by Lissa
“This is the only one I have. The last one.” He ripped into it, rolled the condom down his cock, and pounced. Cass laughed out loud. “You were worried, weren’t you?”
“That you didn’t have one?” she asked. “A little. But more than that, I was feeling stupid for not thinking about needing one.”
Jackson smoothed her hair, kissed her face all over, and pushed inside her. “We’ll need to get more tomorrow.” He pulled out, adjusted himself between her raised thighs and pushed deep again. “You’re so tight, so fucking perfect around me. You’re wet and hot and every bit as amazing naked and spread as I dreamed you’d be. You’re delicious, Teach.” He made the word Teach sound lascivious, dirty, and the spirals of need fluttered in her belly again.
He thrust forward, so hard it made her breath catch. He did it a second time, forcing himself against her clit, then a third and when she came, splintering apart beneath him this time, tears leaked from her eyes. Jackson followed her down the rabbit hole, tensing but for the slight jolt as he emptied himself into the condom. He jerked several times before going still.
He helped her lower her legs after he eased out of her. The ache in her hips and thighs would remain for a few days, a delicious reminder of her night with him.
She lay exhausted and more sated than she ever remembered being before. Cass’ eyes drifted closed. The mattress dipped and shifted but she couldn’t find the energy to so much as bat an eyelash.
She did try to speak though. “I…” Her throat was dry, along with her lips and tongue. “I…I don’t think… I don’t think I can keep up with you.”
“You’ll keep up with me just fine,” Jackson told her, wrapping himself around her. He must have discarded the condom. “I’ll make sure of it.”
“Mmm,” she hummed in agreement. After a while, as the remnants of frosting started to crust, she said softly, “I should go.” She didn’t want to move. Ever.
“You should stay put.” He sounded tired and his lips trailed lazily against her neck.
She’d tried to imagine for months what it would feel like, being with him this way and her imaginings didn’t even come close. Okay, well maybe the idea of frosting and sex together hadn’t crossed her mind but sleeping with him, oh yeah.
“I need a shower.” she whispered. “You need a shower.”
Jackson chuckled into her hair. “Yep, we do, but in a minute, Cass. Just let me hold you.”
Chapter Four
“This is definitely a new experience for me.” Jackson glanced over at her just as she wiped her brow with the back of her forearm. Sweat dripped from the ends of hair sticking to the sides of her cheeks and forehead. “I mean, don’t get me wrong, I don’t have anything against hard work or physical labor, but damn… Television and movies and heck, even you made milking a cow look easy. By word and deed, you’ve all lied.” She blew an escaped strand from her eyes. “Lied. Lied. Lied.”
Jackson snorted. “For a pastry chef, hell for any kind of chef, I’d think you’d appreciate fresh cream and eggs.”
“Oh I do appreciate them, very much, just never thought I’d be actually procuring it from the source.”
“You won’t ever be able to say I’m not an exciting date.” He gave a haughty smirk and slowly ran his hand over the hide of the cow Cass was attempting to milk. She had more of it on her shoes and pants and over her shoulder than she had in the bucket. The cow, Angel, poor thing had never been so abused.
For all her griping, Cass was slowly getting into a rhythm.
“Is that what this is? A date?”
“What else would it be?”
“Work? Manual labor? Back breaking? Tiring? Please, go on and take your pick.”
“But we’re doing it together. That’s the most important thing. So, yeah, it’s a date.” He knelt beside Cass and wrapped his larger, more sure hands around hers which were wrapped around Angel’s teats. “Firm hold, Teach. You aren’t going to hurt her. You’re too soft for that, but you have to apply enough pressure so you can direct the stream of the milk.”
“You’re a romantic.”
Jackson turned his head toward her. “Because I’m trying to show you how to milk a cow?” He winked. “Why does that surprise you? That’d I’d be a romantic, I mean.”
“I-I don’t know. I don’t think I ever saw you as the romantic type.” She looked to have more words on the tip of her tongue, but returned to her task rather than say much more. Every few seconds there’d be a stream of milk flowing into the bucket beneath the cow. “I guess I shouldn’t be shocked,” she finally said. “I did say you were a big softie last night.”
“I bake cupcakes for a living,” he said incredulously, as though his romantic side should be obvious with that fact alone. But then he saw her raised brows and the twitch of her lips. “Okay. Bad example. People might come to a different conclusion with that bit of knowledge.” He let go of her hands, and grabbed another stool and sat beside her.
“You think?”
“My father did.”
“He did?”
“Yeah. But that’s for a different day. We’re on this day. I can’t believe you didn’t think I’m romantic. Or that I could be romantic? And,” he leaned closer, “I was anything but soft with you. If you’d like, we can have a repeat tonight.” Her cheeks were multiple shades of red, much of which were for different reasons than the sweating and physical exertion she was expending on the farm. He loved the look of life on her face as she tried something new. She didn’t shy away from the challenge.
She slanted him a look but continued milking with the guidance and pressure of his hands, becoming more confident with the chore. He kissed her on the cheek then turned his stool around so he could tend to Angel’s sister, Daisy. “You’ve never really displayed romance,” she offered in her defense. “Hardheadedness. Stubbornness. Recklessness, sure. But romance…?”
“So, just because I wouldn’t take the proper, more accepted way into my business, I’m reckless and stubborn and hardheaded?”
“Yes.”
“Damn. You’re tough on a guy. Sleep with him once and poof…”
“Poof what?”
“Poof all the tender affection is just…gone.”
“Oh please.” Cass leaned back and rested against him for a moment. “I’m proud of you Jackson. You did in a short amount of time what I was afraid you couldn’t do. Not yet, anyway.”
“What? Succeed?”
“Yes,” she said honestly. “Not many can in this business.”
Something in her voice made him bite back the retort on his tongue. He’d heard it a few times before but hadn’t ever thought to ask. Until now. “What happened, Cass?”
Tension fill the small space around them. It was so thick, Jackson could’ve mucked it with a pitchfork. “What do you mean?”
“You’re cautious. Rigid, like your rules. I know when I came to see you about my idea you were… Shit.” Jackson groaned. “You tried to start a bakery, didn’t you?” He gave up on milking Daisy for the moment and spun toward her. He’d been milking cows since he was knee high to a grasshopper and had the balance thing down to a science on the squat three legged stools. He stared at the back of Cass’ head. Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail but as neat as it had been a few hours earlier, it wasn’t any longer. “Cass?”
“Yes. I tried. I failed miserably.”
“Tell me,” he encouraged softly. She sighed and laid her head against the soft hide of Angel before facing Jackson. Her sad eyes tugged at him and he wanted to pull her close, but wasn’t sure she’d have let him right then.
“I was just out of pastry school and had graduated at the top of my class. I’d aced everything, had stars in my eyes, and I was going to open the best bakery in San Antonio. I was advised to start slow, go work for someone else, start catering small events, something except what I really wanted. Turned out, my advisers were right and I was dead wrong. I begged my parents and friends, anyone I could for the mone
y to open my own place. It wasn’t fancy but I loved it. It was north of town a little bit. A lot foot traffic. A lot of shopping around it. I thought it was perfect. My parents even took out a second mortgage on their house….” She shook her head and looked like she wasn’t going to continue, but after a few minutes of silence, she did. “I had great business the first month. I was baking up a storm and had started to develop some loyalty in customers but it wasn’t enough. Rent was due, utilities were due, I needed more ingredients, better ingredients. I needed more advertising, just…more of everything. I was in over my head and within five months I was busted. I had no real concept of what it took to run a business, to keep myself going. I could bake anything anyone could ever want, but I couldn’t keep the lights on.”
Not for the first time, Jackson felt bad about how he’d reacted to her caution and warning. He hadn’t known her story and hadn’t cared to find out. He’d only wanted to hear her say she was behind him, on his side and when she didn’t… God, he could be such an ass.
“I’m sorry, Cass.”
“You didn’t know.”
“No. But I never tried to find out either and I should have.”
“Jackson, it was never that I didn’t believe in you or your ability. I never tried to hurt you or rain on your dreams. If you wanted to bake cupcakes, I wanted you to bake them. I just didn’t want you to go through what I did, feel what I felt after my bakery went under.”
“You’ve never tried again?”
“No. I never did. I took some time to lick my wounds then went into teaching. I couldn’t bring myself bake anything for a long time. Teaching pastry arts kind of gave me back my love and drive for the craft.”
“Ever think about trying again?”
Cass shook her head. “Humiliation like that was enough for one lifetime.”
“Doesn’t have to be like that. Look at me. Look at Sam. You’re smarter now, tougher. Maybe you just need a shove.”
“A shove. A push. A kick in the ass.”
“Hey now, don’t knock it. Worked for me.”
“I know. Maybe that’s all ―”
“I heard you were out here today.”
Jackson stiffened. He’d been so focused on Cass he never heard the boots shuffling through the barn. “Dammit,” Jackson muttered under his breath. “Hey, Dad.”
“Where’s your sister?”
“She’s working this morning.”
“She needs a day off.” His hard eyes locked onto Cass. “And who’s this?”
Jackson stood and took her hand, helping her up from the low stool. “Cassandra Jamieson.”
Jock grunted. “She know about you, Jack?”
“That I bake? Yeah, she knows.”
Cassandra held out her hand toward Jackson’s father. “It’s nice to meet you, Mr. Dawson.”
“That all she knows?”
Jackson stiffened. “Dad, don’t start.”
Jock shook Cass’ outstretched hand and Jackson let out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. It wouldn’t have been beyond his father to ignore any gesture Cass made to be kind. “How do you know my son?”
Jackson rocked back on his boot heels. Oh this ought to be good.
“I was one of his instructors in culinary school. He’s quite gifted.”
And there were the shutters, Jackson thought as his father’s gaze darkened and his jaw tightened.
“You encourage his hair-brained plan about…about…such a girl’s profession?”
“Dad…” Jackson started to say, to jump in before anything could really be started, but Cass squeezed his hand and he bit back his comment.
“No sir, I actually didn’t. I tried to talk him out of it.”
Surprise lit the black gaze of the hardened rancher. “You did?”
“Yes, but I take offense to you thinking it’s just a girl’s profession. There are many male chefs and bakers who are incredible. Your son happens to be on his way to being one of them.”
“Don’t matter much to me what you take offense to, young lady.”
Cass smiled and took a small step forward into Jock’s space. “I don’t doubt that. You don’t have to think much of me, but your son? Jackson is incredible and though I tried to talk him out of starting a business on his own, I found out I was wrong. It’s not just a girl’s profession just like ranching isn’t just a man’s profession.”
Jackson couldn’t decide if he should step in now or see how the rest of it unfolded. He’d seen her nervousness at the truck yesterday, but she didn’t seem to be nervous facing off with his father. In fact, it seemed her hackles were up and on his behalf.
He’d seen this happen before with his sister. Sam had gone toe to toe with their father, but no one outside the family. Jock was quick to intimidate and usually all it took was the thinning of his unsmiling mouth.
“A woman can’t do a man’s job.” Jock was barely holding on. Jackson saw it. Mottled red anger infused his cheeks and Jackson reached for Cass. He wrapped his hand around her arm, but she didn’t back down.
“No she likely can’t. At least not the way a man can, but she could probably do it a little better in some ways.”
Jackson laughed. The sound burst forth without warning and he couldn’t stop. Jock sputtered but words didn’t make it past his lips. Jackson hadn’t seen his father that mad in a long time, not even at him. He had to give props to Cass being unafraid to bait the bear in his own den. In her defense, she didn’t know what can of worms she was opening.
“Okay, you two. Stop fighting over me. There’s plenty to go around.”
Jock pinned Jackson with that same angry glare. “I find none of this funny. You still don’t understand that you’re wasting your life doing a woman’s work. No matter what this one says,” he barked at Jackson and dismissed Cass all at the same time.
“You never could take anyone standing up to you except Mama.”
“Don’t you speak to me about your mother. She’d be ashamed of you for turning your back on your family, on all that we worked to give you and your sister.”
Jackson tried to be shocked at what his father said, but he wasn’t. He was only saddened by it. “Ashamed of me? Really? We seem to remember two different people, then.”
Cass reached back and squeezed his hip. Jackson looked down at her, at the softness in her face, at the milk stains on her shirt and the dried milk on her cheek from the first time she tried. How she’d gotten it up that high, he’d never know, but as he looked at her, he softened too.
He was tired of fighting with his father every time he came out to the ranch. “We have to finish gathering cream for the bakeries,” he said, his own anger dying out. “I’ll give Sam your love.”
Jock looked from Jackson to Cass and back again. “As soon as you’re ready to give up this dumbass life you’ve chosen, the ranch is here for you.”
“Appreciate it, sir, but I won’t be coming back to work the ranch.” Jackson started to turn away, but stopped. “Sam is in trouble, Dad. There’s a big company trying to force her out of her shop. She could use your help.”
“And I could use yours, Jackson. I need you here.”
“You have acres of help, but this isn’t about you and me. For once, listen to what I’m saying. Samantha doesn’t have the money to fight these people on her own.”
Jock sighed. “Dammit, boy. Your sister knows she can come see me and I’ll help her anyway I can.”
“Good.”
“Why can’t big bad Jackson and his cupcakes can’t help her?” Jock scoffed.
“Because I don’t have the money to help her. Not like you do.”
The two men stared at one another until Jock gave a short nod. “Fine.” He looked down at Cass for a long moment. “You said you tried to talk him out of what he’s doing?”
“Yes sir, I did.”
“Doesn’t seem he listened to you.”
“No sir. He didn’t.”
“You’re a bold one.”
/>
“I’ve learned to be. Jackson isn’t easy.”
For the first time, in reference to him, Jackson saw a small smile flit across his father’s lips. It was fleeting and if he hadn’t been paying attention, he’d have missed it. “No. He’s not. Never has been.” With one last glance at his son, Jock walked away and disappeared through the barn doors. Horse hooves could be heard galloping toward the main part of the ranch a few minutes later.
Jackson just stared at her, gathering his thoughts. “You’re something else, Teach.”
Cass shrugged. “I meant what I said. You’re not easy.”
“And I would have to agree with you and the old man on that. I’m not. I’m difficult as the day is long.” He pulled her close. Even through their jeans, he made sure he rubbed against her hard enough that she wouldn’t be able to mistake just how not easy he was. Or was it that he was easy? At least where she was concerned. “But then again, you’re not easy either.”
He’d been fighting how he felt about her for a long time because of how he thought she saw him, but the second he let that go, followed by hearing about her own experience, he couldn’t stop wanting to make up for lost time. “We work, Cass. We fit so good together.” He ducked his head against her throat and trailed his lips up to her jaw. She slid her fingers into his hair and held tight as he lowered them both to their knees.
“You do know I’m older than you, right?” Her words came out a little breathless and if he had his way, she’d be freakin’ the cows out shortly.
Jackson coasted his fingers up inside her shirt and tugged at the cups of her bra until he could get at her nipples. Her body went lax almost immediately. “I know you are.” He bared her belly and chest to his gaze, lowered his head to suck at her tits, first one until she was writhing, then the other.
“Th-Then you know that I…” Her words trailed off, then, “God, Jackson.”
“You’re my girl, Cass. Whether you’re hard or easy, you’re mine. I don’t care that you’re older. I don’t care that I’m younger. It’s a number, that’s all,” he said, his words muffled as he bent and buried his face between her breasts. The woman had the most incredible chest, truly the most incredible body and he wanted to lose himself in it and on it and leave no inch of it untouched and unmarked.
