Wrangled and Tangled (16 page)

“I’m fine.” She danced a little jig to prove it. “See?”

“Just be careful and watchful. I don’t want nothin’ bad happening to you.”

Because his concern flustered her, and comforted her, she fiddled with the top button on his shearling coat when she asked the question that was on both their minds. “What does me living with you again mean for us?”

Abe tilted her face up and looked into her eyes. He brushed his lips over hers. “It means we’re not done. We never were. See you later, cupcake.”

And Janie’s day just got weirder from there.

Tierney waltzed in sporting a sexy new hairstyle.

Renner showed up late, in a lousy mood, which Janie attributed . . . to Tierney’s new rockin’ hairstyle for some odd reason.

Lisa, hired to clean rooms and fill in as needed, broke a stack of plates. Twenty custom ordered, gold-rimmed dinner plates, smashed to smithereens at Janie’s feet. When Lisa had burst into tears, Janie assured her she wouldn’t dock her paycheck for the breakage. Which somehow opened Lisa’s conduit to God. The woman almost started speaking in tongues—she freaked Janie out.

Two reservations were cancelled.

Willie kept mumbling about bad spirits.

Her computer froze up. Twice.

Her cell phone died even when it’d been fully charged when she’d left the house.

Then Renner demanded she stay late to serve as hostess for the guests, after she’d spent the day catching up on all the work that’d piled up.

Luckily Harper had stayed late too so Janie didn’t have to call Abe for a ride home. But Harper was distracted or pissed off—Janie never could tell with her—and she barely said two words to her on the trip home to the Lawson ranch.

Janie paused on the porch steps and dug out the house key Abe had given her. First thing she’d do after kicking off the four-inch heels murdering her arches? Pour herself a generous drink.

Shoes off, coat off, she padded from the entryway into the silent living room. Abe brooded on the sofa, holding a lowball glass filled with amber-colored liquid.

“Looks like your day went like mine. I’m desperate for a stiff one myself.” In the kitchen she spied a bottle of bourbon on the counter and reached into the china hutch for a glass. When she turned around, Abe was there, right there, crowding her against the wall. “Abe? What are you doing?”

“Where in the hell have you been?”

“At work. I had no choice but to stay late. I’m sorry. I know I should’ve called, but—”

“Damn right you should’ve called. Especially after all that’s been goin’ on. I tried your cell and you didn’t answer. I tried the resort but no one answered. The only thing that stopped me from racing there straightaway and ripping the place apart lookin’ for you, was that Bran called as I was on my way out the door and mentioned Harper was giving you a ride home.” He rested his forehead to hers and sighed heavily. “You have no idea how crazy it makes me to imagine you hurt again. No fuckin’ idea what it was like for me to see you in that wreck. And then to see you scraped up, bloody and bruised. It rips me apart.”

“Abe—”

“Ssh. Just let me . . . calm down.”

But when he lifted his head and looked at her, he didn’t look calm at all. His worry had been replaced by hunger. Immediately her mouth went bone dry from the lust raging in Abe. His eyes. His body. Even his sinful mouth was primed.

“I’m sorry.”

“I know you are. I also know how you can make it up to me.”

“Oh no,” she breathed, when she really meant
oh please, yes please, right now.

“Oh yes.” He put his lips by her ear. “And listen to you, askin’ me so nicely.”

Holy crap. She’d said that out loud?

Abe pried the empty glass from her death grip and set it aside. Then he slapped his hands on the wall by her head. “Isn’t it fortunate that in making it up to me, you’ll get the stiff one you wanted?”

Her response was lost as Abe’s mouth crashed down on hers in a ferocious kiss.

He’d been waiting months—no, years—for this. Sweet, delectable Janie pressed against him. He’d given her no chance to overthink the situation. None of that “can I touch you” bullshit that defined their married sex life. He’d have her. And he’d have her now.

Not that Janie was protesting.

Abe thrust his tongue between her parted lips, forcing her mouth open to accept more of his ravenous kiss. The way she kissed him back was familiar . . . yet new. A potent combination that kicked his need up another level.

His lips slid across the plump moistness of hers, as he changed the angle of his head. Her hands yanked his hips closer and she moaned greedy noises that reverberated straight to his dick.

Abe kept his hands on the wall. Letting the heat and the need between them build.

But Janie had other ideas. She broke the seal of her lips to scatter kisses down his throat to where her fingers fumbled with the buttons on his shirt. “Abe. Please. Touch me.”

He whispered kisses over her jaw. “You oughta know I’m not interested in foreplay.”

That admission seemed to send a shudder through her. “Oh, God, me neither.”

“I want it hard. Fast. And now.”

She moaned. “Yes.”

He stepped back. “Ditch your nylons.”

Her shaking hands rolled up her skirt. She peeled the nylons down her legs and kicked them off.

When she looked at him, her purple irises glazed with lust, Abe covered her mouth with his. Clamping his hands on her ass, he lifted her, turned, and placed her on the counter.

She gasped, “Oh wow, that is cold on my butt.”

“Friction will warm it right up.” Unbuckled, unbuttoned and unzipped, he reached for a condom before he dropped his Wranglers.

She stared at his cock as he rolled on the condom. “This isn’t a dream? It’s really happening? You’re gonna fuck me right here in the kitchen?”

“Yep.” He palmed her hips and said, “C’mere,” tugging her closer.

Her fingernails scored the back of his neck when she pulled him down for an openmouthed kiss. Abe’s thumb traced the wet seam of her sex before he aligned his cock to the opening and eased just the head in. Slamming home on the first stroke wasn’t an option, no matter how tempting. Janie was small and he . . . well, he wasn’t small.

She stiffened slightly as he pushed inside.

He teased her clit, keeping his left hand spread across her lower back, slowly urging her forward. Her shirt was blocking access to the warm softness of her skin. As soon as he was fully seated inside her, he murmured, “Lose the shirt.”

Janie lifted the formfitting sweater over her head. Her bra was a black push-up number that highlighted her curves. He groaned, pressing his mouth to the mounded flesh.

She released a throaty sigh and arched into him. “This day is getting better. Oh yeah, tons better. Do that again. Harder.”

“Been waiting a long time to hear you say that.”

Each thrust picked up speed to the point any finesse he’d planned had vanished. His mouth cruised over every dip and hollow of her throat. Tasting. Teasing. Remembering. Wanting her as absorbed in the moment as he. A moment he’d been waiting for, for eight long years.

Her breath came in short puffs of air and her belly tensed against his. That sexy purr started and her thighs squeezed his hips as she gasped and came undone.

Janie’s orgasm unleashed his. A wash of white-hot pleasure that made his eyes roll back in his head with each body-shaking pulse. Spent, he dropped his head on her smooth shoulder. “Damn. Guess we’ll call that one the speed round.”

She nuzzled his ear. “What’s the next round called?”

Pecking her quickly on the mouth, he withdrew and ditched his clothes completely. Then he slid his hands around her hips, warning, “Hold on,” and carried her out of the kitchen.

“Abe!”

She seemed surprised he entered the bathroom, not his bedroom. He set her on her feet, gesturing to her bra and skirt. “This is the water round. So take ’em off unless you want them wet.” After tossing the condom, he turned and Janie was naked. “Such a petite package. You still pack a powerful punch for me, cupcake.”

Janie smirked.

Cranking the shower on, he slid the glass door open. “Beautiful, sexy ladies first.”

“Flattery?
After
you’ve already fucked me? You have changed.” As she stepped into the tub, he smacked her luscious ass and followed her inside the enclosure.

He squirted shampoo into his hand and scrubbed his hair. When he faced the showerhead to rinse, she plastered her slick body against his. Her hands flowed with the soapy water down his chest and abdomen. Circling his cock. Goose bumps followed in the wake of her questing fingers.

She whispered, “This big, buff body of yours still bowls me over.”

Abe turned, dragging kisses down her chest. Feasting on her nipples until she thrashed and cried out. Yep. She still loved nipple play. He lapped the water from her skin as he lowered to his knees. Arcing his mouth across the delicate sweep of skin of her lower belly, he lifted her left foot and set it on the lip of the tub. Oh hell yeah. That gave him total access to the sweet and tasty flesh between her thighs.

The first swipe of his tongue across her slit had them both groaning. But one lick wasn’t enough and he settled in to take as much of her in his mouth as possible. He growled every time he elicited a gasp. A moan. A whimper. A plea. His thumbs opened her cunt like a flower and he burrowed his tongue deep, licking away every drop of her sweet juice. Over and over.

“Abe. Are you testing the strength of my knees? Because they’re about to give out.”

He pulled the soft skin of her mound away from that pouting pearl. “Hold it like this. I wanna see every inch.”

Janie’s hands shook as they replaced his. Her plump bottom lip was trapped between her teeth. Her cheeks were damp from the steam. He plunged his thumb into her channel the same time he suctioned his mouth to her clit. Sucking ruthlessly, sliding his thumb up to where his mouth worked her and back down into the opening of her sex.

She moaned his name, her body trembling as her clit pulsed beneath his dancing tongue.

He loved this part. Loved to feel every intimate muscle pull tight as she unraveled against his mouth. Her knees did start to give out and he laughed as he caught her. Then he licked the moisture from her skin on his way back up to her ear. “Turn around. Brace your hands on the wall.”

She made a murmur of assent.

Abe was so ready for her, so damn hard, that as soon as she waggled her ass at him, he slipped inside her to the hilt.

Her head fell back. “God. That’s so good.”

“Damn straight.”

Slapping sounds of skin on skin surrounded them. He kept hold of her hips, focusing on the visual of his cock disappearing into her body as he tried to stave off his orgasm.

His balls drew up and he rammed into her harder, the slick heat of her flesh gliding on his. Had it ever felt this good?

Then it hit him why it felt so great.

“Shit. No condom.”

“But—”

“I can’t stop,” Abe panted and pulled out. He stroked his shaft against the cleft of her ass. He was about to blow—then heat shot up his cock and he groaned as he shot his seed all over her back.