Love Under Two Jessops
The Lusty, Texas Collection
Love Under Two Jessops
Chloe Rhodes has moved from Divine to Lusty, Texas, and is getting ready to open her day spa. She’s nearly over the most recent traumas in her life, too, having to break the heart of a good man and taking the life of a very bad one to save Lusty’s Sheriff.
Chloe has always maintained that her sister was the only one deeply troubled by their earlier tragedy. As those firemen begin to woo her, Chloe sees she has baggage she’s never dealt with when the Town Trust hires investigators to solve the theft of Chloe and Carrie’s inheritance by their father’s business partner.
As two investigators begin to dig into the past on behalf of two orphaned girls, Grant and Andrew Jessop have a bit of a mystery of their own to solve. For it seems that someone is setting grass fires in Hamilton County, right next door. And it looks like the fire bug is heading toward Lusty.
Note: There is no sexual relationship or touching for titillation between or among siblings.
Genre:
Contemporary, Ménage a Trois/Quatre, Western/Cowboys
Length:
77,428 words
The Lusty, Texas Collection
Cara Covington
MENAGE EVERLASTING
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
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IMPRINT: Ménage Everlasting
LOVE UNDER TWO JESSOPS
Copyright © 2013 by Cara Covington
E-book ISBN:
978-1-62242-600-3
First E-book Publication: March 2013
Cover design by Les Byerley
All art and logo copyright © 2013 by Siren Publishing, Inc.
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PUBLISHER
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
Letter to Readers
Dear Readers,
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Love Under Two Jessops
by Cara Covington from BookStrand.com or its official distributors, thank you. Also, thank you for not sharing your copy of this book.
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Writing is a solitary profession, but success as a published author is not a solitary achievement.
I have the best readers in the world! Their loyalty to my work is one of my greatest treasures. Nothing pleases me more than when I hear from my readers. Thank you so much for loving the people of Lusty!
I am grateful for my wonderful publisher, Diana DeBalko, and the dedicated staff at Siren-BookStrand. I am especially thankful for my editor, Courtney, for her diligence and talent. She keeps me on the right track, and her words of guidance and praise I consider golden.
On the home front, I owe a ton of thanks to my daughter, Jennifer, for stepping in to help out, thus freeing up my time so that I can do more of what I love doing most in all the world—writing.
Last, but never least, I wouldn’t have a career were it not for the generosity of my husband, David. He continues to be my number one fan. I am blessed, and highly favored.
Cara Covington
Ontario, Canada
February 2013
LOVE UNDER TWO JESSOPS
The Lusty, Texas Collection
CARA COVINGTON
Copyright © 2013
It was the most up-to-date firehouse that money could buy. It contained a pumper truck, a tanker truck, and, of course, the EMT ambulance. The living quarters included a bunk room, showers, and a small lounge with one big-ass television screen. It had a shiny chrome kitchen, with every implement a gourmet chef could possibly salivate over, and a chrome and glass table big enough to seat eight. The office held four desks, with state-of-the-art computers, and landlines used more to supplement individual cell phones than as the communication option of first choice they would have been in the past.
The conference room featured a long table with plenty of comfy chairs to go around. On the wall in that room hung a trio of maps. One was of the town of Lusty, newly updated to include the new street just added to the official “town plan.” The second map depicted Benedict County, with Lusty represented by a red circle, and with other small towns and communities shown as other red circles. The third map included Benedict County, and here Lusty was represented by just a small dot, for the counties surrounding and touching Benedict County had also been included as well.
This firehouse might be inside the town of Lusty, but the men who manned her could be called to fires or other emergencies in any of the neighboring counties, if the need arose.
In rural Texas, everyone helped everyone else. That was one of the reasons Andrew Jessop was pleased as hell to be home.
He turned from his perusal of his new domain—well, his and his brother Grant’s new domain—to look out the front window. The vista before him was of Masterson Street and also Main Street, for the firehouse stood on the corner of Main and Masterson. His view was primarily southward down Main Street, to the shops and businesses, some newer than others, that made up a part of his hometown.
About a block north of
Lusty Appetites
and south of where he stood, a new business was getting ready to open, rejuvenating the former dry cleaning store next to Darryl’s Duds. As he watched, a woman came into view, her attention focused above her head. Gord Jessop, the town’s mechanic and general jack-of-all-trades and one of Andrew’s many cousins, was perched on an extended ladder leaning against the building, installing a sign.
Her brown hair that hung to her shoulders was caught up, as usual, into a saucy ponytail, and he knew from memory that her pretty brown eyes held a world of hurt. She was just a tiny little thing—though he knew her self-image reflected a slightly different reality. Her breasts were better than average size and Andrew
ached
to find out if they felt as soft and tasted as good as he’d dreamt they did.
Her name was Chloe Rhodes, Lusty’s newest resident, and she was the other reason he was so glad to be back home in Lusty.
Chloe didn’t understand just how hard or how permanently both he and his brother Grant—never mind that man’s protestations to the contrary—had fallen for her. She also didn’t yet seem to understand that she was, in fact,
their
woman.
But she would, and soon—at least she would if
he
had anything to say about it.
“Sign looks good.”
Andrew hadn’t even heard his brother approach, so intently had he been focused on their woman. Hell, he hadn’t even noticed the sign itself. Now he looked at the pretty pink and gold piece of plastic that proclaimed, in fancy script,
The Lusty Glow Day Spa
.
“Catchy name,” Andrew said.
“Appropriate, too, since I heard she’s going to offer ‘waxing’ for ladies who want that neat and tidy look.”
Andrew grinned, and then turned to look at his brother. Miss Chloe wasn’t the only one who’d been fighting the inevitable. His brother Grant had been doing a lot of noncommittal-type grunting where their woman was concerned. Now, looking at the man who was not only a sibling but his very best friend, Andrew said, “I sense your defenses are weakening toward her.”
Grant shoved his hands in his pockets, and then shrugged. “She doesn’t seem the sort who wants or needs hearts and flowers, which is fine by me. I’m no good at that romantic, flowery shit.”
Andrew beat back his smile. His brother liked to play the rough, tough he-man, but Andrew suspected where their woman was concerned, he was just a big teddy bear at heart.
Just the same as I am.
The proof of course was standing right beside him with a pensive look on his face as he watched a sign being affixed to the building, obviously under Chloe’s careful direction.
“You’ve changed your mind from the first time you laid eyes on her.”
Grant sighed. “No, I’ve just stopped lying to myself, is all.”
Andrew waited, wondering if Grant was going to be any more communicative than that. Finally his brother gave in and shrugged. “I was fighting, it, okay? Fighting what I felt the moment I laid eyes on her because I didn’t think I was ready to stop sowing my wild oats yet.”
“I didn’t think you were having a particularly great time sowing those wild oats.”
“It’s the principle of the thing.”
“Lockwood changed your mind.”
Grant’s face clouded with anger. “She could have been fucking
dead
. And, damn it,
she’d
had to kill the bastard herself. We should have been there to protect her. It wouldn’t have eaten at
my
soul to have wasted that worthless son of a bitch.”
Andrew knew it probably would have, but didn’t bother to point that out.