by Lucy Score
Jax forced her non-imprinted leg up against the back of the seat and yanked her underwear to the side. He inserted two fingers in his mouth and Joey stopped breathing when she watched him pull them out between his lips and bring them down to her exposed flesh.
“Everything about you gets me,” he said, sliding his wet fingers inside her. “I just look at you and need to be inside you.”
Joey cried out as he brushed his thumb over that tiny bundle of nerves that demanded his attention. She braced her free leg against the dashboard, her foot touching the window.
“Every time. You get so wet for me, Joey,” he murmured, leaning down to bite at her neck.
“Now, Jax. Now. I need you.” She begged him for it and thank God he didn’t make her beg long. The second his fingers withdrew, Jax lined up his cock with her opening and surged into her. Joey groaned as she stretched to accommodate his girth. This felt good. This felt right. No matter what else was going on between them, she could always be sure that this was right. It was where they both belonged.
There was no time to get used to it, he was already moving in her. She wrapped her free leg around him, urging him deeper and when he accommodated her, she bit into his shoulder.
Her breasts crushed against his chest as he thrust into her with a demand that bordered on violence. Jax buried his face in her neck and Joey let him take her as he wanted. Fast, fierce, aggressive. The separation had made them both jagged and shaky with need.
He slammed into her again and Joey was dimly aware that the truck was probably rocking on its tires, but she didn’t care. Her entire world had shrunk to the cab of her pick-up. There was nowhere else she wanted to be.
“Fuck. Baby, I can’t hold on much longer.” It was the rawness in his voice that set her off. Joey reared up to capture his mouth just as he drove inside her again and she felt that delicious tightening of release. It hit her like an explosion.
“Come, Jax,” she gritted the words out. And on his next thrust she felt him lose himself in her. She felt him come buried inside her to the hilt. His shout—her name—rang in her ears as she came around him in fitful waves of dark pleasure.
They owned each other in the moment, in the night.
* * *
By the time Joey found her sweater in the dark and they defrosted the windows, the promise of steak had lost out to more immediate need. They settled on drive-thru tacos and Joey ate two of them while Jax drove home.
Exhaustion settled over her like a cloud and she fell asleep with a bag of nachos on her lap. She didn’t wake until Jax pulled up in front of her house. She could see Waffles’ silhouette frantically pawing at the glass of the sidelight next to the door.
“I should get in there,” she yawned.
“Yeah, I need to go let Valentina and Meatball out,” Jax said, scrubbing his hands over his face.
She could have asked him to come back, was going to, but something stopped her. Things still felt unsettled between them and spending the night together probably wasn’t a good idea.
“Bring the truck back tomorrow and I can run into town with you to pick up your car,” Joey decided.
She felt his gaze on her and didn’t turn to meet it. After a few seconds of silence he sighed.
“If that works for you.”
“Yeah, after feeding,” Joey nodded. She waited another beat, but still the invitation to spend the night wouldn’t come.
So she grabbed her nachos and opened the passenger door. “Congratulations on the whole uncle thing,” she said sliding out of the truck.
“Thanks, Joey.”
“There’s another taco in the bag for you,” she told him before shutting the door.
He waited until she walked into the house and shut the front door before driving away.
* * *
The next afternoon, Jax pulled his Nova up to the painted brick ranch on the corner. It had navy trim and bright green ferns hanging from the rafters of the front porch. The postage stamp yard was neatly trimmed. He followed the concrete walkway up to the porch, planted his feet on the welcome mat, and stabbed his finger in the bell.
If last night in his lonely bed with his sad taco had told him anything, it was that as much as he and Joey wanted each other, there needed to be some kind of closure for her before they could move forward. And damnit, he was going to get it for her.
Forrest Greer answered the cheery yellow door wearing a New York Giants sweatshirt and a fierce frown. When he opened his mouth, Jax pushed the six-pack of beer he held into the man’s hands.
“You’ve had more than your say. It’s my turn. I’m going to marry your daughter and you need to fix things with her.”
Forrest turned a shade of fuchsia not often seen in nature.
“Before you say it, no. I’m not good enough for her. But no one is. I know that and you know that. I’d hate for her to end up with someone who thinks he is good enough for her. You and I have had a shitty ass relationship before now, but I love your daughter more than anything on this planet and I plan to spend the rest of my life earning my place next to her. That should count for something. You love her too, otherwise you wouldn’t act like such an overprotective ass all the time.”
The vein in Forrest’s forehead was throbbing, but Jax pressed on.
“Now, I haven’t asked her to marry me yet. I wanted to come to you first.”
He saw the triumphant gleam in Forrest’s eyes and laughed. “No. I’m not asking you for your permission. It’s not my style and right now Joey is more inclined to marry me just to piss you off more.”
“So why the hell are you here then?” Forrest grumbled, shifting the six-pack into one hand.
“You need to make things right with Joey. She needs you. She wants you to be proud of her, to treat her like an adult.”
“Well then she should act like an adult instead of running off pouting about things.”
“The only two people who aren’t acting like adults are you and me. I’ve apologized to Joey and she seems to have reluctantly accepted it. I shouldn’t have tried to make life-altering decisions for her without consulting her and I know that now. I think you know that now, too. I don’t think either of us will make that mistake again.”
Forrest grunted with what sounded like assent.
“I live without a father, I don’t want her to do the same. Not when you’re alive and well. You’d be an idiot to let things go on this way.”
“An idiot, am I?”
“Yeah. And so am I, but she still loves us anyway. She wants to forgive you, but you’ve got to give her a reason to.”
Forrest grunted again as he looked down at the beer. “Are you trying to bribe me with alcohol?”
“That is the first six pack of Joey’s IPA. It’s a new tradition of Pierce men to brew a beer for their bride. I figured since she was your girl first, you should have the first six.”
Forrest pulled out a bottle to examine the label. “If you hurt my girl ever in any way, I’m going to hunt you down,” he said quietly as if talking to the bottle.
“Understood,” Jax nodded. “And if you continue to hurt my girl, I’m going to drive here on the wedding day and tie you up and make you walk her down the aisle with a shotgun pointed between your shoulder blades.”
Forrest harrumphed. “We’ll see if it comes to that. She may say no to you.”
Jax grinned. “She probably will. At first. But I’ve got nothing but time to wear her down.”
“I suppose a man shouldn’t drink an entire six-pack by himself,” Forrest said. He turned around and walked back into the house, leaving the front door open.
* * *
Joey was frowning fiercely at her monthly numbers on the computer screen. Adding two god-like horses to their stable had hiked her operating costs and she knew it was just the beginning. Of course, once she had the breeding program up and running, the operational costs would be a drop in the bucket compared to what they’d be bringing in. But for now, she’d keep a cl
ose eye and tighten the belts where they could be tightened.
When the phone on her desk rang, she gladly abandoned her bookkeeping.
“Hey, Joey. It’s Ellery.”
“Oh, you mean old Two-Face Magee?”
“You can’t be mad at me. You’re the stubborn one who warranted pulling out the big guns. If we’d gone with our usual matchmaking approach you probably would have left town.”
“Or gone lesbian.”
Ellery snorted. “Please, we’re four for four on our gay matches. One way or another the Beautification Committee will prevail in your love life.”
“It’s more like a tentative like life these days,” Joey corrected.
“Give it time. Pierce men are awfully hard to ignore in the long-term.”
“Is there a reason you called or did you just want to rub salt in wounds?”
“Oh, right! I was wondering if you do private riding lessons?”
“Maybe,” Joey said, wary of any request from a member of the Beautification Committee.
“Well my cousin’s coming into town this week and it’s his birthday and I thought a riding lesson would make up for last year’s hand-dipped lilac candles that he was allergic to.”
“Uh, sure. Why not?” Joey said. Taking on a few paying extras would help balance the books until Apollo and Calypso started doing the deed.
“Great! How about Wednesday at four?”
Joey flipped through her calendar. “That’s fine. Does your cousin have any riding experience?”
Ellery’s end was silent for a second. “Uh, can you hang on a second? Beckett needs something. I’m just going to put you on hold real quick.”
“Okay.” Joey drummed a rhythm on the desk with her pencil until Ellery came back on the line a minute later.
“He has some beginner riding experience, but he’s been around horses a lot.”
“Okay. And what size is he?”
“Size?”
“You know like height and weight.”
“He’s, you know. Normal-sized?” Ellery’s voice trailed up reminding Joey of the L.A. question-askers.
“Good for him. What exactly does normal-sized mean?”
“Why do you need to know?”
“I don’t want to put a three hundred pound man on a thirteen-hand pony.”
“Can you hang on again?” Ellery asked. “Sorry, Beckett’s really needy today.”
“Sure. It’s not like I have things to do or anything,” Joey muttered.
“Thanks!” And then Ellery was gone. Joey jotted down a note to tell Beckett to get some kind of on-hold music.
Ellery came back on the line. “Sorry about that. Beckett needed stuff for some things. Anyway, my cousin is about two hundred and fifty pounds and six-feet tall.”
“Okay, no ponies. Got it.”
“Thanks for doing this, Joey. He’s really going to appreciate it.”
“Wait until after the lesson. He may hate it,” Joey told her. “What’s your cousin’s name?”
“It’s, uh—”
“If you put me on hold again I’m hanging up.”
“Woods. His name is Woods.”
32
Wednesday afternoon Joey was in Carter’s kitchen walking him through her predicted timeline of Calypso’s heat cycles and swaying with one of the twins—she wasn’t sure which one—in her arms when the alarm on her phone went off.
“Crap. I forgot I have a private lesson today.”
Carter, who was holding the other baby, gestured at the infant seat on the island. “Just put him in there. If I can keep them quiet for another ten minutes Summer should be awake and showered or her parents will be back from the grocery store.”
Joey put Jonathan down into the seat and watched as his little face scrunched up. “Well, good luck with that,” she smirked as she headed toward the door.
“Who’s your lesson with?” Carter called after her.
“Ellery’s cousin Woods something. It’s for his birthday. Guess the guy likes horses.”
She caught Carter’s weird look but didn’t give it a second thought. Between twin babies and Meatball sleeping under the barstools he probably just smelled something ripe.
“I’m free after the lesson if you need any extra hands around the farm,” she called over her shoulder as she headed out the side door.
The March air was still brisk, but it lacked the Arctic needles that stung the face in February. She tucked her hands into the pockets of her fitted down jacket and hunkered down into the wind. She probably should have driven over to the farm, but she was good and sick of winter. She wanted to force spring along. Spring would bring with it, not just warmth, but new beginnings. The first season of her breeding program for one. It was time to see if her gamble, the Pierce’s gamble, would pay off. And warmer weather probably couldn’t help but thaw some of the awkwardness that still surrounded her when it came to Jax.
She was still pondering that when she strode into the stable through the side door. It wasn’t Ellery’s cousin standing outside her office with his hands stuffed in his pockets. It was her father.
She’d been had yet again by the B.C. and this meant war.
“I didn’t know you and Ellery were cousins,” she said evenly.
“More like old friends,” Forrest fibbed.
“Uh-huh. How old?”
“Oh, we go way back.”
Joey crossed her arms. “She tracked you down didn’t she? Diabolical B.C.,” she muttered.
“She didn’t come to me. Her services were recommended by…an acquaintance.”
“What acquaintance?”
“I’d rather not say.”
“I guess we’re not past the whole lying to each other thing, huh?”
“Oh for God’s sake. Jax gave me her business card if I needed help getting in touch with you. You haven’t been taking my calls.”
Joey added Jax back on to the shit list. “I haven’t wanted to take your calls. And since when did you and Jax get so buddy-buddy that you’re trading Ellery’s business card?”
“We’re not buddy-buddy.” Her father seemed to take great offense to that.
“What are you doing here?”
“That’s a fine greeting for your father. I thought I’d come by and maybe we could go for a ride,” Forrest said, scuffing his boot in the dirt. “Never did get to see the new horses last time I was here.”
“You mean when I found out that you’d betrayed me and our family friends by shipping off my high school boyfriend?”
Her father sighed heavily. “I’m no good at apologies. Ask your mother. Can’t we just go back to the way things were?”
Joey’s eye began to twitch wickedly. “The way things were, Dad? With you and Mom breathing down my neck over every life decision I’ve made since high school? Trying to keep me in some bubble of control—”
“If anything it was a bubble of safety,” Forrest interjected. “You’ll understand when you have kids of your own. We could have lost you that night.”
“But you didn’t because Jax paid attention in health class and knew how to tie a damn tourniquet. And instead of thanking him for saving my life, you blamed him for almost losing it.”
Forrest was shaking his head. “Maybe it wasn’t one of my finest moments. But I thought I was doing the right thing. You never let on that you wished things had been different. You’re happy now, aren’t you?”
Was she? Was she really happy with her life or was she just sitting behind the safety of her walls waiting for the next shoe to drop? Just like her father.
Joey didn’t have an answer for him so she changed the subject. “So you want to go for a ride?”
Forrest was one who generally appreciated horses from a distance, usually on the racetrack, but he’d always given in to Joey when she’d offered to go riding with him. Her love of horses had always baffled him, but the talent she’d displayed even as a kid had persuaded him to support her hobby.
He nodded bris
kly. “If you’re okay with it.”
Joey stared at him a beat, debating whether or not she should just throw him out. But that would probably make Thanksgiving awkward, she decided.
“Ellery’s paying me for it so I might as well deliver,” Joey said. Ellery would indeed be paying a steep price for her scheming.
“Who do you want me on?”
“You can have Tucker,” she said, nodding at the bay two stalls down. “He’s a lesson horse and probably won’t throw you.”
“That’s comforting,” her father said with sarcasm.
“You remember how to tack up?” Joey asked, bringing Tucker out of his stall and hooking him in the crossties in the aisle.
“I can manage.”
“Good. Try not to get kicked,” Joey told him before heading down to the end to bring Apollo out. He’d keep her occupied with his need for constant supervision. Plus, she could let him run a bit after she sent her father back.
Her father gave Apollo an appreciative once over. “That your new stud?”
“Yep.” Joey said hoping to quell any conversation.
Her father got the hint and they groomed their mounts and tacked up in silence. Waffles came scurrying in and planted himself at Joey’s feet. Apollo tossed his black head in greeting.
“There you are,” Joey said, running her hands through Waffles’ wiry fur. “You want to come along?”
Waffles spun in a happy circle before running over to sniff Forrest’s boots.
“Who’s this?” Forrest asked.
“That’s Waffles.”
“He yours?”
Joey gave a noncommittal “Uh-huh,” as she hefted the saddle onto Apollo’s back.
“You always wanted a dog,” her father ventured again.
“Yep. Jax got him for me from the rescue in town.” She’d deliberately dropped Jax’s name again, curious to see what her father’s reaction was. It wasn’t so long ago that the mere mention of the man’s name had veins throbbing. She wondered if her twitchy eye was a genetic trait that she shared with her father.
Her father harrumphed a response, but bent to let Waffles sniff his hand. Waffles gave his knuckles a tentative lick before scampering back to Joey.