’t hate you. I want you, we all do. Tell me you don’t think about that night.”

Jenny lowered her eyes. She was losing the battle between her body and her brain. She could feel her resolve weakening. Why were they doing this to her? Maybe to prove that they could. If she went with them, she would end up doing whatever they wanted. Did they think she would tell them what they wanted to know? She couldn’t change that, no matter how much her body wanted to have them inside her.

“No.” She turned and got in the truck, slamming the door behind her. She put the key in the ignition but nothing happened. She tried it again. Nothing but clicking. Not now, she prayed as she tried to start the truck again. Luke and Justin were standing outside her window. She rolled it down.

“Won’t start? Want me to try it?”

She nodded at Justin and got back out of the truck.

He got in and Luke went to the hood of the truck and opened it. He wiggled a few wires, and Justin tried it again. Nothing. After a few more attempts, Luke shut the hood of the truck and walked over to her.

“Dead as a doornail I’m afraid. Looks like us being here turned out to be a good thing after all.”

Justin shut the truck door behind him. “Can we give you a ride?” He smiled.

“I guess the answer to that question would be yes. I’ll need a ride after all. This is the first time the truck has given me any trouble.”

“We’re parked on the other side of the casino,” Justin said.

Silently, they walked back into the casino and to the exit for the customer parking lot. Luke clicked the remote, and the lights on his Land Rover blinked a few times. He opened the door for her and she slid into front passenger seat. Justin crawled into the back as Luke slid into the driver’s seat and started the car.

“Put on your seat belt, Jenny,” he said, his eyes watching her as she did as he instructed.

“That’s a good girl. We’ll come back for your truck tomorrow.”

“It will probably have to be towed,” she said with a sigh.
How much is this going to cost?
She would have to have it repaired. She needed it.

“I have a friend that might be able to take a look at it. We’ll see.”

“Luckily, I don’t work tomorrow.”

“Good,” Justin said from the backseat. “Everyone should have Sunday off. The casino should be closed at least one day.”

“It’s open twenty-four-seven, it never closes,” Jenny said. “However, I do agree with you.”

“Did you just say you agree with Justin? Did I hear you right?”

“I’m not that disagreeable, am I?”

Luke kept his eyes on the road as he pulled out of the parking lot onto the highway. When he glanced her way, his eyes lingered on her face before they lowered to her breasts. She could feel the heat from his stare before he turned his attention back to his driving. “We’ll be home before you know it,” he said almost as if he were talking to himself.

She was going to say and
you’re taking me straight to my home
, but she knew that wasn’t going to happen. Her panties were wet and her nipples were hard. She hated herself for wanting them so badly. They were going to take her to Justin’s, and she wasn’t going to stop them because, God help her, that’s what she wanted.

Adam opened the door. Jenny smiled shyly, feeling slightly intimidated by the man standing in front of her. His lips were set in a firm line. He didn’t look pleased.

“I guess your mother’s confession gave you a change of heart?”

“My mother’s confession.” She repeated what Adam had just said. “What are you talking about?”

“Damn it, Adam.” Luke shook his head with a sigh, brushing past Jenny. “We were going to get to that.”

Jenny looked from one man to the other with dread. “What did my mother tell you?”

“Your mother told my father about her gambling problem,” Adam said, using the voice she imagined he did with patients who were being told bad news. “Did you really think we wouldn’t find out?”

“I’m sorry, Jenny,” Justin said from behind her. “Sorry for everything that’s happened to you, but I’m also sorry that you felt you couldn’t confide in us yourself.”

“When did you find out?”

“Dad and Marlene told us tonight,” Luke said.

“And you couldn’t wait to see me and rub my nose in our problems that I’m sure your father will make go away with a wave of his checkbook? My mother will be indebted to him for life.”

“She hates the fact that you work there,” Justin said, gently pushing her body through the open doorway before he closed the door behind them. “She told us you’d be there and what time you got off.”

“And my truck didn’t just not start by itself, did it? What did you do?” She already knew the answer.

“I’ll go back tomorrow and reattach the sparkplugs,” Luke said without any shame in his voice. “We needed to talk to you about your mother and my father. I had a feeling you’d get your back up when you knew your mother had finally done the right thing and told my dad the truth. Taking away your ride was all I could think of to get you back here with us.”

“Smart,” Adam said, looking at his brother and then Justin. “And a bit devious, but it did work.”

“You’re right, I would have never come with you,” Jenny said, feeling a wave of anger overcoming her. “I can’t believe she went to your father and told him. I told her we could dig ourselves out of the mess she created without anyone’s help. I thought she never wanted your father to know, for anyone to know for that matter.”

Jenny felt Justin’s hand on her elbow and allowed him to guide her into the living room where she sat on the sofa. This was all too much. She never expected her mother to turn on her. But she had, and it was all too clear to her that Jack Rowan meant a lot more to her mother than her own daughter.

“Here, take a drink of this,” Adam said, handing her a glass of wine. “You look like you could use a drink.”

She took it. She needed a lot more than a glass of wine. She suddenly felt reckless. “And did she also tell your father that she’s been in love him with since they were in high school? That my father was her consolation prize?”

“What are you talking about?” Luke asked, his voice low.

“That’s what I thought,” she said with a smirk. “Of course she didn’t.”

“I knew they went to high school together, but Dad never mentioned they had dated.” Adam was looking at her like she had two heads.

“Well they did until he went away to school, and she waited for him. But he brought your mother home with him and that was the end of that.”

“That doesn’t mean she was still in love with him,” Adam said calmly. “I’m sure it was totally over before Dad married Mom.”

“Over for your father, maybe, but not my mom. She’s been waiting years for a chance to get back with him. How convenient that my father and your mother died.”

“Jenny!” Luke said, his voice harsh. “That’s a horrible thing to say and untrue. What you’re implying is sick.”

Adam just stared at her before he said, “Your mother was devastated when your father died. You can’t fake that kind of grief.”

“I’m not saying she didn’t care for him, but she wasn’t in love with him. If she was, she wouldn’t have gone to your father so easily, and she’d have never told him about what she did just to try and keep him with her, knowing she was humiliating her family.”

“Jenny,” Justin spoke softly. “I think you have this all wrong. I know my uncle and he loved my aunt very much, and from the little I know of your mother, she would never coldly calculate what you’re accusing her of.”

“She had guilt. That I believe. That’s why she gambled. To escape what she had done and was doing. She knew being with your uncle was wrong. That she was disrespecting my father’s memory. But obviously,” she said, taking a gulp of the wine, “she couldn’t or wouldn’t stop herself from doing exactly what she had denied herself all those years. Or, at least, I think she denied herself. Who knows, maybe they had an ongoing illicit affair for all I know.”

“They didn’t,” Luke said, taking her arm and turning her towards him. “My father was never disloyal to my mother. I can tell you that for sure.”

“Can you? You don’t know. You just don’t want to believe it.”

“Luke’s right. They never did. And if you ever breathe a word of that to anyone, so help me God,” Adam said, his face red with anger.

“You’ll do what? Make me regret it?” Jenny knew she should stop, but the recklessness she had felt had turned to anger and vengeance. She had loved her father, and the more she thought about her mother’s confession, the angrier she became. She had not only taken her father’s trust and thrown it away, but she had taken hers and done the same.

“My God, you’re a spoiled brat,” Luke all but spat out. “You’ll do anything to try and keep them apart even if it means spouting lies on top of lies.” Luke’s face had turned even more red than Adam’s.

“I bet you’d like to punish me, wouldn’t you?” Her voice had gone silky and low.

“If you mean turn you over my knee and give you the spanking you never got as a child, then the answer is yes.”

She suddenly felt the anger drain from her to be replaced with something else, something much different. She couldn’t take her eyes off Adam’s.

“Then do it,” she breathed, her voice trembling, but not with fear.

When none of them spoke, she continued, knowing she was on dangerous ground but not caring. Her mother wasn’t going to deny herself, so why should she?

“I respond well to a firm hand.” She picked herself up off the sofa and put what was left of her wine down on an end table. She walked to the center of the room. They watched her, still not uttering even a syllable.

Slowly she let her jacket fall to the ground and kicked it with her foot. She began to unbutton her shirt while swaying her hips. She let it drop to the floor. What was she doing? She should stop, but she didn’t want to. She wanted them to take her like they had before. Maybe she was more like her mother than she wanted to believe. After Jack Rowan paid off their debt, she and her mother would never be free of the Rowan men, so why fight it? When she undid her pants and began to pull them down, it was Justin that broke the silence.

“Jenny, don’t do this,” he said, his voice husky. “Put your clothes back on and I’ll take you home.”

“Do what he says,” Luke said.

“They’re right,” Adam said softly. “I want you, but not like this. You’re angry and hurt, and being with us isn’t going to be your punishment.”

“No, it’s not,” she agreed. “Fucking the three of you is far from punishment. I’ve wanted you ever since that night you took me in every way imaginable. I want you to fuck me. I need you to fuck me like you did. Don’t tell me you don’t want me.” She couldn’t believe she was talking like this, but she wasn’t lying. She wanted them desperately, and she was going to have her way whether they thought it was wrong or not. She wanted to forget everything except the way they felt inside her.

“Jenny,” Adam said, his voice thick, “we should take you home.”

“No, you shouldn’t. Not now.” She finished taking her jeans off and kicked them over to the side as she had her jacket and shirt. She bent down and untied her sneakers and took them off along with her socks. Standing in just bra and panties, she unhooked her bra and let her breasts spill free. She wanted them to see how swollen they were with her need. Her hard nipples ached for their touch. Hooking her thumbs in her panties, she slid them down her body until they were around her ankles. She lifted her foot and pushed them away.