Jesse

by Reina Torres

And she sat there, watching as he came around to her door. He took a moment to gather himself before he opened the door and held out his hand. “Etta.”

  “Jesse.” She took his hand and was on the ground in a flutter of her skirt and a toss of her head. “What’s up here?”

  He watched as her eyes looked around them.

  “This is my favorite place in the world. The highest point in the ranch and the closest a body can get to the heavens on Sutton land.”

  He walked her around to the bed of the truck and reached in with his free hand to pick something up. They continued and when he finally set the radio down, he heard her soft laughter.

  “What do you have planned?”

  “Me?” He laughed at her curious look. “I thought you wanted to go dancing.”

  Her laughter rang in the trees. “Dancing?”

  “Sure. I could have taken you to a club for dancing, but I know how beautiful you are and I wasn’t going to trust a single man in there not to try and tempt you away.” He tucked her into his side as he reached for the controls. The power switch clicked into place and he had to turn the portable radio a little to get the antenna pointed toward the center of town. “So up here, I have you all to myself.”

  The crackle of static sputtered and died away leaving a commercial in its place.

  “It’ll just take a minute to get back to the music, but up here, I don’t have to worry about having someone cut in on my dance.”

  As he adjusted the volume on the front of the radio, he felt Etta slip her arms around his middle and lean against his back.

  “And I,” he could feel her rub her cheek against his back, “don’t have to worry about a woman thinking she can dance with my man.”

  He turned, putting his back against the bed of the truck and wrapping her lightly in his embrace. “You think another woman could tempt me away?”

  She looked down for a moment before she met his eyes again. “She could try.”

  “She could try…” Jesse leaned in and kissed her. When he pulled back, he laughed, but softly as his hands moved down over her back. “But you’re the one for me Etta. That’s all there is to it.”

  A quick moment of silence announced the end of the commercial and then the music started up again. The jaunty twang of the background music was something they both recognized immediately. Moving away from the back of the truck bed he reached for her hand and guided her to the flattest ground on the old Round Top and started to dance.

  She looked down as he moved his feet to the music and nodded her approval. Taking a few dancing steps back, she gave him a big, brilliant smile. “Who taught you how to dance?”

  He grimaced a little remembering a similar question that he’d blurted out to her a while back. “What? You don’t think I was born dancing like this?”

  Her furrowed brow was eloquent enough, but she softened it with a shake of her head. “I’m thinking you mother took pity on you. She probably pulled all of the furniture back in the living room and taught you how not to trip over your feet.”

  Jesse’s wide-eyed look at Etta made her laugh and he took a few steps to the side, turning a circle as he went. When he met her eyes again, he gave her a wink. “Nope, the barn.”

  She stopped moving for a moment, staring at him in shock, but he kept going, dancing toward her with a couple of swaying steps.

  “She figured if I was going to trip over my feet, I could at least fall flat on my face in the hay.”

  Etta’s steps faltered and she turned her head to give him a suspicious side-eye look. “You’re joking.”

  He reached out and grasped her hand. Giving it a small tug, he spun her in closer and ended with her a few inches away from him, her soft puff of breath on his lips. “Yep, joking.”

  Her gasp stopped halfway as he spun her back out again.

  “But how would you know I was the square-dancing champion of my grade?”

  That made her laugh again, but this time she kept dancing, giving him a knowing look. “One of these days I’m going to be able to tell when you make fun of me, Jesse. And then you won’t have any secrets left.”

  He spoke from the heart when he told her, “I don’t want to keep any secrets from you, Etta.”

  They continued dancing long after the final notes of ‘Come and Get Your Love’ finished, because they were just getting started.

  ETTA

  When they finally stopped dancing, Etta winced as she took a step toward the cab of the truck.

  “Hey.” Jesse took hold of her elbow and held her still. “What’s wrong?”

  She gestured at the passenger door. “I was fine while we were dancing, but now that we stopped, my feet are killing me.”

  “Okay. I can help with that.”

  An image of Jesse rubbing her feet sent heat rocketing through her but it also left her a little shaken. “I can just sit down. It’s no big deal.”

  “I know,” he reached down and before she knew what he was about, he had her in his arms, “I told you I can help.”

  Held against his chest, she couldn’t help but feel the way her heart pounded heavily in her chest, and the shallow speed of her breaths. He carried her to the back of the truck and set her down on the edge. Crouching down, he helped her off with her shoes and set them along the edge of the truck bed. With a quick step up, he was standing beside her. “Now, stay here for a moment.”

  She rolled her eyes. “I’m certainly not going to run away from you.”

  “Silly woman,” he shook his head, “what am I going to do with you?”

  Oh, she could think of a few things.

  At least a half dozen.

  A few dozen?

  She had lots of ideas if he didn’t, but she had a feeling Jesse wasn’t going to need her input. He seemed to have everything figured out. He rolled a mat out in the bed of the truck and then unrolled and unzipped a few sleeping bags, laying them flat on top.

  “Now, I can’t guarantee that there isn’t a pea under all of these layers,” he told her, “but if there is one, you tell me and I’ll sacrifice myself to take that side, okay?”

  “Okay?” She continued to watch as he untied a quilt and took a couple of pillows out of the center of it.

  When he was done, he toed off his boots and set them on the edge of the bed and reached down for her.

  Before she could stop him, he had her back in his arms and walked her a couple of steps before setting her down on the pile.

  Etta promptly smacked him gently on the arm. “I could have walked this far.”

  “I know,” he grinned at her as he laid down beside her, “but it was more fun to hold you in my arms again.”

  Realizing that she didn’t want to fuss at him anymore than she already had, Etta mirrored his movements and laid down beside him. The only difference was that she was wearing a wrap around dress and he was wearing denims, so the hem of her skirt was almost to the middle of her thighs.

  With a gasp she reached down to set her hem back in place, but when she looked up, she saw Jesse’s eyes dancing with humor.

  “I was hoping you wouldn’t notice.”

  Her laughter came as a shock to herself. For so long she’d been constantly worried about dressing appropriately for every event and she was beginning to realize after seeing so many people at the ranch and in the town surrounding it, that there was a wide chasm between what her father considered appropriate and what was just considered fashion.

  But she was beginning to realize that there were so many different perspectives in the world. So many times, she saw her father’s employees watching her with a measure of sadness and she’d always thought it was because of her mother’s death. That they felt sorry for her.

  Maybe they did. Feel sorry for her. But maybe there was another reason for it. Maybe it was because her father kept her on what amounted to a leash.

  Goodness! Had she been under his thumb for so long?

  “Hey.”

  She heard Jesse’s voice thro
ugh the loud tangle of voices in her head and turned to look at him.

  “Hey, yourself.”

  His eyes were full of concern, his jaw tightening with worry. “Do you want to head back?”

  She shook her head. “Nope. You brought me up here and I bet there’s something else you wanted to show me.”

  “If you want to go, all you have to do is say so.”

  She touched her fingers to his lips and smiled. “I know. And if I wanted to, I would tell you. I’m not afraid of you.”

  Her heart skipped and she pulled her hand away when Randy’s face entered her mind. She turned away, lying down on the pile of sleeping bags, willing herself to push Randy out of her head. She still had a few days before he was scheduled to return. She’d talk to Jesse… later.

  Maybe it was the music playing in their ears or something else entirely, but Jesse didn’t act like he’d heard her slip.

  He turned too, lying flat beside her. “Close your eyes.”

  Her lips pursed and then she laughed softly at him. “Okay. As long as I get a kiss later and you don’t tickle me.”

  He sighed. “No tickling?”

  “Nope.” She bit the end of the word and gave his hand a squeeze. “I get started laughing and then people don’t stop even when I beg them to. It makes me feel out of control.”

  He lifted their joined hands and kissed her knuckles. “Got it. And, Etta?”

  “Hmm?” She still felt her nerves tightening. She trusted Jesse, but old habits die hard and she didn’t want him to think she was joking about it.

  “That’s not the kiss you’re going to get.”

  She took in a breath and let it out slowly. “Good to know.”

  “Now, close your eyes.”

  It took a few breaths to calm her nerves to the point where she could close her eyes as she was stretched out beside him.

  “They’re closed…”

  “Now, I want you to remember… that this is my favorite place in the whole world.”

  She smiled as she listened to his warm rumbling tones. “Okay.”

  “And when you open your eyes, I hope you’ll feel the same way.” His hand tightened around hers. “Okay, open your eyes.”

  She had known that the sky above them had been dark before but opening her eyes again it was a whole new world. The dark night sky was the blackest she’d ever seen it and the stars… the stars were so brilliant.

  She squeezed his hand and moved closer to him. “The stars look like… diamonds.”

  Etta knew her voice was barely a whisper and that made sense given that it felt like she was breathless with wonder.

  “Jesse,” she snuggled close and laid her cheek on his shoulder, “thank you for sharing this with me.”

  She felt him turn onto his side and she mimicked the gesture, keeping her eyes on the stars over their heads.

  “I think we’re going to be up here a lot during the summer.”

  She heard him talking about the future and everything inside her hoped for that too. For summer, fall, winter, and spring. Years and years together.

  They lay side by side quietly observing the stars over their heads, the constellations that she had studied in school but the lights in her neighborhood had always made it hard to see more than just the moon and the planets closest to Earth.

  But beside Jesse, their hands holding onto each other, she felt like the stars over their heads numbered in the thousands.

  “It’s so beautiful…”

  “I’m glad you think so.”

  She smiled at his softly spoken words. “Were you afraid I wouldn’t feel like that?”

  She could feel him shrug.

  “I was hoping.”

  Etta sighed and let the heavens wash over her. “I think this is my new favorite place in the world.” She could sense his hesitation, as if he wasn’t quite sure how she meant the words. “I mean no one has ever let me see the stars like this. It’s like we’re looking right into heaven.”

  They lay there for a while and the music changed, BREAD’s ‘Make it With You’ faded away and Carole King’s earthy voice sent shivers through her body as she heard the first line.

  Tonight, you’re mine completely

  She turned her head toward Jesse and saw him turn to look at her as well.

  “Do I get my kiss now?”

  His smile was slow, but the way his eyes focused on her, dark and heated, made her warm all over. “I think you’ve earned it.”

  “Hmph,” she narrowed her eyes at him, “earned it?”

  “Okay, okay,” he grinned at her, “I’m sorry. Come here.”

  He didn’t wait for her to move, pulling her closer. She went willingly and when she was pressed tight against him, he turned on his side and looked down at her. “Just one kiss?”

  Jesse leaned down and touched his lips to hers.

  Before he could pull away, she grabbed onto his arm with her free hand and tried to bring him down for another kiss.

  He was willing, but he took his time, his eyes focused on her, closing at the last moment.

  She could barely hear the lyrics of the song, but she felt them warm her skin like a balmy breeze. His lips moved from her lips, trailed along her jaw, down the side of her neck. When he nipped at her skin, she felt her pulse jump and flutter.

  “Oh…”

  Etta swore she could feel him smile against her neck. “Like that?”

  She opened her mouth to answer him and could only manage a long sigh as she felt his tongue glide along her collarbone.

  She pulled her hand from his and grabbed at his shoulders with both hands, fingers grasping him as tightly as she could manage. She opened and closed her mouth a couple of times before she managed a word in between the soft sweeps of his tongue against her skin. “Yes.”

  “Hmm?” Jesse lifted his head and looked down at her, smiling while his eyes shone like the stars they’d watched overhead.

  “Yes,” she held onto his arms, worried that if she let him go, all of the feelings coursing through her body would somehow disappear, “I like that.”

  She wasn’t going to let it go.

  She wanted to hold onto it like the promise of her next breath.

  Jesse shifted against her and she felt his hand settle on her waist. He lifted his head and looked down into her eyes. “Do you want me to stop?”

  “No.” She shook her head, her hands smoothed up and over his shoulders and higher, up and around to the back of his neck, tugging him down.

  But he held back, looked down between them, tugged at the bow she’d tied on her dress. He didn’t ask her with words, he looked into her eyes and waited.

  Etta met his eyes and nodded.

  She hadn’t really thought how it would feel when he looked at her, saw her bare skin. Afraid at what she would see in his eyes, she squeezed her eyes closed, but a soft plea from him made her open them again.

  “So beautiful.”

  The heat of his hand on her breast arched her back, pulled a gasp from her lips. The feeling of his hand, his palm against her tender skin was so very different from the feel of it against her palm. Was her breast that tender?

  Was it because it was him? His touch?

  He turned his hand, stirred her flesh into a gentle peak and cupped her breast, letting his thumb skim over the tip.

  She knew she’d made some kind of noise but couldn’t remember if it was a word or just a sound. Her focus was on him and the sudden ache that his touch created deep inside of her.

  Jesse gently stirred her other breast, placing kisses where his hands had been.

  Etta felt like she was on the verge of drowning in sensations, languid and yet shaking with anticipation.

  She reached for his shirt and fumbled with the buttons, deciding to tug the ends out of his denims, and again failed.

  “Hey, hey…” Jesse reached for her hands, “let me.”

  She wanted to enjoy the moment as he unhooked his belt and opened the button at his wa
ist, but her skin felt too hot. Her nerves lighting her fire as she waited and watched.

  He tugged his shirt out of his pants and her eyes followed the ends as they lifted, revealing the taut, muscled flesh of his body.

  Etta’s hands settled on his chest, her fingers chasing the edges of the shirt as Jesse tugged at the buttons and wrenched them free.

  Her heart thundered in her chest, the sudden motion making her remember how bare she was to him. Etta tried to fold her arms across her chest.

  Jesse caught at her hands and laid them back beside her head. “Let me look at you.”

  How could she tell him no?

  As his hands fell back to his pants, his fingers reaching for the buttons on the fly, he cursed under his breath. “If I’d known we’d end up here I would have worn a pair with a zipper.”

  Etta looked up at him, enjoying the feeling of power that stole over her. “Sounds like you’re surprised that we got here.”

  “Hopeful,” he paused, his hands on the waist of his pants, “but if it didn’t… if you didn’t want-”

  “Jesse?”

  He smiled at her. “Yes?”

  “Stop talking.”

  Her bravado lasted about a half a minute. The instant he slipped his worn denims down to his knees she froze. Stared.

  At a loss for words, Etta lowered her hands, reaching for the waist of her cotton panties, eager to get rid of the last thing separating them, but he stopped her again. Gently lowering her hands by her head, he sat back, kicking his denims to the foot of the truck bed.

  “Let me.” Jesse got up on his knees, his bare skin an impressive sight and one she would remember for a long time coming. He leaned over and reached for her. She barely had the ability to think, let alone lift her hips to help him peel the pastel cotton down over her hips and the rest of the way down to her feet, but the way Jesse looked at her gave her reserves of determination and the rush of energy to help him.

  Jesse knelt between her thighs and leaned forward enough to set his palm on her belly. From there, he moved it lower and lower until the base of his palm touched the tops of her thighs where she tried to hold them together.

  “Just tell me if you want to stop.”

  He nudged the base of his palm against her sex and the gentle pressure shot stars into her vision. When he did it a second time, her thighs relaxed, falling open. Slipping his fingers through her curls, his fingers swept over her aching wet heat and her hips rose to chase the sensation. He set his other hand on her belly, pressing her gently against the soft pile of bedding as his fingers drew over her again and again.