by Gorman, A.
Oh, who am I kidding?
I’ve forgotten nothing.
Instead, my mind has played that scene on repeat ever since we parted ways after getting our hogs back. We barely said a word to each other the next morning as we loaded everything up, and I have been actively avoiding him since we got back. I’m not proud to admit that I’m afraid to see him. Afraid of what I’ll say. Of what I’ll do.
Even more so, I’m terrified that he’ll say he shouldn’t have done it. That he regrets kissing me. I don’t know if I can handle it if he does.
Worse, I can’t help but question everything now. When I think about our feud, I recognize every moment I did something on purpose, just to get a rise out of him. Never to hurt him, really, but to make him notice me. To force him to confront me or to acknowledge my existence.
Have I been behaving this way for so many years because deep down…I miss him?
“Yes.”
I look up and see Nathan leaning against the side of the barn. I hadn’t realized I’d even walked outside, so stuck in my own head that I wasn’t paying attention to where I was going.
“Yes, what?” I ask, crossing my arms.
“You’re a stubborn fool.”
“I didn’t ask if I was.”
“You didn’t have to. I can read your mind.”
I snort and stalk into the barn, hoping he won’t follow. I’m not so lucky.
“He misses you too, if that’s any consolation.”
“What?” I pause but don’t turn around. “And how would you know that? Can you read his mind too?”
Nathan doesn’t fall for my snarky question. He replies, “I play poker with Todd every week. Things come up.”
“Oh, I’m sure they do.” I start hauling hay bales out to the wagon. Nathan helps me, but the work doesn’t stop his mouth from running.
“He’s been a miserable sap ever since the fair. Just like you.”
“I’m not miserable,” I argue, slamming the hay down. “I’m fine.”
“Vanessa.” His softened voice causes me to stop and listen. “I love you. Even when you’re acting like a four year old who needs a nap, I love you. I want you to be happy. This thing you have with Jesse isn’t healthy.”
“I know that.”
“But you haven’t been able to let each other go. Do you ever wonder why?”
“No.” I do, but I don’t admit it. Nathan doesn’t know why Jesse and me broke up, and I’m not about to get into it now. “I’m going for a ride. I’ll be back later.”
I head for the stables and saddle up my horse. A few minutes later, I’m flying across the pasture. But even the wind in my hair isn’t enough to make me forget the heartache I’m wallowing in.
Jesse
My horseback ride has done nothing to settle my mind. I’ve been out here for over an hour, having practically rode over every acre of land I own, and yet my head is still spinning.
Nothing changed after I kissed Nessa. We’ve been back at home for weeks, and everything is back to business as usual around here.
And it sucks.
I almost wish it hadn’t happened. That I could go back and stop myself. Then I wouldn’t be suffering every day, knowing the woman I want—the one who tastes like heaven on earth—is just on the other side of that damn fence. A short walk away. I could go there right now and demand she talk to me. But forcing Nessa to do anything has never worked well, for anyone.
I’m about to turn back when I spot her coming over the hill. She’s on a horse, the same as I am. I guess we still think alike, and it makes me smile. When she sees me, she slows down for a brief moment, but then she speeds off, following the creek.
For some reason, I take this as a challenge, and I give my horse a kick. Nessa and I race down the long span of our bordering land, only slowing when we reach the woods. I’m panting as I pull the reins and face her.
We don’t speak for a moment, just looking at each other as we catch our breath.
“We should talk,” she says, surprising me.
“We should. Maybe let the horses drink for a minute?”
“Sure.”
We dismount, and I hop the rocks across the creek to her side. She studies me with those calculating eyes, and I might as well be naked under her gaze—it’s that intense. I’m almost afraid she’s going to say our kiss was a mistake.
“That kiss was a mistake.”
Damn. Thinking the words was bad enough, but hearing them is even worse. I rub a hand over my face to keep myself from reaching out, grabbing her, and kissing her again just to prove it wasn’t a mistake.
“I think maybe we were caught up in the moment or something,” she continues, and all I can do is stare at her as she talks, watching that perfect mouth say words I don’t want to hear. “You have a habit of kissing people you shouldn’t anyway, so I won’t hold it against you.”
“What?” My ears perk up. “What in the hell is that supposed to mean?”
“Don’t play dumb,” she replies with a smirk. “This isn’t the first time you got caught up in the moment and ruined everything. I saw you with my own eyes. All I’m saying is—”
“You caught me doing what, exactly? I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“With Haley!” she shouts, her hands balling into fists. “Don’t act like you forgot the prom!”
“I haven’t forgotten anything. You’re the one remembering it wrong!” I shout right back, defending myself against the accusation. “I never kissed Haley or anyone else on prom night. Because in case you’ve also forgotten, my prom date—you—ditched me!”
“Liar,” she hisses between her teeth. “I saw the two of you. Your arms wrapped around each other. Her nuzzling your fucking neck like she was trying to bury herself in there. Don’t even try to deny it, Jesse.”
“I can deny it if I want to because—” I pause and think about it. Really think for a moment. “Wait a second. Is that why you left me? Is that why…did you dump me because I hugged Haley?”
Her silence answers the question.
“Unbelievable.” I honestly can’t believe it. “I never did anything with Haley. She was like a sister to you.”
“Well, I guess even sisters can become backstabbing bitches.”
“No, Nessa. She didn’t try anything with me. Hell, the reason I was hugging her was because she was crying. Because of you!”
“What?” Her mouth drops open.
“She was worried about you. Said you wouldn’t talk to her after your father died. She felt like you were shutting her out. Hell, we all did. When she started crying, I hugged her. What was I supposed to do? She was practically family, to both of us.”
A tear spills down Nessa’s cheek, and I can’t help but reach up to wipe it away.
“All these years, you thought I had cheated on you with Haley?” Just the idea has me shaking my head in disbelief. “God, Nessa. I was so in love with you, I never would have done that. I can’t believe you didn’t talk to me about it.”
She backs away from me now, and I can see the shame on her face.
“Don’t.” I grab her arm before she can run. “We need to talk about this.”
“There isn’t anything to talk about. It seems I made a mistake that night and—” Nessa wipes her tears away and straightens up. “What’s done is done.”
“We’re not done.” Before I can think twice, I jerk her toward me. Her chest hits mine, and she looks up at me with those round eyes I love to get lost in. “We had a misunderstanding, and now it’s cleared up.”
“It’s been years, Jesse. We’ve been awful to each other.”
“Yep. We have a lot of making up to do.”
A wicked smile spreads across her face just before I press my lips to hers. She opens her mouth to me, and her body instantly melts, which is something I take a lot of pride in. Making my tough girl turn into a puddle in my arms.
That makes it easy to lower her to the grass, which I do as gently as I can eve
n though my heart is pounding in my chest. I don’t have to ask if we’re keeping this PG because Nessa tugs my shirt over my head before I can. Hers follows suit, and soon all of our clothes are strewn across the ground.
Yes, it’s the middle of the day, but I don’t give a damn. If anyone wanders by, let them have a show. Right now, I’m too busy tasting the woman I’ve spent so long trying to convince myself I was finished with. When the realization hits me that we’re starting over again, I pause and look down at the bare goddess beneath me. Man, she’s gorgeous.
“What?” she whispers, with a small amount of apprehension on her face.
“I can’t believe you thought I cheated on you with—”
Nessa’s hand smacks over my mouth. “Shut up, jackass.”
And I do. Because the second she rolls her hips up toward me, rubbing against my painfully firm cock, I lose the ability to think about anything other than getting inside of this woman. As I kiss the living daylights out of her, I settle between her legs and enter her with a hard thrust that rips a deep moan from her throat.
Nessa’s nails dig into my shoulder, and I know that’s my cue to keep going. She was never one to prefer gentle sex. And I have so much pent-up energy right now that I probably couldn’t slow down if I wanted to. My body takes on a will of its own, thrusting in and out while I dip my head down to nip at her collarbone. Her fingers are going wild, tugging at my hair as I pound her into the rough ground beneath us.
“Right there,” she blurts and sucks in a breath. “Oh, God. Don’t stop.”
I obey, of course. But what I really want to do is tell her that I’ll never stop. She’s stuck with me now. For better or for worse. And knowing this stubborn woman, there will probably be a lot of both in our future. And damn, do I love her.
“Yes, Jesse! Yes!”
Her shout spurs me on as I thrust faster, rocking her through her orgasm as I try to stave off my own. But when she clenches around me, I can’t hold back any longer. My body tenses up, and a jolt of pleasure shoots up my spine. Fuck, it’s got to be the most powerful one I’ve had in a long time. And it lasts longer too.
When I finally return to myself, I’m numb and sweaty. Nessa’s body is a soft place to land. Even though I know I’m probably squishing her, she doesn’t say a word. She just clings to my slick back as she wraps her arms around me. We’re still for several moments, our labored breathing and the sounds of the running creek filling the silence.
I roll myself onto my back and look up at the sky. On some level, I think I’m dreaming. I have to be. There’s no way that I just made love to Vanessa Starr, the girl I’ve been obsessed with since grade school and thought I’d never be able to touch again. It just cannot be real.
Nessa’s head comes into view as she hovers over me. There’s a smile on her face, and I grin when I realize I put it there. I made her shout my name as she came all over my cock. Just remembering it makes me start to swell up again. Is it too soon for a repeat performance?
She climbs onto my lap and straddles me, sliding me back inside her and essentially answering my silent question. As she rides me, I finally have the chance to admire her swaying breasts that are filling my hands and then my mouth as I lean up to suck a hardened nipple between my lips.
“Enjoy them now,” Nessa says with a chuckle.
“Mmm,” I reply, releasing her breast. “I plan to enjoy them for a long time.”
“Nine months, probably.”
I freeze and watch her. She continues to slowly roll her hips as she studies my face. I know exactly what she means. We didn’t use protection, and unless she’s on the pill—which it sounds like she isn’t—there’s a good chance that this will end with a baby. I know how I feel about it, but I’m not sure about her. We haven’t discussed children in a long time, but I take a chance, hoping her mind hasn’t changed on the matter.
“I guess that will make it easier to convince you to marry me then,” I say with a smile. I’m completely serious, and she knows it.
“Oh, no. I won’t marry you just because you knocked me up!”
My eyes narrow, and I can’t hide my irritation. “Yes, you will. You’ll marry me, and we’ll turn my old room into a nursery and—”
“Who said we were moving into your house? On your farm?”
“Vanessa—” I warn, but she doesn’t listen.
“Don’t think for a second that because we’re having sex again that I’ll just agree to whatever you want.”
“You will marry me, dammit!”
“And if I don’t?” A slow smile spreads across her face. “What are you going to do about it?”
I roll over and take her with me.
“I’ll call your brother and tell him what we’ve done,” I say with a smirk that I know will annoy her. It always does. “How does a spring shotgun wedding sound to you?”
With a smile, I rise and start to get dressed.
“You wouldn’t!” Nessa sits up with a scowl on her beautiful face. “How dare you threaten to tell my brother!”
But I ignore her, mounting my horse while she shouts obscenities at my back as I ride away. I love this woman, and I can’t wait to see how she gets back at me. At least now, we get to have rough and dirty make-up sex in the end.
Totally worth it.
About the Author
J.D. Wright is a military wife, mother of four, and author of paranormal and fantasy romance books filled with strong-willed heroines, swoon-worthy heroes, and sprinkled with humor and adventure. J.D. creates artistry in many ways, as a baker and cake artist by day and author by night. You can usually find her typing away at the computer or covered in frosting.
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Must Love Grapes
By Sara Dobie Bauer
It would have been quaint—a winery on a hill!—if Emily hadn’t been so damn angry. She sighed when the taxi dropped her outside Tuppence Estates in northeast Ohio and set her suitcase on the sidewalk. The thing weighed as much as a thin toddler, probably because her boss had given her about an hour to pack and make it to the Los Angeles airport.
Her boss was also her newly minted ex-boyfriend.
She blew air out through pursed lips and rolled her head back and forth, neck sore from the cross-country flight. She didn’t have time to think about Todd. She hated Todd and his silver fox good looks. They’d worked together at the distribution headquarters for years and only ended up in bed months ago after a wine tour through Napa, followed by beers at a dive bar and an ill-advised drunken kiss that Emily had initiated. She’d always had a weakness for good-looking men. It was practically a character flaw since good-looking men had never been good for her.
Now she was in stupid Ohio, of all places, to attend the Great Lakes Jamboree—a big deal wine fest in the area. More importantly, she was in Ohio to be wined and dined by the Tuppence brothers, up and coming winemakers that Todd was considering for national distribution. It would have been a huge deal for some small town organic wine guys, but everybody in the biz already knew about Isaiah and Shelby Tuppence. The brothers were wine geek celebrities.
Rows of bright green and purple grape vines waved in the breeze as Emily picked up her discarded suitcase and climbed the wide, wooden steps of the Tuppence Estates Bed and Breakfast. A smiling middle-aged couple held the door for her as she approached. She stepped into a foyer that smelled of wine and cinnamon and looked lit for Christmas despite the late summer air outside. All the tiny inn was missing was a pine tree amidst all the grape-shaped twinkle lights.
Bec
ause she continued to stand there staring, the front door rammed into the backs of her heels when someone else came inside. She leaped forward and cussed, spinning around to face her accidental assailant.
Her first thought: No one has a right to look that good covered in dirt.
“Excuse me,” the man huffed, shoving sun-streaked blond hair off his forehead.
“Sure. Sorry.” She crossed her arms over her chest as he swept past. He smelled like fresh earth and sweat—but the delicious manly variety of sweat that made Emily chew her bottom lip and try not to check out his ass…but he had an excellent ass, athletic like he did squats all day. Packed into tight, dusty jeans and a light green button-down that appeared to be struggling to contain his pecs, the guy should have been naked on the cover of GQ.
He stood in front of the registration desk and grabbed what was probably the guest book or maybe reservations for the winery restaurant on-site. His dark eyebrows—in direct contrast to his light hair—lowered as he hurriedly flipped pages. The man had long, lovely fingers capped off by short-cut nails, dirty along the edges.
Which was when she realized the guy looked an awful lot like a farmer.
“Oh no,” she whispered.
“Hello!” A friendly female voice made Emily stop staring. “You must be Emily Seymour.” The smiling lady stepped between Emily and Grumpy Sex Incarnate and extended her hand. “I’m Janis Tuppence.”
Emily knew Janis was the eldest sibling. She ran the bed and breakfast, while her younger brothers made the wine flow. “Yes. I’m Emily.”
“Welcome to the Great Lakes.” Janis had the same brown eyes as the guy at the front desk—the guy who suddenly spun around and came barreling back in her direction. He muttered to himself as he passed and stepped outside, taking the scent of hunky man with him.
Emily closed her eyes. “Was that…Shelby Tuppence?”