“No,” she answered in a shaky voice full of confusion. “Just a little stunned. Alexis doesn’t normally want anything to do with new people.”
“Perhaps she can sense that I’m not supposed to BE new people,” he said bitterly. “Had you bothered to tell me about her, I wouldn’t be a stranger to my own daughter,” he said, rubbing his big hand over her back and holding the back of her head as she snuggled into him as if she might be about to fall asleep.
“Give me a break, Jeff,” Dana said, sighing heavily. “I can’t even count how many times you made a point to tell me that we weren’t supposed to get serious… or to remind me that there were never going to be any strings to hold us together. Between my feelings for you and the fact that I found myself pregnant with your child, I knew I had to make a clean break. Family life wasn’t what you wanted… not with me or with any other woman. You like your buckle bunny lovers too much… a new bed buddy at every stop. I want better than that for my daughter. The rodeo is your life, and I have come to grips with that. But don’t even try making me feel guilty for protecting Alexis from having a father who has a different woman on his arm every time she sees him.”
Jeff groaned and wrapped the arm that wasn’t holding Alexis up since she’d fallen asleep across the back of the seat so that his fingertips brushed Dana’s shoulder blades.
“That’s not fair,” he said huskily. “For over a year, you know damn good and well I wasn’t sleeping with anyone but you. It would have kept going that way too, had you not just up and disappeared on me. From the second I saw you again, I’ve been trying like Hell to get you back in my bed where you belong… So don’t you give me that crap about my sleeping around. I was as loyal to you as a man can be to a woman, Dana.”
“That may be true, but it was only because I made a point to be at every stop. I made it easy for you… You didn’t have to woo anyone to your bed, because I went willingly. You also made a point to let me know on a regular basis that what we had was nothing but sexual satisfaction. That isn’t the lifestyle I wanted my daughter raised around. I had to be able to respect myself in order to expect Alexis to someday respect me.”
“And how about when she grew up and asked you about her father?” he asked, leaning back, refusing to let go of the sweet baby girl who had fallen into a deep sleep on his chest. “Did you intend on telling her lies about me? Tell her I didn’t want her, when you’d never bothered to even inform me of her existence? How could you respect yourself, knowing you were planning on not only keeping me from her, but looking her in the eyes in the future only to lie to her face?”
Dana blanched and lowered her eyes to the sleeping toddler in Jeff’s arms. “I didn’t think about that…” she answered honestly. “I tried not to think about it. My only plan as to what to tell her was that you are a very successful man that I loved with my whole being, but that our relationship evidently wasn’t meant to be…”
Jeff smoothed his big hand down over Alexis’s hair. “Well, now you’re going to have to find a way to deal with my presence in her life, because I’m in it now, and I’m not going to just sit by and let you take her away from me. As long as she needs me, I’ll be here as a part of her life.”
He looked back up at Dana and smiled warmly. “I want you to be part of my life too. I want you back in my bed where you belong. At least until I’ve managed to get you out of my system. You claim I’m the sort to eventually move on from all of the women I’ve ever bedded. Well, here’s your chance to get me out of your life if that’s what you honestly want. But I’m just going to put this out there right here and now… As long as you’re dealing with what’s happening to Mandy… You’re good and stuck with me.”
Not giving her a chance to say anything else, Jeff stood up and carried Alexis back inside to put her to bed. Dana needed some time and space to deal with his proclamation of intent and he was man enough to give it to her.
Chapter 6
Dana walked into the house almost an hour later, looking like a walking zombie. Her eyes were glazed over with shock and her skin was washed out and pale. Her eyes were wide and bloodshot and she felt as if she’d lived a lifetime in the last couple of days. She’d known the second she’d seen Jeff in town that her world was about to be turned upside down, but she hadn’t seen his determination coming.
Jeff was sitting on the couch with his feet propped up on the coffee table. His arm was draped over the back of the couch as he sipped at a cup of coffee, having what looked like a staring contest with her sister. No one was saying anything and the tension in the room was so thick, it was almost impossible to breathe as she made her way over to where they were sitting.
Mandy looked up at her and in that moment, Dana knew that she was really in for it. Normally, her sister was a pretty easy going woman, but when it came to Alexis, from the very beginning Mandy had been uptight. She had planted herself in Dana’s face and had demanded the name of the man who’d gotten her pregnant. It had hurt too much to even think about Jeff, let alone talk about him, so she’d done the only thing she could bear to do. She’d told her sister that she didn’t want to talk about it and she’d walked away.
When Alexis had been born, Mandy had come around again… demanding a name so she could give the man a piece of her mind. Dana had decided to put the words “father unknown” on the birth certificate.
Now that Jeff knew about Alexis she knew that her sister also knew that he was the man she’d wanted to chew out. It was clear by the look on his face as well as his body language that Jeff wasn’t backing down. It was equally obvious that her sister was just as angry as ever.
Clearing her throat, Dana propped herself on the arm of the couch. “Any chance we could all try to just let this go?” she asked hopefully. Mandy glared at her and Jeff looked over at her with a single raised eyebrow. Hanging her head in defeat, Dana nodded in understanding. “Okay then…”
Taking a deep reassuring breath, she struggled to prepare herself for what was about to happen and opened her mouth, hoping and praying that what she was about to say would be enough.
“Look… Mandy, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you before. Things between Jeff and I were over … What we shared was only supposed to have been fun times and sexual satisfaction and nothing else. My emotions were involved even though they weren’t supposed to be. I didn’t have it in me to talk about him when I knew I couldn’t ever let myself see him again.”
She looked over at Jeff and offered him a tentative smile. “I already told you why I took off without saying a word to you.” Glancing down the hall towards the bedroom where Alexis was sleeping, Dana swallowed hard. “I had my daughter’s best interests in mind when I made the decision to distance myself from her father.”
Jeff stood up and walked over to where she was sitting and stood in front of her. “Well, I’m here now, and I’m not going anywhere. No more distancing yourself from me, Dana. I won’t allow it.”
Mandy opened her mouth to say something but then she saw the way Dana was looking up into Jeff’s face and closed it again. That was a look that she’d seen in the mirror way back when she’d first fallen in love with her ex-husband. That wasn’t the look of a scorned woman… or one who’d been used and then dumped, which was exactly what she’d once been sure had happened. Standing up, she walked out of the room without saying a word. There would be plenty of time for her to get the answers she wanted from her sister later on… after Dana resolved a few important issues with the father of her child.
Dana blinked up at Jeff as he stepped into her personal space and used his knees to push her legs apart so he could stand between them. He wrapped his arms around her body and leaned his face down so that his mouth was inches away from hers.
“If I have my way, there won’t be any distance between us at all,” he added huskily. “I want you, Dana. The last couple of years have been Hell on me.”
A soft whimper escaped through her slightly parted lips and she licked them in anticipation. She’d never had much
of a choice where this man was concerned when it came to falling into his bed. One look at his sexy body and incredible looks and she went weak in the knees. When he asserted himself sexually, it was all she could normally do to get naked fast enough, and she was afraid that this time would be no different.
Jeff gave in to the need that was pulsing through him and closed the distance between them claiming her mouth in a kiss hot enough to set his blood to boiling in his veins. When she moaned the second his lips touched hers, it took the need he’d already been feeling and knocked it up another notch.
When he swept her up into his arms and carried her down the hall towards her bedroom, Dana’s heart began to pound so hard, she was actually surprised it didn’t beat its way right out of her chest. His hand brushed over her puckered nipple, massaging lightly as he kicked her bedroom door closed and carried her to the bed, kissing her lips and then the curve of her neck.
He followed her down onto the bed, yanking his shirt off over his head and throwing it across the room as he eagerly pressed his hard body between her legs. Dana groaned and wrapped them around his body, glad that she was wearing a skirt so she could feel the long hard length of his erection rubbing against her underwear. Her hands quickly pulled at the button fly of his jeans to get it open, rubbing her thumb over the moistened tip of his erection once she had access to it.
Jeff had to grit his teeth to keep a colorful curse word from flying when her hand wrapped around him and began to mimic the motion of lovemaking. “Dana,” he begged huskily. “Please… I’m at the end of my rope… I need you.”
“Yes,” she murmured pleadingly as she reached down and pulled her underwear off, watching with hot eyes as he yanked his pants and underwear off in once quick motion. He was lined up and seconds from pushing into her awaiting heat when they heard a crash sound down the hall coming from Mandy’s room.
Jeff groaned and reluctantly rolled to the side, covering his face with his forearm in a lame attempt to bring his body back under control as Dana leapt from the bed and pulled her robe on over her naked body. He watched helplessly as she pulled the door open and ran down the hall towards her sister’s room, yelling her name.
Alexis began to cry in the next room and gingerly extracting himself from the bed; Jeff grabbed his pants and tugged them back on over his erection to go get his daughter. His reunion with Dana was going to have to wait. Her sister had apparently fallen and their daughter needed one of them to be a parent.
His anger at Dana that he should have felt before about her unwillingness to share Alexis with him, hit like a two by four to the head and he gritted his teeth as he made his way into the nursery. He bent over and picked his daughter up, rubbing his big hand over her back and shushing her softly.
“Shhh… its okay, baby. Daddy’s here,” he soothed quietly. The word felt foreign on his tongue but along with the word came a sense of pride and obligation to protect his daughter with his very life if that was what she needed. Alexis would come to know him as her Daddy now. She would know that she could count on him to be there for her through thick and thin. If Dana said or did anything to try to stop him, he would flatten her like a pancake.
If she thought he was stubborn when it came to staying on the back of an angry bull that wanted him off, she hadn’t seen anything. When it came to trying to take the precious baby girl in his arms away from him, he would say or do anything it took to stop that from happening. The fact that he still very much wanted her mother was a minor annoyance that he’d get over soon enough. When Dana flitted off out of his life the next time, she’d be doing so without his daughter. It was the only scenario he was willing to entertain.
Chapter 7
The ambulance had just left, taking Mandy to the hospital and Dana was pacing the floor nervously chewing on her fingernails. Jeff was sitting silently in the rocking chair holding Alexis who had her little head resting on his shoulder with her thumb stuck in her mouth. Her eyes were wide open but she wasn’t fussing. The only time her daughter had cried after Jeff had picked her up had been when Dana had tried taking her from him.
It seemed that Alexis had formed a bond with her daddy just as quickly as Dana herself had, and she didn’t have a clue how to deal with it. Nor did she know what to do about the fact that she still wanted Jeff as evidenced by how close they’d come to making love again before all Hell had broken loose.
Looking over at him she took a deep breath and walked his direction. She swallowed hard before sitting beside him. “Perhaps we should talk about what almost happened?” She asked hopefully, placing a shaky hand on his knee.
Jeff glared at her out of the corner of his eye and shook his head. “What’s the point? It happened, we can’t take it back but we can make sure it doesn’t happen again. I’ve admitted I’m weak where you’re concerned, but I don’t want to get involved emotionally any more than you want to get involved physically with me. Sure for the moment you wanted me, but I saw the look on your face when you ran out the door. You are relieved nothing had happened. I’m here because I want my daughter; end of story. I won’t lie to you and claim that I don’t want you, but I also won’t pretend that I want more than just a role in the hay. I need to get you out of my system because I know it’s only a matter of time before you take off again. I need you to realize something though; when you do leave me next time… you won’t be taking my daughter with you.”
Dana’s nostrils flared in anger and she stood up stomping across the room. She spun around to stare at him; the fire in her eyes was so hot Jeff thought for sure he’d be feeling it any second. He was sure that she meant to put the fear of God into him but the result instead was a boost in his libido. This woman had always made him hot without much effort but when she got angry it only managed to make him want her more.
“No way… The whole reason I stopped coming to see you in the first place was to keep our daughter away from the likes of you and your lifestyle. I told you I don’t want a man who would use any number of women for his own pleasure as a father for my child. I can’t and won’t deny that she has your blood running through her veins, but you have no business whatsoever trying to be any kind of an actual daddy to her or any other child. You are immature, irresponsible, undisciplined, and as wild as the bulls you ride. Allowing you time alone with Alexis would be insane on my part. I won’t deny that I want you or that despite all the reasons I shouldn’t, I love you. But that doesn’t mean I’m going to just sit by and say or do nothing while you try to take my child from me. Had I told you I was pregnant you would’ve tried to talk me out of having the child or into giving her up for adoption. Either way we wouldn’t be having this discussion right now because she wouldn’t be in either one of our lives. You don’t want a family and I don’t want to leave her with you. When you get tired of me and you’re willing to finally just go away and leave me alone, you need to be prepared for the fact that my daughter will be going with me. If you really want her to be around you are going to have to change your ways, your job and your way of life… And you’re going to have to accept me as part of the picture because if you want one of us you’ll be getting both of us; we are a package deal. If you aren’t willing to take both of us, I don’t want you teasing me by touching or kissing me at all. I’m a strong woman. As a matter of fact, if you don’t mean to make a family with us both, you should just leave now, because I don’t want you around at all.”
Dana couldn’t tell what the look in his eyes meant just by looking at first but when he laid Alexis down on the couch and stood up striding towards her with that look of intent on his face her heart skipped a beat and went into overdrive. His arms snaked around her back pulling her tight up against his chest; his breath came out in hot bursts against her face and she felt as if she may never get a full breath again as anticipation mounted.
His lips claimed hers in a kiss so hot Dana was surprised not to see the whole house go up in flames. His tongue flicked over the seam of her lips and pushed its way past
her teeth to tangle with hers. A soft murmur of acceptance escaped her as she melted into his embrace. When he moved his mouth down the length of her jaw to that little dip between her neck and her shoulder Dana moaned softly.
“Jeff” was a throaty sound ; more of murmur that it was a word. It was all the Dana could come up with to say as her brain became instantly addled from the desire that coursed through her.
“Don’t ever make ultimatums you don’t intend to keep,” he snarled in between kisses. “You want me, I know you do. There’s no point in trying to fool me by telling me otherwise or by making empty threats. One look into your eyes and I can tell I can have you anytime, anywhere just like that first day at the rodeo when my eyes caught yours across the crowded arena.”
He nipped playfully at the skin between her shoulder blade and her breast with the edges of his teeth and the tip of his tongue causing goose pimples to rise all over the sensitive area. “Admit it Dana… You need me as much as I need you, if not more so. Whatever happens with Alexis down the road does not affect what we feel for each other now. We will sleep together again. It’s just a matter of whether it’s now or whether it’s later. But I have to say if it’s later you may be punishing me but I believe that you’re hurting yourself just as much if not more so. I can see it in your eyes; hear it in the catch of your breath; see it on your puckered nipples. I can feel it in the dampness between your legs.”
His hand glided down her body to touch the fabric between her legs, proving his point when he pulled it away and showed her the wet glimmer left behind by her own desire. “Go ahead, Dana… try to deny how much you want me when we can both see it for the lie it is.”
A whimper of need was her only response as she closed her eyes and let pleasure wash over her body when he pushed two fingers up inside of her heat. “Give the word and you can have more than my fingers,” he promised in a throaty voice that gave away his desire and need.
Rodeo Daddy: Book 3 in the Stubborn Texas Siblings Trilogy Page 4
