Texas Outlaws: Jesse

by Kimberly Raye

  She felt a little faint. And flushed. And completely erratic.

  “You’re turned on.”

  He was right. Despite the fact that she’d cut loose last night, she was no closer to being free of the fantasies that haunted her night after night. If anything, she was even more worked up. Desperate. Hungry.

  Still...she couldn’t just hop back into bed with Jesse. She was the mayor, for heaven’s sake. She had a town to run. Commitments. Car washes and bake sales and quilting circles.

  Okay, so she wasn’t actually running anything at the moment. Not until the day of the inauguration. Then her life would officially become a series of city council meetings, park dedications and press conferences.

  Ugh.

  She swallowed the sudden bitterness in her mouth and focused on the man standing in front of her. For now, the only thing she had to do was put in a few personal appearances, which meant she had a few precious days to forget about what she needed to do and simply do what she wanted to do—play out the bad-girl fantasies that had been driving her crazy for the past twelve years and store enough memories to last her the rest of her boring, predictable life as mayor.

  “Okay.” The word was out before she could stop it. Not that she would have. She was doing this. She wanted to do this. Her gaze met his and a ripple of excitement went through her. “Let’s do it again.”

  A grin played at his lips. “And again.” His expression faded and there was nothing teasing about his next words. “I’ve got until Sunday. Pete gets hitched Saturday night and I head for Austin on Sunday morning.”

  And she would take her oath of office a full week after that.

  She licked her lips and trembled at the anticipation that rippled through her. “So, um, when should we start? I could meet you tonight after the Little League game. I’m throwing out the opening pitch—”

  “Let’s go,” he cut in.

  “Now?”

  “Unless you need to practice for that pitch?” He arched an eyebrow, a grin playing at his lips.

  “It’s just ceremony. Accuracy isn’t a big factor.”

  He motioned to the window and the jacked-up black pickup that sat out front. “Then what do you say we take a little ride?”

  Meaning dripped from his words and for a split second, she hesitated. There was just something about the way he looked at her—as if he’d been waiting for this moment even longer than she had—that sent a spiral of fear through her. Because the last thing she wanted was to unlock any of her old feelings for Jesse.

  This wasn’t about the past. It was about this moment. He wanted her and she wanted him and once they’d satisfied that want completely, it would all be over. It was Tuesday and he was leaving Sunday. That meant they had five days.

  The realization stirred a wave of anxiety as she felt the precious seconds ticking away. “Let’s go.”

  11

  THEY ENDED UP on a dusty back road that wound its way up to a steep cliff overlooking the lake. Lucky’s Point had once been the hottest make-out spot back in the day. The spot, in fact, where she’d made out with Jesse James Chisholm for the very first time. Times had changed and the kids now hung out down below on the banks of Lost Gun River, and so the Point was deserted when they rolled to a stop a few feet away from the edge.

  Still...this wasn’t what she’d signed up for.

  “I thought we were going to the motel,” she said as he swung the truck around and backed up to the edge of the cliff.

  “And fight our way past the reporters camped out on my doorstep?” He spared her a glance before killing the engine. “I thought you wanted to keep this low-key.”

  “I do. That’s why I thought we’d go someplace a little more private to do the deed.”

  “Sugar, there’s not a soul up here.” He climbed out and went to lower the tailgate.

  “That’s not altogether true,” she said as she followed him around to the back of the truck.

  The sharp drop-off overlooked a spectacular view of the canyon and the rippling water. A huge bonfire blazed on the riverbank below. Ice chests were scattered here and there and dozens of teenagers milled about. Trucks lined the edge of the dirt road leading up to the gathering. Jason Aldean blasted from one of the truck radios, his rich, deep voice telling the tale of a dirt road just like the one that wound its way to the river.

  “They won’t bother you if you don’t bother them.” He winked and patted the spot on the tailgate next to him. “Climb up.”

  She hesitated, but then he touched her hand and she couldn’t help herself. She climbed up and settled next to him.

  He shifted his attention to the scene spread out before them. “It’s still just as pretty as ever up here.”

  Her gaze followed the direction of his and she drank in the scene. A strange sense of longing went through her. It really was beautiful. Picturesque.

  She dodged the thought and focused on the frantic beat of her own heart and the six feet plus of warm, hard male camped out next to her. “I’m surprised you remember.” She slid him a sideways glance. “If memory serves, you didn’t spend much time enjoying the view.”

  A grin tugged at his lips. “Oh, I enjoyed it plenty. It just didn’t have much to do with the canyon.”

  “You were pretty fixated on one thing back then.”

  “Yeah.” His gaze caught and held hers. “You.” The word hung between them for a long moment and she had the crazy thought that he wasn’t just talking about the past.

  That he still felt something for her despite the fact that she’d walked away from him and ruined all their plans.

  Crazy.

  This was about lust and nothing else. Sex.

  Thankfully.

  “Thirsty?” His deep voice distracted her from the dangerous path her thoughts were taking.

  She nodded. The truck rocked as he slid off the tailgate to retrieve a cooler from the cab.

  She drew several deep breaths and damned herself for not insisting he take her to a motel. At the same time, she couldn’t deny that he had a point. Last night had been fast and furious and much too fleeting. Maybe they did need to take their time and ease into things. Enjoy the moment.

  The notion sent a burst of excitement through her almost as fierce as what she felt when he actually touched her. Her body tingled and her nipples pebbled and heat rippled along her nerve endings.

  “It’s awful hot.” His deep voice drew her attention as he walked back, beers in hand.

  And how.

  She took the bottle he offered her and held tight to the ice-cold brew. The glass was hard and cold beneath her fingertips, a welcome relief against her blazing-hot skin.

  He hefted himself back onto the tailgate. Metal shifted and rocked and his thigh brushed hers. A wave of heat sizzled through her. The urge to lean over and press her lips to his hit her hard and heavy and she leaned forward. Laughter drifted from below and her blood rushed that much faster before she caught herself.

  She couldn’t do this in front of an audience. She wouldn’t. Even if the notion didn’t bother her half as much as it should have.

  Because it didn’t bother her.

  The old Gracie would have jumped at it.

  She shifted her attention away from Jesse and focused straight ahead. The sun was just setting and the sky was a spray of oranges and reds. “The view really is something. I can see why they call it Lucky’s Point. I’m sure many a girl gave it up just because of the ambiance.”

  “Actually, this spot was named for Lucky Wellsbee. He was an outlaw back in the late 1800s. He was on the run from Texas marshals after a stagecoach robbery when they cornered him right here. Legend says he took a nosedive off the edge of this cliff and was never seen or heard from again.”

  “Did he drown in the river?”<
br />
  “Probably. Still, they never recovered a body and so no one really knows.” He shrugged and twisted the cap off his own beer. “Anyhow, that’s where the name really came from.” He took a swig. “Though your version is a damned sight more fun.” He grinned and the expression was infectious.

  She felt a smile tug at her own lips. She took a pull on her beer and stared at the scene before her, her mind completely aware of the man sitting only inches away. As anxious as she was to get down to business, there was something oddly comforting about the silence that stretched between them, around them, twining tighter, pulling them closer. As if they were old friends who’d shared this exact moment time and time again.

  They had.

  The thought struck and she pushed it back out. Jesse wasn’t her friend. Not now. Not ever again.

  Even so, a strange sense of camaraderie settled between them as they sat there for the next few moments. She sipped her beer while he downed the rest of his. One last swig and he sat the bottle between them. It toppled onto its side with a clink, and suddenly a memory made her smile.

  “Remember that time we played Truth or Dare?” The question was out before she could remind herself that the past was better left alone. “It was back before we started dating. Back when we were sophomores and you barely noticed me.”

  “Honey, any man with eyes noticed you. You didn’t exactly go out of your way not to get noticed.”

  “I did wear my shirts a little too tight, didn’t I? And my shorts a little too short.” A smile tugged at her lips. “It used to drive my aunt and uncle nuts.”

  “Which is exactly why you did it.”

  “A fat lot of good it did.” She shrugged. “I did my damnedest to fight destiny, but I guess in the end, she won anyway.”

  “Or you let her.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “That sometimes it’s a lot less work living up to people’s expectations than it is changing their minds.” He gave her a pointed look. “Nothing’s written in stone. Take me for instance. I could have followed in my old man’s footsteps, but I didn’t. I made my own destiny. You gave in to yours.”

  “I didn’t have a choice.” The words were out before she could stop them. “When my brother passed away...” Her throat tightened. “I couldn’t just run off and leave my sister when she needed me most.” She blinked back the sudden stinging behind her eyes. “I couldn’t.”

  She could still remember the funeral and her brother’s closed casket. Charlie had held tight, clinging to Gracie, desperate for some stability.

  And that was what Gracie had given her.

  “I should have told you that instead of just cutting things off between us.” She wasn’t sure why she said the words, except that they’d been burning inside of her for so long that she couldn’t help herself. “I’m sorry about that.” The memories of those first few weeks after the funeral raced through her and her heart ached at the loss. Of her brother. Her freedom. Jesse. “You deserved an explanation when I bailed on you, not the cold shoulder.” She stopped there because she couldn’t tell him she’d been afraid to face him, to talk to him, so fearful she would change her mind the moment she saw him because she’d been hopelessly, madly in love with him.

  Then.

  Because they’d had so much in common. They’d shared the same hopes and dreams. The same desperation to escape the labels of a small town.

  But now? She was different, even if she did feel the same flutter in the pit of her stomach when his deep voice slid into her ears.

  “It was at one of Marilyn Marshall’s parties, right? That time we played Truth or Dare?”

  She nodded. “The one right after the homecoming dance.” A smile played at her lips as she remembered the short red Lycra dress she’d worn that night. She’d been crazy for that dress even though her aunt and uncle had hated it, just as she’d been crazy for a certain tall, sexy boy in faded jeans, scuffed boots and a T-shirt that said Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy. “I can still remember her making us all sit in a circle. Kevin Baxter kept landing on me and daring me to play Seven Minutes in Heaven in Marilyn’s closet.”

  “But you didn’t.”

  “I didn’t want to go into that closet with him. I wanted to go inside with you.” She shrugged. “But when it was my turn, it kept landing on the wrong person.”

  He eyed the bottle and his eyes gleamed with challenge. “Maybe you’ll have better luck now.”

  Reason told her to turn him down. Cutting loose behind closed doors was one thing, but this... This was different. This was talking and reminiscing and... No.

  She didn’t need a walk down memory lane with Jesse Chisholm.

  But, oh, how she wanted one.

  She met his gaze and reached for the bottle. A loud thunk, thunk, thunk echoed as she sent the glass spinning across the tailgate. Slowly it came to a stop, the mouth pointing directly at Jesse.

  “Truth or dare?” she asked him.

  His eyes twinkled. “Dare.”

  “I dare you to kiss me.”

  “Whatever happened to Seven Minutes in Heaven?”

  “There’s no closet, so I thought I’d adjust accordingly.”

  “We don’t need a closet for heaven, sugar. We can do it right here.” No sooner had the words slipped past his lips than the truck dipped and he pushed to his feet. “Right now.”

  Before she could take her next breath, he stood directly in front of her, pure sin twinkling in his violet eyes.

  He nudged her knees apart and stepped between her legs. Anticipation rippled through her as he leaned close. His warm breath tickled her bottom lip and her mouth opened.

  “Relax,” he murmured a split second before he touched her shoulders and urged her back down. The cold metal of the truck bed met her back and reality zapped her. There was no stifling darkness to hide her excitement. No closet walls to shield her from the rest of the world.

  They were outside, in full view of God and at least a dozen teenagers partying on the riverbank below.

  He reached for the waistband of her skirt. He tugged her zipper down, his gaze locked with hers.

  “I think a kiss would be better,” Gracie blurted, her anxiety getting the best of her. Jason Aldean had faded and Luke Bryan took his place, crooning about love and lust and leaving, and her heart beat that much faster.

  “Oh, I’m going to kiss you, all right.” He unfastened the skirt and pushed the material up around her waist, his fingers grazing the supersensitive skin of her stomach. “Just not on the lips. Not yet.”

  The sultry promise chased the oxygen from her lungs as he urged her legs apart and wedged himself between her knees. His fingertips swept her calves, up the outside of her knees until his hands came to rest on her thighs.

  He touched his mouth to the inside of her thigh just a few inches shy of her panties. White cotton this time with tiny pink flowers. Sensible, or so she’d thought when she’d tugged them on that morning. But damned if she didn’t feel just as sexy as when she’d worn the black lace the night before.

  He nibbled and licked and worked his way slowly toward the heart of her. She found herself opening her legs even wider, begging him closer.

  He trailed his tongue over the thin fabric covering her wet heat and pushed the material into her slit until her flesh plumped on either side. He licked and nibbled at her until her entire body wound so tight she thought she would shatter at any moment.

  She didn’t.

  She couldn’t.

  Not until she felt him, skin to skin, flush against her body. No barriers between them. That was what she really wanted despite their location.

  Because of it.

  Being outside filled her with a sense of freedom she hadn’t felt in a long, long time.

  She ignored the tho
ught as soon as it struck and focused on the large hands gripping her panties.

  She lifted her hips to accommodate him. The cotton eased down her legs and landed on the truck bed next to her.

  He caught her thighs and pulled her toward the end of the tailgate until her bottom was just shy of the edge. Grabbing her ankles, he urged her knees over his shoulders.

  He slid his large hands beneath her buttocks and tilted her just enough. Dipping his head, he flicked his tongue along the seam between her slick folds in a long slow lick that sucked the air from her lungs.

  His tongue parted her and he lapped at her sensitive clit. He tasted and savored, his tongue stroking, plunging, driving her mindless until she came apart beneath him. A cry vibrated from her throat and mingled with the sounds drifting from below.

  Her heart beat a frantic pace for the next few moments as she tried to come to terms with what had just happened.

  She’d had the mother of all orgasms. An orgasm worthy of the most erotic dream.

  But as satisfied as she felt, it still wasn’t enough.

  She opened her eyes to find him staring down at her. A fierce look gleamed in his bright violet eyes, one that said he wanted to toss her over his shoulder, tote her home and never, ever let her go.

  A spurt of warmth went through her.

  Followed by a rush of panic because it was all just the heat of the moment.

  He would let her go, and then he would leave. That was why she’d agreed to this in the first place. A few days of lust and then they both walked away. She headed for City Hall and he headed for Austin.

  My turn.

  That was what she wanted to say, but she wouldn’t. While she’d agreed to indulge her lust for him, she had no intention of unleashing the bad girl that she’d locked down deep all those years ago. Giving in to him was one thing, but turning the tables and taking charge?

  Not happening.

  “Stand up,” he murmured, killing the push-pull of emotion inside of her and taking the decision out of her hands, and she quickly obliged.