by Leah Vale
Jack vigorously rubbed its chest to stimulate it, then the foal lurched, stiffening all four spindly legs before it pulled in a gurgling breath. Soon it was breathing steadily and struggling to stand.
As if responding to her baby’s movement, Miss May tucked her legs beneath her and rolled onto her belly to better see what was going on behind her. She was too exhausted to stand, so Jack rolled her over a little again and pushed the foal toward its mother’s teat to stimulate the recovery process for them both.
Mr. Anderson whooped, patting his mare’s slick neck.
Jack laughed in triumph. “You did it, Melinda! You did it. But how?”
Joy and relief swamped her and her eyes filled with tears. She pulled the gloves off with a snap and held up a hand. “Small hands. I knew if I could just get up in there far enough, I’d be able to turn the foal.”
“Why in the hell didn’t you say so earlier?”
“I…well, I wasn’t sure….”
“Sure or not, you should have said something. It was a sight better than giving up. Like I did.” He turned to Mr. Anderson. “Did you happen to notice who just saved your mare and her foal?”
Roy Anderson met her gaze, an expression she’d never seen in his eyes before—respect. “That I did, Jack. And I’m in her debt. You can see to my animals any time, Dr. Woods.”
A flush of heat spread from Melinda’s chest up her neck and into her cheeks. It took her a moment to identify the emotion providing the fuel to the incredible warmth.
Satisfaction.
She felt incredibly satisfied because she’d just earned the respect for her work as a veterinarian that she’d craved so desperately. Tears blurred her vision. She busied herself wiping the foal, a filly that favored her gorgeous dam down to the same white sock on her hind right leg, so the men wouldn’t see her womanly show of emotion.
What a weekend she was having. First her fantasy about making love with Jack comes true in a mind-blowing way, then she’d been given the best compliment possible from Mr. Anderson. And because he was good friends with Bud Webster and many of the other residents of Jester, his praise might go a long way toward changing some opinions about female vets.
Things were sure going her way. Maybe she should buy a lottery ticket of her own.
There was a very real chance that before long, her quest for respect here in Jester would be realized.
Jack’s part of their deal would be met.
And he’d be free to leave.
A pall settled over her mood. If she had done nothing, if she hadn’t acted to save the mare and her foal, Jack might have had to stay in town longer. She wouldn’t have to count on what she was afraid was a tenuous attraction to her to keep him in town, he’d still be held by his honor. They’d made a deal, after all. But no matter how much she wanted Jack in her life, she could never risk an animal’s life to keep him there.
She would just have to risk using what she had to offer him as a woman to keep him in Jester. If only she hadn’t spent her entire life ignoring what she had to offer, she might feel more confident about convincing him that she was worth staying for.
What a fool she’d been thinking that she’d be able to handle him leaving.
Chapter Twelve
“I don’t care if you’re sure or not, I want you to speak up.” Jack shifted his gaze from the icy road as he drove them home from the Anderson ranch and looked her square in the eye. His green eyes held a flinty hardness she’d never seen directed at her before.
Coupled with the day’s growth of whiskers he hadn’t been able to shave off this morning, he had an incredibly masculine and intense beauty about him that made her mouth go dry.
“I expect you to, Melinda. As my partner in this practice, I expect you to offer any knowledge, experience or skill you have that I don’t. Okay?”
Pride infused her with heat and the flush that had been heating her chest since Jack had insisted broaching the subject the moment they’d headed home migrated to her cheeks. “Okay.”
Even though he returned his attention to the road, she shifted in the passenger seat, her habitual urge to clam up warring with the connection she now felt with Jack forged by their intimacy. Since today had already been a day chock-full of risks, what was one more? It would only be one more piece of her heart that he’d take with him, but if she didn’t start letting him in, she’d lose him for sure.
She lowered her voice self-consciously. “But it’s hard for me, Jack.”
“Why?” he shot right back at her without so much as a pause. Apparently he had no intention of making it easy for her.
She pulled in a deep breath. “My mom doesn’t want to talk about much besides the weather and the farm, and my dad never really wanted to hear what I had to say. Over time, it became easier to let him see the end result of my ideas rather than attempting to get his attention long enough to express them. Assuming he noticed the end results, that is.”
He looked at her, the glint in his eyes softening. “Which wasn’t often?”
She forced a laugh in an attempt to hide how much she still cared about her father’s lack of interest in her and how much Jack’s understanding meant to her. “No. Not often.”
“Well, Melinda,” he drawled, shifting his attention back to the road. “You can’t so much as breathe without me noticing, so do me a favor and speak up when you have an idea. Especially a lifesaving idea.” He looked back at her. “Understand?”
Her embarrassment turned to soul-healing pleasure. For the first time she mattered to someone without much of a fight. “Understood, Jack.”
A corner of his mouth turned up wickedly as he quickly looked ahead, then back at her. “Good, because I’d hate to think there was a spot on you that you really liked to have kissed but I missed it and you never ’fessed up.”
Her toes curling in her work boots, Melinda grinned in return. “Actually, now that you mention it…” she trailed off and giggled. Tingling anticipation built in the pit of her stomach.
Jack smiled broadly. “What! Where? Tell me now, woman, or I’ll stop this truck right here in the middle of the road and go looking for it.” He reached a big hand toward her and made a playful grab for the hem of the dry, spare sweatshirt and sweatpants she’d changed into in Mr. Anderson’s tack room after they’d finished up with Miss May and her new foal. Dirt and manure were one thing to track into a truck, but there were some things even vets preferred not to wear home, so they each kept an easily packed change of clothes in their gear.
She squealed and lurched away from him, squashing herself against the passenger door. “I don’t think Luke would appreciate us being the source of an actual traffic jam on the road into town. And while Nathan and Conner wouldn’t be all that surprised if we showed up at the medical clinic with frostbite, they would wonder how we got it on, shall we say, delicate places?”
“Delicate? There’s nothing delicate on me, little lady. I would have thought you’d have noticed that last night.”
Loving their play, she straightened up in her seat and reached a hand to his muscular thigh. “Oh, I noticed all sorts of things last night, Jack. But it was so dark, and you kept making these whimpering sorts of sounds….”
He took a hand from the wheel and grabbed hers, sliding it higher on his taut thigh until her hand rested on a different sort of hardness. “We need to get your hearing checked, then, because that was no whimper, darlin’, that was a roar.”
Her temperature rising in response to his obvious interest, she leaned closer to him, able to pick out the strangely enticing scent of his sweat and the remnants of his spicy aftershave over the antiseptic soap smell. “Really? Hmm. You know, the acoustics aren’t that good in my bedroom, with all that girly stuff in there, but I imagine the shower would be better for determining—”
Jack made a very distinct, definite growling noise and released her hand so he could reach up and pull her toward him for a quick but incredibly intense kiss that turned the tingling antici
pation in her stomach into a burning need and steamed the windows.
His whiskers were rough against her chin, adding an unnecessary reminder that he’d been in her bed this morning instead of at home where he could shave. She reflexively curled her fingers around his arousal as much as she could through his jeans, responding to his hard heat with a damp warmth of her own.
He released her just as quickly and focused again on driving. “You read my mind, darlin’.”
She snuggled against him as best she could while still buckled in for the remainder of the ride back to her place, which thankfully wasn’t far. His gentlemanly manners losing out in the face of her sexual needs, she didn’t wait for him to open the door for her. Instead, she grabbed her bag from between her feet, hopped out of his truck the moment it stopped in her driveway and made a beeline for the side door of her house. Jack was fast on her heels.
No matter how anxious they were to get in the shower together, they were both sensible enough to take their soiled clothes from the plastic bags they’d brought them home in and put them in the washer. Jack earned still more points by checking on Melinda’s animals while she added soap to the washer and got it going.
She tried to make it to the bathroom first to freshen up, but Jack came up behind her in the hall and engulfed her.
His kisses were everywhere. On her neck, her ear, beneath her jaw. They were so distracting in their incongruent lusty sweetness that she didn’t realize he was also untying the string holding her baggy gray sweatpants up until they dropped around her ankles as she turned into the bathroom.
She laughed, only to have the sound muffled when he pulled the matching sweatshirt up over her head and flung it into the sink. Then he was in front of her and his lips found hers, and his play gave way to a seriousness reflected in the almost reverent way he slipped his big, blunt fingers beneath her white bra straps and pushed them off her shoulders.
With a deft flick he unfastened the clasp and she let the bra drop to the cool white linoleum. His mouth continued to tantalize hers as his hands stripped her white cotton underwear from her with the same ease, though he spent more time gliding his callused fingertips over the sensitive skin of her bottom, raising goose bumps in his wake.
He nibbled his way out of the kiss and said, “You’re cold. I better get you under some warm water.” He stepped away from her and reached past the white shower curtain with blue paw prints to turn the shower on. Melinda did shiver then, chilled without his heat and feeling self-conscious with him still fully clothed.
Jack took care of that discrepancy in short order, whipping his clothes off as only a man can. His eyes hot on her, he tested the water, then took her hand and guided her into the tub like she was royalty. Which royally turned her on.
The second he joined her, turning so the spray of water hit them both, she plastered herself to his broad chest, grabbed the back of his neck and pulled him down for the most telling kiss she could give him. She boldly explored his tongue with hers, stroking and thrusting like she wanted him to do to her. Jack rumbled something deep in his throat, the sound unmistakably appreciative, and gathered her into his arms so that they touched everywhere. They fit perfectly together. It felt so right. So very, very real.
Tears pricked the backs of Melinda’s eyes. He had to care for her, he had to. She couldn’t believe he could hold her, kiss her this way if he didn’t.
He backed her against the cool tile, taking command of the kiss. When he hitched her leg around his hip, Melinda stopped thinking.
His hands on her bottom, he lifted her completely so she could wrap both legs around his hips. He risked fate by making love to her hard, fast and deep, pulling out at the last second after riding her climax to the end. Only then did it dawn on her that he hadn’t put a condom on.
She met his turbulent gaze in the muted light within the shower and knew that he’d nearly forgotten about it, also.
Breathing hard, he settled his wet forehead against hers. “Damn. I can’t believe what I almost just did. You get me so hot. I’m sorry.”
“It wasn’t just you, Jack. I’m a big girl. But I was caught up in the moment, too.”
He dipped his head and licked the water streaming down her neck. “Some moment, eh?”
Feeling languid, she tilted her head back to give him better access. “I’ll say.”
“Want to do it again?”
“I knew there was a reason why I like you so much, Jack.”
This time he was torturously leisurely in his lovemaking, taking extreme care not to miss a single spot on her body with the bar of soap he glided over her. She tried to do her part by washing him, but when he wouldn’t give up the bar of soap, she was forced to settle for rubbing her soapy parts against his parts. By the time the water grew undeniably cold, they were both very clean, very pruney and very turned on again.
Jack added fuel to the fire by taking his time drying her off, alternately rubbing and patting his way from the top of her head to the tips of her toes with one of her oversized, white bath towels. He even went as far as licking certain sensitive spots so he’d have an excuse to dry them again. While she felt more cared for than she had her entire life, she was also more aroused than she’d ever been before.
She snatched another towel from the bar near the tub and dropped to her knees, intent on doing a little drying of her own.
Jack made a very grateful sound in the back of his throat and let her have her way with him for all of two minutes, then he snatched her up and carried her to bed. They made love again, but this time they did it slow, safe, and soulfully.
And as Melinda held his shuddering body tight against her, she vowed to make him realize just how right they were together, how much he belonged here with her in Jester.
THE NEXT MORNING Melinda sat across from Jack in a booth at The Brimming Cup and she lost herself in his gaze the same way she used to fall into a beckoning pile of freshly cut sweet alfalfa. She knew the landing would be just as soft and the carefree abandon just as rewarding. At least, for the moment.
The moment was broken, however, when the mayor’s loud, self-grandiose voice calling for everyone’s attention accompanied his arrival in the diner with Paula and her ever-present clipboard during working hours mincing in his wake. “May I have everyone’s attention, please!” Bobby looked more like a used-car salesman, or a refugee from the golf movie Caddyshack, than usual in a white sport coat and green, white-and-blue plaid pants.
Blocked from the customer she was about to serve a coffee refill to by the mayor’s wide frame, Shelly planted a fisted hand on her hip and gave Bobby a baleful look. While conversation stopped, those with food in front of them continued to eat. Bobby would talk anyway.
“I have a very important announcement pertaining to our great town’s annual Founders’ Day celebration. I already delivered it formally to the media over at Town Hall, but since so many of you are here, I decided it wouldn’t hurt to repeat myself.”
Someone in the back, Dean, maybe, muttered loudly, “It might not hurt you, but it’s killin’ us.”
Everyone except Bobby and Paula chuckled.
Bobby glanced at Paula, who gave him an encouraging nod. He pulled in a chest expanding breath. “After a tremendous amount of deliberation, I have determined that for the good of our town’s image, which I have worked diligently to elevate since the lottery brought us worldwide attention, we will not be utilizing the pavilion this year.”
That got people’s attention.
Dean and Finn, looking incomplete without Henry in the back booth with them, talked simultaneously.
Dean said, “What do mean, ‘not utilizing the pavilion’?”
Finn exclaimed, “Not use the pavilion?”
Shelly pointed in the general direction of the park with the coffeepot. “Where will the band play? They always play in the pavilion.” Shelly was big on tradition, so much so that when her parents passed away, she’d stepped right into their life and took over the din
er. Until Dr. Connor O’Rourke made her start living for herself again.
Irene, who’d been in the corner enticing baby Max over the edge of his playpen to crawl, wagged a finger at the mayor. “Bobby Larson—”
Paula cleared her throat and interjected, “Robert Larson.”
Irene either didn’t hear her or chose to ignore her. “That pavilion has been a part of the Founders’ Day celebration since before you were born. Your father would have never dreamed of such a thing as not using the pavilion when he was mayor.” Though Bobby was in his late-forties, Irene sounded as if she were scolding a child.
Despite a distinct flush creeping up his neck, Bobby waved them down with a patronizing air. “Now I know this is a deviation from tradition, but Jester is a new town, now, and we need to put a new face on our image, need to put our best foot forward. And that old pavilion ain’t it. So I’ve decided we’ll set up a bandstand of sorts in the middle of the park, so people can gather all around, providing better access for the news crews.”
Everyone started talking at once while Jack groaned and rolled his eyes. “Great. Leave it to Bobby to turn everything into a circus.”
Dread gripped Melinda tight around the middle. She didn’t want anything to make her job of convincing Jack to stay any harder than it already was. More media attention would not be a good thing. “We don’t have to go, you know.”
He blew out a breath, then rested his crossed arms on top of the table and leaned toward her, narrowing the distance between them. “No. You can’t miss your first Founders’ Day celebration. Besides, folk come in from all around. It’ll be a great opportunity for people to get to know you better, to help further entrench you in town. The sooner everyone starts thinking of you as a part of Jester, the sooner they’ll accept you as their vet.”
