Jesse (18 page)

“You touch her with this again and I
will show you what it feels like. Now you’ll step away from her or, so help me,
I’ll forget all the teaching my mother beat into my head about never hitting a
woman.”

Grandmother snorted, but moved back. “You’ll
regret that, young man. She’s not worth it. Ask anyone in town.”

Joey’s grandmother had raised her when
her parents had died. She’d never approved of her mother, saying that she’d
driven her son to his death and any number of other things she’d felt she’d
done. Joey’s mother wasn’t a great mom, forgetting she had a daughter for the
most part, but she’d loved Joey’s dad.

“Jesse Hunter, this is my grandmother,
Josephine Foster. Grandmother, this is Jesse Hunter. He was just leaving.” He
moved to the chair, pushed it to the side of her bed, and sat down. She glared
at him, but didn’t think he cared.

“I want to know what you think you’re
doing running up a bill as if you have money. You have nothing left of your
inheritance. Your mother saw to that.” Grandmother sat in the other chair as if
she was queen and all should bow before her. “I will take you home with me and
we’ll forget this whole running away thing ever happened.”

“I didn’t run away. I left. Well, that’s
not true; you kicked me out the day I turned eighteen. No money, no
transportation, and not even my clothes. You
gave
me what I had on to
teach me a lesson.” Joey hated airing this in front of Jesse after he’d been so
kind to stay with her last night. “And if you think I’m going back to that hell
hole, you’re nuttier than I thought you were.”

The cane came down hard and she nearly
cowered from the noise. “You’ll treat me with respect or, so help me, I’ll
teach you how to do so.”

“You must earn respect before you should
expect to get it. A good friend of mine told me that once.”

Grandmother snorted again, this time at
Jesse. “Some liberal arts major that hasn’t worked a day in his life, I bet. You,
young man, will stay out of this. This is family business and you are most
assuredly not family.” She looked at Joey again. “I believe I have instructed
you several times to get dressed. I’m not going to say so again. I have an few
places I would like to stop at before we head—”

“The liquor stores are closed on
Sundays. You’ll either have to buy your stuff at a convenience store or wait
until tomorrow.” Joey looked over at Jesse, shocked. She didn’t know that he
was aware of her grandmother, much less that she had a drinking problem. “And
as for not being family, that’s incorrect as well. I’m going to marry Joey, if
she’ll have me.”

Joey, he’d called her Joey for the first
time since she’d meet him. Joey looked at her grandmother, who looked as if she
had swallowed a lemon as she glared at him.

“You’ll do no such thing. I won’t have
it.” The cane hit the floor again. “You, sir, are an impertinent boy who needs
to be taught how to respect his elders. Your mother should be beaten for
letting you get by with so much.”

Before Jesse could speak someone came
through the door. Jesse grinned when his mom stood there. She hadn’t noticed Grandmother
or chose to ignore her, because Annamarie went to her son and was kissed on her
cheek, then she sat on Joey’s bed. “You look better, dear. Did you sleep well? It’s
not easy sleeping in a hospital, is it?” When she winked at her Joey knew that
she was ignoring her grandmother. “Oh, Jesse, your brother is bringing you a
clean suit in. He said you had two meetings today and I’m going to sit with—” The
cane hitting the floor three times in a row cut Annamarie off. “Well, hello
there. Who are you?”

Grandmother stood up and pointed her
cane at her. “I am this slut’s grandmother and I am here to take her home to
where she can cause no more of this tomfoolery. And this boy claims that he is
to wed her. Well, I will not allow it. This boy needs to know where she comes
from.”

Annamarie nodded. “Yes. I can see that. He
does have a tendency to speak his mind. There are times as his mom that I
wonder if he’ll ever learn to curb his tongue.” She stood up as well. “He
claims he’s in love with her, so by rights, she’s already my daughter. And
being such, I want to tell you something important.”

 Grandmother looked like a fish out of
water. Joey doubted that anyone had ever stood up to her before. When Annamarie
was within a foot of her, Grandmother spoke. “You think you have something to
say then spit it out, girl. I’ve not all day to listen to you blather around.” Joey
noticed the slight tremor in her voice and looked at Jesse when he sat on her
bed.

“You insult my daughter again and I will
shove that cane so far up your tight ass that it will be weeks, maybe even
months before you’ll shit again. And when you do, you’ll think of me every time
a splinter passes beyond that sacred portal.” Annamarie poked her in the chest.
“And you come here again, I will personally see that you suffer beyond what you
did to that girl over there, and I make that a solemn promise you good-for-nothing,
stupid bitch. Now, if you would be so kind, Daniel, I’d like for you to escort
this cow out of my sight.”

Joey was surprised to see Daniel there
along with two other men. When Jesse turned to her and took her hand to his
mouth she could only stare at him. No one had ever stood up for her before and
she wasn’t sure what to make of it.

“Now that is why we’re all afraid of our
mother.” Joey laughed with the rest of them, but she kept a careful eye on Annamarie.
He was right, his mother was just plain scary.

~~~

Joey had been so quiet when he’d left
that he hadn’t wanted to go. But his mom assured him that she’d take care of
her. And then halfway to here, she’d called him to let him know that Joey was
being released. He was ready to ask the driver to take him back when his mom
spoke again.

“I’ll take her to your house and get her
set up. Samuel is there, isn’t he?” He told her his butler wouldn’t leave even
after he’d fired him a dozen times a week. “That’s because he loves you. Between
Samuel and me, I’m sure we can get one girl settled in a bed. You want her in
the guest room, don’t you?”

“No, Mom, I do not. Put her in my room. If
you’re going to insist on doing this, then you’ll do it my way. If you put her
anywhere else, I’m going to be really pissed then have to move her on my own. Which
might tear open her stitches. You don’t want that, do you?” She was quiet for
so long he was afraid he’d gone too far. He was ready to tell her to put her in
any room she wanted then he’d simply move to that room until Joey felt better,
but she spoke first.

“Do you love her, Jesse? And don’t give
me a smart-assed answer. I want you both to be happy and this isn’t just a way
for you to get someone to move in with you to have sex.”

“I love her very much. And it is a great
way to have sex. With the woman I love.” He closed his eyes and put his head
back on the seat. “I don’t think she believes me when I tell her and after
meeting her grandmother, I can see why. She’s a piece of work, isn’t she?” She
didn’t bother answering, and he was still trying to wrap his head around his
mother shoving a cane up someone’s bottom and then telling them that they’d
poop out splinters. He shook his head, trying to concentrate on what mom was
saying.

“…when you get home. Samuel will be
thrilled to have someone else in the house to fuss over. You know how he can
be.”

Yes, he did. That’s why Jesse was a
little afraid. “Tell Samuel to behave around her. I don’t want him to hurt her
feelings and they not get along. I will fire him if he can’t get along with
her. She’s more important to me than a stuffy butler who never laughs.”

That had been over two hours ago and he
still had at least another hour to go. As far as monthly meetings went, this
one was proving to be the worst yet and the longest one in history. He looked
at his watch again and then his cell to see if anyone had called, texted, or
even sent him an invitation to play Wordfeud with them.

When everyone stood up he realized he’d
missed most of what was said. He didn’t care, he wanted to go home, home to
Joey. As he gathered the stuff from his office up to leave, Royce came in and
sat down.

“Do you have a few minutes?”

If Jesse hadn’t seen his smile, the one
that always reminded him of a shit-eating grin, he might have said just a few.
But he had seen it and he wasn’t amused. “Funny. I’m leaving. Tell Mom that I’m
on my way.” He went to the door as Royce started laughing. “And your wife is
baking again, or hadn’t you noticed?”

He heard him yell, “Fuck” as the
elevator closed. Kasey hated to cook; in fact, was terrible at it, but when
she’d been pregnant with little Lee she’d taken up baking. It had only lasted
until he was born. This past week she’d brought some kind of baked goods in
nearly every day.

He was pulling in the drive when he
realized he should have stopped for roses. Or candy. Something romantic. He’d
had Jay, Kasey’s uncle, open the personal safe and bring him his great
grandmother’s ring. He’d been given it along with her home and property in
England when he’d turned eighteen. Jesse opened the little box now. He’d not
seen the ring since it had been willed to him and put into the safe.

His great granddad had been a miner. And
about anything else that had suited his fancy. His wife, Mable, had been just
as adventurous and had brought their children with them on every job. When
Mable had birthed their ninth child, she’d put her foot down and her husband of
fifteen years had settled in England. And for all the things he realized she’d
given up for him to have his bit of fun, he’d bought her the ring Jesse was
going to propose to Joey with.

There was a row of diamonds around the
wide band, twenty-two of them as a matter of fact. They sparkled like stars in
a bright night even now after all these decades. But in the center of the ring
were three pearls. “Pure white as my love for you, pink as the sunset we
shared, black as the midnights we created life.” That inscription was in the
band and it never made sense to Jesse until now. His great granddad had loved
his wife. And if that didn’t say so, Jesse James, or JJ to his friends and
family, dying only hours after his love had died. Because he said if he could
not stand to take a breath that did not smell of his Mable, he had nothing to
live for.

Laughter. The house sounded of laughter.
He went into the kitchen to find Joey sitting on a chair with her leg propped
up on another, his mother sitting across from her and his butler Samuel making
faces at them both. He thought he’d gone to the wrong house but for the people
there.

“You’re home. Good. I have a meeting in
town to go to. I forgot, and Samuel here has a wonderful dinner for you both.”
She kissed the stodgy older man on the cheek and, for the second time in as
many minutes, Jesse was shocked. His butler blushed. “You take care of my girl
here. She’s very special to us all.”

“We’ll get along just fine now, Miss A. She
and I have come to an understanding.” Samuel winked at Joey then nodded to him.
“We are going to get along fine.”

Jesse didn’t want to think he’d just
been threatened by the man. He was sure he was just tired, but he would swear
Samuel was telling him,
“While you and I don’t see things the same, the new
missus and I do.”

“They let me go.” He looked over at her
when she spoke. “Your mother said it would be okay if I came here. I don’t
really have a place where it’s going to be okay with my leg like—”

“Samuel?” The man answered his query. “Is
dinner something that can be held, or do we need to eat it right now?” Jesse
never took his eyes off of Joey as he spoke. He couldn’t believe how much he
wanted her. Right now. If he had to send Samuel to the other end of the
property to take her here, he’d do it. He needed to…it felt as if he needed to
claim her.

“It can wait. I only made some stew to
eat and some of those biscuits that you like. You need some time to settle Miss
Joey in, I guess.”

Jesse nodded. Yes, he did. He bent down
and took her mouth quickly then picked her up. He needed to get her upstairs
and into his bed before he embarrassed them both. He was nearly up the stairs
when he thought of the ring in his pocket. Jesse smiled when he thought of a
way to get her to say yes and he slipped the tiny ring over his little finger.

“You’re going to hurt your back. Put me
down before I fall on you.” He looked at her mouth without understanding what
she was saying. “Jesse, are you listening to me?”

“No. I’m too busy trying to figure out
how to have you naked before I get us up the stairs so that I can slide into
your heat before you’re settled in the bed.” She snapped her mouth closed. “Then
there is the added dilemma of trying to figure out if I want to eat your pussy
before I come deep inside of you, or to fuck you until you come then drink from
you. Which do you prefer?”

His cock ached and, when she moaned, he
had to stop walking. He suddenly had no blood above his waist. Pulling her
closer, he took her mouth and knew that he’d hurt her. The small taste of blood
only seemed to fuel his need for her.

He was five feet from the door and he
knew they weren’t going to make it. Pressing her against the wall without
breaking from her mouth he pulled at her shirt. She was tugging as his own
buttons as he buried his hands in the back of her pants and cupped her hot ass
in his hands.