Truly Sweet

by Candis Terry

  In all the fantasies she’d had of him over the years, he’d been good. Jake Wilder in the flesh blew her expectations out of the water.

  And they’d only just begun.

  When he eased down to his knees, started to lift the bottom of her dress, then stopped and looked up at her with a flash of sunlight in his blue eyes, her knees literally wobbled.

  “What color panties are you wearing, Annie?”

  “What’s your favorite?”

  “Whatever you have on.”

  “Then it looks like you’re in . . .” She gasped as those light blue panties that matched the lace in her dress were torn off and his tongue slipped between her legs. “Luck.”

  He moaned, or said something that was completely muffled, because his lips were too busy sucking her sensitive skin into the warmth of his mouth. Maybe she was the lucky one because his tongue knew all the secret places to stroke and swirl.

  It had been a long, long time since Annie had been touched. And she’d never been touched like this. So it didn’t take much before she exploded and melted like a marshmallow held over the campfire too long. Her legs threatened to buckle beneath her, and she reached back and grabbed the bark on the tree for stability. A long, broken moan left her lips with Jake’s favorite four-letter word. Not a word she normally used, but completely appropriate for the shocks and tingles that fired through her body.

  As she began her tumble back to earth, he wiped the moisture from between her legs with her torn panties, then he tucked the ripped nylon into his back jeans pocket.

  Still throbbing from the most delicious orgasm she’d ever had—and she meant ever—he came to his full height and pressed into her.

  “I want you, Annie.” He kissed her and she tasted herself on his lips. “I want you really bad.”

  “I want you, too.” She reached down and cupped the huge erection straining against his jeans. Then reality popped up its nasty little head. “Please tell me you have a condom.”

  His mouth stilled on the curve of her shoulder. Then his head came up. Disappointment darkened his eyes. “I don’t.”

  “Then we can’t do this.” Dammit. “The last time I took that chance, I got pregnant. I don’t think you need that kind of added problem right now.”

  “Fuck.” He dropped his forehead to hers.

  “Yeah. I know.”

  Several long, thoughtful breaths later he said, “Annie? I’d never see you as a problem.”

  She chuckled. “Are you saying that just because you want to get laid?”

  “No.”

  The sincerity in his tone gave her no choice but to believe him.

  “Then consider turnabout fair play.”

  His gorgeous head came up. Comprehension put a strain in that normally smooth forehead. But that didn’t stop his hands from wandering down her backside. “Annie. You don’t need to—”

  “Do you remember the night of my sixteenth birthday when you wandered naked through your house in search of the refrigerator?”

  “Not really.”

  “I do. And it’s not nice to keep a lady waiting to see that again.”

  A grin broke wide across his face. “So you’re saying you want to see me naked?”

  “Completely. And on your back.” She dragged a finger down the center of his chest. “How opposed are you to getting that nice white T-shirt a little dirty?”

  “Darlin’, dirty is my favorite word.”

  “No, it’s not.” She laughed as she reached for the bottom of his fresh-smelling cotton shirt and pulled it over his head. “That word starts with an F.”

  Laughter screeched to a halt when his broad chest—lightly covered with short, soft, silky hair—and washboard stomach were revealed. He might have been in the hospital and rehab for months, but he certainly hadn’t let any fat grow under his skin. Jake was lean, and muscular, and as mouthwatering as she remembered.

  The tribal tattoo of an eagle on his forearm was familiar. He’d had it inked over the scar he’d received the time he and his brothers had constructed their huge barbecue grill. The tribal-cross tattoo with firebird wings and a shield that said “Protect thy Family” was new. If you’d asked her any other time what she thought of tattoos, she’d have said, “Meh, they’re okay.” On Jake Wilder’s warm, tan skin, they took sexy to another level.

  Eager to touch and taste, she wasted no more time. Leaning forward, she pressed her mouth to his skin. Tasted the peaks of his taut nipples. And slid her tongue down that lean, tight, rippled belly.

  He reached for his belt.

  She got there first.

  Good or bad, unbuckling a belt quickly was something she’d become quite an expert at, and she wasted no time relieving the hand-tooled leather from its job of holding up his pants. Likewise, she was more than happy to liberate the zipper from its job of guarding his valuables from her eager touch.

  When she pushed the dark blue boxer briefs and jeans from his hips and down his thighs, she tried not to gasp at the series of red, angry-looking scars marking an otherwise perfect section of masculine flesh.

  “Not such a pretty sight,” he muttered.

  The combination of wariness and anger in his tone forced her to look up, away from the wound that had forced so many changes to his life, and into the blue eyes she’d loved from the moment they’d met.

  “They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” She pressed her lips gently to each and every scar. Then she curled her fingers around the erection that momentarily seemed to be affected by what Jake saw when he looked down at that mangled fragment of skin. She wanted to give him something better to look at. “In my eyes, you’re perfect.”

  And then, with her mouth and her hands, her sighs and her moans, she proceeded to live out all of those fantasies she’d been dreaming of for years and years.

  Well, almost all of them.

  Chapter 8

  The grit of sand and blood filled his mouth, dug into the crevices between his teeth. The dive he’d taken to the ground had been involuntary. Marine Lieutenant Jake Wilder never backed down from the enemy.

  Never.

  Unless they drilled a bullet from an assault rifle through the center of his thigh.

  The sharp, burning pain stole his breath. Momentarily rocked his brain while he lay there on the sand, looking up at a sky brown with dirt and debris from the firefight engaged around him. At first, the shouts that came from his troops were warnings. Curses. Then quickly the sounds turned to chaos, pleas for help, and bursts of anger that were nearly drowned out by the ear-shattering blasts.

  While the bullets flew and zinged all around him, Jake adjusted his helmet, rolled to his stomach, and tried to get up on his hands and knees. Pain shocked his system, and nausea roiled in his stomach. He knew he’d been hit, but he was still surprised at the inability to control the actions of his own body. Only sheer Texan tenacity had enabled him to make it to his feet.

  He found cover behind an outcropping of boulders and through eyes coated with grit, made a quick scan of the dire situation. His heart raced, pounded the blood through his veins. And then he spotted Eli, unmoving, on the ground about twenty feet away. A little farther in the distance, several more soldiers dragged themselves toward a safer location.

  Sweat rolled down Jake’s face and back—not just from the desert heat, or the white-hot pain in his leg. Dread strangled him like nothing he’d known since the day he’d discovered his big brother had been shot and killed on the same damn dusty patch of hell.

  He awoke with a start. Opened his eyes to get his bearings. Took in a shuddering breath. Then he squeezed his eyes closed again to ward off the anguish stabbing at him. A moment later, a long, wet tongue licked his face. Rolling to his side, he looked into a pair of soulful brown eyes and felt the thump of a wagging tail against the mattress. “Hey, Hank.”


  The thumping increased as Hank inched closer and nudged Jake’s hand with his warm, moist nose. Jake stroked his palm between the dog’s ears. Hank inched closer, laid his head on Jake’s chest, and gave a long, canine sigh.

  Jake lost track of time as he lay there next to his new companion, who unknowingly gave Jake comfort from his recurring nightmare.

  Annie had been right.

  Again.

  He should probably be pissed that someone could have his number, have figured him out so completely they knew every move he’d make or needed to make before it even entered his mind. But he’d bet she hadn’t seen yesterday coming. And that made him smile.

  The horrific vision of the tragedy in the sands of Afghanistan was replaced by the vision of Annie up against that tree, with his hands on her curvy body and passion on her lovely face. He’d touched her, tasted her, and made her moan. But the one thing he’d wanted more than anything hadn’t happened. He’d wanted to bury himself inside her. To feel her legs wrapped around him. To feel her heart beating against his chest as he looked into her eyes while she exploded around him.

  Yet even without that, he’d felt more connected to her than he had anyone in months.

  How had that happened?

  For years, they’d sniped at each other every chance they got. They’d started out that way yesterday too. And then everything changed. For days he’d looked at her differently. If you’d asked him just weeks ago what he thought of Annabelle Morgan, he’d have told anyone that she was nothing but a pain in the ass.

  Now he knew she was the complete opposite.

  Now he knew she might very well be the only thing that could save his wretched soul.

  He just didn’t know what to do with all that. He’d let down his best friend. Let down his best friend’s wife and unborn child.

  He couldn’t let Annie down too.

  How the hell could he reach out and find happiness when Rebecca Harris was husbandless, her child fatherless, and Eli’s parents without the son they’d loved? How could he accept something that gave him joy when he couldn’t find the nerve to face his best friend’s wife and tell her he was sorry?

  He couldn’t.

  Not with a clear conscience.

  And so, even with Hank lying there patiently as Jake pondered the future, he knew he had to back off. He had to leave Annie alone, so he didn’t screw up her life. So she could find happiness with someone who was whole, not so broken he’d never find peace. Even if she drove him total-bat-shit crazy at times, he couldn’t do that to her.

  Not even if he still had her sweet blue panties in the back pocket of his jeans and she, very likely, had a firm grasp on his unsalvageable heart.

  Bud’s Diner was hopping with the lunch crowd. Annie ran an arm across her forehead to dislodge the loose strands of hair that stuck there like they’d been glued. It was only noon, yet her feet already ached from the numerous trips she’d made from the dining room to the kitchen.

  Paige had gone into labor that morning, so Annie had volunteered to take over her shift. Short notice had left Annie without a babysitter. But as always, Jana came through like a gift from the heavens. She’d even come to the house and picked up Max, so Annie could get to work faster. So while they all awaited the news from Paige and Aiden on their new little bundle of joy, Annie put her heart and soul into delivering Bud’s newest lunchtime concoction of Hot Stuffed Smokin’ Mama Burgers to the Sweet City Council, the Digging Divas Garden Club, and Chester Banks with his crony entourage.

  Chester, who never failed to put the flirt on from the moment he entered the place, looked up with rheumy hazel eyes that seemed a bit bloodshot today.

  “You got any aspirin in the back, little darlin’?”

  Annie propped her fist on the waistband of her apron. “You hit the George Dickel a little too hard last night, Chester?”

  “That I did.” He gave her a crooked grin that jostled his false teeth. “Took Virginia Luckenbill out for a spin. Took the hills a little too hard trying to please the infernal woman’s urges to go faster, harder.”

  Annie hated to remind Chester that Virginia was near ninety as was he, and that reality might not live up to their expectations. Then again, she just hoped Chester was talking about the actual hills on the ground and not any of Virginia’s saggy body parts. “I take it that didn’t go so well?”

  “Nope.” He sipped his coffee. “Might even make me have to reconsider going back to the younger set. These older women are too hard on my creaky old bones.”

  “Chester? When did you ever stop going after the younger women?”

  Roy Babcock, one of Chester’s oldest and dearest partners in crime, gave a hoot of a laugh. “Since they started takin’ off runnin’ when they’d see the old coot coming down the road.”

  Chester frowned, and for a flash of an instant, Annie felt sorry for him. Until he slipped his hand around the back of her uniform skirt and gave her a pat on her derriere.

  “Hands off, buster.” She removed the offending groper. “I’m not your type.”

  “You’re young and pretty, aren’t you?”

  “I’ll take that as a compliment.” She refilled his cup with fresh coffee. “But since you went where you weren’t invited, I’m not going to bother looking for that aspirin.”

  As she spun on the heel of her tennis shoe, she heard Chester’s compadres giving him a bad time. When she got back behind the counter and checked the orders up on the window, Sarah Randall laughed.

  “Chester getting fresh again?”

  “I think the older he gets, the bolder he gets.” Annie sighed. “I know he’s old as dirt, but sometimes I’d just like to pop him in that gigantic nose.”

  “I imagine all those ex-wives of his did a little damage over the years.”

  “Doesn’t seem to have helped.”

  Annie grabbed two plates piled high with sweet-potato fries still sizzling from the fryer and Diablo burgers dripping with cheese. She carried the orders to a young couple in the back booth, then looked up when the bell over the door jingled. To her surprise, the Wilder brothers strolled in in full force. Not for the first time did Annie have to admit they were quite an awesome sight. Joe and Jana Wilder had produced some fine-looking sons. Everyone in town knew it, even if the brothers paid no attention. Unless it was to their advantage, of course.

  In her eyes, Jake was undoubtedly the best-looking in the group. And though she’d put a smile on his face just yesterday, he walked in the diner wearing a frown and seemed unable to meet her gaze.

  Her imagination?

  Not when she tried again, and he snapped his gaze away so fast, it drowned all those oogly-googly warm feelings she’d been having.

  So that was the way he wanted to play it?

  Fine.

  She snatched up some menus and met them at the booth near the window. Setting out the menus and silverware, she gave them her courtesy smile. “You boys want water?”

  “Coffee,” Reno told her. “All around please.”

  Please?

  Since when did they feel the need to be so polite with her when all they’d done most of her life was treat her like a pesky little sister? And no, she wasn’t imagining things. Jake refused to look up. Refused to acknowledge that not even twenty-four hours ago, they’d been touching each other in places polite people didn’t discuss. Moaning each other’s names. And wishing to hell one of them had brought a condom to the party. Instead, he planted his nose in the menu even though she knew he’d order the same thing he did every time he walked through the door.

  The moment she walked away, all those gorgeous Wilder male heads came together over the table like they were up to something. Even Gladys Lewis and Arlene Potter, who were seated in the next booth, strained to hear what those boys were saying.

  While Annie gathered up the coffee carafe and cups, she
tossed another glance in Jake’s direction. Their gazes collided, and he looked away as though he’d been stung.

  That stung.

  Saddled with parents who could barely be considered as such, Annie learned that life didn’t always play fair. No one always got what they wanted or what they’d wished for all their life. What was that song Garth Brooks used to sing? Oh yeah, “Unanswered Prayers.” Maybe Jake’s sudden cold shoulder was one of those. Personally, she’d rather have him crawling up her backside giving her a load of bullshit than ignoring her. But apparently he had other plans.

  It wasn’t like after yesterday she expected him to drop to one knee and propose, but a little, “Good afternoon, Annie. I hope you slept well after I rocked your freaking world yesterday” would have been nice.

  Annie was ashamed to say that once she got in a snit, she followed it through. Right or wrong, she planned to let Mr. Avoidance know that wasn’t okay with her. She’d been down that road once before with Doug. And though Jake owed her nothing, she wasn’t about to let him treat her like a stranger.

  After all, the man had taken her underwear home in his pocket.

  It didn’t get more personal than that.

  Nothing in the diner could keep Jake from copiously trying to watch Annie’s every move. Not the conversation his brothers tried to drag him into. Not the delicious scent of burgers and fries. Not even the fact that one of Sweet’s oldest cougars, Arlene Potter, kept reaching across the back of the booth and tickling the back of his neck with her wrinkly old fingers.

  Annie’s blue-eyed glares had made it clear that she didn’t appreciate his avoiding her. Even if it was for her own good. He was too broken. Too fucked up in the head and heart to be good for anyone. Except a dog. Annie had been right once again. She’d been on target when she’d said the loyalty and love of a dog was limitless. When he’d woken up that morning in a cold sweat, battling the recurring nightmare, Hank had been there with a warm nose, a nuzzle, and soulful eyes that somehow said he understood.