Cowgirls Don't Cry(105)

“Will your dad be there?”


Brandt rolled his eyes. “What do you think?”


“I think you’ve already broken two of my original stipulations,” she muttered.

And the morning had been going so well.

Jessie sighed. “Fine. Am I supposed to buy a gift for your mom?”


“No. Why?”


“Don’t you guys open presents on Christmas Day?”


“Yeah, but we don’t give each other gifts.”


“Why not?”


“To be honest, we never really did.”


She frowned. “But the year I was there, you guys exchanged gifts.”


“With you,” he pointed out. “Not with each other. Luke told us we’d better get you something since you intended to give each of us a gift. Luke wanted to pretend, for your sake, that we had the same type of normal Christmas everyone else did.”


“You didn’t celebrate Christmas at all? Ever?”


“We must’ve for a while when we were kids. I think Luke broke the news to Dalton that Santa wasn’t real when Dalton was around five. Dalton asked Dad if it was true and that was the end of presents on Christmas morning.”


Jessie turned back toward the sink. “That’s sad. Now I really don’t want to go.”


“But my mom loved it the year you were there. Gave her an excuse to put up a tree and do the holiday stuff she hadn’t done in years.”


“And gave your father another reason to resent me. Which is all the more reason to be thankful, I guess.” She sighed and sank her hands all the way into the dishwater.

“Thankful for what?”


“Thankful I didn’t end up like your mom, because God knows I was headed that direction. Luke McKay’s mouse-like wife who wouldn’t rock the boat even if it was about to go sail a waterfall.”


“I never saw you that way, Jess.”


“You’re the only one.”


Brandt curled his hands around her hips and bent his head to taste that sweet section of skin below her ear. “As far as I’m concerned, I’m the only one who matters.”


She murmured, “Brandt,” but she didn’t attempt to pull away.

“So…” His lips moved up to nibble on her earlobe, “Landon is napping. Wanna get nekkid and wild?”


“Maybe when I finish the dishes.”


He growled, “That’s it,” and yanked her hands out of the water, spinning her to face him. “I haven’t been paying enough attention to you if you’d rather do the dishes than do me.”


Jessie laughed. “I am feeling neglected. We only had sex once yesterday.”


“Couch.” He kissed her hard. “Now.”


A trail of clothes littered the floor from the kitchen to where they were naked on the couch.

Brandt was ready to be inside her the instant his bare ass hit the cushion and he had a naked, wiggling Jessie on his lap. But he forced himself to slow down. To take the time to marvel that this gorgeous, sexy, spontaneous woman wanted him. That she was his.

But for how long?

Forever, if he had his way, but he knew Jessie wasn’t ready to hear that from him yet. He didn’t believe if it came right down to it she’d walk away from him and Landon, no matter what she said.

Focus on the nekkid woman in front of you, man.