Simmons Brothers Series: Boxed Set

by Danielle Gray

  The first thing that she did was buy the two of them cotton candy.

  “We have to get into the feel!” she insisted as she handed him the stick.

  “How exactly am I supposed to take images with this in my hand?” he asked.

  “You’ll figure out a way,” she said and then ran off.

  He shook his head, but couldn’t help but smile as she took everything in with awe on her face. The two of them toured the attractions while he brushed off some of his old skills into taking some images for her article. He managed to snag a few images of her which he was planning to wash for her. He would tell her about it later. It would be a nice surprise for her.

  “What show is that?” she asked pointing at the poster.

  “It’s the show that they hold every day, a circus show. You should hurry up if you want to catch it,” he said.

  “Is it any good?”

  “It’s the best,” he assured her.

  “Okay!” she said excited and ran off to take the ticket.

  He almost felt the need to remind her that she was here for work, but then decided against it. Let her enjoy it as much as she could. They got into the show and while Jamie got into his job of being the photographer, Gabrielle had just as much fun in seeing everything for the first time. She was constantly tugging his sleeve and asking him what that or this was which almost made him feel like he had brought a child with him.

  “That was so much fun!” she gushed as they got out. “I didn’t think the tiger would actually leap through the ring of fire.”

  “It was pretty expected,” he said. “I’m glad you enjoyed it.”

  “What’s next?” she asked excitedly.

  “I think that’s about it,” he said. “We’re at the end of the show.”

  “No fair,” she said, pouting. “It’s not even-“

  “It’s not even noon?” he finished her sentence. “It’s actually afternoon.”

  “Seriously?” she said shocked. She looked at the sky and had to say that he was right because it was fast approaching evening. “I didn’t even realize where the time went.”

  “That happens when you have fun,” he said.

  “It really was fun,” she said wrapping her hand around his.

  “Let’s get home then,” he said. “I think I know a way to extend the fun.”

  “I don’t doubt it,” she said. “You always do.”

  “Thanks for the vote of confidence,” he said.

  They got into the car and as he drove, Jamie realized that maybe for the first time in his life, he wanted the woman beside him to stay. Not just for him, but for her. He wanted his life to be enough, to make her happy. He drove up to her house, helping her down from the truck. He knew then that if she asked him in, he’d go willingly.

  “Thank you so much for today,” Gaby said, smiling. “I don’t think I’ve ever had so much fun working.”

  “I’m not sure you could call that working,” he grinned. “But the pictures were fun.”

  “So it wasn’t a total bore for you?”

  “No,” he smiled. “I enjoyed watching you take it all in.”

  “Speaking of,” Gaby said, still holding his hand. “Will you come in, stay with me tonight?”

  Jamie smiled before he leaned over and kissed her. Picking her up, he carried her into the house and gently kicked the door closed.

  ***

  Gaby sighed when Jamie simply carried her upstairs. Tiny tremors went through her as Jamie set her on her feet, his mouth still securely fused to his. For a seemingly patient man, tonight he was less than as his hands roamed over her. His mouth followed in a hot streak that left her dizzy with want.

  “Jamie,” she whispered, her mind barely coherent as Jamie continued to undress her. His whispered curse rang in her ears as his hand cupped first one breast and then the other, his thumb flicking her already tight nipples. Then she found herself lying under him on the bed, her clothes still strewn everywhere.

  She moaned at the bulge she felt against her thigh as need coursed through her. She was shocked at just how much she wanted this man. “Gabrielle,” Jamie said, his hand streaking down her belly. She felt his hand unsnap her jeans before those strong fingers slid under her satin panties. “Let me take you,” he growled, his fingers sinking into the heat they’d created.

  She rose up then, her hips bucking wildly as her climax took her over. Then she was ravenous, her own needs shoved to the back at the thought of meeting his. She tore his shirt away, needing to feel his flesh under her hands. She was rocked by the muscles that rippled over his chest and stomach. He was so wiry that she certainly hadn’t expected him to be so ripped.

  Pulling him down to her, she silently begged him to join her. Her mouth fused to his, her tongue seeking the warm return of his kiss. He tasted like she’d expected, of the earth and a little hint of mean. Ironically she’d found him to be incredibly calm and collected, so unlike the man she’d first met at the Council House.

  ***

  Jamie knew the moment he’d first touched Gaby that his need for her was next to uncontrollable. Tethering it now was like holding onto a tornado. Holding her was even more so. Need whipped through him as he uncovered more of her and her fast climb to peak was only more fuel on the fire.

  Now he was greedy, wanting to watch her discover that he could make her come repeatedly. It didn’t matter that he wasn’t the first, but it was a jolt to his system that he wanted very much to be the last.

  Once she was naked, he stripped his own clothes away coming back to her as she opened to him. He hand his hand up her smooth thigh, pulling her leg against his hip so that she’d wrap her legs around him. Settling closer to her, Jamie watched as her eyes went dark with desire. And when his name trembled on her lips, he filled her, pushing her so fast to climax that he felt her shudder and knew his own control was slipping quickly through his hands. “Gabrielle,” he breathed, only to find that her mouth has clamped, none too gently onto his shoulder. Her nails dug into his back as he continued to fill her, her gasps like sugar to a sweet tooth.

  Looking down at her, Jamie felt her hot pussy clench down in a rhythm that had him cursing under his breath. “I’m sorry,” he said as his own orgasm simply slipped through him, beyond his ability to control it.

  His muscles strained to hold himself up as his bones simply melted away. Then she was laughing and rolling him over, her body rising up over him so that her beautiful breasts bounced above him. She grinned wickedly as she reached down to stroke him, ruling his body in a way no woman ever had.

  Then she was taking him in again, riding him to a clear and fast finish.

  Jamie waited for her to fall asleep before he eased out of the house, quietly locking the door behind him.

  ***

  Gabrielle awoke with a start.

  For a second, she was confused about where she was then remembered that this was the room of the house. How had she ended up here? She remembered being in the car with Jamie and her body remembered how he’d taken her in the night, with a restrained passion that even now made her body tremble. She sighed and then smiled as she recalled the fair. It had been so much fun, he had been so much fun.

  What time was it? She looked around and saw that it was near two. She had better get some work done or Joe would be mad at her. She picked up her cell and saw that there were three missed calls from Joe. She called him back and waited for him to pick up.

  “What’s up?” she said when he picked up.

  “Where were you?” he asked.

  “I was tired. Anything urgent?”

  “Kind of. I wanted to tell you something,” he said. “You don’t have to stay out there anymore.”

  “What do you mean?” she said, her heart stopping.

  “You can come back now. Dave left the company so there’s nothing stopping you from working your usual post. Isn’t that great?”

  But Gabrielle, listening to him, couldn’t even speak as she thought about what
that phrase meant for her.

  Chapter Twelve

  Something was wrong.

  Jamie could feel that something was wrong. It wasn’t like Gabrielle to avoid him like this. He tried to talk himself out of being wrong about it, but the hints said otherwise. She hadn’t contacted him in two days and whenever he went to the house, she didn’t open the door. He hadn’t done anything wrong, that he knew of, but there had to be something on her mind.

  He even had the images of her washed and they looked great. She looked happy in the images and he knew that he should get them to her soon. But why was she avoiding him?

  He had to know the reason. With that thought in mind, he prepared to visit her for the day. This time, he wouldn’t leave, until he knew what was going on.

  When he reached her place, he rang the bell several times and then even knocked for good measure.

  “I know you are in there,” he shouted. “I am note leaving until you come out!”

  “Go away Jamie,” he heard her whisper.

  “Not fair, Gabrielle,” he said. “Let me in.”

  After a few seconds of silence, the door opened and he saw her standing on the other side, looking down. When he saw her, the frustration went out of him and he entered before holding her shoulders and asking,

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Jamie…” she didn’t finish her sentence and looked worse than before.

  “I have some images washed for you,” he said. “You should take a look at them, they turned out great.”

  He was trying to find a way to change the awkward atmosphere but then she took his hand and looked at him before saying,

  “Joe called me,” she said. “He said that I could go back.”

  There was a long silence after what she said and he tried to make sense of her words. The first thing that hit was the crippling pain, how could he let her go? That was impossible, but then he forced himself to recall that he had expected this would happen. He had told himself that she had a life different than his, but a part of him wanted to believe that he could always have her with him, that she would want to stay.

  “So then you should go.”

  Her eyes, filling with tears, fixed on him and she whispered,

  “You want me to go?”

  “I want you to do what makes you happy,” he said. “And if being happy means that you should go back to where your job is then…”

  “You know that’s not it!” she said, agitated. “I want to be here with you! I want…”

  “You want to be there too, working your job. Doing what you always dreamed of,” he finished.

  The silence persisted and then he placed the envelope on the table and said,

  “I’ll see you later.”

  With that, he walked away from her, leaving her alone to her thoughts even as his own heart was breaking from it.

  ***

  Gabrielle heard him drive away and then collapsed on the couch, her head a mess of thoughts. She couldn’t think about why he was being like this, but then she understood that he was giving her the easy way out. It couldn’t have been easy for him to think that she was going to leave one day and he was basically telling her that it would be all right if she did leave, but she didn’t want that. She didn’t want to leave him. She wanted to stay here, but she didn’t want to give up her job either. She had to make a decision.

  Joe was waiting for her and she couldn’t delay it any longer.

  She walked over to the table where Jamie had left the images for her and opened it. She expected it to be images of the fair, but they were images of her, enjoying herself.

  Somehow he had captured everything perfectly and that was his talent. She saw the pictures, her smiling face in them and couldn’t help but feel tears prick her eyes. Never had she been faced with such a decision. When Dave’s wife had come into her office, the only thing she had felt was horror towards Dave, it hadn’t been hard breaking the relationship off with him. That had been something she did without any remorse, it was only the mark on her pride that really affected her.

  Now, she felt as if she was breaking apart. This had to be worth something right? She saw her smiling face in the images again and her decision came to her. With determination, she picked up the cell and dialed a number.

  ***

  Jamie sipped the coffee he held in his hands but felt no warmth for it.

  It was a couple of hours after he had left Gabrielle and his heart was still recovering from the pain that he felt when he forced himself to leave. He wanted to go back in and tell her that he was wrong and that she should stay with him, but that would have been selfish of him. He would be doing the wrong thing.

  But what was the right thing?

  “Something on your mind?” Drew asked, sitting down beside him.

  “You seem to be there whenever I’m in deep thought,” said Jamie, sipping his coffee.

  “I might become a therapist for you,” Drew grinned. “What’s on your mind?”

  “Nothing,” Jamie said. “Or something. Gabrielle got asked to go back to her office.”

  “That’s going to suck. You told her to stay didn’t you?” Drew said.

  “No, I told her to do what made her happy.”

  “That’s gotta hurt. But you did tell her how you felt right?”

  “How I felt?” Jamie said listlessly. “I couldn’t tell her I loved her.”

  “Why not?”

  “I think that would have been unfair to her. I know what kind of person she is. She would have stayed if I said that. I want her to make the decision on her own.”

  “While I admire your noble ways, I think that was pretty stupid of you,” Drew said. “You know that she would have wanted to hear that.”

  “What’s the point Drew?” Jamie said. “It would have made her feel worse.”

  “Sometimes I think you let the moment pass by you too easily. You know how much I wish I could have said the things I wanted to her when she was here don’t you?” Drew said with uncharacteristic seriousness.

  Jamie took in a sharp breath. “You know that’s not the same.”

  “The feelings are. I lost my chance, you shouldn’t lose yours.”

  Drew stood up and patted his shoulder before going inside the house. Jamie sighed, regretting having reminded Drew of something that was painful to him but his words did have a point and a sharp one. He hadn’t told Sally of his feelings either, but that had been completely different. Jamie had always known that Sally hadn’t felt the same and those feelings dissipated as if they were nothing. Gabrielle, she wouldn’t disappear. She meant too much.

  Maybe he should have told her that he loved her.

  But the chance was probably gone now, she would be leaving soon anyway.

  His heart hurting more than ever, he got up to go back inside but the sound of someone walking made him stop. He looked up and saw her, walking towards him with a determined look in her eyes. He opened his mouth, but she stopped him with a raised arm.

  “Let me finish first,” she said. “I talked to Joe and we got to an agreement.”

  He was prepared to hear her say that she was going to be leaving but instead she said,

  “I am going to be around every day except a few times when I am going to disappear for work. Other than that, I am going to be bothering you a lot.” Her eyes filled with tears as she said, “Also, I love you.”

  “B-but…” he spluttered. “Your work? Your home?”

  “I decided that going back didn’t mean anything, unless I had you with me,” she said. “And I never thought I would see the day when Jamie Simmons would sputter.”

  Jamie remained still before he ran to her and hugged her tightly. He heard her laugh through her tears before hugging him.

  “Tell me you love me,” she ordered.

  “I do love you,” he said. “I thought that was obvious.”

  “Make it more obvious next time.”

  “I’ll show it to you every day,” he promised,
before kissing her.

  ***

  “I really do like the look of this,” Lana said approvingly.

  She looked around the table, happy to see everyone seated with their respective partners except for Drew, who was casually helping himself to the cornbread. When she had thought about doing this dinner party, she had been glad that there had been a table that would be big enough for everyone. It really did make her happy to be a hostess, something she had always wondered why her mother would do for everyone. She really got it now, with everyone around her.

  “It smells great,” said Gabrielle.

  “Thank you, Gaby,” Lana said, smiling warmly at her. Gabrielle was a delight and she could see why Jamie liked her so much, she had the fire that Jamie didn’t.

  Cat and Mark were helping themselves too and looking at each other happily. Cat was definitely something else and the way they were planning, they were probably going to expand the ranch soon.

  “Ugh, all the couples are making me sick,” Drew said, as Pete rolled his eyes.

  “You’re next,” Mark and Jamie said at the same time.

  “Don’t bet on it,” Drew said. “That’s past me now.”

  “Who knows,” Lana agreed. “There might be someone coming for you too.”

  “Speaking of that,” Jamie said. “Did I mention that Henderson is going for a new change in the town?”

  “What kind of change?” Pete asked interested.

  “He is going to introduce new ways to attract tourists. He wants new income from them so basically, you are going to see a lot of new faces around here soon.”

  “That sounds great,” Lana said. “Maybe Drew’s princess in shining dress will be one of those tourists.”

  Drew scoffed and Jamie only fixed him with a gaze, a gaze filled with worry. Jamie knew that Drew was always against any emotional attachment but couldn’t help feeling that maybe it was time for him to really let go of the past. As he thought of the new changes, he couldn’t help but get a feeling that something was going to change and that it was coming towards them soon.