One night they returned to the garden where they’d shared their first kiss. They talked about past loves on the way, Jess sharing his disappointing experience with Miranda in his youth and the unsuitable women who followed. Claire told him about Kyle and her work disappointments, and the two of them took solace and pleasure in having found in each other a chance for a new beginning grounded in a shared love for the life of the ranch.
“To fresh starts,” Jess murmured, his hand gently cupping her cheek as he drew her into a breath-taking kiss.
“To new beginnings,” she added, mirroring his movements and kissing him hard until they were both panting with desire. When their lips parted, she looked up into his eyes. Her voice was gruff. “I want you.”
He lifted her roughly, half stumbling, and he kneeled to lay her down in the grassy clearing in front of the bench. He rested beside her on his elbow, fingers tracing the contours of her face and neck before slipping loose the first two of the row of buttons on the front of her cotton sundress. He kissed her and she wrapped her arms around him, pulling him down on top of her and the sweet thick grass.
He worked his hand between their bodies, not daring to break the kiss, and made swift work of the remaining buttons of the dress. She moaned as he touched her skin, the pads of his fingers rough over her softness, the lace of her bra slightly scratching his hands as his hands found her full breasts.
“Claire” he whispered, body shivering with desire. “Are you sure?”
She whimpered, a small sound that thundered through him, hitting him at his core. “Please, Jess. I want…”
He covered her mouth with his, utterly lost to the passion that had been building between them. He kissed his way down the length of her, opening the front clasp on the bra to free her breasts to his gaze. They were full and firm with deep brown nipples, and he kissed and licked them until she was begging him to suck. He took one in his mouth, tenderly teasing the hard nub, eager to keep her writhing beneath him. When he shifted his attention to the other, she arched into his mouth, gasping at the strength of his mouth and the teasing of his tongue.
“Jess,” she panted, guiding his hand to the lace edge of her panties. “Please, baby, please.” Emboldened, he slid his hand between her thighs, cupping her mound and feeling in an instant the depths of her desire. He raised his head from her breast, eliciting a moan of longing, and then looked into her eyes. “Anything for my lady.”
Claire didn’t know what she expected next, but it wasn’t this. He kissed and licked a trail from her breasts to her navel, then continued, gently kissing her soft folds through the silk and lace while his fingers worked to nimbly remove the garment. He lay on the ground, head between her thighs, and slowly began to kiss her.
She gripped the grass and earth with her hands as his tongue slipped inside her, tasting the sweet nectar there. His powerful hands held her thighs open and still for him, and she forced herself to just accept the precious gift he was so eager to give. The night air cooled the sweat on her skin, her hands dug harder into the earth as he brought all of his attention to that sweet little pearl. She felt herself blooming, her body ripe and open to him, only him. Her moans grew faster as he coaxed her with his tongue, the sighs punctuated with his name as she pleaded with him to grant her release.
He let go of her thighs and reached out his left hand to take her right. He looked up at her face, hair disheveled and spread on the grass, eyes half closed and cheeks flush with need. “Is my lady ready?” he asked, and before she could answer, he slid two fingers inside her, feeling her pulse around them as he sucked at the hard bud.
She gripped his hand tightly, willing him to keep her grounded as she soared, bucking her hips against his mouth as the orgasm threatened to overtake her entirely. No one had ever, how could he know? She cried as she came, tears streaming down her cheeks and into her hair as wave after wave of pleasure coursed through her body.
When she stopped moving, relaxing her grip on his hand, he languidly kissed his way back up her torso and held himself over her, eyes drinking in every beautiful inch of her face and hair. He kissed her gently, and covered her with the panels of her dress, shielding her from the night air. “You OK?”
She purred. “Mmmm. More than OK.” She traced her fingers down his cheek, feeling the gentle stubble at his jaw before resting a finger on his lips. She giggled as he sucked at her finger, his eyes never leaving hers. She didn’t want them to, not ever. “What now?” she asked, waiting for him to take her. She needed to be taken.
He sighed and then kissed her before pushing himself up to sit. “Now, I’m gonna walk you home.”
She sat up in surprise. “Really?”
He grinned. “Yes, really.” He stood and extended a hand to help her off the ground. As she stood before him, he carefully closed the clasp of her bra and slowly did up the buttons on her dress. When he was finished, he bent to pick up the black panties and kissed her as he slid them into his pocket. “I think I’ll keep these, though,” he whispered in her ear. “That way, you’ll have to come back to get them.”
Work on the barn continued, as did the frequent family gatherings and subsequent walks home. By the following Thursday, the work was done. That Friday they had a big party to celebrate the barn’s completion and bid Carmen farewell.
The older woman was leaving for home the next day, and Lacey pulled out all the stops for the celebration, bringing in a local combo to play lively dance music and supplying an abundant table of food and drink. Carmen was glad to hold court, dancing with all askers and declaring that she’d have to make the ranch an annual vacation spot.
Her mother might have been the belle of the ball, but Claire felt like its queen. Jess was with her at every moment, holding her hand as he introduced her to the local citizens and making sure she wanted for nothing the entire evening. If the stares and whispers of the town gossips bothered him, he didn’t make it known, taking every opportunity to hold her close when the band played something slow for the lovers. Every inch of the evening was perfect, and Claire wanted to make sure that it ended on the best note possible. Taking advantage of a run on the dessert table, she grabbed Jess’s hand and pulled him outside. She felt reckless and took off in a run toward the nearby pond.
Jess gave good chase but she was faster, and he arrived at the pond just in time to see her strip off her underwear and dive into the water. He wasted no time preparing to join her, shucking out of his clothes while watching her swim.
She was grace personified, her brown body moving lithely through the water in the glow of twilight. He was almost hesitant to join her, not wanting to break the spell. When she swam toward him and stood, water streaming in rivulets down her skin, he could scarcely breathe.
Claire squeezed the water from her hair as she walked toward him. When she reached him, she laid her hand right over his heart. Looking into his eyes, she whispered “You are so beautiful to me” and at that moment he knew that he could wait no longer, that he needed to give her everything he had and was, to hold her tight and never let her go.
No more waiting, no more teasing. He pulled her close and kissed her, arms pressing her into him until they were one body in the twilight night. He pulled her to the ground, eager to reacquaint himself with her body, but she surprised him as she pushed him onto his back and started kissing a path down the hair of his chest.
“Claire,” he groaned as she took the hard length of him in her mouth. She was silk and liquid fire, and he worried that he’d not be able to maintain control for much longer.
“Claire,” he grunted, “I need you.”
She lifted her head and then stood to straddle him. He reached out his hands to guide her as she lowered herself on to him, her small hand guiding him to her center. Their eyes locked as she took him into herself, and his fingers found soft purchase in the flesh of her hips.
Claire was full to bursting with joy, passion, and, if she admitted it to herself, love for this man who was fast making h
is heart her home. She felt him inside of her, touching the deepest part of her, and she fell, overwhelmed by the sensation of so much perfection.
Jess lost no time taking advantage of her faltering movement, gently rolling them over so that she now lay beneath him, his to kiss and love with everything he had. He began to move inside her, her legs instinctively wrapping around his waist and urging him deeper. He was drowning in her eyes and her skin, and as he felt her core begin to flutter around him, he kissed her, murmuring into her ear. “Yes, my lady, my love, give yourself to me; never leave me, my beautiful lady.”
Each word went straight to her heart, piercing through the last barrier in her soul. “I would never leave you, my love, my heart.”
He looked into her eyes and saw it there, clear as day and more precious than gold, so much love and care that it shook him to the core. He could see her yearning as well, and he let himself go as he felt her tightening around him, coming into her with a rush of love and passion that felt boundless.
Spent, they rested briefly, holding each other and exchanging kisses and whispers of love and affection as the cool air played over their skin.
Distant screams and yells snapped them back to the real world. Claire bolted up and started putting on her clothes, her face now a mask of terror at the sounds. Jess followed suit, offering words of reassurance that felt hollow to him. They ran off into the night, guided by the screaming and yelling until they saw the cause.
The stables were burning, flames licking the sky and illuminating the night with a horrible glow. Jess tried to hold Claire back, but she was crying now and running so fast he couldn’t overtake her. The horses. He prayed as he ran that Pauline had been able to save the horses.
The men had already started to put out the fire when he arrived, a line of them passing buckets from the well to douse the flames while another group worked to get the firehose attached to the hydrant. He needed to help them, but first, he needed to find Claire.
He searched through the chaos of the scene, finally spotting her with her mother on the road by the corral. She was sobbing in Carmen’s arms, and as he approached, Jess feared the worst had happened, that the mares had been trapped inside.
Those fears were quickly allayed by Carmen. “Pauline got the horses out. They’re over there.” She tilted her head toward Bar None, and Jess could make out the faint outline of the stable manager and the mares in the distance.
Satisfied, he reached out his hand to Claire, rubbing her back, and then taking her into his arms. He stroked her hair and comforted her, murmuring words of love and support. “Your girls are fine, Pauline’s got ‘em and everything’s gonna be OK. I got you, love, I’ve got this and we’re gonna make everything OK.”
They’d stayed that way until Claire’s sobs subsided. She raised her eyes to his, nodded, and whispered, “Yeah. It’s gonna be OK.” She raised herself on tiptoe to kiss his cheek, then went off in the direction of the mares.
Jess went to work on keeping the fire from spreading. The stables were a total loss, but they were able to keep it contained until the fire fighters arrived to handle the serious blaze. It was nearly dawn before the last of it was out, and Jess finally felt that he could check in on Claire and the mares.
He’d offered to board them with his horses, and he found the three of them in a large stall, Claire curled up on a blanket in the hay between the two mares. His green eyes sparkled from his soot-covered face as he took in the sight of the three ladies resting. He went into the house to clean up and get breakfast going.
The Final Chapter
“You’ve got to eat, baby girl. Eat, then rest.” Carmen fussed over Claire, who sat at the table motionless, her eyes fixed on the plate of eggs and bacon before her, fork resting in her hand. She had cancelled her return flight, knowing that she needed to be here for her daughter. Yesterday everything had seemed so perfect and now she watched, helpless, as her beautiful girl withdrew into herself from the shock of the evening’s events.
She sat next to her and placed her hand on Claire’s arm. “You’ll rebuild. Your horses are safe; the vet is coming over soon to have a look at them, but I know they’re right as rain. It’s gonna be OK.”
Claire looked at her mother. “Is it? I should have been there, been closer to them.” She sighed and put the fork on the table. “I’ve been too distracted, too busy with the barn and with…” She paused and swallowed hard before continuing. “Maybe I’m not cut out for this life after all.”
Carmen jerked up straight. “Claire Delia Robinson, I won’t hear this talk from you. What’s a stable when everything else is OK.You’ve never been one to give up so easily; your daddy and I raised you to be tougher than that.”
Claire wiped the tears from her eyes. “I know, Mom. It’s just a lot to process right now, you know?” She picked at her eggs. “And I have given up on things.” She thought about her career in Atlanta and Kyle. “Seems like I’ve been doing a lot of that lately.”
“Those people didn’t appreciate what they had in you, baby. Not that company and especially not that no-account fool.” She kissed her daughter on the forehead and then went to the kitchen to get a fresh cup of coffee. “You eat and then get some rest. It’ll all be clearer after that.”
They were surprised by a knock at the door. “Insurance adjuster,” Claire sighed, as she rose, motioning her mother to stay put. “I’ll get it.”
It wasn’t the insurance adjuster. It was Kyle, smiling at her through the screen door, a bouquet of roses in his hand. Claire was motionless at the sight of him.
“Who is it, baby? Invite ‘em in.”
“Bad timing,” Claire said, to her mother and the visitor at the door. She sighed, resigned, and opened the screen door to invite him in. “Speaking of the devil,” she called out to her mother as she led him through the house to the kitchen.
Carmen nearly dropped her coffee mug when she saw the man standing in her daughter’s kitchen. She recovered quickly, though, curtly greeting him and inviting him to a cup of coffee.
Kyle took an offered seat at the table, resting the roses at his side. “Nice to see you, too, Mrs. Robinson. You’re looking well.”
“Humph,” came her reply from the kitchen. She briskly brought over the coffee and set it down loudly on the table. She pointed to the lazy Susan in the table’s center. “Cream and sugar are there. Help yourself. You’re good at that.”
Claire sank into her chair opposite Kyle. “Don’t pay her any mind.” She drank from her mug, needing some energy to get through this conversation. “Why are you here?”
Kyle seemed undisturbed by both the open hostility from Carmen and the veiled anger from Claire. He carefully prepared his coffee and took a sip. “Mrs. Robinson, a damn fine cup, as usual. Just what a weary traveler needs.”
He looked over to Claire. “I’m here to see you, to apologize for everything that happened.” He glanced at her mother. “Can we speak in private?”
Carmen glared at their unwelcome visitor. “Have all the room you want. Claire, I’m gonna head next door and check on the horses.” She took a set of house keys and her cellphone. “Call me when you’re done with this fool.”
Kyle let out a low whistle after the door slammed shut. “I deserve that,” he said. He looked at Claire, who was now glaring openly at him. He took in her tired, disheveled appearance. “You look like hell. What’s this place doing to you?”
Claire slammed her hand down on the table. “What do you want?” she demanded.
“I told you. I wanted to see you, to apologize. I miss you, baby. I need you.”
“Don’t call me baby, and don’t insult me in my home.” She stood and began to pace between the table and the counter. “How dare you show up here, uninvited and unannounced? We’re done, Kyle. You made sure of that. You ruined my career, ruined our future. How could you think you’d be welcome here?”
He rose and approached her, stopping when he realized a physical advance would be as unwelco
me as anything right then. “Baby, I was wrong. I know that. That girl meant nothing to me. It’s just…you were always away, either working or with your horses, and I had a moment of weakness. There was so much going on with the investments and the SEC; it just got the best of me that’s all. I love you. I want to be with you.”
She grabbed her mug and took it to the kitchen, slamming everything around. “And when my father died? Where were you then? You didn’t seem so eager to be with me, to love me then.”
He was sorrowful, apologetic. “You didn’t seem too eager to have me around, then, remember? I was busy, too, with the investigation. I’ve been cleared, you know. They could see that I was just caught up in it, not the one in charge.” He sighed and sat at a stool near the counter. “That was a crazy time, Claire, and I know I made mistakes, huge mistakes, but I want to make amends. I want us to try again.”
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