No Limits (7 page)

“What did you do after high school?” he asked.

“Went to community college in Houston for one semester. I got an apartment near campus with Annabelle, do you remember her?”

“Vaguely. You used to hang out with her in the summers, right?” he asked. He had an image of a redheaded girl in his mind, but he wasn't sure if that was Annabelle.

“Yeah. Anyway, turns out she is very messy and not too disciplined, so we didn't like living together and I didn't much like college so I came back home and took some online classes in business management. Dad thought it would be good for me when I took over the ranch.”

“Was it?”

“Yes, so far. What did you do when you first left the ranch?” she asked.

He didn't want to talk about himself. He wanted to know more about her. What she'd said about her friend intrigued him. “Are you a clean freak?”

“What?”

“You said Annabelle was messy,” he said.

“Oh. I just like things in their place. Orderly, you know. She left stuff everywhere.”

“I like things orderly, too,” he said.

“That makes sense. On the ISS you have very little room,” she said. “What's it like living in such a small space for a year?” she asked. “I think I'd go crazy if I couldn't go outside, breathe in the fresh air and walk through the fields.”

She gestured to the ranch and he noticed how slim her arms were, how gracefully she moved.

“You would.”

7

“I
GUESS
YOU
have the whole universe spread out before you, though. The ranch must seem small compared to that,” she said.

He tipped his head back, staring up. As the sun set and the sky darkened, she saw stars and satellites twinkling in the sky.

“It does. But most of the time all I can do is look at the surrounding stars and the Earth through the space station's windows,” he said at last. His voice was low, husky and relaxed. He seemed to be at peace, which she'd never noticed in him before.

“Most of the time?”

“Space walks,” he said. “I put on a space suit, tether myself to a line and go out for an extravehicular activity. I love the freedom of floating around up there.”

“Isn't that scary?” she asked. She was scared just thinking about him up there, exposed and vulnerable. She reminded herself that he was nothing more than a guy she knew from childhood. A guy who turned her on, made her hotter than a two-dollar pistol as her gramps used to say. Yet he seemed like more than that somehow. He attracted her like nothing—no one—else ever had.

“No more so than galloping across the field when a horse has its head,” he said.

“But if you fall from a horse, you don't have far to go.”

She was still trying to understand the draw that universe had for him.

“You could easily break your neck and die,” he said at last. “But the thrill of letting your horse run across the field, of feeling the wind whipping around you, of being free—it's enough of an incentive that you don't worry about that possibility. You know the risk is worth it.”

She uncrossed her legs and sat up from where she'd been leaning. As the darkness deepened and it became harder to see his features, he revealed things he wouldn't say in the light of day. It had been the same two nights ago when he'd gone riding with her.

Why was it they both felt safer in the dark?

She couldn't dwell on that.

“What if your tether breaks? What if you just float away?”

“I'd be out there with the stars, seeing parts of the universe only a handful have ever seen... I'd say that would be worth the cost.”

“It seems too big, too scary for me.”

“Some of the things you do scare me,” he said.

“Like what?” she asked. “You've done everything I do.”

He put his hand on her leg, just held it loosely, but a shiver went up her body. “Okay, maybe that's true, but I hated it—at least when I first arrived at fourteen. I was so dusty and dirty and every night when I went to bed, I'd stare out the window above my bed and think about being up there with the stars.”

Even when he'd been closest to her, he'd been just out of her reach. She knew this. Why did she keep trying to find some way to convince herself he was the kind of man who'd stay?

She should stop thinking of him as Jason and remember he was Ace. That's all he could ever be to her.

Ace.

Superstar astronaut. Heart in the stars. He was here because he was grounded. As soon as the all clear came he'd be gone.

He hadn't even hesitated to sign that document earlier that had given her the right to make all decisions about the ranch if he was off the planet for more than two years.

“Why did Dad give you half the ranch?” she asked.

He shrugged. But she felt that he knew more.

“Don't lie.”

“Lifting my shoulders isn't lying,” he said.

“Not telling the truth is. Please, tell me,” she said.

“He told me once that he was afraid you'd never have a chance to be anything more than what he and the Bar T had made you. I guess he didn't want to put the full weight of owning the ranch on you. Maybe he thought I'd be able to help.”

She could hear her father's voice in Jason's words. Heard the worry he'd felt in the last few months before his accident. Tears burned her eyes and she blinked, trying to stem them, but failed. “Why didn't he ask me what I wanted?”

“Maybe he was afraid of the answer.”

She hugged herself and put her head down. The ache she felt for her father was all-consuming. She just wanted one more hug. One more chance to smell that unique scent of Old Spice aftershave and worn leather. To know she didn't have to worry because he was there.

She felt Jason's hand on her arm.

“I'm sorry,” he said.

“Me, too. I... What did he think I'd do?”

“Live. He said that he suspected you were hiding from something here,” Jason said.

She went still. The tears stopped and she realized her father knew there was more to her coming back from Houston than a messy roommate.

“What are you hiding from?”

* * *

T
ALKING
NEVER
WAS
her strong suit. She'd never learned to hide what she was feeling, to protect herself. She pulled her arm out from under Jason's and scooted toward the end of the truck. She hopped down and stood there. Twilight had darkened and she was caught between night and day. She was dressed up rather than wearing her usual jeans and scuffed boots. She almost felt like she didn't belong here right now.

She was a mess. She'd been pretending for too long that she wasn't. Thought she was going to make a deal with Jason and somehow get the ranch back on solid financial ground once and for all. But now she acknowledged she'd been kidding herself. She was never going to get out of this morass.

She knew it as surely as she knew that she'd been sending mixed signals all day. She wanted him. She wanted to lose herself in that sweet crush she remembered from a more innocent time. When she'd had no idea what real heartbreak and loss felt like.

Jason slid to the end of the pickup truck and sat there, his legs hanging over the tailgate as he quietly watched her. She noticed that he had on some kind of hiking boot, not Western boots. He wasn't a cowboy. How many times was she going to have to be faced with that knowledge before it sank in?

“You okay?”

No.

“Of course. I mean, you just told me my dad thought I was hiding, and I had to make a deal that requires me to let strangers come onto my land. I'm partners with a man I barely know...yeah, I'm great.”

“Sarcasm doesn't suit you,” he said.

“Sorry. It's all I've got right now. It's that or howling,” she admitted. “Since I want to preserve a little dignity I'm going with sarcasm.”

“You can howl with me,” he said.

“Don't.”

“Don't what?”

“Be nice. Be agreeable. I don't want—”

She broke off and turned away.

“You need a fight,” he said.

She didn't answer him. Now she felt stupid. And small and silly. And still so freaking lost. She knew this made no sense. But then, emotions weren't logical. She'd learned that a long time ago.

“Yeah, but that's not fair to you.”

“Since when has life been fair?” he asked.

“Never,” she said under her breath. Her mom had died, his dad had left, his mom had died, her lover had left, her dad had died and who the hell knew what else had happened to Jason.

“Damned straight,” he said, hopping off the tailgate and putting his hands on her shoulders.

She turned to face him.

“Remember when you pinned me against the door in Rupert's office?” he asked.

“How could I forget that?”

“I've been waiting for us to be alone all afternoon so we could finish what we started. I want that passion, Mol. I want you.”

“I want you, too. I'm trying to justify sleeping with you, trying to remember that nothing lasts and that I can just do this,” she said.

She put her hand on his chest. Felt his body heat through the fabric and watched him, carefully. It wasn't light enough to see his eyes, but she felt his gaze on her.

“We'll always be friends,” he said.

And that should be enough. She wasn't going to fall in love. She remembered the one time she had fallen for a man. How much it had hurt when it ended. Could she keep her emotions bottled up?

Hell, probably not, but damned if she was going to deny herself Jason.

“Yes, we will,” she said at last.

She wrapped her arms around him, intending to kiss him, but instead she put her head on his chest. For just a moment she needed to feel him wrapped around her. She needed to know this was more than just physical because her emotions were still chaotic, swirling through her like a tornado across the plains. And she needed to be sure that he was solid enough to take the buffeting from the wind.

He rubbed his hands over her back, his fingers massaging her sides all the way down to her butt and then back up. Those long, languid caresses brought her more fully into her body and she felt the tension and worry drift away.

There was only the two of them and this moment.

Nothing lasted forever.

But she wanted this time with Jason to be lived to the fullest. Not hiding or running or worrying.

Tomorrow she might struggle with that, but for tonight...she was his.

And he was hers.

She lifted her face to his and he lowered his head, his mouth falling on hers with all the pent-up desire she felt sweeping through her own body. With all the lust and need they had awakened in the lawyer's office. She'd thought she'd pushed it aside but realized the fires had only been banked, not extinguished.

His tongue pushed deep into her mouth as his hands grabbed her ass and lifted her off her feet.

She wrapped her legs around his lean waist and held on to his shoulders as the night swirled around her and she heard a moan. It was deep, raw and needy.

* * *

J
ASON
SLIPPED
HIS
hands up the back of her thighs, clutching them to hold her up but also because he loved the feel of her flesh under his hands. Her skin was supple and smelled sweet. Under the perfume was another musk that was all Molly. Seductive and sensual, it aroused him as much as touching her thighs did.

He fanned his fingers out wider to reach her inner thighs and to feel the heat of her sex on his skin. She was so hot. And so damned soft. Softer than anything else he'd ever touched. He held her, his tongue in her mouth, his cock hard against the apex of her thighs, and took everything she had to give.

She was lost. He'd felt the loneliness that had come off her in waves. He'd experienced the same thing himself as a teen. That need had awakened in him a keen longing to give her something of himself. To make promises he knew he could never keep no matter how much he wanted to. To show her that she wasn't alone. That they could lose themselves in each other and forget everything else for a few bliss-filled hours with only the stars and moon looking on.

He tore his mouth from hers, his breath sawing in and out. She bit his lower lip gently and then licked her own. He groaned and stopped thinking about anything but his thickening erection and how much he wanted her.

He took two steps back until he felt the cold metal of the pickup truck behind him. The gate dug into his back as Molly undulated against him. He felt her long, cool fingers on his neck; she stroked his pulse, which he knew raced.

He shifted her weight to one arm and saw her tight nipples pressing against the fabric of her sundress. Unable to help himself, he leaned down to suck on one of them through her clothing. She arched her back, thrusting her breasts toward him. He palmed her other breast as he continued to suck on her nipple.

He felt the strain a little in his muscles, but he'd been working out every day for most of his adult life and if he couldn't hold on to this wild cowgirl while he was making love to her, then what was the point? She moaned his name and he felt her hands in his hair, tracing the shape of his ear before moving down his neck again.

She stroked his chest and then wedged her hand between their bodies to run her fingers down the line of his zipper. His hips jerked forward and he had to shift his hold on her as a wave of need, hot like a solar flare, washed over him.

There was no hiding his reaction to her. And he didn't want to. For the first time since he'd come back to Cole's Hill and the Bar T Ranch, he felt like he was being true to himself. Every breath he took was filled with the scent of her. The feel of her under his fingers inflamed every sense in his body. He was compelled by the need to fill her completely.

He turned to set her ass on the tailgate and stand between her legs as he tangled his hands in the hair at the nape of her neck, tugging lightly on it. She let her head fall back, exposing the long length of her neck. He kissed it, moving his mouth slowly down to her collarbone where the fabric of her sundress blocked his access to her skin.

She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and tightened her legs around his hips, then shoved the strap of her dress down. He groaned in approval and kissed his way farther down her arm. Moving slowly back toward her torso, he followed the neckline of her dress, dipping his tongue underneath to taste more of her.

She was addictive. He wanted to see her stretched out under him. Naked so that he could explore her entire body. Wanted nothing but his hands and mouth on her. Wanted her to need him and nothing else.

He pushed her legs farther apart, caressing her knees and slowly moving his hands down her legs to her feet. He took off her left boot and set it on the ground before turning his attention to the right. He removed it as well and then pulled off her socks.

He smiled when he saw they were decorated with pink flamingoes. He set them on the truck bed. Lifting her left foot, he placed it in the center of his chest. She wriggled her toes and he rubbed the arch of her foot.

“Your feet are small.”

“Really? They seem just right to me.”

He ran his finger along her instep, tickling her, and she squirmed to get away, causing the hem of her dress to ride up her thighs. All thoughts of smallish feet and tickling her dropped away. He noticed the large bruise on the top of her foot and pressed a gentle kiss to it. Ranching was hard work. He'd ask her what happened later, make sure it wasn't causing her pain. But right now he wanted to focus on bringing them both pleasure. His fingers glided up her leg. It was strong, muscled from years of working on the ranch—he always associated Molly with strength.