Jimmy

by Cat Johnson

  Lia walked toward one of the horse barns for the grand tour alongside Jared Gordon, heir apparent of Gordon Equine. He was handsome, polite and he lived and breathed horses. She could tell that about him already. Although, after a few long boring dinners with the senator’s son where he talked of nothing but his political aspirations, horses would be a nice change of topic.

  She glanced sideways at the young Mr. Gordon. Too bad when she pictured getting hot and sweaty with a man, it was always James who came to mind. Hmm. Come to think of it, this guy reminded her a bit of James. Same warm brown hair with golden highlights. Same hazel eyes swirled with flecks of gold and green. Same drawl in his speech. But the one big dissimilarity, the deal-breaker, was the fact that when she looked at Jared, her heart didn’t pump until she felt dizzy. Not like it did when she’d seen James standing in the hallway in front of the elevator that led to the presidential suite that night so many months ago. She sighed at the memory.

  How pitiful was she? In fact, it was all she could do to prevent herself from searching through her old cell-phone bills online to try to find James’s phone number so she could call him. Did they even list incoming numbers on there? Maybe she should check.

  Amelia Monroe-Carrington, calling a man. This must be what happened when a woman turned thirty. What was that statistic? Something like a woman was more likely to get hit by a truck than married after the age of thirty? Humph. She could get married tomorrow if she wanted to, but thinking about who the candidate was, she’d rather get hit by a truck.

  Jared was now explaining something about his philosophies regarding natural breeding versus artificial insemination, all of which were going right over her head. Lia smiled and nodded politely, a skill she’d perfected young. She was doing a good job of pretending she knew what he was talking about until she glanced up and spotted a man who literally knocked her right off her designer pumps.

  Just as she was about to take a header in the dirt, James treated her to the crooked smile she remembered so well from that night and caught her by both arms. “Careful there, darlin’.”

  “You all right?” Jared was right next to her in an instant. She managed to nod a response to his question as she began to tremble simply from being in James’s presence again. Lia stared up at him for what seemed like an eternity as Jared continued. “Miss Carrington. This is my oldest brother, Jimmy, and my second oldest brother, Jack.”

  Jared made the introductions that delivered the second shock of the day. James was a Gordon as in Gordon Equine? She finally managed to break her gaze from Jimmy’s face to discover the man next to him, the one under the big cowboy hat, was actually the cleavage-gazing bartender from the party where she’d met James…uh…Jimmy.

  She looked back to Jimmy. Gathering her composure, she straightened her spine and extended her hand. “A pleasure to meet you.” Her voice may have been cordial, but she sincerely hoped her narrowed eyes said what she was really thinking. That being, what the hell were two successful horse breeders doing playing at being waitstaff miles away and why hadn’t James…or rather Jimmy, called her?

  “We’re going to take a tour of the breeding barns. You two want to tag along?” Jared invited his brothers, not knowing what their mere presence was doing to her. Torn between wanting to never let him out of her sight again and wanting to be as far away from him as she could get, Lia waited.

  “It would be my pleasure.” Jimmy smiled, which seemed to be the default expression for him, his gaze never leaving her face. He extended his bent arm to her. “Miss Amelia?”

  Lia swallowed and placed her hand in the crook of his warm, muscular arm. She only nodded. At the moment, she wasn’t sure her voice would function.

  The group moved on and Jimmy made a show of following, but it wasn’t long before she found herself pulled off into a deserted part of the barn.

  Alone together, he grabbed her face with both hands and kissed her. To her horror, she responded by kissing him back until she was breathless. She enjoyed it until the relief over seeing him again was replaced with the anger and hurt she’d been harboring for six months.

  She pulled away and swatted at his arm with her hand. “You stop that. I’m mad at you. Why didn’t you call me? You bastard.”

  Oh, well, so much for acting cool and aloof.

  A fly probably would have bothered him more than her smacking had. All he did was capture both of her hands easily in his and kiss them, one by one.

  Smirking, he tilted his head to one side. “Ah, darlin’, I wanted to. Believe me. I hate to say it, but we both know what that night together was. You’re the governor’s daughter. If I had called, you probably would have changed your phone number and gotten a restraining order.”

  Lia disengaged herself from his grasp and folded her arms. “That’s not true.” If it were, he’d never have been able to inflict six months of torture on her. “You don’t know me at all.”

  Jimmy stepped in closer and pinned her between him and a wall of stacked hay bales. He leaned down, put his hands lightly on her waist and kissed his way lightly down her neck.

  “Sure I know you. I know the cute little way you snore when you fall asleep after making love. I know you have a tiny tattoo of a heart on your right ass cheek, and now that I’m aware of who you are, I’m pretty sure Daddy knows nothing about.” His voice dipped lower and if possible, got even sexier. “I know exactly how to touch you to make you come.”

  Her insides rebelled against her and twisted with need, with want, for him. “Okay. Enough. I get it.”

  He smiled wickedly. “You’re right, darlin’. Less talking, more kissing.”

  With that, he dropped his head low and she let him kiss her again. Let him. Who was she kidding? She loved him kissing her. There was no letting about it. It wasn’t as if she was an unwilling participant. Running her hands up under his shirt, she remembered exactly how good it felt to touch him. She couldn’t stop the sound of pleasure that escaped her.

  This kiss had affected him too. He groaned and pressed closer against her. She felt the bulge in his jeans and the need inside her grew.

  “Oh, darlin’. You have no idea how good you feel.”

  As charming as this country setting was, she wished they were back at the Hilton on that big bed. She braced her hands against his chest, hoping to hold back both her desire and the advance of his head toward hers. “We can’t do this here.”

  “Not true at all. Here in this very hay room is where I lost my virginity, darlin’,” Jimmy’s casually delivered revelation left Lia insanely jealous of whoever that lucky girl was, even though she was probably fat and married with a minivan full of snot-nosed kids by now.

  The sound of voices got louder as the group began moving back toward their hiding place. Jimmy dropped one last kiss on her lips and released her. “You better get back.”

  She nodded but wasn’t convinced her legs would work to get her back to where she was supposed to be.

  Luckily, he wasn’t ready to release her yet anyway. His hand curled around the back of her neck. “When can I see you again?”

  Unable to believe what she was about to say, Lia couldn’t stop her laugh. “Call me.”

  He treated her to a dimple-filled grin. “Don’t worry, darlin’. This time I will.”

  Leaving him and his oh-so-tempting, hard-all-over body by the bales of hay, Lia moved to the doorway and waited, then slipped in behind the rear of the group unnoticed. Unnoticed that is, by everyone except for the other mysterious Gordon brother, Jack, who winked at her with the same crooked smile Jimmy wore so often.

  Ignoring Jack, she tried not to appear too self-conscious as she ran a finger around the edge of her probably smeared lipstick. Lipstick she could fix, but there was nothing she could do about the blush that crept into her cheeks or the Gordon man who’d crept into her heart.

  The phone in her purse vibrated. She hung back behind the other visitors and flipped it open. “Hello?”

  “Hey, darlin’
. See, I’m calling.”

  She laughed, feeling like a teenager again. He’d kept her phone number all this time. Somehow, that made up for the fact he hadn’t called before. “Yes, so I see. Thank you. I’ll talk to you later.”

  “Count on it.”

  Jimmy ended the call on his cell phone just as he saw Jack saunter into the room.

  “Well, well, well. You might want to wipe that lipstick off before you go have pie with the governor, big brother.”

  Jimmy scowled and wiped at his mouth. A man couldn’t even find any privacy in the hay room anymore. But come to think of it, Jack had walked in on some pretty sticky situations a few times in their teen years too. At least Jimmy was alone for this unwelcome interruption. He thought about how he hadn’t been alone just a minute ago and smiled. It seemed the doc had been right. His dick wasn’t broken after all. It just needed the right motivation. Lia sure filled that bill. He resisted the urge to adjust himself in his jeans until he was alone.

  Jack shook his head. “You got it bad.”

  Jimmy didn’t answer, but instead wiped one last time at his mouth to make sure there was no more lipstick.

  “Let’s go get some pie, little brother.” He couldn’t wait to be near Lia again, even if they had to pretend in front of the others that they hadn’t spent one hell of a night six months ago getting to know one another in the carnal manner.

  “Uh huh. Pie. Is that what you’re calling it nowadays?”

  That smart-ass remark earned Jack a punch in the arm as Jimmy tried to wipe the I-just-made-out-with-your-daughter-in-the-barn smile off his face before he had to sit down with the governor.

  The press had taken all their shots and left so Jimmy didn’t worry when he, Jack and Jared, being the three Gordon men, were seated at the same table as Governor Carrington, Lia and, as much as he dreaded it, Senator Dickson. He’d been referred to on base not so affectionately as Dickhead ever since he tried to shut them down in the name of budget cuts. Asshole.

  Jimmy tried to keep his mind on Lia and stay in his happy place so he wouldn’t beat the senator to a pulp when the dick brought up the subject of the state budget over pie.

  “I have to stick to my assertion that if we could cut money from the defense budget, this administration would have the funds to support small farmers like yourselves,” Dickhead spouted.

  Jimmy felt his face getting hot. He glanced over to find Jack clenching a fork in his fist so tightly his knuckles were getting white.

  “I have to disagree with you, Senator.” The comment from Lia had Jimmy’s ears perking up as he turned in his chair to hear what she had to say. She laid down her fork and continued. “Unfortunately, I don’t think the sympathies of the general voting public and certainly not of the large corporations or lobbyists lie with America’s small farmers. Given that, the Senate will never allocate funds for them no matter how much is cut from the defense budget. You know as well as I, it doesn’t work that way. You can’t shuffle money from one budget line directly to that of another.”

  Her speech had Jimmy’s heart swelling with pride. Actually, after seeing her put the senator in his place, other parts of him were starting to swell too. He always had found intelligence in a woman really hot.

  The senator blanched at Lia’s remarks, but being a scumbag politician he managed to pull himself together quickly. He pasted a phony smile on his lying face. “What a charming naiveté you display, my dear. I’m sure once you and my son are married, you’ll become more familiar with the complex inner workings of politics. Though I hope you’ll be too busy giving me grandchildren instead.”

  Jimmy was barely aware of Jack choking on his iced tea next to him. He was too busy trying to not lose his own pie all over the table after what the senator had just said. He looked at Lia, vainly hoping for her to deny what Dickhead had said. How could she have kissed him like that in the hay room and then told him to call her if she was engaged to the senator’s son?

  Her face turned bright red as she glanced quickly at him then back to her future father-in-law.

  Father-in-law. Jimmy’s brain nearly exploded at that thought.

  “Senator, I must remind you—” Lia began, but was cut off by her father the governor.

  “Amelia, dear. We’re not here to discuss the defense budget. Mr. Gordon, perhaps we should begin the agenda for our discussions so these very busy farmers can get back to their business.”

  Enough of this crap. This farmer was leaving now. Jimmy stood. “I’ll let y’all get to your meeting. Governor. Senator.” He nodded and strode as fast as he could away from the woman he apparently was never destined to have in his life.

  He heard footsteps and suddenly Jack was beside him, grabbing his arm as he strode toward the kitchen door of the house. “Jimmy.”

  Jimmy shook off his brother’s hand. “Stay away from me, Jack.”

  Jack was smart enough to back off, but Jimmy’s torture was not over yet. He’d barely gotten upstairs to his room when his cell phone rang. He looked at the display and recognized Lia’s number. She must have gotten his off her list of incoming calls. He dropped the phone on the bed, unanswered.

  He pulled his duffle bag out of the closet and began shoving clothes inside. He tucked his precious doctor’s note inside too, zipped up the bag and flung it over his shoulder. He’d find his mama, say goodbye and then grab one of the trucks. There was no way he could wait for Jack to drive him back to the base when he left two days from now. All he knew was he couldn’t get away from here, and her, fast enough. The problem was, he couldn’t run away from his feelings as easily.

  Chapter Seven

  Lia kept seeing the expression on Jimmy’s face when he heard the senator, that pompous ass, say she was marrying his son. As if that was going to happen. She couldn’t even imagine what Jimmy thought of her for kissing him in the barn if she was engaged to someone else. Actually she could guess what he thought and it wasn’t good.

  If he’d only answer the damn phone and let her explain everything would be fine, but he wasn’t answering her calls. There was one good thing that had come out of all this. Lia tried to keep her spinning mind focused on the thought that Jimmy must care a little bit about her if he was this upset over the thought of her with someone else.

  In the meantime, this eternal meeting was still dragging on. She kept her eyes peeled for Jimmy around the farm for the next hour. She even pretended she needed to use the restroom and had practically searched the first floor of the house for him before she ran into Lois Gordon and had to feign being lost. Now her father and the senator both looked like they were getting ready to leave and she still had yet to find Jimmy to explain. Fine, she’d just leave the explanation that she wasn’t engaged in his voicemail if she had to. Of course, he would probably delete her message without listening to it. Men could be so stubborn.

  Then again, maybe she wouldn’t have to leave a message because suddenly his brother Jack was in front of her. “Looks like your father-in-law is itching to go. I guess there’s a limit to how much slumming a man like that can handle in one day. Is that what you’re doing with my brother, darlin’? Slumming? Because I got to tell ya’, he deserves way better than that.”

  She bit the inside of her lip and took all of Jack’s insults in silence until he finally shut up. “Are you done?”

  He gazed at the sky for a moment as if thinking before focusing again on her. “Uh, yup. I think that about covers it.”

  “Fine. Now it’s my turn. First of all, it’s not any of your business, but since you’re Jimmy’s brother I will tell you. I’m not engaged to the senator’s son. The senator may want us together but it’s not going to happen. I’ve had dinner with John alone a total of two times and that was because I couldn’t think of a way to get out of it. And you know what, if your brother was so into me, he should have called me months ago.”

  Lia’s heart pounded as she wound up for quite a rant of her own. Since the Gordon she wanted to yell at wasn’t her
e at the moment, this one would have to do. “In addition, I’ve been calling your brother’s phone for an hour now to explain all this to him and he won’t answer. So go get him from wherever he’s hiding and I’ll tell him in person.”

  Jack watched her closely, as if deciding what to do with her. “No can do.”

  She sighed her frustration. “Why not?”

  “Because he’s gone.” The Gordon brother delivered that news with such certainty that she couldn’t doubt it was true.

  “Gone where?” He couldn’t be too far. Where was there to go around here?

  “He went back home.” Jack’s answer did nothing but confuse her.

  Lia frowned. “Home? Isn’t this home?”

  Jack hesitated just a bit before answering. “Not exactly.”

  He scratched his head and screwed up his face as if the answer had been a hard one for him. Where a person lived shouldn’t be difficult to answer, unless there was something more than meets the eye.

  “What’s going on, Jack? Who are you two? It’s pretty obvious you’re not waiters. Now I’m starting to doubt you’re farmers either.”

  “Shit.” Jack shook his head. “This is something you have to discuss with him.”

  She wanted to rip out her hair and scream from sheer frustration. “That’s what I’m trying to tell you. He won’t take my calls.”

  Jack huffed out a breath and then took out his cell phone. He punched in some numbers then raised it to his ear. “Hey, it’s me. I know you’re in no mood to talk, but you might wanna listen. Your girl here says she’s not engaged to Dickhead’s son. She’s here next to me and she wants to talk to you. Okay?”

  Your girl. She kind of liked that. And Dickhead? Good name, she liked that too.

  Jack thrust the phone at her. “Talk quick. He’s not in a good mood.”

  She grabbed it and spoke fast before Jimmy hung up on her. “I’m not engaged to John Dickson. I’m not even dating him. The senator and my father have been trying to fix us up for years. I don’t want to be with him, Jimmy. I don’t even like him.”