by Jaci Burton
"I owed you one," Valerie said to Jolene. "We're even now. I vote Gage stays. Now I'm going inside to find my husband. Welcome back, Gage."
"I vote he stays, too," Brea said. "You're outvoted, Jo."
Jolene opened her mouth, closed it and threw up her hands. "I give up." She marched over to Brea and shook her finger. "If he breaks your fucking heart, you're on your own."
"Duly noted." She reached for Jolene's hand. "And I love you."
Jolene sighed, and threw her arms around Brea. "I love you, too."
Jolene walked away, but stopped in front of Gage and said, "If you ever hurt my sister again, I won't fire you. I'll just shoot you."
Gage tipped his hat at Jolene. "Yes, ma'am."
Jolene shook her head and went into the house, leaving Brea and Gage alone.
They both took steps toward each other at the same time. Brea slid her fingertips into the pockets of her jeans. "I went all over town looking for you today."
He tipped his hat back so she could see his face. "You did?"
"Found out you'd gone to the Knotty Oak, so I went there and talked to Rhonda. She told me Carl offered you a job as a trainer."
"Yeah, he did. I changed my mind."
She tilted her head back to look at him. "Why?"
"Unfinished business elsewhere."
"Where?"
He took his hat off and wrapped one arm around her to tug her against him. "Here."
His mouth came down on hers and their lips met in a heat of passion and need that made Brea whimper. She wound her arms around Gage and pressed her body tight against his, running her palms across his back, unable to believe he'd come back to her.
"I thought about what you said the other night," Gage said after he broke the kiss. "You were right. You are the best thing that's ever happened to me."
She looked away for a second. "You've given me some amazing gifts, one of the biggest being this ranch and my love for it again. I can't imagine leaving it for city life. I've been running my whole life, Gage, so I understand what that's like. It's time I set down some roots." She cupped his face with the palm of her hand and lifted up on her toes to kiss him.
"And maybe it's time I think about doing the same thing."
"You can't run from things that are unpleasant, or who you are, or were. You can only stay and face the past, and make sure in the future you don't make the same mistakes. I let myself be overshadowed by the death of my parents, by my talented older sister and my beautiful and confident younger sister. And somewhere in there, I just lost myself."
He tightened his hold on her. "You have no idea what kind of gifts you have. Your love of books, your intelligence, your wit and your laughter, and your amazing capacity to love someone. Do you know how special that is?"
"I do now, thanks to you. You made me see that I did have value. And so do you. Even if you decide not to stay here, Gage, I still want the time you are here to be with me. I won't ever hold you here if it's not what you want."
He held her close and kissed her hair. "I don't think I've ever wanted anything more. And it scares the hell out of me."
"Then we'll be scared together. It's uncharted territory for both of us. But somewhere along the way you branded me as yours, and I'm not going to let you slip through my fingers so easily."
He picked her up and walked to his truck, opened the door and deposited her inside, then climbed in.
"Where are we going?"
"For a ride. I need to be alone with you and there are too damn many people around."
He drove down the road, staying on Bar M land until he got to the clearing where they'd gone the first night they'd been alone together.
"I like this place," she said, starting to scoot over toward the door.
Gage reached for her wrist and tugged her against him. "Uh uh. Here."
"In the truck?" Her body sizzled with instant heat. "I've never done it in a truck before."
Gage pushed the seat all the way back. "Then we get to pop another one of your cherries, don't we?" He undid his belt buckle and slid the zipper of his jeans down, reaching into his pants to take out his cock. It was already erect. She loved that he could get hard so easily for her.
Brea licked her lips. "Already thinking about this, were you?" she said, inching closer and wrapping her hands around his cock.
"Kissing you makes me hard. All I can think about once you put your mouth on me is being inside you."
Her nipples tightened and her pussy swelled with arousal. Only Gage could get her hot and wet this fast. She kicked off her boots, unzipped her jeans and slid them off, leaving them on the floor. "I've never had a quickie either. Well, not an intentional one, anyway," she said as she bent over and licked at his cock head.
"Christ, Brea." He fisted her hair and lifted her mouth up and down on his cock. While she sucked him, he moved his hands across her back and caressed her hip, then slid his hand between her legs, parting the fabric of her panties to touch her pussy.
"You're wet," he said as he tucked two fingers inside her and began to pump in time to the rhythm she set sucking his cock. She whimpered against him, her tongue swirling over the heated head. She was already so close to coming with his fingers fucking her that she squirmed against him, straining to feel his fingers deeper inside her.
"Enough," he said, pulling her lips away from him. He reached into his jeans for a condom, put it on and pulled her astride him.
Brea inched down over his cock while Gage held on to her hips and guided her. The intense pleasure as he filled her was so strong, so delicious, she curled her nails into his shoulders as she seated herself fully on him.
"Oh yeah, that pussy is mine," he said, lifting his hips against her. "Now fuck me. Fuck me hard and make us both come."
He'd given her the control. She set the tempo, rising and falling soft and easy against him to begin, loving the feel of him expanding inside her, rubbing every part of her so, so good. But as the crescendo built, so did her need to feel Gage deeper, to have him thrust harder, and she told him exactly what she wanted, which he gladly gave to her, until words were no longer possible. Then she leaned forward and ground against him. He kissed her, his tongue plunging into her mouth at the same time his cock plunged up inside her.
And when she came, it was with her tongue wrapped around his, her thighs snugged against his, and her arms wrapped around his neck so that no space separated their bodies. She rode out her orgasm rocking against him, feeling him shudder and tremble and hearing his loud groans as he exploded so hard the truck rocked like an earthquake had hit it.
He took her down easy with light kisses, until she laid her forehead against his and just tried for normal breathing.
"I love you, Brea."
She stilled, not sure if she'd even heard what he said because he'd said it so softly. She lifted her head and searched his face, afraid to say or do anything, sure she was mistaken.
His eyes were clear, blue as the ocean, and filled with an emotion she'd never seen before.
"I said I love you. And I've never said that to a woman before."
"I love you, too, Gage. And I've never said that to a man before. Because I've never loved anyone before."
He brushed his lips across hers, and it was so different this time, as if something monumental had passed between them. A trust, a new beginning.
"I don't know if I'll ever be any good at this, but I'll give you the best I've got," he said, smoothing his hand down her back. "And I will never intentionally hurt you. I might fumble this a few times because I don't know what I'm doing, but I'd really like to try to make a life with you."
And that was all she could have ever asked for, because it was real, and it was better than anything she'd ever read in any book.
brazen
Jolene
WHAT KIND OF HOUSE? CAR?
Mansion Tractor
Apartment Truck
Shack SUV
House ATV
WHERE TO LIVE
? NUMBER OF KIDS
On the rach 2
On the ranch 0
On the rach 3
On the rach 4
GUY OCCUPATION
Walker Rancher
Walker Rancher
Walker Rancher
Walker Rancher
one
when the prairie was on fire, a smart man would run like hell in the opposite direction.
Nobody had ever accused Walker Morgan of being smart.
And Jolene McMasters was one hot prairie fire.
He should walk away, but she was a wildfire out of control, and he was having a damn hard time resisting the heat.
He rode in his truck behind her, watching her lean over in her open Jeep, igniting fires along the side of the roadway on Bar M land. It was a no-wind day, which was pretty damn rare in Oklahoma in the spring. Perfect time to burn away the tall dead winter grass around the acreage. And it figured Jolene would just have to be in the front of the line, in control of the whole deal.
Of course she did own the ranch, and for the most part had been running it herself for the past few years, since her uncle had gotten too sick to see to the day-to-day things. Her sisters, Valerie and Brea, had both lived out of town and hadn't wanted any part of the Bar M until they'd recently come home, and even now seemed content to let their baby sister take the lead.
Right where Jolene liked to be--at the lead. She hopped out of the Jeep and raised her hand so the convoy of trucks behind her stopped. They'd circled around behind the fires they'd set so they could monitor the progress of each fire and keep them from getting out of control.
Jolene shielded her eyes and face from the whipping flames and climbed onto the bed, and then the roof of one of the trucks. She had such a catlike grace as she moved, comfortable in her own skin, unafraid as she widened her stance and balanced on top of the truck to scan the track of the fire.
"Walker, climb on up here and tell me what you think."
He swung up onto the bed and climbed onto the roof to stand next to her. "Looks steady," he said as he surveyed miles of charred black land with thin rows of flame. "It's under control as long as the wind doesn't pick up."
Jolene nodded. "Good enough."
Walker jumped down and held out his hands. Jolene slid into his arms, over the rail of the truck bed and onto the ground, grabbing her gloves as she headed toward the water truck.
"Joey, take the truck to the west end. I don't like the direction or how fast that fire is moving. We don't want to burn up that grove of trees on the western end of the property, so be sure it doesn't get that far."
Joey, one of the hands, tipped his hat, climbed into one of the water trucks and took off. At ten thousand acres, the Bar M was one of the largest ranches in their part of Oklahoma. Which meant it was a huge responsibility, and Walker thought Jolene did a fine job handling it all for someone as young as she was. In fact, the harder she had to work, the happier she seemed to be.
Walker admired her for that. She never whined or complained, and one would think a girl in her mid-twenties would rather be in the city dancing and drinking in the clubs or dating a different guy every weekend instead of standing in the middle of a scorched field sucking in ash and smoke.
But Jolene was grinning and swilling down bottles of water like she was having the time of her life, her face smeared with black ash and soot, her perfect lips cracking a wide smile. He wanted to go over to her, grab her pigtails, drag her sweet body against his and kiss her until the ache he had for her went away.
But he already knew kissing her would only make his dick hard, and then he'd want a hell of lot more than kissing.
She'd want more than kissing.
Jolene had already made it clear what she wanted, and what she wanted was him. He was the one backing away, saying no, which wasn't something he was accustomed to doing. When a sexy blonde with a heart-shaped face, a mouth that was created for one thing only and curves that won't quit wanted you, you didn't say no. Yet that was what he found himself doing.
Ronald McMasters had hired him five years ago, and he'd taken the job and started working for Mason. And then he'd met Jolene, barely twenty-one at the time. Even then she'd been a beauty, with womanly curves and a face that would stop a man in his tracks. Now she had come into her full womanly beauty, and she was devastating, a devilish temptress in blue jeans and cowgirl boots.
He wanted her like he'd never wanted a woman before. And she was 100 percent off limits.
She was the boss and he was a ranch hand. He'd already gone down that road once and vowed he'd never do it again. He was determined not to break that vow, even if Jolene McMasters was the hottest thing on the Oklahoma prairie.
He was still going to tell her no, and no again, until she got the message loud and clear.
the fires were out, all the grass they'd wanted burned was scorched to the ground, and Jolene and the guys were now enjoying the fruits of their labor--beer and barbecue in the backyard of the main house. No way was Lila going to let any of them inside, since they were all covered in soot and ash from head to toe. But there was plenty of food and cold beer to drink. They'd been at this before dawn, and the sun had just set. Jolene had known the hands would be hungry when they got back, so she'd made advance arrangements to have this feast prepared.
There was nothing she liked better than seeing a bright orange glow lining up across the horizon before the sun even came up. The day had been perfect, the winds had been calm and they'd only had to chase a couple fires threading out of control.
She craved a shower and her scrubber so she could get the grit out of her skin and the smell of smoke out of her hair and nostrils. But right now she wanted to celebrate with her guys--they'd worked their asses off today.
And while they all hooted and hollered and told stories about their heroics of the day, Jolene took a seat on the ground under one of the many shade trees. Away from the crowd and nobody needing anything from her, she could watch Walker Morgan to her heart's content. And her heart was pretty damned contented to watch him a lot.
Like her, he was covered in dust from his face to his shirt and jeans and pretty much everywhere else. His hair was black as the charred fields, and his eyes as gray as the ash that coated their clothes.
He was doing his damndest to ignore her, but Jolene knew better. He noticed her all right. She could tell when a man watched her, and she'd felt his gaze on her today. Since Mason was off on the other side of the fire, and Walker was usually Mason's right-hand man, he'd been right there by her side the entire time. She didn't know if he enjoyed that or if it irritated the hell out of him.
Walker had been at the ranch for five years now, and he was as tight-lipped about himself as any man she'd known. Maybe that was part of the attraction--she liked a mystery. There were a lot of things about Walker she didn't know, but she intended to find out. If she could just find time to be alone with him, and get him to admit that he was interested in being with her. Because she knew damn well he wanted her. She was pretty adept at reading a man, and she caught the sidelong glances he sent her way when he thought she wasn't looking. Jolene was always looking.
And in those looks she saw a hunger that equaled her own. What she didn't understand was why he turned and headed in the opposite direction whenever they had an opportunity to be alone.
If there was one thing Jolene was, it was determined. She wasn't going to let Walker keep running. She'd made up her mind a long time ago that Walker was who she wanted in her bed, and she wasn't going to give up until she had him there.
She glanced over at her sisters, admittedly a bit jealous at their smiles of contentment. She was happy for Valerie and Mason, who had a second chance at happiness, and for Brea and Gage, who'd found kindred spirits in each other. It was just seeing her two older sisters happy and in love made Jolene crave something she had never really wanted before.
She liked sex just fine, enjoyed a roll in the hay as much as any other woman her age did.
But the sudden craving for permanence was new, as was the need to have a man claim her as his and the need to claim him in return. It was something she had never considered before, probably because she'd been too busy running the Bar M and arguing with her uncle Ronald. She'd never had the time to think about settling down, about falling in love, about who she'd eventually end up with. She figured there'd be time for all that later.
But now, seeing her sisters with men at their sides made her look at the men in her life differently.
She'd have to get around to settling down one of these days.
She thought about that silly M.A.S.H. game she'd played with her sisters last month, and realized she'd only listed one man's name, not four. And that name had been Walker's. Probably because no other man was on her radar at the time.
Hell, no other man had ever been on her radar like Walker had been, no doubt due to the fact that he wouldn't even give her the time of day.
She was hardly hideous in the looks department, so what was it about her that made him not want to occupy space with her? They worked together just fine, but when it came down to socializing, he was nowhere to be found.
Like now. She'd been so deep in thought she'd lost sight of Walker. As she glanced through the crowd, she couldn't find him. She stood, threw her empty plate into the nearby trash can and grabbed another beer, then spotted Mason and Valerie and headed their way.
"Lila outdid herself on these ribs," Mason said as Jolene stopped in front of them.
"And you need a shower in the worst way, Jo." Valerie brushed her thumb over Jolene's cheek and showed her the blackened evidence.
"Yeah, I know," Jolene said, scrubbing her cheeks with her fingertips.
Valerie laughed. "Now you've made it worse."
"I don't care. I know I'm a mess."
"And yet, still as beautiful as Cinderella after cleaning the chimney," Valerie said with an affected sigh.
"Bite me, Val. Have either of you seen Walker?"
Mason's lips twitched, and he motioned with his head over his left shoulder. "I think he said he was going to the bunkhouse."
"Okay, thanks."
The party would be going on as long as there was beer left, and there was plenty of beer, so she didn't think any of the cowboys would be moseying on to the bunkhouse anytime soon.