No Limits (11 page)

11

F
IVE
WEEKS
PASSED
quickly on the ranch after their afternoon of hot sex. Keeping busy, Jason and Molly hadn't seen much of each other, except when they needed to discuss business. Jason was working with Jeb and Andy, the ranch hand that Jeb had assigned to him. The land had been cleared and next week they'd hear about their bid. Dennis had been tight-lipped about it. But Lynn, who was the director of Axiom Space Systems—the defense subcontractor Ace had met in San Diego whom they'd decided to partner with—said that was normal. Her people thought their bid was strong and that they would be awarded the contract. But there was no way to know until next week.

Jason had been working out and eating more healthy than he normally did, but his body had to be in the best shape possible for the medical evaluation that was scheduled in another six weeks. Three months had seemed like an eternity originally, but it was flying by. Well, the days were. The nights were long. Plagued with dreams of Molly and those damned long legs of hers. He woke up hard and sweating every night. He knew all he had to do was walk down the hall and knock on her door...but he was afraid of what her reaction to be.

And he wasn't sure what scared him more, the possibility of her turning him away or inviting him in.

She'd changed him. Woken something that he'd never realized was inside of him. And for the first time in his life he was conflicted about NASA. He'd never been afraid of anything before, but now he wasn't sure. He didn't know if he wanted to go back to space, to leave her for eighteen months. He was starting to think of himself as Jason again, not Ace. So he'd stayed in his own bed, fire burning inside of him each night, making him hungrier for her each day.

“There's a call for you on the ranch phone,” Andy said as he bounced to a stop next to him on the Mule. The Mule was an all-terrain vehicle similar to the one Mick had been driving when he'd had his accident.

“Can I call them back?” Jason asked. “It's going to take a while for me to return to the house.”

“No. It's urgent. That's why I'm here. I'll take care of your horse. You take the Mule.”

Andy got out of the ATV and Jason got in. He drove it expertly across the bumpy ground. It wasn't that different from some of the training he'd done at NASA for maneuvering vehicles on foreign surfaces. This was one of part of the program that the ranch was going to develop to get astronauts ready for Mars.

If the call was urgent...well, he'd better get there as quickly as he could. He drove past the barn where he normally would have parked the Mule and pulled up to the house.

He hopped out of the vehicle and bounded up the steps.

Molly and Rina stopped talking as he entered the kitchen. Molly had her hair up and he flashed back to when he'd kissed her neck. That sweet spot where her pulse had been beating so strongly. She wasn't wearing any makeup, but her lips looked full and her mouth so...addicting. He was going to crack, unable to resist the lure of Molly much longer.

The worst part was that she wasn't doing anything. She was just being friendly...

“I have a call?”

“Yes. It's Dennis Lock. He said it was urgent,” she said. “You can take it on the extension in the den.”

“Thanks,” he said, walking past both women down the hall to Mick's den. As he entered he realized the room was slowly becoming Molly's. There were little touches that hadn't been there when it had been Mick's domain.

Things like a scented candle on the credenza. And the pile of papers that had always been stacked precariously on the edge of the desk had been cleared off. A framed picture of Molly and Mick had taken its place.

Jason wiped his hands on his jeans before leaning on the desk and lifting the handset.

“McCoy here.”

“Ace. Took long enough. One thing we have to do once you win the bid is get a cell tower put in. It feels like the dark ages when I have to call a landline.”

Jason smiled to himself, suppressing a chuckle. “It is a different world out here.”

“I bet. I have two pieces of news. The decision has been made for the facility and my sources said I'll be happy. You should hear something informal today. I'd call Lynn.”

“Will do, sir. What's the other news?” he asked.

“I need you back here for an interim medical evaluation. They are pressuring us to name a commander for the first mission and I want it to be you. Doctor Tomlin needs to see if you are making enough progress.”

Jason rubbed his chest as, for the first time, he worried he might not be physically able. His body was the one thing he'd always taken for granted. Even when his mom had died and he'd been left on his own, he'd been healthy.

“Okay. What if I'm not?”

“Don't even think it,” Dennis said.

“You'll have to name someone else, won't you?”

There was silence on the line for a long minute and Jason felt a burst of anger.
Dammit.

“Hemi's good,” Jason said finally.

“He is, but he's not ready. Not yet. I want you, Ace. But we won't send you to space if we can't bring you back whole.”

“Fair enough. I can't get down to Houston today. Can I come tomorrow?”

“Yes. Call Lynn first and then Tomlin. She's going to want to set up a series of exercises and tests.”

Dennis finished the call and Ace hung up the phone but didn't leave the room. He didn't make the other calls he needed to make. He glanced down at his body. He'd been working out every day and he felt like he was in the best shape of his life. But he had no idea if his bone density had improved.
Hell
. He wanted to punch something. He wanted...

There was a knock on the door.

“Who is it?”

“Molly.”

Yeah, that was what he wanted.

* * *

M
OLLY
HAD
KEPT
Jason at arm's length as much as possible during the last five weeks, burying herself in work. Done the smart thing. But she wasn't too sure how much longer she could do it. Hence, standing outside her own den door, knocking.

She'd seen the look on Jason's face when Dennis's name had been mentioned. She thought they'd have a little more time before NASA made a decision about the facility, so maybe instead this was...news about Jason and the space program.

She'd stood outside this door more than once. When she'd set herself on fire in the barn, Dad had taken her to town for emergency treatment and then when she'd come home and was healthy again, he'd told her to meet him here. She'd known she was in trouble...

This time it was Jason in trouble. Not her. She felt it. She had no idea what kind of news he'd gotten, but she heard banked anger in his voice on the phone and she told herself it wasn't her problem.

She could just walk away and no one would blame her. Jason wouldn't blame her or expect anything else from her, but she couldn't do that. No matter how much she'd been trying to think of their lovemaking as sexy fun, she cared about him. Always had.

She'd spent most of her teenaged years pretending that he was just another one of her dad's boys. But he never had been. She couldn't lie about that. Her heart wasn't fickle.

She opened the door. He sat there on the edge of her desk. The look he gave her was desperate and dark.

It hadn't been good news.

Of course, it hadn't. Good news wasn't usually urgent.

“Want to talk?”

He shook his head.

“Want to be alone?” she asked.

“No. Molly, I don't want to be alone,” he said slowly, emphasizing each word.

“What do you want?” she asked.

“You. No more pretending. Can you do that? If not, turn around and leave. Give me some time to get my head back to the polite place I've been in for the last few weeks,” he said.

She stood there. She should walk away. That would be the smart thing to do. This wasn't the sweet Jason who seduced her with barbecue sandwiches and stories. This was a man who was broken and he needed something raw from her.

God, she wanted to give it to him. She wasn't going to leave him alone. She closed the door behind her and then leaned against it, her hands behind her back.

He looked down at the floor.

“Leave, Molly. I'm not the nicest guy right now.”

“I can't,” she admitted. “I've been trying to pretend that all the little things that make you the man you are haven't affected me, but they have. I can't keep ignoring it.”

He lifted his head and in those light blue eyes of his she saw so much emotion. Anger, agony, fear and need.

Focus on the need, she told herself and subtly locked the door behind her as she took a step forward. Rina sometimes just let herself in and Molly didn't want to be interrupted. Not now.

She toed off her boots, noticed that Jason shifted on the desk to face her. “What are you doing?”

“Not leaving.”

“I can see that.”

“Well, I think you're smart enough to figure out what I'm doing...”

She tugged off her socks, too, and stopped where she was. “Unless you really do want me to leave.”

“No. Don't go.”

He opened his arms and she smiled at him.

She pulled her T-shirt up over her head and tossed it aside, hearing his breath catch.

She stopped to look at him. He'd said he liked her appearance and in his eyes she read the truth of those words. The way he watched her was the way...well, the way she'd seen men look at underwear models.

She felt the power of being a woman. At this moment she held Jason captive and she wanted to make the moment last. She wanted to make him forget whatever was troubling him.

“Like this?”

“I do. I'd like it better if you took off your bra,” he said.

“I might. But first you are going to have to show me something. Maybe that strong chest of yours.”

“You like my muscles?”

“I do. They turn me on. And when I see you flex your biceps...it takes my breath away.”

“It does?” he asked, slowly undoing the buttons of his work shirt and letting the sides fall open.

He left the shirt on with just about two inches of lean masculine chest visible. Her fingers tingled with the need to touch him and she took a step closer. She was trying to be seductive, but she didn't want to wait any longer. The truth was, she knew what she wanted. And it wasn't all this distance between them.

He held his hand up. “Wait. Take your hair down.”

She reached up, pulled the hair tie free and shook her head as her hair fell around her shoulders. She took another step forward.

He just watched her. His eyes were half closed, but she knew she held all of his attention. She put her hand in the center of his chest. He had a light dusting of hair there and she ran her fingers through it. She pushed on his chest and he leaned back on his elbows, causing his shirt to fall away from his body. She reached underneath it, wrapping her arms around him and resting her head over his heart. Just for a minute she wanted the comfort of his body. Then the heat that flowed between them demanded her attention. This wasn't about comfort. This was about raw need. Just Molly and Jason and nothing else.

She pushed his shirt down his arms and he sat up to shrug out of it, then tossed it aside. Pressing him back until he was sitting on the desk, she climbed onto his lap. She tunneled her fingers through his close-cropped hair, drawing his mouth toward hers. Then she sucked his bottom lip between her teeth and kissed him slowly. Taking her time to explore him.

She shifted back, resting her butt on his thighs as she nibbled her way down his neck and chest. His nipples were flat and hard. He caught her hand, lifted it to his mouth and kissed the center of it. Shivers spread up her arm causing her own nipples to harden.

He reached behind her with his other hand and unfastened her bra. He took her hand, the one he'd just kissed, and placed it over her own breast. It felt exotic and turned her on to feel her own nipple hardening under her palm as he guided her hand.

She shifted on his lap and, reaching around his back with her other hand, feathered her fingers up and down his spine, dipping them beneath the waistband of his jeans to touch the slight indents at the top of his firm ass.

He arched his back and she felt his erection growing between them. She repositioned again so she could rub her center over the ridge of his cock as she kissed him. He kept moving their hands over her breast and she responded to that touch, rubbing herself more fully against him.

He moaned and she smiled to herself as his hips jerked forward slightly. She used her free hand to reach between them and unfasten his jeans, drawing the zipper carefully down over his erection.

He put his hands on her waist and lifted her off him, setting her on her feet next to the desk. He stood up next to her and undid her jeans, pushing them and her panties slowly down her legs. Then he moved behind her and slipped her bra straps over her shoulders, letting it fall to the ground.

She glanced back at him. Let her eyes move slowly down his body. He was so strong and muscled everywhere. He was thick and proud. She tried to turn, to reach for him, but he stopped her. He tangled one of his hands in her hair and nudged her forward. She leaned on the desk, arching her back as he hovered over her. She felt his lips on the back of her neck and then he nibbled his way down her back, still holding her hair in one of his hands.

She shifted, pressing back toward him, hoping to feel his cock against her, but he kept his hips back. His free hand traveled down the side of her breast, making her nipple bead. She squirmed, desperate for more contact, but he just moved his hand farther down the side of her body.

She felt his fingers on her butt cheek, grabbing and squeezing. She was wet and needy. More ready for him than she'd ever been for any man.