by Lexie Davis
Jackson thought back to that night when she came to his house. He’d only been gone a month, and when Autumn showed up on his doorstep, it scared him a bit. He didn’t know how to deal with women beyond taking them to bed. He’d admit it to her that he was scared of what she proposed. He wasn’t ready for a relationship. Hell, he barely knew how to take care of himself, much less a girlfriend—or wife, like she’d hinted. So he did the most brash thing he could think of and felt like shit for it now.
“Autumn is an intelligent woman. She’s free to make her own choices, but she is still my little sister and always will be.” Jeffery wiped his hands on his pants. “She has a tender heart, and I don’t want you or any other punk screwing it up. It took a while before she became herself again, the sweet, loving Autumn we all know and love. Don’t fuck with her feelings, Jack. I’m serious. There will be repercussions this time, and none of them are in your favor.”
Jackson wrung the mop out and pushed the bucket toward the front door. “Don’t threaten me, Jeff. The last person who did wound up dead at the end of my gun.”
* * * *
Autumn and Kristin spent most of the day at Greensburg Mall picking out stuff to buy. Kristin was a huge help. She told her what kind of colors to have and what styles. When she got her clinic up and running again, Autumn knew it be much nicer than before. And most of the stuff they picked out was within her budget.
“Thank you for coming with me,” Autumn said on the drive back. I really needed some girl time away from the guys.”
“Anytime.” Kristin sat in the passenger seat staring out the window. “I don’t mean to pry, but are you and Jackson okay?”
Autumn shrugged. “Your guess is as good as mine.”
Kristin turned in her seat. “Are you romantically involved?”
She held back her grin. “Yes.”
“Is that what it was about? Jeff gets cranky when I turn him down, and we usually have a big fight about it.”
Autumn bit her tongue. She really didn’t need to know about her brother’s sex life, even if Kristin was her friend. “Sex is the least of our worries.”
“You said some pretty mean things to him.” Kristin bit her lower lip. “Jackson’s a good guy.”
Autumn didn’t know what she was getting at and left it alone. They pulled into the clinic parking lot around three. Both of the men outside working on the graffiti. Both men had lost their shirts since they’d been gone, and sweat now coated their backs as their muscles contracted with every movement. Autumn smiled to herself. This is ridiculous.
She parked the car and grabbed her purse. “We’ll leave this stuff in the car and unload it later.”
They climbed out and made their way to the men.
“You guys are actually working well together. What gives?” Autumn rubbed her hand down Jackson’s sweaty back.
“We’ve been busy.” Jackson wiped the sweat from his face on his arm. “What did you girls buy?”
“Plenty.” Autumn smiled. “I need to talk to you alone. Follow me inside.”
Jackson glanced toward Jeffery and Kristin and then back at Autumn. “Am I going to get yelled at?”
“If you don’t follow me.”
Autumn led him inside the clinic, grabbed him a cool water bottle from the back and turned to face him. “I found something really neat today.”
“What?” Jackson wiped the access water from his mouth.
“There was a machine at the mall that makes dog tags.” Autumn giggled. “And I made us some.”
Jackson stared at her like she was crazy. “You made us dog tags? Honey, if you wanted a set, I would have given you mine.”
“Not following me. I engraved them to say what I want.” Autumn grabbed the set she made for Jackson and handed it to him. “Read it.”
He glanced down at the metal tags on a chain. After he read it he lifted his eyes and busted out laughing. “You are amazing.”
Autumn grinned. “Fits doesn’t it?”
“‘Horny’ and ‘boy’ do fit me, yes.” Jackson wrapped his arms around her. “What’s yours say?”
“It’s a secret.”
“Not fair.” He pulled back and looped the necklace around his neck. “Is it something dirty, too?”
She shrugged. “My secret.”
Jackson leaned forward and pressed a kiss to her lips. “Thanks, babe. I love it.”
Autumn picked up the dog tags as a joke originally. She hadn’t thought that Jackson would actually wear them, but he had looped them around his neck. Maybe some time away from each other really did them well.
“Are you still mad at me?” Jackson asked.
“Not really. I don’t like what you said, but I can’t change the way you feel.” Autumn ran her hand down his chest. “You’re all sweaty.”
He chuckled and tipped the bottle to his lips. “Yeah, you slave driver, you.”
“You’re pretty hot.” She grabbed the dog tags and pulled his mouth down to hers. “It kind of makes me want to lick you all over.”
Jackson opened his arms. “Have at it.”
“I love you, Jackson.” She didn’t know what came over her but she said those three little words that scared him off the first time. “I’ve tried to deny it, but it’s there. I love you.”
She licked his lower lip and then closed her eyes to kiss him fully. He tasted raw and male, something she’d grown to love over the past few days. She knew she was a fool for saying those words to him. But this relationship hadn’t exactly been the smartest for either one of them.
“I’m sorry I said those mean things to you. I didn’t mean them.” She let the dog tags go and glanced away with tears in her eyes. “I’ll feel really bad if you don’t forgive me.”
He cupped her cheeks in his hands. “That’s what people do when they fight. And thank God our first fight is over. Now we can make it our goal to never do it again.”
“It’ll happen again.” She gave him a small smile and rubbed her hands along his biceps. “Do you forgive me?”
“Yes, Autumn. Stop worrying your pretty head about it.” He kissed her nose and then her lips. He moved his mouth over her face planting butterfly kisses everywhere. “Does this mean we get to have make-up sex?”
“Funny, Jax.” She wrapped her arms around him. “Really funny.”
Chapter Eleven
Two days of nothing but work and Autumn was about to go out of her mind. A call came in to deliver twin calves, and it took all four of them, plus Summer to succeed.
Autumn glanced at the baby calves sleeping next to their mother and sighed with relief. Two healthy newborns just entered the world, and she helped them along the way.
Granted it took the men’s strength, Summer and Kristin’s quick hands, and her common sense to get them here, but they did. Two beautiful, black-coated newborns were lying next to their mother.
“Uh-oh. You’ve got that look.” Jackson’s eyes went wide.
“What look?” She packed up her tools in the stall, she and Jackson being the only ones left in the barn.
He propped his arms on the gate and met her eyes. “The look that says you want to have a baby. That look.”
She shook her head and stuffed the items in her pack. “You’re crazy.”
“Then why are you looking at those calves like you want to take them home with you?” He opened the gate and squeezed in the stall to help her clean up. Both were covered in birthing fluids and neither smelled the best in the world. Showers were definitely next on the agenda.
“I don’t have that look.” She chewed on her bottom lip. “It just gives me a reality check when I do this. I mean that’s another life. A little baby who is now in this world with the rest of us. It makes all the bad days worthwhile, you know?”
He nodded. “Did you always want to work on both small and large animals?”
“I hadn’t really thought about having a mixed practice since most only do either one or the other. In school, I was stuck doing my ro
unds at the small animal clinic and then a call came in for a cow in labor and bleeding out. I was apart of the critical care team, and I got such a high from it. I’d love to open up my own critical care center specializing in both large and small creatures. That was actually one of my dreams.”
Autumn yawned, tired from the day and the events within it. A hot bath and cozy bed sounded better and better as the moments went by. Jackson lifted her case for her and carried it out into the main alleyway.
“So you don’t want a baby? Am I safe to breathe again?”
“You’re not funny.”
He wrapped an arm around her shoulder and leaned close to her ear. “Maybe not, but I am up for the challenge of perfecting the craft. You know, baby making and all. In fact, we could do it here, right now in the hayloft.”
“Lord. Does your libido ever take a holiday? I’m covered in birthing slime and blood and you’re ready to jump me.” With one e arm around his waist, she laid her head against his shoulder. “That is seriously twisted. Maybe you’re the one who wants to have a baby.”
Jackson stiffened. “I hadn’t really thought about it.”
“Honey, no offense but with your previous lifestyle you could have created a bunch of little Jacksons. It never once crossed your mind?”
“I used condoms. I wasn’t getting any chick pregnant.”
“Condoms break.”
“Yeah, but mine didn’t.” He rubbed her arm. “Can we stop talking about it?”
She shook her head. “No. I’m curious now. You used condoms with every chick you slept with. Every time?”
“That’s what I said.” He dropped his arm and grabbed her hand. “Why is it so hard for you to believe?”
“Because you didn’t use anything with me.”
Jackson stopped, his face pale with a look of horror. “Should I have?”
“A little late for that now, isn’t it?”
Jackson’s eyes widened and dropped to her stomach.
“I’m not pregnant, though,” she said.
His shoulders drooped with relief. “Thank God.”
“But I still don’t get why. If you used it every time with everyone else, why not with me?”
He smiled. “Because you’re Autumn. My brain’s in my dick when I’m around you, and in all honesty, you are the only person I’d ever consider having children with. With the others, it wasn’t an option.”
“STDs don’t factor in? You could have picked up something.” Autumn started walking again tugging him along with her. “I could have contracted some horrendous disease that made your eyes bleed or something. You never know nowadays.”
“Bleeding eyes? That sounds painful.”
“Or what if this horrendous disease made your dick fall off? That could happen, too, you know.”
Jackson shook his head. “If you had a horrendous disease, you wouldn’t have even considered having sex with me for the fear you’d spread it. My manhood is safe.”
“How can you be so sure? Maybe I contracted it to pay you back. Created it, like a mad scientist.”
Jackson laughed as they walked around the farm house. Autumn couldn’t help it. Being with him made life fun again. Even if they were talking about a girl’s ultimate nightmare, they were laughing and having fun with each other.
“I must repeat myself,” he said pulling the tailgate down and sliding the vet box in the back. “You are Autumn. The very same Autumn Faye Callahan who couldn’t possibly harm another soul on the face of this earth. I know you too well, sweetheart. You’d find a cure or go celibate for the rest of your life. No question.”
“That’s a lot of trust you’re putting in me. Did your feelings change from the other night?”
“I told you I was trying.” He glanced over her shoulder and she knew the rest of her crew was done using the farmer’s bathroom to clean up. “Looks like we’re ready to go.”
* * * *
“Damn, you keep long hours.”
When they arrived home, Davis waited on the front porch legs crossed and propped up on the banister. Jackson had forgotten about him coming to help out with Gallagher.
“What is that smell?” Davis scrunched his nose in distaste.
“It’s my new fragrance, blood and birthing fluid.” Autumn smiled and wrapped her arms around him even though he tried pushing her away. “Come on, it smells good and you know it.”
“I’m going to puke.” Davis choked.
She backed off and fished her key from her purse. “You always were the wimp of the family.”
Jackson shook his head knowing the brother and sisterly love was about to begin. Of the four Callahan children, Davis and Autumn teased each other the most. He says its because they were close in age. She says its because he’s the idiot of the family. Either way, the bantering was only beginning.
“I’m not a wimp. I’m sorry if you can’t handle someone telling you that you stink.” Davis pinched his nose and lifted his bag from the porch. “And why is it only you and jackass? Is that some kind of new sex smell I want no part of?”
Autumn pushed the door open and slapped Davis on the back of the head when he passed by. “If you had a brain, which you clearly don’t, you’d understand my previous explanation. We delivered twin calves tonight. All of us smelled this way except three of us got to shower.”
Jackson tugged his shirt over his head. He was the one who got to walk the newborn around after the birth and helped it up when it fell. His clothing really did reek of the scent and it started to nauseate him. “I’m heading for the shower.”
He fumbled with his fly as he walked toward Autumn’s bathroom and away from their guests. She wasn’t too far behind while in the living room, Davis made some comment about shower sex. She shut the door and groaned.
“My muscles are killing me.” Her forehead thumped against the wood.
“Come on then.” Jackson twisted the knob, and the water squirted out full blast. It only took him five seconds to peel off his jeans and boxers and be standing in the middle of the bathroom naked and waiting for Autumn.
“No shower sex.” Autumn closed her eyes as she tugged her uniform off. “I really need to bathe.”
As she revealed every inch of her body, Jackson’s cock hardened. Her flat belly was meant to be touched while her breasts begged for his mouth. She bent slightly to pull off her pants and panties, revealing a sweet pussy that was made for his cock. Yeah, she was perfection, if he ever saw it.
They climbed in the stall together, him after her. She simply stood underneath the water with her eyes closed as it came down around her. Jackson reached for the shampoo, deciding to work from the top to the bottom and make her come along the way.
“I didn’t mean you had to bathe me.”
He scrubbed her hair, the silky wet strands so soft against his fingers. “Maybe I wanted to.”
He worked the shampoo in and then positioned her underneath the water rinse it out. Afterward he grabbed the soap and formed a lather between his hands. He cupped her breasts, washing them with small movements of his fingers before pinching her nipples lightly. She gasped at the pleasure, and he continued to tease her.
By the time his hands moved to her stomach, she had melted to putty. She leaned back against the wall and gave him the go ahead to do whatever he wanted. Jackson reminded himself to take it slow, fighting the thrill of pleasure he got from the look in her eyes. Those deep blue pools of mystery darkened and dilated as his hands aroused her body, touching all the right places he knew she loved.
His hands slid between her thighs, his fingers finding her slick clit. She closed her eyes and arched away from the wall, giving him complete access to her most feminine parts. She moaned as he touched her, rubbing her clit between his fingers while his other hand kneaded a breast. Whether she knew it or not, Autumn was made for loving. Her body responded and begged for his touch. And he wasn’t about to deny her any longer.
She gripped his wrists in each of her small hands ho
lding him to her. “Jackson.”
He brought her pleasure the first time with his fingers alone. Her body stiffened when he pressed inside, her slick pussy clutching around him as she came. He’d never seen anything more beautiful than Autumn’s face in ecstasy.
Cupping her head in his hands, he kissed her. Watching her tonight with the calves, knowing exactly what to do to help that heifer deliver two healthy babies, Jackson could be nothing but proud of her. He didn’t understand it at all but she was no longer the clingy child he once knew and used. She was a wonderful woman who made a great life for herself. A life Jackson felt he didn’t belong in.
