She sat on the bale next to him. “Not exactly the future I planned for him.” She paused, then asked, “Would you tell me if he didn’t do well?”
“Yeah,” he said. “I would.”
She believed him. “Thank you,” she said softly.
“I like him,” he said simply.
She hadn’t. She loved Gordon but she hadn’t liked him much recently.
The silent admission saddened her. She should have tried harder to understand what he was going through.
Gordon finished cooling his mount. He looked sweaty and sunburned and happy. “We’d better collect your sister and go home,” Lisa said. She turned to Jubal. “I suspect we’re taking up too much of your time.” She paused and then the words came out before she could stop them. “Would you like to come over for dinner tonight?”
“Yes,” he said simply. Something else she appreciated about him. His directness.
She looked at her watch. It was already four. “Seven okay?”
He nodded.
She gathered her brother and sister and headed out. On the ride home, Kerry was telling Gordon about the barrel rider and how she wanted to be one. Lisa thought of the expensive-looking horse in the arena and hoped not.
She wondered what the heck she’d been thinking when she’d invited Jubal over for supper. She didn’t even have much food at home. Maybe spaghetti with meat sauce. She usually kept ground beef around and she had spaghetti. She would just have to make it. No adult beverages, either... What had she been thinking?
She was thinking she wanted to see him and she certainly owed him after what he’d done for Gordon.
In any event, the deed was done.
As soon as they arrived at home, she looked in the cupboard and found several cans of tomatoes and the spices she’d need. She dumped them in the frying pan, along with chopped onions and some ground round, then put it on to simmer. No adult beverages, but she had chocolate cupcakes brought by one of her patients. They had been one of many such gifts during the past two weeks. A benefit and a curse as she felt her jeans grow tighter.
She took a moment to assess progress. Her sister was setting the table. Her brother was putting his stuff in his bedroom. Who were these well-behaved kids and what had they done with her siblings?
After the sauce was bubbling and a salad was made, she took a shower, then worried about what to wear. She finally just changed her shirt and put her jeans back on. No big deal. The supper was just a thank-you, nothing more. Or so she kept telling herself.
He arrived at seven on the dot. She wasn’t surprised. Punctuality had probably been drilled into him during years in the military.
His hair was still damp from either a shower or swimming, and he was clean-shaven. He gave her that quirky one-sided smile as he handed her a bottle. Wine. Thank heavens. She took a deep breath. She’d never experienced this kind of internal confusion before—the rapid beating of her heart, the sudden rush of heat in the pit of her stomach.
She clutched the bottle. “I hope you like spaghetti.”
“It’s one of my favorites,” he said.
Thankfully, Kerry appeared then. “Hello, Mr. Pierce.”
“Hello, Kerry,” he said with a disarming smile. “Did you like the ranch?”
“I loved the foal. Have you named him yet?”
“Nope. I want to pick just the right one, since it’s the first horse I’ve ever named. Any suggestions?”
He was so easy with Kerry and Gordon. Lisa was good with other people’s children, not so much with her own siblings. “I’ll open the wine,” she said.
He followed her to the kitchen. “Nice house.”
“The town provided it,” she said. “Most of the furnishings belong to the owner. We left ours in Chicago.” It was a reminder that she was only here for a year.
“That must have been tough, leaving everything behind.”
“There were as many bad memories as good ones,” she replied as she rummaged in a drawer. “I know I brought a corkscrew.”
“Don’t need one,” he said. “It has a screw top. The guy at liquor store vouched for it. I’m not that good at choosing wine so I just asked for a nice red. I remember that’s what you had at supper Saturday night.”
She couldn’t help but laugh. His blunt honesty always startled her. No man she’d known before would admit they knew nothing about wine. Well, she didn’t, either.
“I like wine with screw tops,” she admitted. “They keep better.”
She put spaghetti in the boiling water and stirred the sauce. Steam rose from the pans. Seemed to hover between them.
She felt the temperature in her blood rise, as well. She looked up and was lost in the intensity of those blue eyes. The silence stretched tautly between them. She wanted to ask so much. But now was not the time or place, and he didn’t make conversation easy. He always seemed to keep much of himself off-limits.
“Lisa?” Her sister broke the tension as she came into the kitchen.
Jubal stood back.
Lisa turned off the stove element.
“Can I do anything to help?” Kerry asked.
“You can strain the spaghetti,” she said, trying to keep her voice steady. Natural. She feared there was a quaver in it.
She hoped Kerry’s presence might cool the temperature in the room. It didn’t. Every time she glanced at him, she felt as if she’d been reduced to putty. Dammit.
She managed to get everything together: the spaghetti on the platter, the sauce poured on top, the salad finished. She wished she had some hot bread, but there wasn’t any. Kerry poured herself a glass of milk and Gordon helped himself to the iced tea she’d made yesterday.
To her surprise, Gordon carried the conversation. He wanted to know about SEAL training. Was it as bad as he’d heard? Was it true that only one in a hundred applicants made it through? How could someone go through nearly a week with only an hour’s sleep?
Lisa felt her fear grow with every question. It competed with the constant somersaults in her stomach, or maybe magnified them. The two males ate is if they’d never had a meal, but she could hardly get a bite down. She finished her glass of wine and Jubal poured her another.
She served the cupcakes, drank the wine. It was refilled. Kerry looked at her with a question in her eyes. Lisa rarely drank more than two glasses but she felt like the proverbial cat on the hot tin roof. The more he sat there, talking more comfortably to her siblings than he had to her, the more an uninhibited need blossomed inside her. It warred against the fear she felt over Gordon’s interest in the military, leaving her feeling overwhelmed.
When they finished, Kerry offered to clean up and Gordon said he had to study. Jubal followed her to the living room.
“I should go,” he said. “It was a great dinner.”
They walked together to the door.
He stepped outside and his hand guided her out with him.
“Do you ever get up early on Sunday morning?” he asked.
They were standing on the front porch. In front of neighbors and God and maybe even her siblings, who were probably looking out the window.
She nodded.
“There’s a path near my cabin that leads up the mountain. The sunrise is spectacular from there. I’ll have some coffee.”
She shouldn’t. She knew she shouldn’t. She nodded.
“Six a.m.?”
She nodded again.
He gave her that half smile. “Good. Thanks for supper. It was great.” Then he turned and walked rapidly to his car.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
THE NIGHT WAS GENTLE. The moon almost full. The stars plentiful. Wispy lacelike clouds floated in and out between them. Jubal never tired of a peaceful night sky.
Storms were different. Thunde
r and lightning ignited memories. Faces appeared. Dead friends. Dead enemies. He tried to stay inside then. Reading. Watching television. Anything but war movies or violent shoot-’em-ups. He had gone to sleep watching television several times and jerked awake at the sound of gunfire. He’d searched frantically for a weapon.
Clint said his dog helped. So did Josh and Andy. But he felt it would be a crutch. He feared crutches as much as he feared nightmares.
Was he using Luke’s ranch as a crutch?
And Lisa? He couldn’t remember ever being so attracted on an emotional basis as well as a physical one. But maybe he was just reaching for a life jacket. He drifted off at some point because he woke when the first edge of dawn was visible. He got up, went inside and made enough coffee to have a cup and fill a thermos.
If she came...
He put on trunks and jogged out to the deck. It was still thirty minutes before six and the air was cool. He dove in the frigid water, which jolted every one of his senses.
Twenty minutes later he was thoroughly awake. After a steaming shower, he’d just finished dressing in jeans and a pullover sweatshirt when he heard a car in the driveway.
He hadn’t known whether she would appear or not, but he should have. She had said she would. He imagined she always did what she’d planned or agreed to do. She had grit. Had to, to fight her way through medical school and residency and then abruptly change her life to help her brother.
He grabbed the thermos and went out to meet her.
“Hi,” he said as she stepped out of the car. She looked great in a blue pullover sweatshirt and a pair of jeans. She’d braided her hair and pinned it at her back. Her cheeks were flushed, her dark brown eyes full of life.
“Your hair is wet,” she said. “Did you take a swim already?”
“It’s a habit,” he said, then looked at her basket. “What’s inside?”
“Every patient who comes to my office seems to feel obligated to bring a cake or pie or other pastry. Kerry and Gordon love it. This happens to be half of a coffee cake that Mrs. Jenkins brought me.”
Without more words, he took the basket in one hand and her hand in the other and led her to the path. It was Sunday morning, and he’d noted that Covenant Falls was slow to rise. He doubted anyone saw them.
They made it to the viewpoint at just the right moment. A few clouds suffused the first light into different layers of gold and crimson. An eagle circled above pines that rose high and perfumed the air. Jubal thought it the perfect morning, or maybe it was the company.
They sat on the ground and he poured coffee into the top of the thermos and handed it to her.
The lake looked peaceful, the town like a toy village. He pointed out Luke’s ranch.
“Now I know why you come up here,” she said. “It’s beautiful.”
“Have you been to the falls?” he asked.
“Yes. Eve took me and I took Kerry. They’re beautiful.”
“Too bad. I was about to offer a picnic in appreciation for dinner last night.”
“No need. You gave Gordon a free horseback lesson.”
“That’s my job.”
“Not entirely, I think. You love it, don’t you?”
“Every minute,” he admitted.
She was more at ease than he’d seen her. And she was incredibly appealing. Her smile was quick rather than cautious and those wide brown eyes viewed the valley below with lively interest. He had an overwhelming urge to touch, to hold, to share. He leaned down and kissed her. Heat started at the point where his skin touched hers, then flooded through the rest of his body.
The kiss started light but suddenly became explosive. What was meant to be exploratory turned hungry. Their lips melded in an eager contest. He stopped thinking as the kiss deepened, and their arms found each other.
He broke off, looked down at her, at the earnest face that so charmed him and the expressive eyes that asked many more questions than he could answer. She made him feel alive after months, years, of stuffing feelings in a mental closet.
“I want to experience that world-class kiss you spoke of,” she said, surprising him. It probably shouldn’t. She was a strong, decisive woman.
“I think maybe this isn’t the place,” he said. “I’m beginning to think Covenant Falls has eyes and ears everywhere.”
“Does anyone even come up here other than that eagle circling around?”
“He could be curious about human mating habits,” he quipped, then wondered about the appropriateness of the comment. It was something he would have said to his buddies.
But she laughed, and he loved the sound. He hadn’t heard it nearly enough. “Are you trying to avoid living up to the expectation you created?” she asked.
“Is that a challenge?”
“I think it might be,” she said with a grin.
“Then I think we should go to the cabin.”
“Won’t people see us then?”
“Maybe. If anyone is awake. Do Kerry and Gordon know where you are?”
“No. They’re never up before nine on Sunday. Kerry stays up late reading, and Gordon stays up late playing games on his phone. I left a note saying I was going out for breakfast.”
He stood and offered her his hand...
* * *
LISA’S GLANCE SLID down to his hand. Strong and capable. Like everything else about him. She took it, allowing him to lift her as if she weighed no more than a feather. His height seemed to dwarf her as she looked up at him.
The air sizzled between them. A tingling started in the small of her back, working its way upward. It had been there since the first time she’d seen him, but she’d tried to suppress it. There seemed no future in it, and she was practical if nothing else. Why start something that could only end badly?
But that caution didn’t matter now. Nothing was real at the moment but Jubal Pierce, the searching look in his eyes, the warmth of his presence, the glow she felt inside when she was with him.
She’d never felt this way before and she wanted to explore its width and breath. They were silent as they walked, hand in hand, down the path. Every one of her senses seemed more acute. Birds were chirping louder. Some small animal made its way through the underbrush. The wildflowers were more vivid than she remembered. And the sun was now a golden ball in the sky while a seemingly transparent moon still hung around. All was right with the world. Her fingers tightened around his.
They reached his porch and went inside. The door was barely closed when his lips caressed hers. Swirling eddies of desire enveloped her, eclipsing everything else. A whisper at the back of her mind tried to caution her, but it was chaff in the wind compared to the power of the intense need inside.
Yesterday, watching him with Luke and Gordon had crystalized so much. There had been the respect the rancher showed Jubal. Even more important was Jubal’s patience and an innate understanding of her brother that touched her as nothing else could. It only added to the mind-blowing physical attraction she felt.
Leave, she told herself. Run before you get in too deep. He would leave, or she would leave, and there was little chance for permanence. But then, she couldn’t resist the magic of the moment.
He reached up and touched her cheek, running his fingers along her cheekbones. Lightly. Gently, as if touching something precious and breakable. His fingers hesitated as they reached her chin, then they dropped away, and his arms went around her and pulled her against him.
She looked up at him. Her body pressed against his hard form and she relished its warmth, even through the clothing. She felt his heart beat and knew hers was pounding, as well. Her hands twisted through his thick hair and then their lips met again and there were new explorations that spun her into a world without boundaries or rules or fears.
Any remaining reservations slipped away
as the kiss deepened further, and she felt intoxicated by sensations she’d never known before. She felt him grow hard against her, and she wanted to draw him even closer. Every part of her body ached to connect with his.
A storm was building inside her, feeding on his hungry kisses, on every touch. Her body hummed with all the new sensations—wonderful, delicious feelings as she heard him moan.
“Lisa?” She knew the question and she knew the answer.
“Yes,” she said simply. “Do you have...?”
“Yes.”
She leaned her head against his hard chest and then she was in his arms again. He carried her to the bedroom, setting her down on the neatly made bed. He was undressing her, and she was unbuttoning his shirt. She saw the scars again, and she hurt for all the pain he’d been through.
She momentarily forgot about them as he finished undressing her and then kissed her again, his hands running along her body, stroking. Her skin was alive with feeling, with wanting.
He hesitated. She saw it in his eyes. “Are you sure?” he asked.
“Don’t stop.” She ran her fingers along the strong lines of his face, then the scars on his chest, as if caressing them would make them go away.
Their lips touched, this time with a searching tenderness, a savoring of wild emotions. His mouth ignited a warmth that seeped through her, settling into her core.
She wanted more. More of his strength. More of him. She wanted to give and take, and she wanted both things in the most urgent way.
It wasn’t her first time, but she’d never felt this kind of connection. It struck her with the power of lightning.
Their lips touched again, and he trailed kisses down her throat, making her shudder with spasms of desire. Every nerve was alive, every part of her responding with hunger.
He turned away for a moment, then returned, arched above her and entered. Slowly, carefully, then his body assumed a rhythm of its own as his mouth caressed hers. Her body responded like a chorus, moving in such complete harmony that it seemed to her they were born to be together.
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