“Then it’s up to you two to keep the lines of communication open,” she declared heartlessly.
The rest of the hands were quick to pick up on an advantage. “I might be persuaded to betray a few secrets for a piece of that cake,” Rafe speculated.
Chuck saw the way Rafe’s brown eyes coveted his prize and swore. He began to slice off a piece.
“A big piece,” Rafe corrected seeing the miniscule slice Chuck was endeavoring to pare off.
“Greedy bastard,” Chuck muttered, disgruntled, as more voices promised secrets for cake.
As the noise swelled all around, Jessie headed out into the soft evening twilight. She was going to try to reduce the damage.
“Hey, you never told us what the ‘J’ in Mac J. Jr. stands for,” Will called to her back. “We’ve got bets to settle here.”
Jessie tossed the answer over her shoulder. “Jackass!”
Chapter Five
Jessie found Mac down by the corrals. He was leaning with one booted foot on the lower rail, watching the sorrel in the corral munch on some hay. That he was scheming was obvious by the way a long stem of hay twirled between his lips.
“Are you going to sulk all night?” she asked, drawing close enough to be heard.
Mac turned around. He took the hay out of his mouth and tossed it to the ground. “I might.” His right brow cocked up. He jerked his chin in the direction of the house, “Do you think it’s such a hot idea for you to be out here with me so soon after that stunt in there?”
“I’m trying to minimize the damage,” she confessed.
“By reminding me of how foolish I looked?”
She took the two steps necessary to reach his side. “By reminding you that you deserved it for not telling me about the chicken catcher.”
“Uh-huh.”
“What exactly does that mean?”
“Whatever your guilty conscience tells you it means.”
“I do not have anything to feel guilty for.”
He smiled despite his ill humor. Jessie found that an attractive quality in a man. “Not even for deliberately using your initials so I’d think you were a man when I hired you?”
“It’s a tough world out there. A body has to use every bit of leverage she can find.”
“I’m beginning to believe you’re quite talented in leveraging your way around this world,” he said as he eyed her. There was an assessing quality to his gaze that made her think he was debating something.
“I’m not a naïve kid, Mac.” She experimented with standing on the bottom rail of the fence. “I can handle myself in most situations.”
“I’m beginning to believe that.”
“Good.” Dangling on the fence was not only awkward—it was uncomfortable. Not at all conducive to the conversation she wanted to have. She stepped down and sighed.
“Something on your mind?” Mac asked as she stared off into the darkened sky where the first stars were putting in an appearance.
“Yes.” Jessie held on to the second rail and began to push herself back and forth. She dropped her gaze to the placidly eating sorrel and kept it there. “Why don’t you like me?”
There was a rustle, and she knew he was looking at her. “What gave you the idea I don’t like you?”
She snorted inelegantly, a habit she’d already picked up from Will. “The fact that you want me gone and are doing everything in your power short of buying me off to ensure I leave.”
He pushed his hat back on his head. “I could claim you’re imagining things.”
“We both know I’m not, so why don’t you like me?”
“Are you always this blunt?”
She shrugged. The sorrel was getting full, she noticed. Soon he would move away, and she wouldn’t be able to use him as a distraction. Then she’d have to meet Mac’s eyes, and she wasn’t sure she’d be able to maintain her cool if she had to look into his eyes when he told her he found her annoying. “Call it a character flaw. Am I going to get an answer?”
“Do you really want one?”
“I wouldn’t have asked the question if I didn’t.”
He caught her braid in his big hand, looping it once over his wrist, turning her face to his. “I want you,” he stated bluntly. “I’ve wanted you since the moment you stepped off the bus.”
Jessie caught her jaw before it could drop.
“So what’s the problem?” she asked.
“You’re my employee.”
“You’re worried I’m going to sue you?”
“I’m worried I’m going to give you enough reason to file a case.”
“So you’re trying to drive me off?”
His eyes met hers unflinchingly. “Yes.”
“By making me stick to the letter of the contract.”
“Yes.”
She rested her hand on his forearm beside her cheek. Beneath her palm, his muscles were hard, flexing at her touch, vibrating with tension. “Your plan’s not going to work,” she informed him gently.
His head tilted a fraction.
“Because you hate to lose?”
His grip on her hair remained firm. She screwed her courage to the sticking point. It was now or never. “Because I want you, too.”
“You have no idea who I am.” His voice had an inflection she couldn’t define. His eyes a determined hardness.
She shrugged. “I know enough.”
“You don’t know what I’ll want from you.”
Did he think she was a moron? “I’ve a good idea.”
His eyes narrowed. “No, you don’t.”
She rolled her eyes as she finally put two-and-two together. Good God, he was trying to protect her. From all that gorgeous animal magnetism he exuded. “You are so sweet.”
His hand in her hair tugged her head back, pulling her hips into his hips. His cock, hard and thick, pressed into her thigh. “Don’t tempt me.”
She rubbed her thigh against his erection, smiling when he shook and his blue eyes narrowed to slits. “Why not?”
He’d have to come up with a damned good excuse to discourage her.
“I don’t like my sex sweet and neat.”
That was supposed to scare her? “I don’t think I do either.”
“You don’t think?”
She took a breath and licked her lips. She wished she had the courage to meet his eyes, but as high as she got was the pulse in his throat. “I’ve only had one lover and he wasn’t the most…apt.”
The tanned flesh jumped with his pulse. His hand released her braid and slid to the base of her neck. His fingers stroked gently. His voice as soft as a touch. “He hurt you?”
“Why would you think that?”
His fingers on her neck stilled. “Because you’re twenty-nine, as sexy as all get-out, and practically a virgin.”
She grimaced. “Not by choice.” His fingers on her neck felt good. She arched into them, twisting her hips so her pelvis rubbed against his cock.
“Then what?”
“My mother had Alzheimer’s.” She arched her hips higher, trying to get closer. Oh God, he felt good. “Between paying the bills and caring for her, there was no time for dating.”
“I’m sorry.”
“So was I, but at least she’s free now.” His hips relaxed into hers. His hand behind her neck pulled her chest to his. The heat of his flesh through her clothing burned. Her nipples peaked, straining to be closer. Her muscles stretched, reached, wanting the same thing. Her pussy writhed with dissatisfaction.
His free hand settled on her buttock. She jumped. He used the momentum to pull her up into his groin. The pressure against her clit was both arousing and a relief.
“And so are you.”
“Yes.” It was an embarrassing, drawn-out sound. He felt so damned good. Hot, hard, and so damned big. She couldn’t blame Mac for his smug smile. At least it had a kind edge. She was rather pathetic.
“What you have before you, Mac Hollister, is a sex-starved woman,” she admitted on
a gasp as he pulled her hips a little higher, and then slid her down an inch. Her insides wrenched on the surge of pleasure that shot through her as his cock burrowed between her legs. Her eyes squeezed shut as she tried to comprehend the sensation. Her whimper was involuntary.
“Oh, I like that little sound,” he murmured. With a twist of his wrist he wrapped another coil of her braid around his wrist and pulled her head back. “Look at me.”
She opened her eyes. His face was above hers. His expression intent. His smile predatory. “Do you want an affair with me, Jessie?”
“Absolutely.”
He blinked. Then laughed. “No question?”
“I’ve been waiting my whole life for someone like you to come along.”
He worked her on his cock. Up and down. One fraction of an inch at a time. “Someone like me?”
She bit her lip against another cry and nodded. “You’re the only man my body has wanted up until now.”
He jerked her so hard against him it hurt. And even that felt good.
“Damn.”
His hand on her ass forced her groin down on his erection with bruising force. She put her arms around his neck and her legs around his hips and let him.
He tugged her braid again. “Look at me.”
She forced her eyes open.
“I’m not an easy lover.”
“Good.”
“I like it rough.” As if to prove his point, he ground against her again.
She bit her lip against the cry that welled. He leaned down and nipped her lower lip. “Ow!” She touched her stinging lip. There was no remorse in his expression.
“Don’t hide your response from me. I want every cry, every thought you have when I’m touching you. I’ll expect you to give me what I want when I want it, no questions asked.”
He was annoyed that she’d suppressed a scream? She reached over her shoulder and tugged at her braid. Against her buttock she felt his knuckles press as he tightened, refusing to let go.
“What about what I want?” she asked resentfully.
“All you have to do is ask and it’s yours.”
She ran her tongue over her lip where he’d nipped her. “I want to be put down.”
That fast, she was set away from him. So fast it took a minute for her feet to register that they were on the ground. Her pussy still grasped for his cock as she stared up at him.
“Hell.”
He arched that brow at her again. “Not what you wanted?”
She smiled ruefully and admitted. “Now that I have it, no.”
His gaze dropped to her lips and he groaned.
“What?”
“You have a great mouth.”
Nice, but not enlightening. “Thank you.”
He reached out and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. The calluses on his fingers dragged on her skin. Rough. Masculine. They’d feel great on other parts of her body.
“Your smile turns me on,” he clarified.
She smiled so broadly her cheeks hurt. “I’m glad.”
His fingers stilled by her ear. “Why?”
She let her gaze linger on his groin. “Because I’ve got a whole to-do list of sex things for us to try, and it would be really helpful if you were interested.”
“Oh, I’m interested.” He tweaked her earlobe before sliding his hand around behind her neck and pulling her with him into the deeper shadows cast by the barn.
It was almost too dark to see. His hands slid down her back until they reached the curve of her hips.
“What’s your number one fantasy on that list?”
His fingers rubbed over her ass, slid up over the waistband of her jeans and then slipped beneath. She lurched into his chest as his fingers glided over her flesh. He pulled her into his cock. His head bent until his lips brushed her ear.
“Tell.”
She couldn’t.
“C’mon. What do you want me to do to you?”
“Nothing.”
He nipped her ear. “Uh-huh.”
“Cut that out.” She pulled back from his mouth. The move shoved his hands further down her pants. He spread his fingers over the curve of her buttock pulling her groin up into his. She could’ve sworn her pussy sighed in relief as the solid weight of his penis pushed against her.
“Did you want me to eat your pussy?” he asked. “Suck your clit until you scream?”
Lord, that did sound nice, but… She cleared her throat, before confessing, “Actually most of my list has to do with the things I’d like to do…to you.”
The last came out as a whisper. It didn’t matter. It still shocked him. She could tell from the way he froze, sucked in one harshly drawn breath and didn’t release it right away. Great. Her first viable sex partner and she might have scared him away by blurting out the truth. All the women’s magazines said men found aggressive women scary. Considering how important this was to her, you’d think she would have remembered that.
“I’m sorry,” she said, talking fast, petting his chest. “What you suggested sounded great. More than great, actually.”
He caught her fingers in one hand, the other pulled her harder against him if that was possible. His chest expanded on a hard breath before he asked, “What exactly is on this list?”
She didn’t know if the growl in his tone was a good thing or not. “Well one of the things I’d really, really like to do is…”
“What?”
Now he sounded impatient.
She jerked at her hands. He didn’t let go. “It’s just not the easiest thing to blurt out.”
“Try.”
She sighed. There was nothing to do but say it. “I’d really, really like to…masturbate you.”
“Damn.” His body jerked against her. He yanked his hand out of her pants so fast she stumbled. He caught her by the shoulders.
“Why?”
“Why what?”
“What about jacking me off excites you?”
She wouldn’t have answered him at all except that every book and article she’d read said honesty between lovers was critical for a good sexual relationship, and she so wanted this encounter to be different from her last.
“The thought of making a man come…excites me.”
“Damn!”
Again with the damn.
“What exactly does that mean?” she asked, exasperation putting an edge to her tone.
“It means you’ve got me so turned on I’m about to come.”
“I haven’t even touched you yet!”
She put her hand to her forehead. Oh for God’s sake, if she had to blurt out anything, couldn’t it have been something more sophisticated?
He pulled her hand away, turned it in his, and kissed the palm, his eyes hot and intent as he stared into hers. “Would you like to?”
She looked around. “Here?”
He brought her hand to his chest. “Yes. And before you ask, now.”
She glanced down at his crotch. It was too dark to see. She felt her way down his abdomen, over the ridges of muscles and the slight well of his navel. Her finger caught in a belt loop before navigating the waistband. And then she had him in her hand. She fought the denim as she struggled to judge his girth. He was thick. Very thick. Cupping her palm around him as best she could, she measured his length, smiling at his groan as she inched her way down his thigh. Oh, he liked this. So did she, but this wasn’t enough.
“I’ll understand if you feel this isn’t the time or place, but I’d like to touch you…” She punctuated the statement with a squeeze on the head, “skin to skin.”
He shuddered under her hand. “Damn!”
She had the hang of those “damns” now.
“I’ll take that as a yes.” She had his jeans unsnapped and was working the zipper down before she finished the sentence.
A slight brush on the top of her head had her looking up even as the zipper slid down. His face was just above hers.
“Definitely a yes,” he muttered right
before his mouth claimed hers.
She’d been kissed before, but they were nothing compared to this. Mac kissed like it mattered. Like she mattered. And he knew what he was doing, too. He slid his tongue over her lips softly when she’d been expecting aggression. Seducing her rather than assuming she was seduced. He paused at the right corner, stroking it softly, coaxing it open before moving to the left and doing the same. Her lips parted. His tongue thrust. Her fingers clenched.
Mac's Law Page 8