He grimaced and gently lifted her hand to inspect the damage. “You’re hurt.”
A tingle zipped up her arm at the contact, and she shyly tugged it from his warm grasp. “I’m really fine, sir. The library is closing soon.” She glanced at him as she reorganized the stack of books, trying to ignore the painful tingle in her hands that warred with the distracting tingle located elsewhere.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t notice.” He held up a book on Japanese art. “I was involved in this book. Are you sure you’re all right? I can help you back to the desk if you need me to.”
Gathering her scattered wits as the throb in her knees increased, she smiled and patted her stack of books. “I still need to put these up. I’m fine.”
He gazed mutely at her for a few moments then nodded. “I’ll be up to the front directly.”
Jayne gave him a hesitant smile and nodded, trying to get the trembling in her hands under control.
He paused and squinted at her. “You look vaguely familiar. Have we met?”
Oh, Lord. I’d remember you if we had, handsome! “No, I don’t think so. I’m relatively new in town.”
Surprising her, he held out his hand. “Seth Carter. Pleased to meet you.” His voice turned her insides to jelly and she felt the tingle again as she slipped her hand in his and he shook it gently, mindful of the abrasion on it.
“Jayne Sheridan. Nice to meet you, Seth.”
He nodded, all the while maintaining eye contact. His serious expression was almost disconcerting as he stared deeply into her eyes. Heat crept up her cheeks at his scrutiny. After a moment, he blinked and a slight smile crossed his lips.
When he released her hand, she lifted the stack of books from the shelf and he stepped out of her way to let her pass. Her hands trembled as she replaced all the books where they needed to be. She straightened a couple of shelves before turning to make her way back to the checkout desk. Rowena flipped two more light switches, casting the section Jayne was in into near darkness.
She rounded the same corner and yelped when she ran right into Seth.
“Oh! I’m so sorry. I didn’t see you as I rounded the corner.” Crap!
Seth chuckled and grabbed her as she rebounded off a bookshelf and held on to her until she steadied. “We keep bumping into each other. You okay?”
“Besides proving I’m a klutz, yes, I’m fine. Find everything you needed?”
“Yes.” He released her arm as they walked down the aisle side by side. Rowena waved at her with three books in her hand as she disappeared down the romantic fiction aisle. Jayne made her way around to the deserted checkout desk and sat as he placed his books on the counter. She blindly reached for the books and her fingertips landed on his large, warm hand. She rolled her eyes and pulled her hand back as she looked up at him. “This is just not my day.” She caught a faint twinkle in his blue eyes which were framed by thick black lashes.
Seth shrugged casually but she saw a teasing twinkle in his eyes. “Seems like it’s going pretty well to me.” He placed the books and his library card in her hands, and it was then that she noticed his arms. At first glance, she thought he had on long sleeves then realized that from the wrist up his arms were solidly tattooed with art that looked vaguely familiar. Realizing she was staring at them, she turned her attention to her job as she scanned the labels inside the books on Japanese art.
When she handed him his card back, he focused those blue laser beams on her, and she felt herself flush again. His lips were just full enough to be sensual, and when he gave her a slight smile, her body bloomed with heat all over, including the aching spot between her thighs.
Whoa, babe! No lusting in the library!
Jayne smiled back and hoped to remember him accurately so that when she took up her pen and her notebook she could record his beauty, for there was no other way to describe him. The trimmed goatee that surrounded his sensual mouth gave him a rakish appeal, and she wondered how that scruff would feel on her inner thighs. Her panties became damp at the thought, and she unconsciously squeezed her thighs together and shifted in her seat.
She struggled to keep her tone steady as she said, “Mr. Carter, these books will be due back on the seventeenth of July.”
When she handed them to him, he gave another slight smile as he nodded at her. “Call me Seth. I hope your knees and your hand are okay. Sorry for tripping you.”
Jayne smiled at him and shrugged as she ignored the throb from her injuries. “A little antiseptic and a Band-Aid and I’ll be fine. It was my fault for not watching where I was going…both times. Have a good evening.”
He nodded and backed away from the counter. The writer in her wanted to stop him and wrap her arms around his wide shoulders so she would remember what he felt like tonight when she wrote. For a split second, she considered clandestinely shooting a picture with her camera phone, but such unladylike behavior would most certainly be frowned upon. Another library patron piled their books on the counter as he backed away.
Seth walked through the doors but paused as she watched. He turned and gazed back at her, the serious yet sexy look on his face causing the heat to rise in her cheeks once again. When he caught her eye, that slight smile made another appearance before he continued on his way and the automatic doors slid shut after him.
Jayne watched his ogle-worthy backside through the glass doors as he strode down the sidewalk, his feet shod in brown cowboy boots. She felt incapable of tearing her gaze from his long legs and his ass. His shoulders were broad, and the muscles were outlined under the snug knit of the T-shirt, tapering to a trim waist. He moved with a grace and fluidity that told her Mr. Carter was very comfortable in his own skin. Drawn back to the task at hand, she wondered if she had drool on her chin.
“Miss Sheridan? You okay?” the woman asked as she pulled her keys from her purse.
No, I wasn’t for a long time, but I’m getting better every day. When was the last time I reacted to a man like that? “Oh! Yes! Yes, I’m fine. How are you?”
Jayne was actually glad now that Grace and Charity had been so persistent. It was time to rejoin the land of the living. Her battle-ravaged body was testifying that it was ready too. Come hell or high water, she was finally going to live some of what she’d been writing.
* * * *
After stopping for a cold drink at the old-fashioned drugstore across the street from the library, Grace sat in the driver seat of her blue Escalade, scrolling through the contacts on her phone. She looked at Charity with what she felt sure were completely guiltless eyes. Charity giggle-snorted and tickled Rose Marie after buckling her into her car seat and said, “It’s like an addiction with you, isn’t it?”
Grace smiled widely and shrugged. “I’ve never seen two people who were more right for each other, and did you see? Fate is trying to bring them together!” She gestured at Seth’s Harley-Davidson motorcycle at the other end of the block as he placed his library books in the saddle bags and climbed on. She knew a beautiful brunette would fit perfectly on the back of that bike. “I’m just helping out the universe by bringing those two within range of each other, that’s all. We wouldn’t want some ‘skank ho’ to claim him, now would we?”
“No, we can’t have that. Now let’s get you and your big boobs home.” Charity climbed into the passenger seat and closed the door as Grace started the Escalade.
“Bi boos!” Rose Marie crowed from the backseat of the Escalade. Grace gave Charity the stink eye as Charity snorted with laughter and reached back to Rose Marie to give her a baby high-five.
Grace wrinkled up her nose and muttered, “I think you’ve been spending too much time at my house lately.”
“You adore me and you have a pool. The attraction is obvious.”
“You’re just lucky she already says ‘Da-da.’ If ‘big boobs!’ was the first thing that Jack, Ethan, or Adam ever heard her say, they’d know who taught it to her.”
Rose Marie cackled. “Bi boos!”
Grace added,
“And they’re not big boobs. They’re just right, according to the men in my life.”
Charity laughed and grabbed her own boobs. “They’re chingo chee-chees! Enormous hooters!”
“Chee-chees!” crowed the baby.
Grace was laughing so hard she had tears and pressed the heel of both palms to her breasts as the discussion inspired a let-down reflex. “Will you stop! They’re sensitive to discussion. And Ethan said just this morning that they were the most perfect breasts he’d ever had the pleasure of—”
Charity stuck her fingers to her ears. “Lalalalalalalalah! I can’t hear you!”
“Lalalalalalalah!” squawked the pint-size parrot in the backseat.
Grace did her best to glower at Charity as she laughed. “You’re a bad influence.”
“I can’t help it. They’ve gotten so big that I can hardly talk to you without staring at them. They’re distracting.”
“Oh, hush. Yours were just as enormous with Beau and Justine and I never teased you.” She finally found Seth’s cell phone number and sighed with relief when she heard a faint yawn from the car seat behind them. “Here he is.”
“You’re just going to get voice mail.”
“That’s okay.” The recording of Seth’s rugged, soft-spoken voice played, asking her to leave a message. “Hi, Seth, this is Grace Warner. I just wanted to invite you to our informal Fourth of July family reunion tomorrow. Everyone is going to be there. Rosemary Garner has the flatbed trailer and tents set up in front of Cheaver’s, so we’ll have shady seats for the parade. We’re barbequing at the ranch for lunch and then we’ll hang out, ride horses, play in the pool, or whatever. At nightfall, we’re all heading out to Bowie Lake for the fireworks. I hope you can make it. Call me if you have any questions. Bye.”
“There’s no way he’ll be able to turn down that winsome invitation.”
“I can’t help it if I’m charming and sweet. It offsets your natural gifts.”
“Which one? Snarkiness or bitchiness?”
“I was gonna say wit and sarcasm, but whatever.” Grace looked back at Rose Marie, who had nodded off. “Thank goodness she’s conked out. I’d have a lot of explaining to do if she came home having learned how to say ‘bitch.’” She ended with a whisper on the last word.
“I think it’s a given with the guys that whatever foul language she picks up came from me, so you should be safe. Just wait until she’s sixteen and her auntie takes her shopping for her first vibrator.”
* * * *
Seth Carter maneuvered the Harley around the block and contemplated going back inside to ask that beautiful librarian if she’d like to go for a ride after work. Jayne had seemed pretty straitlaced, and she’d probably be fearful of his bike, as fragile as she looked.
The memory of the vulnerable look in her eyes as he’d helped her up from the floor swam in his mind. The recollection of her pure, clean scent awakened his cock as he recalled the second time their paths collided. At the checkout counter, her accidental touch on his hand had been like a butterfly’s wings. Her pretty eyes were blue and green with a golden-brown ring blending the two colors together. He’d wanted to take his time gazing at them but realized his scrutiny made her self-conscious.
His body had responded to the rosy flush in her cheeks with a rush of heat a little farther south. He’d been captivated by the grace of her manicured hands as she did her job. She had beautiful ivory skin, and the artist in him saw it as a perfect, pristine canvas, but even unadorned he’d thought she was stunning. In the overhead lights, her long brown hair had shimmered, and he’d be willing to bet that in the sun the red in her hair was glorious. Maybe when he returned the books he’d test the waters.
He rode up Main Street to the turnoff for his residential neighborhood and noticed that people were already setting up chairs and canopy shades along the street for tomorrow morning’s parade. He’d probably be able to hear the high school marching band play all the way from the house, as well as the blasting of stereos from the Lowriders Car Club and the other bands. He’d been a kid the last time he’d gone to a parade and didn’t particularly have the desire to fight the crowds to see another one. If the weather cooperated, his plan involved getting on his Harley and seeing how far he got by midday.
Rolling into his drive, he felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. After parking the bike next to his truck in the garage, he checked the phone and dialed into his voice mail. He leaned against the bed of the truck as he listened to Grace’s message. Parade. Barbeque. Bowie Lake.
Grace and Rachel had invited him to events at the Divine Creek Ranch before, but he’d never made it out to one. Lily Cook and her men, Clay and Del, had recently told him about a get-together they’d enjoyed at the Ranch earlier in the spring. Besides Lily’s wedding, he hadn’t done much in the way of socializing, and even so, this wasn’t the sort of partying he’d been accustomed to. Life, lately, revolved around his busy tattoo studio, Divine Ink. Dialing Grace’s number, Seth decided he’d go for part of the day, and if it wasn’t his thing then he’d still take a ride up into the Hill Country.
The line connected, and he smiled when he heard Grace’s enthusiastic greeting. “So, you’re coming, right? You know you’ll have a great time. And bring your bike because the ride out to Bowie Lake will be perfect at sunset.”
How could he say no in the face of such enthusiasm? Seth smiled as he leaned his elbows against the truck bed. “It sounds like fun, Grace. You can count on me.”
“Awesome! We’ll save a seat for you. You’ll find us right in front of Cheaver’s Western Store on Main. And could you bring an extra helmet in case anyone needs a ride to the ranch?”
“Sure.”
Well, it looked like he was going to a small-town Independence Day parade after all.
Chapter Two
July 4th, at the Cook Ranch…
Lily Cook stretched sleepily and came to full awareness in a rush when her apparently eager cunt easily accepted the cock that thrust inside her from behind.
“Oh! Warn a girl ahead of time,” she murmured shakily as Clay’s and Del’s equally naked, masculine bodies crowded on either side of her. She bit her lip and squeezed her pussy muscles, causing Del to groan as he pulled out and thrust back in.
Her husband Clay kissed her and then scooted downward in the bed so that he could suck at her nipples while she lay on her side, tilted slightly over him.
“Good morning,” he murmured as he stroked her rib cage and her abdomen.
“Good mornin’, Lily Bell,” Del grated out as he increased his strokes. His lips left a heated trail on her back and shoulders, and she moaned in pleasure when he picked up the pace. Clay toyed with her clit while he sucked on her peaked nipples, teasing first one then the other. As they played with and tormented her, she came fully awake, thrusting back against Del as his cock filled her pussy over and over, the excitement building in her nerve endings to a frenzied pitch.
Del pushed her topmost thigh over Clay’s hip, and the tension in her body coiled tighter. Clay released Lily’s right nipple with a wet pop and said, “My turn soon, Lily.” With a chuckle, he went back to work, laying more wet kisses up her chest to her throat before kissing her hungrily on the lips.
Her body felt all keyed up, ready to implode, and Lily wondered how long they’d been playing with her that she was as wet and aroused as she was. Then she remembered the sexy dream she’d been having before they woke her. The thought dissolved as the early flickerings of an orgasm bloomed inside her. Del seemed to understand and held her hips as he thrust, rubbing that spot inside her that drove her wild. Lily held on tight to Clay’s shoulders and buried her face against his neck as the orgasm hit hard. Her body turned to liquid fire and she moaned, bucking her hips back against Del. He thrust firmly a couple more times and groaned with a deep, animalistic sound. “Oh, fuck me.”
Panting to catch her breath, Lily had only a short reprieve before Del gently pulled from her and she found herself loo
king into Clay’s lusty green-gold eyes. He grinned at her sexily as he lay back. With his powerful arms, he pulled her still-tingling body astride him and thrust home in one stroke.
“Oh, yeah, baby. That’s what I needed. Let’s make some early-mornin’ fireworks.” She felt the hunger for him stir inside her.
Bracing herself on his shoulders, Lily lifted up and rolled her hips to seat him fully inside of her. “Is this what you need?” she asked as she sat up. She slid her hands up her hips, over the phoenix tattoo that decorated her lower abdomen and swirled with colorful feathers down her thigh. Knowing it drove them wild, Lily continued the upward sweep of her hands until she cupped her breasts and tweaked her nipples between her fingers.
Del lay down on her pillow and watched appreciatively then returned his gaze to where her body was joined to Clay’s. “That’s exactly what we needed. Ride him, Lily.”
Clay’s hands joined hers on her breasts, and she moved her hands so they closed over his, gripping her breasts more firmly. Clay thrust and her thighs tightened and the tension began to coil inside her again. “That’s right, baby, take what you need.”
Lily closed her eyes and thought back to the night before, when they’d made love to her together. Clay had been in the back and Del in the front, sliding in and out of her until she didn’t know where she ended and they began.
A warm hand slid around her hip bone. She opened her eyes and saw Del trailing his hand over the phoenix’s tail to the cleft of her ass. He didn’t say anything, but she knew that he was thinking about the same thing. Her muscles became jerky and tense as his fingertips slid down her crack to her back opening. He pressed gently, massaging the sensitive ring of muscle there. She bit her lip and gasped when all the tension unfurled in a giant snap and her orgasm ripped through her like a wildfire.
Sparks Fly! A Divine Creek July 4th Family Reunion [Divine Creek Ranch 11] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) Page 2
