The Twin Contract (The Contract Series Book 1)

by Ceeree Fields

  Jackson Brianna'sxt to Brianna's car and stepped out, waffling between hope and worry. Hope that his admission about Chase didn't drive a wedge between him and Brianna. Hope that the contract would be as straightforward as everyone led him to believe. And hope that when they both shared all their secrets, Brianna would realize she had broken through his formidable defenses and captured his heart. Jackson didn't know if he could say the words yet. He cared for her deeply, but the word love had not passed his lips since he was a child.

  He hadn't even said it to his adopted father, though Jackson loved and respected the man. They both showed this by their actions rather than words. Neither needed the words to know they were a family.

  But Brianna was different. Jackson wanted to hear her say she loved him as much as he wanted to show his love for her.

  Seeing her nibble on her lip, he hurried to meet her so she wouldn't think he was already building walls in case things didn't go as planned. There wouldn't be any more walls after today. He didn't care what she said about the contract or pretending to be her sister, none of it would run him off. Only if she shutdown would he leave to give her space. Of course, he would regroup and try to win her another way, but he wasn't giving up on her.

  "So, today's THE day." She emphasized 'the' as she laced their fingers together and led him around the side of the house where a double benched golf cart waited.

  He pulled her into his arms and claimed her lips. When they separated, he grinned. "Now, that's a better way to say hello than some comment about THE day." He teased using the same ominous tone for 'the.'

  She chuckled and shook her head. "You're right." Pointing to the passenger seat, she climbed behind the wheel. "Let's get the tour on the road."

  He took his seat and arched a brow when she headed behind the house then to the left and into a heavily wooded area.

  "Where are we going?" he asked the warm wind whipping past them as they followed a path that looked more like a suggestion than a place he would take a golf cart.

  "We agreed no more secrets, and you said you wanted a tour of my animal sanctuary." Brianna bumped their ride over a large hump, then they smoothed out onto a larger dirt road nestled between two fields.

  A jarring noise dew his attention to the left as a giant machine swept up the rolled bales of hay. Checking the right, he saw the field held hay bales ready to be poked by what looked like a giant fork.

  "That's our baler," Brianna said as she swung their cart onto another dirt path.

  It ended at a formidable steel gate. Brianna hopped out, lifted a side panel, and after setting her palm on a scanner, shut the panel and rejoined him as the gate slid smoothly open without the eerie squeal he expected. Just past that gate, another gate topped with barbed wire blocked their path. Brianna checked the one behind them was shut securely before opening the next one.

  "This place has more security than that movie about the dinosaurs that were caged on an island."

  Several sheds dotted the area to the right, left, and ahead of them. She took the first right and parked next to one of the many outbuildings that dotted the interior of the walled-off sanctuary. All of them were the same gunmetal gray color as if blending into the background was what this area was all about.

  Brianna twisted the key, and the cart powered down. She tucked her leg under her as she turned on the bench seat to face him. "When we first opened, we went public about taking in endangered and wild animals and helping them to reintegrate back into their natural environment." She rubbed a hand on the back of her neck. "It was a mistake."

  "Taking the animals in?"

  "No, telling the public. I wanted to tell them in case the public had exotic animals to bring to us. Depending on the situation, we could either re-home them to zoos. Or if the animal had been hurt while in the wild, keep it distanced from humans so it could heal and then be reintroduced back to their natural habitat."

  He shrugged. "I don't see why you wouldn't go public with that."

  "Well, we didn't anticipate an activist group getting involved and trying to free the animals—"

  "Holy shit." Jackson wouldn't have expected that either.

  "Luckily, we only had a bobcat and a mountain lion. The bobcat was still half drugged as I'd removed the bullet earlier, but the mountain lion … " she trailed off and shivered as two tears slipped free. "It ended up getting killed by a squad who was supposed to help us tranq it and bring it back in."

  As much care as she gave to every animal in her care, that death would have torn her heart. Wrapping her in his arms, he cradled her close and pressed a kiss to her temple. "You couldn't have known what would happen."

  "I know." A quiet sniffle as she nuzzled into the bend where his shoulder met his neck. "But after that, we moved everything having to do with our wildlife sanctuary piece here."

  Her warm breath sent heat through his veins even as he ordered his stirring cock to behave. He replayed the last sentence and had to keep from leaping out of the cart in excitement. "This place is filled with wildlife?"

  "Not filled, but we have several guests, yes." She wiggled from his arms and stepped from the cart a smile replacing the sadness from earlier. "Ready to check it out?"

  "Hell, yes." Jackson sprang from the cart and hurried to follow her. He couldn't wait to see what animals Brianna helped and wondered if he would see anything exotic.

  She opened the door of the shed, and he walked into a massive room. Thick slabs of wooden beams spanned the ceiling from one side of the room to another with animals hanging from and sitting on them as if they were decorations.

  As far as Jackson knew, one of them couldn't be real as he had never seen it before. The two birds he had seen in books and on television with their bright plumage even as the parrots greeted Brianna in high chirpy voices.

  Jackson began to sweat in the balmy temperature relief poured into him when Brianna headed for the open door on the far side. He followed but decided to play it safe, in case there was an alligator pit in the next area, he stuck his head out. No alligators snapped at him. Instead, it was a pen with bushes, a tree, lush grass, and monkey bars made from rich, dark wood. Netting encompassed the entire enclosure and spiraled over his head as if he were caught in the middle of a fishing net.

  "You'll have to …

  "Oh, my God. Callie was right calling him Officer Delish—"

  "It's Deputy," Jackson corrected then winced. Dammit. He meant to introduce himself.

  "And he seems to have taken to his nickname."

  "Leave my boyfriend alone, Erica." Brianna motioned him further into the pen, and Jackson's eyes darted from one corner to the other, looking for the animal that occupied it. "Erica Johnson, meet Jackson McCord."

  "Hello, Officer."

  He sighed and bit his cheek to keep from correcting her again. He saw the mirth dancing in her eyes and knew she was setting his ass up. "Pleasure, ma'am."

  He followed both women back into the shack when it was clear no animals were outside.

  "Manners too." She leaned toward him, interest flaring behind her eyes. "Do you have any brothers?"

  "No." He didn't add he had friends that might be her type, but with her over the top antics, she wouldn't be a good fit for either of them. Rafe would eat her up and spit her out, and Tristan would tear her to pieces with his sharp tongue.

  "Too bad."

  "And on that note, don't you need to be getting home, Erica?" Brianna said.

  "I do at that, Boss Lady. By the way, I think Bonny and the kids are ready to head out based on the way she's acting today."

  Brianna arched a brow. "She stood on her hind legs?"

  "Yep. I think it's healed enough for her to be released, so if you could look at it and let me know, I can alert the rangers since they're picking up Bob tomorrow."

  Brianna nodded. "I'll run her through her paces."

  Erica threw a jaunty salute as she strode out the door.

  "Bonny and Bob?"

  Brianna la
ughed. "I know not very original. But as the bear is a girl, I couldn't call her Ben, and you know Bob the bobcat was just a given since his name is right there."

  Jackson rolled his eyes at the cheesiness of it. "And what about that guy?"

  He pointed to the bear-like creature hanging from the ceiling, assuming it was a stuffed animal since it hadn't moved an inch.

  "That is not a guy, that's a girl, and we call her Stella."

  "Seriously? You call a stuffed bear Stella? But the other one Bonny?"

  Brianna's nose scrunched up. "You need to learn your animals or watch Discovery more because that's a Sloth, not a bear. And it is definitely not stuffed."

  Sloth? What the hell was a sloth? The only thing that came to mind was something he remembered from one of the Catholic schools his parents sent him to as a kid. "That's a thing? I thought it was one of the big sins." He turned his gaze back to the animal only to jump back when it blinked at him. "Shit!"

  "It's both," Brianna said through her laughter. "Okay, so this building and the attached enclosure is for animals that can commingle like our Harriette, the hedgehog." Brianna pointed to a ball of something that was poking its nose out from the bottom of the cat jungle gym. "And we love the iguanas since they keep the insect population down."

  "I clocked them." Jackson tipped his chin at the two on the top of the jungle gym.

  "There are three. We named them Larry, Moe, and Curly." Brianna pointed to the middle of the cat gym, and Jackson bent down to get a better look only to be met with a forked tongue almost licking him.

  "What're you going to do with these guys?"

  "We'll keep them until either a zoo wants them or they die of old age." She moved to another door he missed and opened it.

  Keys were dangling from various hooks to the left all carefully labeled and prepped buckets with the names of the different animals on them.

  Only Bonny and the cubs and Bob were listed.

  Her flushed face and jerky movements alerted Jackson to be on his toes. "Hon, what's the matter?"

  She froze, her shoulders slumped, and she released a sigh of defeat. "It didn't occur to me until Erica was hitting on you that she would be a better choice for you to date than me."

  "What?!" Shocked, Jackson didn't know where to begin to tackle that statement.

  Brianna's gaze darted to him, then bounced around the room before landing on the pails in front of her. What the hell was going on? He'd thought they were moving forward, not backward.

  "Why would you say that?"

  "Why?" she snarled, pain darkening her blue eyes. "Because she doesn't have to constantly lie. She doesn't have a life that she can't talk to you about. She doesn't have baggage the size of a jumbo jet." The more the words poured from her mouth, the stormier her gaze became. "And yes, I'm jealous of that."

  He growled as he stalked around the table. Within a few steps, he had Brianna caged between the wall and his body. Claiming her lips to keep her from spewing more nonsense, Jackson didn't let up on the kiss until he felt her body mold to his. Satisfied he had her attention, he nibbled on the fleshy part of her lobe. "How could I want another woman when all I see is you?"

  Her body's jolt let him know she was listening. He leaned back and met her gaze. "All I see is your sunlit eyes." He pressed a kiss to each of her eyelids. "All I taste is your honeyed lips." Dipping into lay his lips briefly against hers, he continued with his list. "All I smell is you." He nuzzled underneath her t-shirt and sucked the skin at the bend of her shoulder into his mouth.

  Her moan had him pushing into her as he reclaimed her mouth. Devouring her as if he'd crossed a desert and found a buffet at the other end. Her leg hooked around his hip. He cupped her ass and lifted her, urging her to wrap both legs around his waist as he ground his erection into her. Taking what he needed and giving her what she craved. Lifting her shirt, he opened the clasp on her bra. The second her pink-tipped nipples came into view, he nuzzled into the silken skin between them.

  One hand dug into his scalp while her other grasped his bicep as she panted above him. "Jackson, please."

  "What do you want, hon?" he husked as he mouthed her nipple, wishing both hands were free to explore. Using the one he had, he tweaked her pebbled peak as he waited for her answer.

  "You." She ground harder into him. "Need … "

  He released a dark chuckle. As if she didn't already have every piece of him, heart and soul. Popping the tab on her pants, he slid his hand down and cupped her heat. "You've got me, baby. Can't see, taste, or smell anyone but you." He pressed two fingers into her wet heat as he sucked up a mark above her heart. "Can't feel anyone but you." He pumped his fingers into her mimicking the action with his hips. "No one but you."

  She gasped and fell apart in his arms, his name falling from her kiss swollen lips. Her moist breath tickled the skin of his neck as she slumped against him. Then she was pulling away. When he felt she was steady enough to stand, he lowered her to her feet.

  Lifting his fingers to his lips to clean them, he watched her eyes darken as she slid to her knees. Before she made it to the floor, he caught her elbow and tugged her to her feet again.

  "But … " her teeth dug into her lips as her fingers cupped his hard length through his jeans. "I want to return the favor."

  "No," he leaned forward and whispered across her lips. "The next time I'm in you, it will be with no secrets left between us." Claiming her lips once more, he took another taste before releasing her and stepping away from the temptation her body offered.

  She groaned then gasped as her jaw formed an 'O,' and her eyes darted behind him. Growling, he yanked her t-shirt quickly over her chest and swung around to confront whoever had interrupted them. But the doorway was empty. "Who was behind me?"

  She raced to the other side of the room without answering.

  "Bri, who was there?" he asked again as he watched her open a laptop and hit several keys.

  "Huh?" She shook her head. "No one but us is here. At least for right now."

  Worried, he joined her. Seeing their passionate embrace in black and white on the laptop's screen dragged a groan from his lips. "Dammit, tell me Callie didn't see this."

  "Callie didn't see this." She clicked a few more keys, then hit enter, and a bar slowly scrolled across the screen before a message popped up 'Deletion Completed.' Brianna turned and leaped into his arms. "Now, where were we?"

  "Nope, nothing else is happening in front of cameras." He hurriedly set her on her feet and took a giant step back.

  "No worries, I deleted it."

  He waved to the front of her shirt and her lopsided ponytail. "Maybe, but if Callie looks at this video, she'll know something happened."

  Her slender hand flew to her hair, and she grimaced. "Crap." Grabbing his hand, she tugged him to a door set in the corner. A bathroom was on the other side, and she quickly pulled him in and shut and locked the door. In seconds, she had him pinned to the door, and her lips hovered over his. "Just so you know, I only see you too."

  His head thunked against the door. "I hate we're having a moment in a tiny ass bathroom with cameras that Callie has access to outside." He nibbled on her lips again. "This should be done at sunset or something—"

  She burst into laughter as she turned to the mirror and began fixing her bra before tucking her shirt into her pants.

  Frowning, he towered over her as he raked a hand through his hair. "What? Why're you laughing? It should. I've seen enough of those Rom-coms that bathroom romances only happen in slapstick comedies. Which means the romantic stuff happens at sunrise and sunset."

  "And it is very well planned." She faced him and rubbed his chest. "I like spontaneity too." She leaned forward and took another kiss. "But when you propose, feel free to plan the whole sunset thing down to the last detail."

  He gaped after her swaying hips as she strode through the bathroom door and back to the pails for the animals. "As if I would propose in a bathroom," he teased joining her.


  She shrugged. "You never know. So I'm putting it out there."

  He grinned unwilling to point out they hadn't even said they loved each other yet. He refused to allow the words past his lips until this farce of a contract was done. Then all they had was the future to look forward to instead of being tangled continuously in the web of lies.

  "I'll make a note and will grab Callie for help."

  Brianna tossed him a brilliant smile, joy radiating from every pore of her being. "Good idea. Now, help me with these buckets. With it being summer, we've released all the animals we could. If you had come last month, you would have seen a wolf we were treating."

  Glad for the distraction as it helped to get his arousal back under control, he grabbed two of the buckets labeled cubs, and she picked up the others.

  "Why were you treating a wolf? Like someone got it as a pet?" he asked.

  "No, we think a rancher shot it. They're still protected, so it's against the law, but they also destroy ranchers' livelihoods, so they are targeted."

  "How did you get it?"

  "A ranger who was checking trails for the summer season and found him. They brought him to me, and I did what I could to save his leg." Brianna grinned. "Needless to say, he's still a beaut even with his limp."

  "Will he survive?"

  She shrugged. "He has a damn good chance. The bullet went through with only a bit of muscle damage, and though it chipped the bone, it didn't shatter it."

  Jackson set his buckets next to hers on the cart and climbed onto the seat.

  "First, we'll feed our guests, then we can talk while I show you the rest of the setup."

  Jackson felt like it was Christmas as he watched a momma bear and two cubs eat the fish they had dumped through the feeding chute. "Why can't we get closer?"

  "We don't want them acclimating to humans, so we do the best we can to keep us and them separated." Brianna pointed to the leather apron and gloves they wore. "Like doing our best to keep our scent off their food. And we use other provisions like the double fence." She took the empty buckets and stacked them before putting them back into the cart. "These guys are going back into the wild. We don't want them scenting humans as that could lead to an attack. Either from a human panicking at being approached by a bear or momma bear becoming aggressive while protecting her two little ones."