“So…I can really do anything I want with it?”
“You really can,” Randy said.
“Anything at all,” Lewis said.
So many ideas began to swirl…and she then knew exactly what she was going to do. “I think this is going to be fun.”
* * * *
“Kramer Forrest is honest and one of the country’s leading experts on rare coins,” Jake said. “He’ll arrive the day after tomorrow.”
They were in Jake’s office, having secured the gold in a walk-in safe he had hidden in a back room. They’d been careful as they’d scooped the gold out and into six metal containers the lawyer had brought with him—just in case. It had taken a good part of the day to complete the excavation.
“You trust him, this Forrest?” Lewis asked. In his peripheral vision he saw Michaela shoot him a questioning look. He turned his head and met her gaze straight-on. “Our job—Randy’s and mine—is to look out for you, which means looking after your interests. That is the Benedict way.”
He tried not to laugh when Michaela rolled her eyes. He had a feeling that, in the fifty or sixty years ahead of them, she’d probably do that a lot. His woman had changed him some, no question about it. But he could still be a hard-ass, if he needed to be.
“That’s how Kendalls do things,” Jake said. “And to answer your question, yes. I’ve known him since my college days. Plus, he’ll be here, working in my office while he catalogues those coins.”
“Well, this place is probably more secure than Fort Knox,” Randy said. “Especially when you engage your security.”
Jake had shown them all the built-in security measures, including the direct link to an alarm system at Waco police headquarters, when they’d put the gold into the safe.
“I had no idea,” Michaela said. She looked around the large room. “It feels like a slightly musty, very homey, old-fashioned kind of lawyer’s office. Who knew?”
Jake just grinned.
“All right, then.” Lewis turned to Michaela. “Are you sure you want to sell the entire find?”
“It’s a lot of money, but hanging onto it? Might as well still be in that coffin. This way, we can put that money to work for us.”
“For you, you mean.”
“Nope. For us. You’re going to be my husbands. You promised, and I’m not letting you wiggle out of the deal just because of that gold—or the land it was found on.
“We’re talking our land and our money. And before you object, I have it on the authority of Grandma Kate that, since the days of Sarah Carmichael Benedict, that’s the Benedict way, too.”
“She’s got you there,” Jake said.
“I do, however, have a few gifts I want to bestow, which we need to discuss,” Michaela added.
Lewis had slammed his mouth shut right after she’d announced her version of the Benedict way. Now he looked over at Randy.
Yep, we’re on the same page. His best friend had been about to protest as well. As far as they were both concerned, it really was her gold. But they wouldn’t say that. They’d just agree to whatever it was she wanted to do with it.
“We’ll sit down together and lay it all out and then decide,” Lewis said. “How’s that?”
“That would be perfect. Thank you.”
Michaela’s smile warmed him from the inside out.
“When the time comes, I’ll also contact our main investment advisor.” Jake grinned. “His advice is—pardon the pun—golden.”
He and Randy both groaned. Michaela just shook her head. Then she sat forward. “I can’t thank you enough, Jake. You’ve been a good friend—first to my dad and now to me.”
“You were family even before these two mavericks entered the picture,” Jake said. “And as you know, in Lusty, family is everything.”
Family is everything.
Jake couldn’t possibly understand how…how golden those words were to him and to Randy. Because, back in Montana, for whatever reasons, family hadn’t been everything. It sure as hell hadn’t even been enough.
Egos and greed had topped the list back there. Thank God I let Randy talk me into coming here.
They said their goodbyes to Jake, and then he and Randy held Michaela’s hands as they headed toward the truck.
“You were really worried about there actually being a body there, weren’t you?” He’d noticed the difference in her from when they’d headed out that morning to now. She’d been really tense—and now she wasn’t.
“I really was. Just thinking about having played under that tree as a kid with some guy rotting beneath it gave me shivers. I’m so glad those childhood memories can remain untainted.”
It was only a few blocks to their temporary home, but Lewis didn’t think they could get there fast enough. Once they were in the vehicle, however, he turned to the woman he knew he would love for the rest of his life.
“Do you want to get something to eat before we head home, baby girl? We can go to Lusty Appetites or to the roadhouse if you like.”
“We can do whatever you want, sweetheart,” Randy said. “Just name it.”
Michaela’s expression turned sultry, and the look she sent him had his cock hard in a heartbeat.
“What I want, more than anything, is to go back to our place. I want us naked and together and alone. And I want, very much, to hold both your cocks inside my body at the same time.”
Hot. Holy. Hell.
“Buckle up,” Lewis said. “It’s going to be a very fast ride.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Michaela couldn’t stop shaking. Not in her whole life had she ever craved something the way she craved this.
“I almost feel like if you don’t take me right now, I’m going to combust.”
“Hush.”
Lewis’s one word, in that tone he had, calmed her. She still trembled, but she no longer felt as if she would explode.
He leaned in and kissed her lips. “Are you sure, baby girl? We
