by Tessa Layne
He had a point. Off went her panties, joining the pile of clothes at the corner of the blanket.
“Lie down.”
She moved to join him, only a little disappointed that she was going to have to save the blowjob she’d fantasized about for another time.
“Other way.”
She cocked her head. “Other… OH.” A thrill ran through her, and she quickly rearranged herself, coming face to face with that magnificent cock. At the same time, she felt his hands slide between her thighs.
“I love how wet you are for me,” he rumbled as he teased a finger over her slick folds. “Open your legs a little further.” She complied, then tentatively drew a finger down his hard shaft. It was velvet soft, yet so hard. And hot. So hot. She rubbed a finger across the tip, spreading the evidence of his arousal around the engorged head.
Jarrod hissed, then slipped two fingers inside her, reaching the deepest part of her. She let out a groan. How could she concentrate on giving him the BJ of a lifetime when he was practically making her come? Hell if she would let him win this battle. She was a woman with a mission. She wrapped her hand around the base of his cock, sliding upward as she brought her mouth to his crown. His taste was startling, sharp — almost bitter — salty, and utterly incredible. She swept her tongue over and over the tip, smiling when his groan hit her ears. Groaning herself as his tongue parted her.
Her hips bucked as his tongue found her clit, and she sucked him further into her mouth with a noise of pure wanton pleasure. Somehow, they developed a rhythm — suck, lick, groan, suck, lick, moan. Hips writhing together, energy coiling deep in her belly, building and building. She didn’t want to stop, didn’t want him to stop. She swore his cock pulsed and grew with each lap of her tongue, each stroke of her hand. Her orgasm exploded over her in heavy hard waves at the same time he came with an otherworldly noise, spewing hot ropes of come down her throat.
It was the most incredible thing, to give and receive at the same time, more than she could wrap her brain around. She’d do it again in a heartbeat. She continued to lap up the remains of his release, at the same time, he continued to lick and touch her until the last wave of her orgasm subsided. She rolled onto her back at the same time Jarrod did. And the strangest thing happened. A laugh bubbled up from her belly. It started as a giddy little giggle, but then developed into a belly laugh. Even stranger was that Jarrod joined her, belly shaking as they lay staring up at the tree leaves, laughing like children.
“Beer?” He asked after a while.
“There are more cold ones in my satchel.” Jarrod sat up, and in a moment, a frosty beer bottle appeared in her line of sight. She rose to an elbow, accepting the bottle and held it out to tap his. “That was fun,” she said with another giddy laugh. It felt like there were champagne bubbles in her chest. And now she was enjoying a post-orgasm beer with the sexiest man she knew, naked, under her favorite tree. Life couldn’t get much better than this.
“There’s more where that came from,” he answered with a smile that echoed her own. “How much time do we have?”
She glanced at the sky. “Probably another hour before I have to help dad with the evening chores.”
“Can I help?”
“You want to help with chores?” Was he serious? Who did that? Guys out here had their own chores to attend to, and she’d never met a city boy remotely interested in the dirty side of ranching. “Mucking out stables, cleaning tack?”
“Why not? You said I needed to scuff up my boots.”
“Well, yeah. But doesn’t Brodie need your help? Don’t you need to babysit your niece?”
He eyed her. “If you want to get rid of me, just say so.”
“I don’t,” she rushed. “It’s just that… that…” What was it? “It’s a sweet offer, but to be honest, it’s kind of a ritual I do with just my dad.” Mostly. Her dad would also pepper her with questions she wasn’t quite ready to answer.
He looked like he didn’t quite buy her answer. “So what about after chores? Can I see you again?”
“Do you two-step? Or play pool? We could hit the Trading Post.” She’d mostly avoided the Trading Post since she’d been home, but it was typically ‘the’ place to go when you were dating someone and you wanted it to become common knowledge. One night wouldn’t hurt. In fact, maybe she could talk her sisters into coming along, too. She was sure her mom wouldn’t object to watching Bubba for a few hours.
“I confess I’m not great at either, but I’m game.”
“Well if Maddie Sinclaire is there, don’t let her sucker you into a game. She’s a shark.”
“No kidding?” He grinned. “So sharks of various kinds seem to be common in Prairie?”
“I don’t understand.”
He put down his beer and crawled over to her. “Well, considering you’re a shark in the courtroom, maybe it’s something in Prairie’s water.”
She leaned back, eyeing him suspiciously, even as desire pooled deep in her belly. “Are you paying me a compliment?”
“One of many.” He nuzzled her neck and gently pushed her back. “Would you like to hear more?”
She looped her arms around Jarrod’s neck and kissed him slowly. When they parted, she stared up into his eyes. She’d never noticed all the colors before, how they were hazel, gold-almost-brown in some lights, and in others, like right now, forest green. “Are you trying to make me fall for you?” she whispered, butterflies fluttering in her belly. “Because you’re doing a mighty fine job.”
Chapter Sixteen
One week later
* * *
Lexi stepped into the kitchen, sweat pouring down her back. Today had been a hot one. She and her dad had spent the last four hours moving cow-calf pairs to the back pasture where the grass was fresh and water from Steele Creek refreshed the watering holes. She poured a glass of iced-tea, pressing it to her forehead.
She had no business being this happy on a Tuesday, after sweating her brains out. She should be pissed that Cody and Carolina still hadn’t managed to hire a foreman to help dad with the ranch. In truth, they needed two additional hands. Four, if her dad was going to retire and they were still going to run a full operation. In spite of their family’s troubles, she couldn’t keep the smile off her face.
“Let me guess,” her twin entered the kitchen, Bubba on her hip. “Jarrod?”
Lexi giggled and shook her head. “Is it that obvious?”
“It’s sweet. You’ve always worked so hard, and it’s nice to see a smile on your face.”
“But?” Lexi asked, noticing the hesitation in Lydia’s voice.
“I just worry he’s going to get bored and head back to D.C. To hear Jamey talk about it, he’s always been a city boy.”
“So was she until she moved here and fell in love.”
“True,” Lydia agreed, switching Bubba to her other hip and opening the refrigerator. “But her best friend is here.”
“And Jarrod’s sister is here.” Why was she acting like a cold water bath? She was happy. For maybe the first time ever.
“I know, I know.” She pulled a plastic bowl out of the fridge. “I’m just feeling protective, is all. And I want you to be happy.”
“I am happy, sis.”
Lydia put the bowl on the table and handed over Bubba. “Here, feed your nephew. He’s got two bottomless legs.”
Lexi happily received her favorite little man. “How’s my big sweet boy?” she cooed, nuzzling his chest and waiting for the giggle she knew would inevitably sound in her ears. “Who’s weady fo sum yummies?” She nuzzled him again, delighting at his spasmodic giggles. Longing pierced her. Would she ever have this? What Lydia had? Or her other sisters? The further away from her experience in D.C. she was, the more she realized that home had always been here in Prairie. This was where her heart was. And someday, if she was lucky, maybe she’d find someone to share it with. Maybe even Jarrod, a part of her hoped.
The doorbell sounded.
Lydia turn
ed with a knowing smile. “You expecting someone?”
“No. Jarrod and I are having breakfast tomorrow. He’s helping Brodie with some repairs at the hunting lodge.”
“You stay here with Bubs, I’ll grab it.”
A few minutes later, Lydia returned with Amy Watson, Wilson’s second-youngest of his five kids. Lexi stood, keeping Bubba at her hip, just like her sister did. “Amy. It’s so nice to see you.”
“I’m sorry to barge in this way, but I was hoping we could talk?”
“Of course. Come on in. I was just feeding Bubba.”
“I’ll put on the coffee,” Lydia offered.
“Is everything okay?” Lexi asked. “I know this has got to be a hard time for you.”
“You know, Dad had a good life. He loved Prairie, he loved the ranch. I just want to see his legacy continue, and that’s what I want to talk to you about.”
“Oh? Are there some legal things I can help you with?”
“Not exactly. Although, maybe.” Amy accepted a cup of coffee from Lydia. “My brothers and I are having a disagreement of sorts.”
“Uh-oh,” Lydia commented from where she stood propped against the kitchen counter. “That’s never fun.”
“Not in the least. You know Dad had four-hundred acres, some of which butts up against Falcon Ridge?”
Lexi nodded. “Yeah. Every now and then his cows would bust through the barbed-wire fence that crossed Steele Creek and wander into our pastures.”
“So I feel like you have a vested interest in what happens to our property,” she said.
“Insofar as the creek goes, certainly. Our operation relies exclusively on the runoff from Steele Creek.”
“And I believe your water rights, supersede ours, yes?”
“We’d have to check, but given our family arrived twenty-five years before yours, then yeah. I mean that’s going back to the eighteen-hundreds, but sure.”
“So, Marissa and I want the land to go to a ranching family, or a couple of families if we have to parcel it up. People who will preserve the ranching heritage and the land of the Flint Hills.”
“Okay, sure?” Lexi wasn’t quite sure where Amy was leading the conversation. Maybe she was still grieving the loss of her father and just needed to vent.”
“My brothers don’t feel the same way. For years, a couple of holding companies have been approaching Dad to sell. Each year, offering more and more, but Dad’s always told them to go suck it.”
“Seriously?”
Amy nodded, eyes tormented. “They even approached a couple members of the city council to alter the zoning around Prairie for commercial development.”
“Depending on the type of development, that’s not necessarily a bad thing,” Lexi pointed out.
“One group wants to put in a CAFO.”
“A what?” Lydia asked.
“CAFO — concentrated animal feeding operations,” Lexi supplied, wrinkling her nose in disgust. “Factory farms. Confinement operations — could be cows, chickens, or hogs. They’re notorious for violating clean air standards, and ruining the groundwater. Not to mention the noxious odors.”
“Eww.” Lydia cringed. “And we’d be next door to that?”
“It would be virtually impossible to live here. We’d have to sell Falcon Ridge.”
“No way,” Lydia said emphatically. “This is our family’s heritage.”
“Ours, too,” Amy said, nodding her head. “But that’s only one ordinance on the table, the other would allow fracking. Or even a golf course.”
“A golf-course?” Lexi echoed, incredulous. “In the middle of the Flint Hills? That makes no sense.”
“It does if you’re a pharmaceutical research center and you want to put in a conference center to attract doctors to come visit and sell your products,” Amy answered.
“People can do that?” Lydia asked. “Next door to us?”
“It depends on the zoning, sis. Once land has been zoned and sold, then there’s not much a city can do to stop big corporations whose values may or may not be different than ours from coming in. My biggest concern is that everything Amy listed has the potential for polluting Steele Creek and hurting all our ranch families who rely on that water.”
“And that’s why I’m here,” Amy said. “Dad has been the deciding vote for the last three years. The city council’s evenly divided on re-zoning. If we don’t have a mayor that sees the big picture, then Falcon Ridge, Resolution Ranch, even the Sinclaires’ and Hansens’ operations will be in jeopardy.”
“Don’t forget Moonbeam Acres,” Lydia chimed in, reminding them of Prairie’s own winery. “They use Steele Creek to irrigate their farms.”
“I think this would be a no-brainer,” Lexi said, mentally counting the number of families a zoning change would affect.
“But it’s not. Most of the ranchers in the area are retirement age. They want to sell out to the highest bidder and retire to Texas or Arkansas, or maybe Florida. There are more people than you think who would support re-zoning in the name of new jobs. Lord knows we need more high-quality jobs. It’s why Phil and I moved to Lawrence. Better jobs for a banker.”
Lexi’s heart sank to her toes. The picture Amy painted was bleak. “But I still don’t see how I can help,” Lexi prodded. “I mean, I can advise you on the types of pollution violations that are likely to come up, and how they would negatively impact our entire community, not just a handful of ranching families. But I’m not yet licensed to practice in Kansas.” Although, after hearing Amy’s news, she’d get on that first thing in the morning. “I can talk to Jarrod in the morning,” she offered. “He worked for big companies, he may have some ideas about how to fight them.”
“That would be great,” Amy answered, then took a sip of her coffee. “But what I really want you to do is run for mayor.”
Chapter Seventeen
“I’m sorry? What did you say?” Lexi asked, struggling to make sense of what she just heard.
“I want you to run for mayor,” Amy repeated.
Lexi looked over her shoulder, around the kitchen, and ultimately to Lydia, who was still perched next to the counter, but with a bemused expression on her face, now. “You mean me? Are you sure?”
“Absolutely. You’re young. You’re smart. You’ve had a career in the big city and returned home.”
“Yeah, because I got sacked.”
“Well, we can leave that part out,” Amy answered, growing more excited by the minute. “You understand the environmental impacts, and you come from one of Prairie’s oldest families. People respect you.”
“I don’t know about that,” Lexi hedged. “They respect my mom and dad.”
“And they know that the Grace name stands for honor, integrity… fairness.”
“Sounds like a good stump speech to me,” Lydia chimed in.
“I’m not running for mayor.”
Amy looked crestfallen. “I think you’re the perfect candidate to bring Prairie into the twenty-first century. And if you say no, I’m sure my brothers are out recruiting someone who’ll ensure those four-hundred acres get developed.”
Lexi’s chest ached at the thought of having major developers right next door. Fear for what might happen to her beloved creek weighed on her. But she couldn’t deny Prairie needed more jobs. They just needed the right jobs. Tech jobs that could be worked remotely. A community college or vocational training center to teach people how to install renewable energy systems, or how to program any of the AI technology that allowed ranchers to save tens of thousands of dollars a year. Prairie needed hi-tech ranching jobs, not hourly jobs working at a factory farm in unsafe conditions.
So, maybe she’d make a good mayor after all. “I’m not saying yes, but if I were to run, what would it entail?”
“Tomorrow is the first day to file for the special election that will take place a month from now. You’ll need to raise money, or use your own money to print some signs. If there’s more than one candidate, there might be
a debate, but I’d expect the thing to be pretty low key.” Amy leaned forward, eyes lit with excitement. “In fact, if you jump in, it might deter someone else from running. And of course, you’d have the endorsement of the daughter of the late mayor.”
“What do you think Lyds?” Lexi asked, turning to her twin. Lydia knew her better than anybody. If Lydia thought she could do it, then she would. The idea of giving something back to the community she loved held a certain appeal. “What do you think Bubba?” she cooed at her nephew, who’d sat happily snuggled against her this whole time. “You think Auntie Wexi would make a good mayo?” she asked in the silly voice she reserved just for him. He giggled and clutched at her braid.
“I think Bubs approves,” said Lydia with an indulgent laugh.
“What about you?”
Lydia let out a heavy sigh. “I think you’d be great, sis. I’d vote for you. And I’m sure a lot of other people would, too.”
“I hear a but in your voice.”
“I’m all for preservation, but you’d need to come up with a solid plan to bring new jobs to Prairie.”
“I could do that.” Already her brain was spinning with possibilities. And she couldn’t wait to tell Jarrod in the morning. He’d be a great ally.
“Okay, Amy. I’ll do it. I’ll run for mayor.”
Normally, Lexi sat at the long Formica countertop at her mother’s diner, but this morning, she wanted to be able to talk quietly with Jarrod without running the risk of being overheard. She settled into the far corner where she had a view of the front door, and took a sip of her coffee. Although with her pulse racing the way it was, maybe she should have ordered tea.
She and Jarrod had made their ‘we’re a couple, now’ debut at the Trading Post a week ago, and surprisingly, no one had batted an eyelash. In fact, the whole reveal had been rather anti-climactic, which was just fine with her. Now that she was out of D.C., she was finished with drama. Sure, if she were elected mayor, there’d be drama, but not the high-stakes, stress-inducing, take years off your life drama. Of course, the city council was entirely comprised of men, so there was that. But this was the twenty-first century, and she’d known most of the men on the council since she could walk.
