“They’ve decided I’m done. Useless. According to the fans, my career should’ve ended years ago,” he said, eyes fixed on the article.
“Unbelievable.” The words were cutting. Degrading for a man who’d won so many titles, who’d once been a hero. She read the last sentence: “Lance Cortez was once the greatest rider in the world. Now he’s one of the greatest examples of what happens when you don’t know when to quit.”
A stab of pain lodged itself at the base of her throat. “This is crap,” she said, tossing it back on the counter. Her hand shook with the absurdity of it. “Utter and complete crap. You’ve given your life to this sport.” And when he was winning, everyone loved him. They couldn’t say enough about him. Hell, there was a whole display about him at the public library…
“Maybe it’s not.” He raised his head and looked at her but didn’t seem to see her. “Do you have any idea what it’s like to read that? To hear the world saying you’re done before you feel ready?” Those fierce bluish eyes steeled. He snatched the magazine and tossed it into the trash can. “Everything I’ve given my life to for the past fifteen years is over.”
Jessa watched him pace the kitchen, words and anger and passion converging. There was no script for this. No plan for the sympathy that spilled out from inside her. “I can’t imagine what that would be like,” she said quietly, wishing she had more to offer him.
Lance stopped and turned to face her. “I don’t know who I am outside of it. Outside of being my father’s son. Outside of the arena. Outside of that world.”
She got that. Sometimes when things changed so fast, when all of a sudden life looked different than it had the day before, you had to be reminded of who you were. That’s what had happened when her father passed away. She was no longer a daughter and everything in her life was up for grabs.
She closed the distance between them with purposeful steps. “You’re a good person, Lance. A good son. You’ve taken care of your dad. You’ve worked your ass off and you’ve accomplished more in fifteen years than most people do in a lifetime.” The words were softer than she meant for them to be, more weighted with emotion than the conviction she wanted to offer him. “You can win.” She’d seen him out there—that will, the sheer determination that drove him. “I know you can win.” She wasn’t sure exactly how, but her hand came to rest on his forearm, fingers lightly curled around his skin.
“Don’t touch me.” He staggered backward. “Not right now.” There was a warning in his tone that matched the agony in his eyes.
Her hand froze where his arm had been. “Okay.” She studied him, trying to understand what he wasn’t saying, but his eyes wouldn’t meet hers. What was he thinking? Had she made him angry again? “Did I say something wrong?” she asked quietly. She didn’t know what to say, how to ease that tortured expression on his face.
Lance finally looked up, eyes smoldering with a passion she’d seen in him only out in the corral. “You tempt me to forget all of it,” he uttered. “You make me think it doesn’t matter.”
Shock thundered through her. She braced a hand against the countertop and gaped at him. “Wh…what?”
“God, Jessa.” He half-laughed while his head shook slowly back and forth. “You don’t even know how beautiful you are, do you?”
The words were so unexpected she almost didn’t believe them. Lance Cortez was calling her beautiful?
He stepped up to her, and he seemed to be moving so slowly. But maybe it was just the shock of what he was saying…
“When you’re here I have a hard time focusing on my training…”
Her lungs locked in anticipation exactly the way they had last night when he’d covered her mouth with his. “D-do you…want me to leave?” she stuttered. She was pretty sure that wasn’t what he meant, but sometimes it was best to be a hundred percent certain.
“No.” His hands went to her cheeks, his callused fingers stroking them softly. “It wouldn’t matter. I’d still see you.” He leaned in closer, so that his lips were inches away. “I’d still feel you…”
“What happened to wanting different things?” she sputtered, her throat aching with the desire to lose herself in the feel of his lips over hers, his hands on her body.
“Right now, I only want you,” he growled, his shoulders rising and falling with heavy breaths. His hands anchored her face while his lips came for hers—claimed hers—ravaging them in a frenzy of desperation and need.
Every fragment of self-protection she’d managed to piece together shattered in the sheer extravagance of his hot mouth, his tongue gliding over hers, his strong hands sliding down her neck, then caressing their way down her chest.
He groaned into her mouth as he brought his hands lower, running his fingers over her breasts.
Greed surged through her, heating the blood in her veins until even her legs tingled. Everything in her core tightened in a hard pull of sensuous tension. Right now, she only wanted him, too. Needed him to satisfy this overpowering hunger he’d provoked in her. Taking his bottom lip lightly between her teeth, she bit down and pushed him against the counter, somehow tugging his shirt up and over his head on the way. Stealing a second, she stopped to admire him, the hard muscle of his chest, the sinewed flesh stretched over his abs. His jeans sat low on his carved hips. The bandage she’d dressed him in last night was still intact, purple bruising visible around the edges. She touched it carefully.
“I don’t need a nurse right now.” His voice ground low in his throat. A sexy grin flashed before he came at her again, this time bypassing her lips and launching a thrilling assault on her neck. It was melting her, his lips, his tongue on her skin. He edged her back against the wall and captured her hands in his, raising them up until her arms were braced above her.
God, her body was so tight, so ready, she needed him to free her, but before she could beg, he pulled off her shirt in one smooth motion. Kissing her lips, then her cheeks, then her jaw, he worked his arms around her, pulling her in tighter and unhooking her bra with one hand. His other hand tore the flimsy satin away from her body but she couldn’t see where it ended up because the magic of his mouth and hands teasing at her nipples blurred her vision. He buried his face in the valley of her, sighing, uttering helplessly desperate little noises.
Ragged breaths stole her thoughts. Her hands raked his thick, luxurious hair as he kissed and sucked and nibbled until she quaked with need. Now. She wanted him to fill her, to take her. Right. Now. Her hands clawed at his belt buckle until it somehow came unclasped and she could rip open the button fly of his jeans.
His forehead fell to her shoulder as she slid her hands down his hips, pushing down his boxers and jeans, and wrapped both hands around the hard length of him. She started moving her fingers, tightening the pressure, but he grabbed her wrists and brought them back above her head, pinning them against the wall and kissing his way to her ear. “You first.”
She kept her hands raised over her head as he kissed her mouth deeply, his fingers undoing her jeans and pushing them down her hips.
His hands cupped her ass, then one of them slid down and hiked up her leg until her knee was at his waist. The other hand snaked around her body, slicing through the swollen flesh between her legs in one long stroke.
“No need for that,” she murmured breathlessly. She was so hot, so primed, she only wanted him to break her apart. Now.
The grin flickered on his lips again. He finished removing his jeans, pulling out his wallet and riffling through until he found a condom. Impatiently, he ripped open the package and had that thing on before he’d made it over to where she stood.
Her heart beat against her ribs, pounding blood all through her.
Lance slipped his hands under her and hoisted her up, bracing her back against the wall as he drove into her in one long, hard thrust.
The heated grinding pried a moan from her lips. Her fingers dug into his shoulders as he slid out painstakingly slow, watching her eyes the whole way. By the time
he thrust again she was panting, bearing her hips down to meet the rhythm he was using to tease her.
“God, Jessa.” He grabbed a fistful of her hair, taking it roughly back from her face, and kissing her harder, deeper. The motion of his hips came faster, all power and strength, surging into her, lifting her higher, grazing the hot wetness. Her legs tightened around his waist, heightening the sensations, until it was all she felt…him. Everywhere. Inside of her and outside of her. With a tortured grunt he thrust again and this time she couldn’t hold on. With a cry of exhilaration, she let go, abandoning herself to the release of blinding sensations, floating atop wave after wave of exquisite pleasure.
Lance brought one hand to her face and tipped up her head. A spark seemed to bind their eyes together. He pushed into her faster, harder, until a long groan punched out of his mouth and his body quaked.
Winded, but somehow still holding her up, his shoulders slumped against hers. A lazy grin took over his lips and she leaned her head down to kiss them again. They were so decadent, those lips of his…so wonderfully sensual and giving.
Lance set her feet on the floor and kissed her back, wrapping her in tighter, pulling her naked body snugly against his, and they seemed to fit so perfectly together.
“You’re somethin’, Jessa Mae,” he said, his hungry gaze lowering down her body.
“I could say the same about you.” Not once in her life had sex been so spontaneous, so instinctual and free-spirited. So close to the movie sex scenes that she’d always thought were contrived and unbelievable.
One time with Lance and she was a believer.
He took her hands in his, towing her closer. “So that was unexpect—”
The doorbell chimes cut him off.
Jessa snapped her head to stare at the front door on the other side of the great room. “Who’s—”
“Uncle Laaa-aance!” The door muffled Gracie’s singsongy voice.
“What is she doing here?” Jessa hissed, pushing away from him, breaking their bodies apart.
His eyes squeezed shut. “I’m supposed to give her a riding lesson.”
“When?” Not to be dramatic or anything, but one minute ago the girl could’ve walked in on them having sex in his kitchen!
He glanced at the clock. “In two minutes.”
“Holy shit. Good God, Lance.” She scrambled around the floor, rummaging through the discarded clothing.
“I’ll tell her to go away,” he said, his mesmerized eyes locked on her body.
“You can’t tell her to go away! Put these on.” Jessa hurled his pants and boxers at him. Then his shirt. Oops. That was her shirt. Aha! His was pooled on the island. She ran over and snatched it, shaking it out so she could pull it over his head.
A knock sounded on the door. “Hello?” It was Naomi! The heavy wood started to creak open.
Jessa hit the floor next to Lance, scooting her knees into her chest and hiding herself behind the island.
He finished buckling his belt with amazing precision, given their current dilemma.
“There you are,” she heard Naomi say from across the room, thank the lord.
There was a pause.
“Why didn’t you answer the door?” her friend asked, a familiar skepticism creeping in.
Lance cleared his throat. “Um. Sorry. I was…on the phone.”
Wow, he was good under pressure. He almost sounded bored. And then there was her…her pulse was racing so fast and hard, it felt like her heart could tear out of her rib cage at any second.
“Oh.”
Jessa held her breath. Would Naomi get suspicious and come over to the island? She edged her back against the cabinets.
“Why is Jessa’s truck out there?” the woman asked.
Damn her!
“Dunno.” Lance snuck a glance down at her, flashing that grin so fast she almost didn’t see it, then he walked away. “Looks like someone’s ready to ride, though,” he said. And he must’ve twirled Gracie around because she giggled and squealed.
Slowly, Jessa let out the breath she’d been holding. Footsteps traipsed away from her until they grew faint.
“I wore my pink cowgirl hat,” Gracie chirped as the front door opened.
When it closed, Jessa let herself collapse on the floor. Staring up at the ceiling, she tried to grasp what had happened. One minute she was reprimanding him and the next she was practically begging him to ravage her. And it might have been fast but…wow. For some reason that had made it even better. It had never happened that fast for her. Ever.
Trying to breathe like a normal human, she sat up and started dressing herself. She never did this…a quickie in the kitchen with a man she wasn’t even dating. What the hell had come over her?
Shaking her head at herself, she shimmied on her jeans.
It had to be that damn chocolate.
Chapter Fourteen
Uncle Lance, why aren’t you listening to me?” Gracie demanded, waving a hand in his face. Her glittery pink nails caught the sunlight and practically blinded him.
“Oh. Sorry, buckaroo.” He shook himself conscious. Normally, he wasn’t one to dwell on the past, but he couldn’t seem to bring himself back into the present. Not after that mind-blowing rendezvous in his kitchen. It had been so good he might never get himself out of the past. And it wasn’t like Gracie needed a ton of supervision. Not on Esmeralda. The mare had been his mother’s horse way back when. She was as old as the sun and lumbered along steady and slow no matter what a person did with the reins.
“I asked if I’m holding on right,” Gracie said, her bottom lip pouting slightly. She sat up taller on Esmeralda’s back. “Because someday, when I’m a beauty queen, I’ll need to know how to hold on the right way.”
He grinned at her. “You’re perfect. Just don’t grow up and become a beauty queen too fast.”
“Too late for that,” Naomi mumbled beside him. “I swear…I don’t know where she got her diva tendencies.”
He swung his head to give her a proper look of disbelief. “Really?”
“What?” she demanded, just like her daughter.
He gave her a dose of raised eyebrows and braced himself for a fist in his biceps, but she only laughed. “So I like pink. And sparkles.”
“And drama,” he added, making a silly face so Gracie would laugh.
“Speaking of…” Naomi tugged him back a step while they watched Gracie make another leisurely round along the fence. “You do seem a little checked out. Who were you on the phone with when we came in?” Her expressive green eyes reflected the sunlight. She was already gloating.
Aw hell. He was busted. Naomi knew good and well he avoided the phone like he avoided her drama. “It was a wrong number,” he said, heading for the safety of Gracie’s presence.
“Where was she hiding?” Naomi asked, following him closely. “And what the hell was she doing in your house in the middle of the afternoon?”
He stopped and faced her. “If only that was your business.”
“Oh, it’s my business,” she fired back. “Jessa is my friend. I thought we were in agreement on this.” Her eyes narrowed as though she was calibrating her intuition.
Shit. That wasn’t good for him.
“You slept with her didn’t you?”
“Technically no.” There was no sleeping involved. No lying down, even.
“Damn it, Lance,” she said, smacking a hand against her thigh.
“We don’t say ‘damn it,’ Mommy,” Gracie called over. “That’s a bad word.”
Lance busted out laughing.
“You’re right, peaches,” Naomi muttered through clenched teeth. “What I meant to say is, ‘How could you let this happen?’”
He shrugged, waiting until Gracie and Esmeralda had ambled to the other side of the corral. “It just happened. Okay?” He still wasn’t sure how. When Jessa had said those things to him, told him she believed in him, something else took over. He couldn’t stop himself. Couldn’t hold back. Part of h
im had thought that once it happened, he’d get it out of his system and he’d be able to stop thinking about her. To see her without wanting her so badly it made him ache.
Man, had that backfired. That little tryst had only intensified the thoughts, the physical response to her. Next time it wouldn’t be fast and frantic in the kitchen. He’d take his time with her.
“So what does this mean?” Naomi half-whispered. “Is Jessa okay?”
“She sure seemed okay.” Way better than okay, actually, given her sexy cries there at the end…
“I mean are you guys together? In a relationship?”
“Not that I’m aware of.” Though they hadn’t really made time to discuss the details. “This morning, she said that wasn’t what she wanted.”
“Of course she said that, you idiot.”
“We don’t say, ‘idiot,’” Gracie admonished. “Remember, Mommy? It’s not nice to put people down.”
Lance laughed again. He loved that girl.
“Right,” Naomi said behind a plastic smile. “Thanks for the reminder.”
Esmeralda hobbled away from them for another spin around the corral, and Lance took the opportunity to argue his case.
“Why does everything have to be defined right now?” Hell, he and Jessa hadn’t even defined anything. He sure wasn’t stupid enough to discuss the terms of their relationship with Naomi before he’d talked to Jessa about it. Relationship? Wow…had he ever used that word before? Maybe not, but he didn’t exactly mind the sound of it as much as he once had.
“Well, I’m just wondering what you plan to do now,” Naomi badgered in her little sister way. “Maybe it’s time for you to deal with your commitment issues so you can actually have a healthy functioning relationship with someone.”
If a man said that to him, he might haul off and throw a punch. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
“‘Hell’ is a bad word!” Gracie informed him from the other side of the corral.
“Right,” he muttered, wondering what would happen if she wasn’t around to keep them all in line. “I meant to say heck.” He turned to Naomi. “What the heck does that mean?”
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