“I’m confused,” Karla said. “But that could just be the alcohol talking. You’re going to have to explain, hon. I’m a little stupid when I’m drinking.”Sandra and Sophia both chuckled.“He made this big deal out of me tying him to the bed when we make love. So I’d know he couldn’t hurt me. So I’d know I was safe. Okay, so the reason he dumped me, or at least the reason he gave me for dumping me, was because he was afraid of hurting me. So if I tie him to the bed while he’s asleep and he has a nightmare, voila! He can’t touch me,” she said smugly.“You’re a fucking genius,” Karla said in admiration.“I’ll drink to that,” Sandra said.“Uh, maybe we should let up on the alcohol,” Karla advised.“Yeah, I have to sober up now,” Sophia said.“How come?” Sandra asked.Sophia pushed herself upward again, holding herself up with one hand so she didn’t keel over onto Karla.“Because when I sober up, I’m going over to his house. If he thinks he can just dump me for my own good and make me miserab
Finally, finally, he rose above her, fitting his body to hers as he stared down at her with those intense dark eyes. She searched his gaze for what he was feeling. If he was as desperate as she was. If he’d missed her even half as much as she’d missed him.What she saw burning in the depths of those eyes took her breath away and filled her with hope.She saw love. Still love. It hadn’t left. He still loved her. They could work this out. He loved her and she loved him. She refused to countenance any other possibility.They belonged together.“Are you okay?” James asked, still poised at the rim of her entrance.“I want this,” she breathed. “I want you, James. I’ve been so lonely and empty without you.”“Oh God, baby. Me too. If you only knew how miserable I’ve been.”“Then do something about it,” she said softly. “Make us both whole again.”He gathered her in his arms, holding her close just as he pressed inward. She moaned in delight as he pushed even further. She tilted her hips upwar
Karla pulled into a parking spot at the Lux Café in Houston, her eyes widening in surprise when she saw both Sophia’s and Sandra’s cars parked short distances away.Sophia being there didn’t shock her. Sophia was always punctual. But Sandra? Sandra was perpetually running late. Karla and Sophia almost always had to wait on Sandra, who’d dash laughingly inside the restaurant where Karla and Sophia waited, an unnecessary apology always on her lips for her tardiness.And, well, who could ever get mad at her? Especially for something so insignificant as being habitually late. Sandra was just someone who lit up a room with her warmth and sweetness. She’d come a long way from grieving widow after losing Clement to where she was now. Happy. In love. Married to Derrick, her former husband’s best friend. Karla was genuinely thrilled for both her friends. Sandra and Sophia had both found love. For Sophia, this was huge. She’d made monumental steps in her life, being able to finally overcome the
“Sweetie, what is going on with you and Ken?” Sandra asked, concern creasing her forehead. “We’ve discussed this so many times and yet I keep getting the feeling that you aren’t telling us the whole truth. That you’re holding back at least a part of what you’re feeling and experiencing. Are you still worried he’s cheating on you?”Karla sucked in her breath. The very thought, however fleeting it may be, that Ken would ever cheat on her filled her with such agony that she couldn’t dwell on it for the pain it caused her. She truly regretted that moment of weakness when she’d shared that fear with her best friends, no matter how little she truly believed it.“I know he loves me,” Karla said firmly. “I know he wouldn’t cheat. He has too much honor. If he wanted another woman, I know he’d be forthright with me and just ask for a divorce.”God, the word divorce sent waves of agony through her heart and soul even though she knew it wouldn’t come to that. But panic quaked through her at the v
She didn’t think she’d ever failed Ken or embarrassed him, but now that paranoid side of her wondered just that. If he was somehow ashamed of her, that she was too outgoing, too bubbly for the staid, moneyed clients he catered to. His not wanting her to be a part of him courting and wining and dining his clients had ended up being yet another rejection, one that at the time hadn’t bothered her, but in retrospect made her heart clench. Was Ken growing tired of their marriage? Did she no longer satisfy him? Had she done something to cause him to lose faith in her? Their relationship? The not knowing was eating her up on the inside and it was growing harder and harder to cover up her growing unhappiness with a bright smile and words of understanding. She was lying to her friends, even though she knew they saw right through her façade. But the simple fact that she was lying, keeping so much locked inside her, made her feel like the ultimate fraud.She swallowed the quick knot in her throa
She stared woodenly through the windshield as Ken carefully disengaged the keys from her hand and then closed her door. In a matter of seconds he was in the driver’s seat starting the engine, almost as if he were afraid she’d leap from the car. And she’d given it serious consideration, but then she’d have to figure out a way home, which meant having the restaurant call her a cab, or she could call Sandra or Sophia. Either would come at a moment’s notice.But then she would be faced with the humiliating fact that her best friends would know her anniversary had been a complete disaster. Hell, for that matter they may have suspected it would be a cluster f**k from the very start. It wasn’t as if they hadn’t expressed enough concern over her faltering relationship with her husband.Ken pulled out of the parking lot.“Please don’t cry, Karla,” he said softly. “I’m so damn sorry. Time got away from me.”“Who was she?” Karla asked coldly, ignoring his words and his apology. Words meant nothi
“I’ll talk,” Karla finally said.But her tone was fatalistic. Like she’d already decided the outcome after they discussed their relationship and why she was so unhappy. Had she lost that much faith in him? The idea devastated him.“But it has to be in neutral territory,” she added. “We have no business having sex with this wall between us. I don’t want our physical attraction to hinder our discussion.” Her gaze swept downward, sorrow creasing her face and tugging her lips into a sad frown. “That’s assuming you even still want me,” she said in a tone tinged with grief. “It’s been so long since you’ve instigated any sort of sex that the reasonable conclusion is you no longer desire me or find me attractive.”Ken damn near swallowed his tongue as protests immediately formed on his lips. Goddamn it but there was so much wrong with her statements that he didn’t even know where to begin.They never used the word sex when it came to their lovemaking. Never. Sex was for people not emotionally
“Karla, baby, don’t say that. Nothing is unfixable. We can overcome this together, I swear it.”She yanked her head so that her eyes were boring straight into his. “You dumped me for a prospective client on our anniversary. I sat there for an hour over cold food after you promised me you’d be there, that you’d only be twenty minutes late, and you lied,” she said accusingly.Ken reared back with a frown. “What did I lie to you about?”Her gaze was full of scorn and rising fury.“You just don’t get it, do you?” she raged. “You call me from work and say you were detained and that you’d be there in twenty minutes. You never said a damn word about meeting a client—a gorgeous female client who was all over you—at the same restaurant where your wife was sitting alone, waiting for her husband. You lied to me. Lies of omission are still lies. You tried to hide from me that you were entertaining a potential client on my goddamn anniversary and you stood there in the bar with her, smiling and la
“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
“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
“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
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
“Stay like this.” He slid her hands to the edge of the countertop, slipping his knee between her legs in a signal to widen her stance. “Perfect.”“Brandt—”“Trust me, Jess?”It took about ten seconds, but she nodded.“Good. Close your eyes. Relax.”She let her eyes drift shut, but she was in no way relaxed. His body shifted as he reached for something on the counter. Then his wonderfully rough hand glided down her bare stomach, stopping to cover her mound. His fingers stroked her cleft, teasing her folds until she felt herself growing wet, heavy with need.His fingers vanished. Before she could protest, a cool, round object connected with her clit and she gasped, “What is that?”“No fair peeking. Keep your eyes closed.” Brandt steadily dragged it up and down her slit in a smooth glide that followed the contour of her sex from top to bottom. He whispered, “Does it feel good?”“Yes.”His lips feathered hot, moist kisses across her neck. He circled her clit, never too hard, or too soft,
She pointed on the page to a cow hiding in the bushes. “Remember what a cow says? Mmmoooo.” She drew out the word until it was about ten seconds long.Landon giggled.“Now Landon—” she poked his chest when she said his name, “—say mmmoooo.”“Mmmoooo.”Jessie clapped again. “Good job! You are gonna know all your barnyard noises in no time flat.”Usually Landon lost interest before they reached the end of a book, but tonight he stuck it out, although he was pretty squirmy at the end. When she closed the cover, Landon launched himself off the couch and ran straight to Brandt.How long had he been lurking in the shadows? And why was she thinking it was a damn crying shame that he’d gotten dressed?“Up!” Landon demanded.But Brandt wasn’t looking at Landon. He was looking at her with the softest expression. He broke eye contact when Landon bumped into his leg with another demanding, “Up!” and lifted the boy. “So I missed story time? Bummer.”Landon said, “Mmmoooo.”Brandt grinned. “That’ll
“Just Spanish rice, nothing fancy.”He looked around the living room. “Landon asleep?”“Yeah. I know it’s probably crazy to put him down this late, but he was really crabby.”“Sorry I wasn’t here to help. I ended up stopping at Ben’s place on the way home and we had a couple of beers.”Jessie smiled, appreciating he’d told her his whereabouts. “No need to explain, but I’m glad you did.”Brandt crossed into the kitchen, lowering his mouth to hers for a blistering kiss. He tasted of beer and need.This sweet, hot man could wind her up in no time flat. She returned his kiss with equal fervor, loving his deep groan as she pressed her body to his and twined her arms around his neck. She felt him harden against her belly. Then Brandt clamped his hands on her butt, hoisting her up so her legs circled his hips.He walked to the bedroom, breaking the liplock as he set her on the bed. “Damn, woman, kissing you almost makes me forget I have a splitting headache.”His face was pale. And his eyes
Brandt laughed. Ben always got straight to the point, which was probably why he’d shown up here.He took a long pull off his beer. “To be honest, I ain’t exactly sure why I’m here. I just got done talkin’ to Samantha, Landon’s mom, and she left me with a feeling I can’t shake.”“Like what?”“Like…maybe she’s gotten used to bein’ away from Landon and would like to continue that when they let her out of jail.”Ben whistled. “No shit?”“That’s the thing. Samantha didn’t come right out and say it, I don’t even know if she was hinting around or if I somehow misread it. And it ain’t like I can talk to anybody in my family about it.”“What about Jessie?”“Her stipulation was no information on Samantha for the duration of this temporary situation. So if it turns out to be a longer temporary situation than four months, and if Samantha decides she’d rather let us raise Landon…” He sighed. “Us, meaning me raising Landon with some help from Dalton, Tell and my mom.” When Ben lifted a questioning
“Sounds like I have abandonment issues, huh? My ‘real’ dad bailed on me. Billy bailed on me. But with Luke…he mentally checked out of our relationship before he physically left. So I’ll argue it was different with him. He abandoned me before he died.”“Not every man is like that.”“All of them in my experience have been. So that’s all I know.”Another line of logic Brandt couldn’t dispute.“Jess—”Jessie held up her hand. “Please. No more. I have a splitting headache and the glare off the snow is making it worse. I need to close my eyes for a bit.”Brandt didn’t look too happy, but he said, “All right.”And she must’ve been more drained than she’d thought because she slept all the way to Brandt’s house.*****Brandt waited in the visitation room of the women’s correctional facility in Lusk, wondering if he looked calmer than he felt. It seemed a bad sign, Samantha requesting this meeting, especially when she’d indicated that she didn’t want him to bring Landon.The door opened and Sam