“I meant to show you guys these earlier,” she said, deliberately changing the subject. “They have them down at Mona’s Secrets. It’s that new place on the corner of Highway 75.”
“Yeah. I know the place,” Kemper said, a guttural pitch in his voice. “We should keep some panties like what you’re wearing on hand. Maybe I’ll pick up a few different styles and flavors.”
“Mona has an assortment. I’m sure she’d love to model for you.” Holly batted her eyelashes and half expected Kit to ridicule her for the blatant insinuation.
Oh yes, she knew all about Mona and her time with the Keesling brothers. If rumors were true, after Mona spent a summer at the Keesling farm, she opened a slew of businesses, parlaying her severance package—if that’s what they wanted to call their generous hit-the-road gifts—into a small fortune.
Kit massaged his neck. “Kemper, why don’t you give Mona a call and see if you can’t arrange one of those private showings?”
Holly gulped. Sudden rage zipped through her veins.
“Wouldn’t hurt. I don’t guess.”
“Like hell it wouldn’t,” Holly grumbled. “I’d hate for the two of you to show up without the proper equipment to enjoy the show. Mona would be quite disappointed, I’m sure.”
“With Mona running an intimate apparel store, it’s advantageous for us to reconnect, Holly. We’re old friends,” Kit explained, a grin tugging at his lips.
“With benefits,” she muttered.
Kemper winked. “You never know when we may need new gadgets. It’s hard to say what you might find down here from one day to the next. With Mona’s nearby, we shouldn’t run short on lubes and condoms. That’s for sure.”
“I take it you’ve been playing without me in recent months?” she asked, her gaze bouncing between brothers. If one of them—just one of them—brought a submissive woman or anyone else down there while she was living in the same house, she was out of there.
“Chill, doll,” Kemper said, laughing. “We’re teasing you. Mona isn’t in the picture. I promise.”
“Mona isn’t your type. I wasn’t worried.”
They observed her like they saw right through her girlish jealousy.
“You weren’t?” Kit asked.
“No. I wasn’t.” She cleared her throat. “Hell, you’d need to keep a dick in her cheek to silence the old gal. She is pretty but she is most definitely used-up merchandise.
“She proudly boasts about the men she’s left in her wake. To add to the ambiance of her new adult store, she keeps public records for all to see. The initials of the men she’s fucked are carved in a headboard propped up against the wall behind the cash register.”
Kit shrugged. “Can’t blame her for that.”
“Why?”
“Kit is right. The women in this town haven’t been kind to Mona.”
“No wonder,” Holly grumbled.
Her battle wounds were etched in wood and bold enough to cause some permanent scars. The occasional insecure woman who visited Mona’s often discovered her significant other was a memory worthy of merit on Mona’s wall of shame.
No, Holly wasn’t worried about Mona, but she was concerned about herself. Why was she suddenly jealous? Why was she outright possessive? She didn’t like that trait in others, and yet here she was thinking like, acting like…a girlfriend!
Maybe her distorted thoughts could be explained. Holly and unfaithfulness didn’t mix. She might have been a woman with a past, but her explicit road to present day revealed a history she couldn’t have done without. Most men wouldn’t want her to anyway.
Schooled women learned to function best on their backs—or their knees—after they’d had a couple of partners, and where the tools of the trade were concerned, Holly was taught properly. Her first boyfriend was the Dom of all Doms, or so he thought.
She hadn’t told them that. Maybe she should. Perhaps then they could decide on which way they wanted her to swing—slave or sub, sub or slave. At this point, that was the only decision they needed to make. Only thanks to her men living on a cowboy’s time, they hadn’t figured that out yet.
Then again, neither had she.
* * * *
Kemper’s fingernail was wedged between two bottom front teeth. He was lost in his own thoughts as he watched the way Holly eyed certain items scattered throughout the room.