by Candis Terry
“You’re so beautiful,” he said. “So damned beautiful.” He tilted her hips and entered her slow and deep. The penetration sent a second set of electric shocks through her system and stole her breath. He paused and shuddered.
“Are you okay?”
He shook his head as her body stretched and adjusted, then begged for more. “Give me a second.”
“Jesse?”
“You feel so good, I could come right now. But I won’t. I want this to last.”
“So do I.” She rolled her hips and elicited a groan from him.
“If that’s true, you’re not playing fair.”
“And I’m about to play dirty.” Somehow she managed to shift him to his back. She’d never wanted like this before. Meeting him was completely unexpected. And while she had him all to herself, she planned to take full advantage. She straddled his hips, then raised and lowered herself over his upward thrusts in a rhythm that set a leisurely pace so she could touch him. Kiss him. Lick him. Explore him. Find out what made him close his eyes in ecstasy or clench his jaw when the pleasure intensified.
Playtime ended when he growled. “While I love your particular form of torture”—he rolled her to her back and thrust so possessively, so deep, she felt it all the way into her heart—“it’s time to get down to business.”
He reached down and hooked her leg up over his hip. With his next deep thrust, a slow, rolling blaze spread throughout her body and burned her from the inside out.
“I’d complain . . .” She sucked in a breath and moaned as he pulled out and plunged deep again. Rocked his hips. Teased and stroked that special spot inside like she was a Stradivarius and he a virtuoso. “But not when you move like that.”
“I aim to please.” His breathing was harsh. Choppy.
“Then please . . . don’t stop.”
“Not even an option.” His thrusts came harder, faster. His muscles tightened and flexed with each powerful drive of his hips.
She wrapped her legs around his hips so he could go deeper still. She became consumed with the intensity of the pleasure, the focus of where their bodies were joined. He pushed her toward another intense climax that finally exploded and shattered. Flames scorched her insides and sizzled through her veins. Her interior muscles throbbed, contracted, and pulled him in tight. She cried out his name, and in a frenzy of kisses and moans, he finally unleashed his passion and drove into her one last time.
The decadence of hearing her name on his long groan—feeling that powerful body stiffen as he found his own release—might live in her heart forever.
Face buried in the curve of her neck, he stayed embedded deep in her body while they rode out the throbbing pulsations. And then he kissed his way to her mouth.
She felt his smile against her lips.
“Satisfied?” she asked in a tone that came out much more like a purr.
“For round one.”
“Round one?”
He pressed his forehead to hers and nodded. “Haven’t you heard? We do everything bigger in Texas.”
Still buried deep inside her, she felt him come to life again, and she laughed. “Yeeha.”
Chapter 13
Jesse had never spooned with anyone before. Hell, he’d rarely spent an entire night in a woman’s bed. But with Allison’s sweet behind nestled against his groin, his arms wrapped around her waist, and his palm curved around the warmth of her breast, he’d be happy to stay right there all damned day.
Last night had been a lesson in listening to and taking his big brother’s advice to finally let go. A few weeks ago, Allison hadn’t even been on his radar. Now she’d become his number one focus.
How had that happened?
When had that happened?
And did any of that really matter?
He remembered the look on Jared’s face that last night in Afghanistan before they’d hugged and parted. He remembered the passion behind his brother’s horribly prophetic words. “When you search for something, chances are you’ll never find it. Be open to the surprises that come your way because you never know how quickly they might end.”
Though he hadn’t been looking or expecting, everything he’d ever dreamed or hoped for could very well be right in his arms.
Now all he had to do was convince her.
They’d made love several times last night. Each had given him the opportunity to get to know her better. Not just her body. Not just her desires. They’d talked until dawn broke across the sky. They’d talked about everything—from their favorite flavors of ice cream to their preferred sports. From the age they’d been when they’d lost their virginity to the theme of their senior proms.
When morning rolled around, he had a better understanding of what made her tick. Though there were parts she was obviously still reluctant to share, he hoped that in the coming days and weeks, she’d open up and divulge those important missing pieces. He wanted to help her overcome the issues that were holding her back from believing in a happily-ever-after.
I trust you.
Her words from last night came back to him, and they touched him as deeply now as they had then. He’d repeatedly told her that she shouldn’t believe everything she heard about him. Last night, when he’d wanted to make love to her, she let him know with those three little words that gossip was just something people with boring lives engaged in when they had nothing better to do.
She believed him.
She trusted him.
That settled nicely around his heart as he felt her come awake. He enjoyed the little sigh she hummed as she nestled closer.
“Your cat hates me,” she murmured.
He glanced up at Rango, who’d perched on the dresser and was giving her a Grumpy Cat glare. Jesse laughed. “You’ve stolen his spot.”
She rolled to her back and looked up at him with several slow blinks before he tucked her beneath him.
“Your cat sleeps with you?”
He nodded. “Dinks too if there’s a thunderstorm.”
“No wonder you have such a big bed.”
He nuzzled her neck. “I can think of better uses.”
“Mmmm.” She ran her hand down his back and gripped his buttocks. He complied with a hip roll that pressed his growing erection into the softness of her thighs.
“I thought you showed me all you had last night,” she said.
“Are you serious?” He raised his head and looked at her like surely she was joking. “Darlin’, I’m just getting started.”
Allison smiled as his hands slipped beneath the covers and between them. As her body started to hum under the attention of those magic fingers, she glanced over his shoulder at the clock radio that read 9:00 in glowing red numbers. She’d never had such a decadent morning. Hadn’t had the pleasure of sleeping in for ages. Usually there was too much . . . business.
“Crap!” She pushed him off her and leaped from the bed. She dropped to her knees on the carpet and searched for her clothes. “I’ve got to go.”
“What’s your rush?” He sat up. The expression on his face clearly conveyed his displeasure at her sudden retreat. “I thought we could make some breakfast and—”
“I have a plane to catch.”
“You what?” His brows pulled together. At that moment, Rango arched his back and hissed. Dinks came running into the room and did an encore of knocking her on her ass, then he slurped his long tongue up the side of her face.
Still naked, she managed to push the black Lab off and climbed to her feet—watching him carefully so that he didn’t get any ideas about sniffing delicate, naked parts.
“Where are my clothes?” she asked, while Jesse just sat there in bed looking at her like she’d flown over the cuckoo’s nest.
“A plane?”
“Yes.” She glanced around the huge bedroom searchin
g for her jeans, her tank top, anything that would make her feel less exposed and vulnerable. “It leaves in three hours. Before that, I have to go back to Abby’s and grab my purse. Then I have to go to my dad’s and pack. And then I have to get to the airport at least two hours early because, God forbid, the TSA doesn’t like the way I look.”
“Last night you didn’t mention you were leaving.”
The expression on his face hovered somewhere between bewildered and righteously pissed off. She sat down on the edge of the bed and pulled the sheet up to cover herself. Explaining to the guy you’d just spent the night having amazing sex with that you were bailing like a cheap whore was awkward enough. Add doing it while you were naked? Yeah. Not pretty.
“I have a business to run,” she explained. “I’ve depended on Danielle for too long as it is. She’s been toughing it out even while her youngest daughter has the flu. I can’t—”
“When?”
“When what?” she asked. The dark shift in his eyes slammed into her like a fist.
“When did you buy the airline ticket?”
“Yesterday.”
“Seems hard to forget something that quickly,” he said, his tone tight and accusatory.
“It was a crazy day. And night. And I—”
He lifted his hand, a clear sign he’d heard enough.
“Your clothes are probably still downstairs in the pool bathroom.” He threw off the covers and got out of bed—clearly more comfortable with nudity. He reached down, snapped a pair of jeans up off the floor, and stuck his legs in one at a time. “I’ll get my keys and take you home.”
“Jesse.” She reached for him, but he stepped out of the way. “Don’t be mad.”
“Why would I be mad?” When he looked up a caustic smile twisted his lips. It was not an attractive look. “We just had a night of great sex. You’ve got things to do. I’ve got things to do. And my reputation stands. Thanks for a good time.”
When he walked from the room, he left a chill in his wake, and her mother’s words clanged in her head. “You’re just like me, Allie.”
Last night when she’d walked into Seven Devils with the rest of the bachelorette party, she hadn’t intended to go to Jesse’s house. She hadn’t intended to get naked. She hadn’t intended to have all-night amazing sex. She hadn’t intended to hurt him.
Above all, she hadn’t intended to fall just a little bit more in love.
But she was afraid she’d done just that.
Last damn time he’d ever listen to Reno.
Jesse glanced across the cab of his truck at Allison, who was doing her best to act like her jumping on an airplane was no big deal.
Maybe for her it wasn’t.
Didn’t mean he had to feel the same.
“My sister will be really glad to have me back. We still haven’t found a white horse we can make into a unicorn for Jenny Curran’s princess party. The costume shop didn’t have a large enough inventory to choose from for the Schweinberg/Elliott medieval wedding. And . . .”
She rambled on about things he didn’t give a rat’s ass about.
She didn’t owe him anything.
But that didn’t stop the sense of betrayal that squeezed his chest.
“Don’t make excuses to try to make me feel better that you forgot to mention you were bailing out today,” he said, sounding much more like an asshole than he intended.
“I’m not.”
“Okay.”
“I’m telling you the truth, Jesse.”
“Okay.”
As he pulled his truck to the curb in front of Abby’s house, she folded her arms across the front of that snug Pistol Annie’s HELL ON HEELS tank top and glared at him. “Are you always this stubborn?”
“Pretty much.”
Her hands came up, showing her frustration. “Why is that not a surprise?”
“I don’t know.” He pulled the key from the ignition, turned to look at her, and fought the desire to pull her into his arms. “But it’s probably only half the surprise of your suddenly leaving town.”
“Are we having our first fight?” she asked.
“And last.” He got out of the truck, went around to her side, and opened the door for her. She sat there with those smoky gray eyes and a look that hit him below the belt.
Jesus.
They’d just spent an amazing night together. Just because he had expectations she hadn’t lived up to didn’t give him a right to behave like a petulant child.
Didn’t stop him either.
“Sorry.” He popped his fists onto his hips and exhaled a harsh breath of air. “It’s not like me to be a total jackass.”
For an awkward, silent moment, she just sat there like she was thinking things over. Deciding if she should belt him a good one or just get out of the truck and walk away. Instead of doing either, she unfolded her arms and wrapped them around his neck.
“I’m sorry. I should have said something. I just got so caught up in everything . . . in you . . . that I really did forget.” She pressed a soft kiss to his lips. “Can we call a truce?”
Instead of pushing her away, he kissed her back. He didn’t want this to be a one-night stand. He was growing to care for her and was more than willing to figure out where their relationship could go. How they could make it work. He just wasn’t sure how she saw the whole picture. Then again, maybe she did. Maybe to her he was just a one-time fling.
For the first time in his life, he felt unsure and unsteady where a woman was concerned, and he didn’t like it. At all.
“I’m not sure when I’ll be back.” Her eyes searched his. “But I don’t want this to be good-bye.”
“I guess that’s up to you.”
A slip of air pushed from her lungs. “I guess so.”
An unusual ache hit him center mass as he held out his hand and helped her down to the sidewalk. In reality, he’d like nothing more than to just roll her back up in his truck, take her home, and back to bed. But she had an agenda that would take her thousands of miles away, and it was pretty hard to snuggle at that distance.
Things got more awkward as, apparently at a loss for words, they walked up to Abby’s door together in silence. Other than the faint, distant whir of a vacuum cleaner, the echo of their boot heels tapping the concrete path became the only sound.
He knocked. The door swung open.
“Oh, thank God.” Abby pushed out a huge sigh of relief. “Crisis averted,” she called out to whoever was inside the house. “Allie’s here.”
Ten minutes later, Allison found herself, once again, at Jana Wilder’s big kitchen table. This time she was surrounded by her dad and what seemed like the entire Wilder family. The clock ticked away the countdown on her flight back to Seattle, and all eyes were on her.
No pressure.
As coffee pumped through Jana’s ancient coffeemaker, the Wilders had all gathered to do whatever was necessary to eliminate yet another wedding-related disaster. To see a family pull together like this gave Allison an amazing insight to what kept this family glued together. And she was awed.
The old saying that everything happened in threes had certainly come to life with Charli and Reno’s wedding, which was to take place in just six days. The biggest of the current catastrophes included an early-morning phone call from Charli’s Marine general father, who was set to arrive in three days. It seemed the man had chosen his daughter’s wedding as the perfect time and place to introduce his new girlfriend. A woman, he informed Charli, who was barely above the legal drinking age.
As an event planner, Allison was accustomed to the occasional kinks a family could insert into a family affair. It was her job to avert disasters, which in more than one case had included hiring someone to babysit the troublemaker until it was too late for them to destroy the festivities.
She could still remember the inventive names she’d once been called when an ex-girlfriend had decided to crash a high-profile wedding she’d spent months planning. The interesting curve to the story had been because the ex belonged to the bride. Apparently, the groom had no idea the bride had ever dipped her toes in lesbian waters. Sadly, the dishonesty had led to the couple’s ending up as just another divorce statistic.
While Charli held back tears over her father’s newly added stress to the happiest day of her life, she didn’t manage to hold them back upon the news that the Austin bakery she’d chosen to make their wedding cake had burned down the previous night or that the caterer had overbooked.
With now a whopping six glitches racked up for Charli and Reno’s wedding, one could easily scratch their head and look at it as a sign that it wasn’t meant to be. But even a hard-core cynic like Allison knew retreat was not an option. Even she had to admit that Charli and Reno had something special.
Soul mates.
There was no other explanation for the incredible love that shone in their eyes when they looked at each other. If she was honest, she’d admit their love ignited a new spark of hope and opened the door to new possibilities.
From the corner of the kitchen, Jesse leaned against the counter and gave her a look that practically defied her to get up and walk away. To get on that plane and fly back to Seattle. To ignore the avalanche that threatened his brother’s and Charli’s happiness.
Murmurings of ideas on how to fix the problems flew around the kitchen as Charli dabbed her eyes with a tissue. Reno cupped Charli’s face in his hands and looked at her with such love it stole Allison’s breath. Though Allison was confident her brother-in-law was crazy in love with her sister, she was equally sure even Andrew had never looked at Dani the way Reno looked at Charli.
“I’ll do anything you want,” Reno said to Charli. “I’ll fly everyone off to Vegas or Tahoe. I’ll marry you in the courthouse. In jeans, a bathing suit, or your fluffy pink robe. It doesn’t matter where or how. It only matters that you become my wife.”