Cassie laughed, causing the other three to look at her.
“Something you want to tell us about Lucky?” Claire said.
That stopped her laughing. “No.”
Clearly they wanted more, but Cassie didn’t have more to give them. Lucky and she had had sex, but it hadn’t involved a blow job.
“Then Helene can tell us,” Livvy insisted. “Since Lucky and Logan are identical twins, it’d be pretty much the same account anyway.”
Helene smiled and sipped her wine. “A lady doesn’t talk about such things.”
Too bad because Cassie wanted to hear. It was silly to want details, but it felt deliciously naughty doing this. And it got her mind off the girls for a few seconds. Too bad her mind kept going back to them, though.
“I’ve got a sort-of BJ sex story,” Claire volunteered. “Not about Riley, though. About Logan and Lucky.”
That got their attention, and even Livvy stopped dancing so she could rejoin them on the sofa.
“Logan might have told Helene about this and, Cassie, you might remember,” Claire went on, “but when Lucky and Logan were seniors in high school, Lucky was seeing Darla Jean Nederland. Briefly seeing her.”
Cassie had to shake her head. Helene shook her head, too. By her senior year, the only thing on Cassie’s mind had been getting a high score on the SATs, and she had especially shut her ears whenever there was talk about Lucky.
“Well, anyway, Lucky wanted to break up with Darla Jean, but every time he’d try, she’d cry and carry on,” Claire continued. “So Logan lost some bet to Lucky, can’t remember what about, and the payoff was that Logan would pretend to be Lucky and do the breakup. Logan was a lot better at that sort of thing anyway.”
All of them made a sound of agreement about that. Logan wouldn’t have had any trouble ending a relationship, even with a Nederland.
“So Logan dressed up like Lucky and went to Darla Jean’s house to tell her it was over. But when he opened the door, she was standing there stark naked, and she tackled him. Even after she kissed him, she still didn’t know it wasn’t Lucky and tried to give him a BJ.” Claire patted Helene’s hand. “Don’t worry, Helene. It didn’t work.”
Helene dismissed that, too. Clearly she wasn’t worried about her man. And shouldn’t be. Logan and she had been together a long time and seemed perfect for each other.
“Then what happened?” Livvy pressed.
“Darla Jean was, is, quite aggressive. And strong. She managed to get Logan unzipped, but Logan was finally able to get away from her. The next day at school, Darla Jean told everyone that Lucky was impotent.”
Livvy laughed like a loon. “As if.” But then she blushed. “Sorry, Cassie.”
Cassie waved her off. “I know Lucky’s had a lot of lovers. And besides, it’s not serious or anything between us.”
There was no mistaking the look all three of them gave her. Skepticism. A big dose of it, too.
“Uh, Cassie,” Claire said. “I’m pretty sure Lucky’s in love with you.”
Cassie choked, not on the wine but the huge gulp of air she sucked in. She wasn’t sure what surprised her more—that Claire had said that or that Livvy and Helene made sounds of agreement.
Good grief. They had all lost their minds. Lucky wasn’t in love with her. And vice versa. And this wasn’t a conversation she wanted to have. Nope. She was already on the path to a good heart-stomping, and if she added even a smidge of the notion that the no-rings-attached Lucky had real feelings for her, then she might give him too much of herself.
Her heart might never recover.
It was time for a subject change. “I can’t believe Darla Jean couldn’t tell the difference between Lucky and Logan,” Cassie said.
“I know,” Helene agreed. “They’re nothing alike. She should have been able to tell the second she opened the door.”
Definitely, and that gave Cassie something to think about. For a second or two. But her stupid brain kept going back to Claire’s L-word remark. And to the skeptical look the others had given Cassie.
“You know, Lucky’s in his room,” Livvy whispered to her.
Mercy, was she that obvious? Apparently so. Because Claire and Helene nodded. “We won’t talk about you behind your back if you want to sneak out and see him,” Claire offered.
“Oh, yes we will.” Livvy laughed again. “But your choices are us, sex talk, wine and cheese—or Lucky. I’m thinking that’s not really a choice.”
Livvy was right. It was sort of embarrassing to duck out when the women obviously knew the reason for the ducking. And when one of those women had been Lucky’s previous lover. Still, that didn’t stop her.
Cassie finished off her wine, gave her best wishes to Claire and walked to the other side of the house to Lucky’s room. She knocked once, then opened the door before she could change her mind. Not that she had time to change it anyway because Lucky was right there.
“What the heck took you so long?” he asked and pulled her to him and kissed her.
She’d intended to bring up Claire’s comment in a roundabout way, but that kiss stopped Cassie from saying anything, and after a few seconds of being in Lucky’s arms, she wasn’t sure she could think, much less speak. In fact, she didn’t want to speak. Cassie wanted to be swept away, and sweeping away was Lucky’s specialty.
However, the sweeping stopped almost as fast as it had started.
“Are you okay?” Lucky asked her.
Cassie knew he wasn’t talking about that kiss. This was about the girls. “I miss them already,” she admitted.
“Yeah.” That’s all he said for several long moments, though he did push her hair from her face and kiss her again. Not like the knee-weakening kiss from before, but it was still a kiss.
“Stay with me tonight?” he asked.
“What the heck took you so long to ask?” she countered.
He smiled. It was that “I’ll make you melt” smile. Of course, he’d already seduced her so it wasn’t necessary to bring out the big guns, but a dimple flashed in his cheek.
Despite the smile, there was a sadness around them. One that Cassie felt bone deep. So maybe their being together right now didn’t have as much to do with the scalding attraction as it did with needing to be with someone who understood.
Of course, the attraction was a big part of it.
No use trying to fool herself about that.
Cassie stepped back into his arms and right into another kiss, and she tried to prepare herself for the onslaught. For the fierce intensity that’d happened the other time she had been with him.
But no fierceness.
Lucky kissed her as if he had all the time in the world. Slow. And easy. He didn’t even press her to him. He kept an inch or so of space between their bodies, just enough room for her breasts to occasionally brush against his chest. Cassie hadn’t expected this from Lucky. Wasn’t even sure she wanted it. Fast and frantic didn’t give her time to think. It only gave her time to feel, and that kind of swept-away feeling was exactly what she needed now.
Or maybe not.
The long, dreamy kiss continued. No pressure. He definitely didn’t take it up to the French stage. And then something happened to her. Cassie started to relax. She started to move into the kiss without actually moving into him. It reminded her of those long-lost innocent days when she’d first been kissed. A time when there were no other expectations but to feel, to be in the moment.
So that’s what she did.
She took a mental trip back to high school, and even though she’d never kissed Lucky then, she knew this was how it would have been. Cassie wasn’t sure how long it went on. The time just slipped away. But not the need. Lucky was building the fire slowly inside her, making her want him even more.
“Where next?” he as
ked her. He must have doused himself with pheromones or something because that two-word question sounded sexy as hell.
She glanced at the saddle. Lifted her eyebrow.
“Well, I’ve never used it as a sex toy,” he said, “but if it’s what you want...”
Cassie considered it. Dismissed it. For now. “My neck,” she settled for saying.
Of course, it wasn’t really where she wanted him to kiss her. She wouldn’t have minded him getting on his knees again and giving her another of those special kisses, but Lucky was creating a mood here. Best not to spoil it with a blatant request for oral sex.
He didn’t kiss her neck, though. He stared at her, his right eyebrow lifted. “You can do better than that,” he challenged.
So maybe blatant was okay here after all. And maybe she could create her own mood. Cassie pinned him against the door, unzipped him and went to her knees. Lucky managed a hoarse sound of surprise before she took him in her mouth.
There.
Challenge accepted.
Cassie was pretty sure he had not expected this, but since the next sound he made was one of pleasure, she thought maybe she’d hit the right chord. She took and tasted until the pleasure was hers, too.
She never would have done this in high school.
Cassie continued for several more seconds before Lucky gutted out some profanity, caught onto her shoulders and hauled her back up to him.
“I’m not getting off with my clothes on this time,” he insisted. “And you’re not getting off unless you’re bare-assed naked.”
Cassie wanted to tell him not to expect too much, that her body in no way qualified as hot. Especially compared to the kinds of bodies Lucky was no doubt used to seeing. But then he pulled off her top and her bra and went after her breasts with his tongue, and she no longer cared if she looked hot. Because she was hot. Her body was burning.
Mercy, the man was good.
For once, she was seriously glad he’d had all that experience because Cassie wanted to benefit from it.
Since he was kissing her and ridding her of her jeans, Cassie got to work on making him naked. That gave her a moment’s pause, though, and she suddenly wanted to slow things down again. She’d fantasized about seeing Lucky naked for a long time, and she wanted to appreciate every moment of this, every inch of him.
Even though she was standing there, topless and with her jeans and panties pooled around her knees, Cassie stopped him, then had to stop him again when he tried to kiss her. The kiss would be amazing. But it would nix the peep show she had planned.
Cassie started with his shirt, opening it button by button and slipping it off his shoulders. Of course, he had a six-pack. Of course, he was perfect.
“You’re amazing,” he said, his gaze shifting over her body.
She thought maybe she said, Thank you but that’s BS. Or maybe she just said it in her head. That’s because her mouth was occupied with kissing his chest. He tasted as good as he looked, and she would have made her way back to his erection if Lucky hadn’t stopped her.
All this stopping and starting made her want to scream. Or just screw him. Cassie was leaning heavily toward the latter option.
But Lucky was no longer in fast-screw mode. He went gentle on her again, sliding her jeans and panties the rest of the way off. She did the same to his pants and underwear and got that peep show.
It was really easy to have an orgasm with a man who looked like that. Of course, he didn’t have to rely on his looks for it. For a mouthwatering man, he had certainly taken the time to learn the ins and outs of a woman’s body.
He kissed her again. Used his tongue. And then nipped her lip with his teeth. Cassie thought she was floating, but Lucky was actually moving her. Slowly again, but not wasting a second for a chance to kiss her.
Lucky wasn’t just a pretty face—he was limber, too, and could kiss her breasts and back her up to the bed at the same time. They landed on the mattress, him on top of her. Between her legs. They nearly had accidental sex, but he moved out of the way, fished through his nightstand drawer for a condom and put it on.
The seconds it took him to do that felt like an eternity.
Followed by the pleasure of Lucky pushing into her. He wasn’t gentle. Which she didn’t want anyway. Cassie wanted a full dose of Lucky McCord. And that’s exactly what she got.
Every inch of him.
Inside her.
Oh, mercy. For a woman who had a hard time achieving an orgasm, the one Lucky gave her happened way too fast. Just a few strokes. And while the pleasure racked through her, wave after wave, Cassie couldn’t help but want him all over again.
Immediately.
How could that be? How could she want him this much? How could she feel this much?
How could she have been so stupid as to play with such fire?
She gathered him close, lifted her hips and helped him reach his own release. She felt the climax rack through him, too. Felt his body relax, then tense.
“What the fuck did you just do to me?” Lucky asked.
Cassie had no idea because minus the F-word, it was exactly what she’d wanted to ask him.
* * *
LUCKY WAS CERTAIN he could have handled their latest round of mind-blowing sex better. Clearly, he hadn’t made it end on a romantic note.
What the fuck did you just do to me?
She didn’t answer, but with the way he’d growled that out, he was surprised she didn’t state the obvious.
That she’d F-worded him.
And that he’d F-worded her right back.
Instead, Cassie got all quiet, maybe regretting the amazing thing that’d happened.
The shitty thing that’d happened, too.
He wasn’t supposed to feel this way. A good fuck was supposed to make him relax, make him quit thinking. Sex was his drug of choice. But it hadn’t worked this time. Instead of numbing his mind and body, it was as if Cassie had flipped a switch in his head, and everything had come flooding into him.
Losing his parents. Losing Dixie Mae. Losing the girls. Now losing his mind.
It wasn’t as if he was opposed to having feelings like this. Especially feelings for Cassie, but the problem was, Lucky didn’t know exactly what he was feeling. And even if it was the thing that normal, unbroken men felt, what the hell was he supposed to do about it? He sucked at commitments, sucked at staying in place.
Sucked, period.
Still naked, still rosy and glowing from the orgasm, Cassie leaned over and kissed him. Then she got up, and while he watched her, she dressed. Slowly, like those kisses he’d given her earlier. It was like a striptease in reverse.
If he’d been a teenager, watching her would have given him an instant hard-on, but he needed at least ten minutes to recover.
Five, Lucky silently amended when she bent down to pick up her panties.
Two, he amended again when she shimmied into those panties.
But Cassie probably wasn’t ready for another round so soon. He figured this was the part where they were going to have the talk. Where is this going? How do you feel about me?
But Cassie didn’t say anything close to either of those things. When she’d finished dressing, she came back to the bed, kissed him.
“I love you,” she said.
And then she walked out, closing the door quietly behind her.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
LUCKY WASN’T SURE what he was supposed to say. Or how to act. So he decided to stay quiet and let Cassie take the lead. The problem with that?
No lead.
She didn’t mention a word about her bombshell as they drove to Bernie’s for the reading of Dixie Mae’s will the next morning. And Lucky wasn’t sure he should even push it. Not with Bernie’s warning flashing
in his head.
Brace yourself, Lucky. There are some surprises.
As if he hadn’t had enough surprises already. There were a few good ones, though. The hug from Mackenzie in the barn. Sex with Cassie. But Lucky was afraid any surprises Dixie Mae had in store for them now would not be of the good variety.
Nor was Cassie’s I love you.
Hell, he hadn’t meant for that to happen. He sucked at relationships, and the last thing he’d wanted was for her to fall in love with him. Or for him to feel this way about her.
Which he still wasn’t exactly sure about.
This was new territory for him, and Lucky thought if his life would just settle down for a couple of minutes, he’d be able to figure it out. Unfortunately, a settled life wasn’t going to happen until at least after the will reading and the wedding. Then he’d have to say goodbye to the girls—he didn’t want to know how long it would take him to get past that.
Maybe never.
Lucky parked in front of Bernie’s office, a reminder of the last time he was there. No doubt a reminder for Cassie, too, judging from the heavy sigh that left her mouth.
“I don’t want to cry in front of the girls,” she insisted, as if saying it would prevent it from happening. Heck, maybe it would, but Lucky knew Cassie was hurting just as much as he was.
Cassie reached for the door but didn’t open it. “Della said Brody confessed to assault and that he’s going to have to do community service. Anything you want to tell me about that?”
Lucky hadn’t intentionally withheld the incident from her. They just hadn’t had a chance to talk, with the exception of the conversation they’d had pre-and postsex.
I love you.
Yeah, that and Cassie’s quick departure from his room had pretty much put an end to open communication.
“Brody was trying to kiss Mackenzie in the barn.” Maybe trying to do more, but since it made his blood boil to think of that, Lucky went with the sanitized version. “Mackenzie resisted, I stopped Brody, and I told him to turn himself in to the police or else. He opted against the or else.”
Judging from the way Cassie put her hand on her chest, Lucky’s explanation had gotten her heart pumping. “Is Mackenzie all right?”
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