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 br**sts.
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.”
“Yes, I do.”
“Keely—”
“I need to wean myself from you, Jack.”
A bewildered pause. “Why?”
“I’ve gotten too used to having you around. In my bed. In my life. We knew this wasn’t permanent.
Dragging this out will just be harder for both of us.”
“I’m just supposed to do what? Walk away from you?”
“Yes.”
“Think about what you’re saying, buttercup.”
“I have. I am. Go back to thinking of me as a client. Better yet, don’t think of me at all. Just…go back to hating me.”
Jack was silent as his hand stroked the back of her head, over and over, with such gentleness she couldn’t stop from melting into him.
Keely whispered, “Be safe. I’ll see you on the jobsite in a couple of weeks.” She kissed the hollow of his throat and turned away without meeting his gaze.
Or without looking back in her rearview mirror as she headed home to Wyoming where she belonged.
Chapter Twenty
Three weeks later…
“Aunt Keely, how come you’re so sad?”
She forced herself to answer Liesl with a half-truth. “I’m not sad. Just tired. And thinking about—”
“Uncle Jack?”
Keely froze. Uncle Jack. Man. That sounded weird. And yet, not weird at all. She managed a smile for her inquisitive niece. “No. I’m thinking about how long it’s been since we’ve had a girl’s night. You, Eliza and me. We could paint our fingernails, watch Hannah Montana now that I have cable. Eat Oreos and have burping contests. Whaddya say?”
“All right! But I still think you’re sad. I think Uncle Jack needs to come home and kiss you because that always makes you happy.”
“Liesl. Leave Aunt Keely alone,” Domini said. “Take Oxsana outside with you and go play with your brothers.”
“But I don’t wanna go—”
Domini pointed to the sliding glass door. “Fresh air, girls. Now.”
Liesl sighed and grabbed Oxsana’s hand. “Mommy said we should make mud pies.”
As soon as the door closed, Keely grinned. “She’s gonna give you guys fits when she hits her teens.”
“I know. Cam is already nervous.” Liesl smacked her floured hands into a glob of dough on the counter. “But is my intuitive daughter right? Are you sad because you’re missing Jack?”
“I do miss him. What sucks is that’s part of his job and he’ll always be gone.” She scowled. “Or I’ll have to go with him, which will be damn near impossible once the clinic is up and running.”
Jack had called from wherever the hell he was late last night. She’d fumbled with the phone and cursed at the dead air, until Jack’s voice, barely audible, rasped, “Can’t believe I missed you swearing at me, cowgirl.” Then he’d hung up. Or maybe she’d dreamed the whole damn thing.