Boots and Twisters

by Myla Jackson

  Trent Jameson was the one who had her worried. Not only had he tried to blackmail her for a kiss, he was entirely too attractive in that bad-boy way for a mere mortal woman to resist. Even a woman who fancied herself a cowboy. Yes, she’d been a tomboy since she knew the difference between men and women. But she was also a woman with needs and the hormones to remind her of those needs. She’d denied herself for way too long and now her needs were clouding her brain.

  Riding with her legs wrapped around Trent, her breasts pressed against his back, her pulse was pounding, and she was in a lather. And for the second time in two years her girlie parts were hot, wet and ready for more than mending fences could satisfy.

  She hopped off the ATV and put some distance between her and the man causing her the disconcerting feelings. Hell, she’d already been with his brother. It would be wrong to have these lusty feelings for Trent.

  The bad boy tilted his head to the side. “The fence is over here.”

  “I know. I was just stretching the kinks out of my legs.” And trying to rein in her raging desire that had other places aching to be touched.

  Trent adjusted his jeans and untied the fence posts and pole pounder from the top of the utility box on the back of the ATV.

  By the time he’d thrown them on the ground, Lucky was back in control. Or so she told herself.

  She reached for the hammer, nails and barbed wire, her hand colliding with his, sending shockwaves up her arm and back to her core, making it ache even more.

  Maybe she should just give him that kiss he’d wanted the night before. She could hope he was a terrible kisser and she’d be over him before anything started.

  She glanced at him. Those full lips curled upward on the ends like he knew a secret. The secret that she was as horny as the women at Ladies Night out the previous night. The night before with his brother had only stirred in her a desire for more.

  Fire burned up her neck into her cheeks. She spun away and went to work, praying they’d finish quickly and she could go back to the barn. Surely there would be more horseshit to muck. Backbreaking, disgusting work would wipe this man’s sexy presence out of her mind.

  She’d made it all the way to the broken fence without the wire cutters before she got her head back on straight. Turning back to the ATV, her breath caught and lodged in her throat.

  Trent had chosen that moment to remove his shirt and hang it on one of the posts and then bent to check the loose strands.

  All the air left Lucky’s lungs in a rush and for a moment she felt light-headed.

  The man could make a helluva living stripping. She’d pay top dollar. And she could forget about forgetting him. No amount of horse droppings or sweaty labor would put that image out of her mind.

  Her knees shaking for the second time in as many days, she snapped her gaping mouth shut, grabbed for the wire cutters and hurried back to the fence.

  Using the wire cutters, she clipped the broken barbed wire.

  It had just enough tension left in it to spring back.

  “Fuck!” Trent yelled.

  As soon as the curse word left his mouth, Lucky knew what she’d done wrong. She’d been in such a hurry to get to work, she’d forgotten how barbed wire could curl up again when the tension was released.

  Cringing, she turned toward Trent and gasped.

  The strand of barbed wire had wrapped around his bare chest, digging into his skin, each barb poking a hole. Blood dripped in many places.

  “Sweet tea and grits!” She hurried toward him.

  “Don’t touch,” he said, his voice curt, his mouth set in a grim line.

  “But I have to get you out of that.” She searched for the ends of the wire.

  “You can’t unwind it.” He hissed, easing one of the barbs away from his skin. “You have to cut away each barb.”

  With the wire cutters still in her hand, she moved close to him, carefully stepping over the wire on the ground.

  “I’m so sorry. I should have remembered.”

  “Just get it off before I bleed to death.”

  Slowly and with as gentle a touch as possible, she cut on each side of the barbs until those digging into him were removed and he could step free of the rest of the wire.

  “Good thing each four-wheeler is equipped with a first-aid kit,” he muttered. “You can find it in the utility box.”

  Lucky pointed to the ATV. “Sit there while I take care of the wounds.”

  He flexed his arms. “It’s not that bad now that I’m not a human pincushion.”

  “Please. I feel bad enough. At least let me clean them and put antibiotic ointment on them.”

  “On one condition.” His mouth curved upward.

  “A kiss?” She sighed. “If that’s what will make you sit…fine.”

  He settled on the seat and waited.

  Lucky hovered close by, alcohol pads and a tube of ointment in her hand. “Now? Aren’t you in pain?”

  “More than you know.” His fingers closed around her wrist and he dragged her close. “I promise to be a very good patient.”

  “You’d better be.” She frowned, knowing a kiss would be a very bad idea. With a quick peck on the cheek her plan, she leaned toward him, aiming for one of those high cheekbones, though the jaw line covered in rough-looking stubble called to her as well.

  He must have guessed her intent and thwarted it by turning his head at the last minute, putting his lips square in line with hers. Before she could squeak a protest, he wrapped his hand around the back of her head and crushed her lips with his.

  To keep from falling into him, Lucky braced her hands on his chest, her fingers pressing into the smooth skin, layered over hard muscles. Her legs straddled one of his massive thighs and she couldn’t breathe, nor did she want to.

  If she died there and then, so be it. The kiss was everything she’d never expected, but suspected could be possible. The precise reason she’d avoided it in the first place.

  Her blood turned hot, racing through her veins, her heart hammering against her chest and a delicious ache built down low, where her crotch rubbed his thigh. She moved just a little, and the friction of his jeans against hers sent shockwaves through her nervous system. She moaned, her fingers clutching at him in an attempt to drag him closer.

  What felt like only a moment or maybe a lifetime passed before he raised his mouth enough she could suck air into her lungs.

  “Holy hell,” she groaned, her body plastered to his like a woman desperate to get naked. And oh, how that thought made her hot all over again.

  “Holy hell is right.” His fingers tightened at the back of her head, threading through her hair. “Who knew there was passion beneath the denim and cowboy hat?”

  Warm breath feathered across her mouth and her lips parted. “That wasn’t supposed to happen.”

  “But it did.” His lips brushed across hers in a feather-soft caress.

  She shivered with desire so strong it scared her. Sanity crept in and Lucky pushed against his chest. “It did, but it won’t again. It can’t.” It would be wrong to kiss both brothers, wouldn’t it?

  “Wanna make a bet on that?” He let go, his eyes smoldering, sexy and completely mesmerizing. If she were the type of girl who could be easily mesmerized.

  “I don’t gamble,” she said, her resistance wavering.

  “Because you know you’d lose.” He held out his arms. “I’m in your hands, nurse.”

  She retrieved the bandages, ointment and alcohol pads from where she’d dropped them on the ground, shoved them into his hands and backed away. “I think you can handle it from here.”

  “Won’t you feel a huge sense of guilt if I contract lockjaw because I couldn’t reach one of those on my back?” He gave her a poor-me, sad-puppy look.

  Her eyes narrowing, she counted to ten then snatched back the items and went to work on the puncture wounds, less than gentle in her application of the alcohol.

  “Sheesh! Go easy,” he said.

 
“I should have come out here alone. None of this would have happened.” And she wouldn’t have been tempted by the brother of the man she’d made love to the night before.

  He captured her hands. “Never work the ranch alone.”

  “I know, I know. Buddy system.”

  “Right.” He let go, his hands drifting down her sides to her hips, steadying her while she applied ointment and bandages to his wounds. “You’re pretty good at that.”

  “It’s not rocket science.” She patted one last bandage in place and stepped away.

  His hands fell to his sides and he stood.

  Tall for a woman, she felt short and feminine next to Trent who was at least another five inches taller than she was. She had to look up to stare into his eyes. Those deep brown, bottomless, soulful eyes. “You and your brother have the same chocolate-brown eyes,” she commented.

  “Is that so?” He frowned. “That’s about where the similarity ends.”

  “You can say that again.”

  His frown deepened. “What do you mean?”

  “You don’t kiss anything alike.”

  “What the fuck?” He grabbed her wrist. “You’ve kissed my brother?”

  She shrugged. “Maybe. But then that would be my business, not yours.”

  “It damn well is my business.”

  “What I do with my lips is my business alone.” She planted her fists on her hips. “Why don’t you stay here and let me finish the fence?” she said.

  “Because it goes faster with two. As long as one isn’t wrapping the other in barbed wire and kissing the other’s brother.”

  Guilt washed over her. “I’m sorry. That was careless of me.”

  “The barbed wire? Or kissing Isaac?”

  “The barbed wire.”

  Trent glared and touched one of the bandages, exaggerating a painful grimace. “If you feel that badly, I’ll let you kiss my booboos tonight after I’ve had a shower.” He waggled his brows.

  Lucky glared and turned away. She refused to be caught up in his teasing and got back to work, careful not to cut a strand of wire without holding on to the loose end and then easing it to the ground. Four of the old wooden fence posts had rotted. She pounded two of the metal posts into place and Trent pounded the other two. By the time they’d finished stretching the wire with the come-along, the sun was beating down on them and they’d worked up an honest sweat.

  “Are you hungry? Or would you prefer to cool off first?” Trent pulled his shirt on over the bandages, leaving it unbuttoned.

  She pushed loose strands of her long straight hair back off her damp face. “Cool off.” Thinking the ride back to the barn on the back of ATV would do the trick, she climbed on, not really wanting to press her sweating body against his.

  When he goosed the throttle, she was once again forced to hold on or fall off the back. He turned the vehicle and headed a different direction than the one from which they’d come.

  “Where are we going?”

  “To cool off,” he shouted over the engine.

  That same feeling of dread and titillating anticipation filled her. This was going to be a very bad idea. With her hormones raging and her arms clinging to him, she tamped down a moment of panic. What if she couldn’t resist him?

  Chapter Five

  Trent raced across a pasture to a copse of trees in a valley and pulled to a stop beside a widening in the creek, the old swimming hole he and his brother spent the better part of each summer splashing around in.

  He’d forgotten how clear the water was and how the trees leaned over to shade the area from the harsh sun.

  Lucky climbed off the back and stared at the water, then closed her eyes and inhaled deeply, her lips lifting at the corners. “I don’t see how anyone could not like living here. It’s full of treasures. It’s beautiful, diverse and filled with everything a person could want. Wide, open fields and plentiful sources of water for the horses and cattle.”

  Trent studied her. Her eyes were bright, face flushed with exertion and sunshine. “Do you always think in terms of what’s good for the animals?”

  “I love working with ranch animals. I’ve done it my whole life.” She glanced over at him. “But it’s more than that. You have everything here. Fields for hay, wildflowers, the smell of honeysuckle, and sky for as far as you can see. What’s not to love?”

  He looked again at what she saw. He hadn’t noticed the orange petals of the Indian blankets tipped in yellow, or the scent of honeysuckle clinging to the remnants of an old fence post. Nor had he remembered how clear the skies were in the summertime and the way the shade dappled the smooth surface of the water.

  It took seeing it through Lucky’s eyes to remind him of the magic of the Texas landscape. All he’d remembered was how much he resented his father’s heavy hand raising him and how quickly he’d escaped as soon as he was old enough.

  Yet here he was. Back on the ranch.

  His jaw hardened. His plan was to stay only as long it took to convince Isaac to sell. Then he’d cut all ties with the home he’d never felt was a true home.

  Now he was here with a woman who had made him hotter than the Texas sun. With a pool full of cool water in front of him, he wouldn’t mind taking their kiss a step further. But he wouldn’t push it, not when she worked for him. Still, he was hot, the pool was inviting and he wanted it. Trent reached for his belt buckle.

  Lucky’s eyes widened. “What are you doing?”

  “I don’t know about you, but I came to cool off. You can stand there and watch, or join me. And just so you know, this is what we do on the ranch. When we work hard in the heat, we come here to cool off. It has nothing to do with the fact you’re a female. As far as I’m concerned, you’re the ranch hand. Nothing more.” He toed off his boots. Enjoying her flustered expression and the way her eyes darted from the boots to where his hands worked the belt loose.

  “But your bandages…” she argued.

  “Will probably fall off and likely have to be replaced. Better yet…” He reached up and plucked all the little bandages off, stuffed them in his pocket and grinned. “Now you don’t have to worry that I’m polluting the pool with garbage.”

  “You could get an infection.”

  “The pool is spring-fed and that’s a chance I’m willing to take.” He unzipped his jeans and pushed them over his hips. He didn’t wear underwear and they slid right down his legs, his cock springing free.

  Lucky spun, giving him her back, her breathing becoming labored. “You could have warned me.”

  “It’s much more fun watching you blush. Again, you’re welcome to join me.”

  “I knew that kiss was a mistake,” she muttered.

  “So noted.” He stepped out of the jeans and laid them across a bush. Then he waded into the water up to his waist. “You don’t know what you’re missing.”

  “I’ll wait on the four-wheeler.”

  “Hey, loosen up. It’s only water and I promise not to touch you if you don’t want me to.”

  She glanced over her shoulder at him. “Why should I trust you?”

  He frowned. “Because when a Jameson gives his word, he doesn’t go back on it.” That was one of the lessons his father had drummed into him early on. A promise was a promise.

  She turned and faced him. “Do you promise not to look?”

  “If it makes you feel better, I’ll turn around while you strip.” He swished his hand in the water. “It really does feel good. And you can wash the dust and sweat off.”

  Her gaze fixed on the water, her tongue sweeping out across her lips. “The water does look cool.”

  “Feels even better.” He shook his head. “Suit yourself. I’m swimming away if you want to get in while my back is to you.” Trent turned and swam slowly to the far side of the pool.

  Moments later, he heard a splash. When he twisted around, he noted her jeans and shirt lying on top of her boots, but he didn’t see her.

  Then she surfaced, water streaming over h
er face and shoulders. She remained low in the water so her breasts were covered.

  What she didn’t know was that the water was so clear, he could see the tips of them easily.

  His member hardened and he fought to keep his promise and not touch her if she didn’t want him to. The challenge was to make her want him to. Cupping his hand, he splashed water her way.

  “Hey!” She whacked the water, sending more his way. The fight ensued, Lucky giving as good as she got and exposing a lot more of her body in the process than she had probably thought.

  Suddenly, she ducked beneath the surface.

  He could see the outline of her body swimming beneath the shadow of a tree, and she disappeared. When she didn’t come up right away, Trent tensed. Had she gotten hung up in some roots or vines? He turned, looking for her, and was about to duck beneath the surface and start a search when something grabbed his ankle and dragged him under.

  He went down. A hand pressed against the top of his head and he sank deeper, but not before he caught his attacker around the hips and pulled her with him.

  They surfaced together, gasping for air.

  “You promised not to touch me.” She braced her hands on his chest.

  “All bets were off when you touched me first.” He held her clamped to his body, her breasts smashed against his chest, her clean fresh face dripping with water. She didn’t need makeup, she was naturally beautiful and deliciously wet, completely and undeniably desirable.

  Trent was lost. He couldn’t let her go.

  Lucky stilled, her breathing rapid, her gaze on his lips. Her tongue darted out to swipe across her mouth.

  “You make me crazy when you do that,” he grumbled.

  “Do what?”

  He leaned in and swept his tongue where hers had been. “That.”

  “Umm.” She cupped his face. “Let me get this straight. Did you mean this?” She tongued his lip, tracing the seam and then cocked her brows. “Or this?” Her mouth closed around his bottom lip and she sucked on it.