Jesse (22 page)

Not used to being the center of attention or being talked about as if she wasn't standing two feet from them, Danielle cleared her throat and told them, “Uncle Jimmy's partial to bugs.”

Lacy started giggling. “He is, 'cause you know why?”

Jesse brushed his hands on his thighs and waited for Danielle to join them. “No,” he rasped, staring at her mouth. “Why?”

Lacy shrugged.

Danielle had to laugh at the expression on Jesse's face. He hadn't known Lacy long enough to know that half of her questions were really meant as statements. Taking pity on him, she said, “We don't know. He just is.”

When he didn't look at her like he had last night, like he was ready to devour her, she started to worry. Needing a distraction, she wracked her brain to think of something to say that didn't have to do with the breadth of his shoulders, the strength in his hands, or the devastating power of his kisses. She finally said, “Ronnie's making flapjacks.”

Jesse grinned. “That woman can cook.” With a dark and dangerous look that had her shivering in response, he asked, “Do you like to cook, Dani?”

“I do,” Lacy piped up. “I can make pie.”

He looked from mother to daughter and grinned. “Then I'm right glad you're a team. I surely won't starve.”

Danielle stared at the two of them as the realization that they just seemed to fit swamped her, threatening her control. Her hands started to tremble, so she clasped them behind her and tried to think of something to say, but all she could think to ask was did last night have the same meaning to Jesse, did he want to build on the love they'd made? Was it the beginning of the relationship she wanted to build with him? Not one of those questions was appropriate right now.

“What's your favorite pie?” Lacy asked, while Danielle wondered if Jesse was in it for the long haul.

“I like 'em all,” Jesse rumbled, glancing at her with a question in his eyes. Did he really want to know what she was thinking or was he just biding time until she and Lacy left? Would she have the guts to ask him outright?

Probably
not.

Would she try to get him alone to ask him about last night?

If
I
could, I definitely would.

She'd spent too much time over the last few years worried about how long her ex would stay, knowing from the moment he'd said he'd marry her and give their unborn baby his name, it would only be a matter of time before he left.

“What do you say we go get some breakfast before my brothers eat all of those flapjacks?”

“OK!” Lacy reached up to take Jesse's hand and the rest of whatever reservations Danielle held in her heart evaporated as Jesse reached down and took Lacy's hand. When they stopped in front of her and he offered his other hand to her, Danielle knew she was lost.

Walking back to the house, Lacy kept jumping while hanging on to their hands, so Jesse looked over Lacy's head at Danielle and mimicked to tug Lacy up with his free hand. Danielle smiled and the next time Lacy jumped, they lifted her up off the ground. Her delighted laughter surrounded them.

They lifted her high so she could land on the top step of the porch. More giggles had the screen door opening and Tyler stepping outside. “I wondered who was making that racket. Hey there, Miss Lacy.”

“Hi, Tyler. Can I have flapjacks?”

Charmed, he bent down, lifted Lacy into his arms, and carried her inside.

“Hey.” Jesse pulled Danielle up the back steps. “Give me back my little cowgirl!”

“Not until we feed her.”

Following the sound of her daughter's laughter, they walked into the kitchen and found her already sitting at the table with a plate in front of her.

She grinned and lifted a forkful to her mouth. “Look, Mommy, I gots my own plateful!”

“I can see that.” Danielle shook her head. “Are you sure you can eat all those?”

“Don't you worry none, darlin',” Jesse said. “I'm sure I can eat whatever she can't.” Turning toward the two women standing by the stove, he smiled. “Morning, ladies.”

Ronnie shook her head and handed him a plate heaped with fluffy, golden-brown cakes. “There's sausage and bacon.” She set a platter in the middle of the table. “Help yourselves.”

“Coffee, milk, or orange juice?” Emily was watching Danielle rather intently, making her wonder if Emily could see the echo of last night's passion shimmering around Jesse and herself… either that or
Jesse
and
I
did
the
wild
thing
was tattooed in the middle of her forehead.

“Can I have juice?” Lacy asked, still shoveling in the pancakes.

“Better slow down, sweet pea, or you'll get a tummy ache.”

With her mouth full, her darling daughter nodded and waited until she swallowed before reaching for the glass Emily set by her plate.

“Here, why don't you two sit down and while I fill your plates,” Danielle offered. “After all, you made breakfast and the coffee. It's the least I can do to thank you for being so wonderful to Lacy and me.”

Once she'd set a plate in front of Emily and Ronnie, she sat down and started to eat. “These are great, Ronnie, thanks.”

“So,” Dylan drawled, “sleep well, Danielle?”

She inhaled instead of chewing the bite of pancake she'd just put in her mouth. When she finally stopped choking, she reached for the glass of water Emily was holding out to her.

“Better?”

Danielle cleared her throat and could at last breathe. “Thanks.”

“Are you all—Ow!” Before Dylan could ask, he was frowning down at his wife. “What was that for?” he demanded.

But before Danielle could ask what was going on, Tyler was saying, “I hope you didn't have any trouble sleeping last—Oomph!”

Danielle suspected that Ronnie and Emily were either pinching or kicking their men beneath the table so that they wouldn't keep asking about what happened last night. Somehow the women must have figured out what had happened.

Tyler had turned toward Emily and was about to say something when Jesse ground out, “Could I see to the two of you outside for a moment?”

Dylan and Tyler got up so fast their chairs rattled against the wide-board floor.

“Shouldn't you go see what's going on?” Danielle asked as the sound of angry male voices carried into the kitchen.

Ronnie shrugged. “They're just having a family disagreement.”

“It doesn't sound pleasant. Maybe I should go out there. I'm a good mediator,” Danielle offered.

Emily shook her head. “They should be finished up in a few minutes.”

As the deep voices increased in volume, Ronnie reconsidered. “Maybe you should go.”

Danielle told Lacy to sit still and stay in her chair. Pushing open the screen door, she saw them standing just off the porch. Tyler and Dylan were standing side by side with their backs to her, while Jesse stood alone, facing them with his back to the barn.

“That's just not fair,” she murmured walking toward the steps. Before she could tell them to cut it out, Jesse whipped his bright white T-shirt up and over his head and the words got caught in her throat as she was spiraled back in time to the night before, when he'd taken off his shirt in his haste to make love to her.

But something looked different. Maybe it was because he stood vibrating with anger instead of need… staring at Jesse, marveling at the beauty of the man who'd loved her until her eyes crossed, she realized it was the flash of brilliant green on his left pec that caught her eye.

Jesse's fist shot out at the same time she asked, “Is that a shamrock?”

The men hadn't noticed her standing on the porch, but her question gave the older brothers the distraction they needed and used to their advantage; each one grabbed a hold of one of Jesse's arms.

“Hey,” Jesse shouted. “Lemme go!” He struggled against their hold, but was trapped like a fly in a spider's web.

Incensed that his brothers would gang up on him, Danielle flew off the porch and poked her pointer finger in Tyler's broad chest. “You let him go.”

His eyebrows raised in question, Tyler waited a moment before glancing in Dylan's direction. “This is a private fight.”

Hands on her hips, Danielle let her temper loose. “Well, it sure as hell isn't a fair fight with you two goons holding on to poor Jesse's arms so he can't defend himself.”

“He took the first swing,” Dylan said, calling her attention to him, and that was when she noticed blood trickling from the corner of his mouth.

Danielle crossed her arms in front of her to keep from striking Jesse's brothers. “You must have done something to deserve it. Jesse would never just punch somebody without a reason.”

When the three of them just stared at her, she realized that she'd have to try to reason with the brothers. “Lacy and I were going to stay for another riding lesson, but if you two beat the crap out of Jesse, there's no point in us hanging around. We may as well leave now and let you get to it.”

She spun on her heel and stalked back over to the porch.

“Man, did she just tell us to go ahead and beat you up?”

She could hear Jesse struggling against their hold a moment before she heard him say, “I can't just let her leave.”

She fought against the need to turn around, instead slowing her steps in the hopes that the brothers would see reason… hers… and let Jesse go. She'd reached the top step by the time he grabbed a hold of her arm and spun her around into his arms. “Please don't go yet.”

His lips were a breath away from hers, but she knew if she gave in and let him kiss her, she wouldn't find out what the argument was about. She couldn't explain why, but somehow she sensed that it was important that he tell her.

Leaning back away from him wasn't what he expected. “What's wrong?”

“That's what I'd like to know.” She managed to slip out of his embrace. Once free, she took two quick steps back. “I came out here to put a stop to whatever you three were arguing about.”

Her gaze slipped below his collarbone and settled on the shamrock tattooed over his heart. How had she missed that last night? “When did you have time to get a tattoo?”

The confusion in his gaze matched what she was feeling. He shook his head and mumbled something about women that she couldn't quite make out. “A while back, why?”

“I… um… didn't notice it before.” Her confession had him grinning.

“That's because you were desperate to make love with me, darlin'.”

She narrowed her gaze at him. “Desperate?” The fact that he was right irritated her, but what was worse was that her body started tingling from head to toe the longer he stood there looking down at her with desire swirling in his dark brown eyes. “You make me sound like some lovesick teenager.”

Before she could turn her back on him, he had her locked against him, with his lips a breath from her own. “Dani darlin', you made me feel like one last night,” he whispered so no one else could hear. “Standing here right now in front of God and my brothers, I want to strip you bare, toss you on the ground, and have you all over again.”

Caught up in the image he'd painted for her, she had no choice but to lift her lips and press them to his. His taste was a potent combination of want, need, and desire. The memory of last night had an answering warmth spreading through her.

“Are you two through arguing?” Tyler asked.

“Go to hell,” Jesse ground out a moment before claiming Danielle's lips in a kiss that promised passion and something more.

“Maybe you two ought to get a room,” Dylan suggested.

Jesse pulled back and sighed. “Hell. Can't get no privacy around here.”

His brothers were standing right behind him and Danielle sensed that whatever had been wrong wasn't any longer. “Are you through fighting?”

“Hell,” Tyler snorted. “That wasn't a fight.”

“Yeah,” Dylan added. “More like a misunderstanding.”

Jesse pressed his lips to the top of her head. “We're good.”

She didn't believe them. “Just like that?”

“Yes, ma'am,” Tyler said.

“Can't get any work done around here if we stay mad,” Dylan explained.

“We've got to work as a team,” Jesse said. “Like you and Lacy.”

Ronnie stepped out onto the porch, eyed the brothers, and then glanced over at Danielle. “Is everything all right?”

“As rain,” Dylan agreed, slipping around behind Jesse and Danielle to take Ronnie by the arm and steer her back inside.

Tyler walked past them and grinned.

When the door closed behind him, Danielle asked, “Did I miss something?”

Jesse hugged her tight and kissed her cheek. “My brothers like you.”

“OK.” She wondered how they'd act if they didn't. “And was that part of what you were doing out here? Defending my honor to your brothers?”

Jesse slipped his arm around her and reached for the door. “I'd go to the wall for you, darlin'… never doubt it.”

She couldn't say why she needed to hear him say the words just now, but she did. “Why?”

His hot gaze raked her from head to toe. “I protect what's mine.”

That wasn't quite what she wanted to hear. “Yours? Branded like your tattoo?”

He let the door close. “Yeah. You got a problem with that?”

“I am my own woman,” she bit out. “Not any man's shiny toy or possession.” Incensed that he would even think that way, she poked her pointer finger into the middle of his chest. “I can take of myself and my daughter, you got that?”

He had the nerve to grin. “Yes, ma'am.”

Tracing his fingertips along the line of her jaw, he tipped her face up so he could kiss her. Every last thought just melted away as his lips devoured hers. Boneless but energized, she couldn't wait to get her lips on his bodacious body again. Steeling herself to push back from the temptation of being in his arms, Danielle shook her head at him. “I have to think of Lacy.”