All Jacked Up (Rough Riders #8)(32)

Justin belligerently folded his arms over his chest. “You must’ve worked some serious magic on her because Keely hated you, Jack. She called you—”


“Every name in the book, I know. We laugh about it now, actually. Sometimes Keely even uses it as a term of endearment.” He smiled and gave his mother a one-armed hug. “Speaking of…I need to have a word with my soon-to-be blushing bride.”


Jack felt Justin’s glare singeing his hair as he wandered toward Keely surrounded by her friends. Too bad, bro. You f*cked up. She’s mine now. He hovered on the outskirts of the circle, waiting for his beloved to acknowledge him.


She didn’t.


So Jack set his chin on her shoulder and palmed her hips, trying not to be distracted by that damned lilac scent. “Hey, baby.”


Keely immediately stiffened up.


Everyone in the group noticed. He half-chided, “Relax. I won’t tickle you in front of your friends.” He dropped his voice. “All my favorite ticklish spots are strictly between us.”


Muffled laughter.


“Anyway, can you all excuse us? I need to steal her away for a minute.”


Murmured assent followed. And miracle of miracles, Keely didn’t argue.


Jack clasped her hand and towed her behind him.


Halfway down the empty hallway, Keely jerked out of his hold. She put her hands on her hips.


“What’s so all-fired important you had to drag me away?”


“Where in the hell do you get off telling my mother, for Christsake, that we’re going to start a family—a big family—right after the wedding bells stop pealing?”


Her mouth curled in an impish smile. “I was cementing our cover, Jack. I thought you’d be happy.”


He got right in her face. “Nothing about this situation is making me happy, Keely. Especially not every goddamn one of your brothers threatening to gut me— gut me! —like some redneck code of vengeance if I do anything to hurt poor little ol’ you.”


“Then you’d better make me happy, huh?” she said sweetly.


Jack crowded her against the wall, bracing his hands on either side of her head. “Try again.”


“What do you expect me to say? I have no control over my brothers.” Keely drilled him in the chest with her index finger. “And speaking of… Since when does your brother get to act all, ‘You’re the best thing that ever happened to me, baby’, when that stupid * dumped me?”


“Fuck if I know. I have no control over my brother either.”


They glared at each other.


“If you have nothing else to chew my ass about, let me go.”


“Not a chance, buttercup.” He searched her eyes. No teasing warmth. Just cool appraisal. “Why are you being like this?”


“Like what? Business-like? Isn’t that how you wanted it between us in private? You turn the charm on and off with me whenever it suits you. Why can’t I do the same to you?”


“Because even though this engagement is fake, you’re not, Keely. I don’t want you to become like me.”


Her eyes shot daggers at him. “God, you piss me off.”


“Why? What did I say?” Hell, he thought what he’d said made sense. He’d been honest with her for a change.


“Just when I want to punch you in the kidney for bein’ a total jackass, you show me a part of you that ain’t half-bad.”


Jack’s heart sped up. “Which part?”


“That part. The real, sweet, sincere side of you. You didn’t toss off a sexual comment like ‘I’ll show you the best part of me, baby’. You act as if this is more than us cementing our cover. You act like you care about me.”


“I do care about you, Keely. More than I should.” Jack brushed a damp tendril of her glossy hair behind her ear, letting his finger trace her perfect, beautifully shaped jawline.



With his every inhalation, Keely’s scent teased him. Warm. Flowery. Womanly. He leaned closer, drawing in a deeper breath. When their gazes clashed and Jack saw raw desire swimming in the amazing blueness of her eyes, he stopped fighting the inevitable. He framed her face in his shaking hands and said,


“Fuck it,” before he smothered her mouth with a blistering kiss.


Chapter Eight


She was kissing Jack Donohue. Kissing him like crazy. Kissing him like she’d fantasized about after he’d kissed her so thoroughly at Colt and India’s wedding reception.


It was so much better when they were both sober.


Keely slid her hands beneath his suit coat up his muscular back. Oh man. Such a hard-toned body.


Such an insistent mouth. The hint of cologne on his heated skin wafted up from his open-collar shirt.


Drugged. She felt utterly drugged by his masculine scent and the sheer power of his body pressed to hers.


Jack wouldn’t let their lips part for more than a second before he dove back in for another mind-blowing kiss. His tongue was hot velvet and smooth as whiskey as it glided and stroked and teased. He seduced her, reduced her to a trembling mass of need with just the power of his avid mouth.