All Jacked Up (Rough Riders #8)(86)

“Does that moniker bother you?”


“Not anymore. It’s not who I am. I did what I did. Reap what you sow, blah blah blah. Some of it was stupid, but nothin’ worse than anything anyone else my age was doing.” She laughed. “There were bets I’d be pregnant by a cowboy and married by seventeen, divorced by nineteen, remarried to another cowboy by twenty-one. I’d squeeze out a couple more kids, end up divorced again, and about the time I turned twenty-five, I’d settle down with a local rancher my parents approved of. Of course, no one knows the ins and outs of our family line of ranch succession. Even if I do marry a rancher, he’d better have his own spread because he won’t get an inch of McKay land.”


“Not even if he’s married to a McKay?”


“Nope. All male succession, remember? So the direct descendants, my dad and uncles, had to legally change everything so the ranch stays a patriarchal line after I was born.”


“So you get nothing?” Jack demanded.


“I got everything,” she said quietly. “I got to grow up on the most beautiful place on earth surrounded by all the people I love. I still can traverse any part of McKay land any time I want. But as far as me ever getting controlling interest in the McKay Ranch? Won’t happen.” Keely shivered because the water was getting cold. “So I always wondered if the cowboys were sniffing around me because the biggest part of my feminine appeal was my connection to the McKay land.”


Jack set his beer bottle aside and curled his hand around her jaw, forcing her to look at him. “Rest assured. Your appeal is not due to your family name or some piece of Wyoming dirt.”


“Really?”


“Really. It’s you, cowgirl. Plain and simple. And I’m not after your land.”


“What are you after, Jack?” Please say my heart.


“This.” Jack kissed her. “And this.” A deeper kiss with a lingering caress down the center of her body.


“And especially this.” His hand floated back up to circle her breasts.


The more he kissed her the more difficult the connection was to maintain. Jack flipped her to face him, splashing water up the wall and over the rim of the tub. He straddled her across his lap and wrapped her legs around his waist. Slick skin against slick skin. Mouth on mouth. The kisses were long. Slow. Wet.


Endless. And perfect. This man knew just how to touch her. Knew how to read all sides of her.


Jack unclipped her hair and combed his fingers through the strands, letting the ends drift on the water.


“Don’t ever cut your hair. It’s beautiful.”



“Same goes.” She fingered the wet tips of his hair. “I love that you wear it a little long. It’s very bad boy sexy for such a suit and tie wearing professional.”


“Then long it stays.” His hungry lips slipped down her wet neck as he sipped the water from her skin.


“Keely. I need you. I needed you last night, but I…”


“I’d never say no to you, Jack.”


“I know that. You don’t say no to me even when you should.” More sweet kisses. More scorching kisses. More sweeping touches. More urgency. Jack said, “Lift up.”


Keely gripped the edges of the tub and raised her body. She lowered onto his shaft bit by bit, dragging out the mutual pleasure until his male hardness filled her. When they were locked together, body to body, soul to soul, breathing the same humid air, everything seemed right.


It was rare for her to gaze into Jack’s face from a higher vantage point. She couldn’t stop the awed,


“Damn, GQ. You are one beautiful man.”


His hand shook as he pushed damp tendrils from her cheek. “Not like you, Keely. You undo me.


Every time I look at you.”


“Show me.” She smoothed her hands over his neck and strong shoulders as she moved on him. Held him. Watched him. Wished he felt as…completed with her as she did with him.


Water sloshed everywhere as they rocked together. Came together.


After they’d dried off and slipped between the sheets, Keely understood this really was the end.


Early the next morning, they were subdued as their parting of ways loomed.


Jack helped Keely load her packages and luggage into her truck. Saying goodbye in the parking garage seemed anticlimactic after all they’d been through. Especially since they’d reached for each other twice during the night, not knowing who’d made the first move, not caring, just rejoicing in every touch.


“Come here,” Jack said gruffly.


Keely walked straight into his arms without hesitation.


“Drive safe.”


“I will.”


“Good.” Jack kissed the top of her head. “I’ll call you after I get to—”


“No.”


“What?”


She shook her head and buried her face in his neck, inhaling the dark, familiar scent, wondering if it’d be the last time she’d ever be this close to him. “Don’t call me.”


“Why not? You don’t mean that.”