And, if he was being honest, that was also the reason he’d turned down all those threesome invitations in the past. He didn’t want his friends knowing just how far he liked to push the limits.
He fisted his cock and gave it a sharp pump. His brain conjured up the image of the pretty gardener, her sexy green eyes, pouty lips. Fuck, she had total blowjob lips. The kind you wanted wrapped around your cock, sucking you dry.
His thumb grazed his engorged tip, sliding over the precome pooling there. Closing his eyes, he pictured Mia’s mouth surrounding his cock and a shudder overtook him. He imagined the hot suction of her mouth, the graze of her teeth, the warmth of her palm as she squeezed his balls hard.
Heat surged through his blood, pulsing in his sac, which had drawn up tight. He jerked his cock in a fast, hard rhythm, his breathing becoming labored as pleasure gathered in his groin.
In his mind, Mia was sucking him harder now, taking him deep in her throat. His cock tunneled in and out of her lush mouth as he fucked it.
The release came without warning, an explosion of heat that started in his balls before shooting out in all directions, turning his muscles into limp noodles and making him gasp for air. Fuck, he’d needed that.
But it wasn’t enough. He wanted more. Needed more.
As he slid up into a sitting position and reached for the box of tissues on the nightstand, he wondered if maybe it was time to give in and take one of those navy groupies for a ride. Maybe a night of wild, no-strings sex would be enough to tide him over for a while.
But he knew it wouldn’t. He’d only leave the encounter feeling even more unsatisfied. Sadly, he wasn’t cut out for random hook-ups or anonymous sex. Never had been, never would be.
Just like that, the edginess returned, the same old tension he’d been riddled with for months now.
He thought of Mia again, her pretty face and outgoing personality and contagious laughter.
I don’t want to have dinner with you.
Her rejection echoed in his head, but it wasn’t enough to curb the determination that jolted through him. She hadn’t said she wasn’t interested in him. Nope, she’d all but admitted she found him attractive.
Which meant that all wasn’t lost yet. He still had a shot to win her over.
After he’d quickly cleaned himself up, he grabbed his phone and pulled up Seth’s number. An idea was forming in his head, and he suddenly knew exactly how he was going to convince his feisty gardener to give him a chance.
I don’t want to have dinner with you.
A chuckle slipped out of his mouth.
Yeah. We’ll see about that, sugar.
The End
* * *
Read on to find out what happens with Jackson and Mia…
As Hot as it Gets
Out of Uniform
1
Mia Weldrick could think of a hundred better ways to spend a Saturday morning. Sleeping in. Eating breakfast at the diner across the street from her apartment. Jogging. Reading one of the gazillion unread books gathering dust on her shelf.
But she wasn’t doing any of those things. Nope, because she was too busy trying to find the cell phone she’d accidentally buried in Tom and Sarah Smith’s tulip bed yesterday.
“Oh, for the love of Hey-zeus,” she grumbled to herself. “Where are you, motherfucker?”
She desperately hoped her little brother Danny hadn’t gone back to sleep after she’d roused him and ordered him to start calling her phone in precisely twenty minutes. She was going to flip the fuck out if she lost all her contacts. Unlike smarter and more practical people, she didn’t have a backup list of passwords and phone numbers—everything was in her phone, which meant she couldn’t afford to lose it.
Stifling a sigh, Mia scooted over a few inches and lowered her head to the yellow tulips. A sweet scent filled her nose, but no sound reached her ears.
Well, except for the loud throat clearing that suddenly echoed from behind her.
She swiveled her head and instantly spotted the source of the noise. He was obviously Tom and Sarah’s neighbor, judging by the rolled-up newspaper in his hand and the serious case of bedhead he was sporting.
“Everything okay, sugar?” he called out.
Oh boy. He had a Southern drawl. That upped his hotness factor by a million, though even without the accent the guy was a perfect ten. Messy light-brown hair, whiskey-colored eyes, a chiseled jawline. And his body wasn’t a pain to look at either—it was muscular but lean, long legs encased in faded blue denim and defined biceps poking out of a wrinkled white wifebeater.
“Not really,” she called back. “Hey, you mind if I borrow your ears, sugar?”
He raised his eyebrows. “Beg your pardon?”
“Come over here and help me listen.”
His dumbfounded look made her want to laugh. She knew she sounded like a total wacko, but she really could use his help. She had just a little over an hour to find her phone, go home to change, and hightail it over to the sandwich shop where she worked on the weekends.
“Can I ask what we’re listening to?” her dark-haired stranger inquired when he reached her.
Mia tilted her head back in order to meet his gaze. “Holy crap,” she blurted out. “You’re ridiculously tall.”
Her stranger grinned. “Maybe you’re just ridiculously short.”
“I’m five-four. That’s average height.” Her forehead was starting to sweat, so she pulled off her baseball cap and shoved a strand of damp hair off her face. “How tall are you?” she asked curiously.
“Six-five.”
“Like I said, ridiculously tall. I’m talking to a giant. Do you play basketball?”
“Nope. Do you?”
“Sure, I shoot hoops every morning before work.”
“For real?”
A laugh flew out. “No, not for real. You actually believed me?”
Before he could answer, she gestured to the other side of the flowerbed. “Anyway, go over there. Tell me if you hear anything.”
To his credit, he didn’t question the command. He simply crossed the freshly mowed grass with long strides and knelt down in front of the flowers. “What am I supposed to be hearing?”
“Well, if my brother is repeatedly dialing my phone like I ordered him to, then you should be hearing the faint strains of A-ha’s ‘Take On Me’. I’m really into ’80s pop,” she said in a self-deprecating tone.
Her stranger stared at her for a moment, before understanding dawned in his gorgeous eyes.
“Wait a sec—you buried your phone in the dirt?”
Mia sighed. “Not on purpose. It must have slipped out of my pocket when I was planting yesterday. Hazard of the job.” She flopped down onto her knees. “Now, hush. I’d like to find my phone sometime this century. I drove all the way back here this morning and I have stuff to do today.”
From the corner of her eye, she saw his big body curling as he bent over the dirt. She had to give him credit—he was definitely being a good sport about this insanity.
And gosh, he was cute. She couldn’t stop taking peeks at him, so many peeks that she finally had to force herself to wrench her gaze away.
“Over here,” he called a minute later.
As relief flooded her body, Mia bounded over to him with a spade in hand. She started digging in the spot he indicated, then stuck her hand in the moist soil and felt around for the phone. Her fingers connected with something hard and solid, the vibrations accompanied by her ringtone tickling her palm.
She triumphantly pulled out the iPhone, brushed dirt off the screen protector, and glanced at her savior with utter delight. “Hells yeah! We did it!”
He seemed to be fighting a laugh, but she didn’t care how crazy or silly she sounded. He’d just saved her entire day.
The phone was still blaring out her favorite song with her brother’s number flashing on the screen, so she quickly answered the call.
“Hey, Danny, it’s me. I found it.”
Irritation laced her brother’s voice. “I’m so happy for you, dum-dum. Can I go back to sleep now?”
“Call me a dum-dum again and I won’t bring home any breakfast.”
“Don’t care. I’m not hungry. I’m tired. You know, because someone rudely dragged me out of bed at eight o’clock on Saturday morning.” He paused. “Are you coming back here before work?”
“Yeah.”
“Fine. I guess you can bring me something to eat, then.”
She choked back a laugh, not surprised by his complete one-eighty. Tired or not, teenage boys had voracious appetites, and at sixteen Danny ate like a damn horse. Her weekly grocery bill was proof of that.
“A food gesture will totes make me forget about being woken up today,” he added. “But I swear, Mia, if you lose your phone one more time, I’m gonna kick your ass.”
“Yeah, whatevs, dude. I’d like to see you try.”
“I’ll try and succeed,” he declared.
“Uh-huh. ’Kay. See you soon.”
She was smiling as she hung up. “Little brothers are such a pain in the ass,” she told her waiting stranger.
“Trust me, I know. I have a younger sister and she used to be a real pest. How old is your brother?”
“Sixteen. He can be a total shit sometimes, but for the most part, he’s a good kid.”
The man in front of her slid his hands into the pockets of his faded Levis. He filled out those jeans nicely, she noted. She was ridiculously tempted to ask him to do a little spin so she could check out his ass.
He’s not a piece of meat, Mia.
A sigh lodged in her throat. Nope, he wasn’t a piece of meat. And even if he was, she didn’t have time to indulge. Her chaotic life didn’t allow room for tall, handsome hotties who looked spectacular in a pair of jeans.
“So you’re doing some work for Tom and Sarah?” he asked.
“Yep. But the job’s all done, actually,” Mia replied. “Sarah didn’t want anything fancy, so it didn’t take long to finish everything up.”
The disappointment on his chiseled face was unmistakable, but his tone remained friendly as he stuck out his hand. “I’m Jackson Ramsey, by the way. I live next door.”
“Mia Weldrick. And I’d shake your hand but mine is all covered with dirt.”
“I don’t mind getting dirty every now and then.”
Her breath hitched as he moved closer, a grin tugging on his lips. When he took her hand, heat suffused her cheeks, burning hotter when she registered the naughty undertones of that remark.
“Was that a line?” she demanded.
“Was what a line?”
“You know, the whole ‘I like it dirty’ thing. Was that supposed to get me all tingly and weak-kneed?”
Because it worked.
Jackson laughed, a deep, sexy sound that rippled between them. “I didn’t say I liked it dirty. I said I didn’t mind it. And no, it wasn’t a line.” He was smirking as he met her eyes. “Why, did it get you tingly and weak-kneed?”
“Nope.”
She took a step toward her truck, turning her head just in case her expression revealed the dishonesty of her response. She was feeling tingly. Her entire body pulsed with a strange rush of heat, all because of this man’s proximity. She hadn’t experienced a spark of attraction to anyone in months, maybe years, and she’d forgotten what it even felt like. But the symptoms were definitely hitting her hard at the moment.
“Would you like to have dinner with me sometime?”
The request was gruff and came out of nowhere, bringing a pang of agitation to Mia’s stomach.
“Oh boy,” she said with a sigh.
“‘Oh boy’?” He smiled at her again. “Is that how you respond to all your dinner invitations?”
“No. But that’s because I don’t get a lot of them,” she confessed. “I never go out, which means I don’t meet a lot of guys. Honestly, I’m unprepared for this.”
“Doesn’t require much prep, sugar. A yes or no would do the trick.”
She murmured another “Oh boy”, torn between lying and being brutally honest. In the end, honesty won out.
“Okay, I’m going to lay it all on the line,” she told him. “You’re wicked hot, and I’m totally digging the height thing. It makes me feel dainty.”
He chuckled. “All right…”
“But I don’t want to have dinner with you.”
“I see.”
The visible disappointment in his eyes had her hurrying on. “It’s nothing personal. I bet you’re a really awesome guy, and that Southern drawl is definitely a bonus, but I don’t have time to go out on dates. I have a gazillion jobs and a teenage boy to raise.”
“Your parents aren’t in the picture?”
Mia swallowed the bitterness that rose in her throat. “Nope, it’s just Danny and me. Which is why dating is the last thing on my mind right now, and probably won’t be until Danny graduates. So even though I’m flattered, I’m gonna have to pass.”
Honest-to-God regret washed over her, which was weird because she’d truly meant every word she’d said. She didn’t have time to date. Most days she wolfed down her meals in the company truck between jobs. And she was usually in bed by ten o’clock. When did she have time to get dolled up and share a nice dinner with someone other than her little brother?
The grim reality of her life only bummed her out, so she quickly pasted on a smile and took a step toward her pickup. “It was nice meeting you, but I’ve got to skedaddle now.”
Jackson looked ready to protest, but she didn’t give him the chance. She simply hopped in the truck and offered a little wave, then drove off before she changed her mind and accepted his invitation.
But she couldn’t. She wasn’t interested in dating, and as hot as Jackson was, she didn’t want a fling with him either. Sex was way overrated. It was actually kind of boring, if she were being honest. So yeah, dinner with a cute guy who called her “sugar” wasn’t in the cards.
And that was just another one in the long line of sacrifices she was forced to make in her life.
* * *
“Let me get this straight,” Seth Masterson said in bewilderment. “You want to pay for a gardener to fix up our yard.”
Jackson leaned back in the comfortable wicker chair and rested his bottle of Bud Light on his jean-clad knee. “I sure do.”
“Because you have a thing for the gardener.”
“Uh-huh.”
“Even though you only talked to her for like five minutes.”
“Yep.”
“You’re insane, Texas.”
He didn’t blame Seth for looking so confused. Jackson knew he was going to a helluva lot of trouble to see Mia again, and it sounded nuts when you said it out loud, but for the life of him, he couldn’t let it end the way it had—with the first woman he’d connected to in ages driving away from him.
For the past couple months, he’d been striking out left and right when it came to the ladies. His friends’ matchmaking attempts had resulted in some of the most disastrous dates he’d ever experienced, and last night had been the final straw. He’d come home to find one of his blind dates naked in his bed, mistook her for an intruder, and almost shot the poor girl with his nine mil. It had been the icing on the crappy cake he’d been eating for months now.
But just when he’d given up on women altogether, he’d met Mia.
Gorgeous, sarcastic, down-to-earth and most of all, normal. So maybe he was veering toward borderline stalker territory, but could anyone really blame him for wanting to get to know the woman?
“I think it’s sweet,” Seth’s wife said as she stepped into the small backyard.
Jackson glanced at Seth. “See,” he said smugly.
“She’s only saying that because she wants someone to come and clear out that jungle,” Seth retorted, jabbing a finger at the overgrown yard.
“That’s not true,” Miranda protested. “I really do think it’s wonderful that Texas finally met some
one he likes.”
“It is about time,” Seth said grudgingly. “After all those horror-movie dates, I guess you deserve it, dude.”
Miranda glanced at the two chairs occupied by the men, then sighed. “We need to buy more chairs,” she informed her husband.
In response, Seth patted his thigh in invitation. Miranda wasted no time settling in his lap, her long dark hair cascading over one shoulder and onto Seth’s bare arm.
As his buddy rested a hand on Miranda’s hip and stroked absently, Jackson tried not to let his eyes linger on the couple’s visible intimacy. But dang it, he wanted what they had.
He was sick and tired of being single. All his friends had found the women of their dreams, and what did he get? Naked nutcases who broke into his house, and a sore right hand from jackin’ off every night.
Well, it was time to change that. He didn’t know if Mia was the one, but he dang well knew he wanted to see her again. And he was confident that if she spent just a little more time with him, she’d change her mind about her no-dating thing and go out with him.
“I still insist on paying for half of the yard work,” Miranda spoke up, interrupting his thoughts. “We don’t want to take advantage of you.”
Jackson waved a hand. “Don’t even think about it, sugar. I never got to give you a wedding present because you two a-holes decided to elope, so this is my chance to right the wrong.”
She looked ready to argue, but fortunately, two dark-haired tornadoes swirled onto the scene before she could get a word out.
Sophie and Jason, Miranda’s seven-year-old twins, burst out of the sliding door with a degree of energy that made Jackson chuckle. He had no idea how Miranda had managed to raise those two on her own for so long. Even Seth, a Navy SEAL who’d had strenuous training in endurance, admitted that there were days he collapsed in bed thanks to the two energetic children he’d officially adopted last year.
Out of Uniform Box Set: Books 4-6 plus 2 Bonus Novellas Page 59
