Reading Online Novel

One Good Man(27)



“That, but mostly because I like you.”

She felt her heart beating harder, and she turned away to look at the view. Hope was hard for her. She didn’t know what to do with it, how to respond without giving too much of herself away. He might like her, but he might not be ready for the things she was feeling.

And really—she needed to find out first how ready she was herself. “How often do you spend time out here?”

“You like it?”

“What’s not to like? I can smell more than vomit and antiseptic. I can hear more than crying babies and excuses from insurance companies for not paying claims.”

“I thought you enjoyed your job.”

She nodded, cradled her cup in both hands and lifted it to her mouth. “I do. But this is the first time in all the years I’ve worked there that I’ve taken a break.”

Kell moved to stand beside her, leaning a hip against the porch railing. “You’re either extremely dedicated or insane. All work and no play makes Jamie a—”

“A woman who’s figured out that staying busy is the best way to live in the moment,” she said. “Instead of…”

“Instead of dwelling on the past,” he finished for her.

Bringing her history to this idyllic place had not been her intent, but the words had slipped out before she could stop them. “Yes. And I’m sorry for bringing it up.”

“We’re here because of your past. We’re together because of your past.”

Were they together? Or were they both just here? She glanced at him, found him studying her intently, his eyes gravely serious over the rim of his cup. She wanted to look away. She didn’t want him to see the things she was thinking. She didn’t want to let slip words he wasn’t ready to hear.

And so she started to turn, to focus on her coffee and the scrub brush and stunted trees struggling to stay alive beyond Kell’s clearing. He reached for her drink, took it from her hand, set her cup and his on the table between the two porch rockers behind them. Then he reached for her.

He moved her to face him, his hands on her waist, and lifted her to sit on the railing. She draped her wrists over his shoulders, hooked her heels around his thighs and held on as he came to stand between her spread legs.

His expression was that of a lover, compassionate, involved, present. His words ones she needed desperately to hear. “I can deal with your past, Jamie. It’s not going to scare me away.”

Did he know she’d thought that it might? “You’re a Texas Ranger, Kell. I think not running away from a crime is part of your job description.”

He shook his head. “That’s not what I’m talking about. And I’m pretty sure you know it.”

She did. That was the thing that scared her. “I’m trying not to read anything into anything. I’d rather rely on what I know is real.”

“Then let me show you what’s real,” he said, and lowered his mouth to hers.

He tasted like coffee. Sugar and cream and beans grown on an Indonesian hillside. And he tasted like Kell, smelled like Kell. She’d come to know his scent and his taste. He was so familiar already. She knew his movements, too, the insistent thrust of his tongue juxtaposed with the tentative request for entry.

She brought him closer with her heels, her hands, her longing. Beneath the cotton of her camisole, her breasts tightened. Beneath her khaki shorts, her sex grew damp. His kiss did this to her. Made her body ache, weep, want. And kissing him back nearly broke her heart. How would she ever in her lifetime get enough of him?

Needing space, time…sanity, she pulled away, dropped her head onto her shoulders and closed her eyes. Kell was quiet; she knew he was watching her, knew he could see the buttons of her nipples pressing into the fabric of her top. She wanted him to see, wanted him to know. Wanted him to want her, to crave the way she did.

Holding her waist with one hand, he skated his knuckles over her breasts, the peaks, the swells, one side then the other. When she grew dizzy, wobbling, her head spinning, her equilibrium lost in lust, he helped her ease down from the railing. But he was too late.

She’d already fallen for him hard. That’s why she wondered if she wasn’t hearing things when he told her, “Let’s get out of our clothes…and go for a swim.”





17



THE WATER in the spring-fed pond on Kell’s property measured close to seventy-five degrees Fahrenheit year-round, making it possible to go for a cooling swim in the summer, or a dip to warm up during the months when the air and the ground were freezing outside.

Kell had never been in it with a girl. He’d been here with his brothers, with fellow lawmen. Those swims tended to involve a lot of barbecue, beer and betting on the Super-Bowl or the Final Four. He’d never cannonballed into the center and surfaced, sputtering, to find a woman wearing her underwear waiting on the end of the dock.Especially one who knew how to swim, but didn’t like to, who preferred to dangle her feet in the water from above, to watch it lap at the shoreline. Silly woman. At least he’d finally managed to get her to agree to join him.

“Just so we’re clear,” Jamie said sternly, her hands on her hips as she stared down, grimacing. “We are not having sex in the water. I don’t care how clean you say it is.”

Until she’d said it, he hadn’t even thought about sex…Okay, he’d sorta thought it, but not seriously…Okay, he’d been serious, but pretty sure she’d say no. Which she had. “Just jump.”

“I’m not going to break my neck, am I?”

“Not if you jump in feetfirst. Don’t dive. Just jump.”

“You’re sure I won’t die?”

“Only if I come up there and strangle you.” The woman was nuts. She killed him, and he didn’t know how he’d ever get enough. “Now jump!”

She turned around, took several retreating steps, enough to make him nervous that she might actually leave, then stopped, spun and ran, launching off the end of the dock in a flying leap, screaming, then grabbing her nose to pinch it closed before going under the water.

A huge grin on his face, Kell waited for her to come up. She did nearly immediately, shaking her head, her hair flying, water drops splattering all around her. He swam toward her, chuckling, taking on mouthfuls of water he spit out when he stopped.

“Nice jump,” he told her, his legs and arms stroking the water, his face aching from his grin.

“Nice water,” she told him, moving similarly, though without the same joyful expression. And then she scrunched up her eyes. “Wait a minute. Are those fish I keep feeling?”

“They are. Mexican tetra. Pupfish. They’re harmless.” He didn’t tell her about the tetras belonging to the piranha family.

Treading water, she looked at him, one dark wet brow arched. “I never thought you would be the one to send me to swim with the fishes.”

Kell’s laugh echoed around them—until Jamie brought her hand down on the water’s surface in a splat that sent a huge splash into his face. He caught his breath, held it, flipped ass over end and dived into the clear pool.

He grabbed her feet and tugged her with him, releasing her before she had time to react, then surfacing right behind her. She turned, the wicked gleam in her eye his only warning. She kicked out and launched forward, her hands on his shoulders pushing him down.

They chased each other from one side of the pond to the other, tussling, attacking, choking when laughing and going under with open mouths. Kell couldn’t remember the last time he’d played like a kid, or had this much fun with a woman without being in bed. He was pretty sure he never had, and what a crying shame.

Exhausted after an hour of horseplay fueled by coffee and camaraderie, they wordlessly agreed to a ceasefire, floating lazily to catch their breath before heading for the dock. Kell boosted Jamie up first, then followed. Dripping and spent, he collapsed on his back. She sat on the end, legs dangling.

Eyes scrunched against the sun, he eventually forced himself onto his elbows. They needed to get clothes on before Jamie especially got burned. His T-shirt was here somewhere…“Now are you going to tell me why you don’t like swimming?”

She afforded him an over-the-shoulder look. “I almost drowned when I was six. I fell into the deep end of a private pool our church had rented for the summer. Parents dropped off their kids for the afternoon, picked them up before dinner.”

He sat up the rest of the way. “That was a long time ago. And you are a very good swimmer.”

She shrugged, and he wished he could see her face. “I guess all the years after, I only remembered the fright, not the fun.”

Still…“But you did have fun. Today.”

“No. I was faking. Like I always do.” She glanced back again, winked, returned to facing away. Then, with Kell still looking for the humor in what she’d just said, she sighed with her entire body, braced her palms behind her and leaned back. “I think I could live here. I can’t believe that you don’t. That you live in suburbia instead.”

“Hell of a long commute to Midland,” was all he said, curious to see where she was taking this. He was still stuck on her faking it.

“Can you imagine raising a family here?”