Brandt sighed. “Ain’t no talkin’ you out of this?”“Nope.” She buttoned her coat and slipped on her gloves. “Just double check that everything is shut off before you leave. I’ll call you when I get there, okay?”“Okay. But first…c’mere and give me some sugar.” He curled his fingers around her lapels and tugged her closer.Then he proceeded to turn her inside out with one of his long, drugging kisses, chock-full of passion, sweetness and heat. Boy howdy did Brandt’s kisses pack a wallop. Her knees and her will went weak.Until he chuckled against the corner of her mouth. “You sure that didn’t change your mind?”“Nope.” She backed up and he released her. She reached for the duffel bag strap but Brandt firmly knocked her hand away and picked it up. She still wasn’t used to all his gentlemanly quirks, but she really liked them.But you could get used to them, couldn’t you?Yes.She opened her truck door and whistled. Lexie’s furry body was a blur as she leapt into the cab. Her tail wagged
“Honestly? Because I’d forgotten about it. So many other things happened over the years. It came back to me when you said you were helping out with Luke’s kid. So no, you’re not a doormat, Jessie. No matter what Luke led you to believe.”She killed her beer. “Luke and I were headed for a divorce anyway.”“I know.”“I loved him. I’da done anything, let him get away with anything, been anyone he wanted me to be, just to keep him.”“I know that too, sweetie.”She held her fingers to her eyes to stem the tears. “God, Mom. I’ve had time to think, a lot, too much time probably, but one of the hardest parts of losing Luke was figuring out I’d lost myself too. I let him define me. And when he wasn’t around to tell me who to be, I didn’t know who the hell I was.”Silence fell and Jessie welcomed it.Her mother cleared her throat. “And what about Brandt McKay? Are you letting him define you?”Jessie shook her head. “Which might seem at odds with agreeing to help him take care of Landon. I’m not
“If I was there I’d be kissin’ your neck, leaving love bruises from that spot below your ear to your collarbone. I’d feel those cunt muscles pulling my fingers in deeper with every stroke as I moved my thumb faster over your clit. Then I’d whisper, ‘My sweet, sexy Jessie, come for me now’ and you’d explode.”“God, Brandt,” was all she got out before the spasms hit. She gasped as her clit pulsed beneath her thumb. Her fingers were wedged deep in her pussy, squeezed by the contractions so strong they robbed her of breath. The orgasm didn’t last long, but it was intense enough she dropped the phone.When she heard, “Jessie?” coming from far away, she turned, expecting to feel Brandt’s warm body, because she always zoned out after she climaxed. She heard, “Jessie!” again and opened her eyes. Brandt wasn’t there. She was in a single bed with her hand between her legs and her cell phone on the mattress next to her head.“Hello? Jess? Did you hang up?”She grabbed the phone and pushed hersel
“Mom. Stop.” Brandt tugged her into his arms. “Just stop.” She was absolutely breaking his heart.“No,” Tell said from behind him, “Let her talk if she wants to.”“We’ll listen to anything she has to say,” Dalton added. “She needs to know that.”Brandt hadn’t heard his brothers come up behind them, but he was damn happy they were here.She pushed back from Brandt and wiped her tears. “I’ve been thinking about this a lot over the last month and wanted to talk to you boys yesterday. On Thanksgiving. To let you know how thankful I am for each of you, but…well. You were there. Wasn’t exactly a Norman Rockwell painting, was it?”None of them could look at each other, which was just weird.“Sorry.” She used a lace hankie to wipe her nose. “I didn’t mean to blather like a fool and get so weepy.”A moment of silence passed as they all struggled.“It’s okay, Mom. Tell cries all the damn time. It’s sort of embarrassin’ if you wanna know the truth,”Dalton mock-whispered.Tell probably would’ve
“True. But I’ll climb on a back of a bull as long as I can.” He took another drink of beer. “And the injury is healin’ fine, if my nosy-assed brothers asked you to grill me about it.”“They didn’t.”“Good.” Chase shivered. “I forget how goddamn cold it is here.”“You’re spoiled competing in all those warm climes.”“That’s a fact, which is probably why I’ll end up livin’ someplace down south. Speakin’ of… Did your dad talk to you guys about them starting to legally restructure the ranch?”“No. Should he’ve been?”“According to my dad, Uncle Carson and Uncle Cal, yes.”“Does this have to do with Keely getting a chunk of McKay land as a wedding gift?”“Partially. But a couple of us are opting out of bein’ part of the McKay land trust permanently.”Brandt froze. “What the hell are you talkin’ about?”Chase kicked back and rested his shoulders on the porch support post. “You really had no clue?”“Nope. So who’s opting out?”“Me, for one.”Brandt looked at him curiously. “Why?”“Because I’v
She skirted the coffee table. “Is Landon sleeping?”“Yep. He’s been down about a half hour.”“Good. Then I timed it perfectly.”His eyebrows lifted. “Timed what perfectly?”“This.” She straddled his lap, held his face in her hands and kissed him. She tried to keep it easy, a deep, slow, wet reunion kiss. But the sensation of his full warm lips beneath hers, the glide of his tongue against hers, his taste and his scent made her wild, and she inhaled him in a blazing kiss of pure need.Heady stuff, how he met her kiss for kiss, touch for touch, breath for breath.She moved her lips along the line of his jaw to his ear. “God, Brandt. I’m dying for you. Phone sex was hot, but I want real sex. Lots of it. Right now.” She slid off his lap.Keeping her eyes on his, she circled her fingers around his wrists, tugging him to his feet. While gorging herself on his addictive kisses, she herded him down the hallway to his bedroom. After locking the bedroom door, Jessie jerked Brandt’s shirt off. S
Brandt looked stricken for half a second, then he laughed softly. “God. You’re killin’ me, woman.Yes. On your knees on the floor.”Jessie slithered down his body purposely letting her hair drift across his groin, his thighs and the tops of his feet, because she knew how ticklish he was.“Playin’ with fire, Jessie.” Brandt sat up and pressed the creases of his knees into the edge of the bed.Setting her hands on his thighs, she bowed her head over him, taking his cock into her mouth completely. Keeping her lips suctioned tight didn’t keep the saliva in her mouth. She used the wetness to move faster, letting it trickle out of her mouth and coat his shaft.“Fuck, I love it when your mouth gets me so wet I can feel it dripping down my balls.”The husky way he dirty talked made the inside of her thighs sticky. Jessie slid her hand down to fondle his sac. So tight. So ready.Then the skin on his shaft seemed to tighten even more.Brandt eased out of her mouth and she looked at him.“Enough
“I know more than you do. When Samantha lived with Drex, she talked about turning the boy over to his father’s family so she could be free. Most the time she was so wasted she didn’t remember she even had a kid, let alone knowing how to take care of him. Get used to him being around permanently, because she won’t want him back.”“That’s enough.” Brandt didn’t look away from the woman when he spoke to Jessie. “Jess. Go.”A million thoughts spun in her head as she reached the checkout line. Obviously the woman knew Landon. But not as well as she knew Landon’s mother. How much of what she’d said was true? Had Samantha just been biding her time? Brandt hadn’t said anything about his jail visit with Samantha, but Jessie knew the visit had upset him. Had Samantha already told Brandt she didn’t intend to take Landon back?It’d been easy to forget these fears when everything had been going along so smoothly. She cared about Landon, but she had no desire to be the kid’s mother. Because she nev
And what Dash Paulson found sort of shocked us.”“What’s that?”“We were under the impression that if just one of us wanted to sell our portion of the ranch, the other three owners would be forced to sell theirs too. Which is how Casper tried to control us, or at least got away with a lot more shit than we would’ve let him, had we known the real legalities of the matter.”Carson pointed with his beer bottle. “It entails lots of legal gibberish that took us slow readin’ ranchers some time to understand, but the bottom line is we were wrong. Casper never had the power to force us to sell.”Brandt held up his hand. “Wait a second. My dad threatened to sell his portion of the ranch?”“Several times over the years. To be honest, he even went as far as to have it appraised about six months after Luke died.”That son of a bitch. “Why?”“So he could point out what idiots we were for keepin’ it, when we could have more money in our pockets than we could ever spend.”“How much money we talkin’?
Jessie wanted that same happiness for herself. Dammit. She deserved it.And the only way to get it was to take it.After she changed into work clothes, she hitched the empty horse trailer to her truck and headed out.Butterflies danced in her belly as she drove down the long driveway leading to Brandt’s house. By the time she reached the banks of snow piled by the deck, Brandt stood on the steps, waiting for her.“Jess? What are you doin’ here with a horse trailer?”She scaled the stairs in one step and got right in his face. “Did you mean what you said? When you told me you loved me and wanted to marry me?”“Yes. But—”“Did you tell your dad to take a flyin’ leap as far as the ranch is concerned?”“Yes. But—”“In the past four days when you haven’t contacted me at all,” she lightly cuffed him in the arm, “have you had any regrets about anything that’s been going on between us in the last few months?”“No. But—”“Good. Then what are you waiting for? Let’s get your stuff packed up and
“Know what I never understood? Why Casper hated me so much in the first place.”Joan drained her coffee and walked to the kitchen. Almost on automatic, she poured herself another cup, but it sat cooling untouched on the counter for several excruciating minutes while she stared out the front window.Jessie followed her, a feeling of dread settling in her bones. “Joan? Is everything all right?”“No. I can’t even begin to tell you how wrong it is. All of this.” She braced her hands on the counter in front of the sink. “Casper hated you because your bun-in-the-oven marriage to Luke reminded him of me. Of us.”Okay. That was news. Luke had ever mentioned it. Or maybe Luke hadn’t known. “Yours was a shotgun wedding?”“Yes. Are you shocked?”Jessie had to tread lightly. This was the most Joan had ever opened up to her. “Yes. I am.”“Because Casper ended up with someone like me?” Joan asked, not bothering to hide her petulance.“No. The opposite. I can’t fathom how a woman like you ended up w
Her Irish coffee threatened to come back up.“Then Brandt threw Dad against the wall and that’s when me’n Dalton came in. After that, Brandt left.”“So you don’t know if he’s decided—”“Don’t say it, Jessie, don’t even fucking think it. Brandt loves you. He always has.”She tipped her head back and closed her eyes. “But he loves that ranch too. That’s all he’s known.That’s all he’s ever wanted was to take over running it.”“And you think our Dad don’t know that?”“I know that once Casper has drawn the line in the sand, he won’t erase it, he won’t move it, and he sure as hell won’t back down from it. Brandt will have to choose.”A muttered curse, followed by, “Yeah, it sucks, but he will.”Poor Brandt hadn’t wanted to choose between her and Landon. He’d dodged that bullet only to have the gun waved in his face again. As much as she wanted to be the one he’d pick, as much as she wanted to plead her case and offer him assurances that their life together would be worth giving up his heri
Without saying anything to her? That was strange. Brandt always searched her out when she did chores. Always.Maybe he was tired. Yesterday was long and emotionally trying for both of them. Not to mention he’d kept her up half the night, making love to her until they fell asleep still joined—which had been a first for her, and more romantic than she’d imagined. Draped across Brandt’s warm body, her head nestled under his chin, her knees curled by his hips with his cock still embedded inside her, his hands cupping her ass.She’d woken up a couple hours later when he hardened inside her. He rolled her over and made love to her again, whispering words of devotion. Declaring his undying, never-ending love for her. Making promises she actually believed.It’d been the greatest night of her life.Smiling, she dropped the bucket and the pitchfork next to the gate and raced to the house. She burst inside. “Brandt?”No answer.Lexie lifted her head and gave her a crabby look for disturbing her
“Don’t leave me hangin’ now,” he half-snarled.“What about your family? I think Dalton and Tell will be okay with us being together. But your dad?He hates me. Can you—”“What’s the worst he can do? Say no?” Brandt kissed her. “Nothin’ would be worse than not havin’you in my life, Jess. Nothin’.”“Then if you’re sure…Yes. I’ll marry you.”He whooped and spun her around, not noticing the cold, or anything else except the look of happiness in Jessie’s beautiful eyes that he knew mirrored the happiness in his soul.******Brandt would rather have a root canal without anesthesia than talk to his father.He knocked on the front door of the house he’d grown up in.His mother answered, dishtowel in hand, as usual. “Brandt. Sweetie, it’s good to see you. You don’t need to knock. Come in. What’s up?”“I have something I wanna talk to you guys about.”She kept her expression neutral. “Go into the dining room. Your dad’s in there. I’ll be right in with coffee.”Brandt rounded the corner and saw
“No.”Her expression shifted. She whirled to face Lydia. “You get your kicks out of kissing an unwilling man?”“Oh, sugar, don’t kid yourself for a second he was unwilling.”“Bullshit.”Lydia smiled cagily. “What are you gonna believe? What you saw with your own eyes? Or what he tells you? ’Cause, you’re awful damn naïve if you don’t think he’ll lie about what just happened to spare your feelings.”Direct hit. Brandt needed to get Jessie out of here now. “Jessie—”Jessie’s laughter cut him off. “You want proof?” She pointed to Brandt’s groin. “He doesn’t have a hard-on. If anything you did even turned him on a little, he’d be sporting wood. Trust me, I know. So, sugar, take your desperation to some other man because Brandt is not interested in you.”But Lydia wouldn’t let it go. “So you’re Jessie. The poor little widow whose husband couldn’t keep it in his pants.” She gave Jessie a derisive head-to-toe inspection. “No wonder he wandered. Looks like you’re trying—and failing—to prove y
“Mama mama mama!”She held him and cried buckets. Through her gasping cries, Samantha babbled, making Landon incoherent promises. Kissing his cheeks. Rubbing his back. Touching him as if his presence might be a dream. Just holding him like she’d never let him get away from her again.That softened the knife’s edge of pain a little.Samantha’s eyes drank in every nuance of his face. “Lookit you. You’re such a big boy now.”“Yef.”She laughed, even though she was still crying. “And you’re talking too. I’m in for it now, huh?”“Yef.”Jessie slipped from the booth, desperate to escape because this was goodbye she’d been dreading since the day she’d first set eyes on him. With her feelings in such turmoil, she was as afraid she’d break down as she was afraid she wouldn’t break down.Landon finally looked at her and those big blue eyes lit up.“Hey, lil’ buckaroo,” she said softly.He said, “Down,” and wiggled until his mother released him. He ran to Jessie hell bent for leather. His contac
“So if you’re done inspecting me…”She shrugged. “You had to expect that.”“Yes, I did. Thanks for coming early. I worried Brandt wouldn’t pass along the message that I wanted to meet you.”Jessie frowned. “Why wouldn’t Brandt—”“Because he’s very protective of you.” Samantha leaned back into the booth seat and crossed her arms over her chest, almost defiantly.The waitress took Jessie’s order and neither she nor Samantha said another word, nor did they look at each other until the waitress dropped off the soda and left.“So why the summons, Samantha? I’ll admit I wasn’t sure this was the best idea.”“First of all, I really wanted to thank you in person for all you’ve done for Landon. I…it’s so far above and beyond…”Please don’t get weepy.“Plus, I feel I owe you an explanation about a couple of things regarding Luke.”Jessie held up her hand. “Not necessary. I don’t need the down-and-dirty details about what went on between you two. Landon is proof enough for me. In fact, I’d rather