Red Blooded (Red Hot & Blue)

by Cat Johnson

  Her insides rebelled against her mind and twisted with need, with want, for him. “Okay. Enough. I get it.”

  Jimmy smiled. “You’re right, darlin’. Less talking, more kissing.”

  He leaned low and she let him kiss her again.

  Let him. Who was she kidding? She loved him kissing her. There was no letting about it. It wasn’t as if she was an unwilling participant.

  Running her hands up under his shirt, she remembered exactly how good it felt to touch him. She couldn’t stop the sound of pleasure that escaped her.

  This kiss had affected him too. He groaned and pressed closer against her. She felt the bulge in his jeans and the need inside her grew.

  “Oh, darlin’. You have no idea how good you feel.”

  As charming as this country setting was, she wished they were back at the Hilton on that big bed. She braced her hands against his chest, hoping to hold back both her desire and the advance of his head toward hers. “We can’t do this here.”

  “Not true at all. Here in this very hay room is where I lost my virginity.”

  Jimmy’s casually delivered revelation left Lia insanely jealous of whoever that lucky girl was, even though she was probably married with a minivan full of kids by now.

  The sound of voices got louder as the group began moving back toward their hiding place.

  Jimmy dropped one last kiss on her lips and released her. “You’d better get back.”

  She nodded but wasn’t convinced her legs would work to get her back to where she was supposed to be.

  Luckily, he wasn’t ready to release her yet anyway. Jimmy curled his hand around the back of her neck. “When can I see you again?” he asked.

  “Call me.”

  Shocked at her own answer, Lia couldn’t stop the bitter laugh that escaped her.

  He treated her to a dimple-filled grin. “Don’t worry, darlin’. This time I will.”

  “See that you do.” Leaving him and his oh-so-tempting, hard-all-over body by the bales of hay, Lia moved to the doorway.

  She waited and then slipped in behind the rear of the group unnoticed. Unnoticed that is, by everyone except for the other mysterious Gordon brother, Jack, who winked at her and treated her to the same crooked smile Jimmy wore so often.

  Ignoring Jack, she tried not to appear too self-conscious as she ran a finger around the edge of her probably smeared lipstick.

  Lipstick she could fix, but there was nothing she could do about the blush she felt creep into her cheeks or the Gordon man who’d crept into her heart.

  The cell phone in her purse vibrated. She hung back behind the other visitors and hit to answer the call from the unidentified number. “Hello?”

  “Hey, darlin’. See? I’m calling, as promised.”

  She shook her head but couldn’t help feeling like a teenager again.

  He’d kept her phone number all this time. For six long months. Somehow, that made up for the fact he hadn’t called it for as long. “Yes, so I see. Thank you. I’ll talk to you later.”

  “Count on it.”

  Maybe she was stupid or naïve but she did count on it—on him. Only time would prove whether she was right or wrong to do so.

  CHAPTER 10

  Jimmy ended the call on his cell phone just as he saw Jack saunter into the hay room.

  “Well, well, well.” Jack folded his arms and leaned against the doorframe. “Before you go have pie with the governor, big brother, you might want to wipe his daughter’s lipstick off your mouth.”

  Jimmy scowled and scrubbed one hand over his lips. A man couldn’t even find privacy in the hay room anymore. But come to think of it, Jack had walked in on some pretty sticky situations a few times in their teen years too.

  At least Jimmy was alone for this unwelcome interruption. He thought about how he hadn’t been alone just a minute ago and smiled.

  It seemed the doc had been right. His dick wasn’t broken after all. It just needed the right motivation.

  Lia sure filled that bill. He resisted the urge to adjust himself in his jeans until he was alone.

  Jack shook his head. “Man-oh-man, you got it bad.”

  Jimmy didn’t answer. He wiped one last time at his mouth to make sure there was no more lipstick and took a step toward the doorway. “Let’s go get us some pie, little brother.”

  He couldn’t wait to be near Lia again, even if they had to pretend in front of the others that they hadn’t spent one hell of a night six months ago getting to know one another in the carnal manner.

  “Uh, huh. Pie. Is that what you’re calling it nowadays?” Jack smirked.

  That smart-ass remark earned Jack a punch in the arm as Jimmy tried to remove the I-just-made-out-with-your-daughter-in-the-barn smile from his face before he had to sit down with the governor.

  The press had taken all their shots and left so Jimmy didn’t worry when he, Jack and Jared, being the three Gordon men, were seated at the same table as Governor Carrington, Lia and—as much as he dreaded it—Senator Dickson, the senator who had been referred to on base not so affectionately as Dickhead ever since he tried to shut them down in the name of budget cuts.

  Asshole.

  The man proved Jimmy’s low opinion of him was well deserved when he said, “I have to stick to my assertion that if we could cut money from the defense budget, this administration would have the funds to support small farmers like yourselves.”

  As Dickhead spouted off about the state budget over pie, Jimmy tried to stay in his happy place so he wouldn’t lose his cool and tell the senator exactly what he thought about him and his theory.

  Even with all of his effort to distance himself, Jimmy felt his face getting hot. He glanced over to find Jack clenching a fork in his fist so tightly his knuckles were turning white.

  “I have to disagree with you, Senator.” The comment from Lia had Jimmy’s ears perking up as he turned in his chair to hear what she had to say. She laid down her fork and continued, “Besides the importance of the US maintaining a strong military in today’s volatile world, you know as well as I that you can’t simply shuffle money from one budget line directly to that of another. It doesn’t work that way.”

  Her speech had Jimmy’s heart swelling with pride. Actually, after seeing her put the senator in his place, other parts of him were starting to swell too. He always had found intelligence in a woman sexy as hell.

  The senator blanched at Lia’s remarks, but being a scumbag politician he managed to pull himself together quickly. He pasted a phony smile on his lying face. “Such a charming naiveté. I’m sure once you and my son are married, you’ll become more familiar with the complex inner workings of politics. Though I hope you’ll be too busy giving me grandchildren instead.”

  Jimmy was barely aware of Jack choking on his iced tea next to him. He was too busy trying to not lose his own pie all over the table after what the senator had just said.

  He looked at Lia, vainly hoping for her to deny what Dickhead had said. How could she have kissed him like that in the hay room and then told him to call her if she was engaged to the senator’s son?

  Her face turned bright red as she glanced at him then back to her future father-in-law.

  Father-in-law. Jimmy’s brain nearly exploded at that thought.

  “Senator, I must remind you—” Lia began, but was cut off by her father the governor.

  “Amelia, dear. We’re not here to talk about the defense budget. Mr. Gordon, perhaps we should begin the agenda for our discussions so these very busy farmers can get back to their businesses.”

  Enough of this crap. One farmer was leaving now. Jimmy stood.

  “I’ll let y’all get to your meeting. Governor. Senator.” He nodded and strode as fast as he could away from the woman he apparently was never destined to have in his life.

  He heard footsteps and suddenly Jack was beside him, grabbing his arm as they reached the kitchen door of the house. “Jimmy.”

  Jimmy shook off his brother’s
hand. “Leave me alone, Jack.”

  At the warning in his tone, Jack was smart enough to back off, but Jimmy’s torture was not over yet. He’d barely gotten up the stairs to his room when his cell phone rang.

  He looked at the display and recognized Lia’s number. Cussing, he dropped the phone on the bed unanswered and pulled his duffle bag out of the closet.

  Shoving clothes in, he made sure to tuck his precious doctor’s note inside too before he zipped up the bag and flung it over his shoulder.

  He’d find his mama, say goodbye and then grab one of the trucks. There was no way he could wait around for Jack to drive him back to the base when he left. All Jimmy knew was he couldn’t get away from there—and her—fast enough.

  If only he could run away from his feelings as easily.

  CHAPTER 11

  Lia kept seeing the horrified expression on Jimmy’s face when he heard the senator, that pompous ass, say she was marrying his son. As if that was ever going to happen.

  She couldn’t even imagine what Jimmy thought of her for kissing him in the barn when he thought she was engaged to someone else.

  Actually she could guess what he thought of her and it wasn’t good.

  If he’d only answer the damn phone and let her explain, everything would be fine, but he wasn’t answering her calls.

  There was one good thing that had come out of all this. Selfish as it was, Lia couldn’t keep her spinning mind from returning to the thought that Jimmy must care a little bit for her if he was this upset over the thought of her with someone else.

  In the meantime, this eternal meeting was still dragging on. She kept her eyes peeled for Jimmy around the farm for the next hour. She even pretended she needed to use the restroom and had almost searched the entire first floor of the house looking for him before she ran into Lois Gordon and had to feign being lost.

  Now her father and the senator looked like they were wrapping this thing up, and she still had yet to find Jimmy to explain.

  Fine, she’d just leave the explanation that she wasn’t engaged in his voicemail if she had to. Of course, being a stubborn man, he would probably delete her message without listening to it.

  Maybe she wouldn’t have to leave a message after all because suddenly his brother Jack was in front of her.

  “Looks like your father-in-law is itching to go. I guess there’s a limit to how much slumming a man like that can handle in one day. Is that what you’re doing with my brother, darlin’? Slumming? Because I gotta tell you, he deserves way better than that.”

  She bit the inside of her lip and took all of Jack’s insults in silence until he finally shut up. “Are you done?”

  He gazed at the sky for a moment as if thinking before focusing again on her. “Yup. I think that about covers it.”

  “Fine. Now it’s my turn. First of all, it’s not any of your business, but since you’re Jimmy’s brother I will tell you. I’m not engaged to the senator’s son. The senator may want us together but it’s not going to happen. I’ve had dinner with John alone a total of two times and that was because I couldn’t think of a way to get out of it. And you know what, if your brother was so into me, he should have called me months ago.”

  Since the Gordon she wanted to yell at wasn’t here at the moment, this one would have to do.

  Lia’s heart pounded as she wound up to continue her rant. “In addition, I’ve been calling your brother’s phone for an hour now to explain all this to him and he won’t answer. So go get him from wherever he’s hiding and I’ll tell him in person.”

  Jack watched her closely, as if deciding what to do with her. Finally, he shook his head. “No can do.”

  She sighed in frustration. “Why not?”

  “Because he’s gone.” Jack delivered that news with such certainty that she couldn’t doubt it was true.

  “Gone where?” she asked.

  Jimmy couldn’t be too far. Where was there to go around there? The barn?

  “He went back home.” Jack’s answer did nothing but confuse her.

  Lia frowned. “What do you mean, home? Isn’t this home?”

  Jack hesitated just a bit before answering, “Not exactly.”

  He scratched his head and screwed up his face as if the answer had been a hard one for him.

  Where a person lived shouldn’t be difficult to answer, unless there was something more than meets the eye.

  “What’s going on, Jack? Who are you two? It’s pretty obvious you’re not waiters. Now I’m starting to doubt you’re farmers either.”

  “Shit.” Jack shook his head. “This is something you have to discuss with him.”

  She wanted to rip out her hair and scream from sheer frustration. “That’s what I’m trying to tell you. He won’t take my calls.”

  Jack huffed out a breath and then pulled his cell phone from his pocket. He scrolled a bit on the screen and then raised it to his ear. “Hey, it’s me. I know you’re in no mood to talk, but you might wanna listen. Your girl here says she’s not engaged to Dickhead’s son. She’s here next to me and she wants to talk to you. Okay?”

  Your girl. True or not, she kind of liked being referred to as Jimmy’s girl. And Dickhead? Good name for the senator. She liked that too.

  Jack thrust the phone at her. “Talk quick. He’s not in a good mood.”

  She grabbed it and said fast before Jimmy hung up, “I’m not engaged to John Dickson. I’m not even dating him. The senator and my father have been trying to fix us up for years. I don’t want to be with him, Jimmy. I don’t even like him.”

  He was silent for a moment before he said, “Where do you live, Lia?”

  “At the governor’s mansion with my parents.” She knew that sounded pitiful. Thirty years old and still living with her parents.

  No wonder her father still had so much control over her life. She made it easy for him.

  Jimmy snorted out a bitter-sounding laugh. “That figures.”

  “Hey! I have my reasons.”

  She’d initially stayed living at home after college graduation because her grandfather was living with them. She was the apple of his eye and knew she wouldn’t have long enough with him once they diagnosed the lung cancer. Then she’d stayed because her mother had been ill and her father needed her.

  But somehow even though Granddad was gone and her mother was fine, Lia was still there.

  Maybe Jimmy was right for judging her.

  “Whatever. Call me when you get home later. Your mansion isn’t too far from my hovel. Maybe we can meet somewhere.” Jimmy’s invitation was delivered in a voice that told her he may be talking to her, but he still wasn’t happy.

  Meeting him so they could talk was what she wanted, even if the way he had suggested it was not so great. Right now, she’d take anything she could get. “Okay. I’ll call you when I get back.”

  “Fine.”

  The sudden dead air that met her ear told her he’d ended the call without even a goodbye. She really did feel like a teenager with a crush, and now she was remembering why she’d hated her teen years so much. They just plain sucked and her thirties weren’t looking much better.

  Lia handed the phone back to Jack. “Thanks.”

  Jack stashed the phone in his pocket, then leaned back against the pristine hood of the limo as the driver shot him a nasty look. “I just have one thing to say to you, darlin’. Don’t you go to him if you’re only going to hurt him later. Promise me that. He’s been through too much already.”

  At least one of the Gordon brothers was still calling her darlin’, since it seemed Jimmy wasn’t any longer. But what was Jack referring to?

  Curiosity got the better of her and she couldn’t help but ask, “What has Jimmy been through, Jack?”

  He shook his head. “That story’s not mine to tell.”

  After tipping his hat to her, he strode away.

  She watched him walk all the way to the barn where a woman had just driven up the driveway in a Gordon Equine truck.
She parked near the barn and ran to him. Jack lifted the brunette up and kissed her while swinging her in a circle.

  Lia’s heart twisted with envy. She wanted that kind of love. A man had never greeted her that way, though she had a feeling Jimmy, like his brother, was the kind of man who would.

  These guys were so much deeper than she’d given them credit for. Maybe she was the shallow bitch they thought she was.

  She sighed and went to find her father. The quicker they got back to the city, the sooner she could get to Jimmy and work on smoothing things over.

  It was time to move on with her life.

  CHAPTER 12

  Jimmy hadn’t been in his apartment since the day he’d left for Kosovo six months before.

  Luckily he shared it with Jack, so except for the now-sour milk in the fridge that Jack had forgotten to pour out before he left on furlough two weeks ago, it was in pretty much the same shape Jimmy had left it. Comfy, sort of clean and home away from home.

  He threw his duffle on the bed and then himself on the couch. TV remote in hand, he decided women were put on earth strictly to torture men.

  One minute Lia was kissing him, the next she was engaged to Senator Dickhead’s son and then an hour later she was telling him she wasn’t. Now he was waiting at home like a damn high school girl for her to call. It was crazy.

  He checked his cell phone to make sure it had a signal and was charged then shook his head at himself.

  Frigging crazy.

  The show on television held no appeal but he stared at it anyway. He guessed he dozed for a bit because the ringing of his cell phone startled him out of his sleep. Even while hating himself for being so anxious to speak with her, Jimmy jumped to answer it.

  He fumbled with the phone until he swiped to answer the call and said, “Hello.”

  “In the limo on the way home I told my father I’m never going to marry the senator’s son, no matter how much he and Dickson push us together. I also told him I’ve met someone else. Someone I’m very interested in.” She let out a short laugh. “Needless to say, it was a very long car ride home.”