Bourbon Springs Box Set: Volume II, Books 4-6 (Bourbon Springs Box Sets Book 2)

by Jennifer Bramseth

  For the next hour, Jon helped the movers load her few things, and they were at Hannah’s garage in a very short time. Jon already had the keys to the house. Before heading to her house, he’d gone to the distillery and picked them up from Hannah at the visitors’ center. He reported that Hannah had invited them to dinner in the distillery café, her treat.

  “I still feel weird about this,” Pepper said after the movers had left and her boxes and other items had been stowed in the garage.

  Jon unlocked the front door of Hannah’s house and pushed it open. He then put his hand on Pepper’s lower back and nudged her inside ahead of him. Pepper noticed Jon’s hand staying on her back a little longer than what she would’ve considered polite under other circumstances. She attributed his touchiness to an effort to comfort her; she was, after all, walking into a strange house. She was surprised to feel that she needed that sense of the familiar that he brought her, that modicum of security.

  Because Pepper was feeling more than a little afraid.

  Coming to Hannah Davenport’s house seemed like some kind of allegorical rest stop between two phases of her life: the dirt-poor part and the crazy-rich part, which would start, at least in her own mind, as soon as she moved to GarnetBrooke. And while she was happy to be blessed with enough money to be secure for the rest of her life, the thought of transitioning to a completely different lifestyle was unnerving.

  Jon closed the door behind them and walked into the house. He told her he’d been there a few times and was moderately familiar with the layout, although he’d never been to the suite where she would be staying. She trailed him through the foyer, then down a hall and into a great room that provided a wonderful view of Old Crow Creek through a bank of tall windows.

  “What a beautiful home,” Pepper said admiringly and smiled as she looked around. “I’ve always wondered what this place was like on the inside. It’s a lot nicer than it looks from the outside.”

  Jon pointed to a hallway on the other side of the room beyond the fireplace. “It must be down that way.” He walked across the room toward the passage and a door on the right.

  She followed Jon into her temporary quarters and was quite pleased at her accommodations. There was a queen-sized bed to the right, a long wall of windows in front providing another lovely view of the creek, and a bathroom to the far left.

  “If this is just a guest room, I wonder what the master suite must be like,” Pepper said. She turned on a lamp next to the bed and then joined Jon, who had stepped further into the room and was standing before the windows.

  Jon pointed to a door to the left of them. “You’ve got your own private balcony.”

  Pepper immediately went to the balcony door and opened it, then urged him to join her outside.

  “What a view!” she gasped.

  Below them was Old Crow Creek, its frigid, clear waters shining between the denuded trees lining its banks. In the far distance to the northwest was a chain of snow-dusted hills called the Knobs, a ring of high, pointed prominences which marked the end of the Bluegrass geographical region.

  Through thick, low clouds the winter sun’s rays sought escape and provided them with the beginnings of an explosively colored sunset.

  Jon inhaled. “Smell that mash,” he said and smiled at her. “You’d better get used to it. You’ll smell it all the time once you’re across the road at GarnetBrooke.”

  “I will, won’t I? I do love that smell, so that’s not a problem. Where I lived in town we didn’t get that intense aroma.” She looked away toward the creek, thinking of the distillery just upstream, and her plans for the future. “I really hope we can set up some joint tours—the distillery and the farm. Maybe I’ll get a chance to talk to Hannah about that while I’m here.”

  Pepper gripped the wooden railing of the balcony and bounced on her heels in excitement. The trepidation she’d felt upon entering the house had been replaced with giddiness. She’d been riding this emotional roller coaster now for the month since she’d won the lottery, and she still wasn’t used to all the ups and downs.

  But she’d take them since life lately had definitely had more ups than downs.

  * * *

  Jon thought she resembled a little kid who was waiting in line for a ride at a fair—expectant and nervous, but overwhelmingly happy. Every time he saw that cheerful look on Pepper’s face, he was amazed and thankful for her good fortune. And he was still surprised to see it.

  Jon leaned over the railing and tried to relax, but it was difficult with Pepper right next to him. She stood very close; it was windy on the balcony and she had naturally and maybe even unknowingly snuggled close to his side. Jon’s thoughts were confused, even though he completely understood what his body was telling him.

  Because for the first time in his life he was hard in Pepper Montrose’s presence.

  He could no longer deny his attraction to her and if he wasn’t careful, he was going to announce that attraction in a most inappropriate manner. He’d still not come up with a plan to confess his interest, but having an obvious raging hard-on in her darkened bedroom had definitely not been one of the options.

  As he tried to hide his condition by edging closer to the railing, he thought of Drake and how difficult it must be for him when he was working with Pepper as a client.

  Jon then remembered that Drake had a message for Pepper and delivered it to her.

  She accepted the news of no further closing delays looking mildly irked.

  “Well, that’s good. Any other messages or requests from Drake?” she asked in a snarky tone.

  Jon blinked at her in confusion and was about to say something when his phone called for attention. When he checked the caller’s identity, he saw it was Pepper’s hostess.

  “Hey, you folks at the house?” Hannah asked.

  Jon confirmed that they were, and Hannah said that she was running behind at the distillery; she asked to meet for dinner at the café about an hour and a half later than they had originally planned. She apologized, and urged them to snack on anything she had in the kitchen.

  “Make yourselves at home,” she told them. “Kyle’s off at some conference overnight in Lexington or somewhere, so don’t worry about him. And please come eat with me at the distillery tonight. I could use the company.”

  Jon ended the call and checked the time. “Looks like we’ve got over two hours to kill before we meet her.” He slipped the phone back into his jeans pocket. “You need to go anywhere, do anything?”

  “No, I’m good. Time to relax a little. Maybe Hannah has some hot chocolate mix in the kitchen. Want some before you go?”

  Jon stood up. He’d been leaning over the balcony to hide his erection but between the cold and the call from Hannah, his noticeable arousal had abated, although not completely.

  “Sounds good, but first tell me what you meant about Drake having a message for you.” He opened the bedroom door for her and he could see she was grinning as she passed inside first.

  “Never mind,” she said.

  He knew her too well and recognized the teasing tone of her brush-off. She wanted to tell him. And he wanted to know.

  “Don’t give me that. What’s up?”

  Her grin had become a smirk. “I was going to ask whether Drake had put you up to asking me out on his behalf. Drake says the closing’s been rescheduled for two weeks from today. And he needs to know whether you’ll go out with him so he can go ahead and schedule your first date after that’s done,” she said in a lightly mocking tone.

  “Oh… so you think he’s interested in you?” he asked, trying to feign a casualness he didn’t feel.

  “Think it? I know it.” Pepper took off her coat and threw it on a nearby chair. “He’s asked me out a few times—that was before I became a client,” she added quickly. “Turned him down, but I don’t think he’s quite given up hope. And he really should, poor guy. Hope I haven’t led him on.”

  “I don’t see how, considering you turned him down,
and then you hired him as your lawyer.”

  Jon took off his coat and threw it on top of hers on the chair. He was anxious to get out of Pepper’s room. She was clueless about how he felt about her, and being alone in her bedroom was unsettling and sweetly tempting.

  She laughed. “I thought that was a pretty good move, myself.”

  “Wait. You hired him to keep him away? That is really…”

  “Wicked?” she suggested as he struggled for words. Pepper brought her arms up to her head to readjust her ponytail.

  “I was going to go with clever,” he claimed, trying not to notice that yet again several buttons on her shirt had popped open.

  And there was that damn blue bra peeking through.

  “Sure you were,” she said dubiously and finished securing her hair. “Besides, that wasn’t the only reason I hired him.”

  “So what were some of these other reasons?”

  She blushed, and Jon felt himself getting hard again.

  “Well, he is a good lawyer.”

  “And?” Jon egged her on, intuiting there was another reason for her decision that she didn’t want to reveal.

  “Okay, the truth is that the main reason I hired him was to make you jealous,” she admitted with a sigh. But her mood switched from mildly annoyed to amused in the next second. “And apparently my little plan worked!” She gleefully pointed to his face where he could feel the flush creeping up his neck and across his features.

  Jon was happy that his embarrassment was so obvious. The distraction of a reddened face was most welcome because he couldn’t hide what was happening below.

  * * *

  Pepper saw some change in his face at that point—from mild awkwardness to something more uncomfortable and powerful.

  “Are you okay?” she asked, and touched him on the arm, thinking he might be ill. Or had upset him by admitting she’d wanted to make him jealous?

  “I—uh—think I know exactly how poor old Drake feels when he’s around you,” Jon confessed.

  Pepper looked blankly at him. “What?”

  “Well, he’s interested in you and you aren’t, right?”

  “What… what are you saying?” She took a step away from him.

  But she knew what he’d meant, even before she looked down and saw a very large bulge at his crotch.

  For the first time in her life, Pepper knew that Jon was not looking at her as merely a friend. She could see him shaking, and she realized how completely terrified he was.

  But Pepper wasn’t scared. She was confused and shocked in equal measure, but one thing she did not feel was fear.

  He swallowed and took a deep breath as she could only stand gaping at him.

  “I… I didn’t see this coming, Pepper. And I have absolutely no idea why I feel this way about you now after all these years. I’ve been struggling with my feelings for a while now, and I still can’t explain this. But this is real. This isn’t a joke. I need you as more than a friend—I need you in very different way.”

  Jon stopped, apparently waiting for her to curse him or laugh. But she said nothing, and he drew nearer to her where she stood in front of the bed.

  Pepper felt a budding sense of possibility and hope as Jon moved to her. Jon as a romantic interest? Jon as a lover? She was just looking at him in wide-eyed awe, allowing him to come nearer, waiting for the adventure he was promising her to commence.

  Damn, he’s handsome.

  She’d never allowed herself to think about him in that way because—well, he was Jon and she was Pepper. Friends.

  And yet…

  That close-cropped blond hair.

  Those blue eyes.

  The strong chin topped with lips she suddenly couldn’t tear her eyes away from.

  A man she’d known and trusted for years, now pouring his heart out to her…

  Then her defenses kicked in.

  This was Jon, her friend.

  Never anything else.

  The guy she’d known forever, her buddy, her pal, her sometime lawyer.

  She couldn’t mess up this relationship. Her last remaining relationship with a man that wasn’t fucked up.

  Couldn’t happen, shouldn’t happen, wouldn’t happen, despite some portion of her soul telling her she was stupid to shut him out.

  Because she felt the same need he’d just expressed. A very physical need, she was shocked to admit to herself.

  It had been years since she’d gone to bed with a man, an ill-fated reconciliation attempt with her ex-husband. She never dated, and her teacher friends at school had called her a nun.

  “Whoa,” she said and took a deep breath. She dropped her gaze from his face to the floor. “Friends, remember? We’re friends, Jon.”

  She was saying it to convince herself as much as she had said it to stop his advance upon her.

  Jon turned away and stalked over to the window, seemingly struggling to get his emotions and his body under control. Pepper realized that she’d just delivered a devastating ego blow to him, but had no idea how to soothe the wound. She’d never been in such a situation.

  Rattled and nervous, she filled the silence with nervous talking.

  “Drake told me that he was going to have the nonprofit foundation set up soon, and I wanted to talk to you about that.” She picked up her coat and hung it in the closet.

  “Yeah?” Jon kept his back to her, his face to the windows and the darkening landscape beyond.

  “I’d like for you to be on the board of directors,” Pepper said and walked over until she stood behind him. “I have a few other people in mind—perhaps the mayor or Judge Richards. But from the moment I had this idea, I’ve always wanted you on the board. I trust you, and—”

  He turned to face her. “Do you? Even after what I just—”

  “Yes,” she responded quickly in a very faint voice.

  She trembled. Her resolve was ebbing now that she saw his face again. And why had she responded without hesitation when he asked for confirmation of her trust?

  Because her view of him was inexorably shifting too.

  From friend to something else…

  Jon fixed his eyes on hers and slowly brought his right hand up to cup her cheek. Pepper closed her eyes and shivered.

  “Pepper?” Jon asked as he dipped his head lower until their faces were inches apart.

  Her mind raced but one thought remained clear.

  Even after all these years, through their good times and bad, Jon had been a constant in her life. He’d stumbled, messed up—but so had she. Yet he was still at her side, helping her, and risking their friendship while risking his heart.

  She was willing to take that same risk.

  Pepper opened her eyes when she felt his breath upon her lips.

  “Show me,” she said and looked into the eyes of her lover, not her friend. “Show me how you need me.”

  5

  She expected the moment would unfold sweetly, slowly, tenderly. But her words and change of heart unleashed a fury raw and primitive in Jon, and something held in check for years was apparently ruthlessly freed.

  He grabbed her about the waist, pulled her against him, and brought his mouth down on hers. His tongue immediately demanded entrance to taste her as his mouth claimed hers.

  She was dizzy, shocked, reeling, as Jon kissed her more intensely than any man had before him. Her mind spun as visceral desire surged and boiled through her body, even as she heard some small voice of reason telling her to pull away.

  But she didn’t.

  And her fervor matched the sudden, intense heat of his own.

  Her tongue challenged his, and she ground her crotch against his massive bulge. When he grunted into her mouth in pleasure, Pepper tried to move her right leg up and around his waist.

  But Jon suddenly broke the kiss and put his left hand under her right thigh, effectively halting their encounter. He then dropped her leg, stepped back from her, and looked down at her slightly-too-open shirt.

 
“What’s… what’s happening?” she asked, excited but baffled by their shared ardor.

  “You wanna have a conversation about this?”

  “No,” she admitted.

  “Take the damn thing off,” he demanded, dipping his head toward her.

  Between the lust and shock that was raging through her mind and body, Pepper couldn’t comprehend his instructions.

  So he acted.

  Jon tore the shirt apart, sending buttons flying all over the room, and causing Pepper to emit a cry of protest.

  “I’ll buy you another one,” he said as he put his hands over her breasts with the fabric of the bra still acting as a barrier to his touch.

  “Jon…” she gasped as his hands kneaded her breasts.

  Her head fell back, exposing the tender flesh of her neck. Pepper’s arms encircled his waist as she tried to pull him closer. She wanted to reach down between their bodies and put her hand across his erection, but she was already too dazed by the sudden passion of their encounter to attempt the simple action. Everything was moving so quickly, but her body was telling her she needed him, and her mind was no longer making any objection. This was Jon, someone she’d known forever and she knew cared about her.

  Jon’s lips and tongue found her neck, and as soon as he started kissing and stroking the tender skin, Pepper could not stop herself from moaning.

  “I think that’s the hottest thing I’ve ever heard,” he whispered in her ear while moving his hands to her back to undo the clasp on her bra.

  “Stick around,” she said as the bra fell from her body. “I’m pretty sure I can do better than that—depending on how talented you are, that is.”

  She crossed her arms over her chest and denied Jon the sight of her bare breasts.

  “You sound doubtful that I can do better,” he said and began to strip.

  “Remember what I said, Jon?” she asked as he flung his shirt across the room, quickly followed by jeans and boxers. “Show me how you need me.”

  Then she looked down and caught sight of exactly what he was showing her in that moment: his massive erection.