by Cherry Adair
"The jeans have to be prewashed a couple of times before they feel slouchy," Jessie said absently as she watched a toddler across the room trying to get into his baby brother's high chair. She smiled at the ensuing drama.
Joshua glanced over his shoulder to see what Jessie was smiling about. He'd never seen quite that look on her face before.
She gave the waiter a soft smile as he set her plate down. The guy almost tripped on his own feet as he became the recipient of the smile Joshua should have gotten. He shot the hovering kid a pointed glare and almost had a plate of pasta and marinara deposited in his lap as the guy gulped and scurried to make himself scarce.
"I love kids, don't you?"
"I don't know. Probably not." Joshua unwrapped his silverware from the paper napkin. "The only ones I've been around seem… disorganized."
He looked up as Jessie burst into peals of laughter. "Disorganized?" She choked. "Of course they're disorganized!" Her eyes were sparkly with mirth. "They're just learning everything. Even you were disorganized when you were a little kid."
Joshua thought if he could bottle and sell that laugh he would quadruple his money. "Actually, I wasn't." He pushed the limp spaghetti around his plate. A pool of watery sauce made a moat surrounding the unappetizing lump of his pasta. "I was a well-disciplined, clean, respectful and organized child from as far back as I can remember."
Her eyes got more liquid as that sweet, soft smile quivered then died.
"Good Lord. Don't start crying, for God's sake." He leaned over and wiped away the mascara under her right eye.
Jessie blotted her eyes with her own napkin. "You had a shitty life," she said fiercely. "I wish I could make it all up to you, Joshua."
"My childhood was perfectly acceptable, Jessie. Don't overdramatize it."
"Your mother was a real bitch."
He smiled. "No arguments there. Are you done poking that revolting mess? I'd like to go somewhere and get some real lunch. Then I'll take you to some den of iniquity so you can throw away my money."
Somehow the glow seemed to have gone from Jessie's face. After playing a few hands of blackjack, with the money she had brought for the purpose, thank you very much, she wanted to go home. Joshua liked the sound of that.
"How about going for a walk?" he asked after parking the car in the carport beside the house. He held out his hand for her and she handed him the laundry and an arch look instead.
"Go put on your new jeans and shirt first." She followed him into the house, immediately throwing open all the windows to let in the warm, scented air before she followed him into the bedroom.
"I just love this house." Jessie flopped down on the king-size bed, watching him with hot-chocolate eyes as he changed. "If I ever have a summer house, this is what it would be like. Far enough away from city noises. Nice, clean air." She fell onto her back as he struggled with the unfamiliar closure of the jeans. "That fabulous smell of pine and lake water. Fishing. Boating. Gambling—"
"Jessie?"
"Hmmm?"
"Do you think you could help me with this?" He walked toward her sprawled legs.
Without moving and not bothering to hide the smile tugging at her lips, Jessie asked seriously, "Which do you need help with, sir? The buttons or the erection?"
She was bonelessly relaxed against the burgundy spread. Her left knee rose to bracket his leg as Joshua leaned down so his braced arms framed her head. "Which do you think?" he asked huskily.
Jessie reached up and gave him a quick peck on the lips before she pushed at his shoulders, her eyes devilish. "I think you need help with those pesky darn buttons so we can go for that walk."
"Touch these buttons and I won't be able to walk, woman."
Jessie lectured him on self-control, all the while her nimble fingers enclosing him tighter than a straitjacket behind the row of metal buttons.
"I don't think I like jeans, Jessie," Joshua confessed pitifully as she dragged him outdoors.
Jessie grinned. "They look ma-a-avelous on you, dahling." She hung back then patted his behind. "Great butt." She linked arms with him and gave him a sultry look. "We'll keep them at my house. I don't want you wearing these when I'm not there to beat the women off with a stick."
"That good, huh?" he asked, highly amused. She gave him a sultry look, and he wondered fleetingly what he had ever done to deserve her and how he had managed for thirty-three years without her.
They walked hand in hand on the lakeshore. The smoldering fire of the sun melted into the water, leaving a dancing, shimmering reminder as dusk stole slowly over the lake. Purple and royal-blue faded into black ridges and ranges, spiked with the suggestion of forest. There was an anticipation of things to come as stars started shining more brightly and the velvety sky darkened to reveal a wisp of a moon.
He took her hands, pulling her against him. She'd changed into black leggings and a thick, white cotton sweater with a wide neckline that kept slipping off her shoulder. Her skin felt cool as he caressed the back of her neck, his thumb finding the vulnerable hollow at her nape. He felt her deep shudder through his bones. God, she was responsive. He touched his lips to her temple.
Jessie turned in his arms, rising up on her toes as she gathered handfuls of his hair in her fists. With a little pressure she brought his face down to hers. "Don't play with me, mister," she warned in a tough voice, and she kissed him, her lips insistent and ravenous.
They eventually had to come up for air. Jessie's dark gaze stayed riveted to his face. "I can hear your mind whirring," he said, amused at her intense scrutiny. "What are you thinking about?" Her lips looked soft and slightly swollen from the kiss. The moonlight loved her face, sculpting it with silver.
She opened her mouth as if to say something; Joshua held his breath for a painful heartbeat. Then she shook her head. "Nothing." She touched his face with a small, cool hand as her eyes seemed to memorize his features. "You make me very happy, Joshua."
He couldn't explain his disappointment. Didn't even try. He dipped his head and feathered a kiss on her closed mouth. She tasted of the rich coffee ice cream they'd bought on the way home. Jessie had eaten more than half the carton in the car and then claimed that the bites she had spoon-fed him had been way bigger than the teeny ones she'd had.
A banner of geese flew across the moon. He turned her and braced her back against his chest. Wrapping his arms about her, he rubbed his hands up and down her arms. "I had no idea," he said into the deep pool of silence, "that I could feel this… content." Jessie stroked her head against his chin, resting more fully against him as he leaned against the trunk of a ponderosa pine, looking at the shimmering lake through a veil of her frothy hair. He added softly, "You make me happy, too, Jessie."
Around them the gentle silence of night drifted as soft as a breeze. The air was warm and fragrant with her floral perfume and the scent of woods and water.
There was nowhere on earth he would rather be than right here, with Jessie in his arms. There was no need for conversation. Even his sexual desire seemed tamed and manageable. He felt… calm. For the first time in memory, he felt strangely at peace with himself.
He had learned his lessons of self-preservation as a child, but with Jessie he found his emotions blatantly out there. Sometimes he felt so raw and exposed with her, he wanted to flee back into that same protective, rocky shell he was almost ready to cast aside. And other times, like now, she brought him more joy and contentment than he had ever known.
He didn't want her to know just how vulnerable he was to her vibrant spirit, her gentle eyes and soft mouth. He felt raw enough as it was.
* * * * *
The next morning Jessie went swimming in the lake. Her suit was perfectly decent Red. Plain. Skintight. Joshua watched her from the window in the kitchen as she played in the shallows like a child. She wasn't a child. As the three kids in a speedboat noticed, making ever smaller circles closer to shore.
The waves were lapping at Jessie's calves when he came out to jo
in her. "Hi." Her smile was brilliant, white and directed solely at him. "I thought you had calls to make."
"Made." He dragged his eyes from her sun-kissed face to the three teenagers who were a little less cocky now.
"You look good enough to eat," he told her as the boys took off, the wake making her sway against him. The tight Lycra of her suit flattened her breasts, but he could clearly see her hard nipples.
"Finished swimming?"
Jessie looked at him under her lashes. "Got a better idea?"
"How does grabbing a blanket and taking a walk deep into the woods sound?" He wiped away a droplet of water from her temple with his thumb, her skin was sun warmed and damp.
"Why do we need a blanket when we're going for a walk?" His lady had very expressive eyebrows.
* * * * *
Jessie rolled him off the blanket. A pinecone or something jabbed him in the back as she straddled him, her eyes determined, her hands firmly planted on his chest. "I don't know why we brought the blanket," Joshua said mildly, as he shifted his hips and Jessie's off whatever was under his bare back.
"Cause you thought I'd be on the bottom." Jessie pointed out reasonably, her knees nudging his sides.
He reached up to gather her loosened hair back into the scrunchie and out of her face. "Why aren't I on top?"
"You were being too darn fussy." She leaned forward to nibble a damp path up his chest as she spoke. "Everybody knows… one… never… bothers to fold their… clothes in the woods."
She reached his jaw, while behind her she slapped at the hand he was using to try to get her hips and other body parts aligned where he wanted them. "I don't want you rushing me," she groused against his throat. "In fact," she took a sharp nip and every nerve in his body stood at attention, "don't touch me at… all."
She gave some attention to his lower lip. "At all?" His hands itched to caress her smooth, damp skin.
"At all," Jessie whispered when they were nose to nose.
"You don't like me to touch you?" he asked. In answer Jessie slid her sweet breasts sensuously across his chest "Because, darling, I sure as hell love to touch you."
"You will lose control."
Joshua huffed. "Are you telling me or hypnotizing me?" It was damn hard to be amusing when he felt like taking off like a rocket.
"I want to see you lose control. Don't touch." When she paused, he could feel the rush of her blood through her veins as she pressed him down. He closed his eyes, letting his arms fall over his head. "You have too much control," she added.
"There's no such thing as too much control, Jessie," he murmured, using every scrap he had. "Although I must admit, with you I seem to have less control than ever before… "
She looked down into his eyes. "Let me see you lose control, Joshua. Don't think. Just close your eyes and feel." Her small white teeth closed in to give a sharp love bite on his neck before she dragged her body up his and took his mouth in a kiss so sensual, so erotic Joshua had to give himself up. He wanted to howl with the pleasure of it.
He sighed, slitting open his eyes. "Have your wicked way with me." Her nimble fingers slid unfairly up his sides. "I'll only touch if you beg me to."
"I won't," Jessie assured him with false confidence as she nibbled his mouth.
The air smelled of the pine needles she was crushing under her knees. Dusty sunlight filtered through the tall trees, dappling her tanned, lithe body as she drove him wild with a deep, wet kiss. He allowed her to believe she was suppressing him with her small hands pressing his above his head into the leaves and needles that made up their bed.
He had never seen her like this. She tormented him with her mouth. Slowly. Maddeningly. Joshua lay where she had pushed him, half on, half off the blanket. Her eyes got so dark there were almost no pupils. She kissed his cheekbones, his nose, his eye sockets and his forehead before she got down to some serious lip action.
He could smell her sensual woman's essence as she broke contact. He thought he would explode without her moist heat surrounding him. Her breasts heaved as she gulped in air, her hands braced on his chest. She must be able to feel his heart thundering beneath her palm.
Her hair, never tamed, slipped from confinement and tumbled into a dark cloud around her shoulders as she kept her hot center inches away from his straining flesh. She slid slowly down his body, kissing a path toward very dangerous territory.
"This is torture, you know," he groaned as her tongue discovered his navel. He sank his fingers in her hair. She tasted lower. "Jessie—"
"I'm busy!"
He laughed on a huff of frustration as she finally did something about his agony. They probably heard his groan as far away as Sacramento when she skimmed that clever little tongue around his erection.
Joshua gritted his teeth and he closed his eyes, fisting his hands against her scalp. Nothing in his life had ever felt this good.
Cool air blew on a hot place. His eyes shot open. Jessie looked up the length of his body. "Uh… what now?" she asked uncertainly, her short nails digging into his flanks as though if she let him go he would disappear.
Oh, God, she had been doing just fine. Joshua closed his eyes on a prayer before pulling her to sit astride him.
"Whatever you want. Just don't stop," he panted, seconds before she sank home to the hilt. No testing the waters for Jessie. His vision blurred as she started to move. Hot, slick, tight. Agonizingly perfect. He held her hips long enough to start the rhythm.
"I can do it, I can do it," she said through clenched teeth and he let go and left her to it. She was doing a damn fine job.
Her breasts were slick, her nipples dark and fully aroused. "Touch me!" she demanded. He slid his hands up her slim hips to her rib cage, feeling her heart fluttering beneath his fingers like a frantic bird. Fascinated by the absolute concentration on her face, Joshua lost track for a moment. Sweat glistened on her skin, sticking her hair to her cheeks, making her skin glow. Eyes narrowed, her concentration complete, she growled ferally as his hands closed over her breasts. He knew exactly how Adams liked those pert little breasts touched, and he did his humble best.
She rode him with a fierce and beautiful savagery, her rhythm perfect. Her primal mating brought them both to the point of no return before easing up just enough to drive him wild—a high-speed chase over a precipice only to slow down to the speed limit at the last second.
"Your… hands aren't… m-moving."
"I'm in ecstasy." Joshua was polite enough not to remind her of her command.
"You're in me," Jessie reminded him, his hands on her hips gently showed her he knew exactly where he was and who he was with bare-ass naked, outside, in broad daylight.
Sweat stung his eyes as she leaned down and bit his shoulder, hard. He knew he would leave fingerprints on her bottom. No one had ever made love to him like this. Hell, he'd never considered making love in the wide-open wilderness until he'd met Jessie.
She was his amazon, a Valkyrie. Pagan in her beauty as she loved him ruthlessly. She was as focused and intense as he had ever seen her. Wild and erotic, as sweat glistened on her skin out here in the woods where any hikers could trip over them. He didn't give a damn.
Her back arched as she took him deep into her womb.
The pleasure was agonizing.
Joshua reached down, touching his fingers to where they joined. Her stomach muscles clenched as he unerringly found the small nub.
Eyes tightly closed, Jessie rose and fell, losing momentum as she got closer and closer to climax. Internal muscle pulsing around him gave him fair warning.
Bracing her, his hands enormous on her pistoning hips, Joshua helped her to a faster rhythm. Until she clenched, curved and cried out his name…
Then she threw back her head and screamed.
Chapter 7
"Could you explain to me, Felix," Joshua asked grimly, looking at his lawyer across the expanse of the other man's desk, "how the hell Vera can run up twenty thousand dollars in bills in one month and I can
't even get Jessie to use one credit card?"
"Which one are you angry with?" Felix asked, keeping his eyes off Simon who sat across the room nicking through a magazine.
Joshua had arrived half an hour ago. Accustomed to his uncle's presence in his lawyer's office, Joshua got down to business immediately. That done, he leaned back in Felix's cordovan leather guest chair and stretched out his long legs.
"Neither. Both. Hell, I don't know. I don't give a damn how much Vera spends, you know that I just wish to hell Jessie would let me do more for her."
"Signing over the Tahoe house should do it. Have you told her yet?" Simon asked from across the room.
"No." Joshua rotated his shoulders while squeezing the back of his neck. "I'll wait for the right moment before I give her the deed."
"December?" Felix asked, checking the thick stack of papers Joshua had just signed to make sure his signature was where it was needed.
"It's not a parting gift," Joshua said more harshly than he intended, then modified his tone. "She loves the house. I wanted to give her something… " He smoothed back his hair. "I want to make sure she's taken care of when I… She should have the house," he finished brusquely, having no intention of telling either his lawyer or his uncle how happy he and Jessie had been in the Tahoe house. It was none of their damn business.
And he sure as hell wasn't thinking about what Jessie would be doing after December 23. Giving Jessie the Tahoe house was a smart move. He would never be able to take another woman there without thinking of her. It was logical to give it to her.
"She seems content not to be seeing as many clients as she did before." Joshua cleared his scratchy throat. "But it will take her a while to build up her clientele after… later. The property will be a good investment for her." He paused. "Has she said anything to either of you about being bored?" he asked casually, picking up his briefcase.
