by Unknown
The tingles that raced all over her body were almost more than she could bear.
Time stood perfectly still.
Ace didn’t even blink as he opened up his soul through his sexy blue eyes and let her inside his heart.
He cupped her chin with his hand and gently nibbled on her lip before kissing her with more passion and heat than she’d ever known. It was enough to bring tears to her eyes, and she was sure he was about to say that he loved her as a friend, even as a lover, but not the way that she did him.
When he broke the kiss, he pulled her close to his chest, her cheek resting on his racing heart, and whispered right into her ear, “I love you, Jazzy. I’ve loved you for a long time as the only real gal pal I ever had.
But I fell in love with you when the preacher told me I could kiss my wife. I was afraid to tell you because you said you didn’t want to get involved with anyone in a committed relationship.”
“Guess I was wrong.” She looked up into those mesmerizing eyes again. “I love you like I’ve never loved anyone in my life.”
“Looks like Grandpa was right,” Ace said.
“About what?”
“Everything.”
His lips found hers and the world disappeared again. They were floating somewhere high above the earth on clouds, and nothing that went on below them mattered anymore.
Chapter 25
Ace’s job was to keep the hot dogs turning so they wouldn’t burn, to grill them to a perfect plump brown color, and then put them on the platter. Garrett was the hamburger cook, and Justin took care of the steaks. Tony, the gourmet, was in charge of the enormous shrimp and fish fil ets. Four gril s sending out delicious scents that prepared everyone’s stomachs for the upcoming feast.
Jasmine was in the house with the other four Mrs.
Rileys. Megan, Garrett’s wife; Mary Sue, Justin’s wife; Holly, Tony’s wife; and Dolly. They were hustling about putting the finishing touches on a crock pot of gumbo, potato salad, baked beans, and all the side dishes that went with the meat the men were grilling.
“I love this holiday,” Dolly said. “And just so you know, Jasmine, since this is your first Independence Day in our family, I always do Thanksgiving and this holiday. Easter is hit- or- miss. The Sunday before Christmas is here so that the married kids can have their own holiday at home. I don’t think it’s fair for kids to open presents and then have to leave them to go to their grandma’s house. Usually Adam and I make the rounds on Christmas, seeing everyone for an hour or so and having dinner wherever we land at that time of day.”
“So Thanksgiving and July 4th it is,” Jasmine said.
Thanksgiving she would still be married. She didn’t know about next July. Sunday after the church picnic when she and Ace declared their love for the first time, she’d figured they’d have a night of sweet but passionate love.
Not so.
He’d gone straight to his office and she’d been asleep when he came to bed. When her alarm went off the next morning, she found a note on his pillow that said he was up early to go to a cattle sale in Chico. He’d see her at supper. Strange thing was that he had not mentioned a sale. She mulled it over until he came into the café that afternoon, all smiles and kisses, telling her about buying five new heifers with calves to add to the ranch stock.
Monday night she’d gotten home just as Lucy called supper. She and Ace had sat on the porch until long after dark talking about changes he’d like to make to the ranch. A new fence around the back forty where he’d like to keep the longhorns away from the Angus, but first he needed to bulldoze the mesquite so their horns wouldn’t get caught in the brush. When they went inside, Monday night wrestling was on television and Dalton and Blake threw a fit for him to watch it with them. He’d kissed her and whispered “love you, darlin’” and plopped down in the recliner to yell for his favorite wrestler. She showered and went to bed with a book, fel asleep with the light stil on, and dreamed of him telling her that he’d been caught up in the moment and shouldn’t have told her that he’d fallen in love with her.
Tuesday he showed up at the café in the middle of the morning with a bouquet of wildflowers in a Mason jar.
“I was walking a fence line and thought you might like them,” he’d said with a big sexy grin.
That night he and all the guys worked until past dark on the new fence and Lucy held supper until nine o’clock. They moaned and groaned as they ate, but after a shower Dalton and Blake talked him into watching a rerun of NCIS on television. She snuggled in next to him and when that episode ended, they started talking about the longhorns they wanted to raise and how they’d start some rodeo stock like Rye handled. Blake got out a pencil and paper and they were drawing up all kinds of plans when she went to sleep.
She’d been aware of him carrying her to the bedroom and remembered that she had glanced at the clock to see that it was midnight. She had awakened that morning at eight o’clock and sat straight up in bed.
He put a cup of coffee in her hands and she noticed he was fully dressed. “We’re supposed to be over at Momma’s and Daddy’s place at ten. Lucy made a late breakfast. You ready?”
“July 4th,” she remembered.
“Momma’s special holiday. That and Thanksgiving is when she cal s al her chickens home for the day.” He sat down on the edge of the bed and cupped her chin in his hand, landed a kiss on her lips that set her whole body to humming, and then took off like he’d been shot with an excuse that he had to get a case of beer into the cooler.
And now she was standing in the kitchen, stealing glances of her handsome husband out there playing cook with his brothers and listening to the women gossip.
And wondering what the hell was going on in her life.
She wished Lucy had come with her, but she and all the hired help said they’d rather stay at the Deuce and have their own holiday. Sam was going to cook steaks; Lucy had made side dishes and a special strawberry dessert; and Jasmine would bet dollars to fresh cow patties that Tyson liked strawberries.
Maybe this was what happened when two people really fell in love. Maybe they reverted back to the best friend status and sex was just something for Saturday night. If so, then she wished to hell Saturday night wasn’t so far away. Hell, she might redo the whole calendar in his office and put Saturday on every single day. As of right now there would be no more Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, or Fridays. Only Saturdays and Sunday, for him to rest up and get ready for another week of nothing but Saturday nights.
Dolly touched Jasmine on the arm and she jumped.
“You were a million miles away,” Dolly said.
“Betcha she was thinkin’ about that baby boy she was holding Sunday,” Holly teased.
“Betcha she was thinkin’ about how much fun it would be to make one of those baby boys,” Megan said.
“Girls! Those are my sons you are talking about.” Dolly laughed.
“Momma Riley, those are your sons, but they are our husbands and they’re all sexy cowboys,” Mary Sue said.
“So have you and Ace discussed children? I know you’ve only been married a few weeks but you looked so good holding that baby,” Dolly asked.
“Briefly on Sunday. He said he wants five or six boys, which would just tickle my father to death. Momma doesn’t care if grandbabies come in pink or blue, but I think Daddy would like boys. I told Ace that he could wind up with five girls.”
Andhehasn’t had sex with me since. Son of a bitch!
Is that what’s going on?
“Not in the Riley family, darlin’. They throw boys. If I thought I’d have a daughter, I’d try one more time, even if I am forty,” Megan said. “But after three boys, I admit defeat. I’d just get another Blake like you, Momma, and believe me, I’m not as strong a woman as you are.”
“I’m a quitter, too. I’d like a girl but I’m afraid I’d just get more boys,” Mary Sue said.
Holly pointed toward the ceiling. “Melanie came with a price. I prom
ised I’d be happy with a daughter no matter what. I didn’t know I was agreeing to red hair that’s a nightmare to fix for school every morning and a prissy little thing that doesn’t know if she wants to wear cowboy boots or satin slippers.”
Ace swaggered through the back door and over to Jasmine where he hugged her up close to his side. “Dogs are ready. Garrett is taking the steaks up right now, and Justin and Tony said to tell you their part of dinner will be ready by the time you get the food out to the table.
Want me to call in the kids to help carry?”
“I’l do it.” Dol y went to the back door and rang the old dinner bel hanging from the porch and yel ed,
“All seven grandsons and Melanie, y’all come help tote things out to the picnic tables.”
It looked like a stampede with Melanie in the lead but Landon, with his long legs, quickly overtook his younger cousin, swooped her up in his arms, and carried her the rest of the way. When they hit the back door they split into groups and headed toward the kitchen sink and the bathrooms to wash up and were back in front of Dolly in record time.
Two trips for each of them and the tables were ready.
Ace led Jasmine outside, his arm stil thrown around her shoulders, and motioned for her to sit by him on one side of the picnic table. Creed sat on Ace’s other side, and Blake pushed in beside Jasmine, crowding them so that Jasmine and Ace were plastered together.
Heat rises. That’s a given fact. But when it doesn’t have room to rise, it has to settle for burning up whatever is right there in its pathway. So the heat between them spread to places that it shouldn’t be with a whole family gathered around them and grace being said.
She vowed right then that she was going to seduce him as soon as they got home that night. Ace was the only one who could put out the fire about to consume her. She reached under the table and ran a hand up his thigh. As tense as his leg was, there was no doubt his mind sure wasn’t on the scrumptious food in front of them or the grace either.
Oh, yes! Tonight was ending the sexual drought.
Jasmine was going to get satisfaction if it caused a snowstorm the next morning right there in Texas on July fifth.
Chapter 26
The battle began when she squeezed his thigh.
He retaliated by leaning over and whispering,
“Higher, darlin’.”
She blushed.
Chalk one up for Ace.
After dinner Adam declared he and Garrett were the team captains that year for the baseball game out in the pasture behind the backyard fence. Teams would be chosen by dropping everyone’s name into a hat and the two captains would take turns drawing.
“So anyone who wants to play, write your name on one of these papers,” he said.
Megan spoke up to tell them that today she was a cheerleader so she would yell for Poppa Adam’s team.
Mary Sue said she was sitting out this year because she’d hurt her ankle that week, and Megan said she had just gotten over a summer cold so she’d cheer from the sidelines for Garrett’s team. Dolly told Landon to go bring four folding lawn chairs out to the pasture.
“I’ll put your name in the hat while you are gone,” she said.
Landon nodded and jogged toward the garage.
Ace looked over at Jasmine. “You playing, Jazzy?”
“What kind of ball are we talkin’ about?” She whispered as she brushed his curls back from his forehead.
He blushed ever so slightly, but it was a blush.
Chalk one up for Jasmine.
“Baseball, darlin’,” he said hoarsely.
“Of course I’m playin’. My team is going to whip yours,” she announced loudly.
Names went into Garrett’s straw hat.
“What if we’re on the same team?” Ace asked.
“Then I’ll get more home runs than you do,” she said.
Blake slapped Ace on the back. “Sounds like she’s throwing down the gauntlet, brother.”
“Sounds like she’s making threats to me,” Dalton said.
“What are we bettin’?” Ace looked right at her.
“If I win, I get to tell you later.” She kept the rising fire from her face so she didn’t have to give up her hard-earned point.
“And if I win?” Ace kissed her right there in front of his mother, father, and all his family. Tongue and all.
“Whatever you want.” She wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed her body against his. All was fair in love, war, and seduction. Right?
Blake wiped at his forehead and whistled through his teeth. “I hope I’m on your team, brother. With that kind of bet, you’re going to be playin’ your best game today.” When all the names were drawn, Jasmine was on Adam’s side and Ace was on his brother’s team. She grabbed his hand as they started out to the pasture and tucked her thumb inside next to his palm where she made lazy circles.
“You are cheatin’,” he said.
“What?” She acted all innocent.
“You know that drives me crazy. Anytime you touch me, I get hot as hell. You are already cheatin’. Just remember I can play the same way,” he said.
“But I’m goin’ to win no matter what happens,” she said.
“We’ll see about that.”
Blake tossed a coin in the air, caught it, and slapped it on the back of his hand. “Tails. Daddy, your team is up first. Momma, you ready to ref?”
Dolly sat her chair down on a slight rise and nodded.
“Let the game begin. I call ’em the way I see ’em, and anybody has a beef with that they might as well know right now that it don’t do you a bit of good to argue with the momma.”
Ace played second base. Landon was on first and Garrett on third.
Jasmine was up to bat and she knocked it out into right field on the first swing. She threw the bat and cleared first while Dalton was still trying to scoop up the ball, so she took off for second. She didn’t slow down but rounded second and Ace reached out and squeezed her butt cheek as she went past him. She turned back to see the ball coming right for his glove. It was either go back or take a chance on a long slide. She came to a halt and barely made it back to second when Ace reached out and grabbed the ball right out of the air.
“Safe!” Dolly called.
“You cheated.” She gasped with her hands on her knees.
“All’s fair, darlin’.” Ace laughed.
Landon’s sixteen- year- old brother, Mark, came up to bat. He swung twice and missed with his younger brother, Luke, who was pitching for the other team, tormenting him every time. When Luke sent his best speedball flying the next time, Mark’s bat made a solid connection. He tossed it and took off for first and didn’t even slow down.
Jasmine ran for third with him right behind her and on into home. Mark stopped on third and Megan jumped up and down, squealing that her team made a point. Adam blew a kiss at his granddaughter.
When Garrett’s team went up to bat, Adam served as pitcher and Jasmine went to second base. Ace was first up to bat, and he swung wide twice but the third time his bat connected but the ball went straight up instead of out in the field. He figured Mark would catch it on first base so he jogged in that direction without a thought of making it. But the ball hit a mesquite tree limb on its way down and bounced out into left field. Ace picked up speed while Luke went running for the rolling ball.
He was grinning when he neared second base, thinking that there wasn’t a thing Jasmine could do to him to slow him down, but he was wrong. The minute his toe touched the base, she flashed him. Jerked up that cute little halter top and gave him a quick peek at a set of beautiful breasts. He got tangled up in his own feet and barely got control when the ball flew over his head.
Jasmine reached up and grabbed it and threw it to third base. Ace made it back to second seconds before the third baseman put it back in her glove.
“Safe!” Dolly called out.
“Momma, she cheated,” Ace yelled.
“Safe!” Dolly
said again.
“I’ll take you down for this, girl,” Ace said.
“I’ll look forward to it,” she told him.
When the game ended Ace had made six points, Jasmine had five. Ace had gotten three players out, Jasmine had gotten four out. Dolly called it a tie and announced that neither had won the bet so they were right back at square one.
The older Rileys grabbed a beer and melted into lawn chairs or stretched out on quilts under the shade trees in the backyard. Jasmine downed half a bottle of cold Coors and collapsed on a quilt. Ace did the same, propping up on one elbow so he could look at her. Her skin was slick with sweat and her eyes were shut, lashes fanning out on her cheekbones. Thinking about kissing her eyes open and making love to her all sweaty began to arouse him so he forced his thoughts in another direction.
“You play softball in high school?”
“Yep.”
“You play a pretty mean game even without the flashing. Lord, you about gave me a heart attack when I looked up and saw those boobs,” he said softly.
“Good! When you grabbed my butt, my brain went stone cold dead and I almost jumped your bones right there. Want to sneak off to the barn and let me do it now?” He stuttered and looked around to see if anyone was paying attention to their conversation. “You are a tease.
Know what happens to a tease?”
“They get their bones jumped?” She opened her eyes and locked gazes with him.
“No, they go to bed frustrated,” he said.
The younger of the Riley clan had popped open soft drinks or else had iced sweet tea, and as soon as it was gone boredom set in. They brought out dominoes and Monopoly and set up a game on two of the picnic tables.
“Which one? Bet I could whip your cute little ass at either,” Ace challenged.
“I’m sleepy. I’m going to lie right here on this quilt and take a nap. You go on and whip someone else.” Jasmine yawned.
He tucked a strand of hair back behind her ear and then traced the outline of her ear with the tip of his finger. It took all the willpower she could muster to keep from dragging him off to that hayloft.
“You are a tease,” she countered.