Cowgirls Don't Cry (32 page)
Jessie turned back toward the sink. “That’s sad. Now I really don’t want to go.”
“But my mom loved it the year you were there. Gave her an excuse to put up a tree and do the holiday stuff she hadn’t done in years.”
“And gave your father another reason to resent me. Which is all the more reason to be thankful, I guess.” She sighed and sank her hands all the way into the dishwater.
“Thankful for what?”
“Thankful I didn’t end up like your mom, because God knows I was headed that direction. Luke McKay’s mouse-like wife who wouldn’t rock the boat even if it was about to go sail a waterfall.”
“I never saw you that way, Jess.”
“You’re the only one.”
Brandt curled his hands around her hips and bent his head to taste that sweet section of skin below her ear. “As far as I’m concerned, I’m the only one who matters.”
She murmured, “Brandt,” but she didn’t attempt to pull away.
“So…” His lips moved up to nibble on her earlobe, “Landon is napping. Wanna get nekkid and wild?”
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“Maybe when I finish the dishes.”
He growled, “That’s it,” and yanked her hands out of the water, spinning her to face him. “I haven’t been paying enough attention to you if you’d rather do the dishes than do me.”
Jessie laughed. “I
am
feeling neglected. We only had sex once yesterday.”
“Couch.” He kissed her hard. “Now.”
A trail of clothes littered the floor from the kitchen to where they were naked on the couch.
Brandt was ready to be inside her the instant his bare ass hit the cushion and he had a naked, wiggling Jessie on his lap. But he forced himself to slow down. To take the time to marvel that this gorgeous, sexy, spontaneous woman wanted him. That she was his.
But for how long?
Forever, if he had his way, but he knew Jessie wasn’t ready to hear that from him yet. He didn’t believe if it came right down to it she’d walk away from him and Landon, no matter what she said.
Focus on the nekkid woman in front of you, man.
He kissed down the delectable arch of her neck. Once his mouth reached the upper swell of her breasts, he urged, “Lean back.”
Jessie placed her hands on his thighs above his knees, and let her head fall back, giving her body the most beautiful curve, from the tip of her chin down to the angle of her hips.
Sometimes the woman took his breath away.
Brandt cupped her breasts in his hand, using his thumb and index finger to tug the right nipple into a tight point. He latched onto the left nipple and sucked. As he switched sides, he rubbed his face on her chest. He loved the sensation of her soft, warm skin against his cheeks. Loved leaving tiny red marks from his razor stubble on her tender flesh.
She moaned, pressing her chest against his mouth.
He suckled, nipped and caressed every inch of her pretty tits until he felt her short nails biting into his thighs. Until he caught a whiff of her sweet cream.
Brandt took her hand and put it on his cock, murmuring, “Take me in, Jess.”
She drew the tip across her wet folds, catching the rim of his cockhead on her clit, stopping to rub it over and over. When he growled, she splayed her knees, lowered her pelvis and sheathed him completely.
“That’s good. Goddamn that’s good.”
“Better than dishes.”
“Definitely.”
His greedy hands were all over her skin. Down the softly rounded globes of her ass. The outside contour of her thighs. He reached between them, letting his finger trace the pliant skin stretching to accommodate his dick. Then his finger moved back a fraction of an inch, brushing over the pucker of her ass.
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Immediately Jessie stiffened.
Brandt kept kissing her neck, stroking the sensitive ring, pressing against the resistance. Using the wetness from her body, Brandt pushed his finger inside her anal passage, up to the second knuckle. He let her body get used to the intrusion before he began to move his finger. Fucking that tight hole in the same rhythm she was fucking him. The muscle clamped down on his finger and he groaned, imagining his cock being squeezed so forcefully.
“Brandt, what are you doing?”
“Playin’. Seein’ how far you’ll let me go.”
“That’s far enough.”
He lightly scraped his teeth down her throat. “Okay. But I’ll point out that you like my finger teasin’
your ass while I’m licking your pussy. You like my tongue teasin’ it while I’m licking your pussy too.
Makes me wanna watch this sweet little hole stretching to take my cock. Don’t you want that?” He pumped his finger in and out, stopping to tease that ring, now that his finger had brought blood to those nerve endings.
“No. I’m, ah, not fond of anal sex. It hurts.”
It surprised him she and Luke had experimented with it, since Luke bragged he’d gone elsewhere to satisfy what he called his carnal needs.
“Doesn’t have to hurt. We could go slow. I bet I could make you like it.”
Jessie groaned as he flexed his hips and drove his cock in deeper. “You probably could, but right now I’m liking this a whole bunch. I’m close, but I need it harder.”
He did too. He slapped her butt. “Get up for a second and turn around.”
The pleasure fog in her eyes cleared and she frowned at him. “I don’t think—”
Brandt laid a smacking kiss on her lips. “Don’t worry. I’m not gonna plow into your ass right now. If we switch to reverse cowgirl, I’ll be able to move better.” He kissed her again. “Faster.” One more soft smooch. “Harder.”
“God yes.” She scrambled off his dick so fast he laughed.
Scooting to the very edge of the couch, he repositioned her on his lap, facing forward, her knees by his hips. “Reach for the edge of the coffee table.” He pressed his hand over her mound, keeping her pelvis tilted so he could toy with her clit.
She pushed back into him as he drove forward. “This position should be called frogger with my legs like this,” she panted. “And I don’t like how my ass is in the air.”
“I love your ass in the air. It’s sexy.”
“It’s weird.
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But Jessie’s tense body supported her statement. He stroked his thumb side to side on her clit in the way that made her forget everything but how good he could make her feel. “Come on, Jess. Let go. Let it take you.”
“I can’t. This feels too much like…we’re trying to be circus performers.”
Her words had the intended effect. He stopped moving. She pushed up to look at him. The uncertainty in her eyes was his undoing. As much as he loved to test their boundaries, their flexibility, there came a point when it wasn’t necessary, like now.
Somehow he got her turned around. Somehow in the mix of arms and legs and strangely angled bodies, and the tightly pulled thread of need tethering them together, they ended up on the floor. Face to face, skin to skin. He put his lips by her ear and breathed, “Jessie McKay, you own me,” and slid inside her.
Brandt rocked into her. Their pelvises moving in tandem. In opposition. In perfect synchronicity.
A rush of wetness coated his cock and her cunt contracted around his shaft. He held still, letting her body drag him over the edge. He closed his eyes to lose himself in the moment. To lose himself in this woman he loved.
As soon as Brandt’s cock quit pulsing and her contractions tapered off, Brandt lifted his head from where he’d buried it in the sweet spot of her neck.
She grinned. Wickedly. “On the floor beneath the tree on Christmas Eve afternoon, Mr. McKay?
Mmm. I feel so very naughty. Probably means Santa’s not coming tonight, huh?”
“Oh, I wouldn’t say that. I have a feeling Santa is coming a lot of times tonight.”
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Chapter Twenty
“Merry Christmas,” Brandt whispered, nuzzling the back of Jessie’s head.
“Merry Christmas to you too.” She yawned. “What time is it?”
“Eight.”
She groaned and rolled away from his tempting body. “I told you not to wake me up until noon.”
“But somebody woke me up, so I wanted to spread the love.”
“Landon is up?”
“Yep.” Brandt scooted closer. “Which is a shame because I had great plans involving me tasting your sugar plum first thing this morning.” He whapped her on the rump and she yelped. “Get up. I already fed the animals. I made coffee. And a coffee cake.”
She whipped around so fast they almost bumped noses. “Excuse me? I must’ve had the covers over my ears. I thought I heard you say you made cake.”
Brandt smooched her chin. “I did.”
“You? Made…cake?”
“I have been cookin’ for myself for years, Jess, so I’m not totally helpless in the kitchen.”
“I didn’t say you were. I would’ve expected you to whip up scrambled eggs. Or oatmeal. But coffee cake?” Did he know how much she loved coffee cake? “What kind?”
“Caramel. It’s warm and gooey, because you know how much I love warm and gooey first thing in the mornin’.”
Jessie threw the covers back. “If you’re lyin’ to me Brandt McKay, so help me…”
“I’m not.” He tossed her a robe. “Come on. The boy is anxious to open his presents.”
“Which boy?” she asked his retreating back.
He turned around and grinned. “Both of ’em.”
Landon raced over and slammed into her knees. He had two speeds, full throttle and idle. She swooped him up. “Merry Christmas, lil’ buckaroo. Should we see if Uncle Brandt’s cake is edible?”
“Yef.”
“So agreeable.” She couldn’t resist nuzzling him. He smelled like baby shampoo, orange juice and little boy.
Breakfast was fast. Jessie inhaled two pieces of coffee cake and settled in the living room with her new mug that Santa had left for her by the coffee pot.
Cowgirls Don’t Cry
Brandt demonstrated how to rip into wrapping paper and it was over. Landon shrieked while shredding every last inch of Christmas paper from his gifts. Brandt had gone a little overboard buying presents, but he had almost as much fun watching Landon rip the paper as Landon did shredding it.
“See? That fire truck has a working siren.” Brandt pushed the button and a really obnoxious
whoop
whoop whoop
erupted.
Jessie stared at Brandt until he said, “What?”
“
You
picked that out?”
“Yeah. Why?”
“Because it’s annoying, that’s why.”
“All boys love fire trucks. It’s a right of passage. Besides, if you think this one is noisy? You oughta see what Keely bought him.”
She shuddered.
Landon hit excitement overload, ignoring his gifts and sitting in the pile of wrapping paper, throwing it in the air, or at Lexie, or tearing it into smaller pieces.
Two unopened gifts remained under the tree. “Aren’t you going to open your present from me, Brandt?”
“Don’t you wanna go first?”
“Nope. I’m comfy drinking my coffee. You go ahead.”
Brandt snagged the box from beneath the tree. When Landon saw another paper ripping opportunity, he loped to Brandt’s side. Brandt said, “I suppose you can help me,” as Landon tore away a chunk of paper.
Jessie’s stomach knotted. Maybe Brandt would think her gift was stupid. She hid behind her coffee cup as he lifted the lid on the box.
When Brandt froze, her heart fell to her toes. She prepared for a polite look of interest on his face when he finally glanced up. But all she saw was astonishment. “Jess. I can’t believe you—”
“I still use the wallet you made me. It was one of the best gifts I’ve ever gotten.” She dropped her gaze to her coffee cup but she couldn’t keep from babbling. “I don’t know if you still do leatherwork, which you should, because it’d be a damn crying shame to let that talent go to waste. I’m not sure if you have punches like those, but I thought they were cool and if you don’t like them I can take them back—”
Then Brandt’s hands were on her face, his mouth was on hers and he was kissing her with such gentleness and gratitude she could scarcely breathe. He pulled away to rest his forehead to hers. “No one has ever…you are…Jess. Thank you. It’s perfect.” He groaned. “And now I’m wishing I could take yours back because it’s nowhere near as—”
“Brandt. I’m sure it’s fine.”
“I guess we’ll see, won’t we?” Brandt pushed the box to her with his foot and sat on the opposite end of the couch.
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Landon bulled his way over to help. Jessie lifted the box onto the coffee table and waited as Landon’s next strategic rip revealed…a machine that shampooed carpets. “Wow. Is this really what’s in the box?”
“Yeah. I remembered one night we were watching TV and an infomercial came on and you said you always wanted one. But it’s kind of lame, isn’t it?”
Jessie had zero expectations when it came to receiving gifts. She must’ve waited too long to respond because Brandt swooped down and picked it up off the table.
“Never mind, no biggie, I’ll return it.”
She stood and tried to snatch the box out of his hands. “Hey, that’s mine. You gave it to me, so you don’t get to take it back.”
“You don’t have to pretend you like it, Jess, just to spare my stupid feelings. It was a dumb gift idea.”
She jerked the box away from him and set it aside so she could get right in his face. “It’s not dumb.
It’s thoughtful and I’m sorry I wasn’t jumping up and down screaming with joy. But I’m not really a scream-and-jump-up-and-down type of woman.”
His cheeks were red with embarrassment. “You don’t have to explain.”
“Yes, I do. Because you know what buying that carpet cleaner proved? That you listen to me. That you pay attention to me. So in my mind, the gift is perfect. Thank you.” She brushed her lips across his.
One, two, three, four times. By kiss five he was fully on board, kissing her back.
“Up, up!” Landon said, trying to worm between their legs.
“So sorry we weren’t payin’ enough attention to you,” Brandt said. “How about if we look at some of the toys you’re ignoring?”
