Only You (4 page)

“Did you have her for a long time?”

“Five years.”

“You outgrew her?”

She shrugged and looked back out the side window. “Sort of. I didn’t win many competitions, and my parents thought owning a horse was a waste of time after a while. How about you? Where did you grow up?”

“Cheyenne. But I had to come here to ride. My dad was a vet who specialized in small animals. We had lots of dogs and cats around, and even a skunk once.”

“Sounds like a fun household. Do you have many siblings?”

“Just Ethan. Our parents died five years ago in a freak camping accident. First camping trip of the year in their trailer, and there was a propane leak. They never woke up.”

She touched his arm. “That’s horrible.”

“Yeah.” He pulled up to the barn and killed the motor. “It was a real shocker. Then Uncle Charlie died a few months later. Now it’s just me and Ethan.” He leaned his arm on the steering wheel and studied her across the cab. “How about you?”

“I was adopted. So, yeah, I have my adopted parents and brother.”

“I’m not getting the warm fuzzies here, Maggie.”

“They’re high achievers.” She used her fingers to mimic quotation marks around the words. “And they care about many things that I do not. My biological parent, or parents, created a trust fund for me, so I’ve always gone my own way. Or as soon as the law said I could. I’m afraid I’m a big disappointment to the Kennedys.”

“Who are your biological parents?”

“I don’t know. It was a private adoption.” Maggie quickly changed subjects. “I assume you brought me here to show me a horse?”

His smile slowly spread across his face. “Feeling a little cranky, are we?”

“A lot cranky. I don’t like my adopted family, and they don’t like me. Now, can we talk about something else?”

He opened his door and stepped out of the truck. “I don’t like them already. Come on. I gotta see a man about a horse.”

She laughed and slipped out of the truck, escaping the shadows of her childhood. “You’ve been waiting to say that, haven’t you?”

“Guilty as charged.” He took her elbow again, and they walked into the dim interior of the barn. She inhaled the sweet smell of horses and leather. 

“How many horses do you have?”

“Eight at the moment. Here you go.” He halted at the door to an extra-wide stall. “Meet Lulu.”

“She’s so tall! What is she, a quarter horse?”

“Yup.”

“Can I go in with her?”

“Help yourself. I need someone to ride her. Sammie’s a little shy of her because Lulu’s so big. And Dave’s too busy most days.”

“Hey, you.” She ran her hand down Lulu’s velvety nose and received a soft snort in return. “And you figured pass her off to the Amazon woman.”

JD leaned his shoulder against the opening of the stall, watched her run her hands over the curve of Lulu’s back. “I figured you could hold on tight with those gorgeous, long legs of yours.”

“Are you sweet-talking me, cowboy?”

He laughed. “Guess I am. Is it working?”

“I’d love to take her for a ride. Anything I should know about her?”

“Far as I can see, she’s pretty straightforward. Doesn’t have any tricks that I know of.”

“I’m a little rusty. I haven’t been on a horse for a few years, but if you like, I’ll take her out tomorrow morning.” She was surprised at how excited she felt about going riding. Why had she let her family take that pleasure away from her?

JD held the stall door open for her. “You have to let me or Dave know when you’re going for a ride and where you’re going. And for the first few days, you should stick close to the ranch. I don’t want you getting lost.”

“Fine.” She patted Lulu one more time and left the stall. It was always easiest to agree with someone, and then do what she wanted. Not that she disagreed with him. What he said about sticking close for a few days made sense. Too much sense. JD was the kind of man who took care of people. Especially his own child, if he had one. Double dang! Could she have his baby, and not tell him?

“Why do I feel that was too easy?” he asked as she walked away from him to look at the other horses.

“What?”

“You agreeing to my rules.”

“I thought they were suggestions.”

He caught up to her and pulled her around to face him. “Maggie.” Her name sounded like a warning.

She was too aware of his size and how close they stood. Beneath the smell of horse and hay and leather, she smelled the rich, musky scent of his soap. It was suddenly too much for her.
He
was too much. Why did he have to be so nice?

“If you don’t mind, I’ll leave my car at your house and pick it up tomorrow.”

Interesting. For a moment she thought he looked disappointed. She may be blowing her only chance of having sex with him, but she needed to slow everything down. She liked JD. A lot. And she could see that he wasn’t the kind of man who would take having a child lightly. She rubbed her forehead. Why was she even considering what kind of father JD would be? The plan was for
her
to be a mother. A
single
mother. What he thought or didn’t think about kids wasn’t part of the equation.

“Are you okay?” He touched her again. Just on the arm, but she noticed he touched her a lot.

“I’m probably hungry. I haven’t had supper yet.”

“I haven’t, either. If you like, I’ll run you into town. There’s a café that serves good, homemade food. A friend owns it.”

Friend. As in . . . ? None of her business. “I’m not that hungry,” she said.

“Well, I am, and I hate to eat alone. And I know Arnie’s going to love meeting you.”

“Arnie?”

He grinned. Apparently, he thought she was hilarious. “My friend who owns the café.”

Oh, ho ho
. So he assumed she didn’t want to go because she thought his friend was female. And he was partially right, but she’d be damned if she let on she’d felt a tiny stab of jealousy. Because it didn’t make sense for her to feel anything at all when it came to JD. Except lust. She felt that in spades, and it was beginning to dawn on her that maybe he felt the same way. He certainly didn’t appear to be in a hurry to dump her now. Maybe they’d go back to his place for dessert after eating at the café.

With all these
feelings
flying around, she needed to get the deed done and get out of Dodge. Being attracted to someone wasn’t part of the deal. She just wanted to bed the man. Surely, she could manage that without screwing up.

“Fine. Let’s go in my car. I feel like driving.”

She bit back a laugh as she strode over to the truck and waited for him to catch up. It wasn’t hard to imagine how much JD would hate driving in a shocking-pink car, even if it was a Porsche. But it felt good to exert some control, because honestly? She was hanging on by her fingertips. She feared he could derail her plans in a heartbeat.

JD pulled his cowboy hat lower on his head as he settled into the low-slung seat beside Maggie. He was in for a lot of ribbing once they arrived in Cooper Creek. He hadn’t grown up in the small village that sat a few miles east of Jackson Hole, but over the years he’d met most of the town folk, and if there was one thing he knew about the locals, they liked a good laugh. Especially at someone else’s expense. Seeing him folded into this ridiculous pink car would give them fodder for months to come.

“Nice car,” he said as he maneuvered his legs in the cramped space in front of him. His knees practically came up to his chin. Wasn’t he the biggest goddamn fool who ever lived? He swore if Maggie had said
Jump over the moon
, he’d try his best to please her.

He glanced at her profile. He’d never met anyone like her before. As far as he could understand, she wanted to have sex with him. Not a relationship. Just sex. Was that some kind of cosmic joke? A beautiful, vibrant woman strolled into his house with a chocolate cake and said she wanted to have sex with him. She’d given him an instant hard-on, and it had been years since that had happened. Not the hard-on, but the immediacy. The urgency. He was starting to get hard right now, imagining those incredible long legs wrapped around him.

What was he doing taking her to Arnie’s, for chrissakes?

“You’re awfully quiet.” Maggie glanced over at him.

“I’m rethinking my options.”

“Meaning?”

“Meaning I think we should go back to my place.”

She stomped on the brake, and the car skidded to a stop. “Right now?”

“Yeah.” His nerves jangled so much, he wondered if he was glowing in the dark. “No. Damn it. Hang on a sec.”

He reached for her and pulled her toward him. His breathing eased when he pressed his mouth against hers. She tasted sweet and mysterious at the same time. He slid his tongue along her lips and inhaled her breath. He’d inhale all of her if he could. Her lips were so soft. And eager. As greedy as his. It had been so long. He’d dated women since his divorce, had even tried to take the relationships to the next level, but no one had come close to making him feel like this.

If he didn’t take her right now, he’d explode.

He pulled away. Welcomed the cool night air that washed over him. She’d pulled his shirt out of his jeans, and he sucked in a breath as her hands explored his stomach.

“We can’t—”

“Yes, we can.” She tried climbing over the stick shift to get to him.

He laughed and caught her hands. “No, baby. Not here in the middle of town. Let’s go home.”

Home.
She really was driving him crazy. He’d never called the house home before. It had always been “the house.”

“You’re right. I guess.” She pulled her hands through her hair and looked around and laughed. She started the engine and turned the car around and gunned it back to his house. “Talk to me. Talk to me about anything but sex, or I swear we won’t make it back.”

He put his hand on the back of her neck. He needed to feel her warm skin under his fingers. Needed to feel her pulse throbbing with excitement. To get her out of her clothes and lay her on his mattress. He didn’t even have a proper bed, for God’s sake. Just a thousand dollar mattress on the floor. What was wrong with him? He was squatting in his own home.

“Why is the car pink?” He pulled the question out of the air. He didn’t want to think about why he lived the way he did. All he wanted was Maggie’s warm, silken skin against him. He wanted to be inside her. Deep inside her. Over and over again.

“My ex wanted the car as part of the divorce settlement. I bought it for him as a wedding present.”

“And?”

She shrugged. “He’s cheap, and I knew if I painted the car pink and made the seats and everything inside pink, he’d never spend the money to change it back.”

“He must have hurt you a lot.”

She downshifted as they flew up the last grade. “He got what I wanted the most, so I thought it only fair that I got something he wanted.”

“What is it you wanted?” He knew he shouldn’t ask. It was far too personal and didn’t have anything to do with him and Maggie. He wanted to keep things light with her. Not get too involved. Maggie wasn’t going to be here for long. He might not be, either, but then again, he might.

She parked the car and smiled sadly at him as they sat in the dark listening to the ticking of the engine cooling. “It doesn’t matter anymore. What
does
matter is whether I’m going to get what I want tonight.”  

“That I can deliver on.” He reached for her and helped her climb over the stick shift and into his lap. He hit his elbow on the door, trying to get her shirt open. Thank God for snaps. He sighed into her mouth as he filled his hands with her generous breasts.

He could stay right here, forever, with Maggie and her gorgeous velvet mouth and beautiful breasts. He flicked a thumb over her nipple, and she groaned a deep, seductive sound that arrowed right into his gut. Crazy Maggie. She was intoxicating and exotic, and he was going to lose it right here in the car if she didn’t stop rubbing herself against him. When her hands slid over his stomach and fumbled with his belt, he pulled away long enough to utter, “House,” his need primal and volcanic. He shoved against the car door with his shoulder.

They tumbled out of the car together, Maggie laughing, wrapping herself around him. “Want to bet if we make it inside or not?”

“Inside would be good. All bets are off about getting upstairs.” He rammed the door to the house open with his shoulder and pulled her inside with him, then spun them around and held her up against the wall. He knew he should slow down. For sure he shouldn’t be tearing her clothes off. Maggie deserved better. She deserved to be worshipped, but her equally eager hands fueled the energy that pulsed through him. She stripped his jacket off and immediately pushed his T-shirt up until he raised his arms and let her rip it off. He surprised both of them with a growl when she undid his belt buckle. “God, Maggie. You’re driving me crazy. You’re so hot. We should slow down. I’m afraid I’m going to hurt you.”

She shoved his jeans and underwear down and cupped him, her mouth curling into a smile. “We’ll slow down later. Right now I want you.”

There was an offer he wasn’t going to turn down. They both worked at her jeans, and he took a brief second to admire her pink panties before whisking them off. His legs trembled when she rubbed one long leg up and down his thigh.