Chapter 3
Nearing the bottom of the stairs at the other end of the hall, Colt could hear Jenna’s outraged, “What the fuck do you mean the meeting has been postponed? You called me home from fucking Egypt! Do you know what a nightmare air travel out of the Middle East is like for a woman traveling alone? Of course you don’t, you two are just too fucking unbelievable for words.”
“Language, Jenna Beth,” was all he heard Zach say. Colt knew without even entering the room that both brothers were leaning against the stone mantle of the fireplace dominating an entire wall of their office as they watched their sister in full rant. He knew she was pacing the room because she could never sit still when she was mad, and her brothers had given her plenty of opportunities to exercise her pacing skills. Colt had positioned himself in a doorway behind a small alcove just outside the office. He wasn’t exactly hidden, but he wouldn’t be obvious to Jenna either. He planned to let her brothers lay it all out for her before he made his presence known.
“Don’t you ‘Jenna Beth’ me, you big galoot, boy oh boy, you two take the damned cake, you know that? If I’d pulled this shit when you were working Special Forces, you’d have skinned me alive. But oh, that’s different…because of course your work was ever so much more important that the financial future of Lamont Oil. I swear to you, if I didn’t care that my future niece or nephew actuallyhadhis or her daddies, I’d kick you both off a cliff. Hell, maybe I’ll still kick you off a small one, yeah, not enough to kill you…just enough to hurt you bad! Damn, I’m too tired to deal with you two assholes right now, shit, and now I’m too wound up to sleep…Fuck a duck….I’ll be in the gym kicking the ass of whichever unlucky jerk first walks through the door. Damn and double damn…”
Alex’s voice was calm but laced with steel. “Calm your ass down and sit, Jenna. We have some questions for you before you go off all GI Jane on some poor unsuspecting former soldier in our employ. And just so you know, they’ve all been briefed about you. After you cleaned the clocks of several of them last fall, word spread about how you’d snookered them and the pile of cash they lost when you laid them all out flat.” Alex had trouble hiding the smile that threatened to break through as he remembered hearing how she’d taken down four of their security team’s biggest members. When the men had heard she was headed their way again, they’d quickly warned the newest members to not be fooled by her small stature and willowy appearance. Looking up at Zach, he could tell his brother was biting the inside of his mouth to keep from laughing out loud.
Jenna plopped down into a chair but was still muttering to herself. All he caught was “blabbermouth pussies,” but he decided to let it go. Once she ran out of steam, they’d get down to the business of finding out just what had happened between those two visits. Whatever it was, it had obviously changed Jenna forever. After they’d thought back, they realized that during their visit when she’d been a senior, she’d told them she’d been taking kickboxing lessons, and when she’d asked them to teach her street fighting, they hadn’t thought to question her. In hindsight, that should have been a huge red flag, because mixing those skills would have been unacceptable to any instructor. But they’d only asked her about the kickboxing, and she’d hedged that she wanted to be ready for college, but they’d been young and hadn’t pressed the issue. It was a mistake they regretted and didn’t plan to repeat.
Gaining Jenna’s trust would be enough of a challenge on a good day, but to earn it while she protected secrets she’d kept for years would be impossible. All three of them knew that if they were going to help Jenna recognize and accept her attraction to Colt, they were first going to have to find out what had happened to her.
* * * *
Since Zach was usually considered the more sensitive of the two, he’d been elected to take point in their “interview” of their sister.
“Jenna, it’s come to our attention that your sudden interest in kickboxing your senior year might have been a little more significant than we were led to believe.” When he saw Jenna’s posture become stiff and defensive, he quickly added, “Now don’t go getting all pissy, we’d just like to make sure there wasn’t some other reason for your sudden interest in self-defense. As I recall, you also expressed an interest in street-fighting skills, and Alex and I have spent a lot of time trying to remember things that happened during that time. The only thing we could come up with that stood out as being out of the ordinary was that one of our teammates spent a few weeks here that fall while he was recovering from a broken wrist.”
Both Alex and Zach watched her closely for any reaction, and there it was. Her jaw tightened, and her fingers clenched in fists for just a second before she caught and corrected her action. Bingo. To her credit, Jenna hadn’t looked away from him, but at Zach’s raised eyebrow, she said, “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” in a voice that was so out of character for her Zach was astonished she’d even consider they might believe her.
“Jenna, don’t lie to us, ever. You’re too strong of a woman to feel you need hide anything from us. Honey, you know we love you, nothing will ever change that, but please, don’t disrespect our relationship by trying to deceive us.” Alex had spoken quietly, hoping to get her to spill it without them having to pry for each piece of what was no doubt a painful memory.
* * * *
Suddenly Jenna felt like she was five years old again. Her parents had always seen nothing but good in their darling daughter. Anytime she’d been “busted” it had been her big brothers that had called her on it. And now, she felt like the walls were closing in on her as the memories of the night her whole world had changed came bubbling back to the surface. Jenna knew she was breathing too fast.Oh shit, this is so not happening. I am not discussing this with my brothers, ever!Jenna heard Alex and Zach talking, but they sounded so far away she couldn’t make out what they were saying, and she was too busy trying to clear the little black spots from her vision to really care right now.
* * * *
Colt had seen enough to know Jenna was about two beats from a full-blown panic attack. He’d heard the signs in her vocal pattern several seconds before he’d seen the rapid increase in the rise and fall of her rounded breasts, God, the woman’s body was a work of art. Stepping fully into the room, he’d shaken his head slightly to get her brothers to step back before he sat on the ottoman directly in front of Jenna and took her hands in his and said, “Breathe with me, Jenna. Let’s slow it down a bit, shall we? In two, three, four, and out, two, three, four…Again, in…now out…That’s it…No, look at me, don’t look anywhere but right here.” Gesturing two fingers to his eyes, he wanted Jenna to focus on him rather than her brothers and the information she knew they were going to demand. During his special ops training, Colt had discovered he had a real knack for interrogation, and it hadn’t seemed to matter if he was getting information from terrorists, petty criminals, witnesses, or victims. He had always just been able to get inside their protective walls and bring confessions and memories to the surface with equal ease.
But right now, all Colt cared about was calming down the beautiful woman in front of him. They had obviously triggered some very powerful memories for her to fall over the edge that easily. When Alex had remembered Ted Scott had stayed with their family for a week or so before returning to active duty, they’d all had a sinking feeling they knew what had taken place. After Scott had been killed during a cave explosion in a damned Afghan hellhole, they found out he’d been transferred to their unit because he’d been accused of sexually inappropriate behavior by several woman at the base where he’d been stationed previously. As they’d mourned the loss of a fellow soldier, it had never occurred to either Alex or Zach to make sure their sister hadn’t had trouble with someone they’d sent to stay in her home. Christ, just thinking about it had made Zach almost physically ill, and Alex hadn’t been able to do anything but stare out the huge picture windows into The Club’s gardens for hours on end.
Colt saw that her coloring was returning to something much closer to normal, and even though they seemed to always push each other’s buttons in a bad way, the look in her eyes told him she was grateful for his help. “I think your sister has had enough of that particular discussion for the moment. Let’s move on to something else, shall we?” Colt sat back a bit, but kept her hands held in his as he watched Alex shift position.
“Jenna, Zach and I are concerned that whatever has happened in the past may be the reason you seem determined to work yourself into an early grave.” When she’d opened her mouth to protest, he raised his hand to still her words. “No, hear me out. Mom and Dad have mentioned their concerns more than once. We’ve discussed it at the past several board meetings, all of which you’ve managed to be too busy to attend. So, as of this moment, you are on an indeterminate leave of absence.”
Alex was prevented from continuing when Jenna shot to her feet and shouted, “What? You can’t just take upon yourself to decide what’s best for me, King Alex. Goddamn it, you are so not the boss of me!” Colt struggled to not smile at what was obviously a well-used response to her older brother.
The minute the words left her mouth, Jenna knew she sounded like a whining child, but she couldn’t take them back, so she just forged ahead. “Zach, don’t you see how wrong this is? Can’t you do something with your asinine brother?” She looked at Zach with pleading eyes. “What am I supposed todo? I can’t just lounge around here until you decided I’m good to go…Damn, you guys are taking this alpha male thing out on me because Kat’s pregnant and you can’t wail on her ass, aren’t you? Shit, it’s going to take months before she can go The Club and play. You can’t possibly be thinking of keeping me captive at ShadowDance that long. Does Kat know about this? Boy, she is going to kick your asses when I tell her what you’re up to.” Jenna knew she was rambling as she stalked from one side of the room to the other. God, the nerve of her two Neanderthal, knuckle-dragging brothers. If this didn’t just about frost it, she didn’t know what ever would.
Alex watched as Jenna waged an internal battle, and he wondered to himself if he’d ever seen her this angry. So far she had followed Colt’s predictions down to the last curses. And she’d played right into their hands. Now that she was solidly pissed about their edict, they would present their counteroffer, which, even though it was going to sound like a compromise, was actually their original plan. Smiling to himself, he looked at his brother and said, “Well, clearly we’ve gone over the line by trying to look after sister dearest’s best interests. Perhaps we need to rethink this a bit. Any ideas for an alternate plan? Zach? Colt? At this point, I’m open to suggestions.”
Zach looked up in to space trying to look as though he was really giving Alex’s words careful consideration. Alex thought at that moment, his brother might have missed his calling, looked like Zach would have made a fortune in Hollywood as an actor. “Well, I don’t know. Any ideas, Colt? You seem to have reached Jenna when we weren’t doing such a bang-up job.” Alex laughed to himself, Zach had just set the trap, all Colt had to do was bait it and they’d sit back and wait for Jenna to bite.
“Well, if it is R & R she needs, I’m headed to the cabin this week. I’d be happy to take her along and see to it that she engaged in some stress-reduction activities.” Alex knew Colt was patting himself on the back for the double meaning of his words. Damn, this was almost too easy.
“What? I can’t spend a week with you in some flippin’ mountain cabin! Christ, you don’t even like me. Why would you want to spend the week with me?” Colt knew Jenna was giving herself a mental head slap. She would know she was giving the enemy too much information. She was nobody’s fool and had lived with two Dominant brothers her entire life.
Colt turned his head slowly so his face was just inches in front of hers and fairly growled. “What makes you think I don’t like you, Jenna?”
“Um, well, you are always picking on me about everything, and then after the wedding, well, that didn’t go so good for either of us, so naturally I just thought you’d want to stay as far from me as possible, ya know?” Jenna kept looking at him, but she wasn’t looking him directly in the eye anymore.Interesting tell, sweet cheeks, hope you don’t play poker.
“It seems you have been misinformed, Jenna. I do like you, maybe more than I should. But, I’m not sure you are capable of following directives for a week though, so perhaps you’d like to rethink that lounging-by-the-pool-for-a-few-months plan your brothers mentioned earlier.” Bait and challenge laid out, now to wait her out. Colt knew they were gambling, but so far, she’d only surprised him twice, the first time was the intensity of her response to her brothers’ questions. And then again when she’d said she didn’t think he liked her, damn, if she only knew how wrong she was.
Zach leaned forward to draw Jenna’s attention before asking, “What’s it going to be, Jenna? We’ll let the questions about Ted Scott goifyou can make your case to Colt that Scott had nothing to do with the changes we all noted in you.” He paused for several beats to let his words work through her anger before continuing. “You know exactly what Colt is offering. You spend the week with Colt, prove to him that his suggestion that you are a sexual submissive isn’t what caused you to run from your own home in the middle of the night like a scared rabbit after our wedding. More importantly, prove it to yourself. Spend a week exploring the obvious attraction between you both. If you come back at the end of the week and want to return to your old life, we’ll leave you to it.” Zach knew he stood a better chance of throwing down the challenge than Alex did. He’d always been her champion, she’d held his heart in her hand from the moment their mom had brought her home from the hospital.
Jenna stood staring into the fireplace for so long, Colt was beginning to wonder if he’d overplayed his hand…again. But after several long minutes, she finally said, “Fine. I know you don’t think I can do this, that I won’t be able to walk away when the week is over. But I can and I will. I told you once before, I’m not a sub, I’m too damned independent to take orders from a Dom who just wants to use my body to get his rocks off. Bring it, Matthews. Give it your best shot.”
Even though Colt wanted to strip her and paddle her ass for her belligerent words, he just slowly let out the breath he hadn’t even realized he’d been holding during her little double-edged compliance speech. Oh, but he was going to enjoy training Jenna. The fire inside her was exactly what he found impossible to walk away from, and God knows he’d tried.
“Very well, Jenna, but I’ll caution you now, from this moment forward, you’d best check the attitude and hold your tongue, because as of right now, I’ll be keeping track, and rest assured, you’ll get every single punishment you earn. I will need to make some adjustments to the supplies I’d put together now that I’ll be feeding an additional person, and I believe Katarina had spa appointments for you both scheduled for first thing tomorrow morning. Why don’t you spend the morning with Katarina, have lunch together, enjoy some girl time, and I’ll pick you up at 3:00 p.m. Don’t pack anything except any medications you might need. I’ll send the clothes I’ll want you to wear. I’ll provide everything you’ll need during your time with me.” Colt knew she would notice the change in his voice, it was best she become familiar with his Dom tone now. It would save them time tomorrow.
Feeling as if she had just made a deal with the devil himself, Jenna took a deep breath before closing her eyes and nodding.Great job, Jenna, way to walk straight into it…As her brothers were so fond of saying, her life was officially FUBAR, but “fucked up beyond all recognition” didn’t even begin to cover it.
* * * *
Standing just down the hall, Kat had heard the power play taking place in her husbands’ office. She smiled to herself…Oh, sister mine…you have just been played by the best of them.If she hadn’t been so selfish in her desire to have her best friend and sister-in-law living closer, she would have stepped in and made sure Jenna was at least aware of the scheme Kat had known for a week the three men had been hatching. They always waited until they thought she was asleep, then they’d sit in the office and strategize. Yeah, that sounded much better than “plot and scheme.” Soldiers were always so fond snazzy terms for behaviors any seventh grade girl had down to a science. She rubbed her rounded tummy and spoke quietly to her unborn child, “But we want Auntie Jenna close, don’t we? And if this is what it takes for her to find happiness with the man who obviously adores her, well then, we’ll just let your daddies think they have gotten away with this one.” With that, she pushed away from the wall where she’d been leaning and headed in to greet the woman who was her sister in every way that had ever mattered.