So he gathered her closer, and he lowered his mouth to hers. He started out slow and careful, brushing his lips back and forth across hers.
Until she sighed and opened.
And then he settled his mouth more firmly on hers, settled and went deeper, stroking his tongue across the edges of her teeth, meeting her tongue, which was shy at first but swiftly grew bolder. She tasted so good, and she smelled so sweet. She felt like heaven in his arms, and he wished he would never have to let her go.
He lifted his head. She gave a small moan of protest.
Until he lowered his mouth again, slanting it the other way, and kissed her some more.
Off in the distance, a coyote howled. That ornery rooster answered, crowing at the moon.
And the next time he lifted his head, she smiled up at him dreamily, her eyes full of stars. “We should go on inside.”
He made a low sound of agreement. She stepped free of her car door, and he pushed it shut. Then, their arms around each other, they turned for the house.
Inside she made popcorn the way they both liked it, in a pan on the stove. She drizzled it with melted butter. He put ice in two tall glasses and filled them with ginger ale. They went into the living room, where they settled on the sofa. He pulled her in snug against his side. She kept the popcorn bowl in her lap.
He grabbed a handful. “What do you want to watch?—wait. Don’t tell me. Something romantic.”
And she laughed. “No, I think tonight we need something with car chases and stuff getting blown up.”
That surprised him. “You’re joking.”
“Car chases, Will. And at least a couple of really big explosions.”
He shrugged. “If that’s what you want, I can definitely set us up with that.”
They streamed a thriller. And even with bombs going off and tires screaming, she fell asleep in the middle of it.
When it was over, he picked her up and carried her upstairs.
She woke up as he was carefully putting her down on the bed. “Hey...”
“Shh. Sleep.”
She reached up, wrapped her arms around his neck and whispered, “Sleep with me...”
He answered honestly. “That’s probably more temptation than I’m ready for.”
She gave a happy, sleepy laugh. “I’m tempting?”
He groaned. “Do you really need to ask?”
“That’s a yes, right?”
He pressed his forehead to hers and nodded. “That is definitely a yes.”
She sighed. “But what if we slept the way we did at the Manor, you on the outside, me under the covers.”
He’d never had a better offer. “I need to turn the lights off downstairs and brush my teeth.”
“That’s okay. You promise you’ll come back, though?”
He kissed her cheek. “You have my solemn word.”
* * *
When he returned, in an old pair of sweats and a T-shirt, with an extra blanket under his arm, she was coming out of the bathroom, her face scrubbed clean of makeup. She smelled of toothpaste and had changed into a giant yellow shirt with Bad as I Wanna Be printed across the front.
He put his arm around her, herded her to the bed and waited while she climbed in, scooted to the far side and settled the covers over herself.
“Right here.” She fluffed the pillow next to hers.
So he stretched out beside her and settled the blanket over himself. “Happy now?”
“I am, yes.” She turned off the light. “Night, Will.”
“Sleep tight, Jordyn Leigh.”
* * *
Deep in the night, Jordyn woke.
Will was wrapped around her, his big arm settled in the crook of her waist. She didn’t move, hardly even let herself breathe.
It felt so good, so right, to be lying in the dark with him.
Special. That was the word for it.
A slow smile spread across her face. Yes. That was it. It was special, what she had with him.
He was special.
All these years, she’d been waiting for that special someone.
Who would have guessed that her special man would turn out to be Will?
* * *
The next morning at the breakfast table, she couldn’t get enough of just looking at him. She tried to do it subtly, when she thought he wouldn’t notice.
But apparently, subtlety was not her strong suit.
It wasn’t long before he demanded, “What?”
She took her time chewing a bite of toast. “Hmm?”
“You keep giving me these strange sideways looks.”
“Huh? Me?” She spread on a little more elderberry jam. “This jam is so good, don’t you think?” She took another bite. “Delicious.”
“What is going on?”
“Nothing.” She assumed her most innocent expression.
He peered at her suspiciously. “You’re sure?”
“Positive. Eat your eggs.”
* * *
“You’re doing it again, Jordyn.”
It was Saturday night. They were in Kalispell, at a Mexican restaurant that served killer guacamole. Earlier, they’d bought the groceries for the week.
Jordyn was thoroughly enjoying herself.
She dipped up a chipful of guacamole and answered innocently, “I have no idea what you’re talking about.” She stuck the chip in her mouth. “Yum.”
He accused, “You keep staring at me.”
“No, I don’t.”
He set down the chimichanga in his hand without taking a bite of it. “Something is going on with you.”
She grabbed her margarita, stuck out her tongue and licked the salt along the rim. Will watched her do it. His eyes grew a bit glazed. She loved that. “I’m out with you. I’m having fun. That is what is going on with me.”
He grumbled darkly, “Uh-uh. There’s more.”
“Honestly. You are such a suspicious man.”
“You do keep staring at me. You’re planning something, aren’t you? You disappeared in the store for at least five minutes. And then, when you popped up again, you had this smirk on your face.”
“I do not smirk.”
“Yeah. You were. You were smirking. Where did you go?”
“I had to pick up a few things.”
“What things?”
She gave him her sweetest smile. “Will, come on. Think about it. What in the world would I be planning?”
He picked up his chimichanga again. “Never mind. I don’t even want to know.”
* * *
Back at the ranch, they put the groceries away.
Then he said he had some bookkeeping to do in his office.
She suggested, “I’ll wait up for you.”
His dark brows drew together. “Uh, no, better not. It’s going to take me a while.”
She knew exactly what he was doing—trying to get away from her before she asked him to sleep with her again. And she did want him to sleep with her again. She wanted to wake up in the middle of the night with him curled around her.
But she decided not to push it. It was a lot of fun teasing him, and she wasn’t quite ready yet; hadn’t quite worked up her nerve to make a real move on him. They didn’t have forever, but they still had more than a month left together. She didn’t need to rush it.
Plus, well, she wasn’t exactly experienced at seduction. Better to take it slow, kind of feel her way into it—or at least, that was what she told herself. It sure beat admitting that she had no idea what she was doing, and if she put herself out there, he might just turn her down.
She told him good-night and went on upstairs where she had a nice, juicy romance loaded up on her laptop.
/> The next day, Sunday, they caravanned to church with the Stevaliks again. Jordyn sat next to her temporary husband as she had the Sunday before. She tried to control her need to keep sneaking adoring glances at him.
She didn’t do all that good of a job. Twice he caught her looking at him. The second time he mouthed, “What?” at her.
But she only smiled sweetly and turned her gaze toward the altar again.
That evening they went to the Dalton ranch north of town for dinner. Cece and Nick were there. So were the Daltons’ identical twins Kristen and Kayla.
As always, Kayla was shy and subdued. She hardly said a word the whole evening. Kristen laughed and charmed them all with stories of how she’d played a stripper in a little theater production of Sweet Charity. Jordyn found herself wondering again, as she had that night at the Italian place in Kalispell, if Kristen might actually be the mystery columnist behind Rust Creek Ramblings.
After the meal but before dessert, Cece dragged Jordyn out on the front porch for a private word.
“You look happy, Jordyn Leigh. You kind of have a glow, you know?”
Jordyn gave her lifelong friend a nudge with her elbow. “Okay. I know you’re hinting at something. Just tell me what’s on your mind.”
“Well, I was kind of wondering if maybe there wasn’t a little Clifton on the way?”
Jordyn groaned and made a show of rolling her eyes. “Cece. Come on. We’ve barely been married for two weeks.”
“Sometimes babies come right away.”
Jordyn shook her head. “Uh-uh. Not happening.” She said it with complete self-assurance, and tried very hard not to think about the baby she hadn’t been pregnant with, after all. “Where did you get such a crazy idea?”
“I don’t know. It was just...something in your expression every time you looked at Will tonight. Something happy, and a little bit secretive, too. I started thinking maybe you had an idea you might be pregnant, but you hadn’t told anyone yet.”
Jordyn longed to confide in her friend, to tell her that, if she had a glow, it had nothing to do with babies. If she had a glow, it was all about how she’d finally found that certain special guy. And he just happened to be her husband.
For the next month or so, anyway.
But she didn’t feel right about confiding in Will’s sister. She didn’t want to put Cece in the middle of her Divorce Plan with Will. Later, months from now, she knew she was going to have to come clean with her lifelong friend.
Not now, though. Now she and Will had an agreement, and she wasn’t going to drag anyone else into it.
* * *
They got back to the ranch at a little after nine.
The minute they were in the door, Will started in with all the things he just had to do. “I really should check on the animals and then put in a little more time on the books...”
She almost threw herself into his arms. But then, at the last second, she chickened out. She told him good-night and let him go.
It was the same the next night and the night after that.
Will always had things he just had to do in the evening. Jordyn went upstairs by herself both nights. He went outside to check on the animals, and then he locked himself in his office. She read and did homework and told herself that tomorrow night she was making her move.
Wednesday night, as usual, he went back outside after dinner. Feeling like a complete coward, she watched him go. She finished wiping down the counters and trudged upstairs, where she called her mom. They chatted for half an hour or so—about the ranch and the progress she and Will had made there, about what was going on down in Thunder Canyon.
After the phone call, Jordyn took a bath, a long one, during which she gave herself a good talking-to. She needed to tell Will what she wanted from him. The days were slipping by, and she didn’t have forever to make something happen with her special guy of choice.
If he turned her down, so be it. At least she’d know that she tried.
When she left the bathroom, she heard the TV going in the living room. For once he wasn’t holed up in his office. She paused at the top of the stairs and looked down at her worn pink sleep shorts, pink cami and the fat pink socks on her feet. Not an outfit made for seduction.
But she knew that if she ran back into her bedroom to look for something sexier, she might stay in there all night, dithering over what to wear.
Uh-uh. She was making her move, and she was making it now.
She descended the stairs slowly, partly out of terror at the prospect of trying to seduce her husband when she had minimal experience at tempting a man, and partly because she was so nervous that if she didn’t watch it, she might trip herself and fall. She would end up sprawled in the front hall with a broken bone or two. Talk about a mood wrecker.
Somehow, she made it to the base of the stairs without incident, even though her knees wobbled and her hands trembled on the banister all the way down.
The front hall opened onto the living room. She could see him, sitting on the sofa, his back to her, facing the TV mounted over the fireplace. He was watching that comedy show where four friends challenged each other to perform embarrassing pranks in public places.
She hovered there, her hand on the newel post, staring at the back of his head and his broad shoulders, at his long arms stretched wide across the back of the sofa. His hair looked wet, and he wore that old gray T-shirt he liked to sleep in. He must have had a shower after he came back inside.
Perfect. They were both nice and clean. Always a good thing when you were going to have sex—especially for the first time.
And good gravy, what was wrong with her? She needed to make her feet move, needed to go into the living room and begin the seduction. But her feet refused to budge.
The seconds ticked by. And she couldn’t stand it anymore.
If she couldn’t get herself to go in there, maybe she could get him to come to her. She sucked in a big breath and called, “Will!” It came out really loud.
His black head whipped around, and he spotted her standing there clutching the newel post. “Jordyn?”
“Hey.” She gave him a weak little wave. “Would you turn off the TV and come here for a minute?”
She totally expected him to shake his head and go back to watching one of the pranksters slather a middle-aged lady in sunscreen.
But he didn’t.
He switched off the TV, dropped the remote on the coffee table, got up and came toward her. She watched him getting closer, her breath frozen in her throat, her pulse roaring in her ears. “What’s up?”
Before he could sense what she was up to and step back, she reached out and caught his hand.
He blinked and looked down at where she touched him. “Jordyn?” He said her name with way too much suspicion.
Now or never, Jordyn Leigh. Somehow she made herself move at last, stepping up nice and close to him, wrapping his arm around her, settling his hand on her lower back.
A muscle twitched in his jaw, and his eyes grew unfocused. “Jordyn, I...” He seemed to have no clue where to take it from there.
Fine. She was ready for that, ready to lead the way. She was done dithering. Tonight she would take her chances and find out once and for all if there was any hope that her special guy thought she was special, too. “Will.”
“Uh, yeah?”
“Sleep with me tonight.”
His expression was not encouraging. “Jordyn, I...”
Disappointment felt like a lead weight in her belly. But she wasn’t giving up yet. She slid her hands up that amazing chest of his and twined them around his neck. “Please.”
He made a low, pained sound. She only continued to stare hopefully up at him. Then he said gently, “You know, it might be a better idea if we didn’t make a habit of that.”
&
nbsp; A habit? Idiotically, she asked, “A habit of what?”
He sighed. Heavily. “Of sleeping together.”
She got it then. “Wait. You’re thinking I meant that literally. Sleep as in sleeping, the way we did Friday night, and when we stayed at the Manor? And you don’t want to just sleep with me?”
“Yeah,” he said bleakly.
“You want...more than just sleeping?”
He looked away, muttered her name again, “Jordyn...”
She realized she needed to try to be at least a little seductive. So she stroked her fingers up into his hair with her right hand as she trailed the left back down to his chest, where she traced the crew neck of his shirt with a finger that only shook the tiniest bit. “So you’re just going to leave me alone every night with a hot romance novel and my shower massager?”
His mouth fell open. It was so cute when he did that. “I don’t believe you said that.”
“Just because I’m a virgin doesn’t mean I don’t have needs—and then again, we don’t even know if I’m actually a virgin, do we? That ship might have sailed without either of us even realizing it.”
A low groan escaped him. “What are you doing?”
No going back now. “Let me make this crystal clear. It’s not really sleeping I’m after from you, Will.”
His whole body stiffened. He gaped down at her. “I...but...you...” Apparently, he didn’t know where to start.
She needed to help him. So she said it outright. “I want you, Will.” And then she watched, mesmerized, as understanding finally dawned in those gorgeous blue eyes.
“This...” The word died in his throat. He swallowed, hard, his Adam’s apple bouncing in an agitated manner. “It’s been about sex, hasn’t it?” he accused. “That’s why you’ve been staring at me constantly for the past five days.”
She felt suddenly defensive. “Oh, come on. A few glances now and then? That hardly amounts to staring at you constantly.”
“You know what I mean.” He said it through clenched teeth.
She traced the neck of his shirt again. His skin was hot, silky. And he always smelled so wonderful. And wasn’t his breathing just a little bit agitated?
Maybe they needed to get more comfortable. She let her finger trail out onto the rock-solid bulge of his shoulder and down his arm, continuing the light caress all the way around behind her to his hand. She captured his fingers. “Come on. Let’s sit down.” She turned from him and dropped to the bottom step.
The Maverick's Accidental Bride (Montana Mavericks: What Happened At The Wedding Book 1) (Contemporary Cowboy Romance) Page 16
