Hotter than Texas (Pecan Creek) (33 page)

“I am not falling for this,” Sugar said, “and even if I did agree to what you’re suggesting, I doubt you’d be able to get me in the mood. I’m pretty hot with you at the moment. I can’t pretend to feel something I don’t when I’m mad and upset.”

“I know the feeling. If I was mad and upset with you, I wouldn’t be able to get a hard-on,” Jake said.

“Well, then you see.” She sounded surprised.

“It’s true,” he said, “I was annoyed with you when your sister destroyed my house value with her blog.” He let out a big sigh. “I couldn’t have gotten any stand-up in my shorts if I’d wanted.”

Sugar blinked. “Then if you and I are mad at each other—and we seem to be covering some of the same ground, although by the way, our phone’s been ringing off the wall with people wanting a reservation in your house of hos—why are you trying to get in my pants?”

He ran his hands down her back, along her waist and over her ass, squeezing her cheeks with a sigh. The pink capri pants did nothing to disturb the smoothness of her body, and she was either wearing a thong or nothing, because all he felt under the thin cotton was Sugar.

And he was telling a wee fib, because he had his usual Sugar-rush going on down there, straight out, cramped in his jeans, desperate for her. “Like I said, you’re a strong woman, and I couldn’t have found a woman that makes me more crazy if I’d tried to dream you up myself.” He noticed she hadn’t protested him cupping her butt, so he smoothed his way back up to her waist, palming her ribcage. Baby steps to seduction, that was the key.

“Jake, it’s not going to work,” Sugar said. “I’m so annoyed with you, I just couldn’t. I’m a traditionalist. Dinner first.”

There it was, the invitation, issued in the form of a challenge. He loved challenges. “Okay. Go for it. I’m listening, doll face.”

She put her hands on her hips, which raised her breasts nicely, not that she needed any perk there. Still, he relished the teasing swell that peeked up underneath her white blouse when she wasn’t even trying to turn him on.

He had such a turn-on going he was probably going to explode.
At least I’ll die happy. Almost happy.

He pulled her to him, cradling her, running a comforting hand over her back. Nonsexual, nonthreatening. Just making his way into her space, keeping the connection. “Spill it, sexy legs.”

She pulled back to look up at him. “You think my legs are sexy?”

He nodded. “I sure do. And your face, and your breasts, and your brain, and your ass, and the freckles around your bellybutton. Tell me everything that’s on your mind.”

“I feel like you undercut my business from the beginning,” Sugar said. “I feel like we never had your support.”

“That’s true.” He hiked Sugar up onto his waist so she straddled him, and carried her outside to the patio, where he edged onto a chaise lounge.

“You’re hard,” Sugar accused, and Jake said, “Just in case it’s needed. For making up.” He kissed her, stroking the inside of her mouth with his tongue, drinking her in. He pulled away, sighing with hungry longing. “But don’t think I’m not listening to you. You have my utmost attention. The truth is, there isn’t a time of the day you’d get to air your grievances with me if you waited for me not to have a hard-on for you. It’s my perpetual state of being these days. But it’s not disrespectful.”

He picked up her hand, kissing it like an old-world gentleman.

“Okay,” Sugar said, not pulling her hand away. “But I’m pretty sure there’s more seducing than listening going on.”

He loved the feel of her on his abs. She was sitting right in front of his rock-hard, tempting him, driving him mad with the waiting. But he was a patient man, had learned patience in some of the hardest places in the world. And what he was being patient for right now was sweet, sweet heaven. “What’s next on the list?”

“Of what?” Sugar’s gaze was fastened on him like a bunny watching a snake.

But he didn’t want her feeling cheated. “I admitted I wasn’t as supportive of your business as I could have been when you ladies came to town. Frankly, it was uncharted water for me. I wasn’t positive how to integrate your situation and needs into the town’s needs and proclivities. I did hope that it might all work itself out in time.” He kissed her hand again. “To be honest, anything I might have done to try to help might have messed things up more. And then there was the fact that I was hugely attracted to you from the start.”

Sugar frowned. “I don’t remember you being anything but a pain. You rented us a house that had tons of drawbacks you never mentioned.”

“Yeah. But I had a back-up plan.”

He smoothed his palms up her arms, dying to make his way to her breasts. She smelled summery and womanly, and he wanted her bad enough to wait until forever if he had to.

“Which was what?”

“Renting you this place.” He kissed her palm, pressing it to his lips. “If the other house didn’t fit your needs, then I had this place I could have easily let you have. I would’ve moved back into the old family place. Honestly, once I met you, I was pretty certain your family and my family home was exactly what you were looking for.”

“Maybe it was,” Sugar said reluctantly. “Maggie and Lucy love it.”

“And you?”

She sighed. “I don’t know. It’s tangled up in my mind with you.”

“Because you think I haven’t supported you, and I rented you something under false pretenses.”

“Yeah.”

“You can have this place if you want,” Jake said. “It’s an easy swap. Just stay here in Pecan Creek, Sugar Cassavechia.”

She gazed down at him, her eyes startled and wide. “Jake, you’re making me nervous.”

“Why? I dig you like a fat kid digs cake. I haven’t made a secret of that. It’s the one thing in this town that isn’t a secret. To anyone.” He lightly bit the tip of her finger, then licked it, kissing it before moving to press a single kiss against her wrist. “Let me ask you a question.”

“All right,” Sugar said, but she sounded uncertain.

“Where do you imagine I might ever again find a woman who’s as downright sexy and saucy as you are? Who can turn this town on its ear just by walking through it? Who can make my mother go from being a well-meaning tyrant to hinting around about grandkids, for the love of God?”

Sugar’s lips parted with surprise. If he’d been a better man, he could have resisted, but he wasn’t a better man; he was a hungry man dying for this woman. He dove in, his tongue parting her lips more, sweeping her, holding her close, tugging her up against him, trying to get every bit of her that he could.

“Jake,” Sugar said on a gasp, “I was wrong. Your shtick works just fine on me, even when I’m mad.”

“Thank God,” Jake said, rolling them both into the pool, holding her to him so he kept her safe and not crushed beneath his weight.

She came up, laughing, pretending to be mad. “I thought you were going to use your mouth for something other than excellent bullshit.”

“I am. But I figure a Florida girl like you has her soul in the water.” He wrapped her legs around him, reaching underneath her blouse to undo her bra. “I know how you dig swimming pools and creeks and the ocean, Sugar. I don’t want you to feel like I don’t attend to all your needs. And this water is set on ninety all winter, doll. Warm like Florida.” He pulled off her blouse, groaning when she surrendered, holding his shoulders, not complaining when her blouse floated away and her bra sank to the bottom of the pool.

God, he’d dreamed of having her naked like this.

She pulled his T-shirt over his head, helped him fish off his jeans, which also sank to the bottom, but not before he grabbed his wallet out, which he tossed onto the lounge as Sugar said, “Condom. Safety first.”

“One step ahead of you.” He opened it with his teeth, and she helped him smooth it on, which felt great too, because she had to tug a bit against the water to get the fit right.

She kissed him, giving him another teasing tug where he liked it. “All suited up to swim.”

“Swimming, hell.” He pulled her back to his waist, settling her legs around his waist, loving how she locked her heat around him. There was slickness and warmth against him, blowing his mind because now he knew she dug him as much as he dug her. “I’ve missed you, Sugar.”

She kissed his neck, bit his shoulder lightly. “You don’t have to talk anymore. I’m seduced.”

“Not yet you’re not.” He pulled over a raft and settled her across it horizontally. Spread her legs and found something much better to do with his mouth than talk. She let out a cry and he bit the inside of her thigh, then kissed the spot where he marked her. With the tip of her he was gentle, loving, licking her, teasing her with his tongue inside and out. She clenched up, crying his name, and Jake slid her forward, wanting everything he could get. More Sugar, more sweetness.

“Jake,” Sugar gasped. “Oh God.”

He pulled her off the raft, lowered her in the water, kissing her tummy as he slid her down him, then her peaked breasts. “I think I hear something coming,” he said.

“What?” Sugar demanded, stiffening up.

He planted himself deep inside her without hesitation, fitting her hard against his hips. She let out a shriek, pulled him tight, wrapped her legs around him in a stranglehold that could have killed a lesser man. “Go, babe,” he said, “rock me hard.”

She gasped against him, rocking him hard, sending waves out of the pool. He thought about everything he could to keep from letting the moment go too soon: Kel and his problems, her mother and grandkids—a sure erection-dampener, right?—even the parade woes and what he was going to do to keep Sugar in this town.

Keeping Sugar had to start with what he was doing to her right now. She tightened up on him, holding him like a tigress clutching a meal, crushing her breasts against him before letting out an impressive yell of delight.

He nearly fainted with relief.

“God, Jake,” Sugar gasped, tears pouring from her eyes, and laughing, “that’s never happened before.”

Jake hoped like hell not. He hadn’t worked this hard for her to think of him in anything other than spectacular terms. He squeezed her butt tight between his palms, tightening her around him as he moved her back and forth, stroking inside the softness of her body. Clenching his teeth, he closed his eyes, feeling the ripping explosion coming. It was too soon, he wanted this to last forever, wanted to stay inside Sugar forever. The pleasure was too hot, crazy-intense. She was in his arms at last, and he’d waited a lifetime for her. He sucked a nipple wet with pool water and peaked with passion into his mouth, and then it hit, nearly darkening the world around him, ripping out of him with a roar.

Sugar held him tight, not moving as he gasped his way back to consciousness.

“Shit,” Jake said, making for the pool steps with Sugar still on him. “I think I might have blown out something major in my body.”

“Did you hurt yourself?” Sugar asked, concerned.

“God, no. But I still don’t know if I can survive it.” He sank onto the steps, holding her to him. “God, you make me happy. That is some great stuff.”

Sugar laughed. “You’re so romantic.”

“I know. Give a man props where it’s due.”

Jake collapsed against the steps. Sugar got off him, tossed the condom into the trash near the patio table before settling against his chest. “Your neighbors are going to cite you for noise violations.”

“Jealousy,” he said, stroking her hair, enjoying the sun on his face and the feel of Sugar in his arms. “Anyway, the only person who might hear us is Lassiter, but he never comes this far in the fields. We meet on the fence line to have our bromance.”

She didn’t say anything else. Jake tried to recover his sanity and his equilibrium. It was too hard—Sugar had wasted him. He probably wouldn’t be good for anything more than gimping around like a little old man for a week. He tugged over the pool float, got on it, pulled her naked body up next to him, and settled into blissful unconsciousness under the last rays of November sun.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Dear Journal,

Life is good. I got my memory back; I’ve got my groove back. Lassiter is planting a citrus tree for me, a lemon tree that smells so sweet and fragrant. And he’s teaching me how to make wine in a huge glass jar thing. What you really want to know about is the sex, right? The sex is phenomenal. Imagine waking up every morning with John Wayne in all his glory, and you’ve pretty much got why my middle-aged body feels like a well-tuned violin these days. I’m free of breast-cancer, and I quit smoking. My daughters have men in their lives who seem worthy, and it does my heart good to see my girls so happy. Tomorrow I’m the mayor of Pecan Creek’s parade, and we’re going to launch our business.

As much as I dreaded the journey, feared it even, I have become a new woman.

It’s like being reborn. Better even than I could have ever imagined.
Brigadoon
, only real.

And you weren’t the drag I thought you’d be, Journal. In fact, I really enjoy having the memories to look back on.

No longer participating on the sly,

Maggie

On the morning of the Christmas parade, Sugar had a case of nerves that wouldn’t quit. A niggling sense of guilt ate at her. Maybe she had performer’s nerves.